giguchan

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Hello ,
I just bought my first real "sparkie" I'm curious... should i go with the e flite equipment? or should i go with castle creations... has any one had any experience with either company? I know(i think) i'm going to go with the e flite "32" motor... but that can change.I can find the eflite ESC at the LHS but the rest of the stuff will have to be online.. I can find the reccomended gear on the box of the plane, but i was thinking that if i went with CC i would need different recomendations..
thanks. Gig

powerlines

I like the Eflite motors but I prefer Castle ECS.. The motors are a really god value and great performance.... You will be happy with the 32.. I have one on a 5.5 lbs Funtana and It will hover.. Full throttle but it will hover.. If you put it on a US 25.. MAN.. That will rip.. I was running a master airscrew Electric 13x8 prop and it was insane.

LATER

giguchan

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Hello and thanks for the reply...
I thought so... many people have said the same thing i was just curious . most shope carry the eflite equipment the castle stuff always has to be ordered... oh well.... what kind of battery do you suggest? what current?
thanks for the help... i fell asleep in the bed reading my manual now i have a knot in my neck that wont quit
Gig

patnchris

I'm using 4s1p4000 from True RC....Some in my club say that it is overkill, but it fits the hole, and powers the plane very nicely.......I started out with an E-Flight 40 ESC but it literally went down in smoke.....Now I'm using a CC 65........Pat

Doc Austin

My E Flite motors and ESCs have been bulletproof. I absolutely torture the stuff and I can't hurt it.

They make really good stuff and have customer service that is above-and-beyond. Top notch equipment and company. Great people.

I'm using a Castle Creations Phoenix 60 ESC on my Ultra Stick 25E, and it rocks. Initially, I didn't want anything except for an E Flite, but at the time they didn't make a 60 amp ESC.

OK, this is a little long, but bear with me..... You simply plug an E Flite controller in and then forget about and fly it. They come out of the box set up and ready to go, and if you can change anything, I don't know how you would do it. The E Flite controller is absolutely perfect if you don't want to know anything and just want to fly it. My E Flite 40 amp ESCs have been dead solid perfect. I can't recommend them enough.

But.......... the Castle Creations ESC can be programmed right at your PC! You plug the Castle Link into your computer's USB port and use Castle's downloadable program to access all the ESCs features. It sounds complicated, but it's not really that bad. It's actually interesting to see how all the parameters can be adjusted to give you the kind of performance you want.

Of course, you can always just plug it in and go fly it. That's what I did with mine for a few months until I found out about the Castle computer link. Of course, it's such a neat toy that I had to have one, and it's turned out to be an invaluable tool.

The best feature I have found yet has been the programmable brake. You can adjust it in 10% increments, but if you need to go finer, in the advanced menu you can adjust as small as 1%. What this allows you to do is use the motor to put resistance against the propeller when the power is pulled back for landings or other times you need to slow the plane down. This allows the propeller to turn only so fast, and it acts like a big air brake. You pull back the power and it's like throwing out a parachute. You have to be careful with it at first because it slows the airplane down so fast that you can stall the thing really easilly, but once you learn when you are doing, you have total, subline control of the airplane's airspeed at all times. In effect, it's an automatic speed brake. You can pull the power back, dive the airplane straight down, and it will only go about 20mph because the brake won't let it build up any speed!

Oh, the ESC also let's out a really cool, tortured howling sound when you do this. First time I tried it I almost threw the transmitter down and started running away from it. I was convinced it was going to explode! Actually, it's just a harmless audible signal to let you know the brake is working, but the faster the plane moves, the louder and meaner the howl is. I've scared alot of people with it who didn't know what was coming. It's always good for a few laughs at the club.

This makes spot landing ridiculously easy and with total control of the throttle/brake, you can make the shortest appoaches of any plane at the field. This comes in handy at really tight locations when you need the get the plane in, slowed and set down. I could very, very, very easily fly this plane at a park, but it wouldn't be responsible. It wouldn't be responsible to fly a 3.5 lb airplane in the park, but physically...........it would be easy with the speed brake.


E Flite is imported by Horizon Hobbies and that's who you deal with when you need E Flite support.

Horizon is a really solid company and they didn't get to be one of (if not the) biggest hobby distributors in the world without knowing how to treat their customers. However, it is a big company, and sometimes getting warranty replacements is a little cumbersome. That's not a knock on them. It's just a fact that they have tons and tons of stuff comming in and going out every day. Most times they are easy to work with, but occasionally there is a snag or two. Horizon is working on it, but they are still the best, IMHO, company out there and they make the best products too.

Castle makes a great product, and they are still a fairly small company. You can call them up and actually talk to someone instead of being stuck in phone hell for hours. Bernie is particularilly easy to deal with and very informed. He not only knows his product, but everyone else's too.


Nah. Use the 32, but make sure you get the 4 cell 4200 battery packs. The 3 cells are fine, but the 4 cell pack with give a lot more punch. I bought 3 cell packs because the 4 cell was available yet, but I'm going with the 4 cell pack as soonas I can save up for two of them.

giguchan

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WOW!
Thanks for ALL of the replies. I will take any and all recomendations into acct. I was curious as to which equipment to use, Now i have a guide to go by... the battery was a big decision and what current etc.....now once again i have a pretty good guidline to go by.
One of the chaps in my clubs said that CC is a good idea, but at the time i could not remember the company name.(it had been a long time since i started thinking about one of these and actually calling one mine)
Now all i have to do is go to my LHS and order me some parts....
thanks once again for all of the help....
i will BM this thread incase i need more expertise!
Thanks

giguchan

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has anyone added flaps to this fine plane? i'm thinking no, but i'm curious..
thanks again!

giguchan

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Hello all,
has anyone ever mounted the power 32 MOTOR from E flight on the inside of the fuse? of Ultrastiick 25 E? I Have never seen one mounted like that.Just the normal way on the ourtside. I'm not sure of all that business of taking the motor apart to make this work.
Anyone?
thanks

spitfiremk.16

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i would mount the motor on the front of the firewall like they show in the manual, i have a few reasons for this
1.the motor gets alot more cooling and doesnt overheat
2. it would be alot easier to install
3. to get the plane to balance out you may need to move your battery and it would be hard to do so with that motor in the way
btw
an flite power 32 on a 4 cell 4200 mah thunder power battery with either a castle creations phoenix 60 or a eflite 60 speed control in that plane will kick some serious ass!

giguchan

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you must have read my mind(or previous posts). this the system i plan on using... this whole"sparkie" thing was done on a whim... I got the plane brand new for next to nothing.$60 (LHS only had one and was sick of looking at it) paid $90(Could have done better, but he had it in stock, gonna get a CC phoenix 60(might have to pay for that unless i can get one at the WRAM sho) and the battery? GULP! WILL definetly have to pay for that.... if i had not gotten some of the deals i got, this would NOT be a savings at all.... and since i have never had a plane like this rumor has it, that i have to use smaller servos..(these ain't cheap either) and receiver(I fly on 6M) i have a feeling that will cost me just as much as some of my glow planes... I guess i thought just because it uses a"battery" I thought this would be cheap.... (Well, less expensive) i have a charger capable of charging Li Po's so that offers some relief
thanks for the all the help.... i think i was going mount it outside anyhow i just wanted some added input..
thanks all..

giguchan

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BTW!!!
How many batteries will i need to get this thing in the air? hopefully i wont need 1 for the plane and one for the receiver... @$200 a piece? and if i want to have a back up's Hmmm lemme see... thats a total of 4 batteries..... @ $200 =$800
somone please tell me i'm very wrong about this...
please...

spitfiremk.16

My Feedback: (7)

no, you wont need 4 batteries unless you want to fly all day without having to charge anything at the field, the battery eliminator circuit on the castle creations phoenix 60 wont work if your using a four cell pack. you will need to use what they call a ultimate bec so you dont cook the speed control. when you run a high number of cells in your motor battery you cant run as many servos off a speed control. the good news is that an ultimate bec is only $30 and only takes a little bit of soldering to install. so you really only need 2 4200 mah 4 cell batteries at $200 apiece=$400 still alot but only half of what you though it would be. as for the servos, for some reason e flite wants you to use the jr digital mini servos, you have a few choices here and it depends upon how much money you want to spend, you can buy mini digital servos which cost alot $$$ or you could use hitec HS-225BB mini servos, these are about a drop in fit and they cost about $20 apiece and have 54 oz./in of torque at 4.8 votls, once again, this depends on weither you want expensive digital serovos or analog servos, analog servos will work fine in this plane. hope this helps,

giguchan

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it does help.. . i just wanted to take THIS time to say thanks for the reply... i'll write you back again because i have new questions... yes i will be using 4 CELL 4200... i have to get the "ultimate bec" is this with the phoneix? or in pplace of it... i'm not really sure...
thanks again...

spitfiremk.16

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you have to buy the phoenix and the ultimate bec seperate, another thing you could do besides using a bec in the plane is just using a regular glow engine plane reciver pack to power your servos, eitheer way your going to have to spend $20 to $30 on this, when you put a seperate bec on though you wont have to worry about charging another battery though. hobbly lobby and i think medusa research sell bec's. there ae other brand bec's also but these are the only ones im familiar with.

giguchan

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Hello,
Thanks for the replies. I visited the LHS today. He told me the same thing you did... what's an extra $30? I'm into this so much so far...
I Wanted to use a smaller than normal receiver, But since i fly on the ham bands, I have to use a standard size one(CC DOES NOT MAKE ONE)... well at least this way they are more availible. things are coming together..
thanks again.