The things we do for entertainment... "Fiu"

[Epitaph]

Patched up the channels on the fin... balsa and wood glue for the most part, and epoxy on a couple of places... very patchwork, but nice and smooth. The tiny red LED is right on the tip



And lit up ncase you can't see it



Made the hole in the nose for that LED with a set of screwdrivers, going up in size. Using a drill here could make the hole all wrong



And illuminated



Finished sanding the coverings for the servos, I think it came out quite well, but the I'm biased!



And this is the wings with the lights turned off...

 

[Epitaph]

I've spent the afternoon fishing around in boxes looking for a pair of control horns to no avail! I either found a pair of huge horns, or one odd small one without a matching pair. So, what to do? Well it's just as well they always send so many arms with the servos, and I keep everything like that. So found a nice size servo arm that was "mirror image", as in has the same size arm on either side of the fulcrum, then start with making the right holes bigger for the screw adjuster. Then cut the servo in half down the muddle of the fulcrum, and carefully sand away this end on both halves until I end up with a 1mm tab on the end of each new arm... the tab being the toothed part that pushed onto the servo. Then on each control surface, make a slot the size of the horn on the widest part just next to the tab. Then on the top side of the surface, cut out a small recess in the balsa just over a milimeter deep to fit the tab into. Fill the recess with epoxy and push the horn into the slot until the tab goes all the way into its recess. Use a tiny bit of epoxy on the bottom side around the horn to seal that side, and a small layer on the top side to cover the tab and leave it flush. Later when it comes to covering, the tab and everything will be under it and all that will be seen will be the horn sticking through on the other side. Seeing as the fulcrum housing is round you can sand the nylon away on an angle if you wish so as to have the tab be on an angle, and this way align the hole with the hinge joint, but it wasn't needed in this case.

Anyway, just waiting for the epoxy to dry, and tomorrow they will be as hard as a rock and ready for the piano wire. Meanwhile I've already sorted out the mix on the radio, and have the channels going in their right directio ... just need to put the piano wire on now to adjust EPA, trim and expo and that will be all done.

 

[Epitaph]

I don't know why, but when you finish fitting the controls and mount the wing on the fuselage with them working it gives a feeling of being so close to the end...

Now all I have to do with that aspect is fish around on the net see if I can find anyones recommendations to throws and expos.

 

[colorex]

So found a nice size servo arm that was "mirror image", as in has the same size arm on either side of the fulcrum, then start with making the right holes bigger for the screw adjuster. Then cut the servo in half down the muddle of the fulcrum, and carefully sand away this end on both halves until I end up with a 1mm tab on the end of each new arm...

Wow, this is awesome. But I'd imagine you'd have to replace the whole servo in an unfortunate event?

 

[Epitaph]

No no... the servo arm is a spare one turned into a control horm. The servo is just fittid standard way

By the way... is this enough light?

 

[Craftydan]

dunno. how many miles away would you like to see it

Your Night-Fiu is looking great!

 

[Epitaph]

Thanks Dan

Just adjusted the servo hole to minimum, and the horn on the back was already on the outermost, yet I still need to use EPA... turns out the throws for this plane are just 4mm on both controls, and 40% expo on elevator. This radio I'm using with it doesn't have aileron diferential, but turns out it could do with a little negative... maybe when I receive my late Santa parcel from a friend I can put some in too... a Walkera Devo 7E, and first thing going it will be Deviation (second thing the range upgrade mod)!

 

[xuzme720]

Looking good! I'm jealous of your skills, Epi...

 

[Freaky_1]

This thing is going to be gorgeous.

 

[earthsciteach]

Wow. Nice work!

 

[Epitaph]

Ok... next crazy idea. I was originally thinking of making a 120 or 125% version with a few mods, but I need a lot of materials I don't have for that. So the thought is what can I do with what I have? I do have enough for another fuselage no problem. So I got thinking in a powerpod fuselage with one of those whirly things on the front! I found "a motor", it's actually the bell of one motor with the core of another. The core section was a 1000kV which might be ok with a 2 cell even. I have a small 2 cell 500mAh lipo, I have a 3 cell one too, but if the 2 cell is enough, then great. The motor needs a locking ring for the back which I have lo look for one, and the shaft os a nice long screwed one. I also have a 8x4.3 prop for it that I happened to cut down to a 4.7x4.3, and just missing the M3 nut for it. So with the long shaft, I can mount it further back with the shaft going through a cone and the prop on the end. The height of the fuselage it just needs a couple of milimeters and it's fine... the problem is tge width. So, I was thinking, how about making it nore hexagonal, then rounding it with the sandpaper, as I need the width on the middle?

Another issue I have to watch is centre of gravity, and weight distribution. One idea would be to add small canards on the front to help with the lift, but they are something that are not easy to play with. Another thing is making the back of the fuselage deeper and thicker as to accomodate the battery there. Then I gan have the receiver next to it, and in the front the ESC and the motor. Seeing as the motor is of little power and the prop is so small the consumption is going to be very low (on my Coyote I have a larger motor with more servos and a larger prop and it only consumes 3A max, and that's with a 3S), so it should be more than enough with a nice small sized 10A ESC or soething along those lines, and it's only controlling 2 tiny servos and a receiver, so even if the BEC it has is just 1A, it should be enough.

Any ideas anyone? My main concern is if a 2S isn't enough for this size prop with only 1000kV, I mean we're talking about a maximum of just over 8000rpm at full throttle with a pretty small prop... but then also it's designed for slow flight that prop, so I guess it has a lot of thrust with few revs.

 

[Freaky_1]

Ok... next crazy idea.

We interrupt the regularly scheduled reading of this post to say.....
Oh yah!
Now back to our reading.

Edit:
OK finished reading and as I'm still new to EP I'll stay out there. As for fuse mods, hexagonal sanded for curve for a more rounded look would fit the look of the bird beautifully. Cheeky even

Now back to our show.

Frank

 

[Epitaph]

Well Freaky, you know what it's like when you get distrac... Squirrel!

Ironing on a hot day is not recommended, but it can sometimes be rewarding!

 

[Epitaph]

Got the tail ironed out, although I'm not too happy with the quality of this white covering...



Also fitted the magnet that holds the hatch down. Just the one magnet was plenty, with a metal washer on the underside of the hatch



The hatch is held on really strong, I was sure I would end up damaging it with my nails trying to open it, so I realised it needed something to hold to open it. I was thinking of a ribbon on the top, which is aerodynamic, but a little out of place, especially with the switch right in its path. So I cut down a couple of pins with red heads and pushed them into the hatch on either side in the form of tabs. If it works well and doesn't disrupt airflow, I'll stick them in once the hatch has been covered.

 

[Foam Addict]

:applause: Very nice Epitaph, that's a great covering scheme.

 

[Epitaph]

Well I got down to soldering the switch and power indicator, but there was the problem that the LED was just so bright for the function it was given! So after bouncing ideas off of Dan (thanks hun!) For about half an hour, I ended up sanding the LED down leaving it flush wit the wood, and then stuck some red covering on top. Later when it is covered in black, there will be a small red circle when off, that lights green when on. The red filters out the light just nice!

Off...



And on...



And a quick photo of how it's looking with the switch section finished in view of the wings and the canopy in place with a magnet...

 

[xuzme720]

Looking good, Epi! I'll be starting on mine soon since I have the trussing in place on the Micro McFoamy now...still have the upper fuse and all the electronics/control stuff to do on it though...

 

[Epitaph]

Loking inside the cabin I thought it was just too many cables for such a small space. So I decided to tidy it up a little...

The cables from the tail light will now be soldered up in the rear cabin with the cables from the wings. The cables from the nose will be stuck to the edge and taken to the reat to connct there to them too. All the esistors will be placed there too out of the way, and tben just 2 cables will come to the front to powr it all, plus the 2 servo cables from the wings, leaving it all a lot cleaner.

I changed the setup slightly for the wings, putting a female Futaba connectr on the bottom for powering the lights in the wings. So just plug in the male connector un the rear fuselage, push the 2 servo cables through, and it's ready to fly, although I doubt the wings will be seperated often. But it is so much cleaner and easier this way.