Blog

  • The motor test stand

    The motor test stand

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

    This contraption is going to be quite simple;

    2 pieces of wood which I pre-drilled


    Screwed together


    Since I had a box of old T-Rex 450 parts I decided to use the main-shaft and bearings


    Screwed on a baseplate


    I screwed on a simple stopper to keep the arm from tilting forward when transporting it


    Done! The motor mount was constructed from a piece of aluminum I had laying around.


    The power-meter is of the Turnigy brand and has a built in PWM generator which means that you don’t need a transmitter+receiver to run the tests.

    The RPM meter requires a non florescent light source to do accurate readings. I use a LED flashlight to achieve that.

    Overall I’m very happy with my thrust stand. It’s a great tool for comparing performance between setups and maximizing efficiency.

    Here are some test results that I took for the FunJet setup;

    Motor: Warp 4 3-turn 2580kV
    ESC: Mystery 40A
    Battery: 3s OEM 25-35C 2200mAh LiPo

    APC SPEED 400 – 4.75*4.75
    Thrust: 500g
    Amps: 29A
    Voltage:10.9V
    Watts: 316W
    RPM: 25000
    Calculated pitch-speed: 180km/h

    APC SPEED 400 – 5.25*4.75
    Thrust: 660g
    Amps: 34A
    Voltage:10.7V
    Watts: 364W
    RPM: 23000
    Calculated pitch-speed: 166km/h

    APC SPEED 400 – 5.5*4.5
    Thrust: 760g
    Amps: 34,1A
    Voltage:10.5V
    Watts: 358W
    RPM: 22800
    Calculated pitch-speed: 156km/h

    APC SPEED 400 – 6*4
    Thrust: 1000g
    Amps: 35A
    Voltage:10.4V
    Watts: 364W
    RPM: 22000
    Calculated pitch-speed: 134km/h

  • Elefantastiskt 2009

    This weekend I attended the Elefantastiskt RC event in Karlsborg here in Sweden. The field at where it’s held was pretty huge and it had a nice big runway. Since this was a two day event there were a camping area at one end of the field, here the two vendors that turned up also had their stands. The weather on Saturday was extremely windy with a few raindrops here and there. This was unfortunate as this was the day that most visitors came to watch the flying and the noon demo. Since it was so windy there weren’t that many planes in the air and the noon demo was made difficult.

    I brought the Twin-Star and the Blizzard on the Saturday and I flew both in the wind. A lot of people were interested in my planes and I got to meet a lot of new great people. A few even recognized me from my youtube-show, which was cool.
    (more…)

  • The Extra is done

    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

  • I’m mentioned on ATTF!

    I’m mentioned on the very well known AllThingsThatFly podcast!

    24 minutes and 10 seconds into episode #102 Diggs mentions my youtube show episode 1 and episode 2 as “Funny as hell”.

    He is also kind enough to plug this site! After that he mentions my Multiplex Blizzard as “… One of the coolest paint scheme I’ve seen yet on a Blizzard”

    Click here to download the episode as a MP3

    A big thank you to all the guys at ATTF!

  • Show #2 – Dropping eggs with the EZ-Stick part 2


    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! (more…)

  • Progress on the Extra300

    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

  • My prize has arrived

    My prize from the competition on the FPV-Community forums just arrived in my mailbox!

    The quality of this pan/tilt unit from GlobeFlight is excellent. The panning servo is located higher that on any other pan/tilt unit I’ve seen for the Twin Star. It’s also possible to look straight down thanks to the different tilt mechanism. All parts are made from glass fiber and are very strong and light. The whole unit weights 60 grams as seen in the picture. Now I only need a HS-81 size servo to be able to test this ting out.

  • I’m sending back the HD camera

    The homepage where I got the Aiptek AHD300 said that it could do 720p in 60fps but that was not true. Apparently there is another model called the AHD300 PLUS that has this capability. So I sent back the AHD300 and instead I’m getting a AHD200 for half the price. It can “only” record in 1280*720p at 30fps compared to the 1440*1080p 30fps of the AHD300, but for me that is not worth two AHD200’s.

    But before I sent the AHD300 back, I made a few test videos
    Be sure to watch the comparison videos between the KX171 and the AHD300

  • RCPowers Extra300

    RCPowers Extra300

    This RCPowers Extra300 is going to be my first ever fully fledged 3D airplane. I’m making mine out of 6 mm depron so we’ll have to see how long it lasts.

    Wingspan: 900 mm
    Length: 915 mm
    All up weight: 352 g

    Power setup:
    Motor: Turnigy C28-30 1050kV
    ESC: 25A HiModel ESC
    Battery: 3s 800mAh Li-po
    Servos: 4 x 9g Servos
    Prop: 9*4.7 Prop


    All the pieces cut out


    Since the depron sheets I can get my hands on only measure 900*400 mm, I decided to make the main plate into two pieces in another fashion than the original.


    Here you can see where I made the cut rather then along the whole fuselage.


    I use a dremel to make perfect slot for the 3 mm carbon tube


    A slot in the elevator as well.


    45°ing the control surfaces.


    Glued together


    Du-bro hinges on the rudder.


    For the motor mount I took the stick-mount that comes with the towerpro motors and removed the unnecessary bits.


    The Turnigy C28-30 1050kV Motor in place.


    Aileron servo in place on the underside.


    Tape hinges.


    Rudder mounted.


    I decided to go with two separate aileron servos to be able to have programmable offsets.


    I placed the elevator and rudder servos close to the CG and made some simple pushrods.


    Rudder pushrod and control-horn.


    Elevator pushrod and control-horn.


    Receiver and 25A ECS mounted


    3s800mAh LiPo


    9*4.7 Prop, I didn’t have any 3.2 mm propsaver at home, so this have to do for now.


    All done!


    352 g All Up Weight

    I sold the Extra 300 to a friend of mine a couple of days later.

  • FPV HD Camera has arrived

    Behold! The future is here! I’m proud to present the Aiptek AHD300 Full HD Camcorder:

    The camera empty weights 148 g according to my scale and with battery and SD card it weights in at 183 grams.
    The plan is to take it apart and strip it of all unnecessary parts to make it as light as possible. I will also replace the connection between the CMOS sensor board and the main board with a ribbon cable to make it easier to pan/tilt.

    Click the Continue reading to see more pictures. (more…)