cmonroe

My Feedback: (1)

Fellow fliers, I need your advice. I've been flying for a long time and am in the process of finishing a Aerotech yak 54 50cc size and have a 100cc size on its way as well. The plane I am currently flying is a Great Planes Extra 300 with a DA 50. I used High Torque (not digital) servos in the plane and a 2200 nicad pack for the receiver and servos as well as the ignitition. I also use a Futaba 9CAP radio and receiver. I'm also at the other end with several Lipo electrics and am very familiar with the the Lipo packs.

In this instance I am moving to a different area I am completely unfamiliar with and that is using packs that deliver 6 volts to the digital servos. Yes, I went with the 333 oz torque servos in the Yak @ 6 volts and am absolutely not familiar with the best set up for a plane like that. I am finishing the Yak 54 with a DA 50 and pipe. I don't know what to do with the batteries in this case. I have seen information on the benefits of back up systems, boards that regulate the voltage to the servos and receiver, and use of Lithium Ion batteries to keep the weight down. I know that since the next one is a 100 cc size most of my questions may be relavant to the next one.

Can someone help me with the best set ups for situations like this in Giant scale down to the specific equipment you would recommend and any articles or diagrams on how to set this up. I'm not familiar with the chargers, batteries, regulator boards, etc. To this point, I have been fine with just high torque servos and larg nicads.

Any help would be appreciated to bring me up to speed.

Thanks.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

As far as servos, receivers, and switches are concerned there is no difference using 6v from what you have been using. As for redundant battery systems in the smaller sized giant sacle planes, my opinion is that if it makes you feel better to have redundancy, great. I believe that in 99.999% of the 25 to 33% planes redundancy is of not that much benefit, adds uneccessary weight, and expends cash that could be better directed. A quality battery and switch installation will do the job just fine by itself. There will be a lot of people that differ with that.

Battery types depend a lot on what amount of weight yuou need to balance the plane. Need a lot? Then a 6v nicad will do the job. Monitor the batteries and charge when needed. need a little lighter but don't want to spend too much? Then a nimh battery will be a good choice. Wnat to stay light, have a lot of capacity and don't mind spending with a little extra? Here's where a lion battery and regulator come into play. Want to get as light as you can and are willing to spend a little more while taking great care with your batteries? Then go with a lipoly installation but follow all the rules that apply to lipolys to the letter.

Power expanders and the like are an absolute waste of money, weight, and time for most planes that use less than 12 servos. Unless you are ganging servos on multiple surfaces and installing redundant battery systems at the same time, don't bother. A 50cc sized plane will do just fine with an 1,800 to 2,400 mAh installation. A 100cc plane with more servos would work better with more than 4,000 mAh. No set rule here, but more capacity is alay better with less. A redundant 2,000 mAh set up in a 100cc plane works well too. There is no one perfect or best method. It's what works best for you and what you are using in the plane.

yarom

My Feedback: (82)

There are so many opinions, I cannot even go into the various possible setups.

Just think about this - you will need a lot of clean power at once for these digital servos (BTW 100 Oz. is not enough for most flying surfaces on 30% and up) when all of them are in play simultaneously. The power draw of several 300 Oz. servos activated at once can be staggering.

You need to make sure your batteries are capable of delivering this power when needed and that your electrical connections and wires are capable of taking it to the servos.

6 Volts drives the servos faster and provides more torque than 4.8, if you care about that.

I use redundant LiPos through high quality regulators, HD switches and fat gauge wires - works for me.

Slyder

I have 2 50cc planes with a single 1950 faup 5 cell pack in each. single leads. The yak has 4-5645's, 1-5955, and a 425.
The guys at the feild were wandering how good the battery is. Peaked it one day and put 14, 10-15 min flights on it over a 3 week period. Still showed 6.2 volts. Put the Peak super test on it and still pulled out 1300 mah.

If I were to move up to 100cc today I would go with the 3600 sub c with 2 leads and switches.