Aloha and Welcome to my small speck of cyberspace! Dec 8, 2010 is the birth date of my blog. Never had one before, but my son encouraged me to have one, and it seemed like a good way to at least keep a log of my RC airplane building and flying. With the initial design kicked off by my son, I'll carry on from here and have fun with it. Now that I have it, I will use it to also keep track of my oil painting efforts, and any other ideas, hobbies, travels, or whatever else that come up. LIFE IS GOOD!

Update on 02/25/2011. It's been a few months since I began this blog, and I am enjoying creating and having it! I like documenting the things I have done in my hobbies, and sharing with my small family. I think Jer and Tad actually view it fairly regularly, as a means to see what I've been up to lately. At worst, it serves as a reference for my own use.

Update on 12/22/2011. This blog stuff is habit forming. My blog is a year old now, and I make an entry about every other day or so as that seems to be the frequency of doing something in one of my hobbies. Like my hobbies, this blog is a lot of fun, and it has become in itself another hobby that I enjoy.

Years are flying by...update on 01/11/2013. Still enjoying maintaining this blog even though hardly anyone sees it. I don't advertise it anywhere or to anyone, and it is mainly just a way for me to keep my own notes and thoughts on my flying, painting, and cars. If a stranger happens upon it, I think it is by pressing NEXT at the top of the current blog they are visiting, lol. It's a great device for me.

August 2014: still here! Took up flying RC helicopters one year ago and got hooked. Had flown micro Helis up to then, but got serious with 450 size for a couple months, then bought the Goblin 500 and Gaui X5 . Also got my Boxster in April 2013. Most importantly, Ariel was born 12/02/12 followed by Skylar 07/20/13, and they are little beacons of joy in our lives. Life is indeed good!!!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Messing with the DLE 55 on my AW Ultimate

Drove me nuts to assemble and disassemble this and not get the engine to run right that day!
After the failure to run at the field again, I tried to solve the engine problems at home.  Over the next couple days I tried to figure out the AW Ultimate problem...what is bugging that engine!  I found a new RCXEL optikill at home, so I swapped that out with the 42% optikill in the plane.  Tried running the engine in the backyard.   No joy...same bad behavior from the DLE 55!  Rats.  I left the new optikill on the plane and will put the 42% away for future reuse.

While messing with that swap, I noted that the optikill light would go out by using another toggle besides the button I assigned the task.  Also found that when the throttle is high, the button would make the throttle servo go to low idle while also killing the optikill light.  What the!  So I ironed out the programming issues by comparing the Ultimate channel and switch assignments to those for the Sbach and Bravata.  Finally got it working right in a couple hours of frustration.

Next up I decided to try a new ignition by borrowing one from Tad's DLE 35.  Problem, the printing on the ignition says for the DLE 35 only!  Nevertheless I swapped it for mine on the plane.  Sure enough, no joy.  The engine would not pop at all.  I did note that the spark plug would spark in my hand while holding it and propping the engine.  WEIRD!  Must be timing or some such thing is different between the sizes of DLE engines?  I took Tad's off and put my ignition back on the plane.

And finally, while the cowl is off, Tad suggested swapping out the ignition battery.  I thought that sounds dumb because I tested the battery on the plane and it was reading a healthy 5.25V.  But this is a simple swap so I put in an old 6V nimh that was in the garage where I was working.  Bingo bango bongo the engine started up and ran strong!  I was overjoyed and relieved to not have to tear into the carb of the engine.  With that, I swapped in a brand new 6V nimh from my bonus room stock.  I took another hour to zip tie everything back, add connector safety locks, and mount the cowl, prop, and spinner.

What a journey.  I discovered the old nimh on the plane is only 4.8V and I thought it was 6V.  It was reading 5.25V due to charging with a 6V charger.  Maybe over time that damaged the battery.  Very weird.  That old battery went to the trash.  Still can't believe that battery caused the hard starting and erratic running of the engine.  Wish I had tried a new battery in September when the Ultimate first exhibited the nutty behaviour at the field.  Well, I am now really ready to fly that plane again with its fully operational engine that might just need a few needle adjustments due to the fiddling with them to try to get the thing to run right since September 2014, haha.  Looking forward to a positive report after that!

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