Sunday, September 22, 2013

Taranis OpenTX Elevon Mixing

Here's how to mix elevons on Taranis using OpenTX.

It's a pretty straightfoward procedure:

  • mix the elevator stick on both channels.  The value will be either 50% or -50%, depending on how your servos are set up.  If the control surfaces move in the wrong direction, swap the sign.
  • mix the aileron stick on both channels.  The multiplex parameter will be "add", and the values will also be 50% or -50%.  Proper motion:  when the stick moves left, the left control surface should raise and the right control surface should lower.  Vice versa for moving the stick right.

Here's some notes on how elevon mixing works:

http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2011/05/v-tail-mixing.html
http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2011/05/elevon-v-tail-mixing-calculations.html

Here's my mix.  Yours should be the same, possibly swapping out the positive/negative values.

Ch 2  Ele    50%
  +=  Ail   -50%
Ch 3  Ele   -50%
  +=  Ail   -50%


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Concord Model Engineers, September 10, 2013

CONCORD MODEL ENGINEERS

MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES 

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013
CALL TO ORDER:  7:30 pm   ATTENDEES:  21  GUESTS:   2

MEETINGS

Monthly meeting, Second Tuesday, 7:30 at Concord Airport Terminal.

Friday Fun Fly, Third Friday, 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
Gym at the Church of the Nazarene, 1650 Ashby Dr., Concord

This month's Fun Fly is on Friday, Sept. 20. Chuck won't be there with the collection bucket, so it's Free Fly Friday!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Some Hovercraft Notes

There's a couple of hovercraft over in the Instructable Remote Control contest.  Here's one and another that I might give a try at sometime.







And it turns out there's a Magnum Opus of hovercraft literature.  700+ pages, 450 illustrations, and a Royal foreword!  Here's the book's website and amazon link.  It seems like a pretty interesting story.









There's even a hovercraft folk song.  Who knew!


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Small JST Connectors

Courtesy of RCG user jj604, here's a nice thread that clears up some of the confusion around small JST connectors.  Here's an extract, but lots of interesting details at the link so check it out!


  • JST-XH is 2.5mm pin spacing (same as 0.1inch for all practical purposes)
    Not micro size but very common. Used in most balance plugs on LiPos and is the "standard" header spacing in many electronic components including PCs. The standard Futaba/JR style servo plugs are this spacing.
  • JST- ZH is 1.5mm pin spacing
    Used in the Spektrum AR 6300 system and a compatible DSM2 Rx from DelTang (DelTangs are available with all 3 connectors).
  • Molex PicoBlade is 1.25mm pin spacing.
    Used in Futaba, FlyDream, Walkera and the new Hobby King Micro (DSM2) 2.4G systems. The HobbyKing 1.7 and 2.2g Servos have this connector. The 2 pin version is used on the PZ bricks as a battery connector.
  • JST-SH is 1.0mm pin spacing.
    Used for servo connection in Spektrum AR6400 "Brick" and the HobbyKing SuperMicro (not DSM2) systems. Most linear servos have this connector.