Category Archives: How tos

Featured, Helicopter, How tos

RC Helicopter Curves

This is how I do my curves on my helicopters. It is very basic set up and the curves and speed my change from heli to heli. This can be a good baseline for setup and you may tune your own curves from here.

First before setting up any curves make sure your helicopter motor is disabled.

The first thing I do is set up 4 curves, 2 throttle curves and 2 pitch curves. First let us look at the Normal mode Curves.

Normal Mode

Normal Mode Throttle Curve
Normal Mode Pitch Curve

 

I have set the throttle speed for normal mode at 80% throttle. When you throttle up the head speed goes from 0 to 80% by mid stick (point 1). That why the head speed will be full when you start to add pitch. Pitch will be at 0 when the throttle is at  when the head speed is 80 %. After this point you will not be adding head speed only pitch, as you move the throttle stick up. This way  when you switch to Idle up/stunt mode  the heli will not hop or drop. Also while in positive pitch if you switch to Idle Up/Stunt mode the head speed and the pitch will be the same. Note about negative pitch on normal mode — I always put some negative pitch on normal modes in case you need to hold the heli down tight during spin up, in windy conditions.

Idle UP/Stunt mode

 

Idle Up Throttle Curve
Idle Up Pitch Curve

When you switch to Idle Up/Stunt mode. You should be in a mild positive pitch. All positions above the center point (point 2should be the same in normal mode and Idle UP. Speed and Pitch will be the same. This way the heli will not move when you make the switch between modes.

Once the heli is off the ground you should switch to Idle Up and keep it there for the duration of your flight. This pitch curve gives you much more control during autos.

How tos, Mods, Planes, quads, Uncategorized, Upgrade

Wireless Sim USB Modification

I did not want a wire from my radio to my sim usb. There were a few solutions for this but most were bulky and clumsy to use. I got a few parts and put one together myself. Saw the idea a few places, but wanted to write up how I did it.

 

 

The Parts:

Receiver 2.4G 8CH D8 Mini FrSky Compatible Receiver With PPM SBUS Output

Simulator 22 in 1 RC Flight Simulator Cable for G7 Phoenix 5.0 XTR VRC FPV Racing

The Mod

We need to prep the receiver for use with the USB dongle. We need to activate the PPM on the receiver by jumping the the PPM pads on the receiver, with a wire or a solder jump. (may be a little different depending on the mini receiver)

Next prep the USB board either take off the wire plug or leave it on and use the connections points. It is easier to remove the connector and it give you more room. Connect the pins as shown. (may be a little different depending on the mini receiver)

Once the connections are made tuck everything in nicely. Before putting the case back on I would bind it to a model and test operation.

Now you can use it. Enjoy.

 

 

How tos

Open TX Companion 2.1.xx for X64 Fedora

opentx

Since they only release a 32 bit version of the RPM form Fedora, I had to build the x64 bit version from source. Here are the steps I used to build it. You should be able to follow these steps even if you have no build experience. You just need to cut an past these commands into a Fedora terminal.  This is a how to of for OpenTX Companion on Fedora, although it should work for OpenTX Companion on CentOS andOpenTX Companion on Redhat also.

First you need to get everything you will need to build Open TX Companion 2.1 .

As root run:
dnf install git gcc svn qt qt-devel cmake patch xsd gcc-c++ SDL-devel phonon phonon-devel avr-gcc-c++ PyQt4 fox-devel avr-libc xerces-c-devel
Run the following commands as a normal user:
  1. git clone https://github.com/opentx/opentx
  2. cd opentx
  3. git checkout master
  4. cd opentx/companion
  5. mkdir lbuild
  6. cd lbuild
  7. cmake ../src
  8. make clean
  9. make

Now become root and run:

make install

You should have Companion 2.1 installed and ready to go.

 

Enjoy

How tos

How to add and test a LUA script to Open TX Companion

LUA scripts can make the Taranis radio even more powerful. Here is a little how to with LUA scripts and testing of those scripts. The scripts used in the demo are listed below.

How to add a LUA script to Open TX Companion

OpenTX Companion Testing Telemetry Scripts 

This is the Temp LUA script.

tempscreenlua

temp.lua

— Temp Screen
— Version 0.5 Brad Kelley
— setup for Trex500
local escTemp = 0
local battTemp = 0
local function background()
escTemp = getValue(“Tmp1”)
battTemp = getValue(“Tmp2”)

end
local function run(event)
background()
print(event)

lcd.clear()

lcd.drawText(1,0,’Trex500 Temps’,INVERS)

lcd.drawText(1,15,’Batt Temp:’,0)
lcd.drawText(1,30,battTemp,DBLSIZE)

lcd.drawText(90,15,’ESC Temp:’,0)
lcd.drawText(90,30,escTemp,DBLSIZE)

end
return { background=background, run=run }

 

 

Here is the  Head speed Calc LUA script.

headspeed

head.lua

— Headspeed Calc
— Version 1.0 Brad Kelley
— setup for Trex500
local maingear = 162
local piniongear = 14
local rpm = 18000
local gearratio = 0
local headspeed = 0

local function init()
gearratio = math.floor((maingear / piniongear) * 100 ) / 100
rpm = getValue(“RPM”)
end
local function background()
rpm = getValue(“RPM”)

headspeed = math.floor((rpm / gearratio) * 100 ) / 100

end
local function run(event)
background()
print(event)

lcd.drawText(1,0,’Trex500 Headspeed’,INVERS)

lcd.drawText(1,15,’Main Gear:’,SMLSIZE)
lcd.drawText(60,15,maingear,SMLSIZE)

lcd.drawText(1,22,’Pinion Gear:’,SMLSIZE)
lcd.drawText(60,22,piniongear,SMLSIZE)

lcd.drawText(1,29,’Gear Ratio:’,SMLSIZE)
lcd.drawText(60,29,gearratio,SMLSIZE)

lcd.drawText(1,43,’RPM:’,SMLSIZE)
lcd.drawText(40,43,rpm,SMLSIZE)

lcd.drawText(90,15,’Head Speed:’,0)
lcd.drawText(90,30,headspeed,DBLSIZE)

end
return { init=init, background=background, run=run }

How tos

3Digi Bluetooth Module how to

It is so much easier to tune a Flybarless unit without having to drag a laptop around. Much easier to tune with cell phone or a tablet over bluetooth. Luckily 3Digi made it easy. Here is how I did it.

First get your self a cheap bluetooth module. I got mine from GearBest.com.  It is the  HC-06 module 3Digi recommends. From Gearbest to the USA it is under 9$ with free shipping.

The wiring is pretty easy. Below are all the directions you will need.

3digiSerialport bluetoothback

The connectors:

JST ZH on the 3Digi and any Servo connector or 4 wire connector on the HC-06. Here is the wiring.

wiring

After getting it wired up make sure you set up the cell phone or tablet 3Digi Terminal app you can download it at the playstore for Android here.

Link your Bluetooth and the password for the module should be 1234.

You then have to set up the 3Digi to use bluetooth this is covered in the manual on page 50. You will have to do the initial setup with a USB cable. You can find the setup up under the Extras > Special menu. After you have the 3Digi set up you should be ready to connect to you 3Digi via bluetooth.

Screenshot_2016-04-01-21-36-16

 

Here is the Video.

Featured, How tos, Mods, Upgrade

Taranis Speaker Upgrade

Love my Taranis, but found that the speaker was tinny and not very loud. Also I had no bass at all out of the speaker. I found many upgrades for the speaker online. I ordered the speaker and made an adapter. It was an easy install, only took about 20 minutes. The kit is available at our store.

Take out the 6 screws holding the two halves together and split the case. Disconnect the wiring to the old speaker and  remove the old speaker.

Then use hot glue to install the adapter.

adapter

Then solder in the speaker connector then glue in the speaker.

installed

Put everything back together and you are set.

Kit is $12 at our store.

Enjoy.

How tos

Thunder KK Pro and the Taranis

Leave a comment

I recently got a Taranis Transmitter and I love it. I started going through my models binding them with my radio. I got stuck on my 250 Quad running a cheap Thunder KK Pro. It took me a while to confugre my radio to work with this and the Spectrum satellite I am running on it. First I had to confirm that the Channels were set up correctly then I had to set the throttle to 125% so it would arm. I noticed that the rudder was backwards so I had to change that up. I didn’t find much info on the internet for this set up, so I figured I would write it up for you.

Here is my set up that is working great for me.

The main screen just basic stuff.
screen1

Here are the two flight modes I added.

flightmodes

Here are the basic inputs.

inputs

Here is the mixer setup.mixerServo setup.
servosThis is the one curve I used.
curvesThe special Functions screen.specialfuncThat is how i set up my Thunder KK Pro Flight controller for my little Quadcopter. If you need any more info or a shortcut. I included my eepe file 250Quad.eepe.