Two months on with a Parkzone Ultra Micro T-28

Flying is fun. Lots of fun. Enough fun that I'm willing to risk my airframe just to fly some more. My little T-28 isn't a very fast plane. And is much less fast when dragging landing gear around with itself.

I usually chose to fly without landing gear, but due to one late evening exercise in stupidity, I no longer have that option. I decided I'd try to fly under the parking lot lights at a local business park. It was quite a bit of fun, but one landing ended up contacting a curb, which ripped off the starboard landing gear. While gluing it back on, I managed to glue the landing gear into the mount.

I've managed to not get any pictures of my plane, really, at all. So while playing with the laser cutter at the pumpingstation I took a shot or two of it.

So this is after "well I've got nothing left to lose" repairs. The plane had started flying like it was carrying 30lbs extra in the air. And i figured it was all my glue and tape repairs. Buying a new airframe seemed sensable, so i did that.

I now have two T-28's. the one that didn't fly right, I decided I was going to dissect and put into a new airframe. Something custom, something more aerobatic. But while looking to take the plane apart, I found that the control horns weren't actually controlling the rudder or elevator.

It's amazing what a little foam safe CA and cardboard will do for control authority.

I still wanted to make a new airframe. .... And because it has a picture of my latest little model aircraft tool, I'm going to give you a preview of what I'm building.

Yes, that was cut on the laser cutter. It's a clone of the Ace Littlest Stick.

Left center you'll see a bunch of E-flite batteries. I have put Velcro on the back of a laminated business card so I can keep track of my cells easily. I hate losing $5 batteries at the turn of my head.

I think we're getting near time to review the T-28. I've put 20-30 batteries through it, so I think we're deep enough that we can say I know the plane well.

Oooh, Look, new bike.

A 1979 GS425 has entered my garage. it was a good price, and fairly close.

And here's my art shot, with the GS650 in the background.

It's really nice. The bike is complete, and works perfectly. It starts with a half hearted kick at the starter. And it's really, really light.

Drinking the ParkZone Kool-Aid

It's been a bad weekend for my wallet. But a good weekend for hobbico. A buddy of mine picked up a MCX Helicopter last week. He bought it because his syma S-107 bit the dust.

$80 later he's flying his 4 channel heli around the office. Lucky guy.

I hear his review, and decide I should do the same thing. I bought one on sunday. .... I'm an idiot for not buying one sooner. I'll post a full review later.

Monday rolls around, and while riding my bike after lunch, I stop by my local hobbytown. I'm wandering around, and I noticed that the transmitters for the Ultra Micro series planes, and my MCX are the same.

So later that evening, I'm flying my brand spanking new T-28 around the local park. 17mph winds and all. Turns out I can fly a 4ch airplane.

MotoGP, and XR1200's

I went to the Indianapolis MotoGP event last weekend. In doing so I racked up 1000 miles on the motorcycle, and saw some great racing.

The trip was not entirely uneventful, so I will share those stories in the future. Pictures will follow.

Yes that's a harley. Yes the bars are nearly in the grass. No it's not falling.

New tool time. An O-silly-scope. - A DSO Nano v1.5

I've got piles of voltmeters. Most of them are hilariously cheap, but when an accuracy of .1v is enough, the $3 voltmeter from harbor freight will do the job.

Voltmeters are grand, but they are very poor at showing you charge and discharge curves, and tell you absolutely jack about waveforms. That's where an oscilloscope comes in to play.

I have been lusting over the pocket oscilloscopes for a long time. And slowly the price has been coming down to the "why the heck not" level. About two weeks ago I decided that a DSO Nano had to be mine. $66 later, and four days of waiting, and it was.


Well there we go. You also get a little felt bag and a USB cable. But those are the big things you get in the package. No documentation at all!

They claim that it will accept 80v peak to peak. And that it has a 12bit DAC. Also they claim that it's got 1Msps.

I figure that means I can reliably look at 100khz signals.

On the subject of signals, it has this nice little test point on it. The test point is adjustable from 500hz to 2000hz.


Here's the DSO checking out it's own test signal. You can see it overshoot and the discharge curve. I wonder where that tail is coming from...

Now I wanted to try it with a really fun. The only thing I could think of that I had that would output a nice signal was my arduino. I loaded up the servo sweep sketch, and checked it out.

The servo signal is a pulse, every 20ms, that's between 1 and 2ms wide. I made a video of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlIW7AvBg0Q

I posted on the EEvblog forum, asking for ideas of how to test, and exercise it. http://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=4546.0

So it looks like I am going to make a joule theif.

How do you accidentally visit a motorcycle museum?

Well, that's a simple question to answer. When the museum is also a motorcycle shop. The place is the wisconsin motorcycle museum.

Here's a few pictures, since I was surprised, I didn't have my real camera with me. Excuse the quality.

Great, I get to start off with a bike I can't identify. I promise to get details on my next visit.

A Maico 490. There were two of them!

A custom framed and bodied Guzzi. I've never heard of this guy before, but there were several in the shop. A Magni Sfida 1000 4v

The other Maico

A Honda Dream 50

Another Magni.

A Bimota Tesi 3d

An I don't know what the heck it is, but the air intake is your crotch... :-)

And a shot of a bunch of bimotas, specifically a Tesi 2d.

I will be going back, with a flash, and a real camera.

Training Ride 8/16

24.6 miles. 15.2mph average. Not to shabby for a training ride. Especially when my last one was like .. 12mph.