Never give up Tom, Put the lights in.... make friends with a land owner, volunteer to cut the grass at a golf course, or buy the owner a couple drinks.


somebody always knows somebody who knows somebody.!

P.

Originally Posted by Bombay

Hey Bama:
Nice simple design.

Thanks for the idea of lightening the motor mount. I tend to build heavy, so lightening a part without (hopefully) sacrificing strength is a great idea. Now, if my motor mount breaks, it is all your fault.

I didn't drill as many or large of holes as you, but I rounded both ends...and removed quite a bit of material in the process. I was able to lose 10 grams.

Haha! wouldn't be the first time someone blamed me. Looks good. I like the rounded edges to match the motor shape. I used aluminum rivets and a coat of Gorilla glue to attach it to the Formica to help with the weight. With the battery, seems to be balanced just right. We will find out soon.

Originally Posted by Tom Moody

Well, I am very disappointed. At our club meeting tonight we were informed that our park district and our forest preserve district will not allow any night flying on any park property. In fact it is illegal to be in ANY park after sunset.
So I guess I might as well forget about putting lights on any planes.

Bummer! I have 2 Scythes coming and planed to put led's on/in one of them for night flying.

Tom Moody

We fly at local schools at night since no one is on the fields. Often the police will be watching what we are doing but they have not interferred.

We have one town in our area where the police seem to care about curfew but the rest of the towns have not ever complained.

We have even flown at city celebrations at night.

We have many places we fly and we know which ones are best for each type of flying.

Lee

Originally Posted by bamabaxter

Here are the pics, just use a 1/4" drill bit and stay away form the actual bend. Again, I don't combat, so this may not help some of you. I tried to go larger at first but the bit was bent so I moved to a smaller size. screw the mount down flat on an old 2x4 to keep from bending it and use some wd-40 to keep the bit cool. The scuff marks were caused by the bench grinder when I smoothed off the remains.

Originally Posted by Bombay

Hey Bama:
Nice simple design.

Thanks for the idea of lightening the motor mount. I tend to build heavy, so lightening a part without (hopefully) sacrificing strength is a great idea. Now, if my motor mount breaks, it is all your fault.

I didn't drill as many or large of holes as you, but I rounded both ends...and removed quite a bit of material in the process. I was able to lose 10 grams.

After seeing all this drilling of the ss motor mounts I decided to get in on the act to see how much weight I can reduce off my assassin. I did not start with a stock mount as I had already drilled 4 holes for the X motor mount because the rear screw holes on my motor did not fit inside the mount slots, I guess I could file a little and it could be made to fit and I could loss a little more weight by lossing the X mount and the two remaining 4-40 screws/nuts and two of the four motor screws.

Mount before the drilling = 35g or 1.2 oz after the drilling = 26g or .9 oz.

I weighed my Assassin before starting all this without the Rx, ESC or battery, (now residing in the Titan), I have two 9G EXI Digital Metal Gear Servo D213F already installed, been using them for awhile, it weighed 431g or 15.2 oz. After drilling, leaving only two 4-40 screws and nuts it weighs 401g or 14.1 oz. So I'll see what else I can loss, heaven knows I can stand to loss a few pounds myself. I just wish it was as easy as standing at a drill press!
jb

Haha....Swiss cheese!!!

Jim:
Nice job. I am reluctant to remove as much material. It seems that the weakest point would be those two big holes right next to the bend...before the first screw hole.
Are you doing full-contact combat?

BTW - you can barely see it in my pic, but I went back and used the dremmel to smooth out the edges...and then ran the dremmel in a diagonal pattern all over the mount. It kinda made it look like Damascus steel...and a lot more flashy where the stone polished the surface.

I have to confess that I went back and drilled two more small holes, but not enough to make a difference when weighted.

Originally Posted by bamabaxter

Haha....Swiss cheese!!!

Originally Posted by Bombay

Jim:
Nice job. I am reluctant to remove as much material. It seems that the weakest point would be those two big holes right next to the bend...before the first screw hole.
Are you doing full-contact combat?

BTW - you can barely see it in my pic, but I went back and used the dremmel to smooth out the edges...and then ran the dremmel in a diagonal pattern all over the mount. It kinda made it look like Damascus steel...and a lot more flashy where the stone polished the surface.

I have to confess that I went back and drilled two more small holes, but not enough to make a difference when weighted.

Bombay,

I don't have anyone around to do combat with so short answer, No.

As far as a week point, I was even thinking of adding a hole right in the middle in front of the first small hole, it is Stainless Steel so I am not afraid of it being that weak. If it was out front I don't know that I would have done as much as I did, but riding in the back I don't think it will be a problem. I will enlarge the holes around the face of the mount when I file the slots to fit the motor. I did round the aft corners after I took the picture and will do the same to the face after doing those holes.

After drilling I took care of the burs by using a larger bit to chamfer the edges of the holes, a full size aircraft practice, I don’t think there will be any cracks coming off the holes. I thought about tooling the surface but...

Cheers,

jb

Originally Posted by KC Flyer

Tele -

Thanks for the info. Have you (or others out there) rewound the 28-12 with 9 turns for the extra 200 kv? Any downside? Would you want to use a little thicker wire to handle more current?

I'm new to brushless motors. Do they need any maintenance like oiling the bearings occasionally? Thx.

Yes, a 9 wind with about 24 guage wire works great for a 1700 kv motor. It really screams, and will burn through your battery (and eventually the wires) if you don't down prop.

11 wind works well on a slow stick...

Maiden this morning, wind speed 10-15 mph and gusty. I have to say that this thing performs well in windy conditions. Couple of questions, does anyone know why the DX6i won't let you program flaps(spoilerons) when running elevons? It lets you enter the flaps to adjust them, but doesn't actually do anything when activated. Anyone know of a different way to run the elevons? just thought I'd ask. I think I may be a little too nose heavy, gonna fly again this evening, weather permitting, and check it. I may have had my elevons set a little to low. I know the setup says parallel with the belly of the wing, but seems like the elevons are a little up? anyway, anyone running a 7x6 prop?....felt a little slow and it could have been the wind or drag from elevons if my plane is too nose heavy.

Is 8x6 too much prop for this motor?

You can program(flaps) on the dx6i,I use it on my strykers for launch and landing (heavy strykers)
I know use the dx7 so just give me a sec to remember.......
For the dx7 you need to go into the menu,select flap function,inh flap function,choose switch to delagate flaps,select norm for level flight,adjust the flaps for level flight.
Flick switch down in position scroll to land,select,scroll to desierd amount of throw about 50-60% to start or what you feel will be comfortable.designate the gear switch.

This is with the dx7 as I havnt used the dx6i for over a year,should be relativly the same though,Ill do some checking and get back.

Originally Posted by bamabaxter

Maiden this morning, wind speed 10-15 mph and gusty. I have to say that this thing performs well in windy conditions. Couple of questions, does anyone know why the DX6i won't let you program flaps(spoilerons) when running elevons? It lets you enter the flaps to adjust them, but doesn't actually do anything when activated. Anyone know of a different way to run the elevons? just thought I'd ask. I think I may be a little too nose heavy, gonna fly again this evening, weather permitting, and check it. I may have had my elevons set a little to low. I know the setup says parallel with the belly of the wing, but seems like the elevons are a little up? anyway, anyone running a 7x6 prop?....felt a little slow and it could have been the wind or drag from elevons if my plane is too nose heavy.

I have flaps on some of my other planes, but it doesn't seem to let me do it with elevon mixing. also not letting me set the differential to smooth the rolls.

Originally Posted by bamabaxter

I have flaps on some of my other planes, but it doesn't seem to let me do it with elevon mixing. also not letting me set the differential to smooth the rolls.

Well it should tell it to use the gear switch,not the flap switch,I use it on 2 strykers and a funjet,now with the dx7 i have 3 different positions set.

I will give that a try.

Bama -

Do you have a tach? The HK 7x6 spins 11k - 11.5k depending on batt charge for my setup. The apc 7x5 was identical.