Useful tools and techniques

[Coulomb]

I'm thinking about building a small aeroplane in my backyard

I have been helping my friend rebuild his plane from scratch in Barrie. It's down to the frame right now, wings off, fuselage stripped. We have extended the Tail moment, and increased tail area by modifying the leading edge where the Rudder meets the fusealage. The wings will be increased in area as well, we are adding 400 pounds more to it's payload. Also going to drop in a Lycoming 160HP and increase of 40 HP. The constant certification checks are a pain, hope to start flying it next year.

Anthony

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by annex666


Also any ideas about cases with heatsinks available in the UK - I was thinking of buying a Maplin (UK electronics distributor) rackmount case and using heatsinks internally, but if anyone can suggest a good distibutor of cases with combined sinks in the UK that would be great.

It's not England but looks good: http://www.thlaudio.com/casebpwrE.htm

Another link: http://www.fischerelektronik.de/

[dice45]

Peter and all,
would like to add that Fischer Elektronik does make custom jobs on part count one.

Another useful source for material and tools: www.smallparts.com

[dice45]

All,
did you know of micro mesh abrasives?
I use them for grinding and polishing all possible surfaces, wood, acrylic glass, metal. It is a rubber-bound emory paper with grits from 1500 to 12000. No, i am not kidding, 12000. The stuff is slightly uncheap
I have it, works just gorgeous. Grit 12000 is able to create a virtual water gloss shine on acrylic and corian surfaces.

Have a look:
http://www.micro-surface.com/
http://pages.restorersupplies.com/59...1316051/1.html
http://www.internationalviolin.com/m...age=micro_mesh
http://www.banjo.com/Articles/021096.htm

[annex666]

Cheers for the link PD, I'll check it out.


...and by the way my mate Dave can get you a nice Rolls Royce ex-military "power plant" for your plane, no serial numbers of course and also no questions asked.

[trwh]

Hi annex666

I also built an Elliott P3A into a 2U height rackmounting case from Maplin. RS Components (www.rswww.com) have a good selection of heatsinks, and you should consider buying Rapid Electronics' catalogue (phone 01206 751166), their prices are WAY cheaper than Maplin for small numbers of components. I usually place one order with each of these three suppliers for each project - they all have their strengths / weaknesses.

Anyway, here's a pic of my P3A (parallel output device variant).

Hope this helps, back on to useful tools!
TRWH.

[annex666]

Cheers for the reply, I've just placed an order with rs last night and I've still to place orders with radio electronics and maplin for additional parts.

Unfortunately I missed off a few trimmer pots which ended up costing more to deliver seperately than £200 worth of electronic goodies! (Inlcuding three transformers)

Does anyone know if I can connect the output of the preamp (voltage feedback) to both amps or will they interact this way?

If they do interact would I need a splitter buffer system?

[trwh]

annex666, yes you can connect the output of the P88 preamp directly to two P3A inputs.

Radio Electronics? I have never heard of them - can you post a link? Don't forget to check out the Rapid Electronics catalogue, they are easily my favourite UK supplier to deal with.

Cheers,
TRWH.

[annex666]

oops, I started writing radio spares, but thne changed (although not completely) to rapid electonics.

In all there are components I'm ordering from all three!

Maplin
Rapid Electronics
Radio Spares (RS)

This is my first majoy DIY electronics project so I hope it works out OK (especially considering the outlay of £350+)!!

I'm sure I'll post once I've got the amp together (even if it's just the board lashed together with selotape!).

Thanks for the reply

[trigon]

Hi trwh.

Is that Valleman "DC protection and delay unit" that you have in your amp. Haw does it works. I have one, but as I will end up probably with two mono-blocks architecture Aleph 4, I am not sure if I can use it, or should I. I have as well other 2 small Valleman but just DC protection units but haw good they are only God knows. The parts are really cheap and even if I decide to use them I will replace whole parts as they are really cheap and low quality bugs.

Trigon.