Gyro's banned

[SlowOne]

Agree with Dave - this is a programming issue for which you have to think systems (if.. then... and where... when... then...) and not discrete events. You don't need an altimeter, you have all the data you need for a systems designer to make it do anything for you.

This is all software related, so anything is probable. To trim in flight you need the gyro to feed pitch signals to the 'brain' and then output response commands to the relevant controls.

I am not sure if this works for every situation in a race, but one could ask the system to use pitch-related gyro signals to maintain trim through the throttle servo when the car sees motion in pitch that has a rate of change less than x degrees per second, the steering is straight ahead and the throttle is closed.

Rate of change of pitch would rule out the system coming in when entering a bumpy corner with the throttle shut (bumpy means high rate of change of pitch angle), throttle open would allow you up ramps without the gyro taking over, and since jumps are straight all that remains is to shut the throttle on take off and pick it up again just before landing with the steering remaining straight during flight.

If you thought of this before the next team then you simply plug your receiver into the PC, upload the software and settings and away you go. Though of another setting or control logic? Write one day and race the next.

An input from a heli pilot on how they do it would be welcome - if only to confirm that the average Joe would be laps behind if this technology were to find its way into RC cars!!

[mark christopher]

Pete not sure the last time you raced off road, even last Sunday I raced at rhr and we were jumping at angles and needed steering to correct, my grip position in the final also saw the car on a slope nose down, not that would tell the car to apply throttle? Don't see how if could tell on the ground to in flight., defo advantage to steering and controlling wheel spin/throttle as the spectrum version tho.

[SlowOne]

I'm a mechanical engineer, not a systems engineer! All I know is that using limited sensors and flight conditions, you can command a gas turbine to do all sorts of things by telling the software what conditions are needed to do what.

In May 1991, Lauda Air flight 004 crashed near Bangkok due to the deployment of a thrust reverser in flight. The cause was a system sensor failure that allowed the control system to think that the conditions for deploying the reverser were OK. Boeing fitted modified parts and the control system was updated to include a signal that the undercarriage was seeing a load equivalent to the weight of the aircraft when it was on the ground. No additional sensors were needed, just the systems logic to take certain conditions as being present before the engine could command deployment of the thrust reverser.

It's just a question of sorting out what conditions are needed to auto-trim a car in flight.

As solid-state gyros are so easy to fit into receivers, etc, along with control chips to store programs and take signals, it is just a case of waiting for someone to do it. That's why a ban is so important - whatever you can do with a PC and a speedo is just a whisker away from a couple of gyros, a bit of software and a PC.

As you say, a definite advantage which the average Joe could do without having to get their head around!