Thanks, Nick. I have had these for a few years, and even though I have kept up on critical fluid levels, I have not paid enough attention to things like U-Joints, wheel bearings and steering components. I am going to be much more vigilant about this in the future.

Yep, you are right. This is much better than the transmission.

Interesting. There don't seem to be such rules here for the professional plow drivers. They push snow across public roadways all the time, and they create ridges and mountains of snow all over the place. Homeowners are technically prohibited from pushing or blowing their snow out into the road, but nearly everyone does this anyway. I have gotten stuck a few times in the deep piles of snow that even snowblowers have left. But I always take the time to clear my section of the public road when I am done so that other people don't have to contend with it. I often even go over it with my snowblower to clear it all the way down to the roadway.

Thanks, Ravi!

Thanks, Ubaid!

Thanks, Ron!

This is called the Duchesne River Gorge Overlook. If you Google that name, you can find official maps for it. I usually park my trailer right off Mirror Lake HWY and ride all the way up on my ATV, because some of these roads are very narrow, and although some people pull their campers and trailers up these roads, it looks pretty scary to me. Here is one map that I just found, and it has a list of the marker posts also: www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/soapstone.htm

The parking lot that I am talking about is about halfway to Mirror Lake on Mirror Lake HWY. There is a sign for Soapstone Basin, and there are two parking lots there right on the main road, and it is right before the gate that they close off during the winter.

I have two of these: One for FPV and one just to fly around, and I am trying to be careful with them, because they have been discontinued and I can no longer get parts.

@@johngaarsoe3259 Man, I hate when that happens. So many of my favorite planes have been discontinued and I basically fly them until there's not much left. The times when I had the foresight to buy lots of spares were usually for planes that didn't fly all that great.

@@Skinflaps_Meatslapper Yep, me too. It's very frustrating. I started to buy two of every plane because of this, which is why I have two of these. But that gets to be very expensive.

@@johngaarsoe3259 Definitely, and it doesn't help when you want to buy one of the more expensive planes to begin with.

Yes! And I recently found out about this place through a friend. This is a bit of a drive for me, but it's such a great place to fly that this is now the only place I go. And it recently became an official AMA site, and they will be having fly-ins, competitions and other fun things. And it's more than just RC stuff: They also have musical concerts, car shows, camping, car and motorcycle museums, etc. The family that owns this land has put it into a charitable trust, and this is the reason they have opened it up to the public. (It is in Wallsburg, UT, if you are curious about where it is.)

It is even more spectacular in person. It was a great trip.

That's a great tip! I let the blade drag on the ground for just one season, and that's all that it took to wear it down. I flipped the wear plate over for this season and am no longer letting it drag on the concrete, but I was worried about the skid plates. And putting weld beads on the bottom of them is a very simple solution. I am going to start doing that from now on.

I took your advice and did this at the beginning of the season. It seems to be working very well.

Thanks, Ned. It really is a lot of fun.

Thanks! Yes, waterjets are perfect for cutting carbon fiber, because the carbon fiber dust does not leave the water. I have cut these on my router, but that does create dust that you can potentially breathe in. And I am excited about this new machine, because I can cut other things that I haven't been able to cut before, like glass and ceramic tile. I have also cut some aluminum with it, and it can cut steel too.

You too, and thank you! It's good to hear from you again after all this time.

Thanks, Suleman!

I am anticipating that at some point. And I have yet to see how quickly the edge wears down too. But when it does, I will just repair or replace it. It is still a lot easier than tearing down a snowblower when it gets damaged.

@@johngaarsoe3259 The wear bar on the atv plows wear down real fast as they are made from real cheep soft steel. Mine lasted one winter, but mind you I don't use shoes as I like to scrape as much as I can. But what I did is go to my local steel fabrication place and had them cut me a length of good quality steel, and I am on my second winter and it has not wore down at all and I have a paved driveway.

Manufacturer of the plow sells replacement bars. They only lasts so long and are designed to wear. They are known as wear bars on the plow

@@lukexiong4722 better to go to metal shop and purchase replacement bar and drill the holes yourself. Cost less than half of what the oem costs.

@@dwightschuette8960 Exactly, and better quality steel.

Yes, I can imagine how fun a tractor would be for a 12-year-old kid. When I was a kid, I loved anything that had a motor and moved under it's own power. :) But I never got a chance to ride and ATV, and it turns out they are quite fun, even at my age.

Ned, I think I only partially answered this question in my response to Dan Cooper on Facebook: This drone is designed specifically for aerial video. It is made by a company called DJI. They are the market leader in this area, but it has taken many years for their products to evolve into a rock solid aerial video platform-largely because stable aerial video is a major technical challenge. The main component that keeps the image stable is a gyroscopic camera gimbal that keeps the camera level despite movement of the drone/quadcopter. But even this took many years to perfect: Earlier versions of these gimbals would keep the camera level but would still let motor and rotor blade vibrations through to some extent, and you would have to use things like neutral density filters to slow down the shutter speed, which would help blend frames together and smooth out vibrations so that they were less noticeable. They also had issues with wind, including wind generated by forward movement, and would dropout (go limp) if you flew too fast. And the aircraft, video and control systems had major issues too: control range was an issue, video dropouts were common where you suddenly couldn’t see what you were filming or where you were going (very scary!), battery life was minimal and you had to spend most of your mental focus on actually flying the aircraft rather than what you were filming. But these aerial video platforms have finally evolved to the point where they are reliable, have excellent range, are easy to fly and produce amazing results. This particular drone that I am using is essentially an aerial robot, and it mostly flies itself: I can put it 500 feet in the air, set the controller down and go use the restroom and come back and it will still be exactly where I left it. It also has object avoidance sensors and GPS navigation, which allows it to be completely autonomous. This not only allows you to do waypoint navigation based on programmed map coordinates, but it also gives you range safety: It can fly itself home and land itself if you do happen to lose your control signal or video signal for some reason. And DJI has teamed up with a name brand camera manufacturer to make the video even better. (My drone has a camera on it that was manufactured by Hasselblad, and it has the full range of camera controls that you would expect to find on professional camera equipment-all adjustable remotely via the controller.) I have been having so much fun with this that this is one of the reasons I have not been doing much still photography in recent years. By the way, all of the aerial footage that I have been posting on FB, including the Cottonwood Canyon videos, was taken with this drone. These should give you a good idea of the types of results you tend to get with this product. Very cool technology!

Thanks! I am really happy with it. I have had an Inspire 1 for several years, and I have barely used it, because the video feed is so unreliable, not to mention the fact that it is big and bulky and very inconvenient to pack around. But I think I am going to love this Mavic: Nice and small, good quality video, and my video feed did not drop out a single time during my testing today! This Mavic 2 Pro is a great improvement.

@@johngaarsoe3259 my wife would say I have to many drones ...LOL

Thanks! Yeah, it was a bit scary. Fortunately, they got it taken care of without any major issues.

I am cutting the steel with Amana Tool part number 51610. And these end mills are kind of funny: Although this one is made for both stainless steel and aluminum, it does well with the steel but is horrible with aluminum. And the Kodiak brand end mills work well for aluminum but are not so great with steel (even the ones made for steel).　 It often takes some trial and error to figure out which end mill works well with which material, and the big difference in the case of this sheet metal is the Amana Tool end mill has effective cutting edges on the tip of the end mill that allows it to drill down and easily cut through the sheet metal whereas the Kodiak tools do not. For the sheet metal, I am using a plunge rate of .5mm/s for the drilling (you have to this gradually or else the sheet metal heats up and shortens the life of the tool), and I am cutting the sheet metal at 3mm/s. And yes, I do have the 270oz stepper motors, and even though I have had them for quite a while, I am still not sure they are providing any benefit: I could do all of this same stuff just as well with the stock stepper motors. And the main reason I bought them is because I had some outstanding store credit from Inventables to spend. About the only thing that I have noticed that is different is that it is now possible to break belts if you run the gantry too far and hit the end of the rails.  And those belts are actually just the stock belts. I have not upgraded those.

Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention: If you are using the trim router like I am here, run it at a low speed setting. I used to make these cuts with a zip tool that I ran near full speed, because it would bog down when cutting, but the trim routers have plenty of torque, and these bits are made to run at a much lower speed than the router is capable of achieving. And if you run these bits at a high speed, not only will they not cut well, but you will destroy them in a hurry. (For both the aluminum and sheet metal, I have my trim router speed set to just above 2 on a scale of 1 to 16.)

Thanks, Andy! Yes, it actually was a lo of fun. :)

I don't remember how much those weighed since it has been quite a while since I made them. They, of course, do add a bit of weight and slightly reduce flight time, but it is not significant. I have actually made quite a few sets at this point for various models, and for certain models, I have even made multiple sets to try and find a good compromise between durability and weight. (I do this by changing the thickness or density of the individual components, which consist of both carbon fiber pieces, 3D-printed struts and both 3D-printed and hobby store wheels.)

Yes, I'm actually a big fan of doing things differently from time to time just to annoy certain people.

Im planning to build cnc using xcarve design.

Yes, accuracy has a lot more to do with the CNC machine than it does the particular router/spindle you choose. 　 But the spindle choice is important too: For example, I have a Rigid trim router that I bought several years ago for this that I have never used, because I was never able to find collets for it that would allow me to use 1/8 "/ 3MM end mill shafts. (Most routers only support larger bit shafts.) Also, the router would not have fit the machine well, even if I did make a custom bracket for it. 　 I would make sure that any router you get will not only fit on this machine but can also use smaller end mills. Much of what you will do will require smaller end mills. (You can get finer detail with smaller end mills.)

I have since upgraded to the Dewalt 611 trim router. It has a lot more power and is quieter than the dewalt 660. I don't know how it would compare with the Makita rt0701c. But part of the reason I went with the Dewalt 611 is that this has essentially become the default spindle for the X-Carve machine, which means you can get the mounting bracket you need from Inventables. (And it works with other things, like their new dust management system.) There are also some other spindles/routers that they have brackets for, but if you chose something that they don't sell a bracket for, you would have to make your own.

Yep. It's a Castle ESC, and it started beeping like that once it cooled off and kicked back in--right about the time I landed. It was (I swapped it out) a 50A ESC, and the plane only draws about 25A at full throttle, but it was one of the "Lite" versions that they make lighter by removing the aluminum heat sinks, and I guess the heat builds up in them pretty fast under load. It might have been ok if I moved it to the outside of the plane where it can get good airflow, but I opted just to replace it with a standard ESC that has the big heat sinks in it.

Here is the specific ESC that I was using: www.horizonhobby.com/CSE010011300?KPID=CSE010011300&CAWELAID=320011980000077895&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=37619207031&CATCI=pla-271422883569&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4MuGwvKC1gIVjpx-Ch08qQ07EAQYAiABEgJtj_D_BwE

Lol I had the same beeps when flying my Strato-Surfer with a talon 35. My esc didnt cutout though. It would beep about every 4-5 flight but the esc was at 114f strangely. I put in a HW platinum pro with no problems.

lol. Yeah, I like Castle products overall, but that's one I will never purchase again. In my opinion, it's not really a 50A ESC if it is incapable of dissipating heat fast enough to run continuously at only 25A.

ah, maybe you meant that the roll direction was correct, but the flight controller was mounted upside down... that might explain it.

Ah, it looks like I am the one who is backwards: This is the first OSD I have had with an artificial horizon, and I assumed the line represents the bank angle of the plane, but that actually represents the ground. 　 And I hadn't noticed the home arrow, but you are right: That should be pointing towards home, and since it is not, something must be wrong with the GPS. (This actually would have had to be working on the ground. Otherwise, the flight controller would not have allowed me to arm the motors.) 　 It is an Arduplane flight controller and it is mounted correctly, and to test the return to launch feature on these flight controllers, you have to be out a bit, because it will not enter return to launch mode when you are close to the home position.

Presuming the lat/lon numbers shown are correct, the GPS itself seems to be functioning ok. I am wondering if it even entered RTH mode at all... especially given your comment about it not doing RTH until you get far away, I mean that doesn't really make sense - what does it do instead? And will it cancel the RTH when it gets too close? Then what? Every flight controller I've tried will just circle around the home point if it is already close. I mean if you think about it, RTH is also protection from a radio drop out, not just for bringing it back from a long distance away. If it was restricted to being used only at certain ranges it wouldn't be very useful. Is it possible that your modes/switches setup is not right, and that you flipped a switch that did nothing? I don't see any indication on the OSD about what mode it is in, often there will be an overlay saying something like "AUTO RTH" to let you know what's going on. But in the video it looks like you just let the sticks go and with no control input, the plane simply followed a constant left and down motion, possibly just from a tiny trim imbalance. Perhaps when you had to set it up the second time, you just forgot a switch setting?

Yes, it does look the way a plane might fly without any stick input, but I would never do that! :) 　 The switches were set correctly (I have been looking at the config this morning), and the plane actual ignors all input once the RTL switch is flipped, which is the expected behvior. 　 Also, despite this one having issues, I have successfully used this flight controller in quite a few models at this point, and the reason I let it go so long this time before switching back into manual mode is because I tested another Ardupilot plane the previous weekend that banked in exactly the same way, hunted a bit for home and then ultimately flew 1.5 mile on its own in the right direction in RTL mode without any issues. 　 Initially, I aborted the RTL test on that flight because of the steep bank but then realize that I was just not being patient enough. Unfortunately, I was trying to be patient here too and let it go too long. 　 And by the way, the signal loss here was because of low altitude in an area with lots of hills, not because of distance. (The plane was not yet too far away.) And this was probably my biggest mistake: If I had more altitude, I would not have had the signal loss, and I would have easily recovered. 　 As far as the OSD is concerned, this is the first time I have used this particular OSD and have not seen a setting for flight mode. Thanks for mentioning that, though, I will check to see if it has that feature, because that would definitely be helpful. 　 Here is a video from the previous weekend where I had a successful RTL test with a different plane using the same flight controller (but different OSD). As you can see, it initially behaved the same way when I flipped the RTL switch but quickly found its bearing and headed for home: kzbin.info?o=U&video_id=DB1nzHuDPic 　 Which flight controllers have you had success with? Arduplane works fine when it is configured properly, but there are so many settings that it is easy to overlook one and have issues like this.

I have used iNav and a Feiyu one. To be honest I've hardly ever tried RTH on planes, but I have plenty of times with multirotors and many of the principles are the same. I still find it hard to believe that you can't just take off and test it right away. Can you show me any documentation where it says the RTH will not engage unless you are x distance away?

Fortunately, it glides very well (due largely to its 1900 mm wing span) despite being very heavy for an RC plane.

How much does she weigh?

The flying weight (with the batteries installed) is about 3KG (6.6 pounds).

You're welcome! And thanks! Have a great week.

Thanks, Miguel! I do for one of them. It is actually posted on the Inventables website: www.inventables.com/projects/cnc-fpv-quadcopter If you are interested in any of the others, I could put plans together for you. The larger one does have some 3D printed parts, which I could send to you if you don't have a 3D printer. (The landing gear/pads on the small ones are also 3D printed.)

Also, when you get to the point where you a ready to cut aluminum, reach out to me. It took a fair amount of trial and error to get that right, and I could help you avoid all of that.

John, I would to make a cuadracopter, for using a cam, but mostly for fun, and for feeling challenged, I'm gonna take a look at the inventables page. Of course I will be reaching out You when I upgrade the xcarve so it will be capable of carving al, thanks in advance.

You're welcome, Miguel.

Thanks, Miguel! It's a lot of fun.

Yes! I have done a few upgrades. I upgraded to the X-Controller, which has more drive current, and then installed high torque stepper motors on both the X and Y axes. I have also added center brackets to the Y axis to make it more rigid, and I just purchased on of the new solid x-axis wide extrusions (I piece instead of two) that will make the x axis more rigid also.

John I was thinking about buying a new steppers, more powerfull, but in the inventables page they said, they were not supported, I also bought the stronger X rails extrusion, and I'm planning about make a separated controller for each axis motors, what motors did U installed?, is easy to do it, thanks for answering!, by the way this is may page www.mokana.co and instagram @mokananet.

If you haven't looked at the new X-Carve controller (X-Controller), you might take a look at the specs. It has two separate channels for the y axis so that they are powered independently. And it has significantly more drive current that the g-shield controller. It has been working well for me, and has no trouble powering the higher torque stepper motors: www.inventables.com/technologies/x-controller-kit.

And even though they say that the high torque motors are not supported, they still sell them. And they are not supported only because the g-shield controller cannot handle them. They also do not fit the on the z axis, but since that is essentially geared down via the acme screw, you do not need higher torque on that anyway. If you upgrade your controller, these will work well and are as easy to install as the originals: www.inventables.com/technologies/stepper-motor-nema-23

Wow! Nice website, Miguel. You have made some pretty cool stuff!