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AMA Expo

Wayne

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Just a heads up that we will be attending the AMA Expo in early November. In the past the AMA show has been shrinking, but they are changed venues, teamed up with a bunch of others and made it into a grand RC adventure with more flying, boats, cars, you name it. Even combat and racing. Should be a lot of fun. We will have 20 feet of booth, and another partner will have 10 more feet right next to us, and FrSky will have 10 feet near the entrance. Should be a lot of fun.

We will not be selling at this event. We will probably just bring some simple stuff to sell like the OpenTX manuals. When we are selling, we don't get to chat with our customers and that takes a lot of the fun out of the event. We will be bringing lots of cool stuff to show off and we would love to hear from you!

The event is down in So Cal at the Fairplex in Pomona. We hope to see some of you there. More details can be found here:
https://amablog.modelaircraft.org/amaexpowest/
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Konrad

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Wow, Look at all that gray hair! I'd have thought that with the combining of many aspects of the RC hobby we would see some teenagers in the aisle , you know from the RC car side.
 

jvaliensi

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The show is good fun, way better than the last couple I attended. If your in SoCal it is worth going to.
Aloft has a nice booth and great folks to talk to.
 

Ps23Rick

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I'm sure you'll get a write-up from Wayne at some point but today wasn't too bad overall.. I think there has been an undercurrent of sorts with people who didn't know who the company is -- so I think it was good to be in attendance and to do some networking with various folks who may not know about some aspects of the hobby.

Tomorrow is the last day -- it runs from 10am to 4pm at the Pomona Fairplex...
 

Retired

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I visited Wayne and his co workers at the Aloft booth Saturday. Had a good chat with them all and the setup/display was very good!
All the Frsky versions tx’s were out to hold and try.
I bought a Qx7 user book and I’m impressed with it!
Wayne is also selling 12v 30w soldering irons that use the xt60 connector. I have one to try now.

I did bring along for him to see and display 2 older tx conversions.

One a 3 ch proline open gimbal that uses the standard Frsky DHT diy solder in module, and a Kraft 5 ch open gimbal that uses a modified XJT module electronic that is converted to a solder in we’re call a XHT ( hint Frsky).
It’s been covered elsewhere in the Aloft thread.
Thanks to Wayne’s interest and support the, XHT conversion is a much improved option for diy conversions.


I personally think this new show and its new location is a welcome change! I had given up on it last year!
Free shuttle service to and from all parking and flying areas. I tried flying a u-control plane ( last time was 40 yrs ago) and found after 7-10 fast laps, that my inner ear must be too old now! The head and stomach had enough. The instructor took over but it was another 5 min of waiting for the fuel to run out( on my knees). They all had a good laugh and I would have if I could at the time. I’m laughing now.
I asked where the RC throttle cut was and they laughed and said they are old school and it’ll never happen.
Great fun but I’m staying with fixed wing (slow) RC for sure.
There was also great food and beverage options not available at the old locations. Yes, a little costly, but good choices!





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Konrad

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That soldering iron should be part of everyone's field box. It works great, so much better than the old school butane power ones. But like all field soldering you will need a wind shield to help keep the work hot. It really is amazing how effective "air cooling" is!
https://alofthobbies.com/xt60-portable-soldering-iron.html
Don't forget the replacement tips
https://alofthobbies.com/replacement-soldering-tips.html

Now I don't like the XT60* so I change the connector to match my flight batteries.

* Nylon housing melts far too easily, both when trying to solder on the wire leads and in use, high power draw.

All the best,
Konrad
 
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Retired

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I see the tips are out of stock right now. It may be the same ones I use for my hot air smd station? I’ll check ASAP.I’m thinking I’ll want the larger tip to amass enough heat for 12-14 ga wire on my electric items.
I’m also going to try a buck boost 5A regulator I have to boost the 12v lipo up a few volts to 14-18v for a little more higher tip temperature for the larger wire and connectors.
I see Wayne has tested it on 4 cells.
I think I’ve calculated at 30w and 12v it’s drawing 2.5A.

At this great low price of $7 I can afford to shorten the element life. Of course only boost it for a short session and return it to 12v or lower.
If time permits, I’ll give it a test of voltage/current vs tip temperature.
This could end up as a portable lipo
Powered 12v adjustable soldering station. Add the buck boost regulator in a small box with a meter and voltage pot.
Added could be iron holder.
Fun project to see if it’ll work.

Plenty of 120/220 to 24v ac soldering stations but not a 12v dc portable one.
I did have a weller 12v portable one years ago that was high end perfect!
I loaned it out never to see it again.
A replacement I believe is a tcp12P and is over $100 now, ugh!
$7 is looking pretty good!





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Konrad

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I see the 5 piece bag is in stock.
I've used mine with 4 cell packs (don't think they were fully charged). No problems! And as the heating element is ceramic I don't think there is a life issue with field use. So far I've only had to make radio type repairs, out at the field. If I melt a power lead I usually have other issues!:eek:
 
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I did some current measurements tonight. At 12.8v my series current meter showed 1.35A being drawn. At 14v 1.45A.
I’m impressed with the way I was able to make some test solder joints on the bench.
I do repairs for fellow club members at my club field regularly and this iron may get a lot of use.
Mostly connectors and some led lighting connections.
We do have 12vdc charging stations supplied by 20 100A paralleled 12v batteries and solar charged.
I guess I should make up a adapter to allow lipo or charge station, or car battery power.
Good test by using it to solder the adapters.



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thenated0g

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Saw the booth in Ben harbers walkthrough of the event. Some pretty planes.

That xt60 soldering iron is amazing. 3s or 4s. I actually have been using it in my shop as my fine point iron. I have an old xbox 360 power supply i converted to xt60 as a travel power supply for my chargers and it works great for the iron.
 

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Yes I too am impressed. Several years ago I bought (Ebay) several advertised 12v 30w irons that almost couldn’t melt solder. I did boost the voltage on them. I suspect they were rebranded 24v irons?
So to have this iron actually perform well at 12-16v is rewarding.
One puzzling thing was the clear shrink tubing on the element shell and tip.
It wasn’t on mine, a slip on but rather a shrink on. I cut it off before trying the iron.
I assumed it isn’t meant to stay there but only for safe packaging.
I didn’t want to risk heating up the iron to find it melted on.




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Konrad

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Saw the booth in Ben harbers walkthrough of the event. Some pretty planes.

That xt60 soldering iron is amazing. 3s or 4s. I actually have been using it in my shop as my fine point iron. I have an old xbox 360 power supply i converted to xt60 as a travel power supply for my chargers and it works great for the iron.
Who or what is Ben Harbers? Do you have a link to the walk through?

All the best,
Konrad
 

Wayne

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I was going to ask for a link also. :)

My requirement for the soldering iron was that it could easily solder a power connector like a Deans or XT-60. This little $7 guy does that just fine on a 3S battery. Impressed. Sean here loves it with the fine point tip, it is his precision iron (he also put lighter weight wire on it to make it easier to handle. I keep one in my truck just in case I need a roadside repair.
Add these and you can clip onto your car battery too.
https://alofthobbies.com/large-battery-clamp-to-xt60-adapter.html
 

Wayne

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We had a great time at the show. Always good to see our friends down south and make new ones. Also fun to chat with some of the the other vendors. We finally wandered the flight line on Sunday morning before the show opened up and were really impressed with the flight demos and kind people everywhere. Yeah, I think this is a really good show. Nice to have space in the hallways and attendance was pretty strong.

Lots of good symposiums and presentations too. Heck, I presented a symposium on OpenTX and FrSky each morning. That was fun. The audience was mostly people that have not yet played with OpenTX, and a few that were in pretty deep. Hope I didn't suck too bad at balancing the info to both extremes.

I only got a few photos from the event, I always fail to grab any as we are go-go-go the entire day. Heck, we didn't even eat while at the show, but scored some root beer floats around lunch. :)
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These little guys were pretty cool:

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And something a little bigger:
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While walking out to our car after the show we were a bit alarmed by the budget cuts to the wildlife at the show:
ama2018 - 1.jpg
 

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Wayne

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Good job with the video, fun to watch and got to see some things I didn't see at the show. Ben was very nice and stopped by the booth a couple of times. :)
 
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