The Slot.it CA20A is a sidewinder configuration with the Mabucci style MF08 motor with extended shaft at both ends. The shaft ends extend out to about the mid point on the rear tyres with about 1.5mm clearance to the tyre.
The supplied PT32 tyres are quite elastic, and fly off the rim at high speed, making contact with the extended motor shaft and gouge the tyre, not to mention slowing the car. Continue reading Slot.it CA20A rework
I couldn’t resist the Hobbyking Swap Dawg as an opportunity to play with SimonK ESC firmware with forward / reverse enabled.
I selected a Hobbyking F-30A ESC, which might seem a bit of overkill but it is a closed air space which reduces its dissipation capacity. The F-30A have proven themselves reliable with SimonK on a range of BLDC motors. Continue reading Hobbyking Swamp Dawg build – #1
I don’t know if there is a totally effective solution for tree leaves blocking gutters… but here is another attempt. Continue reading Leafeater retro fit
Following on from BLHeli on Hobbyking 40A ESC 4A UBEC 9261000003 – #3, further tests were conducted on the ‘chugging’ ESC.
The 9261000003 is a relatively low cost ESC with 6S rating and fast FETs.
At Simon’s suggestion, the BEMF caps were removed. This eliminated the chugging effect on both the DT750 and 4822-690KV where it had been previously observed. The 4700pF BEMF caps are in a vertical row at the bottom right of the pic above.
I used to routinely remove BEMF caps (a carry over from using WiiEsc), but found on some tests that it made insignificant difference. That might be the case for some motors and smallish caps (1000pF), but in this case, the combination of these challenging motors and largish BEMF caps were incompatible and removing the caps solved the problem. Continue reading SimonK on Hobbyking 40A ESC 4A UBEC 9261000003
Feeding at a current maximum visited the common practice of designing to feed a multi band dipole with open wire feed at or very near to a current maximum.
I explained that feeding at the current maximum may provide sub-optimal performance on the popular T-match ATU as its losses tend to be worst with low R loads, aggravated by the use of 4:1 baluns for even lower R.
On the other hand, feeding at a voltage maximum might exceed the ATU’s voltage capacity, or perhaps be outside of the matching range of the ATU.
Well if neither of these is optimal in all cases, what about half way between. It has been done, the odd eighths wave feed line on an 80m half wave is another of the recipes you will hear.
Lets explore the options of a half wave dipole at 3.6MHz with four different feed line lengths (Wireman 551). Continue reading Feeding at a current maximum, and three other options
I mentioned in my (revised) article W5DXP’s current maximum calculator that lots of ham subscribe to the strategy of feeding a dipole / open wire feeder combination at current maximum
.
Why is that? Continue reading Feeding at a current maximum
(Trask 2005b) describes a circuit at Figure 7 which the author describes as a 1:1 current balun though he does not actually define or reference a definition of the term current balun
. Continue reading Review of Trask’s 1:1 current balun
At Where is the best place to measure feed point VSWR I discussed location of the VSWR meter and projection of its reading to another point on a known transmission line.
A correspondent has taken me to task and citing Telepost’s LP-100A manual: Continue reading LP-100A manual advice on VSWR measurement
It is one thing to read code, and perform traces of live traffic to test proper function of a digipeater. This is a more valid technique than injecting test records directly into the software as for instance, viscous digi depends on the neighbour digis. Continue reading On-air testing of APRS digipeater with a crafted suite of test records
This is a follow up to Attempting to reconcile W5DXP & G3TXQ’s comparison of K and 52 mix ferrites.
Steve saw the above article and revisited the FT240-52 measurements which he apparently did, and found them wanting: Continue reading Attempting to reconcile W5DXP & G3TXQ’s comparison of K and 52 mix ferrites #2