Frank Skilbeck
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Posts posted by Frank Skilbeck
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3 hours ago, Erfolg said:
Unless society returns to whale hunting I expect that the oil industry will be about for some time. Particularly that much of society makes use of polymers for a whole range of products, ranging from clevis's for model aircraft, electrical insulation materials, and so on.
Yep but around 75% of the crude produced is turned into petrol and diesel, another 10% kerosine (jet fuel) plus heavy fuel oils (Marine), so stopping burning the stuff will mean a lot less is needed to be produced. At the moment global oil production is around 93 million bbls per day, around 2780 million UK bbls per day.
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16 minutes ago, Brian Cooper said:
I am sure it doesn't pretend to save the planet, but it pumps out considerably less pollution than a power station which generates electricity, and is far more convenient.
And yes, my old diesel car also did 60+mpg. . . Getting less from a gallon of fuel is what they call "progress". . 🙄
Ideally, we need cars which are powered by wind, rain, grey skies and moonlight... lol.
Diesel contains about 10kwh of energy per litre, Petrol less than 8.9 and even less with the added alcohol, plus a diesel engine is slightly more efficient. But at 55 mpg you petrol/electric is doing around 1.35 miles per kwh.
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Matty, get well soon, I had a TIA when I was 49, 18 years ago, fortunately made a pretty quick recovery and didn't need any surgery.
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On a few of my electric gliders I use a mix, adjusting the thrust line on the nose of an electric glider can be quite untidy.
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Something like this should fit the bill https://www.kingslynnmodelshop.co.uk/irvine-engine-test-stand/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA6KWvBhAREiwAFPZM7hM5I1h5D8s80RJuFdwDZmogVru4-avjv-eYJKVlqZDjQJ77g0N6yRoCczMQAvD_BwE
I have one somewhere but have never used it as I always put the engines straight in a model 😁
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Too late David, I mentioned it a clubmate who has several diesels and he promptly bought it!
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Loads of suitable engines on the BMFA classifieds, OS40, Super Tigre 51, TT 42, all less than £50. There's also a Merco 29 diesel. Tempting.
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15 hours ago, Xeno7 said:
wait you were doing tricks with a ranger? I always thought this was a long range cruise sort of plane. Maybe if I keep it light I can do fun stuff @Frank Skilbeck
Just about everything will loop!
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11 hours ago, Simon Chaddock said:
I think you may find the LiPo energy density in Wh/kg of a LiPo can be quite a bit higher than a Li-ion.
LiPo can withstand a much higher discharge rate.
Li-ion are physically and electrically more robust.
It all comes down to the requirements of the application.
These Li-ions are a bit lighter on a wt per kwh basis, but they do have a bit more internal resistance so don't deliver the power of an equivalent high C lipo and need good cooling. Make sure you have enough weight for it to balance no point putting in a light battery and then adding wt. My Ranger needed two 4000 4s lipos in the nose to balance.
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You can get Li-ion packs to your configuration off Nick here
I got a 6s pack for my EDFs, but Nick will make up what you want.
BTW I have an earlier Ranger (only used LOS), the elevator came off in flight while i was giving our local air cadets some aerobatics via the FPV Googles, they had the googles on and I was flying conventionally, it didn't come out of a loop, but the elevator fluttering down was a bit of a give away 😉 airframe was remarkably robust, just waiting for the elevator to be mended.
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We shouldn't be too surprised, remember when incandescent bulbs were banned and we transitioned through Compact Flourescents to LEDs, when LEDs first came out there were quite expensive but now are probably on par with an equivalent incandescent.
BTW when the Ford Model T was released in 1908 it was 850 USD, by 1920 it was 300 USD,
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On a 2.4 system or 35mhz PCM system the servo positions are sent to receiver as a digital stream. The receiver decodes this and each channel then outputs a pulse width signal, the servo position being determined by the length of the pulse, typically 900 to 2100 micro seconds. This is updated ever 22 millisecond for analogue servos and can be more frequently for digital servos, ever 10 milliseconds. If you select the higher rate on analogue servos it can cause them to overheat with potential burnout. Note SBUS servos if fed direct from the SBUS port receiver a digital stream and you have to program the channel into the servo.
BTW if you use a gyro or flight controller then beware they may update the servos at a faster rate which could cause analogue servos to burn out.
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1 hour ago, Jon - Laser Engines said:
If Morris finds a dead otter in the carb or other problem then fine, i will gladly eat my words but i do not think he will find much. If there is a dead otter in the carb why is it there? Where did it come from? Always wash out your fuel system and check for otters (or more likely, grass and fluff).
Reminds me, years ago we sold a test water treatment dual unit to a French oil company, they reported on test that one of the units performed much better than the other, I was sent to investigate, short story when they were rigging it up they left an open 4" hose on the ground, it had got a few handfuls of gravel in it, when they started it up the piping configuration sent all the gravel to one unit and blocked it's inlet................
Took about 30 mins to find out and "repair" still had a very nice lunch.
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2 hours ago, Erfolg said:
I had read that the EU expected the UK to pay a premium for EVs so that EU car production could shift "S" curve premium cost away from the EU market.
As for China, in the past it was not the Japanese that were the issue, it was the poor quality, workers attitudes, lack of basic items and price of the UK cars that all but destroyed our car industry. How British Leyland went from approx 50% of the UK market to the position that transpired is criminal, for all involved.
The Brexit trade deal to allow tarrif free trade between the EU and UK stipulated that cars made in UK or EU hadn't to contain more than 10% foreign parts, so EV batteries make up a large part of the cost which are currently imported from China so the tarrif will apply. Nissan are building a battery factory in the UK, but BMW won't start manufacture of the electric Mini in UK until 2026/27, maybe due to this tariff?
UK car manufacturing in the 197s/80s was starved of investment, the Marina being a classic case of accountants telling engineers to design a car around the existing cheapest components, most small BL cars were still using the old A series engine with 4 speed gearbox in the sump while the rest of the world had moved on to 5 speed with a separate gearbox etc. Look at what John Bloor did with Triumph motorcycles with the correct investment.
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Re drag ratio and vehicle height, they don't have to be, Tesla Model 3 is same height and drag coefficient as a BMW 3 series, but the BMW i4 is around 3 to 20mm taller, but apparently has a lower drag coefficient than the regular 4 series due to a cleaner underside.
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Mobius are great for mounting on the model, but are too wide angle for shooting from the ground, the model quickly becomes a dot. To shot a model in flight you need a decent zoom and also a viewfinder, trying to follow a model on a screen in bright light is just about impossible. I have a digital HD Panasonic camcorder, over 8 years old but produces decent results.
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Jamie are you sure it's the battery that won't charge and not the supplied USB charger that is faulty. Did you check the cell voltages of the battery as received?
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Derek, without being condescending have you checked the tank, we had problems with my mates moki 215cc, would only run on partial choke, he swore the plumbing was fine, so we took the engine out and Kingfisher serviced the carb and ran the engine. Back in the model same again, problem was feed line from the tank got kinked as the tank was pushed into location.
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If it's any help min flies on a 15 x 4 with a very old Laser 62, I agree an 8" pitch is more than you need.
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Toto, have all your Overlander ESC failures been on the same model, if so it could be some component (e.g. servo) is causing the BEC to be overloaded and it eventually fails, we had this on one model (although the ESCs didn't actually fail they just stopped working while they were overloaded).
It turned out we had a servo that was drawing excessive current and causing the ESC BEC to cut out. The servo worked fine then the receiver was powered by a separate Rx battery, changed it out for another servo and the model was fine with the original ESC.
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16 hours ago, GaryW said:
If I understand " Brownout " correctly it can happen with any battery type not just Nimh regardless whether it be 4.8 or 6v or the condition of the battery pack is in.. It can even happen with Lipos if the current f=draw is that high that the battery can't cope with an excess load draw on the battery pack being used
Or if the current exceeds the BEC rating, I have seen this on models with electric retracts and also on one that had a faulty servo, which worked fine when the model was being set up with a 4 cell nimh but overloaded the ESC UBEC, it was only after we'd tried 3 ESCs that we tracked down the problem.
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10 hours ago, john davidson 1 said:
As a private buyer, for some time I have bought at around two to three years old when the hump of depreciation has begun to level out. Looking ahead buying an EV at that age I would like to know the state of the battery as type of use,ac or dc charging, and being left at 100% charge is being reported as affecting life. Is a dealer going to report this? How would you find out to verify? It would greatly affect the value.
At around 3 years old it will typically have 5 years left on the battery guarentee, also the batteries don't fail but they do degrade. If you take the car for a test drive, note the battery % used and miles on the test drive to get a miles per % which you can compare to the original real range will also give you a good idea of battery health. But lots of people running round in very old Leafs with reduced range but they are providing reliable cheap motoring for their needs.
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3 hours ago, Geoff S said:
I tried one but I have my PC and its various attachments on a common filtered 4 outlet mains extension screwed to the side of my desk and that stops the WiFi, too.
Geoff the mains wifi adapter can be plugged in any socket in the room, you can get them with pass through mains power, so just use the socket your extension is plugged into. Doing that right now on this computer except it's a wired connection to my computer, but I have a wifi one in the garage.
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22 minutes ago, Jon - Laser Engines said:
huh, thats a new one. i question the logic of using a battery to charge a battery mind you. In any event, as ED says its all about the charge rate. As you have some fancy chargers for you electric gear, you can always snip the end off the USB cable and just make a lead to delta peak it off your existing gear.
As for the force required, that will loosen as you use the glow clip and it 'runs in'. Be sure to pull the outer back to allow the inner part to expand around the plug.
you could charge it on the way to the field from your cars USB port, plus if you have a mobile phone charger that will typically have a USB socket on it.
And my main workshop charger also has an additional USB socket on it too.
Transmitter identification
in Gadgets and Electronics
Posted
That's quite an unusual transmitter, possibly a one off, what does the receiver have on it. It maybe that it's a home project using a diy 2.4 module, eg a FRSky one or similar.