Messages

106

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: July 28, 2013, 10:17:20 AM »

Hi John,

just saw your post now. I used some left over tube I had and cut it in two. The  lengths Fred mentioned sound about right, for some reason 180 mm comes to mind, but essentially it was half the length of the tube. The half lengths were close to TLAR in Freds original photos.

Not sure if I said earlier, but I used pins (actually lengths of paperclip) to lock my M6 nylon screws into the tubes. Can't remember if I used epoxy or cyano to hold them in place. Since my tube walls wre fairly thick l (1mm) I didn't think there would be much bending moment on the pins, so I could get away with a softer metal pin.

Stuff is all locked away to go travelling so can't measure at the moment.

Chris

107

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: July 02, 2013, 21:28:35 PM »

Finished item. ready to go



The fleet is now configured to work with this tranny and the 'sit' feels perfect. Now all need is the chance to crash, sorry, fly the models. I guess a crash is an uncontrolled (or should that be unplanned) landing.

Not sure anyone else will be inspired to try the genuine DIY route, but it ain't difficult, thats for sure

I based my dimensions on the Freds 'kit' photo as I was able to work out the approximate size of the 'wings' from the photo. In a moment of madness I thought there might be a scientific/ergonomic reason for the 'wings' of the tray to be a particular size. The rest of the design  used the tranny dimensions and the TLAR (That Looks About Right) design principle.

The biggest problem I had during this little project was with the rubbish spray paint I used (I'm trying to get rid of, by using, my various cans of rubbish paint. As everyone can gather, I'm too tight to throw it out and replace it with decent quality paint). I would have had that problem regardless of where the 'kit' was sourced :oops:

Chris

108

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: June 20, 2013, 23:40:18 PM »

Ok, since I said I was recycling, I was running through my stock of plywood odds and ends. The biggest suitable piece I found came from a wardrobe, and is very definitely older than I am. The downside of this recycling is that the Nitromors had to come out to remove the layers of varnish applied at least 50 years ago.

Construction was in stages:

Stage one, cut out the platter, sides and rear piece based on the template and any notes scribbled there upon.



These were stuck together using mitre bond. This is medium cyano with kicker, intended for picture framing people. Seems to work rather nicely on model airplanes too. Other bits n bobs were cut out as required and stuck in place, resulting in this:




You can just make out the 'magic' pieces under the tray top. Here's a closer look:



These are more blocks of scrap ply from some project or another salvaged/sacrificed for the greater good. The centres were marked and then drilled with a 5 mm drill bit.

These blocks of ply were then firmly fitted into a bench vice and tapped, using an M6 tap, to mate with standard (long) M6 wing bolts. The M6 bolts were epoxied and pinned into the arms so they can be removed later.

The key to tapping plywood is runny cyano. After the thread has been (carefully) cut, soak the thread liberally in runny cyano and forget about it for a while. When the cyano has set (this can take a while, longer than you might think) clear the threads using the tap. Voila, an M6 'nut' of plywood. This works for many screw sizes, the only gotcha is that it works best if the mating bolt is nylon, rather than steel.

Here's a closer look. If you look carefully the threads are visible in the plywood.




There we go, I need to tidy up a few little things, fill a few holes (from its former life as a wardrobe) and finish to look neat, but its perfectly usable in its current state now.

Probably 3 - 4 hours in total to get to this stage. The biggest delay was stripping the old varnish off the recycled ply.

Job done (almost). Pressure off now, need to transfer some model settings to new tranny and then its time to test it all out.

109

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: June 17, 2013, 20:16:14 PM »

Ah Keith,

now that is the trick. Watch this space  :twisted:

chris

110

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: June 15, 2013, 22:21:52 PM »

mit knudlen und sauerkraut bitte.

Back to the task in hand.

Stage one: Reduce, resuse, recycle:

Mockup produced in cardboard. 30 minutes or so of effort. Lots of notes now scribbled on the mockup. Actually did this a few weeks back, but some 'improvements' to the balsa dust factory slowed progress.

Material earmarked. Some scraps and some ply salvaged from a fancy wine box. More recycling. This will be painted in my trademark yellow when its all done (so that I can use filler and hide all my mistakes).

I got into the habit a while back of making sure all my ground kit was yellow. I'll still loose bits, but the yellow really stands out when I'm packing up to go home. I've not managed to lose a yellow item so far.



This will be disassembled into the relevant parts (tray top being the most important) and used as templates for the real one. Most likely the remaining pieces will be measured out based on the notes scribbled on the mockup.

Chris

111

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: June 11, 2013, 23:40:56 PM »

Fred,

No, I haven't emailed him. I tried a few different browsers to see if it was anything in my settings (or not liking my not 'modern' browsers as google keeps reminding me).

In the end I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I've enough scraps of material lying around to knock the bits together in an hour or two, which would leave me with a kit of bits, which is exactly where I'd be if I had managed to order the kit in the first place, and I've already expended that much time staring at the website.

Besides, I've forgotten almost all of my "Deutsch als Fremdesprache" (German as a foreign language), well, apart from the essential, 'Ein bier bitte'.

Chris

112

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: June 11, 2013, 20:53:56 PM »

Hi Alan,

I gave up. I reckoned if I spent much longer figuring out how to use the website I'd have the bits cut out.

Cardboard demo model cut out and notes made for corrections (since I'm not a CAD whizz like others we know), so I'm almost ready to cut out the pieces for real now.

Chris

113

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: May 22, 2013, 17:51:52 PM »

Maybe it was finger trouble. Usual excuse, it was late and I was tired!

I'll try again when I'm less likely to have finger trouble, before the third bottle of pineau this time.

114

Radios / DIY Radio tray

« on: May 21, 2013, 21:54:00 PM »

Has anyone ordered from here recently?

I get as far as

"Bitte wählen Sie die gewünschte Versandart für Ihre Bestellung aus.

  Artikel-Versandkosten
Unversicherter Versand nicht möglich. Bitte andere Versandart wählen."

or courtesy of google translate:

"Please select your desired shipping method for your order.

   Product Returns
Uninsured shipping is not possible. Please select another shipping method."

and no further, with no buttons/icons to press to select a shipping method.
I've tried this now with 2 browsers and no joy. If my german was better (not dependant on google translate) I'd try contacting them directly, but it isn't.

The german part of my brain has obviously not been exercised in a long long time.

Chris

115

Slope Soaring / Le trip to Le Menez Hom

« on: May 12, 2013, 20:37:35 PM »

Teaser

116

Slope Soaring / ARF

« on: April 14, 2013, 22:59:06 PM »

Came across this on another forum.

Now all we need is a flat field, this kit, a tractor and 50 guys.......
Oh yes, and some 'standard' tools

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V2D3k0sJ8HM

117

Slope Soaring / Graupner Rogallo - some help needed

« on: April 14, 2013, 20:23:08 PM »

Thanks Tom,

Model was test flown by its previous owner with settings taken from a Discus. Some changes required!

Will dial in your numbers and see how it goes.

Chris

PS: I agree with your CoG comments on that particular Rogallo.....

118

Misc / Servos for use with Lipos

« on: January 31, 2013, 23:56:21 PM »

Thanks for the feedback. A few things to think about there.

Keith: Its not that I don't trust modern electronics, as they pay my mortgage, but generally the simpler a system the more reliable it is. Maybe thats why I fly CL so much.
I'm guess I'm a bit pessimistic because of the nature of the stuff I work with, but that is rather specialist in application.

After checking my stock of bits I've got a 7805 regulator, a 350 mAh 2S lipo and a few 3 and 5 amp BECs.After reading Andrews post I may consider using some 8g servos I have in a test jig (my 'is that mix right' test jig).

Thanks for the advice,

Chris

119

Misc / Servos for use with Lipos

« on: January 30, 2013, 23:05:58 PM »

Folks,

I'm clearing the decks to start on one of Freds mini quarks and I've been thinking about the controls. I can get a receiver that will run off of a 2S lipo directly (great, no regulator required).

Except that's not much good if I can't get servos that will run off of 7.4V (2S).

I've spent a goodly portion of my lunch time and this evening staring at servo data and I've yet to find a suitable servo that will run directly from 7.4V. If I was flying 1/4 scale it looks like it'd be less of an issue, but I'm looking for something around 5g and so far I've come up blank.

I've seen stuff on the interweb that says certain servos have been observed to work off 7.4V, but so far I've yet to find any info from a supplier or manufacturer that their servos will.

Does anyone out there hae any knowledge/experience of this?

For my part all I want to do is reduce the number of things that can go wrong in the model especially since its small. I know a 7805 linear regulator or equivalent with appropriate wires isn't particularly heavy, and in TO220 package should be capable of handling the worst this size model can throw at it, but thats 3 additional solder joints in the power line, to flex/crack, especially since the wires would be soldered directly to the 7805  pins, rather than havcing everything on a printed circuit board.  

I know I could use a switching regulator (hobbyking can build them much more cheaply than I), but again, its just something else to go wrong.

All advice greatfully received.

Chris

120

How to... / Help! Removing goo from a Seagull Jumper 25

« on: January 27, 2013, 22:55:28 PM »

Thanks guys,

I could say I've  been using Mr. Muscle already, certainly lots of elbow grease.

I'll try the cellulose thinners first and then revert to Mr. Muscle if that fails.

Chris