Philip Lewis 3
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Posts posted by Philip Lewis 3
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16 minutes ago, Duncan Disorderly said:
The whole point of this setup is to have it charged and ready to go at all times, which needs a more considerate cell supplying it!
I certainly agree with that, lead acid as a source has two big problems, one weight and the second they don't like to be deep discharged so the capacity on the label isn't actually usable either, which means half the weight you are lagging around you can't even use.
Definitely a use for competition flying, if I have three rounds to fly I always take four packs in case I have to re fly a round, it would certainly have a use there.
I 100% agree your comments on LiPo's as a source, I have no idea what they actually do or how they treat them.
I've used LiFe PO4 packs as TX and RX packs for years now, never worn one out yet and they have always been kept fully charged so I can't see why Lion would be different, heck my phone is four years old now and fully charged every day and still as good as new.
I would guess that for those not wanting to go this DIY route that LiFe PO4 leisure batteries (think narrow boats and camper vans) would be an alternative, essentially a ready made pack, Victron Energy would be one such supplier, straight replacement for lead acids so I guess 4 cell packs, two in series would of course give you 24 volts.
This is a really interesting discussion of an alternative method not often really considered, well done for raising the profile of the alternative whether replacement or as hybrid approach.
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Hi Duncan, and thanks for the compliment - I appreciate that.
I can certainly second the attestation that this works and works as described, I've seen it working since Russ made it many years ago now.
Distilled down to the simplest level (and part of the beauty of this is exactly that, it's utter simplicity), this is an alternative solution to a generator or leisure battery for those who want to charge at the field but so much lighter and more convenient than either, it will charge any battery you like as it's just the power supply to a charger so the restriction is only what your chosen charger can charge, heck it would even recharge a car battery to at least get it to start your car.
Thanks for posting this Duncan it's a pause for thought moment, my current (sic) thinking is maybe to use this in a hybrid arrangement, charge a few packs before leaving and the rest as needed when I get there which would certainly avoid charging packs that then don't get used and then have to be taken down to storage charge again.
It's quite popular in Japan to operate this way except that they seem to use a few massive LiPo packs to supply the power, this is a very viable alternative to that, probably much cheaper as well although I did consider doing it this way when HK used to sell Multistar low discharge rate LiPo's with some massive capacities many years ago but not available now, old bike batteries should also work well.
What are you using to fuse it though? My guess it 24 Volt lorry fuses?
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31 minutes ago, EvilC57 said:
Very useful when Mrs comes in and talks to me at the vital part of a program!
I can totally sympathise with that, no use to me though because if I did that, I'd never finish watching anything!
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SOUNDS/en is the right folder, however they need to be in the right format (32,000 KHZ mono) or OpenTX won't even see them.
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On E-bay, Bolt World and Kayfast are very good for very specific types and sizes in both small and large quantities.
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Martin, I don't have Realflight but are channels 10 and 11 even recognised by realflight when you set up the transmitter?
I'm not really getting the reference to channels 5 10 and 11 as surely EXPO and rates only affect channels 1 to 4 or whatever channels control the control surfaces.
Most of these Sims only recognise cannels 1-8 and that might well be why it isn't working?
Alternatively it could be that your TX only outputs the first four channels i.e. the control channels via the traner port and nothing else, again you might be able to see this in the TX Calibration screens.
It could also be a simple calibration issue, when you calibrate it wants to see the max rates, you have to calibrate on the maximum rate setting, if you calibrate on low rates it will look at that as the maximum anbd won;t go above that leaving you with just one rate i.e. 100%.
Phil
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The trouble with carbon props is A) cost and B) very fragile, they break even easier than wooden especially the light electric ones. Personally (although all of mine are carbon as specialist planes) I would avoid carbon if I could, especially in a model likely to nose over.
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A 50X65 is quite a hulk of a motor and 320kv is quite low for 6 cells as well so should quite easily turn a much bigger prop. I currently use 50X45 motors on six cells at 430 KV turning 16X10 and 17X8 props as well as 320KV 50X55 320KV motors turning 18X10 props but on eight cells so I think you have scope to go quite a bit bigger.
I used to have a 50X65 245 KV that turned a 20X13 prop on ten cells but that was very marginal.
I used to use Hobby King Aerostar wood props but haven't bough any for years but were always available and quite resonably priced back in the day even including the postage from China.
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Batteries don't need cooling, in fact LiPo's perform best at about 35C. Anyway if you think about it you can only cool the two outside two cell packs the others are sandwiched in between the other cells so colling is non existent for those inner cells or at best minimal.
BTW Toto (and anyone else interested), if you are really concerned about cooling the ESC then you can cut off the heatshrink, remove the metal cooling plate that is only held on by thermal paste and put a proper heatshrink on it, the type made for attachment to PCB boards, there are plenty available on e bay and you can buy them in oversize blocks and cut to size, best attached with thermal glue or else you'll need to use tie wraps or something else to hold them on.
This really is not critical or even important on a model like this though which is hardly pushing things to any limits.
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Perfectly good way to do it, no need to over think or over complicate it, it's in great cool airflow there.
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You might want to put in a back order for one of these as a bit of insurance for the future, these are stupidly cheap for what they are (a very good copy of a much more expensive YGE Esc), they have anti spark and over temperature protection built in and the ones I've had (although I used the HV versions) have all been bullit proof and still going many years later.
BTW you can use as bigger ESC as you want without any trouble so a 100 amp ESC on a 40 amp set up is fine.
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RealPlayer is worth downloading, you can quickly and easily delete and remove sections using the trimmer and it also comes complete with a pretty handy file converter which will convert most files, it's also free, for professional editing but a a cost Adobe Premier Elements is hard to beat or for free with also very equivalent good results get Davinci Resolve but get ready for a learning path with both of these although lots of you tube instruction videos available.
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5 minutes ago, Erfolg said:
Now should we worry about modellers selling high end radios, engines or kits, that had purchased, having paid the required tax at the time. Now having to potentially paying a second amount of tax?
Only if you sell it for more than you paid for it i.e. made a profit, even HMRC haven't yet managed to find a way to tax a loss (yet, but no doubt are working hard on it!) 😁
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Those voltages are pretty much fully charged voltages fot a LiFe pack, if you want to test them discharge them on a charger and see what comes out then charge them up again and check agoin what goes back in.
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When you read articles like this you can clearly see what their aim is and I doubt that many people would disagree with it, but what I just can't understand is why they think the bad actors mentioned here would use a drone with RID/Remote RID when it's very clear to me they simply wouldn't dare risk it. They are either going to not use them or more likely find a way round it, and there is no way they are going to fit actually voluntarily fit it!
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1 hour ago, Ron Gray said:
The 5000mAh ones will be too heavy, I would go with the 3250mAh ones. With those you should easily get 8 minutes of general ‘sport’ flying.
100% agree with that, also don't forget that additional weight adds stress to your landing gear so unless your landings are good every time you are jut risking a breakage that bit more for no point whatsoever, unless that is you want to fly very long flights which most begginers don't want to do anyway.
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I assume by proxy farm you are reffering to a proxy server better known as a VPN?
If you are then I would think it has more to do with cookie settings, I use a VPN all the time and have no such problems even with logging into Santander Barclays etc, the only website that can be a challenge is I Player which does actively ban VPN's when it can to attemot to prevent access from abroad aince they don't know who is really at the end.
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"As I've already pointed out - we aren't looking for reasons not to fit RID, we are waiting for someone to post a legitimate reason for why we would fit RID. In other words a positive benefit."
Not just to model fliers but what is the point in the first place because I can't think of one, the question in my my mind is who would want or need to be able to see us and what benefit would they get from it? Electronic conspicuity in full size general aviation isn't even mandatory yet and different systems that don't even talk to each other are what is available.
It leaves me wondering whether we should be talking to GA organisation such as AOPA who presumably also have a great interest in this as they have the airspace above what we use and below controled airspace and what about the full sixe gliding community?
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This person is simply out to cause trouble and deliberately courts it, he deliberately provokes confrontation, these kind of people call themselves "auditors" which is a massive affront to true auditors, just watch his other videos. He has absolutely nothing to do with me or this hobby and fully deserves everything he gets in my opinion.
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2 minutes ago, Peter Jenkins said:
A recent buyer of my book, also a forumite, has agreed to let me post his comment on my book verbatim. I hope you find it interesting.
CommentSome models fell by the wayside before I had a chance to get to their full potential as they were not as good as I hoped. I feel I hadn't made the best use of my time unfortunately, (due to more snatching a flight here and there and getting easily lead astray with new toys)!
That stops now and the New Year’s resolution is to make the most of what I have got.
Hi Peter,
That really jells with me as a long time club training officer and aerobatic pilot, time and time again I see people spending yet more money on a new model hoping it will fly better than the last one where all the previous model needs is careful trimming because they have got nowhere near the best out of it.
Making the best of what you have is a good thing and probably a good motto for life.
I sincerely hope your reviewer gets really good results with this and I'm sure his wife will be happier as well.
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I totally sympathise with supporting the local economy and will do so every chance I can, but the trouble is that often (not always) all you are doing is buying off someone locally who is buying it in from China anyway, for all the good you are doing you might as well buy direct and send the local supplier a cheque for the differnce, yes you might well pay an additional "stocking fee" but the principal surely remains that the important thing is where it was made in the first place, or I am I going mad?
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3 hours ago, Andy Stephenson said:
After reading this thread, I checked my Saito 82 powered Angel. It turns out it was set at 145mm at which, it flies well but I always wondered if it could be even better. I added 55g of wheel balance weights to the tail to get it to 165mm. If this works out, I will move the rudder servo to the tail and remove some of the weights.
You can get a likely outcome from taking a look at the current elevator position when the stick is at neutral, if there is a lot of up trim in it (counteracting the nose being heavy) then it is highly likely to fly even better with a more neutral elevator trim, rolls in particular will be more naturally axial with less rudder and elevator input reuired to follow a straight and level line, in, for instance, a slow roll, down and uplines will also be straighter and it will fly invereted more neutrally. Moving the C of G 20mm back on a plane of this size is not going to make it overly sensitive let alone uncontrolable.
Hopefully you find that flies much better and like the change.
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2 hours ago, john davidson 1 said:
T o change the theme slightly Is any one up to date on the present situation with with full size light planes? I used to subscribe to Pilot magazine and they were up in arms about transponders, many old aircraft have no electrical system to power them , relying on good old eyesight and landing and take off procedure etc. Some did carry hand held radios though.
Worth giving this a look, 7 mins onwards, seems it's a real mess to me currently.
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1 hour ago, Martin Dance 1 said:
If you think the CAA is out to get us I suggest watching Jon Hunt (The flying reporter)'s latest Podcast,find it on YouTube. Two topics caught my attention. 1 The 10.8% rise in CAA fees. 5.8% is accounted for by inflation rise. The other 3% is to fund the CAA's need to update, upscale the management of the airspace to accomodate guess what? Yep commercial UAS. Jon did suggest that Amazon and similar operators should perhaps fund the cost of this. Remember Jon and his fellow GA pilots operate at altitudes above where we are not expecting drones to fly. Truly the CAA is the Committee Against Aviation! The second item was that about electronic conspicuity. Some recently published research suggests that electronic conspicuity is at best only effective about 50% of the time, reasons being that systems are incompatible or are not fitted to all aircraft. Where they are fitted the system may issue a warning about an aircraft ten miles away. The pilot then focusses his attention on that warning and may miss the non equipped aircraft a mile away. Where does that leave the reliability of RID?
Yes I watched that to (and commented on it), interesting how the CAA don't even mandate conspicuity for manned aviation at present which is what leads to the inevitable conclusion, that those that do have it think they are aware aof other aircraft but are in fact not, in fact they aren't even aware of other aircraft "broadcasting" because the systems themselves are incompatible, what regulator gets in to this mess is a mystery to me, it simply shouldn’t be allowed to happen, what a mess!
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6S8P Li-Ion high-C LiPo field charging solution in a case (fly all day on two LiPos)
in Batteries and Chargers
Posted
I'll take a look and see if I've still got it/can find it again later on as I'm currently working (though not very hard) using a company PC at the moment.
I wouldn't say that they would last forever but I do recall that charging to 95% according to the information should double the amount of charging cycles a pack can take before it becomes of no more use, charging to only 95% is also completed much quicker as the charger doesn't struggle to cram the last bit in.
Given that we all accept that keeping a LiPo fully charged is detrimental to it I would say it must follow that your second point above (only being at full charge for a few minutes) definitely has some validity and certainly will do more good than harm just difficult to quantify.
Max charge rate is an interesting one, some of my packs say max charge 5C but others say 2C, what is the difference and why is the maximum charge rate so low compared to the discharge rate? Lion can certainly take incredible charge rates, think Formula one, recharged in seconds!