Jarius

DC clamp meters are like rocking horse droppings and when you do find one they are usually £70+.  This one measures AC and DC Amps with 40 and 400 Amp ranges. It is also a fully featured multimeter so you only need to carry one meter.  All for less than £25.      DC Clamp meter

Check this item on Ebay  :-  270358911914      Its a non contact ammeter with   40 and 400 Amp DC ranges for £23.59 with free postage. It also has all the usual features. AC amps AC/DC voltage, resistance, audible continuity, data hold etc. This is the cheapest DC amp clamp I have seen. Ideal for the field box. 

Me too

Hi Andy, The budget won`t stretch to a new TX. If the idea was feasible any spare cash would go on a couple of brushless motors and ESCs. There are some good deals on Ebay for Mystery motor and esc bundles. Although these are relatively unknown over here our friends over the pond don`t seem to have any problems with them. If the weather continues like this I think a lot more people will be looking at floatplane conversions. This morning on Sky they said they were expecting a months rain to fall in 24hrs. You know it`s summer cos the rains warm. Jim 

While pondering the feasability of buying a second hand Twinstar as the basis for a seaplane conversion, I realised that fitting a water rudder to the proposed design would be almost impossible. I was wondering if a possible solution could be to add another ESC and fit  an elevon mixer between the ESCs and the receiver.  The  throttle  output  of the receiver would connect to the elevator input of the mixer and the rudder output to the aileron input. This arrangement would probably need to be switched so that it was only operational when taxiing perhaps using the retract channel. I have not found any references to this sort of setup anywhere and was wondering if any of the illustrious readership had tried this. I wasn`t sure where to put this thread. Perhaps there should be a Bodging section.

Hi Graham, The meter comes from Hong Kong it`s just that the listing is aimed at the Aussie market. I have bought loads of stuff from Hong Kong / China  and have not had any problems. If you have Paypal it`s easy and safe.   Jim

Hi Graham,  I have searched for the CEM FC33 in this country and have not found any suppliers. I bought mine new in a sealed bubble pack from a local market stall about 2 years ago. It cost less than £7. It is still listed on the companies Chinese website. There is a Sealey meter with the same specs and housed in an identical case but this costs £60-70. Badge engineering ? Another thing I have noticed is that my FC33s top range is 80Amps and all the others I have seen are 200Amps. Perhaps an obsolete model ?  During my search I came across this :-         DC meter     It has all the right ranges.  Hope this helps.  Jim 

Timbo is as usual correct. The meter on ebay is AC only. Here is the link to the CEM page.   DC meter

Sorry, just found the insert link button Also the CEM FC-33 is worth looking out for. It has 2A & 80A ranges on AC &DC. I picked mine up at a local market for about 6 quid (poorly octopus) and it appears to be indestructible. Jim

Hi Shaun Try this link. Covers the ranges needed, is also a mutimeter and is cheap.

Count me in please.

Don`t really want the Tiggie but response to the competition has been so poor I feel I must enter to show my support for David and the rest of the RCME team.

Just received the Feb 08 issue and eagerly perused the Walrus free plan feature. I have not used Depron before but have some suitable 3mm sheets to experiment with so I might have a go. While reading the article I came across something I did not understand. The article states that the full size Walrus used two twin blade props bolted together and this could be replicated on the model by fitting two 6x4 twin blade props or a single four blade 6x2 could be used. Is this a misprint and if so which pitch is correct or have I got the prop pitch thing all wrong. Prior to this I would have assumed that two 6x4 props bolted together would give the same thrust/airspeed as a four blade 6x4.   Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Hi, Tim is correct in that moving air cools or heats faster but not more or less than ambient. Fans are used to cool components which are substantially hotter than ambient likewise the car engine which is operating above 100C. Hope this helps.