Stephen Belshaw

Basil, I fabricated the brake "blades" by laminating balsa/ply/balsa with a cut-out in the ply to accept the nylon hinge, you can see on my photos the knuckle of the hinge visible. It needed a lot of dry fitting and fettling to get the clearances required for smooth operation. The underside of the cut-out in the wing was reinforced with 1/8" balsa strip which also allowed me to cut a slot to accept the hinge. I then covered the brakes before glueing them in position, I have to say that it was a lot of faff but I wanted them as extra security due to the tight landing area of what was then my usual flying field.

I found myself with an itch to scratch, I wanted a smallish model that I could leave rigged and ready to go. A walk across the road from my house to an adjacent field gives me opportunities for winter flying when I don't fancy the trek to the club field. I also wanted a build, but not too much of one. Some enjoyable window shopping research turned up the Pepper which seemed to meet most if not all of my "brief". After reading David Ashby's review in the April 2019 RCM&E I was convinced, so an order was duly placed. It arrived this morning and what a lovely box of stuff it is, lots of nice quality wood, very clean laser cutting, an instruction booklet and a very clever cardboard jig which obviates the need for a plan. I got started straight away, using Deluxe materials Super Phatic this is going to be a quick build: As befits my flying "skills" this won't be a rocket ship but, with the chosen set up and careful use of the throttle, should provide a lot of fun: Anyone else got one and able to offer up some building/flying/setup tips?

Got myself a floater for the summer, although I've only just finished it so will probably have to wait until next year for its first flight. Topmodel Element 3.5M 2.2kg, running E-Soar Plus on Taranis.

Agreed Basil, the included instructions are somewhat vague. I have just fitted a pair to another model (Topmodel Element) which has a lightweight open structure so not much to get a purchase on when trying to push the wing panels together. I made it easier by lubricating them with some vaseline, they still hold well when locked in place.

Basil, these images from Topmodel probably explain it better than I can:

I'm trying to programme a sailplane using Mike Shellim's E-Soarer Plus for OpenTx, I've successfully used it before on a couple of models. This time I'm using a Frisky X10 rather than my usual X9D+ but the principles (I think) remain the same, however I'm having difficulty in setting the flaps up. In calibration mode all works fine, both flaps are synchronised and have the full range of movement but, as soon as I come out of calibration and in to flight mode, the flaps won't return to their neutral position instead parking themselves at around 20 degrees. I've re-done the process a number of times but cannot resolve this issue, everything appears to be ok on the TX and all in accordance with Mike's settings, range of servo travel etc. I'd email Mike but his contact link from the website is not functioning, so hoping someone on here could throw some much needed light on it.

What a cracking looking model, from back in the days when Multiplex made "proper" kits in my favourite combo of fibreglass fuselage and foam veneered wings. Easy to work on, goes together quickly, robust and easily repairable. No doubt flies as good as it looks?

Hello Basil, I still haven't flown the model so no actual experience in the field with the fixing system to report. However, with multiple assembly/disassembly of the wing panels in the workshop I can affirm that it works as intended providing care is taken to set them up so as not too tight which can make it difficult to "unplug".

Mmmm, now I'm confused! My assumption was that the alarm would sound when the capacity was down to 550mAh? If I made a>x would I need to enter 1650mAh as the amount consumed??

"The FAS40 measures current flowing through it, not the capacity of the battery" Isn't the Taranis doing the calculation for me?:

Have I got this right? I want an audible warning when my battery gets to 75% capacity, so in the case of a 2200mAh pack that would be 550mAh I have an FAS40 current sensor in the model, in Telemetry on the Taranis I add a new sensor which I call Power Consumption In Logical Switches I put in the formula a<x where a is the power consumption and x is 550mAh In Special Functions I select the logical switch to play the value selected above Et voila?

I've ordered the kit version of the Kult, this is my first foray in to more "upmarket" airframes for powered gliders, my everyday models being a Multiplex Heron and Lentus foamies. I am planning to equip it with the following: 4S LiPo Hacker A30 12XL V4 motor Aero-Naut Cam Carbon 13" x 8" 4 x KST X10 aileron/flap servos 2 x KST DS589MG rudder/ele servos Anyone with experience of this model or motor, or any suggestions for tweaking/improving the suggested drivetrain? I'm not looking for a hot ship here, just to get to height and search for thermals with some speed and penetration capability that the foam models don't satisfy. eCalc numbers attached:

Update on this, following Mike's instructions led to a quick resolution and the FAS40 was safely connected and discovered on my Taranis. Now to decide which battery parameter to monitor and use as an alarm, current, voltage or power consumed as suggested by Richard Mrázek in this video:

That's very kind of you Ron, but I'm in Hungary! I think it would be quicker if I could just solder the two plugs I have together in the correct configuration ......

Yes Mike, I haven't got that, hence my query as to which wire goes where. I understand it could cause a terminal problem if I get it wrong.

Thanks for your reply Ron, I seem to have got my proverbial in a twist, it is in fact the Smart Port I need to connect the FAS40 to. Hence the need for the lead with the white plug, so that still leaves me in the dark as to which wires go where ..........

I have put a G-RX8 in my Multiplex Lentus and connected the integral Vario, I also want battery state telemetry and so have bought a FAS40 Current Sensor. The sensor comes with a cable with a JR type plug at each end, which would be ideal in say an XR8 Rx but doesn't suit the Smart Port of the G-RX8. I have a lead with a Smart plug connection so can solder the two together but I'm not sure which wires I need and what goes where:

I have now resolved the SD card issue, I used Disk Utility on my Mac to erase the SD card and re-format to FAT32. I then went back to Companion and used the Synchro SD option again, this time it worked! The problem was obviously the SD card not being properly erased, as alluded to by Andy a few posts back. So I now have a fully functioning Taranis having gone from 2.2.4 to 2.3.15 in one go. Thanks all for your input, we got there in the end plus a valuable bit of knowledge gained by me from the experience.

After numerous attempts at deleting and adding SD card content by dragging and dropping, all to no avail, I tried the Synchronise SD option in Companion. This only got so far and threw up an error message:

I did a drag and drop on the laptop to remove and add files, so I guess I didn't delete the old file structure?? Not sure I would know how to do that, nor how to check volume settings in the system.

I thought I had done that, I deleted all the old files and imported the new download. Have I missed something?

Ok, somehow I've managed to load Companion 2.3.15 on to my Mac and the same version Firmware on to the radio along with the appropriate SD card. Checked with a model and all seems to be working. But I have no sounds, the files are on the SD card and can individually be seen when connected to computer but are not visible on the Tx (if that matters).

Progress of some sort, found Firmware but when trying to load this happens:

Denis, is the process you describe on the computer or the TX, bear in mind in mind I'm on a Mac? The SD card has no lock on it. Andy, yes I thought about that and tried to use that method but I can't find the Firmware! The 2.3.7 that I loaded on Companion has no firmware file, the SD card content has a firmware folder but only has read only content in it. I have followed the Oscar Lang guide for flashing firmware, which seems simple enough, but always stumbles at the "download firmware" bit which is where I get the error message. It seems the Firmware is somehow missing or my Mac can't locate it?? Edit: just looked again at the SD card contents (2.3.7) I have loaded and Eeprom, Firmware, Images, Logs, Models etc. are all readme.tex with no content. Is that right?

Not sure what I'm doing wrong here, I download the Companion App 2.3.7 and the corresponding SD Card contents, I delete all the older files on the SD card and load the new files. So far so good. I open Companion 2.3.7 in order to flash the new firmware to the radio, click on the "download firmware" option from the download pop up window, get a quick blue flash which I presume is the download and then a prompt to save it. It's at this point that I get the "Unable to save the file: read-only file system". I can't see any other way of loading the firmware.