I’m accustom to an ICE motor that I kill upon finial approach. I just had my first Open PPG flight and I decided to also turn off the controller before landing to be safe, but in a way, I feel this partially defeats the purpose of an electric motor and the flexibility that it can bring (i.e. quick throttle up to abort landing, etc.).
What do you do with your throttle when landing?
Is there a temporary throttle pause, double tap, other?!
A throttle pause, that can be instantly resumed with a quick double or triple tap, would be such a neat feature!
I had the same issue in mind. I usually fly till battery low voltage cut off, but from time to time, I feel safer having a fast cut off switch :
It’s simply a on/off button, wired in serie with the signal cable. So it does not affect the screen or other function. It is easily operable with my thumb (here with a left hand throttle), plus it has a red indicator when armed (even when not powered yet by the battery, it works with a mechanical shutter that show or hide or red dot).
Since the other button is not that useful anymore, I modeled as well a button guard to protect it. In addition I added grippy texture and a cable gland (it allows me to use a coiled wire, like on a old phone)
Nice integration/ execution!
Admittedly, I’m confused by the question, but how is a temporary pause different in your mind than what exists today?
When I land, I usually just let off the “throttle” lever, which means the motor stops (no idling, etc), but I can quickly spin it up to go around.
Other times when landing is assured or I’m on the ground, I “disarm” it with the button to ensure I don’t accidentally bump the throttle lever.
In summary we already have two ways to stop the motor temporarily. Like you mentioned, with electric, there’s no pull-starting or warm-up; it’s always ready to go.
What am I missing here?
Since the Open PPG throttle is so darn sensitive I’ve accidentally actuated it during a landing. My default is to keep it armed on landing in the event that I need to go around again.
On the first few flights I would disarm it on approach to avoid accidental actuation of the throttle but it would then take too long to re arm in the event I wanted to abort the landing.
What I was wondering is what others do themselves (keep it armed or disarm) and if anyone has any tips or tricks they would recommend.
@fpacquel has a nice solution with is thumb switch integration. I could even see something like that working as a momentary switch that you could hold to temporarily disarm the throttle.
Love your model and was looking to do the same thing. Could you share your model? I’m looking to increase the pressure on the switch (maybe even a sliding lockout to prevent from pulling)
I have an orig sp140 batch 2.
Sure thing, here are the model ready to be printed. Will work with the sleepy eye button from Schadow (well at least with the shortest model)
SP155_left_throttle.stl (2.0 MB)
SP155_right_throttle.stl (1.3 MB)
An other great addon that I use is the hand strap from Smallrig : Amazon.fr
It is wider, thus more confortable, and allow to be precisely adjusted to my glove thickness before each flight.
