Uberall Nippy Black

[tonyturley]

We are spoiled for lightweight, excellent performing gear these days. When I first got into electrics in the mid 1990s, we actually used NiCd batteries for power, and the first brushless motors I tried were rewound CD-ROM motors. Some guys were pretty good at making custom motors; my own results were not so special. I was going through my shelves this evening and came upon one of the first commercial brushless motors I purchased, a Uberall Nippy Black 1608/160 1620 kV outrunner from Eastern Europe, and sold by Hobby Lobby (remember them?) I got mine for $20 somewhere around 1998-2000 when HL had a fire sale. It is a beastly heavy motor at around 106g with the motor mount and prop adapter, minus the wires. It had a 40mm bell and could swing an 8x3.8 SF prop on 3S lipo, with a max current draw of 16A. I originally had planned to put it in a 60" motorglider, but that project never came to fruition . . . another of the many projects I started and lost interest in along the way. This motor has never even been tested, and will likely just stay on my shelf, as there are much lighter motors that perform as well or better, plus I prefer sub-250g models now.

 

[bisco]

I started with electric around then. built a balsa glider, and I forget what motor, but ni-cad battery.
just enough juice to get the glider high enough to catch a thermal. it was all pretty unsophisticated

 

[tonyturley]

I started with electric around then. built a balsa glider, and I forget what motor, but ni-cad battery.
just enough juice to get the glider high enough to catch a thermal. it was all pretty unsophisticated

Yeah, my first sort of successful electric had a 775 can motor and a 7-cell Sanyo 900mAh pack. Back then I would have never imagined I'd eventually be flying micros with a motor, Rx, ESC, and battery all weighing less than 2 oz and that cost less than $100.