FT Mini Guinea Build

[ackerman76]

Awesome! I didn't know 1300 mAh batteries were ok. 1000 seemed heavy; my 3S 800 mAh works great. The MiniG comes alive on a 3S!

I am at 6,000 ft altitude so shop guys tell me smaller faster spinning and more angle props. 5 x 4.5 work well for me. It climbs like a rocket!

I love the roll rate and how it demands you to stay on top of the ailerons. I may try a Rx with 3 axis stabilizer for roll stability on a switch.

Good job on the spins.. It just noses down on me when I try that - something to conquer! Is mobius a good starter camera for this and other mini mounts?

 

[ackerman76]

Newbe to this forum. I built a scratch Mini Guinea and was not impressed with my construction so I purchassed quick build kits for the Mini Guinea and Guinea pig. Guinea pig will stay up till I perfect my building experience. I also got to power pack for the mini Guinea but found out I need allot more.
I have an old Hitec Eclipse 7 radio w/spectrta module and reciver. I'm sure I can use this without diff. thrust.
My question is...will the radio work with a LiPo battery...Reciver wise?

Flite test has an awsome buisness and I love their quickbuild kits. I'm trying to get the word out to the hobby shops around here.

I have the same old radio on my .40 gasser! I got a new Taranis X9D Plus, but I also got the orange Tx module so I can fly all my Spektrum aircraft. However, I have yet to test-fit the Orange Tx module into the back of the Ecplise 7. It goes in-place of the crystal module and will upgrade your radio to 2.4. I'm pretty sure it will work fine and you can buy Orange receivers for cheap! Will let you know. You don't have to use Orange; any modular system protocol works the same way but oranges are cheap. Flite test has a youtube video specifically on upgrading your old radio to a 2.4 GHz protocol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-WIy7QA3uU

Stick with the traditional NMHI / NiCd on the Transmitter; they still sell them although mine still holds a charge well enough. The ESC's have a BEC at 6V (linear and safe to plug both into your receiver, or use a Y.). If you do use your old Rx, I would plug them straight in as they are used to about 5V.

 

[JLT_GTI]

One funny thing about the MG (or at least mine) is that i found that i can fly it using rudder and power only ..

using rudder to turn will induce some rudder coupling meaning it will bank a bit.. like a dihedral plane... applying more power makes the nose go up (and climb) and cutting power makes the nose drop and lose altitude... so you can fly it arround using only 2 channels

 

[nevenelestate]

Is mobius a good starter camera for this and other mini mounts?

I am using the 808 #16. The Flite Test videos often use the Mobius to get a slightly better picture. The mobius weighs a good bit more, I believe my 808 is 18g with the battery in it, and the mobius is listed at 45g. The 808 also costs about $25 less. I would like to get a mobius also, the more the merrier.

Wow... perfect spins...

you using 6" props?

I find 6*4.5 props work best for fun flying. I tried 5*3 but didn't feel comfortable about the lack of power. I have mounted the motor pods above the wing to stop from hitting the props on takeoff/landing, especially when on wheels as the single front tends to fall to one side when taxiing.

 

[JLT_GTI]

The front skid adaptor worked... made a grass landing with it and it just skided without tipping over ... and didnt even broke


On the bad news... any advises to "straighten" foam board? the horizontal stab aparently sustained some damage while traveling in the car's trunk (hangar rash) an appears to be warped upwards ... i try to gently "iron" it but its like if this foam has memory and wars again a bit upwards.....

 

[laury415]

JTL the simplest way I've found to straighten and strengthen DTFB is with popcycle sticks. I glue them on, or if I wat to be more discreet I cut the paper, remove a little foam, insert the popcycle stick, then glue the paper back over it.

 

[JLT_GTI]

Thanks.. will try to flatten then and if tey continue warping i will try inserting a bit of plywood there...i even have 0.8mm plywood arround but its too flexible.. maybe gluing 2 strips together...

 

[SP0NZ]

In the Cruiser supplemental video they explain how to make the y-harness for the differential thrust. In that video David explains that the BEC may need to be disabled on one of the ESC's. I have two Turnigy Plush 12 amp ESC's that I am going to use for my MG. I bought them both at the same time. Do I need to disable the ESC on one of them or can I leave them as is?

 

[BridgeInspector]

I have the turnigy 10a and I pulled the positive pin from the lead on one of the ESCs. There have been issues with folks on the forum with builds who did not disable power from one of there ESCs. It comes down to the rx and how it deals with two power supplies, I didn't want to find out if it released the magic smoke.

 

[SP0NZ]

Thanks for the heads up. Can you put the positive lead back in the connector later on if you want to use it in another plane?

 

[JLT_GTI]

I have two Turnigy Plush 12 amp ESC's that I am going to use for my MG. I bought them both at the same time. Do I need to disable the ESC on one of them or can I leave them as is?

Im using the same Plush 12A ESCs and i dissabled the 5V red wire on one of them as its the general rule.. they have a 2A BEC so they can handle 4 microservos fine.. specially in this plane wich is small and doesnt put much stress on them.. just pull the red pin out of the connector with a needle and tape it over so it cant touch anything.. that way you can use it if in the future you need that BEC

 

[SP0NZ]

Im using the same Plush 12A ESCs and i dissabled one of them as its the general rule.. they have a 2A BEC so they can handle 4 microservos fine.. specially in this plane wich is small and doesnt put much stress on them.. just pull the red pin out of the connector with a needle and tape it over so it cant touch anything.. that way you can use it if in the future you need that BEC

Perfect! Thanks BridgeInspector and JLT_GTI for the responses. That is exactly the information I needed.

 

[ztoon]

I tested today my mini guinea with all its fpv gear minus the gps (ordered).
The wing is new with some (more) carbon and 6mm depron. New 3mm depron nose because the last one... works well.

 

[Pushjerk]

What's up, Mini Guinea Crowd,

Plans have been transferred to FB, cutting about to commence on my first mini guinea scratch build.

Never played with an aircraft this small, so a question for those of you with some insight. Looking into props for this little guy, and I see that HQ direct drive props come in both Glass Fiber and Carbon Composite, with only little difference in price. Obviously the Carbon will be a bit stiffer (and more brittle/easily breakable I presume). Any reason one should pick one over the other? I'll be running 3S, 6x3's, maybe some 6x4.5's to play around with too for some ballistic performance.

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[JLT_GTI]

I dont think so... carbon props and so are more for quads where you need resistance and also speed/precission of reaction (stiffer props react faster to throotle changes ..also induce more vibrations if not balanced)..

This is a plane.. you dont need that kind of stuff and is not very likelly breaking props (not before breaking the rest of the plane anyway )

 

[Pushjerk]

Thanks for the input, JLT. Went ahead and ordered some colorful glass fiber 6x3s and 6x4.5s.

 

[JLT_GTI]

Well thats it... front nose gear keeps collapsing every time i touch down... last saturday i even tried doing it really smooth over tarmac and it bent right away the second it touched down....it even bent a couple of times during take-off roll..

the wire bends right after the lower plywood support ... is true that i used some 2mm wire i had arround at home rather than the wire probided by the kit..

Should the kit wire be strong enought for the kit?
oddly the main gear works perfectly

 

[Rusty1]

I have a ? which way should the props be spinning opp each other or same way?

 

[JLT_GTI]

I have a ? which way should the props be spinning opp each other or same way?

Ideally they should be contra-rotating.. so each cancels the torque of the other and the plane has a more neutral handling under power (no torque roll).

In the real world people with twins of this size says that they set it with both props spinnign the same and dont notice much diference..

I cant tell personally becuase both my twin engines (A 1,4m CL-415 and the MG) use counter-rotating props so i never tried them with both motors spinnign the same way..but i think in the FT videos the MG had both props spinning the same way and it flew perfectly fine.. so i dont think you will have any problems chosing any option (i chosed counter because i had extra-props from my 250 quad arround )

 

[nevenelestate]

I have my MG counter rotating and my Sea Duck(my design based on the MG) are both CW rotating. I don't notice any improvement in the counter rotating motors. I am running 3s with 6x4.5 props and there is a ton or thrust from that setup, still don't notice torque roll. Wind is usually far more of a factor than the motors torque rolling IMO.