Air exhaust opening (I’m using a 5.25 drive bay grill from my computer case):

Cut and installed:

Fixed with hot glue:

It sits flush with the exterior surface of the case:

Air intake opening – fan grills screwed in place to trace the hole to be cut:

Cutting:

One side finished:

80mm fan installed:

(not pictured: second fan and extra grill on the other side of the fan)

IEC power receptacle:

Wired in parallel for the power supplies in series:

NOTE: one of the ground wire was disconnected afterwards. Read this post about the safety of connecting power supplies in series. Do it at your own risk!

Test fit:

Attach some zip ties to hold the latch mechanism:

Cut and bend a solid wire to short the correct pins:

Use some hot glue to hold it in place to make it easier to solder them:

Cut this metal part to make it easier to apply the foam tape later on:

Fill the exposed board with some hot glue to avoid short circuits on the exposed pins:

You can also use a small piece of 100mm heat shrink to protect it (the hot glue makes it stick well).
Solder the wires and also one of the computer fan cables that will power one of the 80mm fans:

One power supply will be ungrounded (i.e., the ground pin will not be connected), so it *must* be isolated. Read this post about the safety of connecting power supplies in series. Connect them in series at your own risk!
The 100mm Turnigy heat shrink worked perfectly for isolating it:

Use a sharp x-acto knife to cut openings in the shrink wrap for the venting holes:

Apply the foam tape to one side of the power supply:

Stick them together and solder the wires to both power supplies. Note the two red wires soldered directly to the power supply case; they’ll be used to wire the AC120V alarm/buzzer to indicate a failure in the power supply:

Final product:

Main parts:

• Xheli 250-size carrying case - $20
• 3x Dell AA23300 550W 12V power supplies – $0 (taken from some unused servers I have at home)
• FMA Powerlab 8 1344W charger - $240
• FMA Parallel charging board - $65
• 4x Turnigy Accucell-6 50W chargers - $23 each (already had them)
• 2x Cooler Master 80mm computer fan - $7 each
• 4x 80mm fan grill - $1.60 each

Miscellaneous:

• 6x Deans to XT60 adapters - $1 each
• AC 110V buzzer/alarm with LED - $5 a pair
• 2x GFCI plug with surge protection - $17 each
• 1 meter of heat shrink tube 100mm - $3
• AC power cables, IEC power receptacle, 12AWG wire, 3-pin fan power splitter, peel-n-stick foam tape, velcro peel-n-stick adhesive, small plywood board, some zip ties, hot glue gun and patience, lots of patience

Inspiration and useful information collected from:

• http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1164359
• http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=306148
• Safety considerations by jj604 @ RCgroups
• Lots of good info from Chris @ TJinTech

I’ve seen many pictures of portable charging stations that fit in a carrying case as an all-in-one solution. All you have to do is plug it into an AC outlet and connect your batteries; everything else is already connected and ready to be used.

I’ve then decided to build my own charging station. Here’s the final result:

In the next days, I’ll be posting a detailed build log here.

Conclusion: gravity sucks!

Here are lots of autorotation practices on a full size helicopter: (bah! can’t embed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2a9H8Xw8Mo

The same can be done on RC helis! This is from a guy in Denmark flying a T-Rex 600ESP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KyCMG7FOEE

Me? Well, I’ve been busy with non-RC stuff and haven’t flown for a while. I should get back on track in 2 months or so.

Excellent pictures by: Michael R. and Andy H.

So-so flying by: myself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeR5MuXWyV4