SEN 2343
- The Book of Integration Challenges
- Hungarian Photos
- Fab Feb 2018
The Book of Integration Challenges
Chapter 1 – it’s the way today
Keeping up with stuff. One thing about FAI FF is everything keeps on changing and it is hard enough to keep up with what’s going for those who are involved on a regular basis let alone others who have a more peripheral interest. Just over a 2 years ago I was on a general aeromodelling site and that had topic called “I just went flying last weekend” or something like that. I thought I would be clever and said , “Oh last weekend I was on what’s probably the World’s Greatest FF site and took part in a great contest.” The site was of course in Mongolia and event was the 2015 World Champs. I was them asked by one of the other members of the site, which manufacturer won the event. I tried unsuccefully to explain to this person, who was perhaps in the legal profession as he cross examined me at length (humble apologies if he was not) , times have changed and while people still buy lots of bits and pieces they do not buy complete airplanes as much as they might have done some years ago but rather they do an integration sourcing stuff from many places. The other person did not believe me, so I skipped bail and escaped into the sunset.
Chapter 2 – it all the parts
For example and this is probably not right because I can’t keep up with him but there is a well known F1B flyer, now in Canada, formerly from Wales who has wing with the airfoil designed in Canada, the mold for making it was made in Poland, the wing itself in Lviv, the motor tube and pylon in Holland, the hub in Kviv, the timer another place, altimeter from China, a tracker from somewhere unknown, a GPS from France, he uses a winder from Cherkasy and goodness knows where the wing wire and stab come from. We do know who supplied the rubber but the real manufacturer is “secret” and what country did the latex come from?
When people first started doing this the biggest integration problem was, “ Well if I use a wing from Stepan and a stabilizer from Igor will the model total flying surface area still be within the rules.”
Most of us have mastered those “simple” mechanical problems. Now the issue is all the electronics, both the hardware and software.
Chapter 3 – bad vibes and batteries
Quite some years ago Ken Bauer and I were working with Victor Stamov. I supplied the timer, Ken the RDT and Victor bought the servo and made up the battery to fit in the model. First problem was the servo would twitch from time to time after the RDT was added – it turned out that some interaction between the timer and RDT caused interference to flow down the power wire to the servo and upset it. Not sure of the real problem but the frequency the RDT was on was not like anything that servo manufacturer would expect. Ken solved the problem by getting us to put a “choke”, a little ferrite bead, on the servo lines. Next problem was that just as the model was launched it would D/T, well not every time just sometimes. Further analysis showed that the batteries that Victor had used in the custom battery pack he had made up to fit the pod had come from a consumer source not an industrial or R/C source and were failing when the servo was under load during the bunt causing the RDT to issue a spurious DT command. Solution get a better battery.
Chapter 4 – a rats nest of wires
Zoom forward 20 years and we now have more radios and more electronics from many sources crammed in a little carbon box on the fuselage. Flashers switch high currents, GPS locators need high powered transmitter to send the location back to the sportsmen, the original battery is not big enough so we stick a bigger one to power all this stuff, Does it interact ? Hmm it’s not like when the release of your F1B prop is bad and you can hear the click clack. When electronic waves “rub together” they don’t make a noise an audible . Inside that carbon box you have all kinds of wires floating around. The wires can act as an RF antenna and send out bad vibes as well as good ones.
Chapter 5 – track this stuff
One of the popular add-on electronics makers is Optimal Tracking who make a GPS tracking unit and they have posted some helpful hints on their web site. Under some circumstances they have experienced issues with the very popular and good quality Dymond D47 servo so they show how to connect a choke.
Also from Optimal some people report some problem when the Icare2 GPS system is close to a F1C Sidius timer. It appears DT by itself sometimes. This problem appears only with the F1C Sidius timer.
Analysis has been made of the problem and it is due to insufficent filtering of the Sidius power input. When the Radio signal is sent from Icare2, all the cables of the timer act as antennas and inject some noise in the Sidius timer.
Applying basic noise suppression such as capacitors or chokes to the timer suppress the problem.
Chapter 6 So why …
Well, we just can’t resist tweaking it to make it better
Hungary Photos
Hi Roger
I have processed my photos from the 2017 Hungarian World Championships and have loaded them to Flickr. There are not as many action shots from me as there were from the 2013 and 2015 World Champs. This time, I was too busy, with two days of action-packed retrieval of F1Bs and F1Cs, and a further two days of F1A competition. I did however manage a reasonable coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
I hope you enjoy my photos.
The Ceremonies: https://www.flickr.com/photos/motor-racing-photography/albums/72157685696778531
The Flying: https://www.flickr.com/photos/motor-racing-photography/albums/72157688698089625
Cheers
Malcolm Campbell (AUS)
Fab Feb 2018
We have had more inquires about the dates for the Fab Feb contests in 2018.
The dates have to be officially confirmed by the CIAM, AMA, MAAC, MFNZ….
- date to be announced – Offical Confirmation of Dates after CIAM meeting
- date to be announced – Online entries for all FAI Events
- As last year people are strongly encouraged to Sign up on Online. No payment is needed.
- Friday 9 Feb 2017 – Sign Up and pay for Entries for all contests on the field or at the Lost Hills Community Center
- Saturday 10 Feb 2017 – Kiwi World Cup F1ABCPQ – Ike AMA events
- Sunday 11 Feb 2017 Ike FAI Mini Events F1HGS and J(only if advance entries are received) -Ike AMA events – Lost Hills Family Flying
- Monday 12 Feb 2017 Kiwi F1E World Cup
- Tuesday 13 Feb Ladies Tea Party
- Wedensday 14 2017 North American World Cup F1ABCPQ
- Thursday 15 Cal Cup World Cup F1E, MaxMen on Field Entry, Fab Feb Mexican Dinner in Lost Hills
- Friday 16 MaxMen F1B, F1C and F1P World Cup
- Saturday 17 MaxMen F1A and F1Q World Cup
- Sunday 18 Feb 2017 MaxMen Mini Events
- Monday 19 Feb 2917 – MaxMen Reserve day and President’s Day Public Holiday
MaxMen events per day subject to confirmation
America’s Cup Banquet 16 or 17 Feb subject to confirmation
Full details in due course.