Official Freewing Twin 80mm/90mm A-10 Thunderbolt II Thread

[Gringotuerto]

Make sure you plug in the non bec connection first, then the bec connection. Repeat the process. The other would be the ESC line to the RX isn't connected properly. The ESC isn't receiving the signal from the RX. Then the rest of what you did. The only thing I can think of.

Agree. One thing I have done when the overlapping tones get confusing is just work on the one with the UBEC first, so you only have one tone set at a time. Then when you figure out what is going on, you can do the dual-cal as described above.

Also, I'm sorry if this is too dumb to mention, but I have gotten stuck for an hour on this before so....make sure you don't have a throttle-cut switch set that is invalidating your throttle stick movement.

[ColtPilot]

**MAYDAY MAYDAY**

I hate to bother you guys, but I am having a real hard time getting these esc's sorted on this A-10 80mm.. I just picked up my FW Corsair from PO today, so I figure I need to get this sorted quick lol..I am following everything I've read on the board pertaining to calibrating/arming the esc..I have a Spektrum DX8G2/Spektrum8000 rx, I've bound it and powered up the board. I have lights, a set of beeping esc's that will not arm and I can not use anything else? Just a slow steady beep. I have my tx on/throttle stick at full. I then plug batteries into esc's, Rx is powered by the connected ubec. I throttle down immediately, still beeping. Tx throttle trim is all the way down. I try and do them separate, still just beeps.. Again I'm real sorry to bother you guys, I'm just not sure what I am doing wrong.. I really appreciate any guidance you can offer..

Josh in Florida

Make sure you plug in the non bec connection first, then the bec connection. Repeat the process. The other would be the ESC line to the RX isn't connected properly. The ESC isn't receiving the signal from the RX. Then the rest of what you did. The only thing I can think of.

[Look ma, no trim]

**MAYDAY MAYDAY**

I hate to bother you guys, but I am having a real hard time getting these esc's sorted on this A-10 80mm.. I just picked up my FW Corsair from PO today, so I figure I need to get this sorted quick lol..I am following everything I've read on the board pertaining to calibrating/arming the esc..I have a Spektrum DX8G2/Spektrum8000 rx, I've bound it and powered up the board. I have lights, a set of beeping esc's that will not arm and I can not use anything else? Just a slow steady beep. I have my tx on/throttle stick at full. I then plug batteries into esc's, Rx is powered by the connected ubec. I throttle down immediately, still beeping. Tx throttle trim is all the way down. I try and do them separate, still just beeps.. Again I'm real sorry to bother you guys, I'm just not sure what I am doing wrong.. I really appreciate any guidance you can offer..

Josh in Florida

[xviper]

It's also a gear sequencer and light controller.

[Look ma, no trim]

You can bypass the BB for everything if you want. You can even get a cheap gear door sequencer for cheap and get rid of the BB entirely. However, the BB is a convenience feature and keeping the ribbon cable makes for fewer connections every time you put the wings ON/OFF.
I've had no issues with the stock ESCs.

So basically the control board acts like a big Y harness for everything if we want. Ok, that is what I needed to know..Thank you sir!

[xviper]

Question. Am I to understand that if I'd like to bypass the control box, I do not use the ribbons, and that I only use the box for the lighting and LG due to sequencing? If I were to go with a different lighting option, then I only use the control board for the gear?

3rd and last question, lol, what is the general consensus pertaining to the ESC's and servos in the pnp in regards to reliability? Yea or nea?

Thanks in advance for the help fellas!!

You can bypass the BB for everything if you want. You can even get a cheap gear door sequencer for cheap and get rid of the BB entirely. However, the BB is a convenience feature and keeping the ribbon cable makes for fewer connections every time you put the wings ON/OFF.
I've had no issues with the stock ESCs.

[Look ma, no trim]

Question. Am I to understand that if I'd like to bypass the control box, I do not use the ribbons, and that I only use the box for the lighting and LG due to sequencing? If I were to go with a different lighting option, then I only use the control board for the gear?

3rd and last question, lol, what is the general consensus pertaining to the ESC's and servos in the pnp in regards to reliability? Yea or nea?

Thanks in advance for the help fellas!!

[Look ma, no trim]

Sorry, I am still not printing at the moment. There might be some folks on the forum that might be able to assist, so I'll let them voice it. Otherwise you might be able to post in the 3DP thread to see if there are any takers:
https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/th...ial-3dp-thread

thank you Dee

[Dirty Dee]

Dee are you still printing? I've seen your page says you're no longer printing? Would like to lick up some things if you are..lmk!

Sorry, I am still not printing at the moment. There might be some folks on the forum that might be able to assist, so I'll let them voice it. Otherwise you might be able to post in the 3DP thread to see if there are any takers:

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/the-lounge/3d-printing/121532-official-3dp-thread

[Look ma, no trim]

I'm glad to hear that!

Dee are you still printing? I've seen your page says you're no longer printing? Would like to lick up some things if you are..lmk!

[Look ma, no trim]

Maidened the A10 yesterday and had an incident. Not a lot of damage but ran out of juice because I forgot to start the timer and the guys that were supporting me were no help and I forced the landing. Cost me a gear door. I was running two 6s 6000 Admirals and they are a bit heavy which resulted in nose heavy. Not a lot but needed some up trim. I'm going to go back to the Glacier 5300 6s's. A lot smaller battery. Anyway I needed a lot of left trim on aileron. More than normal in my opinion. That's without any ordinance on board. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what may cause the excessive right roll? I did fly most of the flight inadvertently on take off flap with no elevator mix. That may be one of the issues, but the flaps look to be centered pretty good on the ground. Going to try another "maiden" tomorrow on the revised CG and the smaller batteries. Hope I can remember to start the timer this time.

did you since the motors?

[themudduck]

With good weather coming this weekend I hope to get some more video, that last one was the very first time using the wing "pod". I want to try it with the Phantom. Then I'll get the thing posted on Thingiverse.

[Aros]

Very very cool!!

[themudduck]

^ That is so cool. It keeps the horizon level. Is that a setting on the camera? Can you turn that off and make it follow the roll?

see above post.... its controlled by the software, you can play it back in stabilized mode or in regular mode.

[themudduck]

That is truly amazing. How did you attach it to the pylon and how long is the battery good for? Very unique perspective, one that to me looks much better than the other cameras. Saw it on Amazon, about $195 right? What medium is it saved on and what type of batteries? Thanks, sorry for all the questions, just looks really cool and if I get a camera, I would like something like that.

Hey guys, yeah it is really cool! My friend posted an edited video (3 videos in one) where I mounted the camera on the tail of the AL37 airliner - it looks like someone is following the plane.

So this little camera comes with a small magnetic "docking station" that charges the camera and downloads the video. There are some electronics in the docking station and I guess that helps keep the camera small. I don't know for sure but the camera seems to use a capacitor instead of a battery, because it won't hold a full charge for more than a few days (I have to recharge it for each weekend). Maybe it just has a tiny battery!

The longest video it can take is 5 minutes (it won't record longer than that). You can take several 5-min videos in a row. It saves the videos internally and then you download it to your PC using the docking station. You can also use it with your phone (Iphone or Samsung). It uses proprietary software (free download) that you have to use, but then you can save it in a standard format. So it does have some limitations but it is very small and takes this really cool video. It has two modes - the stabilized mode and an "FPV" mode which looks exactly like a regular video. The magic is in the software, its takes a 360-degree video and when you play it back it looks like you see in my previous post. You can play it back in either mode - but the neat thing about the stabilized mode is that you can mount the camera in any position and the video will play back "upright". With the "FPV" mode the camera must be upright. (FPV mode is not FPV, that's just what they call it)

It will also take individual pics, and can be used to take "hyperlapse" videos (a string of pictures) but I got it for the video.

What I did was to mount the camera in a custom-made 3D-printed plastic pod that mounts on a FW weapons pylon.. (I haven't uploaded the new one to Thingiverse yet but I will).

[xviper]

^ That is so cool. It keeps the horizon level. Is that a setting on the camera? Can you turn that off and make it follow the roll?

[Hugh Wiedman]

I took a video today using an Insta 360GO camera mounted on the outboard pylon. Unfortunately the video timed out before the landing, but its still pretty cool. The 360GO camera stabilizes the horizon which produces some pretty cool effects when rolling and doing other maneuvers. I recommend turning the sound OFF because of the wind noise.

That is truly amazing. How did you attach it to the pylon and how long is the battery good for? Very unique perspective, one that to me looks much better than the other cameras. Saw it on Amazon, about $195 right? What medium is it saved on and what type of batteries? Thanks, sorry for all the questions, just looks really cool and if I get a camera, I would like something like that.

[themudduck]

I took a video today using an Insta 360GO camera mounted on the outboard pylon. Unfortunately the video timed out before the landing, but its still pretty cool. The 360GO camera stabilizes the horizon which produces some pretty cool effects when rolling and doing other maneuvers. I recommend turning the sound OFF because of the wind noise.

[Gringotuerto]

... with enough altitude for an OMG event where I went the wrong way on the rudder ...

A guy at the field suggested remembering this rule for entering a knife edge: if you see the canopy, push the stick toward the tail; if you see the wheels, push the stick toward the nose. Works for either direction of travel. I don't know if you find these kind of mental tricks helpful, but I do. Some people find it easier to mentally rotate the plane to the Tx orientation.

[Hugh Wiedman]

OK, I took the A-10 out last weekend. It was great as always! But I still didn't nail the knife edge very well. For one thing, those rudders are large, and it is very sensitive. I guess that is good, but it also means I can't just hold the stick all the way to one side like I do with the Avanti. Also I found it definitely pulled towards the canopy - as you say, needs some down elevator to track straight. Anyway, I'll get it eventually. I'm just happy every time I take it to the field and it comes home in the same condition, lol.

Just keep at it, it will come as you get more confidence. Agreed that with the Avanti, it requires almost full rudder (have my rudder rates on high for that) but will also climb a bit with full rudder (so either reduce the power slightly or use less rudder). I get a lot of practice with knife edge on my fleet of Extreme Flight planes and it has taken a lot of practice but works well at 60% throttle and maybe about 40% rudder deflection (but then the amount of deflection on those aircraft in high rates is almost 75 degrees, so for knife edge reduce it to mid rates). You may want to try the knife edge on the A-10 with mid or low rates. I use mid rates which are 1/2 way between book rates and use about 80% deflection at 75% throttle. Doesn't always work perfectly but just need to keep at it with enough altitude for an OMG event where I went the wrong way on the rudder (even though I have to force myself to think ahead which direction I am rolling and which direction the rudder needs to go - I'm definitely not intuitive like many out there, I seem to need a que card in my face reminding me which way to go first and sometimes still go in the wrong direction depending if I'm going downwind or upwind to keep the top facing me).