What Did You Fly Today

[buzzbomb]

Finally got video of my mini scout and old speedster uploaded. I am trying a new filming technique where I attached the camera to my transmitter and film and fly. I thought it worked pretty well.

The Old Speedster? Super tight! Until you went high, you kept it in like a 50 foot radius. Darn impressive. The Mini Scout? It's fun as heck isn't it? All it's really lacking is an extended fuselage and a second wing. Somebody should do that. Oh. Wait....

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Pulled out the Sportster again, this time I have vid of it on a 3 blade.

This one is for you @bracesport
Any thoughts on the grinding squeal in the beginning, bearings maybe

 

[man-bot]

Didnt get to fly the last few days due to rain and insane gusty winds. I did however find a really cool area I would LOVE to fly but its in a national park so no dice. Its right up the hill from where I live and I happened to be there with my camera shooting pre wedding pictures for my nephew and his fiance.

If you look close there are hawks in all of them somewhere. there were five of them out that day patrolling the banks of the river. If you notice one side of the dam was nearly dry. Look closer and you will see tire tracks where they were down there for the yearly clean up of dead trees and other larger debris before freezing weather hits.

There is a larger dam right here in town thats even bigger and is 75 - 100 feet I would absolutely want to dive with a quad.

I left the pics full size to have the hawks catch peoples attention so they look at them even harder.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

You are right, that would be an awesome place to fly. Would be some amazing on board cam views to take advantage of.

I gotta do some searching for more visual flying areas to film at, I am sure everyone has seen enough of my usual place. I might go search up and down the river here and see what I find. Time to get creative

 

[Wildthing]

Pulled out the Sportster again, this time I have vid of it on a 3 blade.

This one is for you @bracesport
Any thoughts on the grinding squeal in the beginning, bearings maybe

Hey that squeal, is this the same plane you asked me about on bearings?

 

[buzzbomb]

Pulled out the Sportster again, this time I have vid of it on a 3 blade.

This one is for you @bracesport
Any thoughts on the grinding squeal in the beginning, bearings maybe

Nice flight, battleaxe! You even got your Humpty Bump in!

My first thought on the squeal would be that the prop was too loose. It torqued until it had speed. Second thought would be the bearing. If you just run the prop at low revs, and the squealing continues, I'd think bearing. Third thought would be a bent shaft. Your motor should come in pretty hot if it were either the shaft or bearings.

To check the shaft, you have to pop the c-clip off the back of the motor and put the bell into a power drill. Then just spin it slow and watch for wobble. Those c-clips are pretty much one use only, though and they break pretty easy.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Hey that squeal, is this the same plane you asked me about on bearings?

Yea it is.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

So I am going to try to work this out as a process. I know I do have a slight wobble in my prop shaft, which is just an adapter that is bolted onto the front of the motor, it isn't the main shaft that runs through the stator. Easily fix that. I will balance the prop, the squeal is only there when I use that prop. then I will go to the bearings and maintenance them. If after all that the issue doesn't go away I guess I will be in the market for some new gear lol.

 

[Wildthing]

Yea it is.

Ok, that didn't sound good so yes I would oil up the bearings as long as they aren't rough then replace them.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Before yesterdays flight I did rough up the back side of the prop nut that contacts the front of the prop to give some surface bite, after the flight I noticed the prop nut wasn't as tight as I first put it on. Still seated but not snug. I took the prop nut off this morning and noticed there was some shiny transfer on the prop faces front and back to indicate some slippage, the shaft face that contacts the back of the prop is knurled so I used a hack saw blade to knurl the prop nut for more grip, plus I sanded down any high spots on the front face of the prop so the prop nut has full contact area once tightened. I will try this today and see if I still get the noise.

I am really apt towards prop slippage for the fact the plane, even in the wind, didn't have the expected pull that I experienced the day before. As a process of elimination I will give this a couple flight packs today and move on to the next step as far as straightening the shaft and the bearings will be done anyway.

 

[L Edge]

Being a calm day, pulled out my "UFO"(ugly flying object) which is made up of a flat piece of blue foam, put some elevons on it and used a flight control unit that has programming and gyros. If you notice, there are no vertical stabs and yaw is controlled by differential thrust of the motors by the gyro.
Proof that a flat board can fly.

 

[Hai-Lee]

Before yesterdays flight I did rough up the back side of the prop nut that contacts the front of the prop to give some surface bite, after the flight I noticed the prop nut wasn't as tight as I first put it on. Still seated but not snug. I took the prop nut off this morning and noticed there was some shiny transfer on the prop faces front and back to indicate some slippage, the shaft face that contacts the back of the prop is knurled so I used a hack saw blade to knurl the prop nut for more grip, plus I sanded down any high spots on the front face of the prop so the prop nut has full contact area once tightened. I will try this today and see if I still get the noise.

I am really apt towards prop slippage for the fact the plane, even in the wind, didn't have the expected pull that I experienced the day before. As a process of elimination I will give this a couple flight packs today and move on to the next step as far as straightening the shaft and the bearings will be done anyway.

To stop the prop slipping on smaller and lighter prop adapters where a large prop being fitted can be an issue. I just fit an appropriate sized star washer between the prop and the surface of the adapter that is on the motor side. When tightened the washer bites into both the prop and the adapter and the problem is gone permanently. When removing, or changing, the prop there is no added difficulty and it all falls apart when the prop nut is removed.

It is only needed when using the smaller prop adapters with large props and it works equally well with props made from differing materials including wood and CF.

It works for me!

Have fun!

 

[Piotrsko]

Being a calm day, pulled out my "UFO"(ugly flying object)
Proof that a flat board can fly.

Of course a flat board can fly. BTDTMO What I wanna see is you fly it without gyro's

 

[BATTLEAXE]

To stop the prop slipping on smaller and lighter prop adapters where a large prop being fitted can be an issue. I just fit an appropriate sized star washer between the prop and the surface of the adapter that is on the motor side. When tightened the washer bites into both the prop and the adapter and the problem is gone permanently. When removing, or changing, the prop there is no added difficulty and it all falls apart when the prop nut is removed.

It is only needed when using the smaller prop adapters with large props and it works equally well with props made from differing materials including wood and CF.

It works for me!

Have fun!

I do have some of these star washers too, that's a great idea. I will look into that.

I did take the motor apart and as I was told, the front bearing is the worse of the two. I cleaned it out with some WD-40, it did smooth out some, now I have oil soaking into it for a bit. After I let it sit I will do a clean on the windings and the rest of the motor and put it back together. She will go out for another fly later today. I did have it out again this morning. I will post the vids in a bit.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

This is the vid from this mornings flight...

No issues

 

[BATTLEAXE]

The first pack I put in on the previous posted vid was on my stronger of my 2 batteries, the Venom 2200 3s 25c, no issues, ran as expected. the second pack I put in was the Gens Ace 2200 3s 30c which is my weaker battery and I get this:

Would a weak battery do this as well, and maybe the noise is coming from the ESC?

I just put the motor back together all lubed up and ready to rock. I did a run up with the Gens Ace battery and the squeal was still there but lacked in power, fully charged. I put the venom in and ran it up to full throttle with all the power it wanted and no squeal.

Cell voltages on the Gens Ace fully charged are:
1. 4.89
2. 4.8
3. 4.91
= 14.61

Again I can only get a couple minutes out of this battery and it's top end is barely above the physical power of where the ESC will do a voltage cut off at around 12-12.5 volts.

It's a mystery to me, if anyone has any answers it would be much appreciated.

 

[The Hangar]

The first pack I put in on the previous posted vid was on my stronger of my 2 batteries, the Venom 2200 3s 25c, no issues, ran as expected. the second pack I put in was the Gens Ace 2200 3s 30c which is my weaker battery and I get this:

Would a weak battery do this as well, and maybe the noise is coming from the ESC?

I just put the motor back together all lubed up and ready to rock. I did a run up with the Gens Ace battery and the squeal was still there but lacked in power, fully charged. I put the venom in and ran it up to full throttle with all the power it wanted and no squeal.

Cell voltages on the Gens Ace fully charged are:
1. 4.89
2. 4.8
3. 4.91
= 14.61

Again I can only get a couple minutes out of this battery and it's top end is barely above the physical power of where the ESC will do a voltage cut off at around 12-12.5 volts.

It's a mystery to me, if anyone has any answers it would be much appreciated.

Huh, weird. At a full charge, you should have all three cells at 4.2 volts per cell. Do you always charge them with the balance lead? What are the voltage of your venom fully charged?

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Huh, weird. At a full charge, you should have all three cells at 4.2 volts per cell. Do you always charge them with the balance lead? What are the voltage of your venom fully charged?

The Venom fully charged is not much different:
1. 4.93
2. 4.9
3. 4.89
= 14.73

I do always charge them at 2 amps, 1 amp per 10c with the balance lead. The charger won't work without the balance lead. Are they being over charged?

 

[Piotrsko]

Not too sure of the exact chemistry you're using, But all the lipos I own, including the 48s6p pack 16 million mah in the ranger, I always stop at 4.15 a cell. I have heard you can push to 4.3 a cell since you aren't looking for 1,000 cycles. Not gonna claim I am a lipo expert either but 4.9 @ cell sounds way too high.

 

[The Hangar]

The Venom fully charged is not much different:
1. 4.93
2. 4.9
3. 4.89
= 14.73

I do always charge them at 2 amps, 1 amp per 10c with the balance lead. The charger won't work without the balance lead. Are they being over charged?

My venom charger charges each cell via balance and lead to 4.2 volts per cell, so the overall pack voltage is 12.6. I think this one is for @Hai-Lee 😉