Quick reminder. Check your user data location setting! It’s found under
My Account -> Edit -> User Information -> User Data Location

I came across a member whose e-mail address was something like joe@ohioelectricpower.com and was using a user data location of Europe. Not good! Not only is the user data stored there, but the calculator and tutorials are downloaded from that location, too. You make a wrong choice, and the load speed for the calculator and tutorials is cut in half. Ouch!

The U.S.-based calculator is working fine for me now. Given the nature of the problem, it could be a couple more hours before it works for everyone.

A network error was keeping the United States - based calculator from working. My web hosting company just fixed the problem, but it’ll be another 4-6 hours before the problem is completely behind us.

In the meantime, the Europe server is working fine. To use it, change the User Data Location setting under ‘My Account’. Don’t forget to change it back tomorrow!

Sorry for the inconvenience.

RC Sport Flyer magazine just honored us by mentioning the website in their ‘Hot Products’ section. It’s in their August 2008 issue, which I just got in the mail.

A month ago, Ken Myers mentioned the website in his popular Ampeer newsletter. Thanks!

Marketing activities have kept me pretty busy the last couple of months. The good news there is that the number of website users continues to explode. The even better news is that I’m working my way back to development activities.

A website member from Italy mentioned that the calculator did not support some units that are commonly used in Europe. I just released a new version of the calculator that corrects this deficiency.

Another website member wanted to see a wizard to help beginners. Thinking it through carefully, it seems to me that a wizard would just be there to help you set the filters before running the PowerEnergy per unit of time. Common units include the watt and horsepower. System Optimizer. That doesn’t make any sense to me. But a new tutorial that guides a beginner in the process would be helpful. Look for this soon.

I’m declaring that the discussion forums are out of the beta test period.

There is only one potential snag: if you registered more than a week ago and cookies have kept you logged in, the forum software may not know who you are. To fix this, you need to go back to the main RCadvisor.com web site, logout, and login again. This triggers a copying of your user data to the forums.

I put a brief help line at the top of each web page in the forums about this. I’m also adding an FAQ. Other than that, the forums are working great.

I just made the first release of user-entered data (300+ components). I also released a few more motors and a couple hundred more airfoils. I haven’t done anything to validate the user data - caveat emptor.

I’m launching what I’ll call a beta version of the discussion forums. They’re beta because I’m still testing them and tweaking the settings.

The discussion forums run as an entirely separate application. A bridging module synchronizes the user registration and profile data. This is supposed to happen transparently, but you may have to log-out and log back in to trigger the copying. As always, please do not hesitate to let me know if you run into problems.

The discussion forums have been badly needed. I’ve had many private 1-on-1 email discussions with site members that really should have occurred in a public forum. We’ve built a large and rapidly growing community here, and it is time to start helping each other learn how to make our models fly better.

Two highly anticipated new features were released this month.

Six new online tutorials cover basic through advanced features. I think it’s fair to say that everyone can learn something here, so I urge all members to look at them. Of course, they run inside the Adobe Flash platform. They all feature lots of visuals and clear descriptions. The beta testers loved them!

The PowerEnergy per unit of time. Common units include the watt and horsepower. System Optimizer has been out for a couple of weeks now. Carefully tuned for speed, it analyzes 40,000 configurations per second on my desktop. A tutorial covers the nuances of this powerful feature.

The number of components (i.e., motors, airfoils, etc.) in the system database is now in the thousands. As usual, there are many more new website and calculator features this month. Look at blog entries and the tutorial for hints of what they were.

With the release of the tutorials, I’m retiring the survey. Several of you took the time to complete the survey and I’m grateful.

RCadvisor.com is now definitely ready for ‘prime time’. Just two months after the launch announcement and with little advertising, there are already hundreds of website members. I’ve prepared a press release that I will be distributing worldwide. I’m adding the press release to the website as a blog entry. If you know of a club or organization that might benefit from hearing about us, please either forward the press release or just let me know. Thanks!

Albuquerque, NM—May 6—RCadvisor.com launched on January 1, 2008 with Calculator SE, an advanced free online calculator for model airplane building and design. Calculator SE features an electric power system optimizer, a virtual wind tunnel, a scale model sizing tool, and a real-time airfoil analyzer. Running on multiple platforms, it incorporates features distilled from the latest usability research. According to founder and lead developer Carlos Reyes, “Ease of use is the primary design goal, but accuracy has not been compromised.”

Ease of Use is the Primary Design Goal

Calculator SE uses ToolTips to provide help on highlighted entry fields, when it has advice to give, or to indicate an invalid entry. An online tutorial guides the user through common tasks. Twenty-five interactive graphs highlight trends at a glance. Graphs and results are recalculated automatically with every data edit, encouraging experimentation and speeding up the learning process.

Designed as a set of workbenches, each component (motors, airfoils, etc.) can be analyzed independently. A consistent layout for each workbench makes knowledge transfer easy. More advanced workbenches for airplanes and power systems combine multiple components together.

Accuracy has not been Compromised

Dennis from Tracy, California says “Wow, that’s a pretty nice calculator. I input my TwinJet at my altitude and average temperature, and the max speed (level flight) is almost exactly what I measured! Very nice, and Great Job!”

Advanced Design and Features

The calculator and extensive component database reside on fast server networks in the United States and Europe. The calculator is no larger than popular homepages and loads very quickly. The user’s data is saved every three minutes to the same server networks to prevent data loss.

The calculator requires no installation and runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It is very fast - the power system optimizer can analyze 40,000 configurations every second.

About RCadvisor.com

RCadvisor’s goal is to help individuals design and build better flying model aircraft through the use of an advanced free online model airplane calculator. Founding RCadvisor.com in 2007, Carlos Reyes has had lifelong love affairs with airplanes and computers. He holds a Private Pilot-Glider Certificate from the FAA and has enjoyed flying model airplanes for many years. A Computer Science degree from Columbia University and 25 years of experience prepared him well to tackle programming the calculator.