Need advice about RC options for ultralight paper airframe project

Ohai!
Yeah, orders beeing held up by trivial backorders is something I hate; Due to the tax-free value here and the almost linear (to weight) shipping cost I split orders up into little parcels, and try to avoid backorder items or put them into seperate orders with less importaint stuff.

Yep... Chineese newyear is chaos. Especially that one year, when christmas orders where quickly followed by chinese new year... I waited 3 months for some stuff- now if I need something urgently between christmas and cny I order within europe.


Yeah, PC sims only go so far, the real thing is just more fun :) AND higher resolution :mrgreen:

I do not know what's the latest on the freeware rc sim market, but at least for the most common you can usualy create or edit models.
While the free simulator "FMS" is not comparable to the physic simulation of some commercial sims, there should be a lot of tutorials on how to make models;

Quickly scanned search results;
How to make models for FMS, Aerofly etc.
http://www.rc-sim.de/cms/index.php/.../219-wie-baut-man-aerofly-fms-reflex-modelle-

FMS Models and some how-to info
http://gunnerson.homestead.com/files/fms_models.htm

3D modeling planes via Sketchup and Blender
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1064020

-happy hacking :-)


Yeah, the choice of plugs is allways a pain in the .. . . .. ..
 
Thanks for the hacks.

The HK cancel button wasn't working so I had to call the toll free number. An interesting exercise in faith. The phone just rings and rings, and you wonder, where is the automated queue message followed by low fidelity music? After 10 min or so a real voice answers and you get right down to business.

I've vowed to clean up my computer files devoted to the Se5a project. Especially the 3 drawing programs, one for development,
one for black & white patterns, one highly layered file for color. It's very important to make changes in all three or pay the price down the road. Some of my Se5a files go back to 2003!
 
Haha, yeah, my daily earring project creates file chaos as well :mrgreen:

As for canceling stuff at HK... I think it never worked. And probably never will :-) I resolved my issues via email- sometimes it works, sometimes it does not :D
 
My order was in stealth mode for about a week. It finally showed up on the United States Postal Service tracking site today. In San Francisco. Great town, hope my package enjoyed itself. Should take another day or 2 to arrive at my door, 3 at most. I hope I can remember how to build the dang model!
 
Great Fuming Funk!!!! It's been a week now!

:curse: My parcel has gone missing somewhere between Cincinnati and my house.

The post office is sleuthing, and I'm stuck with an airframe and no partswall1

AND ITS GETTING WARM AND SUNNY OUTSIDE!!!!
 
I've been lead on a "merry chase" for a few days. I can't really get a consistent answer from either the United States Post Office or United States Customs. My package was dispatched from a post office sorting facility located in or near Cincinnati on the 9th. That turns out to have been a customs facility. That is the last bar code reading in the system. It never arrived at my mailing address and it is not at my local post office. My local post office tells me my package is way overdue and that I should initiate a lost parcel claim with HobbyKing. Which I have started to do with an E-mail. I think the claims process takes 60 days. That is way too long!

This is not HK's fault. Much as I hate to do it, I guess I'll front more money and repeat the order. Hey, maybe they even have those Z bend pliers in stock by now! It's been years since I've had a parcel go missing, I just got unlucky.
 
Yeah, the postal service screws up here once in a while too (not delivering custom notices etc.) ... still waiting for a few things, while magnets I ordered a few days ago allready arrived... odd.

Good luck with that parcel... perhaps it'll still arive.
 
Hey hey, I'm coming out of hibernation. Replacement parts arrived today. Rebuilding starts immediately! Weather is getting better. The next flight test will be a hand launch out of doors.

I'm borrowing an SLR camera to get some decent pix of the build process. Working on a video team too.
 
Good news :-)
Looking forward to the things to come.

My Hobbyking stuff arrived too, but so little time at the moment...
 
I'm a bit stressed for free time too, but spring is definitely here: warmer weather, high winds, driving rainstorms, hail and tornado warnings. :eek:

I'm trying not to get too clever with the engineering, but some incremental improvements are in the works. Like color coded wires. Paper conduits to thread my wires through. Connector pins on my motor wires so the motor can be pulled/replaced without rebuilding the entire plane.

My homemade connector pins work well, but they are a bit longer than I'd like, and require some tricky crimping to get a snug fit. I've found some IC connector tubes which should eliminate the need for hand crimping & shorten the length of the connector. Space is tight in the paper bird.
 
Oh boy, sounds like rough weather...

Coded wires are a great idea :) A buddy once fried my ESC by hooking it up the wrong way.

I was about to order the $25 plane by Hobbyking for fun flying, but sold out faster then I could order... At least on the german warehouse.
They have store fronts now, did you read? Much quicker returns etc.
 
Not a whole lot of progress lately, but I'm taking care of little things I rushed for the first working prototype.

Most notably I've finally produced an entirely satisfactory quick release motor mount so that it snaps into place and stays there with the help of a little paper spring clip. Quite secure, but it should break away during a hard landing/crash. Engine and prop change-outs are quite easy now.

I've also printed key parts of the wiring diagram inside the fuselage so I don't have to fumble for a printed copy with a part in one hand and a bottle of glue in the other.

Weather is getting better, so I need to get ready for the first calm, dry evening.
 
I'm back with build 2 of the model

Wow, it's been a full 2 months since I last posted anything. Basically a weather delay. We've had 6 full weeks of rain every day, April and May followed by 2 weeks of strong storms, including some small tornadoes and some golf ball sized hail. Not good conditions for testing a small paper model.

The really bad weather has lifted, it's turned hot and I'm anticipating those calm summer evenings favoring success with a 42 g model.

During the long lull I made some minor improvements. The newest version has a better hatch allowing direct access to the out runner motor without tearing the model apart. It took some effort to design a latch that could keep the hatch closed in the prop wash and be easy to build and use.

The motor can now be easily and quickly removed, to change a prop or to replace a blown motor. The motor mount clicks into place without glue. The motor leads plug into the ESC leads with modified D connector male and female pins. It's now easy to check the motor electrical continuity during the build and reverse any leads if the motor is running in the wrong direction. That is really helpful.

Other than that, just little things, like a stay for the antenna and the use of highly flexible spaghetti wire. The payload bay is still extremely tight, but no longer about to explode due to highly compressed wires!

I taken a lot of high resolution photos of the build with a Nikon digital camera equipped with macro lens. Still using a black and white color scheme, but at least the pixel count is high and the focus excellent. I've found a videographer who'll document the model in flight, or at least the launch phase.

I'm going to start a new thread to mark the beginning of the flight test program.
 
Sounds great!
Making it all tidy with plugs may increase the weight by a little, but sounds like a great built now with easy access!
:-)
Can't wait to see the pics & videos.
 
I went a bit nuts with the high resolution photos - got to scale them down to less than 3.7 MB per pic! Is it my imagination or did zealot increase the max file to 195.3 KB?

I have discovered an infallible rain making procedure - finish an RC model. It's pouring rain again! Good excuse to edit pix.
 
Just a test of run with a re-sized photo. Good enough!

I'll put together a little photo show and send it out as a new topic thread.
 

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That looks so awesome! Nicely done!

File limit: One of the reason I got my webspace, real inexpensive and no traffic worries if you know where to get :-)

Wow I can't wait to see more.

Rain: Same here with buying telescopes :-P

Hobbyking now has the $30 quadro controll board (KK clone?), so I might need to get going with my stuff again. Going to color it with nail polish, as it sticks well to the ABS plastic... and they have UV active colors (wich change in sunlight, so red indoors, blue outdoors or such.... fun!)
 
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