Carbsmart

[carpman]

I read an article on the csm carbsmart and thought they sound quiet good, Anything to preserve the live of engine and ease of setup ..........

1 Are they worth while ?
2 How easy are they to setup ?
3 What is a pontentiometer ?
4 how many peeps use them ?

Cheers in advance Dan

[SRH990]

I had a pre-production model and it's still working well in my Trex 600 18 months later. I bought a production Carbsmart and fitted it to my Trex 700 and kept blowing the sensors, one after only 3 flights There is now a revised sensor which has the surface mount sensor soldered to a small PCB, this has been fine for months now.

I find mine work really well, plenty of power but still running the right temperature and you can see it working if you wring the heli out then bring it back to hover in front of you, mine are around half way at this point then move fully lean as the engine cools down in the hover.

There seems to be a few people who have had issues but now the sensor seems to be sorted I'd say it's worth buying. It would be better if the functionality of the Carbsmart could have been incorporated into the Revlock 30 to give a jack of all trades, maybe the long awaited new box from Spartan might go down this route. In Fact, what I want is a one box governor, mixture control, flybarless system with pitch control linked to engine RPM for around £250, any chance

[carpman]

So how easy are they to setup ?

[SRH990]

Pretty easy to set up, it's all in the instructions included. The Carbsmart doesn't even need a channel in the radio, it only needs power so if you haven't got a spare port on your receiver you can just use a 'Y' lead with any channel.

[daren]

I've got one on my 700n, purchased it 2 see if it made a difference to my flying, to be honest if you can tune an engine the carbsmart isn't needed

[rapidgaz]

i found it gave me a few more mins flight time and is a dodle to set up

[Andy from Sandy]

to be honest if you can tune an engine the carbsmart isn't needed

Maybe not on a pumped 90 and not using muffler pressure.

For the OS 50 in its normal configuration the engine leans out as the tank empties. This is where the carbsmart helps you out.

[chemicalbro]

a potentiometer is a 3 terminal resistor with a sliding contact which adjust the voltage going through it. the volume control on your radio is a pot (probably...... some are digital nowadays)
potentiometers operated by a lever for instance can be used as a position transducer
(e.g the sticks in your transmitter or an anologue joystick for your pc)
at a given position of the stick the pot will give off a certain voltage which can be measured and converted to position data.

[carpman]

Thanks peeps getting carbsmart tomorrow ....
Found carbsmart setup video by finless lastnight setup looks straight forward wot have people used to stick the sensor to to the head ????

[Andy from Sandy]

wot have people used to stick the sensor to to the head

http://uk.farnell.com/acc/as1802-310...adh/dp/1667367

[t-rex pedro]

Just use high temp RTV. Its what CSM recommend anyway. Some have used a product called Arctic Silver which ensures good heat tranfer for the sensor to get a more accurate temperature reading. I think RS sell a similar product.

[SRH990]

I fitted the pre-production sensor to the head with epoxy, bedding it in thermal transfer paste first. For my second setup with the produstion version I used epoxy, after digging it out of the head to replace it for the 3rd time I swapped to RTV and this is how my revised sensor is fixed, it's still working fine many months. I would advise RTV on these grounds as there is always the possibility of sensor failure.

[carpman]

test flight result

carbsmart fully fitted lastnight and checked, weather was poxy today very windy with some rain so i spun her up in garden to half throttle and everything seemed fine cs running full lean all the time so i turn off gove to see if it made a difference and it did but it was with servo movement never went anywhere near full rich, i decided to give it a better test with the aid of my missus and get her to throttle up slow while i held heli above my head for a more realistic test every thing was going well upto 3/4 -full throttle and i noticed a glitch a little flickback to failsafe position then working again so spoiled down then noticed sensor stopped working first sensor didnt even pass test flight .....

Got to order another sensor tomorrow (will order 2) .

I think csm needs to look at its sensor and stop them breaking down so easily ....

everything was setup per manual for the next 1 i will be using artic alumina epoxy (strip heat shrink on sensor (carefully) and apply another coat of epoxy on sensor to strenghten it then re-heat shrink)

[t-rex pedro]

You held your heli above your head whilst the mrs ran it up? That's crazy man!

The CS will show full lean until you load it up with some long climb outs or tic tocs. Basically it will richen up when the head reaches the target temperature which is difficult to simulate on the ground, or above your head!

[David Drew]

i decided to give it a better test with the aid of my missus and get her to throttle up slow with i held heli above my head )

Are you nuts??????????????????????? If anything gives way you are history!!!!!!!!!