Latest Posts

Posted on

X1 Pro DC plus ePowerBox 17A Power Supply

I’m constantly updating and hopefully upgrading my RC gear and recently I decided I needed a new charger. The one I bought is the Hitec X1 Pro.  I bought it in combination with the Powerbox 17A power supply. 

Hitec RCD 61070 X1 Pro DC Multi-Charger E Powerbox 17 Combo

A couple of reasons I think the X1 Pro will serve my purposes.

1. Power
2. Portability

I have been doing some flying indoors as well as running an RC car at the local track and I found that my current charging options (a Hitec X4 CD charger and my PL6) just don’t fit the bill for a couple reasons. The Hitec is adequate for some needs but with only 50W power per channel it can be a bit slow for some needs and requires a DC power supply to run it which adds more weight and bulk… especially since all my 12V supplies are fairly heavy and large. The PL6 certainly has the power but it also needs a DC supply and it is a fairly pricey charger so I don’t like to drag it around very much for fear of damaging it. It usually stays in the airplane trailer or the shop.

After my buddy Corey picked up the combo X1 and power supply I had a brief look at it and decided it might be the solution. Power supply and all it is very small and is capable of charging at 180W! That means I can charge a 2S (for the car) at around 20A if I like! This could be a very quick charge for a single battery or I could charge several of my more common aircraft batteries at once with a parallel board.  Even with the power supply the unit is a <6″ cube so portability is excellent as well. Another bonus is it can discharge at 30W which is better than most chargers so getting down to storage charge when needed is quicker as well. Second bonus is the price for the package.  I have seen them from $130 to as low as $80 for the pair… Hard to beat even at the higher end of the price range.  So I brought one home today.

When you unbox the X1 and the power box you will find that you can connect the two with some nifty little double ended banana plugs.  They supplied 4… 2 are needed.  I suppose they will eventually wear out so having spares is a plus.  I removed the little rubber boot on the bottom of the X1 and plugged the two units together with the double ended bananas and presto, I had a fairly compact and powerful AC powered charger. 

In fact, it is compact enough that I don’t think I’ll be taking it apart anytime soon so I decided to come up with a way to keep them semi permanently attached in this configuration.  I can see where leaving it this way and packing and unpacking it might stress the bananas so here’s what I came up with.

First I loosened some of the cap heads on each side where they are closely adjacent on the two units.  Then I took some wire and bent it around in S curves such that tightening the screws would capture the wire.  Here’s a closeup.

I did this near all 4 corners and now the unit is practically one piece.  Since I used fairly small, semi-soft wire I can easily take this back apart if I decide I want to modify this setup later.  I may eventually make something more like a “latch” from servo arms or something but for now I think this will work well.

My only trepidation at this point is I need to find a proper box or padded bag to put the unit in to protect it when it’s in my car “satchel” where it might get rubbed against and scratched.

I have only run the charger a couple times so far but I am quickly getting accustomed to the controls (just a slight difference from most I have used). 

Finally, the first time I tried to pull the connection that goes to the balance board from the charger, I had real trouble releasing the catch.  There didn’t seem to be enough room between the connector and the case to release it and pull it out.  I almost pulled the connector right off the pins!  A razor knife took care of the pesky latch!   Nothing else I have needs a latch on this connection so I don’t think I’ll need it.

So far, I think the little X1 with the Powerbox 17A is going to be a welcome addition to the charging lineup around here.  I have seen some indications that they may soon do away with this charger and power supply!  I hope not as it seems to fill a niche for me and think others may be interested as well. 

 

 

Posted on

Dumas Windy… now “This sucker’s electrical!”

After swapping in the power system from an E-Flite Timber, the Windy seemed to be ready to go but then I started to notice what sounded like a stutter on startup and sometimes even at higher power settings.  I did some research and found a lot of speculation around causes. 

Some report that connection issues cause the problem.  It seems a poor connection on one of the 3 wires coming from the speed controller can be to blame.  Others claimed it was a setting in the speed controller (timing) that creates the issue.  As best I could determine the connections on the motor end seemed fine so I tried re-soldering the bullets on the speed controller, then replaced the wires entirely but neither made a difference.  Since the motor is fairly inexpensive, I decided to try that next and placed an order.

While awaiting the new motor, I did some research and tried to program the timing on the 40A ESC that comes in the Timber.  I didn’t consider this to be a very likely scenario as most Timber’s don’t seem to make this sound but I thought I’d give it a try.  Based on my experience… don’t bother!  I have programmed several brands and types in the past and I tried to follow the published directions to no avail.  After researching on-line, I have found that this is the experience of all but a lucky few with this ESC.  Remind me to bypass the E-Flite line of speed controllers in the future.

Unfortunately, in my experience, E-Flite tends to have an appalling lack of information on the products installed in many of their ARFs.  This makes it very difficult to pick an upgrade part or replace a failed component, especially in the case of a part that is difficult or impossible to acquire from the manufacturer.  I am quite fond of the “Power” line of motors however, but I usually stick to that product set and avoid the motors that come only as part of an ARF.  I only tried this one as it was so inexpensive.

In any case, after the new motor arrived I tested and found it made ZERO difference!  Back to the drawing board.  The next step was to get a new speed controller.  My “go to” on speed controllers has always been Castle Creations.  In my experience, not only has the quality of the Castle products been high, but they offer many features that your average ESC doesn’t come with.  With the Castle ESC, I can get real time or recorded telemetry, programming either through my radio or via a cable to my laptop plus features like a throttle cut switch.  Yes, they are one of the more expensive manufacturers but I think they are generally worth the extra dollars.  Of course I am always looking for a discount!

A few days later I found a good deal on a 50A Phoenix Edge.  With a little extra overhead in the current handling capability plus the ability to handle up to 8S, programmable setting concerning timing, braking, etc… along with telemetry capabilities, etc… (I like to be able to move my gear on to other projects down the road) I cashed in a gift card to help soften the blow and made the purchase.  

After soldering on the appropriate bullets and power connectors, I tested with the Castle and the motor purred like a kitten… or screamed like a vacuum cleaner gone berserk once the  prop was affixed!  Since this controller is not water proof I decided to take some precautions.  First I hid it away in the pod to shield it from most water and second I did a quick water resistant treatment with my handy bottle of Corrosion X.  I have had good luck with components treated with Corrosion X being dunked (complete submergence)  and continuing to run so it has become my go to for insurance against water damage.

Here’s the dunk process to apply the Corrosion X. 

   

Then I let it drain for 10 minutes or so.

After a quick wipe with a paper towel to remove some excess from the wires I nestled it in the top of the pod with some foam around it to keep things snug

Then I buttoned it all up and tucked the wires well away from the propeller!

In testing with a 4 cell battery, the Windy was able to taxi around on my short carpet in the shop and readily pick up speed and turn.   I am looking forward to getting some test runs on the snow and later at the pond.  Best guess is that I may have a bit more power than before… I’ll try to at least add a comment here after some testing.  Wish me luck!

 

Posted on

F-16 Alfa… The prep/repairs continue

After picking up this little ducted fan at a swap I have been going over it and trying to get it ready to fly and every time I look at it there seems to be something else that needs “remediation”!  First I went through the power system and had to disassemble and re-solder, etc…  Then I had to re-glue the control horns on the elevator and find some mini/micro EZ links to capture and hold the control wires.

Then I started looking for replacement control horns for the ailerons.  In order not to change the geometry on those (hoping the default/factory sizes are the right length) I decided I needed to create my own…  So I quickly cut some out of some 1/8″ thick ply…

Then I cleaned up the holes in the ailerons and applied some FoamTac.

Here’s an Amazon link where you can get some of your own if you are so inclined.  I can’t imagine working on foam aircraft much without some.  It is very versatile and incredibly tough.  : Amazon.com: Beacon Foam Tac Foam Glue 2oz Carded by Beacon Adhesives: Toys & Games

I made use of some dubro micro hardware for the needed linkage hardware and all seemed to be finally coming together… until I figured out that the elevators could move through about 1/3 of their travel without moving the servo!!  This didn’t seem likely to result in a successful flight so I was back to remediation mode… 

After some investigation I realized that this small airplane was showing that some things don’t change with size.  Whenever you use a “wire in tube” type of linkage (one to each half of the elevator in this case) you must support and secure the outer tube.  In the case of the F-16, the flexibility of the linkage makes it ideal to route around the ducting but makes securing it all the more important.   Whoever built this plane originally didn’t do this.  Unfortunately this meant I had to cut some more access holes since the plane and the power system are more or less permanently glued together at this point.  Here’s one of the new holes…  I tried to follow some existing panel lines so maybe they won’t be quite as obvious when I replace them.

After strategically cutting these access panels I used a bit more Foam-Tac to secure the linkage outer tube to the foam side wall of the aircraft and/or the  duct tube… whatever it was already laying against.  Here is the outer linkage glued to the duct tube.

Then replacing the access panels gets me back to where I’m ready to install a receiver and get this thing ready.  Here it is with the panel back in place… not perfect but this is not a competitive scale bird!

Of course the airplane had some final (I hope) flaws to throw at me… As I was getting things back together, I noticed that the top and bottom of the nose area (immediately behind the nose cone) were not securely attached to each other.  I cut some strips of box tape to help secure these together and once more I’m almost ready to secure all the electronics and install and bind a receiver.  Hopefully I’m nearing a ready to fly status.

Posted on

Timber makes first flight of 2018

Like many clubs, ours has an annual January 1st get together so that we can all get a “first flight of the year”.  This year featured cold temperatures, 3 inches of snow… and did I mention REALLY COLD!

When I got to the field, Mr Steve Kessler was already waiting for another member to arrive so that he would have witness to his first flight… it was about 7:30AM and sunrise was set for about 8:15 so it was just starting to get light.

After we thawed out the lock on the door to the shelter, we fired up the generator, lit the heater and then went out to get in some early morning flying in.

Here’s a compilation of some video from Steve watching me arrive and noting the chilly temp (check out that dash display showing negative temps).  That’s my Timber on the left with the orange wing tip stripes.  Steve had his plane sitting out side while we got the shelter ready and one of his ailerons simply froze up…  So our first flight became a solo.

Flying into the rising sun while it is still just below the horizon is a lot of fun.  As are the floats on the snow.  Better than skis in these soft and fluffy conditions.  

Later on that same day I got out the Traxxas Fiesta AWD and mounted the camera on top for some more video.

It was a bit chilly (what’s -14 when you’re having fun?) but we started the day with a beautiful sunrise and proceeded to enjoy some hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls and a nice warm shelter for between flights!  Later in the day we feasted on some brats and burgers along with baked beans and some tasty baked goods for good measure.  All in all, a great start to the year.  Here’s hoping 2018 ends as well as it began!

 

Posted on

Second E-Ducted Fan… The Phase III Squall

When it rains it pours I guess…  After never having owned a ducted fan of any sort, I now find I have two of them!  I was at a swap meet recently and ran across this gorgeous little plane.

This is the Phase 3 Squall.  This one is the HP version so is ready for a 4 cell LiPo.  With a 3400KV motor and 45A speed control I expect some fairly high speed passes are possible.  I’ve also seen some fairly high alpha passes with the HP on video, probably due to that swept wing and the extra oomph.   They call for 4S 2500mah pack but since I already own some 3300s, you can guess what I’ll fly with for the maiden.

The paint job really caught my eye and I haven’t seen another like it… once I saw the price I was hooked.

I was warned to be cautious with the throws so I followed the manual precisely and put elevator, aileron and rudder on triple rate switches with the low rates being no higher than what is recommended for normal, an in-between step and then the recommended high rates.  I was also generous with the expo as is my standard operating procedure.

I’m hoping for good weather on the 1st when we have our “freeze fly” so I can get a maiden on it… I just got it ready to go today (about a week before) and of course the warm(ish) weather is departing tonight so we’ll have to wait and see.

Posted on

Update to my Dumas Windy air boat is underway… kicking the glow habit.

A couple weeks ago, my only glow powered airplane lost its battle with gravity.  “The Pig” as we called it had seen better days and we think the wing (which had a couple of weak spots) may have just made one to many 8G turns…  It dove hard into the ground and shattered the forward third of the body.  The wing was in 3 pieces as well so not much left to work with.  Nor was I particularly interested in spending a lot of time and money on a truly major rebuild anyway.  There are lots of old beaters around to chase gliders with (it’s main occupation the last several years).  RIP “Pig”. 

Whatever the cause, it meant that I had only one glow powered craft left… my Dumas Windy air boat.  That meant I was now in striking distance of finally getting completely out of the glow business.  No more messy oil coating every surface, eating finishes, staining shoes, etc… etc…  No more obsessively tweaking the needle for that little extra kick.  No more disappointment when the glow driver battery was dead.  No more little slices on my fingers from flipping those insanely sharp composite props.  I can do it!  I can be free!!  Maybe I could even find some poor soul who hasn’t yet tried to kick the habit to unload the remnants of my stash?  Someone who is still completely in the grasp of that cruelest of mistresses…

Glow motor addiction! 

Yep, I recall when I was hooked.  The smell of warm castor and the ear piecing shriek of a 2 stroke at 15,000+ rpm was what I craved.  When I tried to escape I was simply lured in deeper by the mellow tone of a 4 stroke purring away at an idle so low you can practically count the RPMs.  And the price just kept getting higher.  10/15 wasn’t good enough anymore, now I needed 20/20 or better.  The “dealers” kept pushing harder with gold plated (literally) and chromed editions that I simply had to have.

But I’m almost free now.  If I can find a replacement power system for the LA-15 (blue edition of course… I could never stand the cheap stuff…) I could be free.

I quickly realized I already had a possible alternative.  I had recently purchased the remnants of a E-Flite Timber.  The electronics and power system were all intact to all appearances.  So the plan was hatched.  I would transplant the BL10 from the old Timber onto the Windy.

First I stripped the LA-15 from the boat and placed it into my swap meet box.  I only took a quick sniff from the muffler as I polished it up a bit for display… (Don’t judge if you haven’t been there).  Twice it occurred to me how reliable the 15 had been and how well it would pull the half finished little mustang that lay just across the shop but I summoned up my will and closed the lid on the swap meet box firmly.

Once past this job I quickly stripped the on board battery, throttle servo and fuel tank.  After gathering a few supplies at the hardware store I managed to space out the BL10 motor with some nylon spacers, threaded rod (hacked to length) a few washers and some nylon insert nuts.  The firewall looked like it was about ready to give up the fight:

Some medium CA and kicker was employed to solve that issue.

I kept the little 7×4 3 blade prop.  At least for now.  There just isn’t clearance to go to a higher diameter prop and  I haven’t found much else that looks like a good fit, so for now this is it.

A bit of temporary Velcro strapping to temporarily hold the speed controller in place and thing were looking pretty good.

Time for a quick test.  Using a 3S 2700 I measured about 11A and 130W of power draw from the battery.  A quick test on grass confirmed that this is just not the same level of power as the old 15.  I tamped down the temptation to re-install it (I get stronger ever day but the temptation never seems to die!) and did a bit of research .

A couple days later I recalled that some Timber owners had run this motor and speed controller on 4S packs… and with very little difference in prop size they had reported continued health of the power system.  So I decided why not.  This time with a 4S installed the meter showed 270W and 18A of draw!!  I was running this test on carpet and the boat took off across the room when I released it and without even reaching full throttle.  This combination looks good.  This alternative to glow for this boat seems great, no side effects apparent… I might make just make it!

During a final test… just for fun.  I noticed a brief stutter on startup and then again at a higher throttle… I thought the motor was going to shake apart.. what the heck??  Oh well, I guess there are always slips along the way…  Guess I better start researching this new issue…

Posted on

First ever ducted fan electric for me… Alfa F-16C

The RC community is a great resource with worldwide reach and it is fantastic what you can learn and the support you can get just for the asking.  It has always been my hope that something I write here will help out someone else… beyond just entertaining.  Sort of my way of passing it on.  In this case though I got some excellent help from a member of the community who I found on another web site.

Thanks to a posting on the RCGroups web site and a quick response from a gentleman over in England, I now know that what I have here is an Alfa Models F-16C.  Alfa Models appears to be based over in the Czech Republic and available only directly from them at this point.

Someone wanted this one bad enough to order and pay some substantial shipping or perhaps a US vendor carried them for some time??  In any case I now have access to the instructions so I have information on the power systems that are recommended, though I can’t tell whether this one has one of the “stock” options or something else, plus some idea of what size battery to run, where it should be balanced etc…

As I move forward on the build and fly, I will post more here.

Posted on

First ever ducted fan electric for me… whatever it is!

An F-16 finds it way to my hangar

Went to a swap meet on Sunday and along with a few little odds and ends I ended up with this:

I’ve searched on line and can find no mention or image of this little foamy.  I’ve been wanting to try my hand with something a bit faster… If for no other reason than I’ve never flown anything with much speed and my assumption is this will likely fit the bill.  Also, I’ve never flown a ducted fan either so maybe get a couple of firsts in one!

At first glance I thought this would be a pretty plug and play, throw it in the air and go option… but after getting the plane home I’ve found a bit more of a project.

First, I was trying to get the speed controller out where I could get a good look.  Since I can’t find any info on the airplane or it’s power train, I have no way to know what battery it should use, what current it will pull, etc…  I was hoping the speed controller would give me some idea what kind of “not to exceed” numbers to look at.  Here is where the speed controller is buried.

Yep, that’s it way up there in an almost invisible location… sigh.  After pulling one nylon screw to pull out the “scoop” I was able to remove the controller, motor and inadvertently the thrust tube that guides the air stream smoothly  out the tail.   Here’s the speed controller with nary a part number, label or any other identifying mark in sight!

That being no help I looked over the motor and ducted fan unit hoping for some help but as you can see it was not much more illuminating.

I eventually took out the guide tube as well…

…and cleaned up all the parts, scraping off excess glue in some areas, re-gluing others etc…  In the process I found some suspect wiring that I intend to replace and clean up, extending some wiring a bit so that the speed controller is bit more accessible!

Here’s the wiring that needs some work.

Here you can see the access points I had to open up to get the thrust tube back in place.  You can also see the one issue I had known about… the aileron control horns seem to be missing!

 

After all that I decided to do a test run just based on size and best guesses so I tossed a 3S on the speed controller, pulled the power pin from the ESC to the servo tester and laid it out on the table top…

The initial run was promising with ear splitting, vacuum cleaner on crack sounding rpms.   That IS what an electric ducted fan is supposed to sound like, right?

After I rework that wiring a bit, next on the hit parade is to put my meter in line and measure current draw at full throttle as another data point toward picking the right battery.  Then I can get back to reassembly and installing some replacement control surface horns.

Then maybe estimating some sort of balance point/CG and installing a receiver and radio setup… This thing is practically bind and fly, right?

Posted on

Gary’s Hangar Nine Corsair with Evolution 777

Recently visited one of the “Garys'” to make a stab at getting his Evolution 777 4 stroke, radial, 7 cylinder motor to run at other than 20-35% throttle settings.  Previously that was the “best” we could get.

But today, here is what we got to…

 

https://youtu.be/G79xyCGJb-M

 

This is a much superior result.  So what was holding it back?  On the previous runs we had been running some older fuel and also been advised that we needed to open up the high speed needle a bit… but undoubtedly the key factor had to be the replacement of all 7 glow plugs!

A bit of overthinking (perhaps) had led someone to decide that the brand new plugs in the motor needed replaced before the first test run.  And someone else advised that the OS #8 was the best plug for ALL glow motors!  Perhaps that statement might have been a bit… overstated!?

While I agree that the OS#8 has long been one of the best all around plugs for a large majority of smaller displacement 2 stroke glow motors, there are also reasons that manufacturers recommend hotter plugs, colder plugs and very pertinent here… specialized 4 stroke plugs for some motors.  So by moving back to the provided 4 stroke plugs, fresh mixed fuel and some judicious tweaking of the needles per instructions from the support folks at Horizon Hobby… and we are now officially into the break-in process!

This Corsair might actually get off the ground… eventually!

Posted on

Tugster Tug Boat kit by ZippKits.com

During our sojourn to Toledo, Ohio for the annual weak signals show many of us picked up some new toys.  One of the items that found its way home with us was the ZippKits “Tugster” tug boat kit, purchased by my friend Steve.  He had the idea of building up the Tugster for use in aircraft retrieval.

Now, about 6 months later, the little tug boat has been assembled and prettied up for its big debut.  I think Steve put it all together in just the last couple weeks.  Here is the big launch.

From Steve’s description, the little tug went together quickly and fairly easily. And it appears to have good power!

Steve also reported that the Hardware Kit was quite complete and had pretty much everything needed minus the radio system (receiver and transmitter needed).

Here is a side by side with my Timber out on her floats for the first time.

The little boat seems to have quite a bit of power.  Certainly it easily shoved the Timber around!  The supplied batteries (2 x 6V 4.5AH batteries) needed only 450mah to recharge to full after out poking around at the pond for the better part of an hour the other night so it is hard to imagine recharge being needed during a day at the lake.

The Tugster may see some action here in a couple days as we have our club float fly this weekend.  We’ll see how she does as a real work boat.

Proudly powered by WordPress