7th Ponty Fly In - Mystery Model

[tiptipflyer]

I am anxious, what you plan now Martin. Sounds like an interesting projekt. I am looking forward to the results of your tests.
I will never become an expert in electronics and programming as some mates here, but I still learn a lot from all those projekts.

Frank

[Tobe]

Those motors/gearbox sets comes in a variety of reductions so it's more of a matter to pick the right one. I have run them thru all and have come up that those in the range of 300 to 400 rpm works best in our applications. In my set ups I utilize the gearboxes with a special order for the motors with a different windings in my actuators. If you pulse them to fast you will need to have a pause between the pulses to avoid heat problems when changing direction on the magnetic field.

[_AL_]

Nothing so fancy for me.
A recycled 4-5g servo out of some foam thing that died long ago & a used RX which is overkill but I have it sitting in a box so it's perfect.
I'll give it a sand tomorrow, make the fin & work out the servo location & connection.

Al

[_AL_]

It's rough sanded round but I still need to make the belly hatch & finish cross sheeting the tail once the control linkage is installed. The horizontal stab, fin & rudder are cut & the servo is in.

It's 1 1/8" thick instead of the stock 1/2" but it's still pretty skinny.

Al

[Shaun]

RCM&E. Is out and the article /plan is there if you haven't started yet.

Shaun

[Carl]

Circumstances mean that I'm unable to come up and meet you all and enjoy the event. During a chat with Shaun I said I'll get into the spirit of the event and build a Pulstar myself. With his usual enthusiasm, especially when he found out I was in possession of a Mattel pulse proportional system that I would use, he sent me the 'part kit' and this is how mine turned out:

Because the Mattel system is rudder only control I made an onboard timer using an Arduino pro mini for the motor. It features:

* By means of 4 dip switches you can set a motor run time of up to 75 seconds in increments of 5 seconds (longer run times are possible by reprogramming using a different increment value)
* By means of 4 dip switches you can set motor power as a percentage in units of 10s, e.g. 80%
* On switch-on the esc is initialized with min/max throttle range - the esc will give the confirmation beeps
* After esc initialization there is a period of 10 seconds before the motor starts
* From 5 seconds to go before the motor starts there are 5 audible beeps - 5, 4, 3, 2 are short beeps and at 1 second a long beep
* It's advisable to have a switch on the model to switch on/off the power setup - this would allow for an easy abort at any time before launch
* At the end of the timed motor run the motor simply cuts

I plan to document the timer and upload it for any who wish to use it.

My Pulstar is heavier than Shaun has suggested. I've tried loosing a bit of weight, and moving the receiver to the front hatch, but that just resulted in CG being being off - nose pointing up. So I've returned everything as pictured. I'm going to make up a 3S lipo power pack from 3 1S lipos so I can slot them in the available space in the nose. I've trialed it and found that the extra little bit of weight in the nose and removing the battery checker from the front compartment it balances perfectly without gaining weight. So looks the way to go for me.

Carl

[Shaun]

Great overview Carl.

Just in case anybody was wondering, I've not lost my Yorkshire roots and become overly generous giving kits away. Carl has built a few of the airframes for my review models , so it was a gesture for his time and skill helping me out.

Shaun.

Ps love the attention to detail with Mattel decal on the fin..

[Carl]

I've made up a wire harness to connect 3 1-cell lipos together to create a 3S lipo pack. This means I can fit this in the limited space available in the nose where a commercially available pack would be too big. All tested out fine. Will need to shorten the wires but have run out of JST connectors. Also one of the cells is 350mAh, so have ordered another 250mAh cell so the pack is better balanced.

I attached my WATT meter and returned the following results:

THROTTLE
POSITION
50% = 19W
60% = 23W
70% = 27W
80% = 32W

Didn't test any further as I could see power wouldn't be an issue

[Carl]

In the spirit of Shaun's Yorkshire generosity I have a set of Pulstar vinyl stickers for anyone who wants them - actually they came from Shaun and I didn't use them. First person who wants them can have them. I'll post them - no cost for UK. Note the year is wrong!?

Carl

[RON]

Yes please