Model aircraft nitro engine, computer-controlled

Added: Aug 20, 2008

Duration: 7:13

My brother's new engine being controlled from a laptop. He made a little makeshift frame for the engine, the starter's battery and the microcontroller. There is a program he made in VB6 on the laptop, which sends commands to the microcontroller via a serial cable, which controls a Futaba servo, which moves the throttle on the engine via a paperclip, which spins the propellor and spinner up to 17,000 RPM. He intends to buy a plane chassis and RF transmitter/receiver to make a full remote-control plane in the near future - as soon as he has the money. I apologize for the low video quality - I was recording with my PSP, and had to reduce the video quality because the memory stick was almost full. The video still ended due to it running out of space, though. The engine is a Thunder Tiger GP42. The microcontroller is an SSC-32 made by LynxMotion (yep, we use these in so many things). We're just messing around here. =D ...And to anyone who's seen our "singing motor" videos - well, I'd love to do it, but he won't let me. -_- Oh, and my brother goes by the name of "steeeven1" here at YouTube.

Channel: Tech

Tags: 40 aeroplane aircraft airplane computer-controlled engine gp42 laptop microcontroller model nitro program ripmax ssc-32 thunder tiger trainer vb6

Rating: 4.83 (12 ratings) Views: 1317' favoriteCount='8 Comments: 24

Zabuzzak Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - That's very nice. Keep up the good work, guys.

dinklemun Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - wow 2nd view

gigidy5 Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - That's awesome!

megamanac Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - That looks like quite a large motor, the finished model would be pretty large.

InternetFix Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - Awesome!

itsabomberscope Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - you guys should make a UFO! lol

steeeven1 Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - yeah it is, the engine is .40 cubic inch and 1.1bhp. prop is 10"x6". the engine will be put into a ripmax trainer 40 as it is a very good and highly rated beginner's plane. its wingspan is 1.55m :)

steeeven1 Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - btw, im the camera man's bro

PhazonSouffle Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - i thought that thing was gonna take off and fly into you

megamanac Says:

Aug 20, 2008 - Wow, sounds like an awesome plane, can't wait to see the finished thing. xD

rockynguyen Says:

Aug 21, 2008 - I can't wait to see the plane in action. Definitely looking forward to that near future. =D

steeeven1 Says:

Aug 22, 2008 - lol so did i at full throttle. im glad it didnt though! XD

steeeven1 Says:

Aug 22, 2008 - rob change the first tags to model nitro engine (replace petrol with nitro) and add airplane aeroplane ripmax trainer 40 and then u'll probably get loads more views than now. and then remove this random comment. XD

SomethingUnreal Says:

Aug 22, 2008 - Yeah, I thought about adding "airplane", then I remembered what country we live in... Well, yeah, it will certainly attract more people - I'll do that now (on my blog too). Nah, I'll keep your random comment. Random comments are good. xD

30Ghz Says:

Aug 23, 2008 - As per usual, more cool stuff from you. :3

codbarley Says:

Sep 15, 2008 - that is a big engine cant wait to see it fly in an airplane :)

xjet Says:

Sep 25, 2008 - The TT42GP is a good reliable engine and very powerful for its size. Strictly speaking you should have run it in by alternating between full throttle and idle every 30 seconds or so for the first tank - but they're so well built it doesn't matter much. Just make sure you use a fuel with at least some castor oil in it and that engine will last almost forever.

steeeven1 Says:

Sep 26, 2008 - well, ok. i use 10% nitro, 20% castor and 70% methanol, which is its recommended fuel for break in and normal running. just bought myself a second engine. irvine 53 mark 2. its an incredibly pwerful engine for the same external dimensions as the ttgp42. plus it has 2bhp rather than 1.1 XD

steeeven1 Says:

Sep 26, 2008 - i just bought an even bigger one XD a video or 2 should be on my channel shortly

steeeven1 Says:

Sep 26, 2008 - hi, just bought my second engine; irvine 53 MK2. its got some amazing power. this new one is .53 cubic inch/8.65cc and 2BHP!!! its currently sitting in my trainer waiting to be started for first time :) so there'll be a couple of vids up on my channel of that shortly

utubeman0 Says:

Oct 19, 2008 - Hey how come you use VB6 and not VB '08 ?

SomethingUnreal Says:

Oct 20, 2008 - Well, we started using VB before 2008, and there's quite a big difference between the VB6 and VB 2008 languages. I guess we just stick to what we're used to. VB6 hasn't failed us yet. ;)

utubeman0 Says:

Oct 21, 2008 - VB6 didn't have things like 'me' and 'my' (both are very useful!)

SomethingUnreal Says:

Oct 21, 2008 - Personally, I find that referring to the actual name of the object rather than some kind of pronoun makes it a lot clearer at first glance what the code actually does.