RottenRow

If you have had a valid notification from the CAA itself telling you of your Operator ID then you are not breaking the law… despite what the BMFA’s membership portal says (or doesn’t say). Your 2023 registration probably hasn’t expired yet either. Unfortunately the JustGo portal has always been rather hit and miss, however for the BMFA to have had bespoke software specifically written for its membership requirements would probably have cost the total income of the society for a year. The JustGo system apparently ticked all of the GDPR (data protection) boxes in a cost-effective way when it was introduced. That’s how Andy Symons explained it to me in its early days. Until a year ago I was Treasurer and Membership Secretary of one of the clubs that I’m a member of. This is how my CAA registration is (correctly in my case) shown on the portal this morning: It’s not an ideal system but it’s a compromise which is works reasonably well most of the time. Brian.

These are the bearings I fitted to my SC FS52, the part numbers are from Simply Bearings... Front SKF 6082Z 8x22x7mm shielded - remove one shield. Rear SKF 6001 12x28x8mm open. About £4.50 each plus VAT. Cheaper unbranded ones are also available. The camshaft bearings, should you need them, are 695 5x13x4mm open. Brian.

Andrew Boddington gave an excellent presentation about his father and his models via Zoom a couple of weeks ago, for the BMFA Scale Technical Committee. It included all of his TV and film work, both models and full-sized replicas. The presentation was recorded so it may well be available on YouTube at some point. Brian.

Richard, This very scam has been well publicised on this forum of late, I’m surprised that you hadn’t heard of it. Here is one of the threads: Hopefully PayPal will be able to help you, though if you paid by ‘Friends and Family’ they may not. In theory PayPal will have bank and other details of the person you sent the money to. The ‘seller’ wasn’t in Norfolk by any chance, was he? Brian.

Rich, if the model doesn’t raise any interest I might drop the price a bit, but it’s early days at the moment and, apart from this mention, it hasn’t been advertised yet. As there is no box or packaging I would prefer a collection rather than sending it by courier, but again we’ll see what happens. Thanks for asking though. Brian.

Just in case any of you chaps are still thinking of buying a Hi Boy, I have one that I am selling. The interesting thing about this one is that it has the wing with flaps, making it a 5 channel model. It could be built without the flaps if required I guess. It has been partly built; the fuselage has been assembled but nothing else. The tailplane and elevators are present but not the fin or rudder. There is no piano wire undercarriage either. The wing pack is unopened and includes the hardware for the wing, such as linkages etc. The self-adhesive labels are all there, though whether they are still sticky after years in storage might be questionable. I don't have any instructions for it but it isn't a complicated model. Here are a couple of photos, please PM me if you want to see any more. The first picture shows everything included, the second is the wing pack (in shrink film). I am looking for £80 for it, and ideally it will need to be collected, from either Devon or Bedfordshire, though I could probably drop it off somewhere between the two. Brian.

In the late ‘70s my school library had a copy of David’s R/C Primer book. I used to read it during many lunch breaks when I should probably have been looking up homework subjects. It was (still is) a great book for beginners. Like Geoff above I also had a DB Moth in the Out of Africa colours, built shortly after the film had been released. It lasted many years but oil soaking under the covering meant that it wasn’t feasible to repair it after its final crash. I found another one at an Old Warden event a few years ago in the same colour scheme, which is now in the queue of models needing work…. along with a larger version. I also have a couple of DB Tiger Moths. All of these models fly very well. Brian.

Whilst also controlling it. Perhaps he had superglued the binoculars to his eyes… Brian.

Oh dear, that looks like it’s going to need a complete strip down, just like my friend’s model. It isn’t clear from the photos if the model has actually been built from a genuine Flair kit, or if the builder has made his own parts perhaps by tracing around the parts from a kit. Some of the ply looks a bit rough. Brian.

Unfortunately many who can’t be bothered to read the magazine when it’s presented to them ‘on a plate’ in paper form will hardly be likely to make the effort to look for it online. Even with an e-mail informing of its availability. It’s a pity that the economics have caused the BMFA to cease sending the paper mags. Brian.

A friend bought a partly built Flair Stearman in a similar state to yours. The fuselage was not straight, viewed from the side the longerons could be seen to be wavy along their length. He described it as looking ‘as though it had been built over someone’s knee.’ Perhaps these fuselages don’t like being stored for any length of time without any covering in place (which would stiffen things up). In his case, he stripped the fuselage back down to the ply formers and they were all reusable. He then sold the ‘kit’ to another scale builder who has now completed it and will be entering it in this year’s BMFA comps. Brian.

You’ll need to buy, beg, steal or borrow a test meter. Even a cheapo one will do. Then you will be able to check that the coils are not open circuit, and that the points do actually make a circuit when closed. Also make sure that the magnet in the flywheel is still magnetised (it should attract a screwdriver blade). I don’t know how the cam that opens the points is attached to the flywheel but they must be in the correct relationship to each other. There may be a woodruff key that has sheared or is missing. Brian.

It’s always better to repair rather than replace, whether it is ovens, cars or even models or radio equipment. Spending a few tens of pounds on a new oven element has to be preferable to spending hundreds on a new oven, neither of which is made in the UK nowadays. It’s ‘greener’ as well, so you’ll be doing your bit for the planet too… Brian.

I can’t see where it states that, but there again it doesn’t say that it has a BEC either. I suspect that it doesn’t. Perhaps it’s intended to multi-motor applications where several ESCs would be installed and there would be no need for a BEC on each one. I’d still do a check for 5V on the SW pad, and if there is nothing then connect it to B+ and see what happens. Brian.

That's strange about the swapping over of the battery connections between different versions of the board, but it looks like yours is correct going by the B+ and B- markings on the board you have. If you look at the part number printed on the board, you will see that yours is V2 and the one in the Ali Express photo is V3. None of this is surprising for Chinese stuff! Yes my suggestion for the correct way to connect it was as you have written. I was thinking that SW perhaps stood for switching regulator output. That SW pad doesn't appear to connect to anything on the front side of the board, but no doubt it does on the back, and it could be traced. If you have a voltmeter, you can check between the SW and B- wires for 5V dc when the battery is connected. If you don't have a voltmeter a battery checker of the type used for flight batteries will do. I have found another seemingly identical ESC here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006113220552.html? This one has a connection diagram, which shows the SW connection as being for a switch, with an odd description. Perhaps it's for an arming switch? If that is the case, perhaps the ESC doesn't have an inbuilt BEC at all, and you'll need to power the receiver via a separate 5V supply. Or perhaps it just another poor translation? Even this advert shows a mixture of V2 and V3 photos. Without better data, all you can really do is experiment with it and see what you get. Brian.

The Ali Express photo shows battery positive (B+) as the second solder pad from the bottom and negative (B-) as the bottom one. Your red and black wires seem to be the other way around. I would imagine the receiver PPM signal would go to the top solder pad, the +5V supply to the receiver on the next pad down, and the negative supply to the receiver on the bottom pad along with B-. I would check the receiver voltage with a meter before connecting the ESC to a receiver to make sure it is correct. If you have powered up the ESC with the battery connected backwards you might have damaged it. Brian.

Thanks for the download Peter. That was very thoughtful of you. I can see (from the length of the very detailed article) why only an abridged version was included in the printed magazine. However there is no reason for the link to the full length article not to be included in the magazine alongside the QR code, for those amongst us who would want to download it onto a PC rather than a ‘phone. Brian.

Yes even those of us who have been flying models for years, decades even, could never have imagined all of the rules and regulations that are now being thrown our way! Good luck with your new heli. Brian.

Yes the 4+ looks like the one you want, see here https://www.flyingtech.co.uk/electronics/irangex-irx4-plus-24ghz-4-1-stm32-multiprotocol-tx-module This one can still be put into serial mode if necessary so would also work with an OpenTX or similar transmitter, should you ever have the need. Brian.

Warm LiPos following a flight will help to warm your fingers up again if you hold them in your hand… I did exactly this on Sunday between flights. Brian.

Some of the multiprotocol modules have a small rotary selector switch with which to set the protocol required. One of this type would work with your transmitter and allow you to control your indoor drones. These just use the PPM signal from the transmitter, and require no modification to the transmitter itself. Other multiprotocol modules do not have the switch; these rely on using the transmitter to set the required protocol, and will only work with transmitters with suitable firmware such as FrSky etc. running OpenTX as one example. You’ll need to check whether the module that you are looking at has the selector switch fitted. As you said, FrSky’s own modules (XJT etc) only transmit on FrSky’s own protocols (ACCST or ACCESS depending on the module) and won’t work with other protocol receivers, which I guess your drones have fitted. Brian.

The other thing that doesn't seem to have been addressed is the inability to view embedded videos without accepting cookies. That happened at the same time as the pop-up issue started last Thursday. Perhaps this is the intention... don't agree to cookies and you can't see the videos. Brian.

I don't know if this website is of any use to you, it's in German but does have a lot of photos of the build of one of these. “https://www.rc-network.de/threads/de-havilland-dh-82a-tiger-moth-m-1-3-8-laser-cut-bausatz-valueplanes-baubericht.780695/page-10” (Remove the "" marks I had to add, I couldn't paste the link above without them for some reason). Around pages 6 to 8 you can see that the cross tubes on the cabane that Manish mentions has metal fittings installed, which have cross-drilled holes for the pin and bolts. Brian.

I forgot that these checkers have a button marked 'type'. After connecting to the battery to be tested, the 'type' button must be pressed once to change from LiPo to LiFe. This doesn't affect the voltage readings but changes the range of the percentage calculation to suit the lower voltage of LiFe cells. The left hand side of the display shows the battery type selected. If the button isn't pressed, the checker defaults to the LiPo range, which is probably what is happening here. Brian.

I was wondering the same thing when I read this yesterday. The 3% doesn't seem to tie in with the voltage readings. It looks like whatever is providing the 3% figure is perhaps assuming that the batteries are LiPos not LiFe. If it's one of those horrible little black 'battery capacity controllers' (as they are labelled) then they are meant for LiPos. And the cheapo ones are very inaccurate even then. Sadly that includes the ones sold by Overlander at the Nationals a few years back for example, where they had a bin full priced at a few £ each. All will be revealed no doubt. Brian.