RC Planes

Yeah it does actually - I did a charge earlier but I didn't think to look at how many mAh used. I've got another one to charge - using in parallel which must be why there's plenty left - so will see how much it soaks up. Is there any loss in how many mAhs used vs how many are put back in?

Those Genace seem to be the best by some margin looking at that graph. I have some Turnigy ones as well; not sure how those stack up.

When you gonna get your stuff back in the air saitrix? Would be cool to see your stuff flying about. :cool:
 
I've been doing a bit of reading before work on the old props/motor/thrust/amps/watts combos out there, and it all seems a bit open ended. Basically not as simple as I hoped. :p

I was looking at something that would provide 1kg of thrust (just out of interest on www.Flybrushless.com), but the speed is only 60mph, where as a less 'powerful' setup with a smaller prop provides much faster speed - 116mph but 500g of thrust.

I thought it might be a case of whop on a bigger motor, with a bigger prop and you'd go faster, but as you're doing less RPM with a bigger prop, you might get more thrust but I'm guessing as the speed is lower, you won't necessarily go any faster. Is that right?

Where do you start? My plane with 2 x 3s 2200mAh is about 1.4kg. I haven't tried it with the 2212-6 motor on a calm day yet, but am sure it'll be fine, but if I wanted even more speed, where should I look first? Alternatively, given this is a large glider like thingy as taggart is saying, if I wanted sheer longevity of flight, am I better off with lower speed but more thrust? Confusing. :p

I'm not sure this is a long-term reliable 900watt solution that you'd be after saitrix, as it only weighs 120g or so, but there's a video here that reviews the motor with 3s/4s battery setups and it pushes 925 watts with a 4s battery. Not sure about the speed though. ;)

Makes me tempted to get some new batteries, however. :p

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15169__NTM_Prop_Drive_Series_35_36A_1800Kv_875w.html

 
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Yeah, I thought it might be opening a can of worms. :p I'll try and digest that later - I'd be interested in the website you refer to. When I first started looking at this stuff everything looked complicated, and the more you look into it... the more complicated it actually is. :eek:

I got my 808 #16 camera through the post today. Thought it was coming from China but it actually came from Switzerland, which must be why it only took a couple of weeks. I've got a 4gb card for it, and after just a few test videos it seems to eat up about 1meg/minute, so I've got an hour. About right considerin the battery only lasts 40 minutes.

Annoyingly the camera inside isn't quite lined up with the case. It points dead ahead, which some apparently don't, but it's on the wonk from left to right, so I'll need to make sure I mount it properly to get a level view. Might be a bit finnickety.

If I can get out in the next couple of days - looking out it seems the weather is taking a turn for the worse - I'll get some videos up. :)
 
Ok, a little update titled "Bugger". :p

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By alexthecheese at 2012-02-23

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By alexthecheese at 2012-02-23

Got my little video camera on it so managed to get some footage, but all the way through the first flight - lesson learned here - it was constantly banking to the left, despite the trim set full to the right. Maybe it was the batteries shifting to one side, or something else I didn't spot, but I repositioned the batteries for the 2nd flight, it went up, it banked left, it was 90 degrees to the ground and smacked into the floor.

A fairly large chunk has come off, which I have, and my camera went flying. Found that also, thankfully, so I do have the bit of footage that I didn't manage to get.

The insides are a bit battered also, the batteries ripped through the wooden structure inside that I was using to hold the batteries in place. Thankfully the rest of it is alright - the fuselage is fine, and the other half of the wing is also OK. The elevator has had a small corner knocked off, but I'm not worried about that.

So... now to repair mode. :D What glue can I get? I am figuring that with some appropriate glue and some new stiffening rods to bolster the wing back to full strength. Anything else that would work?

The only real issue is that the aileron has ripped away from the plane - not sure how I'm going to fix that. Hopefully you can see on the 2nd image that it's a single mould and it's pressed in a line to give the hinge. Perhaps some kind of tape or some such? If I can get the wing tip back on and sorted that will be the only thing that prevents me from returning to the sky.

Shoddy youtube clip (just uploading) from what I did get. Nice close up of my nuts at the start. Didn't realise I had a rip in my jeans there... LOL. I'm sure you'll all enjoy that. :D

Also hopefully it'll be able to fix the stuttering in the file... I'm using the AVI firmware rather than the MOV firmware (to get it into VirtualDub) but it produces annoying stutters throughout. :o
 
What I mean is the ailerons are ripped from the wing, but they're actually part of the wing. So I'm not sure how to reattach them, or fix where it's ripped away.

Here's a Youtube clip - two touch downs! One that glanced the floor - 3:53 completely unintentional but was well chuffed. :D

The second (5:22) was so hard at the floor it bounced back up another 10 feet before it fell back down again. Not even sure why I managed to hit the floor so hard, maybe something had moved in and around because it did decide to go down and not want to go back up. :p


Go to 32 seconds in if you don't want to start at my crotch for 30 seconds. :o

Here's the actual wing-destroying crash. It stops just before but you get the idea of what is going to happen. ;)

 
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Surgical tape saitrix?! That is really expensive stuff!! I think I'll try the clear packing tape. :D

Thanks for the replies. It doesn't bother me crashing and having to repair, I just want to know why it went like that in the first place. It must've been because of the batteries moving about.. it's never been quite right and I think I've paid the price.

Also being impatient as my Dad was there and I was feeling rushed to get it up in the air. I think I'll go by myself for a bit until I'm a bit more experienced.

I did think about cocktail sticks actually - I'll give that a go. I have contact adhesive, is that any good?
 
Magic_x_uk said:
pack the batteries in tight with foam if you have too so they do not move around.
Click to expand...

That... is a very good idea. I'll do that. :cool: I am thinking of removing the front wooden structure within as it only serves to make things more awkward. If I can sort roughly where the CofG is, I can stick in some foam inside and then use some spacers to allow it to be positioned depending if I have anything on the nose.

Pred said:
Alex, looking at those vids it appears to be all over the place as you seemed to be fighting it looking at the low level passes.

Was the centre of gravity correct? Tail heavy is very bad.

Was it trimmed correctly?

Did you have some expo to help soften centre stick?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was fighting it all the time actually. :o The first time I went out it was easy, really relaxed flying. I trimmed it up and when flying along it didn't take any movement at all.

Thinking about it, would it be the motor? After the old one ejected itself from the plane, I put a new motor on it. I managed to fark up the shaft and introduced some play into it. So it's off balance. It still gives plenty of thrust and doesn't shake like crazy, but could it be that?

Alternatively it is just the CofG and I just didn't pay enough attention to it. Doh. :(
 
Yeah I set it up with the camera on it, in my house, then transported it down in one piece, put batteries on and it was flying like a pig.

I think the flaps might have been cocking it up, I noticed earlier that one is slightly higher than the other.

Would the motor affect it? I'm gonna get a new one anyway I think, only £9.
 
Yeah no sorry I mean just plugged them in. They were in there whilst I was balancing it, just connected them up.

How do you tell if the CofG is balanced left to right?

Just hold it down the middle?

No, it was far from level when letting go of the controls. :(
 
I'll nip down B&Q and get me a glue gun later. Think we have some cocktail sticks downstairs. :)

I was looking earlier at the plane and some chunks of foam have come out of the unerside where the fixings have ripped through. I'll go to town with glue and some kind of washers to spread the load across the two wings and just fix them together permanently.

I think what had happened to make everything skew whiff is that the wings had been previously damaged in some of my earlier landings and the wings weren't facing straight forwards with the plane. The reviews did mention that the fixings were a weak point, so if I can fix the tip and get the wings fixed where they meet the fuselage and fix them together (two parts to the wings) then I should be OK.

Hopefully I can get it flying the way it used to, as when it was first up, with the old motor, and as you can see in my earlier youtube video, it was stable and easy to fly. I guess this is now part of the learning curve, actually setting it up properly rather than being a bit lucky with it in the first place. :)

EDIT: Also, I'm reading that lots of people are actually recommending Contact Adhesive for EPO foam... will it really melt it? :confused: Some say it does, some say it does not. Hmm...
 
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My charger can do 6s and is rated to 50watts.

How do you connect the balance leads when in series?

My head is starting to ache thinking about all this stuff... :o

.... I think I've sussed it. A female 2 x 3s jst to male 6s adaptor and a series power cable. Phew. That took a lot of mental stress. :o :p
 
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How big is that plane Taggart? Looks like mine, but way more versatile.

I need to get mine back in the air. I ended up using Contact Adhesive on the wings to fix them back together....... err. Well, all looked fine at first. :p

I had previously glued a piece of rubber onto the foam canopy and it all looked fine, so thought it must be OK. I then proceeded to lather up the wing in contact adhesive, both sides, shove in a few cocktail sticks and then squish together.

Everything looked fine, so I got a piece of foam from our hoover box, cut it out as a camera mount that I could shape and stick to the aforementioned piece of rubber. I thought it looked weird, as if it was starting to build a recess into the foam, and then I sat there for a minute watching as it ate it's way through the whole piece of foam. :eek: it must've been about an inch think and it just carried on its merrily way until the foam cheese wedge was barely there at all. :D

I then started to panic about my wings... I thought everything was fine, it definitely was stuck where it had broke. I had also glued the two wings together, so it was stronger. I don't mind it being one large wing as it's not ridiculously big and I could see that the screws were taking chunks out of the foam each time I had a crash. Poor design really.

However on closer inspection... not good. I didn't notice it but the foam itself had turned squishy and was no longer hard. Oh ****. A day later it was still the same - everything was glued, but a good centimetre each side was squishy. :(

So with it being squishy, I started putting some carbon rods into the foam that came through the post (must stop ordering from GiantCod... :o). I just rammed it sideways through the foam ... seems to do the trick. :D Some bits had popped out, but it's fine.

Now, however... the wing has returned to being hard. Phew... bit risky, thought that I had collossaly cocked up the wings in the most important areas - where it was already broken and where it's secured to the fuselage. :o It does now seem to be tough, particularly with the carbon rods forced into it.

I've also worked out a way of securing the batteries. I've taken out the wooden board that was in there, and had smashed to pieces in the crash, and cut little holes in the fuselage that I can pass cable ties through and secure the batteries with. Works a treat. What I want to do is get some washers to reinforce the holes with, though, as I can see the batteries pulling the cable ties through the fuselage in a crash.

But yeah, enough blurb... hopefully should be flying again this Friday, if the weather is good. Should be able to get some better onboard video if I set it up properly this time. :o
 
Yeah I know, I wasn't looking for sympathy as I know I didn't deserve any. :p

I am slightly concerned that the wing will be off balance. It's certainly not the right shape anyway! It's higher on the side that has broken, when I lay it flat on the floor. I guess I'll just have to give it a go and see how far I get on. I'll check the balance and CofG many times before I dare take it out. I do want to get some decent footage onboard still... :o

Your plane is only 20cm shorter in wingspan Taggart but does look like it is far more nimble, I'm quite surprised.

Going back to having pull/pull on the servos for the rudder/elevator, where do I get the long metal rods to set this up? I've had a look on GiantCod but I can't think of what I should be searching for.

Do you think I could cobble something together with a carbon rod I have? They are stiff and extremely light...?
 
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saitrix said:
Alex,
Are you storing your lipo's at 3.8v per cell?
Click to expand...

Err, no... good point.

They haven't been used for a week or so now, so when should I discharge them for storage? Forgot that I needed to do that.

Gonna try and get out tomorrow so will probably discharge them tomorrow night. This weekend I will be digging footings for a shed.... :o ;)
 
saitrix said:
Yeah you should, does your charger have a lipo storage setting?

Edit - Got all the stuff for my Dads Estarter today, impressive amount of accessories with the motor considering it was only £8.50! People have been getting decent efficiency, but I can't help thinking about rewinding the motor with looking at it. I already have some motor winding wire sitting about...
Click to expand...

Which motor is it saitrix? The 2212-06 that I'm also running? The wiring on mine looks all over the shop.

I got the new one the other day and fitted it and realised it wasn't the motor that's knackered, it was the gripping mount for the shaft that I had bent and put out of balance.

Weather is turning so I am either going to get out this afternoon or try tomorrow morning.
 
Ha, cool lawnmower. ;)

I will give the pull pull a go when I get some time... :o Not had a chance to do anything of late.

Well, yesterday I remembered that I had ordered a cable to connect my batteries in series.... :cool:

So, I hook it up, and yes. It's actually quite terrifying. I did a quick test with scales and whilst trying as best as I could to not interfere with the results, only guiding the plane rather than contributing to the force, I stuck it on scales and it measured about 2.2kg of thrust.

:o

I was quite worried that the propeller would fly off and cut my jugular, as it was really quite terrifying, so gave it a rest. I did put it on the floor and whopped up the throttle for a brief second just to watch it tear across the floor like a madman. :eek:

So yeah, I know the motor won't be able to handle it, but I do have two of them and a 60amp ESC, so next time I go out I might see how it flies. I reckon it'll be easier to launch, if the motor can handle more than a few seconds of throttle. :D

EDIT... and here's a video:


Bit silly I know. :o
 
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Wassup dogs.

Gonna get back into this - got over excited about getting into planes, smashed it up and then didn't return to it - despite spending quite a lot of money on it. :)

I think the problem was focussing too much on FPV, and not having the cash to support it.

What about a cheap park flyer/3D plain? I have everything - TX/RX, charger, batteries and what not. Also got a motor that I can use, which is pretty potent, so could use that also.

Something cheap, possibly from the UK? Alternatively I'll just wait for a few years for stuff to arrive from HobbyKing. :p
 
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