Wednesday 5 November 2014

Sunday 26 October 2014

Reverse Diff - or how to improve your landings

Crow brakes are virtually essential for F3X models. They allow you to bring your model down quickly, without building excessive speed. However, deploying crow brakes can adversely affect roll response. In this post I'll examine the reasons behind it and describe a couple of techniques for improving roll control.

The techniques are particularly relevant for OpenTx which does not provide these features built in - you have to cook them yourself! (A few of us do enjoy cooking...)

Monday 25 August 2014

Slope junkie needs Needle

Just received a photo from Thuro showing my Needle 115 in the final stages of manufacture:

Sunday 27 July 2014

A model naming convention for OpenTx

One challenge with OpenTx is keeping track of your models. Over time, you find yourself with lots of setups, each only slightly different from the next. After a while it gets tricky keeping track.

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Enhanced snapflap mix using Lua

Just finished flight testing my first Lua script for the FrSky Taranis - an enhanced snapflap mix for F3F sailplanes. The inspiration came from fellow F3Fer and ISA member Matt How. Matt is using my F3F setup and wanted better control over the snapflap curve, in particular to be able to adjust both the volume and deadband dynamically.

Sunday 13 July 2014

Programming OpenTx - getting to grips with Lua

Not so long ago, the idea of an R/C operating system with a built-in programming language would have seemed but a dream. Well it's time to change that notion, as OpenTx is now available with an embedded Lua interpreter. Such is the pace of progress that last year's dream is today's reality!

Tuesday 1 July 2014

F3J / Thermal Duration setup for FrSky Taranis

It's been a while in the making, but my setup for F3J / Thermal Duration is finally ready. The delay was to add adjustable deadband on the spoiler stick, and also improve the documentation.

Sunday 29 June 2014

OpenTx "classic" - still the best for canned setups?

Like many Taranis users, I've upgraded to OpenTx v. 2. And I like it, it's got lots of little enhancements. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, some flyers are still using the "classic" version.

Saturday 26 April 2014

OpenTx 2.0

OpenTx v. 2.0 is a major upgrade of everyone's favourite R/C operating system. It offers several enhancements, adds a bootloader, and uses a new EEPROM format. For the last couple of days I've been trying out the development version. I've also had a brief play with the updated model editor, now called 'OpenTxCompanion'.

What I've seen so far looks pretty promising.

Sunday 20 April 2014

Coming soon, Thermal Duration / F3J setup for Taranis

It's good to know that a good few people are using my F3F setup, or something based on it, in their models. This has encouraged me to think further, and to perhaps build a family setups for other Fxx classes. The question is: what next?

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Thursday 6 February 2014

How to adjust mixers in flight, in OpenTx

Being able to make key adjustments in flight is cool - and means less time is spent trimming the model. Find out the basic idea here. The article is aimed at F3X gliders and Taranis users, but the principles can be applied to any model.

Saturday 25 January 2014

A crow brake enhancement for the Taranis

Recently I saw a discussion on one of the forums, about crow brakes - the poster was asking if there was a way to adjust crow-to-elevator compensation in flight. I thought this would be a pretty useful feature to add to my F3F setup.

Fortunately this kind of thing is well within the capabilities of the Taranis - the question is not how to implement it, but how to make it intuitive for the pilot.

Tuesday 7 January 2014

F3F setup for Taranis v2.02

Just uploaded a minor update to my F3F setup for the Taranis

  • enhanced aileron trim scheme 
  • improved documentation. 

F3F setup v2.02

This is now the preferred version for new installations.