Starter Plane

Bruthal

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

Bixler arrived today, but I will have to wait till I get home after work. Pretty quick considering it only shipped from Hong Kong last Wednesday. Can't wait to open that box.

Just make sure you do some good pre flight checks of control surface directions and CG etc, things are easily missed in all the excitement:D

bonfirey2k6

Well I opened it up. It looks impressive. Can anybody recommend a good glue to use. Also am I better off waiting to get the ESC before I glue or will it be easy enough to fit the ESC with the fuselage glued. I am presuming it will because I am sure they have to be replaced from time to time. Does anybody know if the model shop on Capel Street sells ESC's and Lipo's. Thinking of taking a trip in tomorrow. If not I will just order on local sites.

Bruthal

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

Well I opened it up. It looks impressive. Can anybody recommend a good glue to use. Also am I better off waiting to get the ESC before I glue or will it be easy enough to fit the ESC with the fuselage glued. I am presuming it will because I am sure they have to be replaced from time to time. Does anybody know if the model shop on Capel Street sells ESC's and Lipo's. Thinking of taking a trip in tomorrow. If not I will just order on local sites.

You should be able to use standard CA glue (superglue). Thats what i used to build a multiplex cularis, and repair a few radian gliders for others.

Multiplex recommend the CA glue with accelerator (hardener). I didnt bother with the accelerator myself.

I get the thick CA glue from hobbyking. The tubes of it you get here in shops would be impractical to use.

Lipos are also cheaper from there than shops here. As are ESCs.

Did you not order them with the bixler? I thought the ARF version wouldnt need to be glued either.

bonfirey2k6

I didn't order the ESC's and Lipo's with the Bixler. I was on the top end of the weight allowance and with the Lipo's especially it was over into the next weight bracket. Maybe should have order an ESC but it was my first order and wanted to see how I got on with customs and such.

I did order the ARF, I was surprised when I opened the package and seen it has to be glued. On the box it has a tick beside the PNP mark. May have been a mix up but it's not really a big deal. It comes with the same gear as the ARF just requires the fuselage to be glued.

I am thinking of trying out an order on http://radiocontrolledshop.ie, see how that gets on.

Bruthal

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

I didn't order the ESC's and Lipo's with the Bixler. I was on the top end of the weight allowance and with the Lipo's especially it was over into the next weight bracket. Maybe should have order an ESC but it was my first order and wanted to see how I got on with customs and such.

I did order the ARF, I was surprised when I opened the package and seen it has to be glued. On the box it has a tick beside the PNP mark. May have been a mix up but it's not really a big deal. It comes with the same gear as the ARF just requires the fuselage to be glued.

I am thinking of trying out an order on http://radiocontrolledshop.ie, see how that gets on.

Yea it looks like they do have to be glued.

Says on the site on the ARF version, to use medium to thick cyano glue and activator. As i said, when building the cularis, i didnt bother with the activator.

I got a radio case from the radio controlled shop you linked there.

Ilyushin76

Did you get hit with any custom charges ?I was looking at getting a plane from hobbyking but wouldn't be worth it if I got charged 100 euro from customs

Bruthal

Ilyushin76 wrote: »

Did you get hit with any custom charges ?I was looking at getting a plane from hobbyking but wouldn't be worth it if I got charged 100 euro from customs

Anything under €150 is exempt from import duty the last time i checked a year ago. VAT is another thing though. Usually it escapes the vat if it is below the €150 mark though.

If it looks like it would be expensive, they may ask you for receipts to prove purchase price.

bonfirey2k6

Ilyushin76 wrote: »

Did you get hit with any custom charges ?I was looking at getting a plane from hobbyking but wouldn't be worth it if I got charged 100 euro from customs

No I didn't get any customs charges or VAT charges. It arrived straight to the door, I do not know if that was luck or as robbie7730 said as it was under 150 euro. It was definitely worth it.

bonfirey2k6

Well it is pretty much together. I did use CA to glue the fuselage together but it did not seem to work great without activator. I did look it up on the internet and found that if you mix baking soda with water and moisten the foam, the dampness will act like an activator. I tried this and the joint does seem to be much better. I did put are carbon rod along the underside of the fuselage glued in place with hot glue. I also put packing tape on the front, underside of fuselage and on other stress points.

I do have a couple of questions.

What is the best way to attach the wings. The plans say to glue them in place but I would like to be able to remove them. It would be handy for storage and transportation. Has anybody tried methods that enable the wings to be removed?

Also, I attached the tailplane with hot glue. It seems fine and very strong and should be able to handle the stress during flight. I did not really trust the CA for the tailplane. Is hot glue good enough. I used it alot years ago but that was on balsa and ply models. Also if I do end up glueing the wings inplace, would hot glue be okay?

Cheers

Bruthal

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

Well it is pretty much together. I did use CA to glue the fuselage together but it did not seem to work great without activator. I did look it up on the internet and found that if you mix baking soda with water and moisten the foam, the dampness will act like an activator. I tried this and the joint does seem to be much better. I did put are carbon rod along the underside of the fuselage glued in place with hot glue. I also put packing tape on the front, underside of fuselage and on other stress points.

I used thick CA without activator, and it worked fine. Its big bottles though, from HK, so plenty was used.

I do have a couple of questions.

What is the best way to attach the wings. The plans say to glue them in place but I would like to be able to remove them. It would be handy for storage and transportation. Has anybody tried methods that enable the wings to be removed?

Non glued would be better definitely. On a radian where the wing fitting became very loose, i used magnets to keep them in position. Small neodium magnets. Others use elastic bands and hooks in the wings, or velcro straps. You could have a strap coming through the fuselage, and sticking to velcro pieces fixed to the bottom of the wings close to the fuselage.

Also, I attached the tailplane with hot glue. It seems fine and very strong and should be able to handle the stress during flight. I did not really trust the CA for the tailplane. Is hot glue good enough. I used it alot years ago but that was on balsa and ply models. Also if I do end up glueing the wings inplace, would hot glue be okay?

Cheers

Hot glue should work fine. It might snap clean off in a crash though, if you ever have one. I think the CA possibly gets in into the joints better than hot glue, but hot glue should work well. As i said, i built a cularis entirely with thick CA, 2 years ago. There is a fair bit of gluing in them, and no problems. It took a bottle and a half of the HK CA to complete it. The thick CA is slower setting than thinner ones, and i used no activator even though they recommend it.

bonfirey2k6

Thanks robbie7730.

Just waiting on the rest of the parts. I ordered them over a week ago. Ordered a lot to make sure I have plenty of spares. They didn't have the power supply I wanted for the charger in stock. I should be able to dig something out though. Maybe even an old laptop charger. Has the same power specs.

bonfirey2k6

Dug one of my older planes out of the garage today. It is a Hurricane with a wingspan of about 1.5 meters. It was a bit dusty but cleaned up okay. I might be interested in trying it out down the line, way down the line. It is a glow model but was thinking would it be able to be converted to electric. Originally had a 40 sized glow engine on it but that was a little under powered. A 60 would be more what it needs. The plane weighs in at about 3kg so I am presuming there are electric motors out there that would do the job.

Has anybody converted a glow plane to electric. Is it worth doing?

Cheers

bonfirey2k6

Received my Hobbyking order today. It took the exact same time as the Bixler. 11 days which is pretty good.


This is what I received in the order,

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7028

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=17204

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6306 x2

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__11903__Turnigy_nano_tech_1300mah_3S_25_50C_Lipo_Pack.html

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10414 x2

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=15202 x2

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=4134

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15205__Hobby_King_30A_ESC_3A_UBEC.html

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9549__Turnigy_TG9e_9g_1_5kg_0_10sec_Eco_Micro_Servo.html x3

Along with the above I ordered a couple of props that seem to be best for the Bixler from what I can see. Also ordered some shrink cover for the cables after soldering along with some velcro.


They did not have the power supply I wanted in stock when making the order. I thought I might have been able to use an old laptop power supply but connector is slightly different. For now I will charge them of a 12v battery.

I did not order connectors for the ESC to the motor cables. My lack of knowledge showed up there. I should be able to figure somethig out, maybe with standard electricle connectors. Has anybody used DIY connectors to connect the ESC to the motor? If so, what did you use and how did you do it.


Thanks in advance.....

keithn4

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

Received my Hobbyking order today. It took the exact same time as the Bixler. 11 days which is pretty good.


This is what I received in the order,

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7028

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=17204

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6306 x2

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__11903__Turnigy_nano_tech_1300mah_3S_25_50C_Lipo_Pack.html

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10414 x2

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=15202 x2

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=4134

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15205__Hobby_King_30A_ESC_3A_UBEC.html

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9549__Turnigy_TG9e_9g_1_5kg_0_10sec_Eco_Micro_Servo.html x3

Along with the above I ordered a couple of props that seem to be best for the Bixler from what I can see. Also ordered some shrink cover for the cables after soldering along with some velcro.


They did not have the power supply I wanted in stock when making the order. I thought I might have been able to use an old laptop power supply but connector is slightly different. For now I will charge them of a 12v battery.

I did not order connectors for the ESC to the motor cables. My lack of knowledge showed up there. I should be able to figure somethig out, maybe with standard electricle connectors. Has anybody used DIY connectors to connect the ESC to the motor? If so, what did you use and how did you do it.


Thanks in advance.....

Hey bonfirey,

You can soldier the esc to the motor, put some shirnk wrap over it and your good to go, no need for connectors.

Keith

civdef

Why did you get 2 ESCs?

bonfirey2k6

Cheers Keith, I might solder the ESC onto the motor but it is a tight fit and I would like it to be replaced easily.

civdef wrote: »

Why did you get 2 ESCs?

I actually got three ESC's, two 20's and a 30. Mainly filling up the order, figured it cannot harm to have some spare. I will probably start with the 20a ESC along with the 1300 lipo for my first few flights. I do not want too much power incase I get carried away with myself.

civdef

If you don't mind things looking a little bit agricultural, you could try a connector block as found in any hardware shop - I've used these while waiting for proper connectors to arrive and it worked fine.

Quandry

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

They did not have the power supply I wanted in stock when making the order. I thought I might have been able to use an old laptop power supply but connector is slightly different. For now I will charge them of a 12v battery.

I did not order connectors for the ESC to the motor cables. My lack of knowledge showed up there. I should be able to figure somethig out, maybe with standard electricle connectors. Has anybody used DIY connectors to connect the ESC to the motor? If so, what did you use and how did you do it.

If you have an old computer you might be able to raid it internally for parts. I just converted a 575w server power supply for my RC charger details here.


Although I used a server power supply, even a desktop one would do for that 50w charger you have (it's going to take a while to charge those 3s 2,200's you bought by the way). Also inside a desktop you might get lucky to find a 12v joiner on a hard disk, or other accessory, if so just clip out the plug and solder it on to your speed controller and you're in business. Maybe even someone you know has an old pc kicking about?? The PSU can take some fiddling but there's a lot of info on the web that you can use to figure it out. Otherwise the PSU's I used are available on ebay for 20sterling which is a great price considering how much wattage they supply.

smokin ace

i am just after getting in the post yesterday the very first power supply in the link below(the €18.99 one)and it does the job perfect with a pro tech c6 charger and with it been an irish company the delivery was only two days
http://www.modelheliservices.com/acatalog/Power_Supplies.html

Bruthal

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

Cheers Keith, I might solder the ESC onto the motor but it is a tight fit and I would like it to be replaced easily.




I actually got three ESC's, two 20's and a 30. Mainly filling up the order, figured it cannot harm to have some spare. I will probably start with the 20a ESC along with the 1300 lipo for my first few flights. I do not want too much power incase I get carried away with myself.

Putting in a bigger ESC wont really give you more power, as in if the motor takes 18 amps for an example, putting in a 30 amp ESC wont really give more power.

Neither will putting in a bigger lipo with the same cell count, except it may have a higher discharge rate and so hold its voltage under load a bit better.

bonfirey2k6

civdef wrote: »

If you don't mind things looking a little bit agricultural, you could try a connector block as found in any hardware shop - I've used these while waiting for proper connectors to arrive and it worked fine.

Thanks Civdef, that is exactly what I had in mind. I will try them if Quandry's method of using a HDD connector does not work out for what ever reason. .

Cheers Quandry, I will not have any problem getting those connectors. That seems like the perfect solution.

bonfirey2k6

Thanks smokin ace, I may up ordering a supply from an Irish site. Save waiting a couple of weeks. I do not mind paying a little extra to get it sooner. I will look around.

Bruthal

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

Thanks Civdef, that is exactly what I had in mind. I will try them if Quandry's method of using a HDD connector is not an option. .

If you do use connectors temporarily, make sure you solder the wire ends. They get a much better connection in connectors on them multi strand flex wires, than without solder.

bonfirey2k6

I do have another question, I do appreciate the replies you are giving me. It does help.

This is in regards to the ESC and Lipo combination. Is it okay to put a 2200 lipo on a 20a ESC? Would the ESC over heat and burn out?

Thanks again.

Bruthal

bonfirey2k6 wrote: »

I do have another question, I do appreciate the replies you are giving me. It does help.

This is in regards to the ESC and Lipo combination. Is it okay to put a 2200 lipo on a 20a ESC? Would the ESC over heat and burn out?

Thanks again.

No, the ESC just has to be capable of supplying the max current the motor will take from the lipo.

So if a motor will take 15 amps from a 3 cell lipo with a certain size prop on the motor, then a 20 amp ESC will do for that example.

Using a 1500mah 3 cell battery, or a 2200mah 3 cell battery wont make any difference, the motor will still draw the same amps, sometimes marginally more from the bigger battery only because the bigger ones tend to maintain their voltage level under load a bit better.

But the short answer is yes you can use a 2200mah with the same ESC-motor combination.

I actually use a 2200mah battery in the 2 raidians here, they come with 1300mah ones. I use a 2650mah battery in the cularis i have, which people usually use a 2200mah one in.

bonfirey2k6

Thanks robbie7730, I wasn't sure exactly about the ESC to Lipo. I originally thought it would be fine but then started reading other posts and looking at other videos, I then wasn't sure. I hooked up the motor this afternoon through a 20a ESC with the 2200 Lipo. It worked fine. The ESC did get warm but nothing too bad.

Quandry I tried the connector from an old HDD cable from a supply. It worked perfectly. I have plenty of older pc's lying around. I only recently had to replace a power supply for a friend and decided to throw the old PSU into the attic instead of the bin. I new the parts would come in handy at some stage but did not think I would be using them on a plane. I do have working PSU's but I am doubtful about opening them up to adapt them. I will research it because it is such a good idea, I have to agree.

bonfirey2k6

Quandry wrote: »

If you have an old computer you might be able to raid it internally for parts. I just converted a 575w server power supply for my RC charger details here.


Although I used a server power supply, even a desktop one would do for that 50w charger you have (it's going to take a while to charge those 3s 2,200's you bought by the way). Also inside a desktop you might get lucky to find a 12v joiner on a hard disk, or other accessory, if so just clip out the plug and solder it on to your speed controller and you're in business. Maybe even someone you know has an old pc kicking about?? The PSU can take some fiddling but there's a lot of info on the web that you can use to figure it out. Otherwise the PSU's I used are available on ebay for 20sterling which is a great price considering how much wattage they supply.

It looked into converting an old PSU from a pc today. I came accross this video on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ityrHaBLepg&feature=plcp


It worked great, it only took about ten minutes to do. I charged the 2200 Lipo in less than an hour. It was a fast charge just to see how it gets on. I am concerned about charging the Lipo's so it was set up on a bench outside through an exterior plug socket. Might stick to that location for awhile. This set up will do me for now. I will put together a casing for the power supply with more solid connectors for the crocodile clips. Very happy with the result. Bixler is ready to go. It will probably be the weekend before I get to try it out.

Thanks for all the advice I have been given from the start. It really helped me out.

Quandry

Cool and well done!

Time to buy a couple of lipo charge bags though:

bonfirey2k6

Finally got the first flight of the Bixler in this evening. It is still in one piece so I suppose it was a success. It handled well but I was definately out of practice. Did a few unintentional loops but it took it well. There was a bit of panic on my side but managed to keep it in the air. Wasn't much of a landing, more of a crash landing. Second flight was better, I had more control of it, a bit of a scary moment at one stage, the wind started pushing it towards a few houses, managed to steer it away. I got control back and put it down. Good fun all the same.:D

Quandry

It's a great feeling to be back on the sticks right!?

Did you do a centre of gravity check of the bixler? CG has a big effect on how any plane will fly. If it's looping and hairy it could be that the CG is too far back. As a general rule of thumb the CG is often just in front of the thickest part of the wing.

Any pics of the Bixler?