Paul's Flight Log

[Lee]

Lots of flying and lots of rebuilding. Sound par for the course
Just waiting for all my 570 parts to arrive.

[Derek]

it sounds like you really have your hands full, Paul! Best of luck for some speedy repairs!

[pvolcko]

Have DS 615 gear set on hand, but my last set so I ordered up another set today. Plan to get that servo in the TR700 fixed up and hopefully get it flying again tomorrow. Have to check the 550X parts box. Think I should have a main gear for it. Will work on that one tonight too assuming I have what I need. Ordered up that BK 5001S or whatever the cyclic servo is, so hopefully here in a couple days. Also found some 550mm and 95mm Switch blades so picked them up. That'll give me Switch blades on my Gob 500, TRex 700 (or Gob 700) and the either the 550X or the Gob 570 (still in the box waiting to be built). Should give a good test bed to see how I like them.

[pvolcko]

Didn't get the the servo on the TR700, but tackled the 550X. Had a used main gear that has one tooth with a half chip out of it. Put it on since that's all I had at the moment. Ordered up a new set along with some new tail blades for it, the pair on there are starting to develop some strain cracks that I'm not liking. But it will be airworthy tomorrow.

Also finished up work on the Gob 700. Got the new canopy on there. Need to go through some setup steps to get the blades at zero again after the dfc link repair. And I really need to take the head apart to clean and lube it. Feels fine, but it's got crud built up in it and I don't think I've had it apart since I bought it. But will get it up in the air tomorrow hopefully.

All this is weather permitting. And from the looks of the report, it won't be permitting.

[pvolcko]

Ugh. One of the turning batteries I bought is wired up bad or something. Already soldered an ec5 on it so need to cut it apart and see what's up. First I'll pop the pins from the balance connector to make sure they were crimped well and test for proper voltage between them. Hopefully something stupid at the factory and it's still usable.

[cml001]

Man.. That sucks... 6s? Send it back!

[pvolcko]

Yeah, 6s 5000mah pack. I already soldered an EC5 on it, so not sure they'd take it back. Also, I've had it for a couple weeks. Just got around to trying it out, again not sure they'd take it back at this point. I'll check the balance pins first. With any luck they just accidentally swapped them around or had a bad crimp in there.

[cml001]

Worth a shot.. I'd call.. Good luck

[Tony]

That's bad news Paul, hope it's something simple.... Not a cheap lipo either....

[pvolcko]

Of the big packs it is the cheapest. Still a $70 hit if I can't get it working or replaced.

[pvolcko]

Holy crap... was I off. I thought I bought these two Turnigy packs a few weeks ago.

Oops.

I bought them last year in February. Been sitting on the shelf since then. Guess that'll learn me. I have three pulse batteries sitting on the shelf too for over a year. Guess I should open them up and see if they're any good.

So I'll be cutting it apart to see if it's fixable. It is not a balance connector problem. The total pack voltage is only 16V. So something got screwed up on the cell soldering. Looks like two cells are missing from the pack, somehow.

[pvolcko]

So I've been flying and simming lately. Probably have an hour of sim time in over the last few days. Weather cleared today and I got some flights in at the club. 550X got 3 flights. I need to setup a mix for my throttle hold on that model so I can use an alternate switch when I'm pinching instead of thumbing. One of my goals this year was to get converted over to pinching. I'm making some headway, but not all my models are setup for it yet. I find I can't use the normal TH switch when pinching. Can't get a reliable sweep on it. So I setup an alternate on the switch in front of it so I can hit either one (and both have to be back in order to spin up, which is a nice safety. So I was thumbing it today.

Anywho... Did some right rudder piro flips. Very ugly. I managed not to crash at least. Left rudder are fine. Well controlled and able to correct for under/over flip and rotation during the maneuver. Right rudder I've been working on in the sim, but didn't work that well in real life today. So will keep chipping away on them. I think getting the Tx setup for pinching on that model will help greatly as I've been simming with the pinch on my backup Tx. Pinching seems to result in an easier time swinging that rudder stick in toward the center of the Tx.

I also picked up an Invertix a couple months ago and finally got around to getting it bound up and in the air. It is actually a good bit of fun, but man is it a pig when flipping between upright and inverted power. The delay for the power to come on when switching prop direction is huge and resulted in some less than gentle tapping of the ground.

I did get the ESCs flashed to latest today with the help of a friend who had the software and programmer device, so I should be good to go with 4S power now. And even on 3S the new firmware is supposed to be better. However I crashed it before the ESC flashing so I couldn't test it out. Ordered up some of the V2 props and some legs. 4S batteries on the way, hopefully arriving tomorrow.

[Derek]

Sounds like good fun, Paul! I've seen some videos of that Invertix and I think the sound, alone, would drive me nuts.

Anyway....glad to hear that you got some good flying in and no crashes. Best of luck with your transition to pinching!!!

[DamhDearg]

Funny you say your switching to pinching the sticks, I've been getting back into thumbing on the sim. Maybe its the shape of the spectrum transmitters but lately I've been feeling very cramped on the sticks when pinching. Thumbing definitely frees my fingers up and with a bit more expo and practise it should get smoother.
Glad you got some flying in, good luck with the transition.

[cml001]

Awesome... Stay a thumb'r.. Or whatever feels natural... I don't know... I can't pinch.

[danhampson]

Sound like you had fun.
I've been using a hybrid thumb/pinch when fpving, thumb on top of the stick with finger whet it should be for normal pinch. I can reach for the switches.
Different strokes and all that.

[pvolcko]

Switching to pinch because I feel I need more precise control in these stirring maneuvers and also rudder control flying the planks. I've got thumbs mostly on top but hanging a bit heavy on the rear of the cap and then fingers on the front. Don't know if it is pinch or hybrid.

It's starting to feel okay. Had to extend the sticks a bit so I wasn't smashing my fingers on the gimbal circles. Switch assignment changes are because I can't reliably sweep TH with my ring finger. I rest it between the TH switch and the one in front of it when I'm pinching. Easier to dupe the front switch to TH too.

[pvolcko]

Took some video of the Invertix on Tuesday. It didn't go well, though through no fault of my own.

https://youtu.be/2rbFLCbWpQ0

[Lee]

Those are some cheesy props Paul.
Any word from the manufacturers?

[cml001]

Humm