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| Scale Helicopters Discuss scale helicopters, tips, tricks and scale construction threads |
Topic Review (Newest First)
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| 03-15-2020 02:19 PM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter The next item on the list is the finishing of the night system resistors. There are nine lights consisting of four slime lights (night formation lights that are a light green colour), four IFR emitters, and one IFR rotating beacon. I decided to use ribbon cable to connect the light controllers to the resistor board and one day in the future, I will change the connectors to those used in computers and other electronics but for now, a soldered connection will do. All connectors that will go to the LEDs will be crimped connections with two pin connectors. Most will be very simple but there are a couple that will be just this side of hell to make. Here are the pictures of that finished board and ribbon cables. Take care. Don |
| 03-13-2020 12:24 AM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter I have slowly worked out some of the finer points of IFR emitters and rotating beacons. I was trying to figure how I was going to show the emitter in operation and the same with the IFR rotating beacon. These were installed on the helicopter but since we are unable to see IFR, I didn't want to just fill in the spots with a clear LED and then not even hook it up. Our modern digital cameras helped me with this problem and gave me a solution. I bought some IFR emitters and tested them by taking pictures with my Huawei P10 and my Canon point and shoot. The Huawei photographed the emitter in the blue/purple end of the digital spectrum and the Canon was more in the blue portion. I needed new lens covers and had to custom make it out of a standard panel light (not LED) with an additional extension to it. I engine turned it in my drill and then installed diffusion gel inside the cover. The pictures are of the emitter, LED lens, then a red 600mcd (will be near 2000 or more in the final model), a 75mcd purple LED, and a 600mcd blue LED. I will use the blue LED in the rotating beacon and the purple LEDs in the other four emitter locations. Once I fine tune the LED intensities, I will finalize the second LED resistor array. I will test it at night in a dark room as none of the night lights, IFR or green formation, need to be very bright to be seen in the sky. Take care. Don |
| 03-07-2020 12:48 PM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter I have been working on the lighting system for over two weeks to figure out how I was going to setup the wiring and to work out how I was going to add the resistors to the LEDs. I came to the conclusion that the best way to do it was to make up a board that had a cable bundle come in from the light controller and then a bus to connect the LEDs to. I did some voltage testing on the RC Lights Nightfly system I have and found that its output voltage was too high, even for the LEDs that were included in the kit. For the ScaleRCHelis High Power light system, the input and output voltage were very close and the recommendation is to take an LED resistor calculator and work out each line to avoid overdriving the LED. This is where I made up a board (first electronics work I have done on my own) where each input was setup with resistors to match each location and the LED that was installed there. It is a high power system that can drive 350mA worth of LEDs and resistors. It can drive a 1 watt LED that you can use for a running light or a 3 watt LED that is used for a strobe or rotating beacon. I did some testing on the RC Lights system as I said earlier and have come to the conclusion that I will need to add resistors inline with the LEDs or I will have different light levels than should be output from the lights. The voltage output on the SRCH controller is 5v from a 5.1v input and the RCF is 4.5v from a 5.1v input. On the SRCH board, the positive bus is all connected so it is fairly easy to make up a simple board to handle that. With the RCF controller, there are fourteen connectors broken into six pairs and two singles. If you try to connect the buses together, a function will be lost but lights will come on solid so if you had a strobe on one and a navigation light on another and the bus was shorted together, all you would get are two lights on full. That will mean a number of jumpers from one side to the other but this will give me the ability to keep all these connections in one place. I have a feeling that the lighting controllers will live behind the chassis and the connector board will under the chassis at the front of the main body. I need to make a small board up to connect and disconnect the canopy which will have five pairs of wires running to it. Here's the first of three boards. Don |
| 02-14-2020 04:50 PM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter The latest in the slow moving story of the MH-6 is the radio installation. Previously when the Logo 500SE was the TOW Defender's chassis, it had a Skookum 720 Blue with an AR9020 receiver plus the X-Plus 8 channel expander as I needed 11 channels to get it all working. This time, I still need the 9020 receiver as I need 10 channels in total and back in the day, it was not well known that the 9020 receiver was an AR1010 with the additional SRXL port and they disguised the channel 10 port, when not using SRXL, as the BATT input. So after a number of years in service, it was time to retire the 720 Blue and give it a more up to date system. This time around, it is the iKON2 using SRXL bi-directional communication protocol. It allows the iKON to directly get telemetry data from the ESC (new Castle Edge HV 80) and send it to the transmitter. It also enabled direct control of the gyro (Integration) from the transmitter. It's all the new rage. I removed the old RPM and temperature sensors and with the reduction of the telemetry system, the old TM1000 was removed. So how do you get all that data to the transmitter, which this time is the Spektrum iX-12. It's done with a very small and light AR4649T telemetry transceiver which has two antennae on its own. It also subs in as a DSMX remote receiver all on its own. So to the iKON2, I added an additional two remotes giving me a total count of three. Now, the 9020 does not have anything to do with controlling the flight servos but even it has two remotes plus its own single antenna. 11 antennae, who knew? In past, I had been plagued by tail control bugs and finally sorted it out with the introduction of counter-clockwise rotation of the main rotor and the change of thrust of the tail rotor to the left. It didn't help that it originally was forcing air directly as the vertical tail and as a result, the authority of the tail thrust was highly compromised. I tried many servos and at the very end, I installed an Align DS620 which has about 135 oz.in. torgue, more than enough for the tail. I still have the Futaba BLS451 servos in the collective and in a fit of sillyness, bought another to have as a spare as I thought I had fried one. Most likely, it was the gyro having a fit. I have a complete set of BK servos on standby for any of my large helicopters and the specs on those are ridiculously over powered compared to the installations of anything I have now. Well, until the next "I'll make you a deal you can't say no to" comes along (full set of MKS servos that came with my Diabolo 800+). The hardest part was working out the wiring of all the remotes and what went in what spot. There are not too many places to put them and having them pre-installed in the body and hooking them up afterwards is not an option for this size of helicopter. I did loose my temperature sensor that used to give me the motor reading but I can part with that one as it only ever became an issue when I left the canopy on after a flight and kept the radio on. It would get very warm but never enough to become a threat to itself. The 9020 may eventually get replaced with the latest 10 channel receiver that has inputs for things like that. Until the next one. Don |
| 01-29-2020 11:32 AM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter I have been at this slowly. Before I can start on the interior, I need to get the main cockpit wall done and the alignment pins installed. This time out, I am going to use some magnetic locks that are found on the AS350 RTF kit. They will positively lock the canopy to the body and will not let it fall off in a bumpy landing, which has happened to my TOW Defender in the past. I also found the battery/chassis adaptor was cracked and would not have survived a single heavy landing. I am now looking for the hardware kit that includes the alignment pins so I hope I find that today. Take care. Don |
| 12-22-2019 05:35 PM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter A couple of shots of the hinges in progress. Don |
| 12-18-2019 10:12 AM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter PS: A brand new canopy was the donor of the door panels as they must overlap the door opening, a point that is missed by every single model body maker out there. This is the reversed side of those panels and the original door outline is the green coloured line. |
| 12-18-2019 10:07 AM | |
| Keyrigger |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter Thanks guys. I posted a shot of the interior door panel which is made up of Hysol and copper wire. They fit the body like a glove and as the interior is added, if there is any change in shape to the canopy, tweaks can be done to the panel and they will stay in shape. Magnets may be used but may not be required to hold the door closed. Brass stock will be used to make the door hinges and handles. The shape will be cut to an eighth of an inch on the outside of the panel and the window will be made much larger. I am using door glass from Heli-Baby canopies. Take care. Don |
| 12-18-2019 06:57 AM | |
| grosbeak |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter Hey Don, I am strictly an airplane guy but this build has captured my interest. Beautiful work so far. I will continue to follow with interest. |
| 12-18-2019 12:59 AM | |
| Phil Noel |
Re: Fun-Key MH-6 Rapid Inserion Helicopter Looking forward to them. |
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