Marc's Public Blog - Remote Control Aircraft

My other issue was that I wanted to switch both 5V for the cameras and 12V for the VTX, so the best plan was to switch 2 volt lines with a dual relay. Doing this with the RCCC board was again a bit tricky because it would only switch a ground line that would go floating otherwise, so I had to use a pullup to 5V.

If I had to do this again, while I was not able to find any small RC controlled dual throw relays (the only one I found was huge and 3 times the size and weight), the Pololu 2803 RC Switch with Medium Low-Side MOSFET works for small loads, but if you need relays (and in my case I do because I needed a high side switch, and the mosfet was low side), the next best option is a Pololu 2804 RC Switch with relay. Sadly, the relay on it is big, but I can unsolder it and put a smaller one. I recommend the Pololu switches just because they're very configurable (you can change the setpoint, as well as change the direction they'll turn on/off for).
That said, for more than twice the money, a smaller and less configurable one is the PicoSwitch Radio Controlled Relay.

But anyway, I did have this small dual throw relay already, so I made it work with the RCCCv2 board to switch 5 and 12V.

Relay board testing:

Flipping the lights with my RC contoller

Breadboard testing:

Now trying the whole things with my plane electronics, and checking current draw:

My little dual latching relay board is quite small, it replaces 2 bigger relays:

Initial design:

Better design where the relay is not energized when 5 and 12V power are switched on:

And here is the end result board, showing how it's wired with the RCCCv2 board:

Here is a portion of one of my flights (click me for dual video view) Single video here:

And some screenshots from this beautiful scenery to fly over. I did a quick flight across the convention center to get the planes parked i the street, and then mostly stuck by the hills:

City shots:

wind turbines in the background

sadly, the Marilyn Monroe statue had been removed and lots of new construction

Nice mountain shots:

Plenty of places were being terraformed for new houses:

houses being built

another block ready to be built

I was hoping to get to that platform, but access to it was closed, it almost looks like a place to put an expensive home, and you can see parts of the Cactus to Clouds trail, sea level to Mt San Jacinto peak at 10,833ft.

Cactus to Clouds trail

more trails on the opposite side of town

On our last day, we took the tram up the mountain, and I picked a place on that access road with ground that was flat enough for a landing (I had looked for it via google earth beforehand), and did another flight from there. Sadly, the sun was getting low, and the wind was super strong, so I spent a fair amount of time fighting the wind. I suppose there is a reason why all those wind turbine are there :)

another block, ready to be built

my bigger power glider barely fits in my car :)

it's a bit snug though :)

2.6 meter wingspan

Around lunchtime, I went for a 30mn flight around the track (easy to stay up with minimal power use due to the gliding capabilities). You can see videos (front and rear) and some screenshots below (synchronized version courtesy of viewsync)

someone had fun doing donuts :)

Here is a virtual lap of thunderhill (although my RC plane took more than 3:14 to do the lap I did in my car :) ):

turn 2

turn 3

turn 5 and bypass

turn 6

I was impressed in the length of the protective tire wall before 8

8 looks benign from here

turn 9E doesn't look uphill from here, but we were taking the fork to TH West

Turn 9C is an interesting roller coaster, but you can't see it from here

what's interesting is how I've never even seen the 2W connector when driving by off camber and trying to get back to the right of the track

a rear view showing 2W

3W is an interesting turn where I'm braking hard and steering at the same time so that I can make 4W

I also never noticed that tire wall to protect people driving on the highway from being hit by an out of control car

5W is usually not a big deal

here it's easy to see the shortcut at 7W we were taking

the normal 7W hairpin is tough, but we were taking the straight instead

the new 7W shortcut is very inviting from this angle :) You also catch a bit of air at the 10W connector

10W connector from another angle

again, seen from the rear camera

rear straight with 1W

1W isn't too bad

funny how I've never seen 2W because I was so focussed on not messing up 10C

the conection back to the east track is very downhill and off camber, always scares me a bit :)

I didn't even know this access road to the west track was here

11 and 12

12

I like driving over this bit :)

14

15

It was fun to get a few shots of the cars that were doing drag racing:

I never noticed those numbers to setup cars on the front straight

I had never seen the cell phone tower at the top of turn 1 until now:

Some shots of the paddocks, many solar panels:

that was just after takeoff

I was piloting from the shade under the pro shop

skid pad

just before landing, crow flaps deployed