Cheap electronics

JTarmstr

Elite member
Been building for a while now but I have always had one problem, buying electronics. I want to build a lot of different airplanes and I have trouble finding motors, servos and propellers for them. I was wondering if there were any good places to buy equivalent motors for the F and B pack, I try to support FT whenever I can but I cant pay for a ton of power packs.
 

Booda10925

New member
The power packs are your cheapest option. Especially due to the fact they have done the size/weight and propeller/motor/battery calculation. There's alot to determining these calculations.
 

TEAJR66

Flite is good
Mentor
For a new FT Speed Build Kit, The FT Power Packs are well worth cost. For all the stuff that comes in them and the convenience of having everything one stop, they are very cost effective.

Not all builds warrant a fresh new FT Power Pack.

This is a cheap way to go for something in the range of the "B" sized motors. I use them in a lot of my scratch design/build projects. You might see them paired with props, but you should not go bigger than an 8X4 prop on 3S. That is the sweet spot for these motors.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075ZSDR2T/?tag=lstir-20

For the "F" sized motors, you could try this. You should use 5X3, 5X4, (just about any of the popular 5" quadcopter props) on 3S. I have only had one and I burned it out fast when I over propped it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PXVWFQS/?tag=lstir-20

These are decent servos. I keep a few on hand for the same scratch design/build projects. The E-Max servos from FT are worth the price for the quality. Never had any problems with them. But, I reserve them for the refined designs that are worth repeating.
https://www.banggood.com/6X-Towerpr...p-1072260.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=CN
 

d8veh

Elite member
This is a cheap way to go for something in the range of the "B" sized motors. I use them in a lot of my scratch design/build projects. You might see them paired with props, but you should not go bigger than an 8X4 prop on 3S. That is the sweet spot for these motors.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075ZSDR2T/?tag=lstir-20
I use them for the C-pack motor. My Simple Scout climbs vertically with one using the propeller that came with it. I also pay less than that:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/A22...4.0&pvid=d19f3c45-6277-43d3-9a58-9291398e88a3
You can get them even cheaper if you buy a set of four. You can find them on Ebay.

Banggood have some very cheap receivers. I have already tested this one, which works perfectly:
https://www.banggood.com/MOTIVE-RC-...-p-1344163.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN

I have a couple of these on order:
https://www.banggood.com/2_4G-4CH-M...-p-1143300.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN

I have a Jumper T12 transmitter that can work with just about any receiver. It has the JP4in1 module that you can buy for about $40 and put it in any transmitter that has an external module bay. That includes the cheap Flysky transmitters
 

kilroy07

Legendary member
I too started out with FT packs and started to buy the cheaper stuff.
I mainly purchase from AliExpress (had too many orders go astray with Banggood) BUT you do have to do some homework. And be prepared to wait a month or more for your orders to arrive. That said, you can often find the same products for at least half (and sometimes a third) off retail. It’ Also a great place to get props and servos.

Here’s a steal I found awhile ago, they are genuine (sn checked out)!
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4se...952.html?spm=2114.13010708.0.0.3a994c4d7o0DzH

You can use the cheap yellow ESCs, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you run a separate BEC (I must type up an article about that one day).
 

JTarmstr

Elite member
Thanks for everyones suggestions, my real problem is often I like to swap ESC's and transmitters arround and so I only need motors and servos for my airplanes. I use flysky and the receivers are cheap enough I have a few and swap them between similar airframes. Thanks again!
 

OliverW

Legendary member
On Amazon, search 9 gram servo and one of the first results is a pack of 10 tower pro 9Gs for 16 dollars without shipping.
 

jamboree1

Active member
I buy most of my parts from a good ol USA hobby store. I try to support our countries stores whenever possible, even if the parts are made in china. Most anything you need can be found here. www.valuehobby.com They have NEVER messed up my order, shipping is cheap, and have never split my orders (you hear this Hobby King). Over seas suppliers have gyped me way to often, especially hobby king.
 
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jamboree1

Active member
I buy most of my parts here www.valuehobby.com They never mess up an order, unlike amazon, overseas companies and especially Hobby King. The shipping is very reasonable. And their Tower Pro servos are the real thing, believe it or not their are fakes of these cheap servos.
 

TEAJR66

Flite is good
Mentor
I buy most of my parts here www.valuehobby.com They never mess up an order, unlike amazon, overseas companies and especially Hobby King. The shipping is very reasonable. And their Tower Pro servos are the real thing, believe it or not their are fakes of these cheap servos.

Love Value Hobby. I get a lot of stuff there also.
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
You can use the cheap yellow ESCs, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you run a separate BEC (I must type up an article about that one day).

I'd love to see an explanation on how to do just that...I know the concept behind a separate BEC (and using something like a 4 AA pack for servo controls; I used to run something like that with my old Tamiya RC cars) but I've never wired in a BEC to override one in the circuit. I guess I've always figured that the less weight, the better, when it comes to aircraft...
 

makattack

Winter is coming
Moderator
Mentor
I'd love to see an explanation on how to do just that...I know the concept behind a separate BEC (and using something like a 4 AA pack for servo controls; I used to run something like that with my old Tamiya RC cars) but I've never wired in a BEC to override one in the circuit. I guess I've always figured that the less weight, the better, when it comes to aircraft...

Definitely less weight is better, but it's balanced by power demands. I wouldn't bother with a separate BEC unless there was a specific, greater demand than what any built-in BEC/ESC combo could provide. I have two planes that have a separate BEC from the ESC. One is a micro sized FPV plane (a Micro Skyhunter) where I use a separate BEC (actually a buck step down converter) to power a 5V FPV all in one. I prefer my FPV gear not to be powered by the same BEC powering the servos in this case. In this case, the separate BEC/FPV power is coming off the battery packs balance connector.

On another, larger plane, with 6 servos (2 ailerons, 2 flaps, 2 for elevator & rudder) I have another separate BEC to power the ailerons and flap servos, and use the built in ESC's BEC to power the elevator, rudder and receiver. The separate BEC powers the ailerons and flaps, and I chose this because this plane (a sailplane) requires me to put the wings together and connect the servos as part of setup. For this, I made a custom wiring harness that's always connected between my receiver, the BEC, and the pack battery leads in the fuselage. When I connect the wing servos, I connect it to this harness. There's a common ground between the RX, BEC, and battery. Only the signal pins/wires are connected between the servos and the RX. The power positive/red wires go from the BEC power output into the 4 servo female connectors on the harness.

So, this harness has four male JR/servo connectors with just the ground and signal wires connected. Those connectors go to the RX. The ground wires are all soldered together, and in turn direct soldered to the BEC's ground, on the same side as the 5V output. On the other "end" of the harness are 4 JR female servo connectors that my servos connect to. The 5V power output of the separate BEC is directly soldered by wires/pins to the middle pin of all four female connectors, and the signal wires from the RX end go to the appropriate one. The servo connectors have labels on them for "LF" or "LA" for left flap, or left aileron and RF, RA for the other wing. Left and Right based on nose out setup when hooking things up. It's a lot of wires, but actually makes it easier for me to hook things up vs connecting and disconnecting the servo leads to the RX.

I don't have a good photo due to the cramped nature of this fuselage and lack of photos before I put everything in, but hopefully my description above is clear.
 
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kilroy07

Legendary member
I'd love to see an explanation on how to do just that...
This isn’t a step by step, but it’s what started me adding simple buck converters to my setups. Might be enough to get you going till I get back from vacation.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/are-escs-consumable-items.53742/

I wouldn't bother with a separate BEC unless there was a specific, greater demand than what any built-in BEC/ESC combo could provide.
I’m speaking specifically to the generic 30a ESCs with the yellow shrink wrap wrapper you can get for about $5-6. Even with 2 servos they get crazy hot and reset. Since I’ve been running separate BECs I haven’t had an issue.
(I guess I could always buy better equipment.) ;)
 

d8veh

Elite member
I’m speaking specifically to the generic 30a ESCs with the yellow shrink wrap wrapper you can get for about $5-6. Even with 2 servos they get crazy hot and reset. Since I’ve been running separate BECs I haven’t had an issue.
(I guess I could always buy better equipment.) ;)
I'm using those yellow 30A ESCs without any problems (4 servos). Like any ESC, how hot they get would depend on your motor and propeller. I use mine with the EMax GT2215/09, the standard 10 x 6 and 3S.

I've had another ESC go hot and give insufficient 5v supply for more than 2 servos (kept resetting), when I inadvertently connected it to the battery with the wrong polarity for about a second until I noticed and fixed the connection. At first I thought no damage had been done, because it still seemed to work OK until I added a third servo.
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
I've had a few of the yellow ESCs catch fire. They are super cheap, you get what you pay for. Then again, you get 4 for the price of one "good" one so it's hard not to roll the dice...
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