Radio control nuts

[Bender]

Originally Posted by Cumminsman76

Well when I went to the race later I stopped by the hobby shop and they had a help wanted sign. I got the call today they are going to hire me. I have a feeling this job will cost me more money than I make.

Which shop?

[FPGT72]

Originally Posted by arkansawyer

I looked through the stack of unbuilt kits I have today. One seems like a great project for a beginner.
Ace airscout designed by Owen Kampen
54" span 490 square inch wing area
50-58 ounces all up
.15-.25 glow engine

It looks like a Taylorcraft, or the Sr. Telemaster I learned to fly 4ch with. What kind of electric motor, controller, battery would be right for it? Electrics are harder to understand than engine displacement.

I did build an electric powered Goldberg gentle lady 20+ years ago. It would barely fly with an 05 direct drive and 6 cells. Master airscrew gearbox, 12" folding prop, and 7 cells helped. It never was better than rolling up a hi start after flying.

Back to motors...Electric has come a LONG way in just the past 3 years...I quit flying about 3 years ago and am just now getting back into it...and the advances is just amazing.

As to size I would think something in the 1500kv range should do it for you. I am by far not the best at this, but pick yourself up a watt meter and perhaps motocalc....or just ask the question on RCG...there are guys in the convertion sub form that helped me out quite a bit when I did my 5' wingspan convertion on a VQ P-39 this plane http://www.vqwarbirds.com/product_in...98312a12091a9d

I fly it on electric power and it was a pretty big project....biggest most complex plane I have ever done...after this one I steped out of flying and am now just getting back in. And I am flying very simple planes at this stage....just more simple and fun right now.

[FPGT72]

Originally Posted by Bobonli

I'm looking at trainers (realized the HZ Champ isn't really suitable as a trainer) and have been reading that I should consider a good quality radio that I can grow with, rather than the cheep units that come with some of the BNF planes.

I was looking at the Apprentice and someone mentioned to me that the 5 series Spektrum radio that comes with it can be limiting; that it's older technology and that's why it is bundled with a plane. He suggested looking at the 6 series instead.

Putting the plane aside for a moment, is the assertion about the 5 series radio accurate? The last thing I want to do is buy a radio/plane combo and then find I want to upgrade the radio within a year.

BTW, I joined RC groups. Man, you can certainly get wildly different answers there, depending on who's participating in the forums. I asked a question and was basically told the Champ is a mediocre plane to learn on and, in a different thread, people were recommending it as a great first plane. At least the inmates here are more or less consistent. Thanks.

Now that I have a little more time I can put a little more into this.

You need to look at what you are going (or think) you are going to be flying....and then if you want BNF or PNP type airplanes. BNF planes will come with a (usually) Spektrum rec, where the pnp you have to supply the rec.

Part two of this is you can look at a FM system....now don't go all crazy....but FM is still very viable and is alive and well. An 8chan rec will set you back all of $22 from BP hobbies and under $20 from hobby king...and that is a corona rec...not some super cheapie. The high end FM raidos are pretty cheap these days, and are usually very well taken care of because these at one time cost close to $1000 and flew very expensive planes.....it also depends on where you are in the hobby and if you want to deal with the older technology. Most of my planes fly on FM.

Just another thing to think about.

Back to your question about the 5 series...yes it is an older radio but for simple models it is just fine. All of my PZ planes fly on the same 5 radio (corsair, 109, corsair, f4f) Just set the plane up right on the table and it is a toss and fly with little changes to the radio trans. Never a problem with any of the stuff. I would say to get started it is a fine system.

[FPGT72]

When I was saying foam has come a long way....look at this bad boy.

[Saget]

Latest project:


Started with a full-size CAD plot for scale. The 3 smaller circles are 24" apart on center, 120 degrees apart, forming an equilateral triangle.




Major parts cut from 3/16" ply.








Wing nuts to hold the arms in place, so they can fold back for storage.






Some flat black spray paint gives it an industrial look.




More to come....

[Saget]

A box of goodies from Hobby King included three 750kv brushless motors, 25 amp ESC's, an Orange receiver, and a Turnigy metal-gear servo.




...and a canopy for a TRex 600, just for looks. It was much bigger than I thought, had to cut at least a third of it away to make it fit!





Getting things together.




The servo is used to tilt the tail motor side to side for yaw control.

[Saget]

This is where all the magic happens. A muliticopter control board from KKMulticopter.com, flashed with tri-copter firmware. They can program these things for anything from one to eight props. It has 3 piezo gyros, one for each axis. The gain for each can be adjusted independently. This thing plugs in between the receiver and all the motors & servo.




Mounted on foam rubber and wired up.



Ready to go!

[Hay Ewe]

you posted that pic 5 mins ago!
come one - whats it like

just kidding, I can wait

[Saget]

And it flies!!!










Only 3 flights so far. Making little tweaks to the gyro gains before each flight, getting it dialed in. It's about the same as flying a single-rotor collective heli. One difference I've noticed already is that it's far more stable in a breeze than my Blade 400. You can really see the one servo in the tail working hard to keep it steady, but it's doing its job. Just some steady hovering, slow forward flight, and gentle turns so far.

[Buzzbomber]

That is cool.

[dorkpunch]

+1!!! How about some video!? What did it cost you to put together?

[Saget]

Originally Posted by dorkpunch

+1!!! How about some video!? What did it cost you to put together?

Thanks. I've got a little over $200 in it. I'll get some video as soon as I can, we have some crappy weather coming for the next couple of days. Hopefully I can get out and fly some more!

[FPGT72]

Wish I had the gray matter to scratch build....that is pretty cool. Me I will just stick with the simple kits.

[Saget]

Originally Posted by FPGT72

Wish I had the gray matter to scratch build....that is pretty cool. Me I will just stick with the simple kits.

I don't know if it's "gray matter". I guess I'm just old school... I started flying R/C 30 years ago when all we had was kits. I appreciate the work and effort it takes to turn a box of balsa into a real flying machine. That said, I do have a couple of ARF's hanging in the garage for times when I just want to fly and not worry about all that work.

[Saget]

Here's a quick video I just shot before the rain & wind blows in this afternoon. As you can see I'm not doing much with it yet, but you get the idea.