Soldering Tiny Wires

Friday, July 17th, 2009

A wide piece of masking tape holds the wires in place.

A wide piece of masking tape holds the wires in place.


In the course of adding a brushless tail motor to a little Walkera helicopter, I had to solder three very small pairs of wires together.

The first solder joint went OK, but as I started to work on the second pair of wires, the first joint came undone.

Then I realized two things:

  • That I should immediately reinforce solder joints with shrink tubing.
  • That I got lucky the first time.

Try as I might, I couldn’t calm my shaky hands sufficiently to solder another pair.
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You Don’t Need a Weatherman…

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

An iPhone application turns the phone into a wind meter.

An iPhone application turns the phone into a wind meter.


A few weeks ago, I got an email from Rob Diller, who asked, “I was wondering if you have heard of model plane enthusiasts using that Wind Meter Application that iTunes is selling for the iPhone?”

“How could the iPhone detect wind speed?” I wondered, and set off to the iTunes Store to find out more.

In a few moments, I found Wind Meter, a 99-cent application that uses the iPhone microphone to estimate wind speed.

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Taming Servo Leads

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Nasty little wires terminated in nasty little pins

Nasty little wires terminated in nasty little pins

Servo wires are small — 24 gauge is typical — and the pins that crimp to their ends are fragile.

So when I’m confronted with a servo lead that’s too long — this happens often — I usually ignore the problem and wad the extra wire at one end or the other.

If the lead is too short, I use a servo extension: convenient, but it adds weight and it’s never exactly the right length.

I’ve tried shortening the wires and crimping on new connectors, and I’ve botched the job badly.

How many ways can you waste a servo pin?

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The Tree Tamer

Friday, September 12th, 2008

No treed plane will escape its grasp!

No treed plane will escape its grasp!

Lust stirred in our hearts when the great white bucket lift pulled up to the base of the Killer Yuke.

Regular readers will readily remember accounts of encounters between wayward aircraft and this cruel tree. The tree always wins, of course.

Its success in preying on airplanes led us to develop the Fetchomatic 3000. Unfortunately, the Fetchomatic trailed webs of monofilament. After a Red-Tailed Hawk got snagged in monofilament, we banished its use. (Fortunately, the Red-Tailed Hawk was rescued and returned to Baylands.)

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I Eat Carbon Rods!

Monday, July 14th, 2008

This little cutter makes quick work of sizing carbon fiber rods.Cutting carbon rods is a pain.

Compression cutters such as side cuts mash the ends of the rods, fanning out the fibers.

I’ve been using a little Dremel-driven abrasive cut-off wheel to do the job, but in the process it spews carbon dust, which is Very Bad For You.

The turtle-faced cutter pictured here nips right through carbon rods up to 1/8 inch in diameter, producing a clean cut with no squished ends. No dust, either, and it doesn’t take much pressure to lop through the carbon.

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