I’ve been working on a web-interface for my Velbus home automation system for a while now.
Someone once told me: “If you aren’t ashamed of your first release, you waited too long”, so here it is: https://github.com/niobos/velbusd
Socat is the swiss army knife of networking. Getting it installed on dd-wrt took me some trail and error to find a compatible version. This version from OpenWRT seems to work, and requires the libssl and libcrypto library (which I already have installed).
As a follow up on my previous article with the WRT320N, here’s my journey for the WRT610N revision 2 (which is very similar, but has two radio’s).
The Align manual doesn’t contain a list of spare part numbers. Luckily, the community took care of that (local copy of v1.7)
My first spool-up went rather well. The wind pushed over the rotor quite a bit, but I read that until the 3GX is actually airborn, it can’t compensate for anything. So I gave the throttle stick a push and indeed, the wind was compensated away. The controls were very sensitive; too sensitive for my taste; so I landed and increased the expo on the swash to 30% (it was 15%). During the next spoolup, there was a sudden “tick”, accompanied by a kick of the tail. Right after liftoff, the heli was pirouetting like crazy. Luckily I only was ~20cm high, so just dropping the pitch to -2ยบ was enough to get it back on the ground without any damage.
I double-checked the gyro direction, the control direction and the direction of rotation; all seem to be correct. Until I took a closer look at the tail rotor itself:
The tail rotor hub had moved 6mm from the end of the shaft, and the set screw was gone. Moving the hub back into position was hard, it was jammed fairly hard.
After the build comes the setup. This post is mostly documentation for my own use.
After comparing half a dozen heli’s, and changing my mind every other day, I finally bought a replacement for my Raptor .50. The verdict became the Align T-rex 500E Pro. Since I was planning to use a Castle Creations ESC anyway, I went with the Super Combo.
I briefly mentioned that the iMax B6 Quattro charger has a computer interface. I already was disappointed that the interface is per charger and only half of the chargers have it. Another disappointment came when I tried the software.
Continue reading ‘iMax B6 charger protocol reverse engineered’ »
I bought a new “multi-charger”, the iMax Quattro B6. Here is my review.
I’m selling my Thunder Tiger Raptor 50 Titan:
This is a great helicopter for beginners. Its setup is very gentle and it can take some gusty winds. The governor allows you to concentrate on flying before having to fine-tune the engine. It’s also fast to refuel (in contrast with recharging a LiPo battery).
I’m selling it because my new club does not allow nitro.
I’m selling, preferably as a whole:
- The helicopter itself, including manual
- All servos (3x Futaba 3152, 1x 9206, 1x 9254)
- OS 50SX-H Hyper motor (incl manual)
- Gy401 tail gyro (incl manual)
- GV-1 governor (incl manual)
- Rx battery 3600mAh 4.8V, not new but still usable
- battery-monitor: shows the charge-state of the Rx battery
- NO receiver
- fuelpump
- Starter engine & pin
- 4 liters of fuel
- glow heater
In summary: everything you need to fly expect the transmitter, the receiver & a battery charger
I prefer you come and pick it up near Brussels, Belgium; that way I can show you it still flies.
If you are interested, feel free to propose a price.
