In the Air Tonight

[Tim Ballinger]

Not seen anyone mention these on the Forum. They are a series of 1 hour presentations using Zoom on a range of aeromodeling Topics. First one was last night. It worked really well and personally I found the history and chronology of Aeromodeler magazine given by Andrew Boddington very interesting.

Well done BMFA

Tim

Edited By Tim Ballinger on 02/12/2020 09:50:53

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

Glad you enjoyed Tim, all seemed to go very well.

More details of upcoming In the Air Tonight sessions at **LINK**

[Tim Ballinger]

Missed that !

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

Last nights session is now on the BMFA YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM5Wnxt6mDG8J6fwd5Wqo9Q?

 

The next in the air session will be from Duncan McClure about the BMFA Achievement Scheme. See https://itat.bmfa.uk/the-achievement-scheme-with-duncan-mcclure  for more details and to register.

 

Edited By Andy Symons - BMFA on 02/12/2020 13:46:19

Edited By Andy Symons - BMFA on 02/12/2020 13:50:57

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I tuned in for a look/listen.

[Eric Friend 1]

Hi Andy,

 

I must take the opportunity of thanking you for your involvement in the 'In The Air Tonight' presentations. All of the ones that I have 'attended' have been absolutely excellent. Well done to everyone presenting and contributing. 

 

For those readers who haven't attended one so far make sure you do, and also catch up on YouTube, with those that you have missed. Make sure that you watch the Article 16 presentation - in my view it is essential viewing.

 

Next week we have two presentations, an added bonus!

 

Thanks again, Regards, Eric

[Tim Ballinger]

I’ll second that Eric. I don’t attend all of them ,just pick topics of interest. I enjoyed the GPS triangle presentation last week and will certainly watch part 2.

 

Tim

[John Lee]

and I'll third it. I'm selective in what I watch and I enjoyed the history of Model Flight this week. Must confess that I tend to drop out after the presentations as soon as some of the subsequent questioners start going on & on & on..... 

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

Next up is 'Getting started in E2K and C32 Pylon racing'  This Tuesday at 7.30pm.

 

See https://itat.bmfa.uk/e2k-c32-intro for further details.

 

 

[Eric Friend 1]

I'm looking forward to it Andy, especially with Manny and Mark heading it up.

 

I was in Mark's shop last year and he was telling me all about E2K and how much fun it is.

Many years ago I was going to build a Club 20 racer but never got around to it. I still have a brand new un-run Fox 19 in its box, which was THE engine to use.

In the Dover Bloobirds Club in the seventies, we did four-up pylon racing with 60 powered aerobatic jobs which everyone was flying at the time. However after those moments of madness, we calmed down a bit and moved on to four-up slope pylon racing! Still good fun but not so expensive if a mid-air occurred.

 

I'm looking forward to having a go again, hopefully my by-passed heart will be able to stand the excitement!

 

[Ron Gray]

Don't forget tomorrow's ITAT, following on from the sessions on 2D and 3D designing.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

55 minutes ago, Ron Gray said:

Don't forget tomorrow's ITAT, following on from the sessions on 2D and 3D designing.

 

Ron Grays on I believe. 👍

[Ron Gray]

Yup 🥴

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

link to register for tomorrow is

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qRFJgPcJT9i8DrPaal3rRg

[Andy Symons - BMFA]

A brilliant session from Ron this evening. Really was very interesting. Video available to watch at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkoRFeKO00o

Edited March 7, 2023 by Andy Symons - BMFA

[leccyflyer]

It really was a superb webinar by Ron - who not only demistified Fusion 360, with one dimension tied behind his back, but also Litburn and a practical demo of the laser cutting itself - all in <45 minutes. Brilliant stuff. 😎

[Ron Gray]

Thanks guys, I enjoyed it!

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I'll have to watch on Youtube, football was on.

[leccyflyer]

I wonder if there is a thread showing Ron's set-up - certainly since the webinar I've been browsing the 'net and looking at the specific machine he mentioned in the presentation, which looks great. I'd previously discounted having a laser cutter, as I certainly don't have the volume throughput to justify cutting a huge amount of balsa or ply. The cutting of depron and other materials is potentially a game changer though. Another aspect I hadn't considered is the engraving capabilities, which would be a boon for another project which I have on the go, recreating a full size Spitfire instrument panel for display.

 

I did have a couple of very basic questions for Ron namely:

 

1. Does your set up run directly from the computer, thereby tying up the computer whilst the cutting is being conducted. I think this is less of an issue than with 3D printing, where I print from a micro SD card and just leave the printer to do it's several hours of printing. However, it would be a factor with where a laser cutter could be located, since I'm purely laptop based with no current PC.

2. The basic model has a small bench footprint, but adding the extension rails makes for a much more substantial area needed - does Ron's set up cover 1m square, or is it the 400mm x 950mm Y extension, which would fit nicely on a bit of bench space I have available.

[Ron Gray]

@leccyflyerThe Sculpfun is an excellent machine but there are others of good quality too such as XTool (they also now do a 40w version!). I, like you, was looking at buying a laser cutter a couple of years ago and very neatly went ahead with a CO2 one. The things that held me back were the physical size of the thing and the cost (£2.5K+!) which I couldn’t really justify. So I have spent the last 2 years researching diode lasers and watching their development which has been huge, far more than the development of CO2 ones, which led to my purchase.

In answer to your specific questions:

 

1. I run mine off a laptop which I take out into the workshop when I need to cut anything. Whilst cutting I can do other things on the laptop but generally I don’t as the cutting is so quick and unlike 3D printing you should not leave a laser unattended whilst it’s working! It’s not a great problem as it works so fast!

2. Most come with a footprint of about 400 x 400 which isn’t a great problem for cutting sheet balsa etc as the sheet can be fed in from the sides or ends (the frame is on legs) but I wanted to be able to cut from 800x600 sheets of Depron which is why I got the 900x400 one (the 900x900 would take up too much space!).

 

I will take a few photos of my setup and post them on here later.

[leccyflyer]

Thanks Ron - I've just watched the video of assembly and initial set up of the Sculpfun and the similarities to getting a 3D printer working are very obvious. My initial thought was that the 1 square metre of bench space is a pretty big thing to make space for and 400mm wide ought to be sufficient for most things. The expansion kit is also relatively inexpensive, so could always be held in stock, in the event that you might want to cut big parts. I'm seriously impressed with how the technology has developed for the hobbyist, since I looked at CNC and laser cutters some years ago.

I fully appreciate that the cutting time is very quick and wouldn't be an unattended thing, your answer re operating from the laptop is perfect - if the machine needed to be linked to a PC or Mac to run the software that would have influenced my decision of where to put it. I think one would be an excellent addition to my clean work area, alongside the vinyl cutter and printers. There's a length of 600mm wide desktop that would be fine. That Lightburn software looks very nice and flexible in your demo and setting up profiles for different materials looks like a great way to work. My "depron" is mostly grey as well - loved your answer in the webinar. 😄

[Bruce Collinson]

Excellent presentational skills and no waffing about.

 

PS where's my kit?

 

BTC

[Ron Gray]

@leccyflyerI've just done a video of my setup and will be uploading it to YouTube in about an hour!

 

@Bruce CollinsonThanks Bruce, kit was sent off on Tuesday 

[HENRY GELSTHORPE]

Hi Ron, Thanks for your recent presentation  re ITAT, at one point you said that you  were operating your diode laser at full power.Does that have an impact on diode laser life, how is the rated lifespan?.

 

Henry

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by HENRY GELSTHORPE

[Ron Gray]

Best way for me to reply is to quote from the LA Hobby Guy (absolute mine of fantastic information and great help - https://www.youtube.com/@TheLouisianaHobbyGuy)

 

"The manufacturers don't want to get into a ratings war like they did with the wattage wars of the last 2 years. Name brand laser modules are tested at 5-10,000 hours and usually maintain 70-80% of their power at the mark. The power cycle was on @ 100% for 10 minutes and then off for 10 minutes. Cheap knock off diodes can have a life of 100-500 hours. Ortur & Neje have both rated theirs at 10,000. There are really only about 4 companies in China making these modules. They brand them OEM for different companies. 

When I was in Shenzhen, I could only find 2 companies making them in the Hi-Tech Industrial Park, where they all come from. Both were making OEM modules for several different companies and both had test rooms where you could see the output on the samples from 0 to 10,000 hours and 0 to 5,000 hours. none of them were under 85% when I was there. If you stick with the more expensive lasers, you'll most likely have a module from one of these reputable companies.

Rich"