Success! The skybasket is back. I have just flown up pulling vines and scraping their little Cling-Ons from a tall house in the freezing cold. The controls worked smoothly and consistently; no more “soft spots” or “dead zones” along the pot.
Had to re-arrange the resistors, ended up with 4 columns x 2 rows of 10Ω ½Watt resistors to make a 5Ω 4Watt resistance in series with the 10Ω coil to make a nominal 0.9A current. Works lovelyly.
Hafta wait 'til Summer to see for sure if my homemade heatsinks work, but no problems in the freezing cold. I got plenty of spare transistors now since the function coils use current-limiting resistors instead of drivers like the first try.
I got a lot to learn about ordering parts, though. Never imagined the PC boards came in different thicknesses, so the little one is kinda flimsy.
Also, the legs on the solder-on quick-connect blades were spaced properly but too thick for the holes, as were the diode leads, so stuffing the boards was mainly an exercise in fitting fat pegs into smaller holes. Hours and hours of filing, trial-and-error.
They look like they were soldered up by a half-blind kindergartner, but they’re solid, functional, and well-hidden, so who’s gonna know?
The push-buttons (CW Industries P/N GPB527X2SERIES DPST)seem to have 2 positions. Push lightly, they’re momentary-on; push heavily, they’re click-on - click-off. This is very nice for one-handed operation, strictly forbidden by the original design, which forced you to push buttons with one hand and pull the (momentary potentiometer) trigger with the other. Moved the trigger close to the buttons and removed the spring, so I can just leave the pot in whatever position and push whatever button. Love it, love it.
The only disappointment is, still can’t run 2 functions simultaneously, probably because of the hydraulic circuitry. I’m certain 2 function coils power up at once, but only one valve at a time actually responds, oh well. Still a vast improvement.
Never could have done it without you. In other words, DigiKey was the key to this success. I can’t ever repay you for your help and guidance except to spread good word-of-mouth about DigiKey.
I don’t really rub elbows with electronics types that often, but if you send a “Powered by DigiKey” sign I’ll stick it on and fly it everywhere the skybasket goes.
Thanks again for all your help.