Originally Posted by Eagle202

I've seen the ones where Gene terrorizes his dogs with that RC truck.

Where can I get a cross piece that fits the stock motor? I'm not sure of the exact size and screw hole alignment.

Vince

It is called an "X" mount. Generally, one comes with almost all outrunner motors. If you can't find one from one of the folks around there, let me know. I will send you one. I must have 40-50 of them.
AJ

Originally Posted by ajbaker

It is called an "X" mount. Generally, one comes with almost all outrunner motors. If you can't find one from one of the folks around there, let me know. I will send you one. I must have 40-50 of them.
AJ

I appreciate the offer. I wasn't sure of the size. The stock motor for my SS is a little smaller than 28mm and did not come with the X mount so I didn't know which one to order.

The one that you show looks like a perfect fit. What size is ?

Originally Posted by ajbaker

1. Here are the #'s with an APC 6x4 and using the stock 1300mah LiPo:
17.18Ap
10.56Vm
186.5Wp
2. Yes. Easily.
3. Yes. I have 4 of those meters. They are routinely $3.99 on-sale.
4. Yes.
5. Yes. I checked it with another DVM and it is perfect.
AJ

Sounds good, but in absence of a watt meter ESC seems quite warm after a fairly short WOT test run, Maybe a couple of minutes
Should it be too hot to touch or not

Originally Posted by bigdogg1

Sounds good, but in absence of a watt meter ESC seems quite warm after a fairly short WOT test run, Maybe a couple of minutes
Should it be too hot to touch or not

If you did a full power run on the ground it will draw more power than it will in the air and have less air movement to cool as well

Originally Posted by golf_lake

If you did a full power run on the ground it will draw more power than it will in the air and have less air movement to cool as well

Thanks

Originally Posted by ajbaker

1. Here are the #'s with an APC 6x4 and using the stock 1300mah LiPo:
17.18Ap
10.56Vm
186.5Wp
2. Yes. Easily.
3. Yes. I have 4 of those meters. They are routinely $3.99 on-sale.
4. Yes.
5. Yes. I checked it with another DVM and it is perfect.
AJ

Thank you..

Originally Posted by bigdogg1

Sounds good, but in absence of a watt meter ESC seems quite warm after a fairly short WOT test run, Maybe a couple of minutes
Should it be too hot to touch or not

In any case, it should never be too hot to burn your finger tips. The reason for the heat is not caused by holding WOT. In fact, the BEC portion of the ESC will run very slightly cooler with the motor on WOT. The BEC is what usually causes the heat build up because the resistors inside the package (BEC+ESC) are used to drop the ~12v to ~5v for servo use. The more you exercise the servos, the more heat is developed. So, for everything to run its coolest, it would be necessary to have the motor off and no servos moving. Even then, those resistors (inside the package - you cannot see them without taking off the cover) will still get hot just sitting there. The easy solution for this is to use switching ESC (actually, the BEC portion). Your stock BEC (inside the ESC) is called a linear BEC - hence the resistor(s) for a voltage drop. The switching BEC does not use resistor(s) to drop the voltage. I know, this is getting too technobabbly. I apologize. Forget all that crap above.

Here is the simpler statement:
Buy one of THESE and the problem will disappear. Whew, that is much easier.
AJ

Originally Posted by ajbaker

I used the next size up from that one. 1 1/2 to 1 1/4. Then, yesterday, I finally tried the one above. I avoided trying it because I did not want to do all that grinding with my dremel and a drum sander. Well, as you know, it only takes about 5 mins. (or less with experience) to make it the right size to clear outrunners and about 1mm or air clearance. So, I am a convert now. I threw away the other two adapters that I used before (1 1/2 to 1 1/4). I should have followed your advice a long time ago. Ah well, better late..........
You know, I don't ever remember you posting a video showing YOU flying. I am not sure that you even know how to fly (airplanes - not bricks). Got any proof? huh? huh? huh?
AJ

Looking at your picture I take it you are not cutting the pod back but just placing the motor further back behind the pod rather than in it?

I decided to try a GY48V gyro I bought from xheli.com for $9.00 with my ailerons after reading some other posts stating how much it helps.

I made a small mount for it out of balsa and used double-sided tape to secure the gyro to the mount. I set it up on my 2801 pro TX using aux 2 as the switch to toggle between rate mode and heading hold mode. With the switch in position 2, it's in rate mode and is set to 65% gain. I didn't bother flying it in heading hold mode, but I may try that at some point.

I flew today before sunset and it was gusting quite a bit, but the plane flew fantastic. I could see the wind blowing the wings, but the gyro fought back. The wings looked like a sea-saw rocking back and forth a little whenever the wind would gust.

For $9, it's definitely worth having if you want to fly when the wind is moderately strong. FWIW, with the strong wind, the bixler stayed up in the air for what seemed like forever. There were some points where with no throttle, the plane just sat still like it was hovering. Take offs and landing were controlled despite the gusts of wind.

Originally Posted by golf_lake

Looking at your picture I take it you are not cutting the pod back but just placing the motor further back behind the pod rather than in it?

Yes. That is correct. I could have mounted it the other way, though. But, the nacelle would look pretty ugly. The way all of us use the UMM is as shown. We mount inrunners as shown and outrunners are inside the adapter. The idea behind the design is like what GENE said [you can] "Mount any outrunner [or 20-28mm inrunner] known to man or beast." Does that make sense?
AJ

Originally Posted by fabric8

I decided to try a GY48V gyro I bought from xheli.com for $9.00 with my ailerons after reading some other posts stating how much it helps.

I made a small mount for it out of balsa and used double-sided tape to secure the gyro to the mount. I set it up on my 2801 pro TX using aux 2 as the switch to toggle between rate mode and heading hold mode. With the switch in position 2, it's in rate mode and is set to 65% gain. I didn't bother flying it in heading hold mode, but I may try that at some point.

I flew today before sunset and it was gusting quite a bit, but the plane flew fantastic. I could see the wind blowing the wings, but the gyro fought back. The wings looked like a sea-saw rocking back and forth a little whenever the wind would gust.

For $9, it's definitely worth having if you want to fly when the wind is moderately strong. FWIW, with the strong wind, the bixler stayed up in the air for what seemed like forever. There were some points where with no throttle, the plane just sat still like it was hovering. Take offs and landing were controlled despite the gusts of wind.

Gyros are definitely cool. You can (and did) make a Bixler a kite. Well done. Thanks for the tip on where to get a cheap gyro. Usually, I have sworn by EK2-0704 gyros. But, they are nowhere to be found anymore for under $10. I bought a GA250 from HK and I could not get that POS to work correctly. I don't even know where it is right now. Oh, did your GY48V set up fairly easily?
AJ

Originally Posted by ajbaker

Gyros are definitely cool. You can (and did) make a Bixler a kite. Well done. Thanks for the tip on where to get a cheap gyro. Usually, I have sworn by EK2-0704 gyros. But, they are nowhere to be found anymore for under $10. I bought a GA250 from HK and I could not get that POS to work correctly. I don't even know where it is right now. Oh, did your GY48V set up fairly easily?
AJ

Yes, it was very easy. I'm used to working with gyro's for helis, but this was my 1st time setting it up for use on a plane. With my TX set to plane mode for the bixler, I used the same switch for the gyro that is used when on heli mode (aux2), but the TX treats the way you set it differently. In heli mode, it's configured as a gain value.

Anything above 50% is heading hold mode, and anything below 50% is rate mode. 50% means the gyro is essentially off. For my heli's, I set it to 65% and 35% respectively (+ and - 15 from 50). But that's not available in plane mode, but I found that setting the travel end point is its equivalent.

So by setting the travel end point to 65% when the aux2 switch is in position 1, that's equivalent to 35% gain on the gyro in rate mode if the TX was in heli mode. I then set the travel end point to 65% when the switch is in position 0, that's equivalent to 65% gain on the gyro in heading hold mode if the TX was in heli mode. So I can flip the aux 2 switch to position 0 or 1, to switch between set values for rate mode and heading hold mode.

Hope that explanation doesn't make it seem harder to setup than it sounds, because it really wasn't.

edit: have to give credit to this link which is where I got the idea.

I'm surprised Walkera didn't put any rotary knobs on the 2801Pro TX. With a rotary knob, adjusting the gyro gain would be easier, and you could do it on the fly, whereas I'd have to land the plane to try different gyro gain values with my TX.

Oh, I almost bought the GA250 from HK, because I thought it could be a clone of the Futaba GY520 (which I have on my heli and is one very sweet gyro), but I didn't want to wait for shipping. Sorry to hear it was a POS.

Originally Posted by ajbaker

You know, I don't ever remember you posting a video showing YOU flying. I am not sure that you even know how to fly (airplanes - not bricks). Got any proof? huh? huh? huh?
AJ

I tried it once.

Repaired EZ 1st flight (4 min 1 sec)

The GA250 had some problems because Assan deliberately released it early and used customers as beta testers as part of their minimum cost strategy. Some of the heli guys had really bad experiences and I'm sorry aj did as well. They deserved much of the caning they got but to be fair their support on the forums in fixing issues seemed to be quick and good.

FWIW the current G250 as an aircraft gyro is pretty good for $10 IMO. The current stock apparantly has most of the heli probs sorted (whatever they were - I could be wrong, it's not my scene) and comes out of the box set for analog servos as default - earlier ones didn't.

The one in my Bixler replaced a Futaba GY520 which cost almost 15 times as much and it worked just fine from day one.

Originally Posted by fabric8

Oh, I almost bought the GA250 from HK, because I thought it could be a clone of the Futaba GY520 (which I have on my heli and is one very sweet gyro), but I didn't want to wait for shipping. Sorry to hear it was a POS.

Originally Posted by ajbaker

In any case, it should never be too hot to burn your finger tips. The reason for the heat is not caused by holding WOT. In fact, the BEC portion of the ESC will run very slightly cooler with the motor on WOT. The BEC is what usually causes the heat build up because the resistors inside the package (BEC+ESC) are used to drop the ~12v to ~5v for servo use. The more you exercise the servos, the more heat is developed. So, for everything to run its coolest, it would be necessary to have the motor off and no servos moving. Even then, those resistors (inside the package - you cannot see them without taking off the cover) will still get hot just sitting there. The easy solution for this is to use switching ESC (actually, the BEC portion). Your stock BEC (inside the ESC) is called a linear BEC - hence the resistor(s) for a voltage drop. The switching BEC does not use resistor(s) to drop the voltage. I know, this is getting too technobabbly. I apologize. Forget all that crap above.

Here is the simpler statement:
Buy one of THESE and the problem will disappear. Whew, that is much easier.
AJ

Thanks AJ