Someone asked me this via PM, and it was too good and timely a question for me to pass up.
At one point I was trying to de-complicate my life and have just one TUT flavor, and one cost. Fred Cronenwett blew that out of the water by coming up with an application for the TUT that doesn't use any of its sophisticated hardware or development. Now there's three, kind of. Here's the list. All of these prices are for the timer itself. For the next few months I'll be shipping by 1st-class postage for free, priority mail for an extra $5. Shipping terms will change after the middle of the year, so check with me then.
I need to do a write-up on the available scripts, but keep in mind that this is Tim's
universal timer -- what it can do is exceedingly versatile. While there are things that are too wacky to contemplate doing with the TUT, it'll still do lots of things. If you have something you want to do, post a note on this forum or send me a PM and I'll tell you whether the TUT is capable.
Figure that you can mix and match the following elements:
- It can set outputs (like throttle) based on the flight phase
- It can pipe an input to an output, based on flight phase and the input (this is how it selectively hijacks the Igor timer's signals for Howard)
- It can respond to an input, to detect presence of an input (like an Igor timer), or an input setting, or with an appropriate sensor, motor speed
- It can switch flight phases based on time, lap count, or both (i.e., "1.5 laps or 10 seconds, whichever comes first")
- It can detect loops (i.e., "any loop of more than 1.75 full rotations")
- It can smoothly ramp an output as it switches phases (so Howard's plane doesn't immediately go full-on ten seconds after takeoff -- it smoothly transitions to the Igor timer's output)
I have yet to have someone ask me if I can make it retract landing gear after two laps on takeoff, and then extend it as soon as an (IC) engine quits. The answer is -- yes, I can, how soon do you want it?
TUT-FC:
Inspired by Fred's engine sequencer application. This is a "pure" timer in that it has no ability to sense the model's motion, so all it can do is based on what inputs it gets from its I/O connections.
With the currently available software, the TUT-FC will run Fred's multi-engine sequencing script. Because of the way that Howard jiggered the setup around, it will run the same program, and manage the flight exactly the same, as Howard used in the World's in 2014 (Howard's FAI script is designed to use the gyros, but Howard didn't want to mess with that part, and found a way to disable it). Depending on the script you run and what you have plugged into it, it can be a hot-rodded Hubin timer, a way to get gentle takeoffs with an Igor timer, or an engine sequencer.
$40
TUT-HR:
This is exactly what Howard has. It adds a 3-axis gyroscope to the TUT-FC. This enables the full functionality of Howard's FAI and AMA programs. With a TUT-HR you can do cutoff loops with an electric model, with or without using an Igor timer to set the airplane speed during the pattern. Moreover, the cutoff loop does not cut power right at the end of the loop, unless that's what you want: the cutoff loop starts a landing sequence that will carry the airplane through a pre-set number of laps, at a pre-set throttle setting. So, for instance, you can do a cutoff loop, then have the airplane go "lean" for exactly one high-speed lap, then cut off. All of the parameters are user-settable, so you can fine-tune where in the circle, and how, the airplane cuts off after you've done a cutoff loop.
$100
TUT:
The "full" TUT is still experimental at this point, so I'm not going to quote a price for it. This is just a teaser:
The full TUT is basically a TUT-HR with an accelerometer and logging capability added. The full TUT will do everything a TUT-HR does, and it will log gyro readings, accelerometer readings, and anything that happens on the I/O ports. At the moment I'm using it for gathering flight data: at some point in the future I hope to start using the accelerometer during flight to regulate the airplane's speed and out-Igor Igor's timer, both for electric and IC planes. I haven't gotten there yet, so consider this wishful thinking.
As I said, there's no price, but when I get the latest version done I may be willing to give a very few away for free in return for flight data. I don't have any details on this yet -- mostly I want data from people flying better planes than I have, and maybe people flying with pipes and/or super-zoot stunt engines. You'd have to have some nutso-enthusiasm to pursue this on an IC plane, because with a piped, full-fuselage ship you pretty much have to build an electronics bay into the wing someplace, and I don't think there's many out there that have that at the moment.