BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Yep same. The ESC launched forward and unplugged at the motor
Exploring the Explorer
- Thread starter BATTLEAXE
- Start date
bracesport
Legendary member
@BATTLEAXE - you are doing some nice work revisiting these planes! 
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Haha I keep doin the work cuz I keep crashin them lol@BATTLEAXE - you are doing some nice work revisiting these planes!
Has the rain stopped yet
bracesport
Legendary member
I am out of the loop for a week or so from next week, so I probably will miss the P-40 - loving the warplane builds though - I have a few others on the go that I should definitely finish first
1.5m DLG - 1.2m slope soarer - and the second spit!
still raining today and the forecast is wet for another week!
1.5m DLG - 1.2m slope soarer - and the second spit!
still raining today and the forecast is wet for another week!
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Build a Sea Angel and fly off water lolI am out of the loop for a week or so from next week, so I probably will miss the P-40 - loving the warplane builds though - I have a few others on the go that I should definitely finish first
1.5m DLG - 1.2m slope soarer - and the second spit!
still raining today and the forecast is wet for another week!
Steve Fox
Active member
That must have been some impact lol.
on all of my planes i cable tie the esc and wires down, the milk jug plastic comes into play again for that, i use it on the back side of the foam to stop the cable tie ripping though the foam board
I cut a square of the right size and place the item i want to secure withe the plastic underneath but on the top side of the foam where the item will be.
i then use a blade to poke the holes for the cable ties though the plastic and slightly into the foam, then i remove everything and poke the holes all the way though the foam with the end of a cable tie of the size i wish to use.
doing it that way means that when you place the plastic on the back of the foam, the holes will line up.
if you try poking though the foam all the way through and try and make the holes in the plastic with it on the back it makes the hole in the foam bigger than it needs to be, doing it my way means you can make slits that are just the right size
ive taken a photo of the back side where the VTX is cable tied on the explorer, the plastic stop the foam ripping.
There is a big hole in the side where the wires go though because i used to have the vtx on the inside with the sma socket going through the foam and i screwed the antenna on from the outside but changed it to have the vtx on the outside for better access to both the vtx and the flight controller you can see in the right of the photo.
made the new nose section for the explorer, not cut the motor hole in the front yet, i will get it painted first, like the original nose i had this is an extended nose and longer than the stock one.
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That must have been some impact lol.
on all of my planes i cable tie the esc and wires down, the milk jug plastic comes into play again for that, i use it on the back side of the foam to stop the cable tie ripping though the foam board
I cut a square of the right size and place the item i want to secure withe the plastic underneath but on the top side of the foam where the item will be.
i then use a blade to poke the holes for the cable ties though the plastic and slightly into the foam, then i remove everything and poke the holes all the way though the foam with the end of a cable tie of the size i wish to use.
doing it that way means that when you place the plastic on the back of the foam, the holes will line up.
if you try poking though the foam all the way through and try and make the holes in the plastic with it on the back it makes the hole in the foam bigger than it needs to be, doing it my way means you can make slits that are just the right size
made the new nose section for the explorer, not cut the motor hole in the front yet, i will get it painted first, like the original nose i had this is an extended nose and longer than the stock one. View attachment 141588
Hello Steve,
I was curious to know what you use to re-enforce the holes that hold the bbq skewers ? I might have missed it. I think my planes could benefit from that improvement.
Thanks for any info,
Al
Steve Fox
Active member
They are prop spacers, i press them against the foam to make an indent and then cut into the foam with a sharp blade around the mark i made and glue them in, they stop foam ripping completely and the skewer will break before the foam rips
They are prop spacers, i press them against the foam to make an indent and then cut into the foam with a sharp blade around the mark i made and glue them in, they stop foam ripping completely and the skewer will break before the foam rips
Thank you for the info. One more question. What size prop spacer do you use ?
Steve Fox
Active member
They are the big ones that come with the 9" and bigger apc props, I just chose the ones that have the right size hole in the middle for the skewers and a bigger hole on the planes where Ive used carbon fiber rods instead of skewers
You can use the smaller spacers and they still protect the foam, just not quite as much and the bigger the spacers diameter the more it spreads the load.
I used the smaller spacers foe ages on the cubs I've built and my daily cub still has them as it's an old build and they have held up fine but the bigger ones are definitely better and also less fiddly to install in the foam
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
So many good tips here Steve thanks. I might do the prop spacer thing for my BBQ skewers. I have a few kickin around that could be put to good use, so many ways to repurpose stuff, I dig it. I am that kinda guy too, if a plane dies I strip absolutely everything off it to reuse. Did you ever see that FT episode where Alex and the dude with the beard, (sorry I forget his name) went up into the attic and plowed through all the scrap planes to resurrect one and the were swimming in so many good electronics. GIVE ME 10 MINUTES IN THAT ATTIC! HUGE SCORE!
Oh and I did Velcro my ESC onto the inside of the fuse but I stuck the Velcro on the ESC to the sticker and the sticker released, both sides of Velcro still stuck to the fuse lol. And it was a good impact, go big or go home rite.
Oh and I did Velcro my ESC onto the inside of the fuse but I stuck the Velcro on the ESC to the sticker and the sticker released, both sides of Velcro still stuck to the fuse lol. And it was a good impact, go big or go home rite.
Steve Fox
Active member
Ive built so many planes and tried new improvements on every incarnation no new build is completely the same as the previous, did you see a couple of posts up where i showed yet another use for milk jug plastic?
do you mean Stefan?, the one who seems like hes permanently on something ha ha!
I did see the graveyard episode, that attic is like Aladdin's cave!
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
I did apply your milk jug plastic skid plate to my Spit. Worked awesome, never came off, just have to get enough time on any given plane before they are scrapped to see how they do over time. But I will get there someday and I will take your word for it. I have used other stuff to reinforce behind zip ties like pop sticks.
Do you have a thread on your milk jug stuff?
I have a FB bumper style cushion which protects my battery from contacting the in-runner shaft that protrudes out the back of my motor in the case of a nose dive, I have punctured a battery or two from that scenario. I might use the milk jug plastic on this cushion as a last line of defense between the shaft and the battery, glued to the back of the cushion kinda like a shield of sorts.
What else you got?
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Oh yea and it is Steffan! Right. Yea they were just tossing planes around like they were trash, then I paused the vid at points and took a closer look, ELECTRONICS GALORE. I would have to spend hundreds even thousands of dollars here in Canada to gain that kind of collection. I was almost pissed about it. DONATE IT... to me lol!
Steve Fox
Active member
Yeah, I felt the same way seeing planes I could easily repair and that many who have less money than me to spare could really benefit from and really appreciate being donated.
I've reinforced the battery tray of the Explorer, bonded the small box section to it with the Firewall and motor and cut the opening in the now painted new nose section.
Not got as far as the hatch, run out of time and will do more tomorrow.
I've reinforced the battery tray of the Explorer, bonded the small box section to it with the Firewall and motor and cut the opening in the now painted new nose section.
Not got as far as the hatch, run out of time and will do more tomorrow.
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Clean build so far man. Looks good
BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
Steve Fox
Active member
Thanks, hopefully it flys ok when it comes to chucking it in the air, I can't see why it wouldn't as long as ut balanced, a storch wing may make its way onto this at some point like the cub, it might only be half an inch more wingspan but the storch wing is far larger in the leading to trailing edge department and must have more lift than the skinnier Explorer wing.
I'll want to wire it up for lights though as my Explorer has the full works in that respect, I'll ad a video of its lights to this post, they are arduino nano controlled.
It's got Red and green nav lights on the wings along with a white stobe on each tip, red beacons top and bottom of fuse, a steady white on the tail as well as a strobing white on the tail.
You can even run one pwm activated output which would obviously be best suited to landing lights but you could have any type of light steady or flashing or even just a switched power source to anything you wanted to run.
The motor Im Using is the same as it already had, a racerstar 2830 1300kv but now it's a puller, I can run a 10" prop instead of the 9" maximum the tail boom dictated
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BATTLEAXE
Legendary member
You definitely can't miss that. You might have to call into air traffic control at the heights you fly lol.Thanks, hopefully it flys ok when it comes to chucking it in the air, I can't see why it wouldn't as long as ut balanced, a storch wing may make its way onto this at some point like the cub, it might only be half an inch more wingspan but the storch wing is far larger in the leading to trailing edge department and must have more lift than the skinnier Explorer wing.
I'll want to wire it up for lights though as my Explorer has the full works in that respect, I'll ad a video of its lights to this post, they are arduino nano controlled.
It's got Red and green nav lights on the wings along with a white stobe on each tip, red beacons top and bottom of fuse, a steady white on the tail as well as a strobing white on the tail.
You can even run one pwm activated output which would obviously be best suited to landing lights but you could have any type of light steady or flashing or even just a switched power source to anything you wanted to run.
The motor Im Using is the same as it already had, a racerstar 2830 1300kv but now it's a puller, I can run a 10" prop instead of the 9" maximum the tail boom dictated
I'm not brave enough yet to even attempt night flying but i would really like to, setting more goals in the hobby
Is it harder to fly at night? Do you fly just as high as during the day?
