29. May 2014 15:05 by outbackuav in
I you are like me you hate spaghetti. Not the stuff you eat but the stuff that fills all available space within your fuselage. There's a lot of solutions out there including one that simplifies conncting several servos in the same spot.
These little guys have 6 poles - so that's VCC, GND and 4 servos or anything that can share the poer and ground planes.
Careful when soldering though, the plastics is soft and melts easily. The trick is to plug them into eachother when soldering to keep the pins aligned even if things get a bit overheated.
My Bixler has a nifty all-in-one FPV pod which has two connections - a 12V JST and one MPX connector for pan, tilt, APM telemetry data (for the OSD), 5V and GND.
22. May 2014 10:24 by outbackuav in
News, Posts, Videos Amazing, an American report on "drones" that is actually positive - it has a very nice showreel video and a basic how to get started blurb with no mentions of Yemen, drones killing US citizens, the FAA or privacy - all that stuff is in the comments of course.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/22/tech/innovation/drone-uav-photography/
6. May 2014 20:08 by outbackuav in
Posts 1. Tweezers
Super fine Japanese tweezers from eBay, I have straight and curved but the curved ones don't have much grip. Very useful for grabbing stuff inside small fuselages and wings.
2. Chemist Glasses
If you don't need them now, you'll need them one day! I used to used a magnifying glass on the top of a set of helping hands but the glasses are much easier.
3. Temperature Controlled Soldering Iron
I replaced my basic 40 watt unregulated with a Chinese temperature-controlled iron with a digital display. It was very cheap (sorry Haako!) but it does a fine job. I bought a set of tips that make any job a lot easier. I used to dread soldering now I've soldered new wires on to servos and even added resistors inside a servo to make it sweep 180 degrees.
4. Servo Connector Crimper
Free yourself from the tyranny of servo extension cables and connectors in inconvenient places. Crimping is easy and makes much neater planes.
5. Combination Watt Meter, Servo Tester, Battery Checker
I've got a little HobbyKing 6 in 1 unit that is very useful for understanding what current I'm using, testing servos and peeking insode batteries.
6. Half Decent Muiltimeter
My first one was $4.99 (can you tell I'm cheap?). Finally upgraded to a new one and it has automatic voltage ranging and best of all, an audible continuity tester - very useful when you've got into some contortion to put the probes on and then realise you can't see the screen.