Hi Darrell!! I've been quiet myself for a couple of weeks due to ridiculous workload, so I'm really happy to see you posting again 

Sadly, I know nothing about this frame, but in the past whenever you bought anything I'd find myself buying it too!! You cost me more in this hobby than my kids' education!!     

Hope the build goes well and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your pics and vids. 

Just a little update on this for anyone who's interested.

I had an issue with the props fouling the supplied camera mount, so set about designing and printing my own. After a number of prototypes were cast out for STILL getting in the way of the props I finally settled for the following:




The AIO camera/Tx unit sits snugly in the cradle, but I'll still hold it fast with a cable tie or rubber band. Or I may print a nice clip for it.....

I'll post footage as soon as I can get to the field.

So, after realising that I'd bought the wrong thing when I got my FS-i6X, I decided to add a multi-protocol unit.. Then I saw a YouTube vid of an antenna mod.. 

So, I did a bit of a mod job on it and thought I'd take a few pics 

Here's a pure, unadulterated Tx


The added multi-protocol unit (which I posted in the 3D Print forum)


The bits. Well, the extra 2 antennas. You can see the original antennas in the stubby and handle.


Some folk add the external antennas on the handles, but I quite like them on the top of the body. So I drilled a couple of holes.


Then I added the leads and screwy-on-bits (technical term). It was a bit of a ball-ache, as I needed to remove the toggle switches on the front to get the screwy-on-bits (still a technical term) in.


Then I slammed the whole thing back together and screwed the antennas in.


Oddly, when I look at the pic now, it seems like the Tx is doing the YMCA dance....

Anyway, it was a bit of fun, and it might increase the range. But, most importantly, I hope it added a bit of light relief during lockdown.

Stay safe and keep smiling :)

Back after a 6.5 year gap? Brilliant! 

My first build was a 550 of a very similar design to your 450. It suffered a terminal power failure while I was testing a new gimbal and plummeted to its doom a year or so ago. The main hub was split and that also doubles as the PDB, so I sacked it off and used the salvageable part on a Sky Hero Little Six build. I actually got it to 'test flight' phase before we started to move house, so it's still not got airborne yet!

I have got a build thread here somewhere... 

But here it is in the 'test' set up. Barebones, cheapo props and no camera kit.


Once I'm happy that the FC and GPS kit is all still working OK (ground tests all positive) I'll start making it proper, with decent CF props and 3 cameras.

Now lockdown seems to be loosening a bit I may get to the field, so I need to finish this, my 130mm FPV rig, T-10 plank and modded Lidl chucker!!   

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with your rebuild. 

I'm in the process of 3D printing the camera bracket for my 130mm build for some proper FPV, so your story has give me a bit more inspiration to grab my 'bubble buddy' for spotter duty and head off to the field 

Looking forward to some vid, too. Quite a tidy build you've got there.

Quote from: Dickw on Friday,June 12, 2020, 23:17:19 It is actually a Tony Nijhuis kit which I believe was originally in RCM&E as a plan.
http://tonynijhuisdesigns.co.uk/mini-jet-Gnat-25.html
Yes, 4s 50mm FMS ducted fan from 4-Max http://www.4-max.co.uk/tn-mini-jet-gnat.html
It is easy to launch by yourself, and flies very nicely.
I finished mine in the colour scheme of XR538 from the Gnat Dispaly TeamDick

Of course. And Mr Nijhuis is a total plan GOD!! I think RCM&E re-ran the plan quite recently, too.

Anyway, your model looks absolutely gorgeous. Feel free to keep posting pics of it, as it will give me LOADS of inspiration to build one even half as good!! 

Quote from: Dickw on Friday,June 12, 2020, 12:48:55 I even chanced a flight with a fixed wing and the little (25" span) Folland Gnat managed quite well although the landing had me working very hard!

Ooh nice. Is that from the RCM&E plan? And ducted fan?

Was looking at building one once I finish my T-10, but in Yellowjacks livery.

Well, you didn't give us much time to respond there, did you, apollo7!!   

I would have said go for the one you think looks nicest, but, despite owning a Syma for a number of years and still loving it, the Hubsan controller does look the biz and the performance is slightly better. So I reckon you made the right choice. 

Although, the Syma does look cool too.... 

But, you know the drill... Pics and vids please 

Well, I managed to totally eliminate any stringing, but it was by pulling the retract distance back to about 5mm. This then resulted in the feed mechanism chewing the filament too much, which then squished and jammed in the bowden tube. I have seen another fix which involves using a bit of tube in the hot end, between the nozzle and the input portion, held in place with a spacer under the tube grip. This stops the bowden tube from getting pushed back, creating a 'well' of molten filament, and improving the efficiency of the retract. I've ordered a bit more Capricorn tube for this, so will do the mod when it arrives.

In the meantime, I've moved on from test prints and onto something more real-world useful..

Look at this - it's the dirty hack I did to fix a multi-protocol unit to my FlySky i6X:


It works, but looks awful. Wouldn't it be nice to have a custom-made box that hasn't been badly slashed with a craft knife....


Ooh. Nice. Although I am holding it upside down! This is the final print. I made 3 prototypes before deciding on this rather regular format.

Here's the multi-protocol unit in place:


It's all nice and snug, but needs a cover to finish it off:


I soldered the power leads directly from the battery compartment, so needed a switch to isolate the unit when not required. I could do with tidying up the pin connectors, but on the whole I'm quite happy with it.

Next project is a camera bracket for my mini 130 quad build. The final prod unit is printing as I type! 

FPV or not.. Glider or not.. I still reckon the pilot deserves a pint for getting the thing back onto the strip!!   

Actually, he was out of fuel a good km or so from touchdown, so, technically, it was a glider! 

But what a cracking video. Loved it! I'm going to watch it again!!!

Come on, ched. It's your birthday. Cost should not be an issue. You owe it to yourself to ensure you're justly rewarded as a Global Moderator and Hero Member. So, with that in mind, you should treat yourself to one of these:



If you REALLY want, you could upgrade to the 2-seater     

You may need to clear some room in the shed for the LiPos, though......

As mentioned, here's the Benchy in all its glory. Well, a bit blurred, but that's mobile phone close-up photography for you...

There are a few imperfections, but I don't think it looks too bad for an early effort. There was loads of stringing, so I got rid of as much as I could be bothered to. I'll keep playing with temperature and retraction speeds and distance until I get it right.

Well, looks like something went wrong. The monkey cup looked squashed, with a 'bubbly' texture. I didn't bother with a picture, as my daughter said it was the worst thing she'd ever seen. 7 year olds can be too honest at times!

Bearing in mind that the change to retract distance (5mm > 2mm) and nozzle temp (200C > 195C) solved the filament flow issue, I started looking at other settings. I figured that the bouncing of the build base was due to the nozzle running over the pre-printed surface, making the whole thing bounce. It also appeared that the Z-Axis was not moving at the same rate as the rest of the print. It seemed to be only moving half the required distance....

A quick trip to the internet uncovered a few Ender 5 Pro owners with the same issue. Looks like the Z-Stepper is not stepping up enough! Mine was set to 400 steps per mm, so I doubled it. Took a while using the controller on the printer, as the knob counts up in 50ths of a mm. I ended up running a long, rubberised handle along the knob (stop laughing at the back!!) in order to make it count up quicker. About 5 minutes later it was set and the resulting prints are turning out a whole lot better.

I set my layer depth to 0.2mm and printed the good old Benchy Boat thing. A bit of stringing and blobbing, but it proves the printer is largely doing as it's told.

I'll post some piccies when I get a moment.

I finally managed to find time between family, work, quads and 3D printing to carry on with my T-10 build. Last night I decided to crack on with the wings. For some odd reason wings always seemed to be a daunting affair for me. No idea why, as they generally come out OK. All the parts are laser cut and slot together in a logical manner, so it didn't take long to get the ribs onto the non-load-bearing spar. I then realised that I was short a few bits of balsa. Not an issue, we're modellers, so botching... sorry... utilising what we've got hanging around is what we do best.

A bit of spare balsa strip and glue and clips soon had a replacement part:



Once I'd got that bit done there's a bit of balsa skinning to be getting on with. Just the leading portion of the wing top and bottom. I'm not sure if anyone else uses this approach, but it served me well back in the 80s, so I applied it this build. A bit of string holds the damp balsa to the ribs as the glue dries:



The second wing always goes together quicker! Here they both are, strung up for the night!


I placed the wing tips in place to make them look prettier. I'll glue them later on.

Next up is the leading edge, which is a length of balsa that gets glued on and sanded into a nice cuuuuurve. That'll be fun. Then I need to figure out these darned paper hinges that were supplied....

A couple of pics....

First up, the 8x8 maze. Not sure what 8x8 means, as it's only 4cm square, with 16x16 sectioning....



And here is the current print of the monkey cup thingy...

While I'm at it... I got 2 of these on Thursday and then noticed that they still had some left on Saturday. So now I've got 3! Not from the postman, but what the hey! 

The plan:

1 will be a 2CH glider. Either big chuck, slope, tow, bungie, whatever...

1 will be a stupidly over-channeled flying thing with a host of totally unnecessary features, like flaps and 3D throws!

1 will be a totally ridiculous twin or triple engine affair! And why not!

I hung one on the wall just to annoy the missus, who was already pee'd off that I'd got a total of 3 of them!!    I'm now gonna buy one EVERY time I go to Lidl, until Lidl run out. They had about a dozen left yesterday! 

Thanks, ched. I'm currently printing a monkey cup thing... I think it's a cup holder with a load of monkeys clambering around it. It looked to have taken about 6 hours at full size, so I've made it egg-cup size to make it print quicker!

One thing I have noticed is that the Z platform seems to not go down enough and the nozzle starts to rattle on the pre-printed layer. The whole platform seems to be vibrating and bouncing. Perhaps I need to amend the layer depth and see if that fixes it. The printer is a coreXY jobbie, hence the whole build platform being on the Z axis.

I boobed  bit at first, as I tried to set the XYZ home co-ords without checking the bloody Z offset and stuffed the nozzle into the magnetic bed. Luckily it's only a small dent and I can move the magnetic surface over a bit and put the dent out of play. I daresay I'll need to order a replacement soon anyway.

I'll post a pic or two of how it's going...

THAT is possibly the COOLEST drone vid I've seen in a-g-e-s!!  

I'm smiling like I did on my first successful landing (you know - the one where you can actually use the drone again without a rebuild!!).

Cracking stuff, Ern, and a lovely part of the country to fly in, too! 

A couple of dinky 3S 650mAh for my mini 130mm quad build. I'll need to replace the somewhat cute XT30s with proper, manly XT60s! 

oops.. Almost forgot....

I know you guys like pics (well, don't we all??    ), so here are a couple of the Ender 5 Pro..

Lots of bits!



Assembled... But will it print??



I'll post pics of my successful prints when I finally get some successful prints!

Cheers, Murpia. Always interesting to see how different folk approach this. I plumbed for Cura in the end, as it seems to do what I want it to do and it's not too 'bloaty' (for want of a better word).

Cura does have profiles for a number of printers (quite an impressive number, to be fair), but not the Ender 5 Pro, oddly. But, it didn't take me long to create one, once I'd trawled the interwebs. 

I tried some test prints that were already on the micro-SD card, but they kept failing after about 3 layers. No matter what I did, I'd come back some time later to see the print-head moving, but no extrusion. After a bit of head-scratching I tried a brand new gcode, created directly from Cura, specifically for my Ender 5 Pro profile. This seemed to work a lot better, creating a rather natty 8x8 maze.

However, I then tried the same profile to print a bust of Queen Elsa* (Frozen) for my daughter. All seemed to be going well, until about 20% into the print where the same issue happened again. A bit more investigation seemed to suggest that the filament wasn't going through the bowden tube as smoothly as it should. Feeding the filament manually to get a 'manual extrusion' worked fine, but pulling the filament back through the bowden tube to remove it and clear the print nozzle proved quite tricky. Checking the removed filament I could see serrations along its length, brought about by the teeth on the auto-feeder. In itself, this may not be the actual issue, as I did notice a 5mm retraction when the nozzle moves when not printing. This constant forward and back motion looks to be weakening and squashing the filament to the point where it's too deformed to go into the bowden tube entry point. I've reset this to 2mm and am trying another test print... I'll let you know how I get on.

*Not Queen Elsa's bust, obviously!!

Quote from: ched on Friday,May 29, 2020, 21:39:14 TOMORROW????? What's wrong with now?   

LOL!! Good point, ched! But I'm on-call tonight and really need to get some sleep. I'm not entirely sure how true the build will be in this state!   

Thanks for the tips, gents

The printer actually arrived this morning - 2 days early and it's still in its box! Hopefully I'll get a chance to set it up tomorrow afternoon.

Using subtractive, code-driven modelling reminds me of POV-Ray on the Amiga w-a-a-a-y back in the early 90s. I'll definitely take a look as, being somewhat geeky, this appeals to me 

I may use TinkerCAD for quick and simple modelling, but the new version of Blender has a lot of improvements for aiding 3D printing (according to tinterwebs), so may be useful for other, decorative modelling

Cura seems to be the slicer of choice for a lot of projects. I've not had a good look at Slic3r, but I'll definitely check it out. 

Well, I wasn't expecting this until Sunday..



I wonder if the missus will let me build it tomorrow... 

Quote from: ched on Thursday,May 28, 2020, 18:07:47 So it would just be circles around a swing and tree     

Oddly, I've been doing exactly the same with my Syma X11C and FQ777-FW. I did get my 130mm mini around the garden and through the swing ropes, but only at a pedestrian rate. I diced with depth over the no emptied koi pool, too. I'll video it when I've got the fpv set-up in place.

Thanks, Sweet Pickle. Encouraging words and I'll bear in mind the point about software. I've heard a lot about profiles and setting up the slicer software correctly, so I intend on using the first roll of filament to print loads of naff stuff and make some notes.

It's arriving Sunday and I can't bloody wait!!!   

Well, not so much what the postman brought, but Lidl have got the 8 quid chuck gliders in from today. I just picked 2 up..er... for the kids?? 

Well, I finally made a decision and took the plunge....

At first looks, picking a 3D printer seemed to be a minefield, with so many options and issues and opinions... I changed my mind about 6 times. Then, while in the shower of all places, it come to me. This is a hobby and the 3D print community are really rinsing the 3D printer world in order to push the technology and quality of print forward. 3D printing is a hobby in itself as opposed to just a means to an end. And, being a geek, I should relish the challenges and journey as much as the actual printed items!

Modifications, upgrades and errors are all part of the fun - much like building and flying drones, 'planes, kites, whatever.

Glad I figured that out before I spent another 6 months deliberating!!! 

In the end I went for the Ender 5 Pro.

This was based on size, availability, initial ease of set up, initial print quality, about a dozen YouTube reviews and upgradeability.

Thanks v much for all the advice and tips, everyone. I'll let you know how I get on with it 

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. The Sidewinder X1 is a fairly big unit in comparison, but does actually look like the business. The I3 Prusa does look to be out of stock in most places, but it may be due to it being (a little bit of) an older model.

There's also a fair few upgrades for the X1, ranging from an easy to fit Boden Tube upgrade to a whole new hot-end.

I think the X1 might well be swinging it at the moment :)

Thanks again, guys. Much appreciated.

It's always worth spending a bit of time shopping around, Ched. My car insurance (with LV) went up over £100 since last year. No claims since 1992 (when someone parked on my motorbike), plus we've moved to a better area.

Checking the Meerkats I found an equivalent policy £120 cheaper. LV could only drop £30, so I went elsewhere.

Not wanting to get political, but insurance companies are the worst scammers on the planet!!