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Brushless Slo-V Conversion
This is my experience in converting a ParkZone Slo-V to brushless. I'll call it my Slo-V Brushless (SVBL). Maybe you will get some ideas for your own conversion.
First off, I want to say thank you to NoFlyZone (Chuck). I've asked a few questions here and there and he has always come thru with patience...and good answers, too. Wing and V-tail When I purchased my Parkzone Slo-V, the person that I bought it from included a few extras. I had an extra wing and tail set, so I decided to paint it up in the Red Baron style. I used the stickers from a Slow Stick, used the scallop design on the trailing edges, and added a few touches of my own. First, I put on a base coat of cheap craft acrylic paint in red. Next, I used Krylon H2O latex spray paint as a final coat. H2O works well on foam (doesn't eat it) and I also heard that latex spray paint is one of the lighter paints available. Next, I applied the decals and drew the lines and scallops with black markers. Lastly, I finished up the black areas with some more craft paint (semi-gloss this time). Stick Fuselage and Landing Gear The fuselage on the V is made of carbon fiber. They are strong and light, but can easily splinter. They are around $10 for the fuse and attached accessories. I also picked up a set of the stock control rods and landing struts. I decided to change up the wheels a bit, so I chose some 5-spoke foam wheels. I painted them red and added the Dubro micro wheel collars. I did have to drill out the wheel collars to get them to fit on the struts. I finished off with a small tail wheel from another model. Trays The Slo-V comes with trays that hang from the fuselage. The trays hold the various electronics. Once you remove the original electronics, you have trays that can be cut, combined, and otherwise altered and used for your brushless and lipo upgrade. I used two of the hanging module trays. They are roomy and provide a little bit of a cage for protection. For the ESC, I used the original battery tray and inverted it. The trays really worked out well. Electronics Motor - BP 9YSS Outrunner Brushless Motor With Short Shaft at 840 kv. Prop - 10x4.7 SF Servos - Hextronik HXT900 9gram servos. ESC - HW25A with programming card. Battery - Rhino 1250 2s 20C lipo. RX - AR6100E. Amps - Looks like she is pulling around 4-5 amps with the current motor/prop combo. Building Comments This was a pretty easy conversion. If you pay attention to the size and weight of your new components, you should have very few surprises when it comes to final weight and balancing of the model. More to come... Sure, this all sounds good, but how does it fly? FLIES GREAT! Tuesday, Dec 30, 2008 Well, I finally had her out for the maiden flight. It has been windy/rainy/cold. Finally, we had a calm morning. She flies great. No surprises. The takeoff was short and uneventful, the landing was smooth, the motor/prop combo is very quiet, and I didn't notice any bad tendencies. I didn't intend to push it beyond a nice stable test flight, so no aerobatics or vertical power testing. I brought along my wife and the video camera, but I didn't listen to my wife about checking the vidcam batteries. I should have...they were dead. I did take along my regular camera so she was able to get a few shots and a very short vid on the camera's vid feature. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...7#post11253522 Overall Overall, I couldn't be happier about how this turned out. I have not done a 1-on-1 comparison between the orginal Slo-V and the Brushless conversion, but my first impression is that the extra power and the better electronics make the brushless version more responsive. I do intend to try a larger prop, but other than that, I'll keep it just the way it is. Updates and Flights Tuesday, Dec 30, 2008 Maiden flight. Sat, Jan 10, 2009 Put 4 more flights on her today. Handles nicely. I pushed a little harder this time...full throttle, loops, etc... Not as much power as I anticipated...not that this is a power plane or anything. I will test another prop or two to see what the amp draw is and see if additional thrust/power is desired. Mon, Jan 11, 2009 Replaced the 10x4.7 SF prop with a 11x4.7 SF. I expect to gain a few ounces of thrust and lose a little speed. Sat, Jan 17, 2009 Flew with the 11x4.7. I like it. I may continue to try different props, but it flies niiiiiiice. Estimates: 10.47 prop = 12oz thrust @ 4.5 amps @ 21mph pitch speed 11.47 prop = 14oz thrust @ 6.5 @ 18mph pitch speed Believe it or not, it is not too difficult to fly around the field inverted with this setup. Do a half a loop and continue inverted. It doesn't turn well inverted (seems to lose altitude) and when I wanted to pull out of it I had to continue the rest of the loop. the v-tail wasn't able to upright it like ailerons would. Fri, Jan 30, 2009 4 more flights with the 11x4.7. I did one longer flight at about 10 mins and then 3 shorter flights to practice takeoff and landing on the parking lot where we are flying. We have to fly thru a "window" to take off and land. There is an electric line above, a telephone pole to the side, and a tree and dumpster to the other side...and a building behind the small asphalt area...we are really boxed in. The Tower Pro-type motor that I am using started making a grinding sound. I believe that small metal particles stayed attached to the magnets during manufacturing. I took apart 3 of my TP motors and cleaned off the magnets and lubed the bearings. Fixed the problem. I did find metal shavings inside. Sat, Jan 31, 2009 Another couple flights. I noticed that with this power setup (2s battery), she flies really nice, but does not have alot of power to cut back thru the headwind. But afterall, a Slo-V (and a Slow Stick) are very light planes by nature...you could say they are at their best as indoor fliers...although not many people that I know of fly them inside. Still, for this plane, I intend to keep it light and running on 2s. I want to keep her as a nice, relaxing slow flyer and will eventually put lights on her for night flying. I will still play around with prop sizes though... Sun, Feb 1, 2009 While I had the motors apart for cleaning, I went ahead and switched up to a different prop...a GWS EP 12x6. These are the specs I should be getting with this prop: The GWS EP1260 prop produces about 17 ounces of thrust at 8 amps with a pitch speed of 21 mph. As you can see, by moving up to the 12x6, I should gain 5oz of thrust over the original prop and recoup the 21mph pitch speed. Estimates: 10.47 prop = 12oz thrust @ 4.5 amps @ 21mph pitch speed 11.47 prop = 14oz thrust @ 6.5 @ 18mph pitch speed 12.6 prop = 17oz thrust @ 8 amps @ 21mph pitch speed Saturday, Feb 14, 2009 Over the weekend, I added red glowire and an inverter to the plane. It worked out as planned, but added a little more weight to the tail. I spent most of the weekend rearranging the components (battery, wing, etc) to redistribute the weight. I think I have it balanced again. The red glowire looks great. I can't wait to get it in the air again (been windy) to see how the glowire looks. I am hoping that the 12.6 prop and glowire are the last mods for this plane. Saturday, Feb 21, 2009 Got two batteries worth in today. It was a windier than expected...but that is weatherbug.com for you...sometimes it is spot on and other times way off. Two nice rolling takeoffs and two nice rolling touchdowns. The 12x6 is the prop that I will keep...and the red glowire is the icing on the cake. The plane still flies great (after rebalancing) with the added weight of the glowire, inverter, and 9-volt. I am very happy with the way this plane turned out and all the components chosen. She is a keeper...no more major mods. I need to get a couple decent flying vids and a nightflying video of the glowire... Monday, Feb 23, 2009 The wind died down in the evening so I took her up for a night flight with the red glowire and blue finger light LEDs. Perfect. I have some video, but it was our first time trying to film at night, so most of it is poor. If there is anything left after the edit I'll post it. I had some kids come riding over on their bicyles about 5 minutes after I put the plane away. They asked what the blue lights were. I told them that I didn't see anything, but to let me know if they see it again. To be continued... Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome. ImagesView all Images in thread
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Last edited by Bombay; Sep 21, 2009 at 01:28 PM.
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