I've just had a close look at the new timer from Japan that Randy Smith is selling - looks very promising.

It is called the "FMA CL timer"   It has a "Setting Board" which is a black box similar to what you would
get with a Jeti Spin ESC.

The timer itself weighs about 2 grams - which is insignificant.  It is about 4 times as big as the JMP.
It has three push buttons on it, one brown, one blue and one yellow.  They each have different functions
depending on what area of the program you are in. It has all of the parameters of the JMP, you can set
how long and how much the idle speed is before takeoff, then you can control how fast the motor will "step " into takeoff - which is the 1st flight speed - and then how long that speed will be, before you move into the 2nd speed, which in the instruction manual is called the  "final power" speed, which is a gradual increase speed to allow for voltage drop, like the JMP.  You do not have to use this feature if you are using gov. mode.

At the end of that time, you can adjust how much power motor will operate at during landing approach - from zero to whatever - just before that, there is a warning power surge to let you know the the end of the flight has approached. And then everything shuts down at your predetermined programmed time.

There are several nice things about this timer

1)  it is a nice replacement for the JMP - which sounds like will not be made much longer since Jean-Marie Piedmont  is moving to the USA and is not allowed to manufacture while here, for a while, from my understanding.

2) It is better than the JMP - because it looks like you will be able to use the program box while the timer is in the airplane, if you hook up a little wire harness to it and make it externally accessible through the side of the fuselage.  then, all you have to do , if you want to tweek the system, just plug in the box, push a few buttons on the timer, and those buttons should also be visible on the side of the fuselage, and your in business.

3) Throttle adjustments are in .5% - thats point 5 percent folks - increments, which means you have 200 increments of adjustment here. - That means that if your prop is turning at 10,000rpm for example, a .5% adjustment would be 50 rpm - that really would be fine tuning. I do not think you could do that with a needle valve on a glow engine..

4)  Time adjustments are in 10 second increments - which is very nice.  and the window walks you through the whole process .  A nine volt battery in the box powers the whole thing so it is self contained.

You can play around with it in the house and once you get used to it, it will become second nature.
The only thing lacking is landing re-tract , which the JMP has.

So, this looks like the best timer/sequencer out there that is available without custom private work.
I have not seen anything else - only promises.
The timer is reasonably priced.  The black box is pricey, but it is a one time cost and I feel well worth it.

Contact Randy for current price - and I'd run if I were you - esp. if you are serious about electric.

Soon as the snow clears, I'll try this out in my Cavalier


Will Moore

Hi Will

will that setting board work with the Zigras timer?

thanks

Vincent

Will

Thanks for the good report on the FMA CL timer. I was impressed with the .5% increment adjustment. Do you know how that compares to the Jeti-spin box setting
of fixed RPM,(max & min the same)? For example if set for 10,000 RPM what varience
would you expect ?

 Regards, Walt
 

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Thanks Alan for helping Walt out as I do not know how the timer compares to the Jeti Spin parameters.

I tend to pick outrunners that have a RPM/ V rating of 700 to 900 and not much higher.  That way I can use
either a 4 cell or 5cell Li-Po battery and keep amperage draw less than 30amp - which is just a personal
threshhold I've set for myself to control heat buildup .  It sounds like programing the Jeti Spin partameters helps to fine tune the whole process, and I am glad someone pointed that out to us.

I'll be doing a lot of experimenting this Spring so I can figure out how to do alln of this.  I have not yet used Gov.mode, but I'll try that with this new timer as well. 
I'm just having too much fun with all these toys !javascript:void(0);

Will Moore