First FT Order

[davidkdk]

Hi Folks,

I live in Canada... and so I will be ordering FT Speed Build kits, Power Pack kits, etc. from Great Hobbies. They seem to be the only place in Canada that carries FT stuff. Anyone know of any other Canadian places that carry FT?

The problem with Great Hobbies is that they may have the planes in stock, but not the Power Packs for that plane. Or they have Power Packs but not the Planes.

I have 2 other tech questions. For the FT Might Mini Corsair, I would like to get the Power Pack F. The FT Power Pack includes:
ESC - Flite Test 20A - 20A w/Xt-30 Connectors

But the Great Hobbies Power Pack F includes:
ESC - BL Heli - 12 amp (Xt-30 Connectors)

FT is 20A and GH is 12A. How will this affect things?

Also, FT recommends the battery TAT-75C-850-3S1P-XT30
Great Hobbies recommends Tattu Li-Po 45C 11.1V 850mAh

Essentially, the same battery but FT has a 75C discharge rate and GH has a 45C discharge rate. Again, how will will affect stuff?

I appreciate your time look review all this... thanks. As you can tell... brand new to all this.

David

 

[FDS]

The battery won’t make any difference, the motor won’t draw more than the max discharge of that lipo, otherwise the ESC would melt! I like a bit more headroom on my ESC, a 20A one would be better, just buy a 20A esc with a 3A bec along with your order or off eBay, they are not expensive. That way you can use the 12A as a spare, it’s useful in case you encounter a problem.
The hobby store you mentioned has this one which I have used in 3 builds.

 

[Mad_Mechanic]

+1 for hobbywing stuff, I have one of their 40A ESCs from 8 years ago when I was doing rc helicopters. They've been around awhile, the ESCs are simple and effective.

 

[Merv]

The idea of the power pack is to make everything simple, a good thing. The downside, you don't learn how to substitute. You are suck buying the pack (if any) they have in stock.

For any power pack. Start with the motor, look at the watts, the voltage (number of cells) and the Kv. Any motor of similar size will work as a substitute. Next look at the ESC, look at the voltage (number of cells) and amps. Any ESC of the similar size or larger size will work. Finaly look at the battery, look at the number of cells, the milliamp hours and the C ratting. The cell count needs to be the same, mah & C can be similar or slightly larger.

The rating on an ESC is the most it can supply, drawing less amps is OK, don't exceed the limit or you will burn it out. The amps a battery can supply is calculated, (mah x 1000 x C = amps). Example a 2,200 mah 25C battery can supply 55 amps (2.2 x 25). Drawing less amps is OK, don't exceed the limit or you will puff the pack.

If you motor needs 15 amps, pick a 20 amp ESC and a battery that can supply 20 amps or more with a cell count that the motor & ESC are happy with.

 

[davidkdk]

I'm wondering why Great Hobbies would take a Power Pack, with established and tested parts, and change it to something that is not as good as what Flite Test put together?

 

[FDS]

They didn’t, FT have changed the power packs, there’s V2 ones for some packs. One of the things they changed was to add their own design of ESC, hence the disparity. Most non USA dealers still have old stock.

 

[Mad_Mechanic]

Yeah, FT is moving away from the EMax BLHeli ESCs and starting to implement their own FT branded ESCs.

For the benefit of the community, I've been trying to compile spreadsheets (big lists) of comperable parts for 4 of the FT power packs (A, B, c and F). This includes motors that should be comperable as well as other brands of ESC and servos that are equivalent in rating.

For the most part, substituting ESCs for fixed wing aircraft is the easy thing. If an FT power pack says it uses a 20A ESC, you can pretty much get any other brand of ESC as long as it's rated 20A (or more if you can allow the weight). HOWEVER...you need to be very careful when you read the specs. With all the Drone/Quad specific parts on the market, many ESCs are now being built without an on-board BEC. THese ESCs will be described as 'OPTO'. To keep things simple, do not buy an 'OPTO' ESC for an FT plane. Otherwise you will need to buy a separate BEC.

If you are interested in my spreadsheets, check out the link in my signature for 'Mad Mecahnic's Big Spreadsheet Thread'.

 

[SlingShot]

I'm wondering why Great Hobbies would take a Power Pack, with established and tested parts, and change it to something that is not as good as what Flite Test put together?

They didn't. The F Pack originally came with a 12a ESC. Which motor are you looking at? The 2204 came with a 12a. If you are looking ar the 2205, you will probably be pushing it some with the 12a. But if you stick with a 6x3, 2 blade prop you should be fine. Especially if you back off on the throttle some. I have run that combination without any problems.

 

[davidkdk]

I was a bit concerned about Great Hobbies having less than current stock. The GH Power Pack F comes with the 2205, but has the 12A ESC. So, to be up to date, I'll try and match the FT Power Pack F items with the GH Power Pack F... and add additional items, like the ESC to match the more current FT Pack.

Thanks everyone for comments and advice... very much appreciated.