E-Flite Chit Chat

[atjurhs]

Here's the start of a thread just for chatting about E-Flight stuff

[wheatfly]

Well here is some chit chat. Check out this "RC" plane demo video on the page.

http://www.thrilljunkies.com/rc-planes/j3-piper-cub-park-flyer.aspx#

It's a shame that some people are going to waste their money on one of these. I know there is a place for less than hobby quality stuff but this looks to be really bad. It never even looks like they can do more than a semicontrolled glide toward the ground. The longest flight of the whole video has a small climb out that resulted in a stall and probably an unplanned landing. The comentator seems really positive about the Cub though. ;) It's a shame someone might buy one of these to get into the hobby and be very dissappointed.

[ghee-grose]

The sad part of that is for the same money you can get a ParkZone J-3 that flies way better than that one, and it looks better too. I flew one at HobbyTown one day and it was a really nice plane for an RTF. It's a lot faster than my Multiplex Cub though.

[atjurhs]

For those of you who are interested in the Mini-Wing saga:

After applying a 35% discount and taking my $30 rebate certificate, the replacement parts for my Mini-Wing cost me $58.

The battery/motor combo was drawing 5.5amps and the 1st ESC (GWS ICS50Li) was only rated for 2. I'll bet Rick won't make that mistake again!

The Mini-Wing now has a Castle Creations Pixie 7amp ESC, a HiTec O5S Mini RX, and a new set of BlueBird Mini-Servos. Hopefuly the HiTec O5S Mini RX is a good one???

We'll see how she flys this weekend.

[dee-grose]

I bought one of those new Hitec receivers. Haven't tried it yet.

[Jim_Marconnet]

For those of you who are interested in the Mini-Wing saga......:

..... I'll bet Rick won't make that mistake again!



When I bought a brushless/prop/ESC/Battery recently, Rick seemed to do a good thorough job sizing them and giving me the final choice on what I bought. Sufficient, or choose a little overcapacity. And always reasonable choices rather than the truely high-end. When I got it all home, I went thru the specs and the plots myself and felt comfortable that it all should work well together. I needed to learn a few things in the process, and I did so.

Hope this time around works better for you than the initial dry-run.

Do let us know when and where you will do the maiden flight in case we can see it too. I'm really looking forward to seeing that LITTLE wing fly!
Jim

[atjurhs]

Well as Jim and Dave know, the maiden flight didn't go so well.

Under no throttle, she just wouldn't glide worth beans. Gave her all the up-trim I had and still with full back stick she'd glide like a heli (maybe not that bad) - too much wing loading I suspect??? So it was time to give her some power, and for about 4 or 5 seconds she was flying somewhat OK, but then she banked hard left (almost like a tip stall) and nose'd into the ground hard.

My summary is that this little Mini-Wing is going to be tougher than I thought to fly. It shouldn't take me but another night or two at the kitchen table to have her air-worthy again, but I'm not sure what to try next to get her smoothed out.

[dee-grose]

Just a quick note to you fellow Hitec transmitter owners...

I've got a Flash 5 that has given me good service for nearly 2 years now. I've been very careful when swapping battery packs and such not wanting to break the little battery connector. Well, the other day, I put my stock pack in my Flash to charge it so I could take a spare to the slope for my Optic. When I went to get the battery after letting it charge overnight with the Hitec wall-charger, it didn't get any charge whatsoever. I was in a hurry to go flying, so I didn't think much about it. Well tonight I investigated a little more and found that the two solder joints had broken loose where the posts of the connector go thru the little circuit board. So I whipped out my trusty old soldering iron and put a little more solder on there. Good as new now. If it breaks again, I'll use some glue! :D

So, just warning you that even when you are extremely careful, you can break those connections loose.

I'm still trying to decide what to do for a bigger pack for my Optic...any ideas?

Andy

[Mars Flyer]

Andy,

I was worried about failing that dinky connector so I put a JST in the line. All the stress is on that now. I still think that an 8 cell AA pack with wires rather than the 9v contacts might just fit the Optic. I looked at Radio Shack and at the Huntsville Hamfest and couldn't find such a widget. I'm sure they can be fround on-line but I just haven't pursued it. I'm tired of getting 80 minutes on the 600 mAh NiCd and it only taking 350 mAh of charge. I run 'em through the discharge cycle too. The 2000 mAh NiMH cells should last plenty long.

Rob

[Fyrwalker]

hey ya'll,
looking around e-bay and found a cool e-plane. it's call aerocat. here's the web site.www.modelaero.com

[SYAWLA INVERTED]

Hey Andy, not exactly sure what you are talking about but I have use "liquid tape" that they sell at Harbor Freight tools. Its this black gunk that drys pretty quick and should provide some good strain relief. I use it on my lipo charger, all it had was the solder joint holding the wires and sure enough the were breaking. I resoldered them and put on the black gunk. Dries hard as a rock. I also use it on the rear of battery pack connectors. (guess it comes in red too) http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=36822

[Mars Flyer]

A few months ago I got curious about how the radios do their thing. I hooked up a 4 channel oscilloscope so that one trace showed the audio output from a general coverage receiver tuned to my transmitter frequency using FM demodulation. The other scope channels were connected to channels 1, 2, and 4 of a GWS Pico receiver. The photos below show the audio signal, which is decoded by the receivers (top trace) and the resulting pulses which are sent to the ESC throttle and servos (bottom trace, different colors). The first pulse in the sequence corresponds to channel 1, etc. I used a Hitec Flash 4 which is only 4 channels but clearly generates 6 pulses. Only 4 can be controlled.

The pictures show the following

- A sequence of 4 "data frames" consisting of the 6 pulses

- One set of pulses. All servos are centered except for throttle which is set to low. Note that the gap in the lower traces, which corresponds to the throttle channel, is shorter than the other 3.

- Channel 2 is set to max. It is now longer than the others

- The setup used to make the traces.

[Ultralight]

Anyone know where i can get some colored packing tape in town?


Jason

[ghee-grose]

R/C Hobbies. In the door, hang a left, front aisle, under the spray paints. He's got a bunch of colors. $5 / roll.

[dee-grose]

Jason, if you're wanting tape for your Aerobird wing, I'd suggest a couple of strips of strapping tape first. Go ahead and get the good stuff from Staples or somewhere like that. It's called Extreme Packing tape. $8/roll, but worth it. It has the little strings going both lengthwise and crossways.

[Tram]

Wow.. 5 bucks a roll?

I bought a box with like 6 or 7 different colors for like $10 on the net.. :)

[Jim_Marconnet]

Wow.. 5 bucks a roll?

I bought a box with like 6 or 7 different colors for like $10 on the net.. :)
Remember, this is a LHS. Instant gratification! :)

[Tram]

Pfftt.. Instant-no-food-on-Thursday-ication for me.. ;) I gots to be thrifty.. :)

[Ultralight]

http://www.coxmodels.com/

Check out the micro warbirds. Looks sweet to me and only $20.


Jason

[Jim_Marconnet]

http://www.coxmodels.com/

Check out the micro warbirds. Looks sweet to me and only $20.

Jason

I looked at it and noticed "The fuselage comes in two halves that you glue together after radio installation." Now there's commitment as compared to a Slow Stick!

Considering the small size of this warbird (20 inch wing), I'd wonder if it would be a real terror to fly. They do mention the term "wild". I'll bet!

[ghee-grose]

Those micro warbirds look like perfect candidates for a Feiago brushless IPS upgrade. That would make one of those dudes HAUL!

[Ultralight]

There is a thread already started: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=438256

I`m thinking about getting one.

Jason

[Tram]

Those little jokers look like they would be a blast!