First Scratch Build

[buzzbomb]

I've got a replacement motor on order. The fuse is pretty badly sliced where it's supposed to hold the wing. I was contemplating just scrapping it, when I had an idea. Here's the pic:

The little skewer piece is on the backside of the wing. I wonder where this is going... More to come. Muhahaha!

 

[rockyboy]

On further inspection this evening, I actually broke the windings on the motor! Look at the windings towards the bottom in the picture on the left. Wow. Maybe I'll order TWO motors!

Broken motors are great for harvesting those powerful little magnets - this way you don't need to buy neodymium magnets to hold down hatches and removable turtle decks

 

[mayan]

Broken motors are great for harvesting those powerful little magnets - this way you don't need to buy neodymium magnets to hold down hatches and removable turtle decks

Great tip.

 

[Hai-Lee]

If you are handy enough a motor with burnt out or broken wiring, (and no other damage), id a good source of spare shft and bearings for future motors of the same type or even a learning vehicle for winding your own motor.

have fun!

 

[buzzbomb]

Broken motors are great for harvesting those powerful little magnets - this way you don't need to buy neodymium magnets to hold down hatches and removable turtle decks

Ooooh, Shoot! I'd wondered where everybody with magnetically attached parts got their magnets from! Ha! Turn a fail into a win! That's glorious! Three thumbs up for that one!

 

[buzzbomb]

If you are handy enough a motor with burnt out or broken wiring, (and no other damage), id a good source of spare shft and bearings for future motors of the same type or even a learning vehicle for winding your own motor.

have fun!

I will definitely save the shaft and bearings. Something tells me they might come in handy.... I've even got a bushing that fell out. Where the heck could I buy of one of those? I don't know. I don't need to. I've got one! I'm a packrat by nature, anyway. You've just given me justification to continue my ways. See? Mates.

Winding my own motor though? Don't think so. I am DIY when I have to be and because I have to be. I'm not going to pay a plumber several hundred dollars to go under the house and fix a pipe, if I can do it myself. Youtube is my friend. Winding a motor, though? That's hard core, Hai-Lee!

 

[buzzbomb]

New motor (and other stuff) should be here Monday. Day off work today. Spent some time getting some stuff done and then I got to work on my plane!

I re-glued the servo that broke free. Where the wing had crunched through it's slots at the front, I reinforced with some hotglue and a piece of foamboard. The barbecue skewer on the back of the wing? This is what it was for:

The fuse was badly gashed. The crash drove wing all the way back past the turtle deck. I glued the skewer to the back of the wing, glued a couple pieces of skewer on the sides, for it to butt up against, then glued another couple along the fuse to add lateral strength.

I used hotglue for everything and backed it up with Gorilla White Glue. The G-Glue actually seemed to eat the hot glue, so I clamped the long parts down. T.P.'s wings are on crutches! Her next flight will be better than her first, though. Can't argue with that!

Edit: Done with the whole I'm really smart pipe-cutter to cut the skewers, bit. Frackin' wire cutters. Snip. Done. Duh!

 

[mayan]

How is the weather at your side of the globe?

 

[buzzbomb]

How is the weather at your side of the globe?

Last few days were pretty mild. It was mid seventies today with the a pretty steady wind. The temp drops dramatically tomorrow, and we are suddenly back to Winter weather, more befitting to a February for us. How about you?

 

[mayan]

Last few days were pretty mild. It was mid seventies today with the a pretty steady wind. The temp drops dramatically tomorrow, and we are suddenly back to Winter weather, more befitting to a February for us. How about you?

Rainy with winds of about 20 km/hr I am holding myself back not to try fly something on the rain brakes.

 

[buzzbomb]

Here's the crutches. I clut the glue between the back of the wing skewer and the vertical supports. The wing moves pretty freely in the slots now, though I fear I may have overdone it. That wing is not moving back. At all. Those crutches are serious. If I have to do this again, I'd find a way to do it with foamboard, so there is some give, and I'd just replace the supports.

You can also see my little foamboard piece I used to fix the whole I created on the front side of the wing.

The big, really big revelation here is the Rotary's! They came in today. Strangely, my FT orders always get delivered days before they are supposed to. It wasn't supposed to be here until Monday. California to South Carolina. Across the entire continent in two days, and it cost two dollars and ninety-nine cents. Amazing.

Here is my big reveal, though: I'm feeling a bit intimidated. Look at the size difference between the A-Pack Rotary and the F-Pack rotary! I know most of ya'll are flying much bigger stuff, and you're thinking "Yeah? And?" But WOW. I'm flying Mini's and that frackin motor is huge!

I got the A so I can continue the Mini Scout Challenge. I got the F because I'm going to fly the darn DR1. I'm just dumb enough to think I can make it pull off some stupid crazy stuff and survive the experience. I'm going to do just that. Or... I'll need some more foamboard. Maybe a another motor and more props and.. yea. You get the idea.

It's gonna be frackin' fun, regardless!

 

[mayan]

Your plane is looking good with crutches. Gives it a unique look . Also those motors look bad ass, let us know how they are compared to the emax motors.

 

[buzzbomb]

Your plane is looking good with crutches. Gives it a unique look . Also those motors look bad ass, let us know how they are compared to the emax motors.

There aren't too many RC airplanes with crutches, I don't think. "Unique" might be the right word, and there might a reason for that.

As to the motor comparison, I don't think I can. One motor is going into the Mini Scout, with which I have.... limited experience. The other is going into a plane I have never flown.

I can tell you if they fail or totally suck. I can't compare, unfortunately.

 

[mayan]

There aren't too many RC airplanes with crutches, I don't think. "Unique" might be the right word, and there might a reason for that.

As to the motor comparison, I don't think I can. One motor is going into the Mini Scout, with which I have.... limited experience. The other is going into a plane I have never flown.

I can tell you if they fail or totally suck. I can't compare, unfortunately.

They are FT motors how can they suck?!

 

[buzzbomb]

I want to put ailerons on it. I want to get crazy on my next flight and be four channel. I've seen where it's been done. I just can't find it again. I googled it and the links I got were not helpful.

Anybody got good links as how to make my little Mini Scout get four-channel crazy?

 

[Hai-Lee]

Is this the thread you are looking for?

https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/can-someone-recommend-some-decent-5g-servos.55780/

Have fun!

 

[buzzbomb]

Is this the thread you are looking for?

https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/can-someone-recommend-some-decent-5g-servos.55780/

Have fun!

Thanks for the link. The picture has me rethinking. I can still do the cuts, but they should have happened before my wing was striped with tape, bashed to heck, and made nearly irremovable. Also my bottom plate is glued on. I don't have that kind of real estate to install another servo in the center and still make the receiver, battery, and esc fit.

I'm thinking I could mount two servos on the wings, and save that real estate and possibly work through the cutting with the wing installed and taped. It seems like this bird would be blast with ailerons. Note that I have not successfully flown it three channel, yet.

I would like some opinions of people more experienced than I. Fun factor aside. Do not take into account that I want to get crazy with it. I'm pretty sure I can get crazy with it three channel as well. Is it worth what is necessary to make this version of my Mini Scout four channel, or should I just wait until I build the next version. I think we all know there's going to eventually be a second version. Maybe shortly after my next flight!

 

[Hai-Lee]

Thanks for the link. The picture has me rethinking. I can still do the cuts, but they should have happened before my wing was striped with tape, bashed to heck, and made nearly irremovable. Also my bottom plate is glued on. I don't have that kind of real estate to install another servo in the center and still make the receiver, battery, and esc fit.

I'm thinking I could mount two servos on the wings, and save that real estate and possibly work through the cutting with the wing installed and taped. It seems like this bird would be blast with ailerons. Note that I have not successfully flown it three channel, yet.

I would like some opinions of people more experienced than I. Fun factor aside. Do not take into account that I want to get crazy with it. I'm pretty sure I can get crazy with it three channel as well. Is it worth what is necessary to make this version of my Mini Scout four channel, or should I just wait until I build the next version. I think we all know there's going to eventually be a second version. Maybe shortly after my next flight!

There is another method of connecting ailerons using a single servo. If you have access to thin music wire or even a braided wire cable similar to the brake cable inner on a bicycle you can fit a central servo.

If using the music wire you can do a "Z" bend in the centre of the wire and feed it through the servo output arm. You then slide some plastic tubing over the ends of the music wire, (a length long enough to "Curve" the music wire to be square on to the aileron control horns on each side. Secure the plastic tube to the wing underside and feed the music wire through the control horn either using a "Z" bend or a linkage stopper. Centre the servo. Adjust the length of the wire through the control horns to set initial aileron position. trim off excess wire. test operation and then go flying!

For the braided wire the plastic tube curves are the same but you use a linkage stopper in the servo output arm and another linkage stopper in each of the control horns. Centre the servo and lock the servo linkage stopper. Set ailerons for neutral and tighten the respective linkage stoppers. Trim braided wire, test aileron operation. Go flying!

Apart from mounting the servo into the fuselage, (which you can do through a specially cut and then glued shut access hatch There would only need to ne one hole in each side of the fuelage through which the plastic tubing passes.

It might be old school but it works well. Actually I still have a profile Balsa Mustang that uses the braided wire single servo setup. Sadly it is in for serious repair/rebuild. (My eldest son sat on it).

Have fun!

 

[buzzbomb]

The evening was not wasted on my single post above. I did this:

I forget whose idea it was, but somebody mentioned they were thinking using one of these to do this:

Well, it worked! Cost me $1.59 at Walmart. That led to this:

Which led to this:

Which got repeated four times in just minutes for each. Honestly that little piece of plan was pretty much done at the end, but that's four parts out of one piece of cardstock plan. The marking took no time at all! Not bad in my book.

Then I spent the next couple hours just trying to get the new rotaries to work with the firewall. The wires are heatsinked right where they go through. I can only guess that is by design. It's an obvious stress point and an abrasion-wear point. It did make things tough though. I finally got it to work.

The PowerPods are not finished. The firewalls have not been glued in and there has been no taping done. However I have four of them. I had to widen the corner slot of the firewalls some to fit the heat-shrink on the F-Pack rotary. You can see where the The firewalls are 180 degrees opposed. That's just where the A was comfortable with the wires going through the hole.

It's a serious bend on the wires, but I think I can turn it around and build the PowerPods all the same. I've more to explore on getting the A rotary to mount on the firewall and use the corner slot instead of the hole, but I am done for the night.

 

[mayan]

Some great few posts here . Learned a lot from both your posts. @buzzbomb I don’t use the hole on the firewall to pass the wires instead I make a slot on the top like you have on the one laying on the table. Makes it easier for me to connect it to the firewall as well as pass the wires to the other side. Since I am hand cutting my firewalls I don’t make that hole in the first place and cut out the slot instead. As for your question about the ailerons, one thing I learned from you actually is to *$^}* it and just go for it . If I am going to add ailerons to my FT Mini Scout I would try using 2.5g servos and put one on each wing side. The 2.5g servos didn’t work well on the bigger FT Mini serie models but have a feeling that they will work well with this one because it’s smaller than most of the other Mini models. Generally the problem I have with some FT models is the real estate for the electronics. That’s why sometimes you’ll see me hooking up the ESC on the outter top side of wing set. Another tip for you now that you have a few power pods ready is connect them to ESCs if you can and set them to turn CCW. When you go to the field and you happen to break a fire wall you can simple pull out the broken one and push in a new one. And there you go you are back in the air in no time (helps me).