RottenRow

I’m not sure that I fully agree with this. Of course some excellent plans and articles are sent in by readers, including members of this forum, and are published. But isn’t it the editor and his team who should also be actively collecting material for articles, following up leads etc. There are some excellent and often innovative threads that come up on this forum from time to time, basically free leads which the RCM&E team could investigate further as content for the mag. The BMFA News is, or should be, slightly different as one reason for its existence is to convey news and information on the BMFA to the membership. Brian.

It seems to be available only at certain outlets. Larger WH Smiths have it, but not many copies and it seems if an issue sells out it isn’t restocked. I’ve not seen it motorway services WH Smiths though. A few larger Tescos have it, but a couple that I know used to keep it have stopped. Presumably less were selling than other titles. Sadly it does appear that the days of ‘look before you buy’ have pretty much gone. I wouldn’t want to buy every month’s copy, some have little content that is of interest to me, so a subscription isn’t my preferred option. I hadn’t noticed the tractor magazines specifically, but there still seems to be a good number of model railway mags, and one or two on plastic kit modelling. Brian.

The thread is M14 x 1mm (fine pitch metric thread). Brian.

John, this book is the nearest thing to a dummies book for the X10. https://www.t9hobbysport.com/products?c=/taranis-spares-upgrades&p=/horus-x10-express-opentx-2.3-user-manual&_gl=1*qd59kz*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTI4MDkwOTY5OS4xNzI4NDc2Mzk1*_ga_PT6SVF7113*MTcyODQ3NjM5NC4xLjEuMTcyODQ3NjQwNC4wLjAuMA.. Out of stock at T9 but perhaps worth putting a ‘wanted’ ad out for…. it worked for me recently with a copy of the equivalent book for the Taranis. Brian.

I was standing with you when you were flying the model Ron, and it certainly made an unusual sound, which we commented on at the time. There didn’t appear to be any loss of performance though. Interesting that the bearing should go from no appreciable looseness to the amount shown over a couple of flights. I’m agreeing with Chris on giving the valves a quick lookover. I had a used, but new to me, 120 that occasionally would lose compression when turned by hand, yet two prop turns later it was ok again. Turned out to be one of the valves slightly bent and sticking open, then getting pushed back by the piston. It was obvious to see once the rocker cover had been removed. A new valve, and a couple of valve springs (paid for by the seller) and all was well. Brian.

If you use some coarse abrasive paper to rub down the (unpainted) inside of the mouldings, then smell them, polyester has a distinctive car body filler smell, whilst epoxy generally doesn’t smell at all. Obviously don’t breathe in clouds of dust whilst doing it. Brian.

Chris is only showing his idea as a ‘single line diagram’, or block diagram, not a true schematic. Each of his red and blue lines represent a complete lead (positive and negative conductors). With the circuit as Chris suggests, all of his negative conductors will effectively be connected together, either within the UBECs or the two receiver buses. His diodes will be in the positive conductors of the two leads shown in red. Brian.

Are the two outputs on each UBEC powered simultaneously, or does the second one only come on if the first fails? If they are simultaneous, then they will normally share the load (receiver and servos). By inserting the diodes as you have shown, the output with the diode in line won’t supply any current unless the output from the other UBEC fails. This means that all of the current will be fed via the output without a diode. You would need to check if that is satisfactory, if you have high current draw servos. Brian.

That looks excellent and flies as well as it looks. Brian.

I suppose the Germans knew that, that’s why they painted them like it.

I’d be interested to know if one of these heaters would run on used chip shop cooking oil, suitably strained? Older diesel cars (before the common rail ones) would do. Perhaps the chip shop smell would be too much. Brian.

The ‘not sure’ is Mat Dawson, designer and builder of the superb Blackburn Firecrest (the model at the back with the 5-bladed prop). Brian.

An excellent weekend! Yesterday was glorious with almost ideal weather conditions, lots of flying. Today rather more breezy but still some good flying. As others have said, it was great to put faces to names from the forum, also to meet and chat with Richard and Paul from WR, and the other traders. Also to see lots of other familiar faces, all having a good time. It really was The Best of British in so many ways. Thanks especially to Ron and Elmo for doing all of the hard work… Brian.

You can buy specific test kits for this purpose, around £20 or so. Ebay number 386305149079 is a typical one, but there are others. You need to be able to pull enough current through the injector for it to operate quickly and cleanly. It would be possible to build a pulse generator circuit, but would probably cost as much as the proper kit to do. Brian.

It sounds as though you are using ordinary single domestic AA rechargeable cells, clipped into those (usually) black plastic cell holders. There is every likelihood that your problem lies in this set-up; somewhere there will be a poor connection or a dud cell. The cheapo servo testers are fine for quick tests and centralising servo arms etc. and mine haven't given me any troubles (I always use a 4 cell pack, not 5). They are helpful in diagnosing possible servo issues and also for testing used servos at swap meets etc. Brian.