I finished it in time for the indoor event, and here is a video from that event;

The Tricopter is a joy to fly. It’s stable and forgiving. I like it a lot!

Link to the project page

It’s finished! I think it turned out pretty nice.

Link to the project page

Now it’s time to go to the indoor event and fly for a couple of hours.

I’ve made a lot progress on the Tricopter yesterday. I even got it into the air! Unfortunately mother nature was in a bad mood and handed out some quite strong winds. So I need to wait for the wind to die down before I can dial it in.

Link to the project page

Next it’s time to make it pretty! Be sure to come back tomorrow.

I made some good progress yesterday. The motor mount, tilt mechanism and frame is now done. So far I’m pretty satisfied with the results.

Link to the project page

I will continue updating every morning until Saturday so stay tuned!

My fellow hobbyist, the Tricopter build has begun. The plan is to have it ready by this saturday, since I’m going to an indoor event and I would like to participate with the tricopter.

Link to the project page
Next update will be up tomorrow morning!

I just finished up a guide to exchanging the SAW filter in a 0.9/1.3GHz receiver. So far the results are quite staggering for such a cheap modification! Other people have reported a +3dBi sensitivity gain after the modification. That’s the same as doubling your transmitter power!


Read the guide!

A big thanks to Michael for sending me the SAW filters! He is a good friend and very skilled fellow hobbyist, check out his homepage; Mictronics.de

The build is now done! The project was on hold until the “FPV project for a friend” was finished. The build was pretty straight forward since I already had figured everything out.

I think it turned out pretty nice.
Continue reading on the project page

After rearranging the furniture in my RC room to make better use of the space, I needed some new photo/build lights (or at least now I had an excuse to). I knew that I wanted to build my own lights to get it just the way I like it. I also knew that I wanted to use SMD LED’s with wide beam-width. But rather than buying a bunch of LED’s and making my own PCB I found a perfect alternative on HobbyKing.

Click here to read the guide

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I’ve been really busy. But in the time I managed to squeeze in for RC I have managed to build a simple lens mount for the Aiptek Z500+.

It works great, and it’s light weight. It’s nothing more than two PG-7 plastic nuts that I glued in place. The treads on the nuts were way to steep but after screwing the lens in and out a couple of time they succumbed and the lens is perfectly straight and secured.

The total weight of the camera at this moment is 35 grams! And it works!

I also added some glue to the ribbon cable connectors to make sure that they aren’t stressed when panning.
More pics on the project page

The project is now finished. It took quite a bit longer that I thought it would but now it is done. Everything worked like a charm during the 3 test flights and she flew very nice with plenty of power from the power setup.

It’s with a little twinge I send it on its way to it’s new owner. It turned out so nice. I hope my friend takes good care of her.
Check out the pics on the project page

I couldn’t wait any longer! I had to disassemble the Aiptek Z500+ and find out if had a ribbon-cable between the PCB and sensor.

It did! Success! It it was quite a long cable as well. Perhaps I don’t even need to replace it with a longer one, it might just be long enough as it is.
Great news!

I made a project page on the progress which also contains a step by step guide to how to do the disassembly;
More info and pictures

I’ve started building the Twin Star II that’s going to be the airframe for my friends FPV setup. I have chosen some different solutions than when I built my own Twin Star. For instance, I made a custom motor mount for this build:

Check it out on the project page

Finally I got some time over to start building my friends FPV setup. I started off the build with the FPV pod which I think turned out pretty nice.

Read more on the Project page

Where is the fun in making a standard motor mount? Why not make one that you can steer? Since the wing only is a 3 channel airplane, why not use the rudder stick for something useful...

More pics and description on the project page

The few moments I’ve gotten this week I’ve been dedicating to build of the BAitT flying wing.

I have now added spars and glued the two wing-halves together. This wing feels a lot bigger that the old one!
The pictures and text are posted the BAitT project page

Since the weather has turned fowl here in Sweden and it’s getting dark well before I get home, I decided it was time to dust of the old hotwire cutter.

This time I will be making a 120cm wingspan Zagi10 flying wing. It will simply be a 50% scaled up version of the old AitT wing.

I will call it the Big Always in the Trunk wing or BAitT for short.

Click here to continue to read about the BAitT project

The Multiplex MiniMag is ready for its maiden flight.

I made a build log that contains 38 pictures that covers the entire build. I hope to be able to do the maiden flight soon.
Here is a link to the build log

In my quest towards getting better efficiency and more performance and flighttime out of my power systems , I decided to build a “Thrust stand”.

This is a great tool for comparing different props, motors, batteries, ESC’s separately but also as complete power systems.
Click here to read the build log and find out more

Click here to watch in 1280*720

The beginning of this episode is a time-laps build of the FunJet. I think it turned out pretty cool. After that follows the maiden flight, which went great without any crashes.

More info about the power setup after the “Read More” Read More...

These are the two airplanes I bought, the FunJet and the MiniMag with floats! One fast and one slow, one aerobatic and one gentle. I think this they both will contribute greatly to my growing fleet of airplanes. I will start of building the FunJet first and it will happen soon. Stay tuned!

Ever since the Assan modification of my Futaba 7C I’ve wanted to be able to use the same antenna on both transmitter modules. And now, finally, I got my hands on a U.FL to SMA pigtail. Here is the result:

Looks nice doesn’t it?

More pics after the “Read More”

Now I need some good weather to do a range check. Read More...

I just finished up a guide on how to get 180° of servo travel. In the guide I address 3 different ways of getting more servo travel. I also give a complete guide to modifying a servo DIY style, using only two resistors.
Perfect for getting a broader panning view! Click here to read the guide

I just finished building the Extra300. It was a pretty simple build and not much to worry about. The All Up Weight landed at 352 grams which is not light but not heavy either.

I look forward to flight testing it.
Click here for all the pictures of the build log

Click here to watch in 1280*720

This is part 2! Click here for the first episode!

In this episode I once again try hitting a target with potatoes and eggs dropped from my EZ-Stick. But this time I manage to hit something! Read More...

I’m almost finished with the Extra300 from RCPowers. The only things that remain is to mount the ESC, receiver and battery.


Click here for all the pictures of the build log

I’ve started work on a RCPowers Extra300. This is going to be my first ever 3D airplane.

I like the simplicity of the kits that RCpowers produce. The fewest number of parts with no unnecessary cuts. I like it. I wonder how it will fly... and how long it’s going to last since I made it out of depron.

Anyway here is the build log

Click here to watch in 1280*720

This was my first ever youtube show! I plan on making goofy stuff and sharing them with you in this fashion, and I hope you will enjoy it.

In this show I equip my EZ-Stick with a bomb drop device, and I try to drop potatoes and eggs from the air on a target.

For those of you that want to make a bomb drop device of your own, here is how to: Read More...

Now that I have a radio with the wonderful feature to let the trainer port only take over certain channels, I was able to build myself a head tracker. The electronics from an E-Sky 0404 radio will have to suffice.

Testing the concept.


I reused the parts from the sticks.


The Hat-Tracker done! I removed most of the unnecessary components from the pcb and soldered the pots to channel 4 and 5. In the hole at the end of the plywood stick I’ll connect a retractable keychain that hooks into the radio.


Here you can see the underside.

I have tested it and it works great! I hope to get some video of it in action soon to share with you.

Woho! It flew!

Click here to watch in 1280*720

It has a weird tendency to get stuck in a high alfa (anyone knows why it would do that?) but other than that, it flies just fine.

I have begun the build of the first airplane of my own design!
It’s a delta plane with a KF nr.4 airfoil that is designed around the same power plant as the AitT wing. I don’t know if it’s going to fly, but I sure hope so.
Click here to read the build log

It does remind me of something but I don’t know what...

I am proud to present my first HD video!

Click here to watch in 1280*720

Only the prop was broken in the crash.

Remember the crash of the Twin Boom Biplane Easystar?


The weather has been awful here in Sweden for what feels like for ever. So I thought I would build something, and it came to me! An Easystar Slow-Stick’is type of thingi.
Thus the project EZ-Stick was born.


A loose tail.


The stick is a 20*10 mm piece of wood I had laying around.


I made a mounting plate that is easily adjusted out of aluminum. The motor is a Turnigy 35-30C 1100kV.


2 mm piano wire has to do for the landing gear.


Mount for the wing made out of balsa pieces.


HXT900’s servos.


The old pushrods brought back to life.


30A ESC and A123 battery in place.


10*7SF APC Prop.

Well, have to wait and see if this one flies.

Here is the video:


The reason that I crashed was that the plane stalled to near the ground and I couldn’t save it. Why the airplane stalled is an other story; I wanted to kill some speed before the landing, but I pushed to far.


Well, at least the damage wasn’t bad, just a crack that could easily could be glued together.

Here is the long awaited Twin Star video! Enjoy!
Click here for the build log of the Twin Star

Finally the weather cooperated long enough for me to get some video.
I edited the Blizzard video first and will finnish the Twin-Star one later.
Click here for the build log of the Blizzard.

Enjoy!

I have done some progress on the FPV system for the Twin Star whilst the bad weather has persisted.

Pretty straight forward.


Ability to look almost straight down without seeing to much of the side of the aircraft.


Designed to break away easily in a crash.

Today, finally, after over 2 week of bad weather, the wind died down long enough to do the maiden flights of both the Blizzard and the Twin Star.





















I flew the Twin Star first and I was impressed. It flies great! It is super stable in the wind very easy to control. It has plenty of power to! After the flight it was time to maiden the Blizzard. Truth be told I’m a little scared of this beast. My heart rate went up quite a bit when I held it in my hand and gave it full throttle for the first time. I did not even need to throw it, it just left my hand and climbed like rocket. The neat thing with the Blizzard is when you cut the throttle and start to dive it accelerates even more and it keeps its inertia a long time! 8 seconds of full throttle and it’s a spec in the sky and when you dive it makes “the sound”, the wonderful whistling sound that I love. Ahh man that was an awesome maiden flight! It’s nice to pump some adrenaline once in a while.

Thanks to my friend Christian Mogensen for assisting me!

More pictures can be found in the build threads; Blizzard, Twin Star.

This week I have been working on the two airplanes that my wife gave me. Unfortunately the weather this week has been terrible, so I have not been able to maiden either of them. But I thought I would share the work I’ve done so far:

The Twin Star II build log


The Multiplex Blizzard build log


I’ll post more pictures as soon as the weather changes for the better.

To read the complete build-log of the Twin Boom Biplane Easystar, Click here.

Today I decided to maiden the TBBEZ*. Unfortunately the wife was away and all my friends were at work so I had nobody to film it for me. But the weather was to good and I didn’t want to waste a perfect afternoon by not flying as much as I could.

The first trouble came when I tried to get the plane into my Renault Clio 1.4. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great car but when you have to spend 10 minutes trying to wiggle a airplane into it made me dream of a bigger car. In the end I got the plane to fit at the same time as myself and I put the pedal to the metal and scooted of to the nearest field.

At the field I did a range-check and did the long version of the preflight check to be sure that everything was spot on, and it was! Time to throw this baby bird out of the nest.

I took the absurd-looking plane into my hand and gave it full throttle and gave it a gentle toss.

This was the shortest flight I have ever had. The second It left my hand it made a crazy tight loop and smashed right into the ground!



Both carbon tubes shattered, the wings tore at the mounting of the booms, both top and bottom wings got tore and dented, prop broke, camera-pod broken, pan servo broken and body tore at several places.

This was the lamest crash I have had. What an anticlimax!
When knowing the results I now see what went wrong;

• The vertical CG was to high with the camera, video TX and battery on the top wing.
• The motor angel combined with high thrust.

These things made it go into crazy loop mode.

I think I’ll order an other FPV platform now.

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing!

Want to read the complete build-log? Click here.

After crashing my FPV Easystar again, I decided to give it up and sacrifice the parts to feed this monster. I hope to get 20% more lift by placing an extra pair of Easystar wings on top of the stock pair at the hight of one wing chord.


Balsa is nice.


All the supports in place.


I used my hotwire cutter to roughly cut the wing holder of the body of the old Easystar.


A new camera-pod.


Glued on.




The top wing in place.


Done!





This is without a doubt the ugliest plane I have ever seen!
We’ll see if it make it up by being great in the air.

Will their be glory or disaster?
Only time will tell...

Finally the Twin Boom EZ* got of the ground and in to the air!



One bummer is that the motor only puts out 140W on the 10*5 prop and 3sA123.
I will try another prop the next time. Maybe a 11*7?

It’s drawing to an end, the epic build of the Twin Boom Easystar.

Want to read the complete build-log? Click here.


All Easystar’s need a larger rudder, this one is no exception.


Mono coated and DU-BRO hinges.


The rudder in place along with the tail rudder servo.


The elevator servo in place.


Cables tidied up.






The tail needed some cosmetic work after the amputation. It does not look good, but it looks better.


Linkage.


Out in the wild.


It’s not a beauty, but I can give it a makeover once it seen some sky.




Servo cables tidied up.



The only thing I need now is some calm weather so that I can unleash the beast so that it can rip up the sky.

The strange build continues.


I used my hot wire I chopped of the tail.


I made a simple motor mount out of 3 mm plywood. The angel of the motor is the same as the original.


Wow it’s ugly at the moment.


FASST antenna tubes in place. I want the best reception as I can hence the “performance before look”.




Speed controller now occupies the place where one of the old servos use to be.




Didn’t your servos come with 1 meter of cable? Mine hither, so I had to solder on new ones.

Stay tuned...

Today it begins; The secret project. In this experiment I’m going to try to get an Easystar that don’t look nor fly like an ordinary, everyday Easystar.
I’ll try to push the envelope and expand my horizons to speak.

To do that I’ll need carbon fiber, glue, a new motor and a different propeller.


Two 10*8*500 mm carbon tubes should do it.


A Turnigy 35-30C 1100kv motor with a 10*5 prop should be something to start out with. Here it is compared to a 6” prop that I had mounted on this Easystar before it crashed.

I think you all have guest it buy now, but the monster I’m trying to bring to life is a twin boom Easystar!


I went with the approach of gluing the carbon tubes to the tail.


To hold the carbon booms to the main airframe I chose to make a mount of 3 mm plywood. The booms will be fastened with screws which gives makes me able to take the airplane apart if I would like to.


I’ll use epoxy to glue the plywood to the wings.


Testing the mounts.



I’ll keep you posted as always

It was a beautiful sunset and the weather was just right. This is the second flight after the paint job was finished and I dumb thumb it into the water...

After over 2 hours in the air I decided to finally paint this excellent plane up.
It’s nothing fancy, a simple 2 color job. But I think it turned out pretty good.


I have also tried out a bunch of different power setups, and this is the one I like best:

Motor: Topwerpro 2409-12T 1600kV
ESC: Towerpro 18A
Battery: 3s800mAh 20-30C Loong-Max
Prop: 8*4 DD GWS

All up weight after painting and with the 3s 800mAh batteries is 287 g.
Flight time is about 7-8 minutes.

Remember the crash of the old Easystar?
I have had the old pieces of that Easystar just lying around for quite a while now, and every night when I go to sleep I can see the pieces lying on my shelf. But now, after many nights of thinking of what I could do with it, I finally got an idea. I will not share with you just yet what it is, but soon you will find out.


What would you do withe these pieces?

I was out on the frozen pond near “Kyrkofalla” church in Tibro planning to fly around with my F1 Hyrdo when the dog showed some interest in chasing the plane.
I took the opportunity and played a little with her.

The electronics has arrived!

• Motor: Topwerpro 2409-12T
• ESC: Towerpro 18A
• Battery: 2s1000mAh 25-35C Loong-Max to start with
• Prop: 8*4 slowfly GWS

Hatch cut.


Break away motor-mount.






Hinge for the hatch.


Rare earth magnet for holding the latch.


One is strong enough to lift the whole plane!


A servo in place.


The two other servos in place.


Pushrod for the tail rudder done.


I use ball-links from an old T-Rex kit to make my pushrods.


3mm carbon tube with ball-links


Futaba 2.4GHz FASST Receiver mounted.


Speed-controler in place.


“Training wheel wings” glued on.


I used some clear hard plastic to protect the bottom of the spons.


Out in the snow.

Testflight!

Initially the plan was just to test-drive it around on the ground because the wife had the car so I couldn’t get to a field.
I walked to the nearest place that I could find with some flat ground and plugged in the battery.

The Hydro handles well on the snow but after a while my fingers got a little to itchy...
I thought that I would take of for just a short bit and land it directly, a little jump with other words.

Well this is how it ended:

Can you spot it?




Nothing serious, a few minutes of love and glue and she will be in the air again.

I always wanted a flying boat of some sort and after a long while I finally decided to build one. Ever since RCPowers made this F1 Hydro back in 2007 I’ve wanted one.
Well I finaly got one! and here is the build:


All the pieces cut out of 6mm depron.


3mm carbon tube will stiffen stuff up.


A neat trick when gluing carbon spars is to mix the epoxy in wax-paper and rub in the spar before pushing it in.


Awesome hinging tape!


45° cut hinge-lines.


Taping the hinges.


Starting on the spons.
When bending depron, be sure to cover the outside with tape so that it only compresses the foam on the inside.


Use needles to hold stuff where you want it.






I use 5 minutes epoxy to glue the spons. It gives a non-flexing and strong waterproof seal.


Sealing the spons up.


Cuting of the execs.


I use sandpaper with 120 grit for heavy sanding and 400 grit for fine sanding of depron.


Fuselage in place using UHU-POR glue and toothpicks.


Vertical stabilizer glued in place and reenforced using toothpicks.


Top on.


Tail rudder hinging using DU-BRO hinges





One days work.
Update soon!

Brian at RCFlightcast wanted to see what speed I used when cutting out my wing cores so I made him a short youtube video

Yep your read right! The AitT V.2 is a Night Flyer!
And more, it flies great!
The difference is easily noticeable compared to the old AitT.

I have also changed the prop to a 4,75*4,75, changed the servos to a pair of Multiplex Nano-S and changed to a 25-35C battery.

This is not a model you fly with your mind on the dinner and I like that.
Unlimited vertical is nice too.











The Glowire that I use on the front is from a PC-modders kit and the top and bottom ones are from hobbycity.

I personally have no trouble with orientation flying at night, in fact I sometimes find it easier that flying at day.

My old AitT has now retired after a work related accident involving the ground.

This is going to be its successor:


This one is made of extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) witch is a much stiffer foam.


This time its carbon fiber all the way.






Even the winglets get some carbon fiber.

More to come as usual.

The build draws to an end...


EZ-Pod before.


After.


Painted silver (Looks a lot better IRL)


Added magnets for security.


3sA123


All Up Weight (AUW). This is with the FPV setup.



Time for a maiden!

Update time!


I made a step-up converter to be able to get rid of the 3s500mAh battery I used before, and since I fly on a 3sA123 I need to step-up the voltage to 12V to power the video setup.
Sorry for the messy layout but I didn't feel like making a new board after adding the nessesery filtering.


I had to sacrifice looks for preformance when I mounted the FASST antennas.






One of the two gyros that is going to help me get a nice smooth flight in a litle more wind
The other gyro hasn't arrived yet, but its going to be mounted at a 45° angel to get best performance for the rudder.


Heatshrink on the servos to not have to glue directly on the servos.


Just before the gluing of the fuse.


Glued.


Tail glued.


Controlrods mounted.


Servos in place.


6*4 Prop mounted

The build continues soon...

Since the range of my video TX is much further than my RC link I thought that I would increase the range a bit.


To do this I will replace the stock 3dBi Omni antenna with a 9dBi Patch anenna.


I decided to change the SMA connector to a U.FL to eliminate the losses that comes with having long wires and multiple chain connectors.


Re-assembling the patch.


The patch in place and hooked up.








I’ve used this LiPo in this transmitter for over a year and it has worked flawlessly.
I use a diode in series with the battery to lover the volts by 0.9V.

Now its time to start the build of my new FPV Easystar!


I started out with some 2mm carbonrod to stiffen up the elevator


Nice and flat after sanding som exess of


I also added a 6*1mm carbon strip to stiffen the rest of the tail (I dont like flex )


Some 10*0,5mm carbon strips in the wings


It adds a lot of strenght to the wing


I also added a washer thats 18mm across and has a 8,5mm hole so ensure that the carbon rod that goes in to the wing doesn't ware on the epp hole and make the connection sloppy.


Melting away some epp with my soldering iron (I use a diffrent tip for this)


6mm carbon rod glued in


I use a layer of heatshrink on the motor so that I dont have to glue the motor itself to the epp


Melted some extra room for the wireing to the ESC


Making myself a new rudder from the start


Made frome lightwheight plywood


Monocoated it with dayglow orange


Du-bro hinges are so sweet



Well thats it for now.
Stay tuned for the next update!

It flies! And it flies good too!
Very fast and snappish despite the sloppy foam and lack of carbon fiber.

I had the electronics for a fast ~300 grams model lying around so I decided to venture in to the land of Hot-wire cutting.

The model I had in mind to start with was something like the ST-Model Typhoon 430 and just by chance my friend happened to have one.

I took the measurements of his model and printed out a Zagi-10 wing profile and made a template of do it yourself printed circuit board glass fiber.


Since I’m making flying wings with a sweep I made my setup with a pivot at one end so that I only need one template and can operate it by myself.


The wire I use is 0,4 mm “Nikrothal 80” and to power it I use a CV/CC adjustable 5A Power-supply.
I run it in CC (Constant Current) mode at about 1,7-1,9A for this type of foam.


The cut is very smooth and takes about 1-2 minutes depending on the current used.




Results.
I made the fist of cheep expanded polystyrene foam S80 (EPS).


Build up. 3mm Depron as control surfaces and winglets.




No carbon fiber in this first model.


This is the stuff I had laying around:
Motor: Fiago 20*40 ~3223kv
30A Jeti ESC
2s 1000mAh Li-po
Esky 9g servos
4,5*4 Prop

Video to come!

This is a project from back in winter of 2006 that I wanted to share with you...

The winter is coming to Sweden fast,
When I go to work in the morning; Its dark
When I go home from work in the evening; Its dark

I cant see in the dark so I needed to work around this, this is why I started this project.

step one: Night-blades!

An old pair of 500mm woodblades will do fine




I used my dremel to cut out for the leds on the tip's




Time to cut out for the wires that is going along the whole blade


It's there, it's just hard to see


We need LiPo power






Flatening the ends on the LEDs that is going to be on the tip


Cuting out for the LEDs that is going to be on the leading edge


I used CA to glue the leds and the wires down, and later Im going to fill it with epoxy


Fitting the leds on the leading edge


I sanded the leds sharp to make the light reflect better


Ahhh, You got to love the smell of epoxy




I sanded the epoxy down using fine sandpaper(400-1000 grit)


Fitting the LiPo's and connectors


I calculated that I needed a 10ohms resistor to not fry my leds and giving me the maximum use-time (4-6h)




The jumper I made to turn on the leds. To charge the battery I simply plug in the charger on the middle and left pins.


The reason I shose Blue and Green is that both had the same specs. 3.2-3.4v (max 3.8V) and 20mA typ.






Total wheight of one night-blade.


And one stock blade.


Step two: The leds on the heli


LM317 type constant current boards that I got from work.