Please take a look at the vid which Armin has made about how to do a mixer test, short or long.
It should not be done with one single stake for front and back line.
Two stakes, one for front and one for back, put them little apart.
I do them 5-10cm apart, align A and Z, then adjust Band C so all is equal again.
Fly the kite, all good leave it that way, not good? --> shorten C with 1cm, B will follow with 2:1. repeat if neccessary
I would think that my approach is equivalent to the two stakes (in fact Armin says as much, he just proposes the two stakes as a method to get around the fact that the A and Z row probably no longer are equally long):
I attach the front and steering lines together, but with an offset to one of them, putting the knots on the kite on the A and Z row at equal distances from the fixed point. As I do this for both sides simultaneously it also makes it easy to look for asymmetry.
But I shall give it a go with the two stakes .
This looks fine to me. If you use two stakes then you have to make sure that you do the test at exactly the same angle to the stakes as when you lined up A and Z - so plenty of room for error.
Im picking up again the discussion from the posts just behind:
Is there anyone that can report that the long mixertest actually made their Soul fly "like new"?
I have plenty of feedback from people that have had similar experiences to me - that the mixertest does not account for how the bridal lines shrink unequally. When I did the long mixertest it was because I had had the kite for a while, and because I kite a lot in marginal conditions, where keeping the kite in the air and squeezing out every bit of performance mattered. According to the test I made both the B and C row several cms longer, meaning that the test would suggest that the bridals on those rows had shrunk more than the others. The change made the kite useless, but I have restored it by gradually making the B-row shorter again, and also slightly the C-row.
I am in other words learning about how the whole thing works, and what I come to is:
The long mixertest seems like a too simplistic approach. What would be helpful is a table with descriptions of faulty behaviors, and corresponding explanations of the mechanisms and remedies to pursue.
This my help with doing a mixer test correctly. Flysurfer is starting to give a "Trim Checker Tool" with the new Soul2 and it makes the process even easier. Check it out, wouldn't be hard to make your own as well.
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This my help with doing a mixer test correctly. Flysurfer is starting to give a "Trim Checker Tool" with the new Soul2 and it makes the process even easier. Check it out, wouldn't be hard to make your own as well.
Thanks, that's equivalent to what I do. My 10m was way more off than your 6m, in particular, the Z-row is about 5 cm shorter than the A-row. From what I heard some 10 m Soul come like that when they are new. What I can say is that for my kite the long mixertest is of no use. I am not the only one. I have learnt to tune the kite through observing the kite behaviour and trial and error, but as I started out with: it would be useful if there was a reference available with corresponding behaviours and explanations and remedies. I have also made a post about this on the FS thread on FB, and some useful tips have come in:
curious... the trim mixer checker is just one anchoring/pivot point
Actually it anchors to the bridle at two points(steering and center) but the tool itself has only one point for ease of use.
Curious because, sometimes, A and Z lines are so different that it's hard to realign them by just moving the adjustment rings. My 15m, in the left side, was so different that I could only realign A and Z by anchoring the lines 10cm apart and finding the point of convergence as per Armin's video on "Our Kite Life" YT channel. It seems the previous owner only jumped on the left side....
It could be that soul2 the b&c long mixer test marks are adjusted for the trimtool in single point anchor.
I think c sparepart line is 120cm total length so hypotenuse is 60cm. Now the short side if it is 0.1cm or 5cm comes the difference for the long side. Quickly calculating the difference is 0.2cm or 2mm so not much in 60cm distance. So I wonder FS teaching with two stakes lmt.
Thanks, that's equivalent to what I do. My 10m was way more off than your 6m, in particular, the Z-row is about 5 cm shorter than the A-row. From what I heard some 10 m Soul come like that when they are new. What I can say is that for my kite the long mixertest is of no use. I am not the only one. I have learnt to tune the kite through observing the kite behaviour and trial and error, but as I started out with: it would be useful if there was a reference available with corresponding behaviours and explanations and remedies. I have also made a post about this on the FS thread on FB, and some useful tips have come in:
This is why I like to reference the short mixer test before moving on to the long:to see if Z has shrunk. I've also have heard that FS is purposely doing this from the factory since the Soul likes up to 4cm shorter steering lines(Z level). I personally think this is not the way to go since as the kite ages, the Z level will shrink on its own. I rather have A/Z even from the factory and adjust your steering lines to preference at the bar. What I would do if I found the A/Z to be off at the mixer level is use pig tails on the Z to lengthen back to A. Of course this could be done at the bar by just extending the steering line to the same amount the Z is too short(do this by keeping the bar attached while doing the mixer test) but that's starting to complicate things, especially if the kite doesn't have its own dedicated bar.
Overall, I'm amazed by how little my mixer was off on my Soul1 6m with what I have put it through. I think the smaller the foil, the less the bridle will change.
joriws wrote:
It could be that soul2 the b&c long mixer test marks are adjusted for the trimtool in single point anchor.
The Soul1 and Soul2 have the exact same markings for both mixer tests.
Local Beach: Brancaster Norfolk 46 miles- just need a hard beach
Favorite Beaches: mablephorpe , cleephorpes uk-just need a hard beach
Style: landboarding with a petzl work harness
Gear: old blades and old flysurfer's , ckb/dex carbon landboards, modified airdeck and a home made snow board with barrel wheels ,soul's , spd5's. over 30ish old blades all set up to go ,i like a bit of old skool
Local Beach: Brancaster Norfolk 46 miles- just need a hard beach
Favorite Beaches: mablephorpe , cleephorpes uk-just need a hard beach
Style: landboarding with a petzl work harness
Gear: old blades and old flysurfer's , ckb/dex carbon landboards, modified airdeck and a home made snow board with barrel wheels ,soul's , spd5's. over 30ish old blades all set up to go ,i like a bit of old skool