What prop you run on that turnigy? I am asking bwcause I use a 7 inch prop on 4S on my pike. 3S seems on the very low end unless it turns a big prop.

Originally Posted by localfiend

You'll probably end up with 500-600 grams less thrust with that 2826 motor compared to the Emax depending on how you prop it. With your current weight, your thrust ratio is probably going to be really close to 1:1. Should still be flyable, you're just gonna want a higher throttle setting on launch and a good toss.

All depends on what you're going for. I like to have a bit more kick available, and being able to power straight up is a lot of fun. Pretty much impossible to beat the race quad motors for power output at their tiny size. All the newish stuff like the 2306's or 2207's with racing specs double the output at a minimum when you look at power to motor weight ratios. Better magnets, better bearings, better speed controllers, and better cooling designs.

My bad for not reading the full thread end to end I was dumb regarding the improved power of the new quad racing motors. You are correct regarding the 2826 motor - a web search came up with a static thrust of 900 grams using a 5” x 5” prop. I’m not looking for fast flying I normally cruise around in stabilized angle mode. Nothing exciting - I get a kick out of building planes - my son is the test pilot, so I can blame him if anything goes wrong.

Originally Posted by Thoemse

What prop you run on that turnigy? I am asking bwcause I use a 7 inch prop on 4S on my pike. 3S seems on the very low end unless it turns a big prop.

I have a sneaky feeling you’re right.

I have a 2826 fitted with a 6” x 4” prop on a Z84, a much lighter bird, goes like a bat out of hell. I am going to try a 6” x 5” prop or the 6” x 4” and then a 5” x 5” and see how the Pike rides. I’ve set the ESC timing on high, to screw out a bit more thrust. The Turnigy seems to prefer a smaller prop diameter. If it flies like a dog I’ll need to carry out some surgery to get rid of the ply firewall and fit the 2306 racing motor (as I should have done). Lesson learnt.

CA’s great but it can be costly and has an odd habit of always sticking your fingers together or worse sticking them to the Pike. DCM (methylene chloride) is amazingly cheap if bought in bulk and welds PLA together nicely. It’s free flowing and seeps into joins to set in 10 seconds. It has a lower odour than CA and does not stick your fingers together. It won’t bridge gaps that well but can be used to toughen up any thinness in the Pike’s shell.

I glued (welded) about 95% of my Pike with DCM it’s particularly good fixing the fuse together - I used it to tack a part of the fuse then once set moved around the circumference. I stacked each fuse section vertically then gently run the DCM into the joint, perfect alignment. But I used CA on the two rear halves of the wing section to fill gaps in the seam.

Cockpit nice and tidy but the wiring behind the flight controller is a bird’s nest. Looking into setting up iNav Launch - the wings feel a tad fragile for a discus launch.

Originally Posted by PeteMenter

Cockpit nice and tidy but the wiring behind the flight controller is a bird’s nest. Looking into setting up iNav Launch - the wings feel a tad fragile for a discus launch.

Launches very uncritical by simply throwing.

Originally Posted by Thoemse

Launches very uncritical by simply throwing.

If I’m with my co-pilot we just throw and throttle up but I never throw overhead powered up on my own Minced fingers I don’t want. Never used auto launch before so it’s an experiment. I have a Zeta FX61 I want to auto launch as well.

I have my cr10s setup with direct extrusion and a 0.4 nozzle.
I have been using simplify3d with ExtrusionWidth set to 0.48 (simplify3d default).
I have it all calibrated to test prints exactly 0..48 and it all looks good.
I noticed that there is a recommendation somewhere of 0.42.
Obviously this would reduce the weight a good deal at the expense of adhesion.

I have not seen any discussion about extrusion width in any plane forums (lots of talk about multipliers...)

I am thinking of trying 0.42. What extrusion width are you using?

Originally Posted by sgilman099

I have my cr10s setup with direct extrusion and a 0.4 nozzle.
I have been using simplify3d with ExtrusionWidth set to 0.48 (simplify3d default).
I have it all calibrated to test prints exactly 0..48 and it all looks good.
I noticed that there is a recommendation somewhere of 0.42.
Obviously this would reduce the weight a good deal at the expense of adhesion.

I have not seen any discussion about extrusion width in any plane forums (lots of talk about multipliers...)

I am thinking of trying 0.42. What extrusion width are you using?

.48 is a lot of needless weight. You don't start seeing real benefits to strength or sag until you start going over .5, and then that starts to cause other problems.

.42 is the recommended amount because it can help with spar to outer wall adhesion on printers with less accuracy or poor tuning.

The only time I adjust wall thickness from ~.42-.43 is if the filament is having trouble with parts with more extreme angles. Stuff like the tips of the wingtips, or wing to fuse transitions. Increased layer width in those specific layer ranges can be helpful.

I am building my second pike from PLA (my first attempt was pretty bad).
Everything looks great except for these walls which have a lot of overhang.

My other parts that are more vertical look near perfect.
I am using 0 fan and 240 degrees (0.42 wall thickness). I know I could probably fix it with the fan and temp but I would like to keep the strength.
Currently I am trying to slow down the print and trying 235.
Any tricks would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by localfiend

.48 is a lot of needless weight. You don't start seeing real benefits to strength or sag until you start going over .5, and then that starts to cause other problems.

.42 is the recommended amount because it can help with spar to outer wall adhesion on printers with less accuracy or poor tuning.

The only time I adjust wall thickness from ~.42-.43 is if the filament is having trouble with parts with more extreme angles. Stuff like the tips of the wingtips, or wing to fuse transitions. Increased layer width in those specific layer ranges can be helpful.

Thanks... I missed the 0.42 setting early on. Getting there.

I just kicked off a print with 2 layers for the first 25mm. Hopefully that is good enough.

Originally Posted by sgilman099

I just kicked off a print with 2 layers for the first 25mm. Hopefully that is good enough.

2 layers will certainly work. Will look quite a bit different and weigh more if that matters to you.

Or you could have just increased the extrusion width like I mentioned in my previous post. Decreasing layer height can make the wider extrusion width even more successful at cleaning up those areas with poor adhesion.

Originally Posted by localfiend

2 layers will certainly work. Will look quite a bit different and weigh more if that matters to you.

Or you could have just increased the extrusion width like I mentioned in my previous post. Decreasing layer height can make the wider extrusion width even more successful at cleaning up those areas with poor adhesion.

Thank you. I guessed you might say that. but since it is the center of the fuselage I thought a little extra would not hurt.
I really appreciate you design and your help. I am addicted now.

This is more of a 3d printing question but I don't think the 3d printing forums know about thin walls...
I have nearly perfect prints now but one layer changes I see some under extrusion. I am using S3D. Direct driver extruder.
Everything calibrated.
All of my retracts look very clean...
Using:
retraction: 1mm
restart: 0
coasting: 0
wipe: 0
Forced Retraction Between Layers: On

I tried adding 0.2 of restart which helps on the layer changes but makes my other retracts goopy.
What I really need is some restart on layer changes only.

I have also tried turning off Forced Retraction Between Layers

Any ideas?