Any R/C airplane flyers here?

Hello Tom,
Hope all is well with you. Seems the big rage these days are the Drones. I work at a tv station and several guys here fly em. They practice, get a License and fly them for company and themselves. The license protects the Co. from liability ---I assume otherwise they cannot collect video for "the company". Many of their flights are broadcast in 30 sec promo clips, or what are called fillers lasting a minute to 10 min long. Recently a program was created, actually a flyover of certain areas of the state. Which will be edited into a 26:46 pledge program not yet released.
I worked for a commercial station in the late 90's and they at that time were considering gas balloons as camera mounts, so as to put a camera in it for car lot shots and other business / video commercial purposes. It was shown to be cost prohibitive. Now anybody can buy a good, broadcast quality drone for around 300 bucks. I'm actually considering asking Santa for one of those for Christmas. Of course i"ll promise to be good.
Have you ever thought of mounting a camera with a micro SD in one of your planes? The sophisticated cameras and cell phones today can be hooked up together via app, to use cellphone as the monitor. Hmmm. It would be really cool to see what your airplane sees. It would be very different, could be more dramatic than a drone. Interesting thought.

Of course. I never realized this. Goobermint completely out of control. Yes and then the idiots who ruin and inspire the gub laws to keep us safe. All about money....again. Sorry Tom, didn't mean to set you off. I completely understand. I really do not want one after all. All I can afford is these bikes anyway. Winter on the way must buy fuel, stay warm.

My model land yacht and sometimes converted to ice-boat keeps me grounded. The tx, rx, have the new lock out whatever you call, binding computer coded transmission. Also the setup has the telemetry for just batteries so far and the low tx power to test for range using the telemetry as well. Just need to make a more rigid kind of steering control. That nylon plastic with center part and cover I've added a lot of cable clamps to the model, but the end linkages are a bit sloppy. I thought maybe solid metal push rod or maybe a full sort of like cloths line cable or micro chain in a loop. A little less attractive would be maybe using the servo connected directly to the front wheel of the trike axle to steer?

Funny how hobbies that involve building something and putting a motor /engine on it appeal to the same type of people. The Academy of Model Aeronautics national headquarters and International Flying Site is 2 miles from my house here in Muncie, IN. Started flying with my dad at 7 years old. First with controline then r/c at 13 yrs. old in 1970. Flying competition free flight nowadays. Matter of fact my two MB buddies and I like to ride around on the 7 miles of paved roads at the AMA. Nice pavement and no traffic there this time of year. Enjoyed this thread!

I had the idea that camera drones could be used to show rental homes. Maybe background music can be added.

Some insurance companies are using drones to inspect roofs for damage after storms, they can video a complete house in less time than it takes to set up a ladder.

I actually bought a really cheap drone for the purpose of checking my property and neighbors for wind and hail damage. At my age climbing ladders isn't really a recommended activity for us old guys. Secondary uses: to take group photos so no one is missing from those shots while operating the camera. I also find it useful to scout areas and take photos of scenic spots without trespassing on others properties in rural areas. Deer, turkey and other wildlife aren't spooked by my electrics and the drone doesn't seem threatening to them when kept at a respectful distance and altitude. I no longer hunt but love watching wildlife I keep it low and close, 3/4 mile out and doubt I've ever flown it over a 100 ft. high. I'd think I'm getting 15 minutes per charge, but 5 minutes or less per flight has been enough for most of my flying. I haven't really used it to chronicle my bike rides but hope to include stills of future rides as I become more familiar with all the drones functions.

I've served on airport boards and recognize the dangers and liabilities that drones present, but used with great care and responsibility I find this little toy a quite useful tool.

Rick C.

For my RC Land Sailor, I have not been using it much lately so I looked at fixing it up a bit. I found out that a part I replicated when it broke (steering arm), was not super rigid. Good though as it did not snap other parts when front wheel hit something accidentally on my RC Land Sailor. When I bent it back it was not exactly true and level, this made the push-rod not work reliably for the steering. Now that I found that out but it still is not quite as good as new, I will see if changing out the flex push rod and sheathing stuff helps. Otherwise I will look at different material for the remaking of a control arm or glue back together the plastic/carbon fiber stuff from the original parts. Buying the parts, I'm not sure the model is still being made or supported, but I will look.


Other model is an RC Sail Boat that I just cleaned up and got somewhere near finished doing repairs. So far, I got one tough stuck servo removed. There were four steel heavily rusted self-tap screws into the plastic mounts in the model. Two of the screws, I grabbed the heads after Dremeling a bit to get a pliers on. Using the screw driver on the Philips head screws had been no go. Unfortunately, two of the heads twisted off. I used some penetrating fluid to possibly help after a while, but salt water also makes steel screws into plastic self-thread quite a bear. Heating some with hot air gun carefully helped some.


See the pictures. One side has a pair of the holes immediately adjacent to one another, the two that the heads did not twist off I could reuse. I'll see if available Allen wrench drive screws. Hate the Philips drives.


Any suggestions on how to mount the other two sides of the servo?


I sought of thought to just cut out the plastic and glue in new plastic with area to have self-tap screws go or some kind of screw fastener. Trying to remove the screws with drilling it out with a hand or drill press drill, seems likely to be futile.


Possibly moving the servo forward a bit and drill new holes might be able to do, but still would need to glue plastic underneath as the way the screws are long and otherwise would not hold. I thought of those speed nut and associated screw that go with them. The nut could just clip on the plastic if I cut away the underneath plastic cylinder portion that was used for the prior original self-tap screws.


When this is figured out, it would be leaving one other servo mount that the screw holes are two closely spaced in the length dimension of the servo. I looked and thought just to slot the servo mount holes to match the modeled existing self-tap mounts holes. A washer used with all the screws and it should be fine.

The Blue Servo I should have 2 of. That one is submersible for a short while. Digital I could look into what it means, but it was just what was better protected from water. They are around 40 dollars. Also it is a powerful torque needed for main sail and jib sheets. Normal cheap ones don't have the power. The rudder servo does not need as much torque as the sails. I have two other servos that are also weather proof for the land sailor, I bought them to have stronger torque and also weather resistant. I thought of using them in the boat instead and may still. They have and even bigger foot print for the mounting hole spacing. Since I have to fix the few places on the boat, maybe then I would just adapt for the bigger servos. I think I may have also seen that the control arm spline is different and would also need some thinking on how to get it all to fit.

Looked for whale spouts while at the coast today when shopping, but didn't see any. Maybe I could try using my telescope during the day and it is only a couple of miles inland up on a ridge, maybe something to do with a brew.

Picture shows I got the stuck broken screws removed. I cut them out, but found with two of the four of the rudder servo mount still good as new, I have the other holes for the mount on thin plastic as I Demeled the parts away. I Gave it a tug in all directions and it is holding firm, so I leave it.

OK the boat is not half baked... just a clear place that allowed trying out and adjusting rudder servo. I found I will not use the SW0230MG Savox and the other replacement servo from Megatech that made the sail boat. The label is gone of the Megatech Servo but it was the direct replacement for sail servo, more powerful that the rudder and has metal gears. I chose to use the other two DS3218MG Annimos instead. I looked up about the digital meaning and they have quicker movement which may not be necessary. The torque is definitely up there, I hope I have enough time on just 4 AA Alkaline. Anyway the DS3218MG has over twice the force with the same angle 60 degree and 0.16 second. 20Kg compared to 8Kg and will run lower voltage range 4.8vdc to 6.8vdc. I'm not sure if using some home made battery pack of 5ea NiMH AA batteries might be better to use. Higher current capability and maybe ampere hours may last longer. Question I will try and measure, but it would not be like under load sailing, that is if the stick is not moving the servo, does the receiver and servo using the same battery have less demand on it. There are times when the I just want to hold a straight course, but I need to hold the rudder over a bit. Sort of like a wing angle of attack. Sometimes I can just push the trim, sometimes trim is not enough and I have to compensate. Maybe it is too much wind for the thing. I sunk it when it hit a line to a floating dock. Fixed it since, but it does not have an auto bailer though it does have drain holes below the servo into the inner hull. The seal on the electronics is shotty and so that was there idea. When you put it in the water you have to make sure the other drain plug at the stern is in place. You drain it when you bring it in. That is either if you wade in to grab it or sail it to shore. Never had to don air tank though!

2door said:

I'd graft in a new plastic or hardwood piece and remount the servos to it. Instead of relying on wood or sheet metal screws you could use blind nuts and 2.-56 socket head (Allen) screws. Just keep the salt water away with a little Vaseline on the threads.

Just a question because I don't know much about boats, but why do you use digital servos? I wouldn't think you'd need the precision of a digital in that application. It seems an analog servo would do the job and they're less expensive.

Tom

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I don't know if around 2 years ago they had these around for the price I see now as $9.18 and free ship if over $100.00, but they are saying waterproof and powerful enough with ball bearing and metal gear in an analog servo.

Maybe I could just buy two of these for something later. Shipping was about $5.00 when had in basket 2 servo just to see.

If the digital ones I have run batteries down to fast for those real powerful servos, I can keep them for some other project and see what Hobby King servo work for 1/2 to 1/4 the price for analog servo still waterproof metal gear.

I also saw about what they call sail servo that rotate not continuous, but 720 degrees and stop. Sail Winch Servo they call them. They as I looked do not use the ordinary control arm. I guess what I saw was like a pulley that rotates and has more pull strength, just takes a bit longer to sheet in. Then they also showed linear servo, but inside the guts still show motor, guess it was like worm gear to convert to linear. Muscle Wires are a non motor kind of linear actuator used in robotics, suspect that could be used instead of servo, but
what advantage?

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbyki...699&indexName=hbk_live_magento_en_us_products

Putting new waterproof servos in my RC Sailboat. Make it better than original, except that the transmitter is still the old type that do not have some nifty adjustments. I wanted to have it so letting the sail out would not let the main sail go so far as to hit the side stays. It could have been adjusted on some servos where the servo arm has adjustment holes. The servo arm on the sailboat though uses mechanical advantage with a 1 pass pulley. No adjustments. I thought I'd tinker with the transmitter and ciphered some to the point of padding the potentiometer for the sail joystick. This reigned in both hauling in as well as letting out the sail by cutting the angle of rotation from 60 degrees to about 45 degrees. I thought I would use one of two transmitters that are quite similar. When I was done, I saw one problem. This was that the joystick direction I wanted to have reversed. There are switches on the other transmitter I did not modify. But hey.... I remembered seeing the markings for where switches would have been installed if they were by the manufacturer but were not. Then I looked underneath at the circuit board and saw where the switches rather than being used instead were soldered in just one fashion. I tried switching by moving a solder bridge jumper. Then the transmitter did not work at all. After I tried removing the solder jumper all together, still nothing. I put it back to square one and it worked again. Then I hit on an idea. One of the extra other waterproof servos I have just one of, actually moves in the opposite direction than all the rest. So rather than modify the second transmitter (a backup), I can try out my modification and sail it to try it out. Then later modify the backup transmitter as well. For my other RC Land Yacht, I use a newer transmitter that has all the menus that can do everything without need to modify anything.

2door said:

I got into R/C right after getting out of the Air Force in 1970. I flew for about 15 years then abandoned the hobby. I still have four radios, four planes and a few 2 and 4 stroke engines.

I've been considering getting back into the hobby but it has changed a lot. From what I'm reading my old radios, late 70s and early 80s vintage are obsolete. I've been researching and the technology has passed me by. The radios are now so complex and sophisticated that I don't even know what to order. Futaba seems to be the leader but there must be others.

I still have three Kraft radios. The local hobby shop guys have never heard the brand name I have two kits I never built. One is a scale Cessna Super Skymaster and the other an 82" span Sig Four Star 120. I have an FS 120 4 stroke and three 60 2 stroke engines, all in perfect condition. I have three planes ready to fly but will need a new radio. Any suggestions?

And I was an odd-ball who flew Mode 1. Today's radios are all Mode 2 and have to be special ordered to make them Mode 1. Rats!

Any advice would be appreciated.

Tom

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Well, I got into quadcopters a few years back and they were way overpriced. I started to do some research on the newer units
and even blew a bunch of money on ones that were using gear driven props, not the way to go! I went with a unit made by
Detect X380 which was expensive at it's time and had GPS, return home and it is a good quadcopter. Today's DJIs and
some of the other vendors (highly competitive now) are producing excellent beginner units. The X380 I have will fly well
over 2 miles out of sight and I used a 5.8 ghz transmitter to send realtime video back to me for navigation. I also have a
Solo which does not have the range but is very reliable and uses a professional gimbal for the Hero 3 camera which sends
FPV video and also telemetry data back to a Nexus 7 tablet. Still, my favorite for long distance flight with no altitude restrictions
is the X-380. The Solo can fly in excess of 55 mph but flying it with a expensive gimbal can take a toll on the gimbal trying to
adjust to the extreme flight angle at high speed.

There are ways to get into the hobby using winged flight and with a lot of added features far cheaper but you are at the mercy
of wind and the high powered direct motor driven props on the quadcopters can handle even 35 mph to (return-home) if
a fell panics flying one. The electronics on these things have advanced beyond belief with altitude hold, RTH (GPS return home),
camera control along with quality photo transmission and storage. The DJI equipment has a problem, they take over you flying
control and experience. There is too much intrusion in using the new equipment and the hobby is being doomed by the dumb
bureaucrats passing laws. The FCC has gotten into the idiocy by passing draconian laws restricting flying areas mostly caused
by idiots flying in restricted areas. I haven't had the Solo in the air for two years and have been concentrating on biking and I have
way more in the quadcopter stuff than the motorized biking! The quadcopter hobby was fun until the GOV and the idiots got
messing with the laws. I suppose motorized biking might just see draconian laws passed by the GOV and Local's to suppress
more of our freedom.

2door said:

The new radios have features that I'm not interested in. For me flying precise maneuvers is a result of pilot skill and not his ability to push a button. There are some things they do that older radios didn't. Servo reversing and coupling is nice and being able to adjust servo throw. This used to be something you had to do manually when installing the radio and hooking up the control surfaces. Now it's a matter of programming via the transmitter. I just hope they work better than Windows 10

I'm going out to the local flying field Saturday and talk to some of the flyers and see what they're using.

Thanks for the input guys.

Tom

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I have not had a problem with sailing the boat at lakes, but some don't allow motors. This is servo only motor, not thinking they would prohibit it. Now I did see a dual type servo that can switch between servo control and continuous rotation. With telemetry maybe can switch if designed to. I saw a programmer that was just for this, but it is used I think when model is not in use. I though just happened to find around 10 loose 1/8 watt carbon resistors loose in the bottom of a box of other stuff. It was not unpacked in a move. One resistor was 10 ohm, but all the rest around 100,000 ohm. I needed to shorten the angle movement of a digital servo. The transmitter is an old 27Mhz with no screen or adjustments. In the transmitter for one of the joy sticks, I bridged across the potentiometer end leads with 4 of the roughly 100,000 ohm resistors in parallel. So it works now and limited the angle of rotation as needed to prevent the sail hitting the side stays. What is somewhat disappointing is where I looked for what is said about any universal standard of servo programming, and there is not as far as I found. Unless you think of what you can program in, but seems you have to buy for every brand servo the programmer from that brand. Test feature I understand is not brand related though. Anyway all fixed and just would rather wait til I can access shore where it is more easy egress the boat. Some areas are open but the next county has the down wind area I wish to launch from closed. River current is also a consideration.

MEASURE TWICE said:

I have not had a problem with sailing the boat at lakes, but some don't allow motors. This is servo only motor, not thinking they would prohibit it. Now I did see a dual type servo that can switch between servo control and continuous rotation. With telemetry maybe can switch if designed to. I saw a programmer that was just for this, but it is used I think when model is not in use. I though just happened to find around 10 loose 1/8 watt carbon resistors loose in the bottom of a box of other stuff. It was not unpacked in a move. One resistor was 10 ohm, but all the rest around 100,000 ohm. I needed to shorten the angle movement of a digital servo. The transmitter is an old 27Mhz with no screen or adjustments. In the transmitter for one of the joy sticks, I bridged across the potentiometer end leads with 4 of the roughly 100,000 ohm resistors in parallel. So it works now and limited the angle of rotation as needed to prevent the sail hitting the side stays. What is somewhat disappointing is where I looked for what is said about any universal standard of servo programming, and there is not as far as I found. Unless you think of what you can program in, but seems you have to buy for every brand servo the programmer from that brand. Test feature I understand is not brand related though. Anyway all fixed and just would rather wait til I can access shore where it is more easy egress the boat. Some areas are open but the next county has the down wind area I wish to launch from closed. River current is also a consideration.

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I've seen guys gluing wood and even Styrofoam together and cobbling up servo controls with oversize electric motors
and flying planes just for grins. I remember when fellas thaat got into RC planes back in the 60s ran controllers on the
27 mhz. band. The problem back then was reliability since there were guys splattering that band and the 10 meter
band with high powered RF from the linear amplifier crowd. The band should be real good now since that crowd has
disappeared on the band. The 2.4 ghz. for controller control is used along with the 5.8 ghz frequency for video on
the quadcopters, winged aircraft and water craft. The RC hobby is expensive to get into and addictive to new users
much like most hobbies I guess. The improvements in high-storage and output in the battery developments have
made it possible to improve the hobby. A youngster can get into the hobby real cheap and then the temptation to
spend more money to expand can get costly. I've messed around with CB radio and been in Amateur Radio for
years and it can get real expensive it's a shame that Radio Shack and the Heathkit company has faded from the
scene for hobbyists.

Dennis

Oh, R/C.

Do you really want to get me started?