Here is a guy who modded a Blade IV VIP 8.5m and it looks pretty good. I'd like to see it in a little stronger wind and with more room, but ... nice!

cheaper to make homemade... but probably difficult. Even applying and tuning ready made is likely difficult.

They( http://www.paraflysurf.ch/) recommend you send to them to attach and tune.

The prices:shocked2::

- UDS-III ( Softkite Power Management System ) : 130,- EUR($200US)

- UDS-Kite-Conversion : 50,- EUR

- UDS-Kite-Tuning : 50,- EUR

My VIP is now sporting a homemade UDS. Took a couple of flights to get it set-up but it now flies with de-power.
Full de-power kite flies a lot faster through the window, generating the power with speed, with less lift when sent up.
Full power kite is slower but generates more power.

First flight I just concentrated on making sure the A/B/C changes were as they should be. Second flight sorted the brake to UDS line length.

UDS prior to fitting:


First flight all fitted, static flying with handles:


From the initial flights I've had there is no detrimental effects or compromises to the flying, now I can control the speed / power

Any formula for making UDS? I suppose there's different dimentions for kites based on brand model and size?

Looks fairly simple once you know how...disregarding the fine tuning after.

Is it a pair of what is pictured you use?Brake and power lines both connect to one UDS?

It's intersting, very practical.... but still havent grasped the whole dynamics of it yet.

Can you also take a kite that is NOT a lifty kite and make it lifty with this UDS(or another style), but adjusted alternatively(AOA) :puzzled:

*I'm sure the set up, dynamics have been discussed in old thread.......... but damned to find all that.

First off the UDS it's self is generic. The Blade has four groups of bridles A/B/C for the AoA and D for the brakes, so it needed to cater for three bridle points plus brake line. The lines are not done by formula as they can be pretty much any length you want as long as it's long enough to work. The critical thing is that when the brake/power lines are together the A/B/C lines are the same length.
I have also set two limits to match the standard blade AoA adjuster which was +/- 2.5cm.

Try this link it shows a five bridle UDS. http://www.enrighthome.fsnet.co.uk/page3.htm

The picture shows just one side there is another one in blue :-)

As for making a kite lifty I don't see any reason why not but would depend on the kite.

Brilliant! Thanks, bigE! Now I know what my next project will be. What line did you use for the UDS? I just got some 500lb Spectra and also some 400lb blueline. Think either of those would do the trick? Been thinking a lot about the blade lately, too. Great timing!

I used 3mm dyneema 450kg. Maybe a bit of an overkill but I did n't want to introduce a weak link. Plus a knot in a line can half the breaking strain so don't skimp. I ordered 10m of red and 10m of blue, I probably used @7m of each. I used Riley RM302 pulleys but have also used Ronstan kite bridle pulley blocks.

Good luck let me know if you need any other advice

Just measured my UDS to give you an idea of my set-up:
88cm from power line end to A bridle end
27cm from power line end to the knot where the other two pulleys join.

Looking at the pic bottom lhs is the power line end, rhs bottom (with the loop) is the "A" bridle point
The second looped piece is a stop to prevent overpower.
Black/yellow line top is the brake line, where it joins the red line that is the stop for limiting low AoA and stopping the kite overflying.

Line acquired. Operation blaDepower commencing.

Good luck :D drop me a u2u if you need any advice or post it up so everyone can see.

Hrm... I went a completely different direction with my UDS. I took a ton of pictures, but let me see if it flies tomorrow. You didn't rewire the A,B, and C bridles Arty all, did you? I went back and forth, but I finally settled on leaving the stock bridle config intact, just rewiring the ABC terminators to my UDS bridle.

Also, before doing this, I never realized that the cross line (from C5 to the A bundle) was adjustable! It seems the blade has entire personalities I have yet to explore. Anyway, I'll post pics tomorrow as I finish wiring everything up.

All bridling remains "stock" the UDS is connected to the ends of the bridles:
This is the AAA that was fitted, which is now replaced with the UDS :

My UDS replaced the AAA with no bridle mods, the pics of my UDS shows one end (plus the limit line) with a loop (for the "A" bridle) and two with knots, you'll see above why that is.

Yeah, that's what I did also, but I considered modding the bridle to be in rows. Then I figured flexifoil knows their trade, so I left it alone. However, rather than replacing the AAA with real time adjustable AAA, I went for a full depower approach that adjusts full AoA like some of my other depowers. I'll post pics in just a few. This could be the worst idea I've ever had, but we we'll know shortly

Still alive and it worked pretty much as intended, but not as depowerable on handles as I had hoped. I'll try it again with a bar on the beach in a few days, but I think the general premise worked. Still working on getting my photos up somewhere (who do you use, BigE?). The premise is this:

The entire kite pivots off the A bridle, which is tied directly to the power lines. Then, when you apply brake line pressure, D gets most of the force, C gets 1/2 of D and B gets 1/2 of C, and the travel distance diminishes accordingly.

It worked okay, but the "bar pressure" while using handles was almost more than I could handle in 16mph winds. Oh, and it was still incredibly lifty at the top of the window, but that's what a Blade is all about. I could sheet out and dump some of that power, but not as much as I wanted to.

Brave man doing a test flight in 16mph winds!! I use http://photobucket.com for my image hosting, there are plenty who do free image hosting but I've not had any problems with them. Be interesting to see what you have done. I don't think you'd ever get the full de-power range of a pure de-power kite, but what you should get is a kite you can trim on the fly giving some de-power to cater for surges or lulls in the wind.