I just completed my Stock Grey A10 & it weighs 15.8 OZ all up with battery pack. I am considering Spray Painting the top only with Model Masters "Modern Desert Sand". I figure I'll add about 1 OZ of weight at least with the spray paint or More?? How much weight can this A10 have & still fly OK? I figure I would be pushing upwards of 17 OZ with the paint. Are my figures about accurate? Would it fly better if I just leave it Stock Grey?

-Thanks-

Mike

Yes it will climb better anyway, I would try it completly stock just to get it sorted out, at least you can baseline its performance then paint it, weigh it, and get back to us. What pack are you running to get that weight? just for the record I am at 15.25oz with a 3s1p Etec 1200 lipo pack, 3 hs 55's Eflight 10amp ESC and a 555 rx in the case. I may try a berg stamp or FMA M-5 just to lose a few more grams. I would love to lose the UC and servo for steering but I love to ROG, land and taxi back. Keep us posted.
Dave

Dave:
Right now I have available an 8-Cell Gold Peak 700 Mah Nimh Pack & Also a 7-Cell 800 Mah AAA Pack (A little larger cells than the Gold Peak). I made the 7-Cell 800 Mah pack out of my Old Slowstick 8-cell Brick pack that had a bad cell, I removed the bad cell then flattened out the brick pack. I also have some Qualcomm 830 Lions that I can use a Y-Connector to get a 2S2P Setup, Which pack would be the best one to start with??
I decided also that I want to taxi this plane so I installed the Nosewheel servo & use a small Dubro Mini Lite 1.25" wheel for Nose steering & 1.5" wheels for the Mains. I plan on going with stock motor setup, will the 8-Cell Goldpeak pack smoke the Motors?

-Mike-

I would start with the 7 cell pack, then the motors may last awhile, the 8 cell may or maynot burn them up fast, some have had better luck with motor life, it has a lot to due with the IR of the cells and how well you can resist full power. The best pack maybe a 2s2p lipo pack, light and more like a 7 cell pack. If you do smoke the motors you should check out my HV setup, I think it is the best temp solution until GWS comes out with a sturdier fan. You will need some 10 cell packs of 700aaa's or a 3s1p 1200 lipo. It is about on par with the stock motors on 7 aaa's but should last a lot longer as the current is much lower on those little IPS motors. Any way you set it up it is a parkflier, maiden on a calm day and be ready to trim in some up.

mines at 16.5 oz AUW and flies well ( Painted) so go for it!!

Chuck

You're going to have to slather a lot of paint on that bird to add an ounce. With the grey background, all you need is about one color coat to get the desired effect, and the plane is not that big. I'll bet you a GWS wheel that it weighs no more than 16.2oz when you get done.

The QC830 packs are not capable of producing any more than 2A each. A 2S2P pack would be about half enough for this plane. I've read that the EDF motors take upwards of 4A each.

the 2s2p lipo pack I was thinking of is a li poly kokam/hecell/etec. I would not recomend a Li-ion hard case cell, too heavy if you put enogh together to allow the high discharge rate required.

Humm! I'm using a 2S2P Qualcomm 830 Parallel pack in my GWS Mustang with good results & long flights. Since the A10 uses less voltage, why wouldn't the 2S2P Qualcomm pack work in it?? I would think it would be ideal with these small EDF motors, they don't seem all that larger than the IPS motor.

-Mike-

P.S. - How do you measure Amp draw that a motor produces, I would like to check these out myself.

use an astro wattmeter, or an ampmeter place in series with the ESC and pack. Besure the ampmeter can handle the expected current (most have a 10 amp jack). My guess is the stock motors on 2 lipos will be around 3-4 amps each, together that would be a 6-8 amp load. I did not think qualcoms could handle 4-5 C discharges

one more thing, you can estimate you draw based on flight time, 15 min =4C=4*1600 (2p830's)=6.4 amps aprox of course. The thing about this is it give an avg draw, on the mustang do you fly wide open the whole time? If you do then fine if not you may have higher peaks offset by lows when at lower thottle settings. The Jet wil prob be near WOT the whole flight with 2 lipos 6.4 amps constant may be a problem that does not show up on the mustang.

Originally posted by mrebman
Humm! I'm using a 2S2P Qualcomm 830 Parallel pack in my GWS Mustang with good results & long flights. Since the A10 uses less voltage, why wouldn't the 2S2P Qualcomm pack work in it?? I would think it would be ideal with these small EDF motors, they don't seem all that larger than the IPS motor.

-Mike-

P.S. - How do you measure Amp draw that a motor produces, I would like to check these out myself.

I used one Qualcomm pack with one EDF50 on a lego car to test it and it worked fine with the GWS 2amp ESC. You just couldn't hit the throttle to full too fast to start or it would trip the safty circuit.
Can I use a Y-cable with two ESC's and two Qualcomm packs one going to each motor on an A-10?
I got all this IPS gear laying around and was wondering if it could be used on all the bigger setups that are common now. GWS needs to put out more IPS designs.

Chris

I will be using a GWS ICS-300 With Heatsink on my A10. From the Data I'm looking at & I AM flying the Mustang WOT the whole flight, The Mustang will actually pull MORE Amps than the little EDF-50's on the A10. I think that the Qualcomms are a more robust cell than given credit for by many people. I will be making up two fresh Qualcomm 2-cells Packs & a new Y-Connector & I AM going to try them in the A10, I will post my results after I've made the Test flight. At 4 OZ weight for 2-Packs & possible 15 Minute flights, it's worth risking a couple of packs since I only paid $2 a pack from Hackett & have plenty sitting around, what's the worst that could happen?

-Mike-

Hmmmm...Just finished camo'ing my A-10. No landing gear, (2) micro mini servos, 7 cell 720 nimh pack. Weight is 14.8 ounces.
I also have a 6 cell 320 nicad pack I can use as well. The thing scaring me is I have an ICS-100 ESC (its GWS) that is for 5 amps.
I'm hoping I aint gonna burn it up! The manual says you can use this size ESC. We'll see. And, did I screw up!!!! DUH!!!!!!!! I decided to use packing tape for hinges. And of course, boned up the tail!!!! Peeled tape off and redid. Looks like ****!!!! I'm also either gonna use a GWS 4 channel rx or my new MPI 6800 rx.
Weight on either of these is diddle....

Dave...

Lucky:
I was going to buy the ICS-100 but the ICS-300 was only $1 more, so it was an easy decision. I am just going to use the GWS R4-P Receiver, I have an extra one available & use one in my Slowstick which I fly to a speck in the sky so I figure what the heck, it'll probably work fine. I am right now painting my Grey A10, Desert Sand & Olive Drab Camo (Light on the Olive Drab) - The Camo is just on top, the bottom stays grey.

-Good Luck on yours!-

-Mike-