I love RC airplanes ever since I was a teenager. Join me on my journeys in the hobby of RC airplanes, drones, and even other RC toys. Watch some of my old AND new projects come to life. There will be a huge emphasis on having fun in RC while on a budget. Expect to see tips and tricks, some product reviews, repairs, foamboard airplane builds, Flitetest builds, and more.
Don't use reverse engineered FrSky receivers make the switch to ELRS. The ELRS team provides hardware reference designs so no reverse engineering of the protocol is needed and thus much less potential for unforseen problems. With 4-in-1 and off brand FrSky receivers you are using code that was developed by looking at the protocol between the radio and the receiver but the developers of the 4-in-1 code have no idea how the original code actually works. This is not the case with ELRS everything about the system is well understood.
Despite not having any issues with them, I am being cautious. And I have picked up the gear to try out ELRS. Just need to figure which plane to put it in.
I have 2 R86 V2's bond to a Futaba T8J on S-FHSS and even though I was able to walk 30 paces on Power Down mode I as 2 loss of signal incidents which could have killed the model but I was lucky that control came back. Unless I hear any solutions they are going in the bin and I will be going back to Corona.
Wow that looks like a sad turn out for a Flite Fest. the two I went to had over 5k people a day rotate thru with 2300+ being registered as pilots. Not sure if the FAA stuff has pushed that many out of the hobby or if it is what our government has done to our economy. Either way thats a huge chunk of Flite Tests budget chopped back for sure
Honestly I am not sure as this is the first one I've been to. Some of the footage was recorded opening day (Wed) and during the evening when the event was closing down for the day. Staff/volunteers there said it actually gets more crowded and crazy on Fri/Sat.
Reality is FT suffered because of their lack of stance against the FAA like the other CBO's especially the AMA who sold the entire RC Aviation Hobby out and joined forces with the CDA ( Commercial Drone Alliance) to push RID and to try and Force club/CBO membership only flying...FTCA tried to be a buddy so they could continue to help people get into the hobby BUT because of regulation and their lack of that stance against the new regs/rules chose to go along with the AMA and their suggested guides concerning the Hobby. They also bought in Dave Messina of the FPVFC who has sat with the FAA/Regulators and also refused to stand up and chose to bow down and has bought in the sell out agenda. People do not like their rights and freedoms taken away or restricted and they do not like those who refuse to even try and stand up but chose for a status/position to simply go along. None of them backed Brennan/RDQ in their law suit with the FAA and instead of pushing back on the FAA when in every meeting the FAA told them ( and you can listen to the FPVFC's videos ) to know they EXCLUDED the recreational side of the hobby completely. The CBO FRIA first campaign they all pushed only hurt the community it did not help it at all and yes many have simply stepped away from the hobby completely. Being forced to be tracked and your info accessed by the public and paying Huge $$'s to be able to fly outside a FRIA and then forced to pay for tests/ CBO memberships and travel etc to get to a FRIA in this economy has simply decimated the Hobby and as you see even Flite Fest is suffering, but they bought that in themselves as have the AMA and the others. And when the NETWORK RID comes online in a few years ( and yes it is already being established ) even the FRIA's will be forced to have some sort of base Network RID because the CDA stated at the FAA Reauth. they had to have complete dominance of the 400 ft AGL to the surface everywhere to operate their UTM and they had to KNOW where everything else was operated at all times and Congress who was Bought agreed and that means in the future even sub 250 will have to have some sort of Network ID , the hobby is near its end as we all have known it for so many decades all because those that had a seat with the FAA refused to stand up !!!
That's cool... A few of those are older Parkzone planes. Actually everything in that video is older stuff. Of course I like to fix up old things anyways.
That motor actually has rings in it Chris. Marvel Mystery oil will be your bsstest buddy. Fill the cylinder and the crank case n let her sit for a day or three. Work it back and forth every once in a while you will feel it start to break free. If you try to force it over any rust spots, pits of grooves you run the risk of breaking those rings if they have not been already damaged.
@@perkyplanesrc9363 My stepfather was the general manager of a paving company. he would by and sell dormant equipment to meet the companies needs. Whne they would find something with 200k+ hours on it that had been sitting the mechanic would fill the cylinders with that stuff. Then about once an hour he would grab a big bar and socket and rock the crank shaft back and forth as much as it would allow with reasonable resistance. It didnt take long to removed the oxidation and break free of the ridges the rings made. Only once did he snap an old ring and he wasnt even sure if that was broken before they even got that particular motor.
Ya know I've only given a few of my planes actual names. I don't do it a whole lot. I don't even name my cars that I have had. My truck has a name but my daughter gave it the name for me lol. Perhaps I should make up some names for things.
Thanks Alma... I had only talked to Bob a few times before his passing. I joined the club later in his life when he was having health issues so I barely got to know him. But he was a great guy who truly loved the hobby.
Man, I wish I knew more about this kind of stuff. Glad you posted that this was up- I have my notifications bell on but it didn’t let me know. Either way, here now,learning 😊 Happy Friday, watching. Ewww, dunked up razor blade! Nice work!
Thanks for watching Alma! 🙂 Feel free to ask me any question you want either on here or on messenger if you are curious. Really the hobby has a lot of different paths basically... No right or wrong way, just whatever you prefer. Some folks won't even do this stuff here... They just want something they can get in the air quick with very little tinkering or fixing up. Interesting tidbit...the model aviation organization has been around since the 1930s... The FAA (the government agency) was founded later in 1958. So model aviation has been around a looooong time.
I would argue they are faulty, therefore junk. I purchased 2 R88, and 2 R86 about 2 or 3 years ago. One refused to bind no matter what I did until eventually it did so I did a range check, 5 meters was the best I got. One just had a sad pathetic LED struggling to light when I powered it, and refused to do anything, and the third had a range of about 30 meters until failsafe. One was OK, bound, tuned and range tested ok but I honestly lobbed it along with the others in the bin. I don't work on a 25% success rate! Yes all fine tuned, the ones that would even bind to begin with of course..... I'm glad I didn't fly with any of them. A friend in my club has had 1 R86 fail after working ok for a couple of flights then just didn't turn on again. That's 4 failed from 5 of these Rx I have personally owned or have seen first hand . Maybe it's a batch problem, a design problem, or something like a heat drift problem, no idea, but definitely was a problem for me, and many others. I have used quite a few systems in the last 10 or so years, 900 Crossfire, FRsky OEM Rx , and now ELRS, so I am reasonably apt with the intricacy's of each system. I have no problem with radiomaster, I have 2 of their radios, and now their ELRS based receivers ER6 and ER8 which are really solid. I'm slowly switching over from using the good but otherwise DIY looking stop gap Matek ELRS Rx with Matek PWM converters, but I won't lie, after my R86, R88 experience it took me a while to buy another radiomaster ELRS Rx!
Lol pretty good description. Yeah it was a little wrinkled when I first got it when it was still in the box. It can't handle the heat like the other coverings. I got other planes with other coverings, been through the same abuse, and still hold up.
I purchased an R85c Rx and after fine tuning was setting it up in my model but found servo glitches about every 5-10 seconds. If I smoothly moved a stick back and forth the servo would move fine then just stop for half a sec or so then catch up. Nothing reported as anything other than strong signal. Decided I didnt dare to fly it. The Tx16s is fine, I fly with it all the time with FrSky rx, Spektrum, OrangeRX, Storm 902. The R85C passed a range test, but had the glitch still with some range.
I honestly steered clear of Orange for fear of having issues. Used plenty of Lemon DSMX receivers and all were solid. I did sample a DSMX receiver from banggood ... Think it was called RedCon... It had some issues. Luckily just used it as a bench receiver.
Inquiring minds want to know what you needed the alcohol, peroxide and band aids for. Gratz on the new truck mate. I know when I / we / people do guitar builds segments are posted like a neck build, a body shaping, then the electronics. But also all that is saved for a final compilation build. Maybe that process can help you in what you want to show. How is lil miss Sadie doing with her race car?
Lol... Actually had to use a band aid today when I was in the building today. Gotta be self sufficient when I am there... Food, drink, First Aid kit, etc. :-) Good idea on the video segments and a final compilation. She hasn't messed with the car in a while. She's had some new toys recently
How many ducks have you built? I am building another one, I think it's my 4th or 5th one. It's my favorite plane to fly, love it on grass, water, snow, in the air... Thanks for the tip, keep them coming!
This is Duck #2 actually. I babied the first one lol. Had a few small crashes and tried to repair it. The repairs held for a while until it finally gave way. I love it too especially b/c I loved Talespin growing up. I'll probably always keep it in my hangar.
@@perkyplanesrc9363 As did I - my brother and I watched all of the episodes. I've gone with original paint scheme every time, but I'm thinking about doing a blue Snow Duck from that episode where they were imprisoned 😁 I babied my first one, but water made it too weak. Totaled the 2nd one into a set of bleachers. Smashed and repaired one last year, until it too finally got to be too much. Almost done with this year's duck.
Sounds like you've had an awesome time with it. 🙂 Blue would be good... I like the color blue anyways so I am a little bias. I don't usually paint blue bc of being able to see it ok...of course darker blues would be ok. And a bigger one would be awesome. While I love the Duck, i do wish there was a decent way to break it down at least a little bit.
Thanks so much for the reply Stacey. I think I actually did get burned out on some things in the hobby... But been doing some new things which has helped spark some excitement again.
I've got an r86c in an electrified Super Sportster 60 built last winter. Tx16s using D8 protocol feeding sbus to an A3S4 gyro. 92 flights without issue since April 2023. No crashes or critical signal messages. Still do have some discomfort thinking about other's problems. It does seem that RM is making a hard turn toward ELRS and I may join those who've switched sometime soon.
This just popped up in my suggested. Interesting timing! I have used R84, R86, and R168 (the one with battery telemetry that FrSky sued over) without issue until now. Hopefully RU-vid will let me link my vid. This R168 failed, and I caught it happening. This was new out of packaging when installed in plane, and had about 3 flights on it. Currently flying it on a new ER8, but only have a couple flights on it. I have the R86 in a Great Planes Kunai, which is a semi-fast glider/sport plane and this experience has made me feel like the R86 needs to come out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-t6Aah9eDiO8.html
Interesting story... Thanks for sharing. Not sure what happened there. I'd be curious to see if you could find a cause for it.... Voltage issues? Bad board and/or soldering? Something wrong during the firmware update? Did you freq fine tune? Wonder if you could run some logs on it too to see what's wrong. That's cool you got the ELRS receiver. I have one too to try out .. not sure what to put it in yet though.
@@perkyplanesrc9363 It was definitely that specific receiver, and it was frequency tuned. I bought a bunch of 168s for like $12 right after it was announced FrSky was suing them over the design, now I'm a little worried about using them. I'm now using 2 ER8s and and ER6, no complaints so far! 🤞
I never tested or used the original receivers but I have done extensive testing of the R88 V2 on my channel and haven't had any trouble with them at all. Perfectly acceptable range. I'll keep using them, just ordered two more in fact. I have no doubt that many folks have to find something to blame for their "dumb thumb moments" and the budget receiver, or transmitter, gets the blame.
Recently purchased radio master micro for a byme a gyro receiver bound but can't get any surfaces to move So don't know if it's me or the receiver so for now I'm leaning junk
Not sure I follow. What hardware do you have? Which Transmitter? Which receiver? And you mention a BYME gyro which appears to be Radiolink brand. I do know that when I was using Spektrum, there was a procedure you had to follow first in order for the surfaces to move and the system to activate and be ready. So that could be the case here. Let me know what equipment you are using and I'll try to help. 🙂
@perkyplanesrc9363 I'm just struggling I'm back in the hobby after years considering my old Jr transmitter was 72 mhz so I'm trying to muddle my way through edge TX on tx16smark 2 and feel like beating my head against the wall so now I have a radio link r8 xm bound and control surfaces are fine but can't get any gyro functions to a switch and you tube is no help when it comes to a step by step video for how to set this darn thing up on said transmitter I'm 58 years old and I guess to stupid for this radio and I'm much to poor to purchase spectrum products Thanks for the vent
Like anything it takes time. I haven't even tried gyros with the Radiomaster yet. Have you programmed any other planes in it first? If not, I would do that first before doing anything with a gyro. Give me a little bit and I'll see if I can find something to help ya.
I didn't find much on the BYME gyro although I am sure it can be done. Assuming you've done basic model programming, I would look at some of the FrSky receivers with a built in gyro (usually designated with an S in the model name...ex: S8R, S6R...). They will be the ACCST protocol receiver and you will need to fine tune them as well when you bind them to the Radiomaster. I am sure there are much videos and support on doing those type of receivers with the Radiomaster. I think Radiomaster has their own gyro receivers too.
@@rodgerhunter1591 I'm 64 trying to learn opentx first with Frsky and now with radiomaster Tx16S you've got to give it time to sink in i keep going back to it a few days apart and watching different people explain how to do the same task you can see what you have been doing wrong, the main problem with legacy radios is price I have a secondhand futaba T10J radio 50% dearer than frsky or radiomaster and does not talk to me the timer is usless as my hearing is going and will not do vibration on timer and does not send timer through earpiece, that's my vent ,keep trying the headache will get better.
Do you mean the freq fine tune? If so, it only lights up on the transmitter when it is required... Which is mainly on the FrSky protocol. If you are binding and freq fine tune doesn't show up then you don't have to worry about it.
I just bought one of each, we are gonna try and see. I figured i have the radio, lets try the receiver! Cant be any worse than trinagy back in the day, lol.
Radiomaster and frysky recievers need to be fine tuned. If you don't do this your plane will drop from the sky. There are a lot of great videos out here how to do it. Bind the protocol you want, cycle power then fine tune. They are not plug and play.
I had wondered this too with users having problems. I have fine tuned mine and not had any issues. In fact, I had read that once you fine tune the FrSky protocol with your radio you don't have to fine tune it again... The same number will work for all FrSky receivers and that protocol. I believe the manual says this as well. Well I had actually done it for all my receivers and honestly the number is different per model.
@perkyplanesrc9363 I believe too that the number could be slightly different. I have a few that are different, not but much but a little. It blows my mind how quickly people bash great electronics because they dont know how to use it. Radiomaster makes excellent radios and equipment. I switched from Spektrum a year ago and will never look back. Even with my experience, i still found it challenging to learn new systems, but in the end, it's very rewarding. Spektrum gets bashed hard as well, and i never had an issue. It was the same thing. Pilots are not using equipment properly
Three things come to mind when I hear "Bad receiver". It really is a case by case basis. Where in the aircraft was the receiver mounted. Did the person who built the model bury it down in a birds nest of servo wire? Were the dual antennas properly set 90 degrees apart to allow for best signal reception? Does the person saying they lose signal use FPV gear? did they plop a high power VTX on to or in the vicinity of the receiver and basically over power a good portion of the signals received. Is the receiver getting proper voltage to function. So many people use the cheapest ESC's they can get their hands on which may not have a proper or even stable voltage regulator tap to power receivers properly. It boils down most times to operator error or lack of knowledge or just plain laziness.
You bring up some other possible factors to the signal loss. Agreed that it could be any of those things you mentioned. Here's one I had heard about too with folks complaining about Spektrum receivers losing signal/brownouts. Yup Spektrum. Basically it was pointing the finger at folks running their models too hard or the batteries too low to the point that the receiver cuts out momentarily.
Run cam makes AWESOME cameras.. but nearly a decade since they came out.. they STILL fail for fpv. Every one of them come preset to be a static INDOOR camera. that light management setting is why it goes from washed out to near darkness on the slightest shadow / light changes. Hit me up later and I can walk you thru settings so you can get stable clean footage brother.
Sounds good... I love the camera and the quality. My only issue is the size/shape. I didn't have an original Runcam but it looked kinda bulky. I feel that way with this one too but I had always heard good about them so I picked it up. I do wonder if they could've made them smaller and lighter. I loved the size/weight of my old Polaroid Cube cam.
Wow Chris. What a change since the last sit down vlog. So much less stressed out. and more relaxed. Sounds like you are all set for this to do over winter. Look forward to see what you accomplish.
Thanks sir. You have mentioned before about me being less stressed... I may have to go back and watch my old ones to see the change. I knew there were times I was stressed but maybe I just didn't think it showed that much. I know before the bug got me soooo much I just kept jumping around a lot. Now, I seem to feel more grounded and want to tackle what's in front of me. I suppose it's my age and perhaps I've matured a little. Although I still feel like a kid at heart sometimes.
@@perkyplanesrc9363 The biggest change I noticed was when you got off the mountain dew and all the aspartame. You actually kinda looked grey in skin tone back then for a while. But changes have been made and surly for the netter!! What ever you are doing keep it up man be there for Sadie and be able to keep up with all the wonderful things she will want to do.
What happened? I was looking forward to seeing complete build. I happen to aquire the exact model from a friend. It's unfinished and assuming you didn't finish build yourself.
Thanks for the comment and glad to see you got the same model. Nope mine is not finished. Had a house move and some pretty serious personal stuff that occurred in the mean time. It sorta took the wind out of my sails there at one point. I've slowly gotten back in to the hobby this year and hoping to get back to some old projects like this one.
Looking back through comments and I thought I had already replied to this. Sorry about that. Well the house move was a big thing. . probably took about 4-6 months for that and everything was in storage. The other thing was, some of my wife's very close family was in the hospital for 3-4 months.
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Alma, I swear I thought I replied back. :-O as I get older I am getting more and more forgetful... Please forgive me lol. Thanks for the support and love! Appreciate it. :-)
I built one of these as well and it wouldn’t fly, probably because my wing position shifted the CG backwards. It took a few tries and adjustments just to get it to fly straight. So mine was a little scratch and dent before maiden. A random power line and a stuck elevator contributed to the damage. I will probably build another one because it is cheap and relatively easy to put together. The landing gear design is weak and it needs doublers for the skewers. I ended up using nylon washers hot glued over the holes for support, and beefed up the landing supports. Just when I get everything balanced and braced, I need to build a new one. lol Fun times!
Yeah some of their designs were more of a struggle than others. And yes, the lg on the Cub is definitely weak spot. I'm doubting I'd build another Cub. I had better luck out of the Storch or I might try a Tutor.
Nice rip Chris. That looks like quite the busy area with all the construction. Any worries over losing the airfield? Specially with F.A.A. denying FRIA's left and right? they even denied Edgewater Air Park for Flite Test and they are on the advisory committee.
WOOOO!!! Glad I didn't start this one in full screen!. Might wanna drop your throws a bit there mate. Looks like me flying (well more reacting to chaos for myself) I'll bet you got your aerobics workout in for the day though!!! I remember how squirrely the Baron was when I tried to fly one back in the day.
Oh yeah quite a trip at first... Had it somewhat under control by the last bits of the flight. I generally fly it on low rates and it's plenty maneuverable with that and not as insane. Problem is I needed more up elevator to keep it airborne so I was in my middle rate settings the whole time. Definitely not the norm for me but it was either that or be stuck chopping the grass lol
