RC Plane storage
With space becoming a premium in the garage, I've had to find new places and ways to store the planes. Unfortunately the trailer is moving outside and the car is going to be living in the garage from now on. So here's a couple of ways I've made better use of space available in the garage.
1) Vertical rails from Bunnings. Easy to do and flexible configuration. Once the vertical rails are screwed into the wall (making sure there's a stud behind 'em), the arms can be moved up and down to suit all different sizes. Shown here is a little 46 sized sport plane along with a 160 Edge 540.
2) Garage door rails and cable ties. Aah cable ties, is there anything they can't do? The last meter or so of the garage door rail isn't actually used and is crying out to hang something off. Just make sure you mark where on the rail the door actually stops before hanging them. I misjudged the first one by about 15cm so when I opened the garage door, the roller almost crushed one model. Luckily the model just got pushed along the rail.
Thunder Tiger eHawk 1500 – What’s in the box?
So what do you get for your $150?
- Two nicely covered wings. I didn't particularly want blue but it was all they had in stock and who wants to wait when you can have it now.
- One OBL 29/09-07A Outrunner Brushless Motor
- A 10 x 6 Folding prop set.
- Ply pack including servo tray, wing mounts etc.
- Nuts 'n bolts and bit's 'n pieces bag.
- Carbon Tube for the fuse.
- A canopy.
- 4 x metal pushrods.
- Two carbon tube wing joiners.
- The main body of the fuse. Light fibreglass?
- Instruction manual. Looks easy enough to follow.
- A "Safety Caution" manual. Full of useful tips - not.
- Motor manual including mount template.
- Decal sheet for prettying up the glider.
It didn't seem like much taking unpacking it from the box but then it is supposed to be a light glider.
eHawk 1500 build
What a good week last week. The birth of my second daughter the day before my own birthday on which I get to unwrap my present, a Thunder Tiger eHawk 1500 electric glider. Reading up on the forums suggests a few modifications might be worthwhile, like putting the aileron servos in the wing and maybe even some flaps. With the default setup (1 aileron in the wing) I reckon having to connect the aileron pushrods every time would become tedious and probably lead to weakening the connector. I've seen photos of PC connectors being used in the wing and fuse to mate the aileron servo leads upon mounting the wing each time.
time lapse build video – extra 300
What started out as an instructional video on building a foamy, turned into a time lapse video of the build. I used Vegas Pro to capture, resample and speed up the playback to condense a few night work into about 90 seconds video. I built it out of 5mm foam core artboard which overall I think comes out too heavy. During the build, I used a heatgun to remove the cardboard layer from the ailerons and rudder. This came to about 45 grams of weight removed from the plane. Imagine how much I could save if I skinned all the cardboard from the foam and used a few CF rods for stiffness instead.
My suspicions about the weight was confirmed with a maiden flight on Sunday past. It flew ok and would hover but needed about 90% throttle to do so. I think I'll try to lighten this version and build another one without the cardboard skin.
rcpowers.com extra 300 foamy – electronics
Started putting the electronics in today. The 10A ESC is probably too small and will be swapped for a 20A. The motor is a Turnigy 2730 Brushless Motor 1500kv. The receiver is a 4 channel, 2.2gram, 2.4Ghz rx from fly-rc.com.au. 2.2grams!
You can find the plans here;
http://www.rcpowers.com/forum/showthread.php?s=4d581749dd440cbd0dc1285713a8ecd2&t=625
rcpowers.com extra 300 foamy
it's all cut out of 5mm foamcore artboard from the art supplies shop (Riot Art, about $16 for an A0 sheet).
I've loosely pieced it together here (no glue) for an idea of size and look.
Break out the hot glue!
rcpowers.com extra 300 plan
The Delta foamy is fun and durable but without the fuse length and control surfaces, just doesn't fly like a plane should. So here's the next project. An rcpowers.com design Extra 300 foamy. Maybe not as durable as the delta wing but it still should hold up to a fair amount of punishment.
I'm going to build it out of 5mm foamcore artboard owing to the fact I still haven't found anything vaguely resembling the type of blue foam so popular in the US for scratchbuilding foamies.
kf Delta Foamy Version 2
kf Delta Foamy Version 2, originally uploaded by mattmc.
My handmade engine mount on the kf Delta Foamy version 1 wasn't so great. A 3mm square plate of ply hot glued onto a foam "firewall". After a lengthy flight on a 2S 1000mAH battery, the motor wouldn't turn. After taking it apart, I found excess hot glue on the mount had heated up during the flight, come in contact with the rear of the motor and after it cooled, it all gummed up.
So onto version 2. Rudder control, a thicker more consistent step and a Turnigy 2730 Brushless Motor 1500kv (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8618) on a proper engine mount.
Multi charge leads
I was charging an 800mah 2S battery via the JST connector on my multi-charge lead. After the charge was finished, I went to unplug the battery and dragged it toward me over my bench, when the lipo started fizzing and smoking. I suspect the Tplug that wasn't in use at the time shorted out on a pen clip. The effect is as good as shorting out a Lipo across it's terminals.
The terminals have melted and the lipo has puffed so I've junked the battery. To avoid this in the future, I took an unused T connector and covered the terminals in silicone. When you look at all the leads on the harness, if a short is going to happen, it's going to be on the T connector with those exposed terminals sticking out.
