Beginer needs help

[texguy10]

I am a newbie to the sailplane world. I just bought a Highlander foamie Kit.

The instructions on the kit fro Northeast Sail Planes is somewhat vauge about how to charge the Batteries I installed up in the nose cone area. (I have a Hitec 2 ss set up, for rudder and stablizer).

That battery i have up in the cone, has a switch on it and leads to the reciever. OK here is the question: How do I recharge those batteries? Do I have to somehow leave access to the reciever so that I can recharge the batteries from there? So that I have to unplug the lead and then plug it to the charger?

Help. I hope this made sense.

Gilbert

[Adam Neat]

Hi Gilbert and welcome;)
You should be able to get a switch that has a jack for the charger. You will have 3 jacks coming off the switch one for the battery to plug into, one goes to the reciever and one for a charger.
The Hitec 2ch usually come setup for alkaline batteries which may be why your switch is missing the charging jack. Are you runnung a nicad pack?
Adam

[onlyfingers]

Hi, texguy10.

Take your radio and battery to the store, and get a switch harness that fits your terminals.

The switch itself and the battery charger connector have to be accessible through the fabric. (Without a switch harness, you have to leave your battery/radio leads outside the plane and plug them into each other every time you fly.)

I dug a well to hold the switch for my Highlander, and cut a slit in the covering to reach it. When I want to turn it on, I stick a key through the slit and push forward. (More experienced builders install the switch so that pushing it backward to the tail turns it on. That way, if you brush against it while launching, you don't turn it off.) Since my switch is out of sight, I have to turn my plane off first, then wiggle the stick to make sure I really turned it off. That's the down side of burying your switch. The up side is that it is very difficult to turn the receiver off accidentally during the launch.

Before covering the plane, I outlined my fuse on a large piece of paper and marked where the components are, so that I could find them again. Especially with your battery charger terminal, this is a good idea, cause it will be hard to find under the tape and glue and covering. After covering, find the terminal, slice through the fabric, and pull the terminal up to (but not out of) the surface. In practice, I pull the charger terminal almost out of the plant when it is time to charge, so that I can plug the charger in.

Also, take a look at "Highlander How-to" under the "Articles--Kit Modifications--Sailplane Modifications" section of the CRRC web site, to learn from a half dozen people who have documented their Highlander projects. (http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles_kitmodifications.htm)

Have fun.

[culiv]

I am putting together a D.A.W. 1-26 HLG (foamie also) with similar situation. There, the battery pack goes up front with the plug from battery to receiver left in a compartment flush with the top edge of the fuselage. Simply tape over the compartment while flying. To charge, simply untape, pull out the connection, seperate and plug the charger onto the battery pack. Simplest way to do it without adding additional weight and cost for another switch.