Category: Blog

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

Did you all think I was just going to give up after the fiasco with the Camileo P10? Then you were kind of right… I have given up on trying to make that camera work with a remote camera head. Instead I decided to try my luck with another camera. I found this diamond in the rough on a swedish auction site and won it for less than €50.

It’s an Aiptek Z500 PLUS and it can record in both 1440*1080p in 30FPS and in 1280*720p in 60FPS!

For more pictures and info click the “Read more” (more…)

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

Crazy as I undoubtedly am, I decided to take the TwinStarII out in the -15°C, pitch dark, windy night on new years eve. Armed with two heated wheat bags, two chemical heat packs, a blanket and a flashlight, I went out to the middle of a field by my fiends house. I took of at 23:59 and tried with my freezing hands to control the airplane in the wind.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t had time to try out the FPV setup properly (hadn’t tried it with the motors running) which resulted in some pretty nasty lines as you can see in the video.
I used the FPV gear that I’m building for friend (Read more about it here)
I think the video turned out ok, but I would have liked if had been less windy and a bit warmer. I had a hard time flying smooth and get good video. Maybe next year will be better.

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

Want to know precisely how good your RC link during a FPV flight? This is even a better way than displaying RSSI, it’s a “lost package indicator” for any OSD that has an RSSI input. You only need a capacitor, a resistor and some soldering skill to make it happen! In this guide I will show and describe exactly how it’s done and how it works. After this guide I hope no one ever finding them selfs flying unknowingly beyond their RC link’s range.

Click here to read the guide

Pehw, I just finished up a guide to making a crash-proof, light weight, small,aerodynamic and efficient antenna for video transmitters.

It’s called a quarter-wave lambda antenna and I’ve been using it ever since my first FPV FunJet flight.
I also written a guide explaining how to tune a DIY antenna to get the absolute best performance.
Click here to read the guide

Today I got my 200th Youtube subscriber!
Wohoo! Congratulations David! Yay!
And to think that it was only three months ago that I got my 100th subscriber. Thank you, all of you that have subscribed and to all of you that visit this site regularly and post comments. It’s guys like you that made me create this homepage and invest my time. Without you this hobby wouldn’t be any where near as fun as it is. So thank you once again!

Another thing to celebrate is that the Winter Solstice is today. Which means that from today the days will only get lighter and longer again here in Sweden. But to be honest it doesn’t really matter when it’s -18°C (0°F), which is was earlier today, even if it was light enough when I get home I probably would have stayed inside. Lucky I got a lot to build!