[Kiwi]

OK,

First test have come up with bloody fantastic results. This power expander is a little more sophisticated than any other I have used so there is a learning curve for sure. Like all Smart-Fly products they are pretty straight forward once you wotk them out and this one is no different.

First trick was to do a board reset. That just put everything back to the factory spec and that is something you dont need to do with the prior versions. Once I done the reset then I done an auto calibrate. Thats fancy nerd talk for setting your radio trims to neutral and then telling the power expander to set all the channels to zero so the expander neutral matches your radio. Its bloody magic how it works and it was amazing the difference I found when I done this. I had another system on this tester last week and had all the servos set to zero using that system. Now I found on the ganged servos as much as 15 degrees difference. Thats a serious change and dont ask me why it happens.

OK so we have the board reset, the neutral values adjusted to zero to suit the radio and we are off.

Well I wanted to see how close I could get the centers on the ganged servos. I also have another brand name power system and it is also adjustable but I find the steps are extremely large on it and it was hard to get the linkage to a perfect match. Well once again our good buddy at Smart-Fly has been listening and the steps on this power expander are so fine you can hardly see the servo arm move when you push the increase or decrease buttons. Its slow, it extremely accurate and its so easy to do.

So on my very first attempt at setting up the servo neutral I got an increased current draw of .05 of an amp. Thats unheard of as the receiver and the meter etc I have running off the system draw 0.30 amps. The increase to 0.35 is by far the cleanest I have ever experienced.

Next I will unbolt all the linkages again and go through the setup using the auto end point hold and adjust feature.

So far this product has beaten all my expectations, but I assure you if I find anything untoward I will say it here as well. Just somehow this thing seems to be out to prove even my most pessamistic opinions wrong.

Kiwi