RC Planes

I don't really know what it comes with. Cheap crap screwdriver I think, but I just wondered if you guys knew anywhere cheap and reliable as it's kinda in the vicinity of RC planes. I need to get a set to prise open my iPhone 3G with as it's knackered.
 
Really. Very cool. Slightly jealous now as yours is significantly cheaper than mine. :D

You'll need that Smartieparts board to make the most of it though, have you ordered that? That only took a few days to get here though, so I guess you can wait to order that.

Mine is still in customs, so more waiting for me too! Woo! :o
 
That's the one I was first looking at when I started this thread. I went for an entirely different one that's all foam. The others are probably better placed to help you...

...as mine still hasn't left customs! :mad: Argh! It's in their international hub thing since Monday. It's starting to drive me batty. :p

Date Time Location Tracking Event
09-02-2012 11:22 International Hub Awaiting Customs clearance
08-02-2012 08:15 International Hub Received and processed
06-02-2012 14:03 International Hub Awaiting Customs clearance
06-02-2012 14:02 International Hub Received in destination country
02-02-2012 17:45 Delivery Agent - HONG KONG - PTT Forwarded for export
01-02-2012 15:58 Delivery Agent - HONG KONG Collected from customer
Click to expand...

BusError, can you just whazz a 2s battery in the 9x and wire it up? Will it be OK?
 
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Cheers BusError, I'll be doing that. Do you have a link or a description of what I voltage convertor I need? DC-DC thingy? I can add that to my shopping list.

My package has finally cleared customs. Surprise surprise, I'm due to pay the charges. Who'd have thought it? :p

Does mean it'll be another week before it arrives, bit of a shame. Unless there's some serious bargains to be had from HobbyKing, I might just stick with UK/EU shops from now on.

Date Time Location Tracking Event

13-02-2012 04:16 International Hub Forwarded for UK processing
13-02-2012 04:16 International Hub Received from Customs - charges to be paid
09-02-2012 11:21 International Hub Awaiting Customs clearance
08-02-2012 08:15 International Hub Received and processed
06-02-2012 14:03 International Hub Awaiting Customs clearance
06-02-2012 14:02 International Hub Received in destination country
02-02-2012 17:45 Delivery Agent - HONG KONG - PTT Forwarded for export
01-02-2012 15:58 Delivery Agent - HONG KONG
Click to expand...

Also, quite handily, I found an old small 15" TV in our cupboards over the weekend, and it runs off 12v. I also amazingly found my old 12v adapter, found the right plug, got some suitable cable and got it running off a spare car battery we have. Works perfectly and will be ideal for FPV shennanigans.
 
Yeah, you're probably right arknor. Just didn't realise it'd take this long to get the goodies. ;)

I will/am still waiting on my batteries, which will be frustrating. Might just get one from Giantcod in the meantime to tide me over. Anybody had anything shipped from HobbyKing when it wasn't a tracked parcel? They shipped it straight from their warehouse.

BusError, can you use a 3s battery in the 9x's?
 
Well my stuff arrived today, went and picked it up from Parcelforce - £8 handling fee for Customs etc.

Thing is... how the hell do I work it? :p I have just been building it (the instructions are pitiful, haven't any idea what screws should be used where) but I've got a bit stuck towards the back - there are two servo arms that need to meet with the horns, but they come outside of the fuselage in the same place either side at the back. One is presumably for the rudder, the other the wing on the tail?

I'm really not even sure actually.

Also the throttle when plugged into the receiver only works for half the throttle (top half) and doesn't appear to spin that fast. Presumably that's a mix that needs looking at?
 
Cheers. Have just reprogrammed the ESC and yes. Now it works properly. :cool: Even with the stock motor and an 8x4 prop I am amazed at how much air it pushes through. Had the motor area in my hand, as it detaches from the plane, and as I throttled up it almost left my grip and munched my fingers. :eek: Won't be doing that again.

And that's the stock motor, so the one I've already got as an upgrade should be even better. :cool:
 
Lol saitrix. I was almost as unlucky as you. :p

Plane is built, Esc programmed (though it seems to keep forgetting the range) and I've got the stickers on. ;)

Looks pretty cool. Weighs in at 1.2kgs with a 2200mah battery and the stock Esc and whatnot.

My batteries came with Dean plugs, handy, but the charger is something else. Also came with clips so I managed to squeeze them in against the Dean connector and got them charging. I think I need to get some bullet plugs and get some soldering on so I can get my new motor working.

I'll post some photos tomorrow about the other stuff at the back. Not sure I've done it right.

Also, do you mix the elevators with the ailerons? Doesn't seem like the elevator is big enough to make much of a difference. :p
 
Lol. Fair enough. I will remove that mix from my setup then. :D I was quite proud of myself for doing that, I imagined it would somehow be more reactive.

I spotted the two cg points under the wings and held it up earlier like that. Get your point about the leverage of the elevator being right at the back. Shuffling the battery right to the front got me just about right, even then perhaps a little tail heavy. Should I be heading for completely neutral?

I've noticed the ailerons aren't quite even in their range. One moves higher up than the other, but only slightly. The rudder is also the same, moves one way more easily than the other. Do you need only one servo for the rudder? And elevator?

Finally I currently have 5 channels set up, with the ailerons using two. Surprised that it was so easy to do, just plugged stuff in until the right stick movement did the right thing and all seemed good. :p

Won't get to use it until Friday, but I have the day off then so should be able to get some good practise in. :cool:
 
Riiiggght... I wondered what the ribbon was for. I was going to attach it to the back of the plane. :D

img9865.jpg

By alexthecheese at 2012-02-16

Fully built. Looks much more interesting with the stickers on. :p Bit wonky in places though, but nevermind. Please excuse the sofabed colours, it was given to us when we moved into our house. :cool:



img9855lszkuo.jpg

By alexthecheese at 2012-02-16

Bendy linkage. Is this right? Coudn't figure it out any other way. It looked like I had the choice of doing the reverse of my setup, as both sides of the rudder and elevators have the same area to attach the horns (I think they're horns?).



img9853v.jpg

By alexthecheese at 2012-02-16

Then this is a close-up of them both. The rudder looks skewed there to one side, but from further away it doesn't look too bad. It pushes better than pulls, the rudder. I think. I'll just check... no, it pulls better than it pushes. Is this a case of resetting the servo position by just turning it off, saitrix?
 
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Cheers - which way do you think it'll bind? Down to the right, or pushing to the left?

OK, no movement seems to be restricted either way by the horn or the foam itself. It's actually fairly pronounced - trying to take a photo of it but it's difficult to get it to show. Probably about 25-30% difference from pulling to pushing?
 
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Thanks guys.

I thought it might be the metal bending - I'll have to check out getting a carbon spar to stop it flexing. I could mount a servo at the end, but if it's external it'd look a mess and if it's internal it would mean cutting the fuselage. I'd probably royally screw it up.

Pull-pull would be a good idea. I have enough servos - 4 on the plane and another 6 (people were moaning in the reviews that they're rubbish so I bought enough to replace them all... now I'm thinking that was a little excessive :o), so I could always beef the rudder up with another long spar thingy.

Also because I have a load of servos spare I can set the flaps up! Woop. I was thinking I'll need a y-connector in the future as they'll eat up another 2 channels. 5 channels with the individual ailerons and another 2 for the flaps. I could really cut it down to 4 channels inc. ailerons and 5 with flaps, I guess? Is there any need to keep the channels down to a minimum? Probably not?

My 2nd order arrived today, the extra batteries. Now I've have 6 x 2200mah 3s batteries and the right connectors to charge them. Whey. :cool: :p
 
Yes saitrix, first plane. Just can't stop faffing about with it. :p

I won't bother farting around with the rudder any longer, though maybe I can go down the pull/pull route later on - didn't twig you could do that. That's what the double ended servo arms are for... yaa.

One thing I would like to know is if it's possible to reset the servo so that it only goes in one direction - like full travel in one direction, and not half travel either way, if that makes sense.

I have gone and started putting flaps in (:o), and the distance is only the same as the ailerons. I'm thinking as they'll only be working in one direction, I could set the servo to have maximum throw in just pushing the flaps down. Is that possible? Is it on the transmitter, or on the servo somehow?

Also I need to reflash the 9x as the firmware is different to the guy in the youtube video I posted a while back. His version looks much better and I can't understand what he's doing on his as mine is different in a couple of key areas. I want to be able to put the flaps on a switch, for example, but it's different when he does it.
 
Ha, depending on how today goes that might be all I'm capable of doing. :p

Sorted the centre of gravity today. Securing the battery inside was a bit of an arse, to get right balance I need two 2200mah batteries, but mounted a few inches from the end of the nose. One battery left it massively tail happy.

Everything seems to be sorted now, got everything looking straight so now it's time to give it a go. Let's see how many times I crash it...
 
Well had an hour piddling about earlier and had some really good flights!

The centre of gravity thing with just one battery would not work, the wings were set up asthey should be but one battery wasn't heavy enough to bring the nose past horizontal. Two batteries were better, but I then spent ages trying to sort out the balance with those. Had to strap then together with tape the use Velcro to position them just-so.

Many launches ended up with me just throwing it into the floor. Perhaps because of the extra weight, and the motor going dodgy - explain in a sec - it didn't have an awful lot of power to get going. The motor ended up dismounting itself from the plane JUST as I was landing!! I'll put up photos tomorrow but it completely left the mount. :D Prior to that though it was weaving about in it's mount and made progressively more noise until it finally exited the plane lol.

Otherwise it flew pretty damn well to be honest. I only used the two batteries, not sure how much, but it didnt falter - though when doing a huge dive from way high up it refused to react properly. Would it have been the servos not being able to provide enough force? Was a bit scary, would've really smashed it up at one point if it weren't for a gust of wind to blow it level again. :p

Very cool though. Proper chuffed. :)
 
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Yeah taking off into wind. First couple of times I didn't though. :p

Here's a video of me actually launching it properly - this was preceded by me throwing it into the floor 5 times in a row:


Fixed the new 2212-06 motor to it last night. The mount itself is actually OK, but a little pin or screw that held the motor in disappeared and meant the motor just exited at the back. The new motor has MUCH more thrust - almost ridiculously so - the sound it makes when revving is just insane. :cool:

2212-06 motor:

 
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lol yeah, the trees were coming up pretty quickly at the end. :p

I will order one of those later, I also need a voltage meter always available, which I think I'll mount externally so I can look at it when it lands.

Took it out earlier and didn't have much fun with it cos it was so damn windy. Didn't realise how windy it was until we got to the park and there were a bunch of huge kites flying about. I think that if I didn't have the uprated motor then it would not have made any headway against the wind. It also just limited me to flying into the wind at full throttle and then back again.

I'll be flying again in the week when it's calmer. Didn't really enjoy it much today, particularly as it was so ruddy cold. I almost slammed it into the floor attempting to land and my fingers were like icicles after the freezing wind.
 
GenAce are the ones I got from GiantCod. What do the better/more expensive ones offer you? Longer life?

What is the voltage of a fully-discharged Lipo btw? After running the plane yesteday in strong wind with lots and lots of full throttle, and also the first time I took it out with the stock motor, the voltage drops to about 11.2-5v. What is the lowest I can go?

Also, after yesterday's faffing about trying to set up the plane in the park I am definitely going to have to tidy up the cables and sort out a means of easily securing batteries. Took about 20 minutes in the freezing wind trying to get it right.
 
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