RE: connecting lights
[quote]ORIGINAL: uavflyer76 Hi - I have three light strips that I want to install on my airplane. I put futaba plugs on their wires, but...how do I split one lipo to connect all three lights? [/quote] Quick and easy would be a pair of Y harnesses, plug the single lead of one Y harness into one of the legs on the other. Would give you three legs to connect your lamps too, and another to plug into your pack. (if it has a Futaba end on it too) Heck I just about finished wiring up the lamps in my Cessna 182. Six (6) landing lamps, red and green nav lamps on the wings, blinking red on the tail, and a strobe in the belly. Toss in a pair of 555 timer boards to run the flasher and strobe, and you're talking TWENTY SIX (26) wires snaked all thru the plane and ending up at a single plug.[X(] Still gotta set up a tx run switch for it and I'll be done. WHEW!
Posted on: 11/13/2009 10:37 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "ARF or RTF"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9252328

Motor mount hole locator helper
This is something I came upon today. It's for an electric bird but I know you sometimes have to build a box mount to extend you engines out too, so it may work for you. I'm holding the mount on a nice slippery glassed firewall, trying to mark the hole locations for the mount bolts. Well that didn't go so well. With the plane in a cradle, it would slip all over the place while I was trying to hold the mount with one hand and mark with the other. Well after a half dozen or so tries. I sat down the mount and started thinking of how I could do this. Took the wing off, and tried holding the bird between my knees and again the mount would just slide all over the place as I tried to square it on the crosshairs and mark the holes at the same time. "Now what?" I say to myself as I look at the mount and the firewall. Hmmmmm, there's already a center hole in both the firewall and the mount. BINGO!!!!!! I go over to my hardward cabinet and dig out a toggle bolt, you know the bolt with a nut on it that has a pair of spring loaded wings on it. Unscrew the nut, insert the bolt through the mount, reinstall the nut and shove it home thru the hole in the firewall. Tighten up the bolt enough to snug the mount, line up the crosshairs on the firewall and tighten down the bolt. Rock solid and not moving now. Take my drill and mark each hole, no need to try and use a marker or center punch as I already have the mount acting as a guide. Unbolt everything and finish drilling the holes. Son of a gun a perfect fit.[:D]
Posted on: 11/13/2009 7:46 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Tips & Techniques"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9251944

RE: Nitroplanes 90
Nice work Gary, will be nice to see Tom's pics.
Posted on: 11/2/2009 1:35 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9222680

RE: Official F27 Stryker Part 8: Beginners to Custom Darkness
[quote]ORIGINAL: Vegatron75  Maybe you guys can, or maybe you already have, do a stocker stryker build.  Built around the stock size  batteries and speed control. Fuse mods to help w/ crashing instead of ultimate speed.  All stock except servos, motor and prop. Something w/ a balanced combo of speed and manuverabilty?   I'm on fuse no. 2 now. I had a servo, hxt900, strip in flight and nosed her in. I think my shish-kabob skewers in the nose helped keep the fuse in tact for the most part. I also think the carbon tube underneath the motor mount helped keep the motor in place.  I think my taped hinges w/ stock taped elevons might create too much pressure for the hxt servos. This thing turns like it's on high rates w/ the taped hinges.. I do know that I'm tired of servo/tx/rx problems wrecking my plane. If I wreck it  that's one thing but to be flying and all of a sudden the plane has a mind of it's own SUX!!!!!  I'm still really new to this, but I'm having a ton of fun. It's such a rush to fly this thing, I havent' touched any of my helis since..... [/quote] I'll take this one. Vegatron, the HTX 9G servos are fine for most smaller parkflyers, BUT not a good replacement for the Stryker. Take my advice, go with the Hitec 81/82's for most applications on a Stryker. [;)] moparmyway, nice to see you carrying the torch forward from Gryphon and Chippedprop. Some big shoes to fill, they did a great job and still do.[:D] And before you ask, yep I still have a Stryker in the hanger, so I'll be watching the going ons here. [8D]
Posted on: 10/30/2009 8:11 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9216235

RE: GEE BEE R3 RACER??WOW!!!
[quote]ORIGINAL: mfuess I ended up putting a Zenoah G26 in my R3. The OS 95AX just didn't have much go-power. While the aircraft does weigh more, it still flies well. [center][image]http://tech.flygsw.org/geebee_front.jpg[/image][/center] [/quote] What you fly with no pants? Oh my![:D] Well just gotta cut my own decals, and she's done. I give all my planes names, this one's "Hee Bee Gee Bees" Just in time for Halloween[:)]
Posted on: 10/25/2009 12:58 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Scale Racing"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9200711

RE: Nitroplanes 90
Gary, Got your PM. I'm in!!! How do you want to handle payment? Pay Pal ok? I'd love to have the CD too, beats pawing through 18 pages of posts.[:D] I'll PM you my info. Thanks Brad
Posted on: 10/24/2009 12:16 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9198426

RE: Nitroplanes 90
Ditto Gary, Keep me in the loop when you get em ready.[:D]
Posted on: 10/24/2009 12:45 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9197650

RE: Lipo C rates...
[quote]ORIGINAL: rascal35 I believe the ''C'' that follows a number on a lipo battery means discharge rate. Can someone explain, even if that is true, what this means. I just bought the nitroplanes FMS skytrainer (cessna 182). Its a 15C lipo. I have other lipos that are likw 20c and 25c, but I have no idea what this means. Thanks... [/quote] Actually, in simple terms, the number, aka 15, 20, 25 is the maximum discharge or output rate. As in a 15C pack will supposedly put out 15 times the capacity of the pack. Like this for example say a 3S2100 20C lipo, would be 2100 milliamps x 20C = 4200 milliamps or 42 amps. Or in your Cessna's pack it would be 15 x the pack capacity=max milliamps/amps. Now that said, take the rating with a grain of salt. Some packs will and some won't do as the spec out. And to be on the safe side, and to promote long pack life, try to keep your system's draw at no more then 80% of the pack's rating. Using the above example, the max on the 3S2100 20C pack (if it's a good one) would be 42 amps. So 80% of 42 amps is 33.6 amps, so you would want to run your system so it only draws no more then the 33.6 amps. A very important tool to have as an electric flyer is something like a Watt or Astro meter. You can't know what's going on with your system unless you have one and use it. If you don't the hobby can get very expensive quick, and with lipos, can get very dangerous too.
Posted on: 10/24/2009 12:38 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "NitroModels Support"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9197624

RE: Hangar-9 Sopwith Camel Build Thread
cedthered, you may want to check out your local bait shop/fishing supply, for snap links. Easy on/off of the wires. Here's an example. http://www.psfishing.com/swivel-with-snap-link-brass.html And DITTO the elastic cord for the landing gear, mines been on over two (2) years and are as good as new.
Posted on: 10/13/2009 9:39 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "ARF or RTF"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9169258

RE: GEE BEE R3 RACER??WOW!!!
[quote]ORIGINAL: forestroke looks great! albeit the pilot doesn't look like he's having fun! [/quote] Yeah having been yanked from a T28 and dropped in the R3's seat tends to do that. LOL
Posted on: 10/7/2009 7:35 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Scale Racing"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9153288

RE: GEE BEE R3 RACER??WOW!!!
Well I wrapped up mine tonight. "E" powered!!! 1000+ watts spinning a 14 x 13 x 3 APC. Couple of the things I did differently. Added a simple cockpit and pilot, couldn't stand the open bare frame work showing. Built the rudder and elevator controls inside so no linkages hanging out to spoil the view. Added a pair of vents to exhaust the airflow, and blocked off most of the fire wall area to allow only airflow over the motor/esc/packs. Cowl is magnetic latched, single screw on top locks the front of the main hatch, cowl, and fire wall together. Remove the screww, the cowl pops forward and makes the hatch easy to remove and install. Added some holes at the rear of the hatch mount area to let air escape back into the fuselage and out the vent holes, so hopefully no popping off of the hatch. Rebuilt the aileron servo mounts, and built covers, didn't like the whole top of the servo sticking out, now its just the arm. If I had thought ahead before I glued in the ailerons, I would have probably gone with torque rods so there was no linkages hanging out at all for the ailerons. And finally replaced all the tires with rubber versions. If the flying wires don't hold up, I'm going to order a set for the Hangar9 Camel for it. Hardware is much better quality, and comes with turnbuckles for adjusting the tension, so no clevises to deal with.
Posted on: 10/6/2009 8:57 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Scale Racing"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9152365

RE: GEE BEE R3 RACER??WOW!!!
mfuess, nice job!!! Where did you get the Gee Bee lettering on the tail from?
Posted on: 10/6/2009 8:30 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Scale Racing"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9152292

RE: ... electric help...
Ummm, not real sure what you mean by wirelessly. Use of something like an Astro meter or Watt meter, plugs inline between the pack and esc and reads out volts/amps/watts. Gives you real time readings. And there are some units available that allow you to download the info to your computer after a flight, aka like a flight recorder. That way you see how your system is performing over an extended period of time.
Posted on: 8/28/2009 3:02 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9052335

RE: Polk Hobbies C-47
Here you go. My Polk DC3 done as an AC47. Gatling guns (self built)on it actually spin, each has it's own 250 brushed motor with home built gearbox to spin em up. Servo actuated switch turns em on, and is actuated from the TX. Pretty neat on flybys, gearbox noise sounds like the guns are buzzing as they spin.
Posted on: 8/28/2009 12:42 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Electric General Discussion"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9051999

RE: P-38 BUY
Sorry for the belated reply. Umm motors/esc combos were around $25.00 per set. Servos were $3.00 each, rx was around $50.00, and pack was $20.00. Props and spinners maybe $20.00. And I guess a couple of bucks for the paint.
Posted on: 8/15/2009 6:20 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9017824

RE: P-38 BUY
Other then building your own, yeah I'd say the P3 version would be the way to go. Fun little bird. I did mine up as "YIPPEE"
Posted on: 8/2/2009 7:21 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8983175

HAve you seen E-Flite's latest?
Check it out!!! http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/ProductGallery.aspx?ProdID=EFL6075
Posted on: 8/2/2009 7:19 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8983173

RE: power help for a H9 p-47 .60
Well I ran my Hangar 9 P40 on the 60. 6S3700 pack, Castle Creations 60 esc, Ultimate UBEC, spun an APC 15x13x3 blade prop. Flew beautiful with this set up, more then enough thrust and speed.
Posted on: 6/28/2009 8:49 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Glow to Electric Conversions"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8889178

RE: Series connector sparking
[quote]ORIGINAL: aramid [quote]ORIGINAL: Glacier Girl Ummm, am I missing something here? He's trying to charge two packs off the same charger lead? How the heck are both packs going to charge properly? Granted I understand the series connector changing it into a 6S pack, but unless all the cells in each pack are dead nuts even, he's not going to get a proper charge on each cell/pack
Posted on: 6/28/2009 8:31 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "E-Flight Power Sources"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8889123

RE: e-flite Park 250 Prop Adapter
Even better is latex tubing. Next time you're in Walmart or similar, take a stroll over to the kids toys. Look for a slingshot. The stretchy tubing used on them is latex tubing. Remove the tubing, and slice off a couple of pieces. You now have retainers. And unlike O rings they won't deteriorate as fast. O rings, especialy auto ones are built to be used as seals, not stretched like a rubber band. After only a couple of flights look close at the O rings you'll see em starting to come apart. The sun and stretching kills em pretty quick. Only down side to using latex is if you're allergic to it.
Posted on: 6/28/2009 9:35 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Brushed/Brushless motors, speed controls, gear drives"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8887797

RE: MYSTERY BRUSHLESS ESC 60A & 80A
Almost sounds like you bought a pair of esc's that don't have bec's in them. Ummm, first things first. Make sure everything is plugged together, and the tx is on BEFORE you plug in the pack. Now if you have one try plugging in a rx pack into a spare socket on the rx. If you don't have an rx pack, use another esc and pack, and plug the spare esc into an open socket on the rx. If your new esc now works and the rx has power, you've bought a pair of esc's that will need a separate power source for the rx as the esc don't have bec's in them. You'll either need to fly with an rx pack, or use a stand alone bec, often called a ubec. Esc's built in bec limit the number of cells you can run on the esc. You'll often see in the specs of the esc it lists number of cells with and without the bec connected. These non equipt esc's are often used where the power demand to run lots of servos and the rx make it not cost effective to build in a bec to handle the load. A stand alone bec, roughly around $40.00 for a decent one would have to be added to the price of the esc you bought if it was equipt that way.
Posted on: 6/28/2009 9:21 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Brushed/Brushless motors, speed controls, gear drives"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8887776

RE: Parkzone Corsair - Speed controller, motor, or something else??
Well if the rx is lighting up it's getting power. Could be something as simple as a loose crystal in the rx or the antenna/crystal broke. The multiple tone sounds like the esc is waiting for a signal from the rx. The rx if it's unable to receive a signal from the tx would do just this. First off unplug the pack, and remove the prop. Don't need a stray signal firing up the motor. Plug the pack back in. Start checking. Is the crystal loose in the rx? Antenna lead still connected? Try jiggling some of the connections, you might have knocked something loose when it flipped. Other then that, I'd say first try another crystal or rx.
Posted on: 6/28/2009 9:09 AM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Brushed/Brushless motors, speed controls, gear drives"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8887758

RE: Sig Hog Bipe, and and e-Flite 60
And you static tested the system for ten minutes at a time? I'm just amazed the whole set up didn't go up in smoke. I gotta be missing something here. Most folks agree a static run up should be to full throttle, and only long enough to take a meter reading. The lack of airflow on a static run(the motor and esc are sitting where airflow is at it's lowest on a prop) usually is a recipe for disaster when a system is run that long. I'm simply amazed the temps listed were real. WOW, that's just boggles my mind.
Posted on: 6/27/2009 10:45 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Glow to Electric Conversions"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886937

RE: Sig Hog Bipe, and and e-Flite 60
Quick questions. Your running a 9S set up right? You disconnected the bec in the esc, and are using a ubec or flight pack right? Looking at the photos it looks like the red wire is still in the lead and not disconnected. The CC80 is only rated for 6S with the bec connected, 12 without it. If it's as I see it, you're running the built in bec and your problem is the bec can't handle the voltage and is overheating. Just checked the Eflite 60's specs too. Max voltage for it is 28.8 or 7 lipo cells. And you're running 9 cells? And your set up is pulling 52 amps? Max continuous for that motor is 40 and burst of 15 seconds to 60 amps. 52 amps is what your system pulls at all throttle positons, it's just how long it pulls that, that determines the speed. Meters get tricked trying to read anything but full throttle as they tend to average their readings over a set amount of time, the pulsing of the power to the motor tends to fool the meter into a lower amp reading at lower then full throttle. Granted I'm know for stretching the limits of stuff, but it almost sounds like you are really pushing the motor and esc's bec capabilities way past where they should be. I run the same motor and prop on my Hangar 9 Camel on 6S, and same set up spinning a 14x13 3 blade on my old Hangar 9 P40, and both flew great on 6 cells.
Posted on: 6/27/2009 10:27 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Glow to Electric Conversions"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886853

RE: NI-MH oddness
Also if you're using one of those included peak chargers, remember you get what you pay for. Lots and lots of reports of false peaking from them. Only way to know for sure if your packs are charged is to check em on a meter. You could be getting undercharged packs even fresh off the charger, or worse and it happened to me way way back when. Old Cub I had, used the included charger, it stuck in the charge position until the pack exploded. Also batteries do have lives. Only so many charge/discharge cycles in them. And if they came with the plane see the note on the charger. And as DC touched on, the pack not having enough juice to overcome the start up surge on the motor. More then likely you have a brushed motor set up, and those motors do wear out. As they wear it takes more and more to spin em up. Add to it any type of binding, like a gearbox gone bad, worn out bushing, etc. and it takes even more juice to get the motor to spin up. Also as DC stated the 650 pack has more then twice the capability of your 300 pack, so it may have the guts to spin up a binding worn out motor when your smaller pack won't.
Posted on: 6/27/2009 9:43 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "E-Flight Power Sources"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886819

RE: Series connector sparking
Yep that sure looks like the sign of a dead short somewhere. Possible you touched the leads on the adapter backwards when trying to connect the second pack? As stated, if the other end of the adapter wasn't plugged in, and no signs of bridging on the backs of the terminals there's no way to short the plug. Only other thing I can think of is if maybe you had a dead or shorted cell in the second pack. Ummm, am I missing something here? He's trying to charge two packs off the same charger lead? How the heck are both packs going to charge properly? Granted I understand the series connector changing it into a 6S pack, but unless all the cells in each pack are dead nuts even, he's not going to get a proper charge on each cell/pack. Only way I could see this working is using balancers on each pack to try and keep the cells all balanced out, otherwise one high cell is going to trick the charger into thinking the packs are fully charged as it's only reading total volts. He's going to end up with two unbalanced packs that way. And each cycle is going to make things worse. Charger is reading total volts as it charges, so no way for it to know what's going on. As long as it gets to 25.2 volts it's not going to know or care that one pack may be at 14 volts and one is at 11.2 volts or worse.
Posted on: 6/27/2009 9:18 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "E-Flight Power Sources"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886751

RE: Twin motor sizing
So does MotoCalc. If it's anyhelp to ya, I ran the Hobby Lobby B25 on a set of TowerPro 2410-9y motors, 18 amp esc's, spun I think it was 8x6 three bladers on it. ran it on a single 3S2100 pack. Pulled like 16 or 17 amps combined.
Posted on: 6/27/2009 8:44 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "E-Flight Power Sources"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886694

RE: Selecting the right prop
Ahh, no biggie. Follow through with the stuff Ron told you to read on a rainy day. It won't take long and all of a sudden it will click and start to make sense. Heck I made the switch back in 2004, and if I can do it you can too. I see you're down in Fort Misery. I lived there from 84 till 94. Where you flying at? I just bought a place up in Lakeland, Home to TOP GUN!!!! Brad
Posted on: 6/27/2009 8:13 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Electric General Discussion"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886616

RE: Motor & Battery Selection
Gerald, welcome back. Gotta go to the basics. Need to know stuff. Start with the stock system. Kv rating of the motor, volt rating too, gearbox ratio, prop size, amp rating of the esc, old pack cell count. And you absolutely need a Watt meter. The older stuff with brushed motors, you have to be careful of the cell count when using lipos on them. Most won't take a 3S lipo for very long. A 2S will drop the performance slightly but will hold that level longer then the old Nimah/nicads did. I'm guessing the motor is a fairly high kv rating, hence the gearbox vs direct drive. Probably a 6 or 7 volt motor. Lots of changes in 5 years in electrics, stuffs a lot better and cheaper too. With all the China stuff out there, you can get a motor,esc and pack for way under a hundred bucks now that would make your stang run like it was supercharged. And do it direct drive and at lighter weight then with those old style cells. And plenty of calc programs out there that allow you to play with motor/pack/esc/prop/airframe changes. Takes a lot of the guesswork out of setting up a plane, and a lot less costly doing it in the calc program then in real life. MotoCalc is my favorite, it has a 30 day free trial. Give it a look see, doesn't take long to get the hang of it. www.motocalc.com Oh and your packs are good for a maximum of 12 amp draw. Rule of thumb is to run a lipo at 80% of it's rating to get the best life out of it, so you're looking at just under 10 amp draw for them.
Posted on: 6/27/2009 7:54 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Electric Training"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886591

RE: Programming an ESC
Are you following the instructions that came with it? Got the leads plugged into the right sockets? and the right direction? Pretty simple to use. Plug it in, current setting lights up, use the up/down arrow button to scroll to what you want to change, then use the left/right arrow button to change it. Least that's how mine works.[;)]
Posted on: 6/27/2009 7:17 PM by Author "Glacier Girl" in the forum "Electric Training"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8886521