Does anyone remember who was selling the Estes DART quad at FF?

yakirg

Junior Member
I bought one (BIG mistake! should have bought 4 ...)
I need replacement motor ... any idea where I can buy one?

Thanks!

Yakir
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
The Estes Dart is a rebranding of the Hubsan X4. There are a myriad of sources for replacement motors on ebay and amazon, all pretty cheap for a full set.

Be advised, the brushed motors are CW and CCW, so be careful on which motor you replace with which -- the brushes are reversed from each other, and if you mount the wrong one and run the motor in reverse it will wear down the brushes *MUCH* faster.
 

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
That would be awesome with some control surfaces and a receiver.

George Gassaway built an upscaled one for I think F power with elevon control and I think rudder. It flies well as FF or R/C, so long as you keep it light.

Anyone recall the Estes Scissor-wing Transport? I built one of those YEARS ago. It was cool. :)

Sweet design...only recently has it been eclipsed by the scissor-flop designs which fold the wingtips under. Some fellow in England developed a rear-ejection design with a bagged scissorwing which literally wraps around the fuselage.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
Does the Dart use the same motors as the Proto X / Nano?

IIRC, no. the dart/X4 motors are quite a bit larger than the protoX/Q4.

Not sure about the NanoX (I'm assuming you mean Blade's smallest quad), but I think those are in the same neighborhood. you'll be far more likely to find them in a LHS, but other than the can size being close, no idea about their compatibility. They'll also be 2-4 times more expensive than the hubsan replacements, but that's just par for the course with Horizon Hobby.
 

Balu

Lurker
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
The "Estes 4606 Proto X Nano" is rebranded in Germany by Revell, but they don't sell spare parts besides the props yet. The motors on mine burnt out a few weeks ago and I'm trying to find a replacement.

That's why I was asking.

At the moment I'm thinking about getting a wltoys v272 which seems to be very similar too.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
Balu,

Only good suggestion I've heard so far is buy the $40 4 pack . . . which also comes with a spare frame, battery, cover, charger and TX.
 

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Anyone recall the Estes Scissor-wing Transport? I built one of those YEARS ago. It was cool. :)

http://user.xmission.com/~huxley/rockets/scissorwing/index.htm

ROCKET PLANE!!!!

Gryf


Remember? I have one sitting on top of my bookcase waiting for it's maiden flight! Scored it on ebay about 10 years back unopened and at a price I couldn't pass up. Built it up but then lost the rubber band for the wing mechanism and haven't found a replacement that's just the right size and strength :( Though my daughter did just get some hair bands that I've been meaning to try.....

Was always one of my favorite designs as a kid and I lusted after it for years. But it was almost never in stock at my LHS and when it was it was more than I could afford.

I'll have to get a photo of it later today to share, it's a little dusty right now....
 

Gryf

Active member
Remember? I have one sitting on top of my bookcase waiting for it's maiden flight!

Oh, neat! I built mine while I was in college back in the 70s. And I never actually flew it under rocket power... just as a chuck glider. Not really sure why.

Gryf
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
For myself, no, someone else may, but if you expect to return for replacement or to get the replacement parts, I'm afraid you're going to be out of luck.

These things are fairly hardy, but still have a tendency to crash-just-right. If you've flown it at all or have any visible wear to it, it's going to be counted as crash damage and the craft is now yours forever. As for repair parts, you're better off finding your own -- as we've mentioned above (when we weren't distracted) they're not hard to find and cheap.
 

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
Built it up but then lost the rubber band for the wing mechanism and haven't found a replacement that's just the right size and strength

Get an estimate of what size rubber bands you need and PM me your mailing address. I've got a couple hundred blown rubber motors on their way to the garbage and could surely get together enough to give something with which to make a new swing lock band.
Plans here if you ever need them: http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/est1265.htm
 
Last edited:

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Get an estimate of what size rubber bands you need and PM me your mailing address. I've got a couple hundred blown rubber motors on their way to the garbage and could surely get together enough to give something with which to make a new swing lock band.
Plans here if you ever need them: http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/est1265.htm

Than FAI. I actually took the photos I was talking about but then totally forgot to share them:

10565618_10152181049421805_218888650_o.jpg

10590989_10152181050316805_1914278087_o.jpg

Taking them I remembered two other issues that have kept it grounded:

1) The already mentioned missing rubber band. It's a TINY band, like the ones used on braces for teeth. I think one of my daughters hair bands is actually going to work well for that.

2) The little plastic cap that holes the wing on it's pivot got lost. I hadn't glued it in since I was still testing things and my dog or wife knocked the little plastic cap off the table and it was never seen again :( I can make something to replace it...just haven't bothered to in the past...oh...9 years.

3) The elastic that lets the elevator pop into position has lost it's stretch and needs to be replaced.

All little things easily solved...just haven't been in a hurry since I haven't been flying rockets much. Still have an Edmunds Delta Thunder boost glider I built in 1996 that has yet to be flown because I've been too lazy to make the launch rod modifications needed. Still have a pack of D's waiting for it.

Also spotted this little guy:
10589257_10152181050876805_1534061651_o.jpg

The tanks are in the box it's sitting on. One of these days I need to finish painting the tanks and mounting them up so it can fly.

If my daughter ends up showing any interest at all in rocketry (which is highly likely given her fascination with space and her desire to fly in space some day) these will all get dusted off and put back into flying condition :)

(I also have one of the much sought after 1/72 scale NCR shuttle kits that's about 85% completed. Ran into some issues with the plastic on the orbiter and have yet to get back to finishing it. Was thinking about making the orbiter on that one RC was the other reason I set it aside...one of these days I'll pull that box down again and see about completing it and probably going RC on the orbiter now...)
 

yakirg

Junior Member
For myself, no, someone else may, but if you expect to return for replacement or to get the replacement parts, I'm afraid you're going to be out of luck.

These things are fairly hardy, but still have a tendency to crash-just-right. If you've flown it at all or have any visible wear to it, it's going to be counted as crash damage and the craft is now yours forever. As for repair parts, you're better off finding your own -- as we've mentioned above (when we weren't distracted) they're not hard to find and cheap.

Thanks, Dan!
I have no claim that there was a problem with the product, and I am very happy with it.
I am looking to buy a couple more, and replacements motors, and hoped the store that sold it at FF will be able to send them to me.
I am unable to find anyone who sells these parts who is willing to ship them to Canada.