Barryorbik

Lots of the stalls did not set up until late Friday night last year and a few left it until Saturday morning !

We did both Weston Park and Wings and Wheels last year and camped at them. £95.00 for Weston Park and iirc £40 for Wings and Wheels. We did get a full sized airshow at W&W too as the B17 landed there because of cross winds at Duxford and it took off again the next day. Weston still has a lot going for it as my wife can visit the house and gardens while I am away looking at aircraft and it has Helifest too, but for the last couple of years no model cars and only limited boats. Neither show offers much in the way of bargains and the trade has reduced significantly but I like W&W and on a smaller scale Woodspring as there are some different traders there. I really miss the nationals at Barkston Heath though as that really was a modellers show.

Sounds like you suffered from an updated version of Fanders and Swanns song "the Gas Man Cometh" ! Hope it all gets sorted quickly Simon.

I have seen this before and believe it was to reduce/eliminate static build up when carbon fibre tail booms were introduced. It was never an issue with the aluminium booms of old. Barry

Eight of us down at Greenacres this morning having our first flights of 2023. Light wind and a little chilly but not raining for once ! Roll on the good weather and lighter evenings.

Toon true Chris, it seems in life that there are lies, dam lies and claimed C ratings !!

Bit of a long reply Rocker but here is my recent experience. Due to no flying during Covid and despite cycling the packs during this period I found myself needing to purchasing some new 2200 3S 40C+ packs this year for use in my 450 sized helicopters. I purchased four different makes and sadly all but one make had one or more cells with ESR's above 15mR, even after conditioning the pack with three slow charge ( 1 Amp) and discharge cycle at 5 Amps to 3V8 all in a 20C ambient the ESR readings did not improve. Two came from Amazon who immediately refunded the cost once I sent them the results which indicated a real '10C' rating using the Helifreak true C calculator, one Overlander 35C came from a local model shop who disputed my readings of a true 12C rating, but were unable to veryify them "as they did not have the correct equipment!" and they were unwilling to refund or return the pack to the manufacturer for further testing, so I am reluctantly the owner of an Overlander battery that does not have enough "grunt" to even lift the 450 helicopter off the ground for a few seconds !, so has been put to use in a 32" foamy. The fourth battery was rated at 30C and from another reasonably local model shop, and of a widely advertised but new to me brand, it also had a true C of 12C. The model shop accepted my findings and immediately replaced the pack with another of the same brand but rated at 50C. This gave over 28C (still well short of the claimed 50C) but it has performed very well and with good capacity too. I will undoubtebly be shot down for this, but since the demise of HK in the UK the quality of Lipo cells seems to have dropped in direct opposition to their price. For the record the only packs that I found in recent times that consistently provided the claimed C ratings were the Zippy Compact ones, with 30C rated ones giving at least 35C, but are sadly not available at this time.

Here is one I did earlier. Rubber cable strain relief grommet and a cable tie inside to prevent the wire being pulled out.

True Gangster, I have modified quite a few of this style charger by removing the DC socket completely and hardwiring the 12V leads directly to the circuit board. Biggest issue is adding a cable grip to prevent the wires being pulled off. Will try to post a picture of a converted one later. Barry

The main issue is normally the feed tube gets burnt and allows liquid filament to build up in the nozzle heater. I changed mine shortly after getting my Ender 3 Pro for the Capricorn version along with a CNC filament feeder, and the only material I have issues with now is a reel of ABS I bought for a project. Have yet to complete a full print with it as it always seems to break free of the bed around 20mm off the bed. CHEP who hosts "Filament Friday" on Youtube has loads of tips for improving and maintaining Ender machines. He runs a 3D printer station and his batch of machines run 24/7, so he has a wealth of real world experience to draw on. Well worth a watch while the inclement and windy weather is around. Barry

I would be interested in seeing a picture of the leadscrew cover they are now fitting to see if I can make one for my lathe too, as it always concerns me that fine swarf could get fed into leadscrew split nut and cause wear. As RottenRow said if it is just dry swarf on the boards, a soft brush and airline should do the job without resorting to washing the boards. Contact cleaner solutions usually have an anti oxidant and contact lubricant in them and it is the lubricant that can cause the problems. I run an electronics repair class and some time ago one of the guys ruined an expensive Futaba tx when he spayed some switch cleaner into a noisy gimbol potentiometer. He over did it and it subsequently found its way onto the PCB material (which these days is often paper and resin based), itwas readily absorbed into the board and created high resistance electrical paths between what should have been isolated tracks on the PCB rendering the tx useless. That was at a voltage of 9.6V, so the effects could be even more dramatic where mains voltages are present. The brake cleaner I have contains Naphtha (petroleum) and hydro treated aliphatic hydrocarbons (whatever they are !) and whilst it does clean brake dust off and evaporates fairly quickly, is not something I would consider using on circuit boards.

Hi Jon, Please DO NOT clean the circuit boards with contact cleaner as it will become impregnated in the circuit board material and by design is electrically conductive. The correct procedure is to clean them on both sides with isopropanol and a soft brush which will remove the contaminants, and will completely evaporate completely leaving no residue. Wait for the boards to be completely dry before powering them up again. To help protect the circuit boards further after cleaning, a light spray with clear acrylic lacquer should reduce the risk of moisture getting to the components, but mask any spead or other terminal connections to remove the risk of bad connections. FYI, I measured my leadscrew on the old Clarke CL300 and it is 16mm diameter, but the grommet is quite flexible so would do both I suspect. Hope your circuit boards have survived unscathed. Barry

Jon, I have and elderly Clarke CL300 (which is the same as a Sieg C2) and many other Chinese mini lathes. The first modification I did was to fit the leadscrew grommet from Arceurotrade.co.uk The part number is C2-256. I believe later lathes had some kind of lead screw guard fitted too, which helps prevent swarf getting into the threads, but I have not seen one with these on a lathe yet. Barry

Depends what you are after John, but Align Trex and Midlands Helicopters would be my first choice. Barry

I am sure there are lots and lots of potential good foamies out there but why not the Rukus, as it appears to have a lots of parts common to the Riot and allows a 3S to 4S upgrade for added speed and manouverability. From what I have seen it is not an out and out acrodatic model, but it can do most things and in an easily repairable format, should the inevitable happen.