I call it, the BEST Special

[yarsmythejr]

In honor of its debut at the Best Electrics in South Texas event last October, here is my night flying aircraft called the "BEST Special". I'm sure there will be other versions for future BEST events. I'd better get crackin' on something fancy before Sparky releases his night flying kit (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=785329)! :)

This plane is built with Midwest CellFoam 88 and Depron. The wing bottom sheeting, ribs, tail surfaces, and fuselage sides are all CellFoam 88 9 (stiff). The wing top sheeting additional fuselage pieces are Depron (flexible). I grabbed the design from an AMA magazine and rolled with it.

As for the LEDs, I picked up a sweet deal on EBay from this vendor:

Sure Electronics on Ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230199943426)

100 pc LEDS (25 red, green, blue and white). I run all 26 LEDS on my plane with a one-cell 1100mAh LiPo. Red LEDs required a 100ohm resistor while the rest only needed a 47 ohm (all 1/4 watt). If you change the voltage, you'll need different resistors. There are 16 in the wing, 3 in the tail, and the rest in the fuselage. 3 HIGH intensity LEDs are in the nose.

I used magnetic coil wire to connect all the LEDs together...but I won't do that again. My suggestion is to pick up some 'solid' strand telephone wire instead. It is a LOT easier to strip the insulation than scrape off the coating on the coil wire. Granted, if you're trying to save weight, go with the coil wire. However, unless you're weighing your plane in grams, than the tiny added weight of telephone wire won't kill you...especially if you're going to use it on a Slow Stick type plane.

The plane is rudder/elevator with two Hitec HS-55s. I currently have a Blue MPJet outrunner on a 3-cell TP1320 LiPo. However, this plane is so slow and agile, I have even run it on a 2-cell TP2100 LiPo. The gear, as most have guessed, is from the 400-size UltraStik. I didn't have one, I just picked up the spare gear from the hobby shop.

Hot glue is the easiest way to lay the wire down around the foam. Get a LOW heat gun as the full-size will burn a hole through your foam.

Another great contributor to night flying is UAVPilot (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=524110&highlight=uavpilot). Check out his GlowStik thread to get inspired....it helped me.

I didn't take any detailed photos during assembly. I'll try to take a few more close-up shots of it later. My blog has additional information about this kit if you want to read more.

-Lee

[Tha Hodgehound]

You don't have to scrape the coating on the thin magnet wire. Just a quick pass over a match or lighter right where you want to solder and its gone! ;) Besides, you won't get anything lighter than that stuff. It's tiny!!!


That's one bright plane! KEWLLL!!!!!!

[yarsmythejr]

I tried the 'lighter' method but it charred the wire and made it difficult to solder afterwards. I've been told there is a liquid substance out there that can be placed on the wire to remove the coating instantly. I'm guessing it is some type of acid. Never found out what it was called.

[crxmanpat]

Very nice plane. Has a kinda "Beaverish" look to it. I bet you can see that thing to BVR at night.

Pat

[Darth_Elevator]

Another great contributor to night flying is UAVPilot (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=524110&highlight=uavpilot). Check out his GlowStik thread to get inspired....it helped me.I agree. UAVPilot's thread is definitely worth a read. Even if you don't make a Glostik, that thread is a must read.

[Tha Hodgehound]

I tried the 'lighter' method but it charred the wire and made it difficult to solder afterwards. I've been told there is a liquid substance out there that can be placed on the wire to remove the coating instantly. I'm guessing it is some type of acid. Never found out what it was called.


Someone told me about that stuff. Just 1 drop where you want it. But the name has escaped me too. I did notice that if you burn it off and get it charred, some of that liquid soldering cleaner, (forgot the name of that too, comes in a little bottle like eye drops) on a q-tip works to get rid of it. You cannot use a cheap gun or wire for this "mini" soldering either. Found that out the hard way! I wonder if those "cool tip" type irons they first started showing on TV would work for the LEDs and magnet wire. Does any one have one of these? Do they work??

[Pudknocker71]

I wonder if those "cool tip" type irons they first started showing on TV would work for the LEDs and magnet wire. Does any one have one of these? Do they work??

I've wondered about those too. I suspect they work like Stun Guns but only in small scale. They would not be good for electronics, especially piezoelectic substraits found in 2.4 ghz units. Might pop ciruit boards. They look convienent though. Working on a light set might be ok unless it blows the leds.

I did a search on the sight and found nothing more...so far.

[foam and tape]

I've wondered about those too. I suspect they work like Stun Guns but only in small scale. They would not be good for electronics, especially piezoelectic substraits found in 2.4 ghz units. Might pop ciruit boards. They look convienent though. Working on a light set might be ok unless it blows the leds.

I did a search on the sight and found nothing more...so far.


Those things are JUNK :mad: i bought one couldit get it to work, then dropped it off my table then it started to work. but it isint as good as I thougt it would be :(

[Fuegodeth]

Yeah, they really, really suck. What a waste of money. I thought they would be good for small jobs, but nope.

[Lee]

The cold soldering gun doesn't heat the wire just the solder so the solder doesn't flow even when I used flux. The wire stays cold and the solder doesn't stick. I thought it would be a good field repair iron but it isn't.

[Pudknocker71]

Welp...there ya go. Stick with the go old soldering iron. Newer isn't always better!

[pda4you]

Lee - I just saw this thread...

Gang I was there flying with Lee into the night sitting on chair gabbing.....one of those true "I love RC" moments.

That plane was amazing! Brings back fond memories of a great event and good folks.

Mike

[Darth_Elevator]

The cold soldering gun doesn't heat the wire just the solder so the solder doesn't flow even when I used flux. The wire stays cold and the solder doesn't stick. I thought it would be a good field repair iron but it isn't.I picked up a battery powered hot soldering iron at Radio Shack the other day for field repair. It was on sale for $10 bucks so I figured it was worth trying. It takes about 15 seconds to heat up and it says it will do about 120 solder joints with one set of 3 AA batteries. I tested it the other day by soldering two wires together and it worked pretty well. So now I'll pack it around in my tool bag for the next year and probably never need it.

[yarsmythejr]

.....one of those true "I love RC" moments.Mike,

I'm sure you'll get that feeling again when Sparky releases his Glow Dog! Are you watching that thread? It's gonna be amazing.

Sorry I didn't get to join ya'll up in Dallas. Hopefully we'll get together soon...and before BEST 2008.

-Lee

[Darth_Elevator]

I'm sure you'll get that feeling again when Sparky releases his Glow Dog! Are you watching that thread? It's gonna be amazing.Any chance you'd be willing to post a link to that thread? Nothing came up when I searched for "Glow Dog."

[Fuegodeth]

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=785329

[Darth_Elevator]

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=785329Thanks. Just clicked the link and realized I had posted to that thread last week. Forgot he was calling it the glowdog.

[UAVPilot]

Yeah, Magnet wire sucks to work with, specially the 30 aWg.

I just have a hard time with the extra weight of plastic coated wire, plus the smallest plastic coated wire I have found is like 24 aWg.

I have tried many different ways to strip the coating off magnet wire, still end up going back to just scraping with a knife.
Especially if its in the middle of the wire , not at the ends.

Tried burning, still have to clean the char off, seems to take about as long.

I have found that if you are twisting a few lengths of magnet wire together, you can get away with just scraping off a little of the enamel on each wire. The apply heat and solder, hold the heat on for a little while and the enamel will melt out of the way and let the solder flow on throughout.
Problem with trying that on a LED, is that your likely to melt the LED.
Works well building motors though.

[healthyfatboy]

You can get 30AWG wire from Radio Shack online. You can go in the store and order it through them as well. I have some but it's difficult to work with because it's so small.

[Pudknocker71]

I work with this wire nearly every day. Problem I found is that they don't make strippers for that gauge wire (that we've found). If you take a cheap pair of wire strippers and grind them so they close a little more you can strip the 30AWG no problem. Just make sure you are not cutting into the wire or it will break easy.

[yarsmythejr]

Just wanted to share the holiday spirit with everyone. I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas or share your own religious preference with your family and friends.

Let's see if Santa remembers to drop off a few LiPo's to me this year!! :)

-Lee