Heat bent PVC

Andrew Newton has a nifty video showing how to use heat gun to construct things from PVC pipe.

You can get a flat piece of PVC for fabrication by cutting and splitting a ring and then heating it up with a heat gun.  I'm going to give this a try.

blogodex = {"idx" : ["PVC Construction"]};

CME Minutes, June 2015

Walt Grant, RIP
Aeromodeller and Friend

CONCORD MODEL ENGINEERS MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

CALL TO ORDER:  7:30 pm
ATTENDEES: 23     GUESTS:  1

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 Ashbury Dr., Concord

Fun Fly this month on Friday, June 19.

TREASURER REPORT:

new balance  $2854.00

OLD BUSINESS:

none.

NEW BUSINESS:

RIP, Walt Grant, long time CME Member.  There will be a small memorial service the 3rd week of July.  Walt was a great guy, and started aeromodelling in 1938. He and his brother both wanted to join the Army Air Corp, but their mother said she would only allow one of them to serve.  They flipped a coin and his brother won, and Walt ended up working at the Bendix plant in Philadelphia, which adjoined a large field perfect for flying. The club's thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Barbera and her family.

Visitor:
Onur Yildirim met Chuck last week.  Flying for about two months. Onur is an Electronics and Telecom Engineer.

Saturday, June 13, CME Picnic.  Start arriving around 10:00. Will eat about noon. Pot Luck.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 20, Open air swap meet, 8:30 - noon, Alameda.  See attached.

July 25, SAM 27, Small Rubber Meet, Lakeville.  Need AMA insurance.

EVENT REPORTS:

none.

PARADE OF PLANES:

Ed Ringeu, Swoop DeVille, own design, P30, flat wing with with winglets, so easy to put together with no dihedral.  P30 has to fit in 30 inch box 40g chassis, 10g motor.  Ding Zarate wing design.

Ding Zarate, Jorback, John Odencamp design, E36 class.  Electric free flight. 150g.

RAFFLE:

Glue caddy, 15 min epoxy, roll yellow monokote, 1 gal 5% nitro, Radix 3D foam kit, BHM red flash 1/2A kit, Brodack Baby Clown kit

MEETING ADJOURNED:  8:38

blogodex = {"toc" : "Concord Model Engineers"};

9xr Pro Taranis Gimbals

OpenRCForums user Myckey has a nice pair of posts on upgrading the 9xr Pro with Taranis gimbals.
I'm preparing to try it.  I'll make a video and take some pictures.  Prepping for that, here's the steps as I understand them.

Wiring

The goal of this step is to modify the wiring so that the gimbal has two sets of three wires going into each 3-pin plug.  One set of wires is for the X axis and one set of wires is for the Y axis.

• release the six gimbal wires from the multipin plug.
• release the wires to both pairs of the 3-pin plugs.
• attach each set of 3 wires from the gimbal to the 3-pin plugs.

When this step is completed, you have a 3-wire set for the X axis and a 3-wire set for the Y axis.

Hardware

We need to modify each gimbal to fit in the 9xr gimbal hole.  Each of the four corners of the gimbal has an "ear" with two holes.  A bit of trimming will allow the Taranis gimbals to fit securely into the 9xr gimbal mounting plate.

• sand or dremel the outside of the ear, removing the outside hole.  leave some material around the inside hole, as we will enlarge that.
• open the case and remove the old gimbals. note that you will disconnect two wire harnesses for each gimbal.  leave the gimbal faceplace attached.
• push the new gimbals to the faceplate so that the gimbal holes line up with the 9xr gimbal posts.  It's a friction fit.
• check the alignment of the holes.  each gimbal hole should be about 1mm offset from the 9xr post.
• turn the 9xr over and see if there's a gap between the gimbal and the faceplate.
• if there's a gap, sand or dremel the gimbal around the mounting hole so that the gimbal will sit flush to the faceplate.
• Enlarge the holes in the faceplate only using a 3mm or 1/8'' drill bit.  Drill from the top of the 9xr.
• Attach the gimbal to the faceplate using a slightly longer screw (TBD: length?) of the same diameter (TBD: diameter?).
• The gimbal should fit flush against the faceplate.

Reassembly

Inspect the fitting, attach the wires, test the harness connections,  and close up the case!

• connect the shorter wire harness to the inner 9xr gimbal connection.
• connect the longer wire harness to the outer 9xr gimbal connection.
• attach a battery and test the gimbals as described in the next step.
• close up the case.

Testing

Two things can go wrong with the wiring.  The X and Y axis can be swapped (i.e. moving the stick up and down shows motion in the horizontal direction), and the X and Y axes can be reversed (i.e. left stick motion show right motion in the radio).

• go to the calibration menu.
• if the X and Y axes are swapped, swap the two connectors.
• if either the X or Y coordinates are reversed, swap the two outer wires of that connector.

Myckey's instructions are here.  A lot of people have wanted better 9xr gimbals, so a big shoutout to him for figuring this out in such a superb way!

• Part 1: Wiring
• Part 2: Hardware

blogodex = {"toc" : ["9xr Pro", "9xr"], "idx" : ["Taranis", "gimbals", "9xr gimbal upgrade"]};

Nice Wireless Mini-Keyboard

Here's a nice mini-keyboard that I've gotten for my multimedia PC.  It's wireless, comes with a dongle, has a lipo battery, and charges with a mini-B USB connection.

It claims to have an autosleep mode.  I can confirm it works while plugged in to the charger.  I've tried it on Windows and Mac, and it seems to work pretty well.  I'll try it out with an Android OTG cable as well.

It's got a set of multimedia keys, which I'll try configuring with AutoHotKey.  Fn-Space sets the mouse sensitivity

It's about $11 on BangGood and listed as "2.4G Mini Wireless Keyboard Mouse with Touchpad for PC Android TV HTPC"

blogodex = {"idx" : "Mini Keyboard"};