₦airaland Forum

Pakingzzz: My name is Kingsley Obinna, Aka Pakingzzz.
I am a student of Michael Opkara University of Agriculture. Currently studying Mathematics.... Enough of the introduction about me...

---

---

[color=#110300]I am currently bulding a homebuilt radio control helicopter. My initial sponsor,is a friend of mine called Chemezie ohia AKA Bush,currently in Malasia now..... Enough of the introduction about my sponsor.. [/color]

---

The helicopter weighs 950grams including the battery.
The battery is a li-ion battery,the ones that powers your mobile phones. Mine was gotten from a dell 650 laptop battery,with a capacity of 4200mah,at 11.1v.
The helicopter main motor draws a whoping 11amps,at 11v. This was after i modified the number of turns in thd motor.
The tail motor draws 3amps at 7v.

---

One problem most Nigerian youths do have when building a pratical model helicopter is: the ability to get certain required parts....
In my own design,this has been so.
The only option here is to try and be resourceful.. You've got to have a great amount of grit and patience
when building a homebuilt helicopter. You've got to deal with design ideas,design theories,design problems,mechanics,fabrication and having an idea of material structural strength.
The critical components to acquire are;the transmitter(Tx) and receiver(Rx),a suitable main and motor,the right gears,the rotor head,the blade,the swasplate,Esc,servos and a gyro.
In my design,i was lucky enough to get a Tx and Rx,by virtue of a model Airhogs bluesky airplane i bought.
The Tx operated at a frequency of 2.4ghz and had a micro camera embedded on the receiver.. According to the manual,it could take up to 100 pictures and a 5 minute length video. A pretty setup.
It's a wonder how these companies shrink technologies lately. I bought these,for a paltry sum of 3000 naira.
The next thing i did was,tear the airplane apart,and stole the receiver and camera.
I figured i might kill two pretty birds with one stone. Using the Rx and its camera.

---

On the Tx,there are two joysticks a trim and two red soft touch buttons. It functions just like a mode 2 radio control system,where the throttle is on the left and aileron is on the right. Each joystick has one axis of movement(an unusable feature for heli control). ..
In my helicopter,this was the only gadget i bought that wasn't modified much.
This airhog Tx/Rx was built to drive a micro motor that ran at 3.2v,and drew 1amps.
I modified this,by building an amplifier to amplify the 3.2v to 12v.
So i went ahead to build a little Bec for the Rx.

---

At first,the Rx wouldn't pair with the Tx. I suspected there where some interference coming from the main motor. I soldered a diode to the output of the Bec and the problem was solved.
Suffice it to say that,the amplifier was incorporated so that the main motor,running at 12v,and drawing 12amps,would'nt burn out the tiny Esc embeded inside the Rx.

---

THE MAIN BLADES

---

I built the helicopter blades, from a strip of baton board or ceiling batton stick,(i dont know what you call yours).
It was hand carved. You have to have a ton of patience doing this,and love it as well.
Mind you,these batons are unsymmetrical in their dispersion of weight. You would have to balance your blades statically and dynamically,else your heli will never fly.

---

Here's how i managed to balance my blade.
When i mean statically and dynamically,i mean using a knife edge to support the blade,then using a pencil to mark the point where the blade seems to balance. Then doing the same thing to the second blade. After that, bring the blades together,and line them together. Pass a screw through their root(the place they are attached to the rotor head by a screw). Now check the pencil line and see if they are at the same position. The answer is;they won't be. You now have two options. You either have to shift the pencil line that lies neare the blade root, to the pencil line that lies further from the blade root,or visa viz. For example. The pencil line in blade A,is further from the blade root. And the pencil line in blade B,is nearer the blade root. Now you want to move the position of the pencil line in blade A,to the position of the pencil line in blade B. All you have to do is,with a pencil,mark in blade A,the position that lies with blade B's pencil line. Now remove the screw from the blades,take blade A,place it on a knife edge. Makes sure you place the blade on the knife edge on the new line. One side of the blade will now tilt down. This is the heavy side. Use a plaster or glue bond, or epoxy and add it to the lighter side of the blade. Do this untill the blade rests horizontaly. Now you're done with the 1st method. Get a ruler,measure it and get the middle. Pencil it out. Next,measure to your choice,a distance from the middle. Drill a hole in that point. With the same length,turn 180 degrees from the middle,drill a hole here. Get the two blades,place the root of the blade on one of the holes you drilled,pass a screw in it and tighten with a nut. Do the same to the other blade. Now place the middle of the ruler on a knife edge. One of the blades'll tilt down. Heres what you do. Take a glue bond or epoxy(many hobbyst use electric tape),place it on the lighter blade. Be sure to place it in the middle of that blade's pencil line,else you'll spoil the whole day's work. When the two blades are horizontaly levelled,you're done. Take out your blades and fix it in your helicopter,spin it up and see how smooth it runs.

---

As with the blade, all other parts are mostly custom built.
The construction of the blade holder or rotor head,was done,using light aluminuim sheets. So mind you,dont use any other metal..... If you have any questions you can email me via kingsleyobinna26@yahoo.com[i][/i]

Meklex: how did you do it??

javalove: So you want to be a programmer? You want to write web and desktop applications. You want to develop software for the iPhone and the Android market You want to be a solutions provider to companies and individuals alike. Let me share tips that will help in your quest to be one of us – the geeky do-gooders!

Like any other profession, IT requires determination, patience and willingness to persevere. The begining could be very challenging and intimidating because you might find it hard to figure out some ugly looking write-ups called “codes”. You would wonder why a line – JButton buttonObject = new JButton(“Click Me”) – should create a button with “Click Me” written on it in Java. You might even be thinking about wireless internet connections as some voodoo from the west.

Being a PROGRAMMER or a SOFTWARE DEVELOPER is not rocket science. It’s not as hard as many make it seem. Those codes that scare you seem to me as the easiest part of our profession. Once you understand the structure, the rules and the syntax, basically the ‘logic’ of why codes are written in programming language, the rest is easy.
Also, note that the more you code, the more you try out examples in the book you are reading, the eaiser it will be for you to master the coding techniques of the language. I remember my NIIT (an Indian school in Nigeria) days. I would always volunteer to do the coding, ever willing to help a mate identify errors in his/her code. By the end of the first semester, my coding skills was actually faultless.

Once you master coding, the rest depends on how well you can think. Don’t wait for your instructor to tell you what to do. Go ahead and give yourself a pet project. It could be as simple a project as creating a database of students in your college with information on their names, grades and activities. Build it in bits. As your knowledge grows, let the software you are building grow in functionality as well. Who knows, it just might turn out to be a gold mine for you.

In my case, the pet project I did at NIIT, Hospital Management System, kick started my career and put me on the IT radar in Nigeria. I travelled different states, met high-profile people, addressed a cross section of medical practitioners, all at the age of 22! Since then, it’s been one challenging project or the other.

You also need to start thinking like a computer. Start viewing life and events around you with an IT lens. You walk into a resturant, order a pie and a drink totalling $10. If you pay less than the total, the computer rejects. What do you think is happening there.? Consider this statement



Another example. Imagine you are playing the FIFA 2011 soccer game (Sorry, I’m a game freak with a mate and at the end of the first half, the match analysis is displayed showing that your team had 3 corner kicks and 2 offsides. What comes to your mind? It means there is a ‘variable’ to store value for each of those game highlights. The variable is set to zero at kickoff and incremented by 1 anytime you win a corner kick or caught offside. At the end of the half, the variables are retrieved and presented to you. If you did not win a corner kick, the variable remains zero. Does it make sense?


Bottom line here is how logically you can break down or tear apart any situation in daily life and apply it to programming. This will determine your pace of learning as well. Start paying attention to the things you normally ignore. From your ATM machine telling you “Insufficient Funds” to your webmail application returning an ‘Invalid Login’ message. The more you understand the dynamics behind these simple things, the faster it will be for you to come up with solutions to problems related to IT, technology, finance, pharma, healthcare, education and even entertainment and sports industries (think about cricket match analysis on your TV).

Again, don’t expect that you will master the syntax or grammar of coding in a day or learn computer languages immediately. The more you write them, the easier they are for you to recall.

Note also, that not everyone will end up being a coder, however, a good understanding of the intricacies involved will help. So, for instance, if you decide to be an IT Project Manager or an Application Specification Developer amongst other fields, you should have the basic understanding of coding and programming.

Finally, you need a writing pad. As the wind blows new ideas to your direction, write them down. What kind of idea it is, who will it affect or who are the target audience, what do you need to bring it to life, revenue generation strategies and so on, should be penned.



Source: www.javamylove.


#Javalove. . .unless otherwise stated. . .!

Do you want to learn programming?

Jarus: To me, Fashola is the best public officer Nigeria has produced since return to civil rule in 1999

Others that posted (post) decent performance (by our low standard in Nigeria), by my reckoning:

1, Umaru Yar'adua (reversal of VAT, refinery sale, price hike, asset declaration etc)
2, 'Barth'[sold out!] Nnaji (decent effort in power reforms)
3, Sule Lamido (good capital projects efforts, even if a bad politician)
4, Rotimi Ameachi (Decent capital projects efforts in his state)
5, Godswill Akpaebo ( Even if I don't like his politics, I admit he tried for his state. I've been to his state; best raod network of all the about Nigerian states I have visited)
6, Nasir el-Rufai (Not his biggest fan either, but I salute his efforts in FCT)
7, Nuhu Ribadu (You can argue he was selective, but you can't argue his victims were innocent. Plus he returned $15m Ibori bribe)
8, Lamido Sanusi (I commend his work in CBN)
9, Charles Soludo (His attention to ethics may be questionable, but you can't fault his achievement in terms of strenghtening our financial system)
10. Attahiru Bafarawa (I served in Sokoto state,and msut confess he did well for hsi people in terms of capital projects. Good roads everywhere)
11, Rauf Aregbesola (You can fault his politics - can be loud-mouthed, intervening in what doesn't concern him - but you can hardly deny his commitment to the uplift of his people. I was in Osun in August and the whole state looked like one big construction yard, road projects everywhere, despite meagre resources)
12, Ifeuko Omoigui (Decent and silent reform in FIRS; enlarged revenue base for Nigeria)
13, Donald Duke: Decent performance, mature leader


These are the guys I can give pass mark (50%) of all the public officers (elected or appointed) since 1999. There are others I have herad or read about (e.g Kayode Fayemi, Rochas Okorocha, Peter Obi), but I'm not convinced yet.


Strictly my opinion as a watcher of events in the country.

MANGAM: Ghanaian Author Kofi Awoonor Killed In Kenya
September 22, 2013 - 15:04 — by saharareporters details still coming in