SEN 2830
- World First for BoM
- Super Magic 6
World First for BoM
WARNING This has a link to You Tube Video. This video is by a Scottish standup comic who is parodying a well known Scottish politician, probably The first Minister. This video contains a number of 4 letter words that some might object to. In addition the person has a “slight” Scots accent that some people may have difficulty with. Finally the BOM = Builder of the model part is near the beginning of the video.
World First for BoM
Via your fine organ I would like you and your readers to be aware of the initiative that the Scottish First Minister has recently announced :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKknWLe_43s
Translation for those unacquainted with the local vernacular :- “Nobody should be travelling unless you’ve built your own plane out of Balsa wood and flying it yourself”
Perhaps other countries should follow suit ?
EoB
Magic Timers and Super Magic 6
Magic Timers have been programmed by Palm Pilots since their beginning in the 1990s. The program on the Palm is called Super Magic. There is a new version of Super Magic called Super Magic 6. This runs on an Android phone or tablet. It communicates with the timer using Bluetooth Low Energy also known as BLE. Existing Magic timers do not have a Bluetooth module and because of the variety of different timers it is not practical to add one on to an existing timer. But Magic Timers have made a “box” called the Magic Dongle that has a BLE connection to talk to Super Magic 6 on the Android and cable with a serial connection that plus into an existing timer. This is a “Remove before Flight” device that means people with many Magic timers only need one of these to deal with all of their timers. This will work will timers made this century and even a most before that. Super Magic 6 has been tested by a number flyers around the World.
There is documentation and more here
http://www.magictimers.com/index.php/super-magic-6-for-android
and Super Magic 6 can be found here
http://www.magictimers.com/index.php/downloads/33-super-magic-6-for-android
The Magic Dongle is in limited production, which means that they are being produced regularly but if there is a large number of orders at any one time there may be a delay in delivering them. One of the important but not may not be immediately obvious is that it requires BLE not “standard old Bluetooth”. Most recent Android devices since those with Android 4.4 have this but NOT all. In addition you must be able to “side load” the Super Magic 6 App which means install the app you down load not get it from Google play.
If you have questions you should first download and read the documentation in the link above as it covers many points in a lot of detail.
Most future Magic Timers will include a BLE module and connect directly to Super Magic 6 on the Android. However the addition of the BLE module to the timer makes the timer bigger and more expensive. So some timers, including some as yet unannounced that are quite small or with limited capacity may require the Dongle or no eternal programming devices at all. After all a D/T only timer is a lot smaller and cheaper that a timer that supports 5 servos for a flapping LDA F1A model and adding a BLE would double the cost and size of the simple timer.
The software/App development platform that we use for Super Magic 6 does support other environments as well as Android notably the iPhone but decided to start with just one and it is very difficult for a small developer to work with Apple so we chose Android. Maybe in the future there will be other versions.