hairnutz

I purchased the Spree and the ElectriFly ESC as recommended by Towers site. This is my first plane and I have a question about the caps / diodes that came with the ESC. Is it required to solder these to the motor? The ESC instructions say that it is required to install the Schottky and 3 caps. I did follow these instructions but wanted to make sure its required. All of my electric cars already had the caps soldered and the ESCs I use specifically say not to use the diode.

I didnt see any caps on the motor itself which is why I went ahead and installed the ones from my ESC and the diode. Just making sure im correct. What would happen if they werent installed?

The battery doesnt last very long - wasnt even able to get it up in the air though thats probably my fault spending so long setting up the EPs and Trim / Subtrims.

I will be throwing this battery pack in the recycle bin if things dont get better. Ive already got my eye on Li-Pos after reading all of the posts on extended runtimes. 20min vs 4 min... Wish I read more before I bought what I did.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

The caps help suppress RF noise generated by the motor when it's running. While you may not notice the difference when the motor is new, as it gets some time on it, it'll get noisier.

Keep in mind that there's nothing magical about LiPolys. The reason you get longer run times is because you can carry more mAh (capacity) without making the plane any heavier. You can't replace a 2000mAh NiCd with a 2000mAh LiPoly and get 20 minute run times if you were only getting 4 minutes before.

What battery pack do you have now? How are you charging it? What motor and prop does this plane have? There are many reasons besides the battery being bad that you aren't getting any power. Motor could be bad, prop could be too big/too small, battery could be too small, battery may not have enough cells, battery not fully charged, plane could be too heavy for the power system, connections could be bad...

hairnutz

The recommended battery was the Kyosho (of cousre) 600mah. Yep, 600. I was not happy with that choice when I made the purchase since I know about mah and use 3000 and 3300 for my cars. It is also a NiCad which I dont really care for - I prefer the NiMh batteries since I dont race. I was just not sure what battery pack to buy because I didnt know how much space was available.

I have been looking at the 2000 2 cell lipo 15C. I think its about $45.00. Do you think that would be a good choice? the only thing is it will be 1 volt less than the 8.4 I have now. Will that matter much?

GWR

My Feedback: (31)

Both myself and a fellow club member have Kyosho Sprees. Neither of us cared for the stock power setup so we switched to brushless and Lipos. I'm using an MP Jet 25/35-20, one of the cheapest BL motors on the market, and it flies great. I can even take it off from grass. The other has a Mega setup. He hand launches because he removed the landing gear. We both use 3cell TP 2100 Lipo packs. [sm=sunsmiley.gif]

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

7.4 Volts is the nominal voltage of the LiPoly pack, and 8.4 Volts is the nominal voltage of the NiCd pack.

When the motor is running, the difference between the 2-cell LiPoly and 8-cell NiCd is negligible. That's because the LiPoly won't suffer from "voltage depression" nearly as much as the NiCd. The NiCd will depress to about 7 Volts, and the LiPoly will do roughly the same. For the LiPoly, the voltage drop is much less (8.4V fully charged to 7.0V = 1.4V drop), compared to the NiCd (9.8V fully charged to 7.0V = 2.8V drop).

For practical purposes, a 2-cell LiPoly is about equivalent to a 7-cell NiCd/NiMH. A 3-cell pack is equivalent to a 10-cell NiCd/NiMH.

Have you considered NiMH? I believe the 600mAh NiCds you have now are "2/3A" cells. There is quite a bit of NiMH technology available in that 2/3A package, at a very affordable price (<$2 per cell). You wouldn't have to buy another charger, or expensive LiPoly packs yet. Check out cheapbatterypacks.com for their CPB1100 and KAN1100 cells.

hairnutz

Exactly. Thats why I like NiMh better than the NiCd batteries even though NiCds are supposed to deliver more punch for longer, they die off with a sharp slope of power loss. The nimhs deliver slightly less punch for a bit longer and die slower. At least thats what I understand and have seen with my cars. Im mostly into the nitro cars / buggies / trucks but I have 2 electric cars. I also like the fact that NiMh are less picky about when you charge them - no memory. NiCd seem to be higher maintenance in that you have to discharge them to a certain point before charging to a certain point to maintain maximum efficiency.

I think I understand that LiPos are similar to the power loss of NiMh however with less cells, less weight. I have a Triton which will charge the Polys. I started looking for a NiMih battery pack but got confused. The batteries I have now for the plane are AE and not 2/3A. All of my Nitro battery packs are 2/3A and the Kyosho AE batteries are slight fatter. I havent really compared them side by side but from memory atleast.

I dont mind spending a few extra $$ to get the Polys though I do understand a 2000 mah NiMh will last the same as a 2000 mah LiPo. Its all about capacity.

I do appreciate all of the input!! These forums have always been very helpful.

I do want to talk more about the brushless motors though. As I mentioned, this is my first plane. I started this flying part of the RC hobby a bit backwards. I started with a Kyosho Caliber 30. I read so many posts about how you should start with a Sim first to understand flight, etc etc but I was like, I can do it. Well, several hours of building and setup later, I did it. I got the chopper off the ground about 1 ft and then it turned into a lawn mower and then it turned into flying wood blades I rebuilt it, taking it slower and I managed to get it up and hovering for about a tank of fuel and then got brave again. I got it 30 ft in the air and lost control and again it turned into a twisted shell of a chopper.

I decided to try planes since they seem a bit easier - in theory. I can fly them just fine on the sim now since I decided to use one. I have flown my Spree about 6 times with a total of 3 minutes in the air. I am now an expert at cutting wood and using epoxy No major crashes but when it hits nose first, the motor mounts tend to break. These nose first hits were at low speed / low altitude.

I must say that the sim is not the same as flying for real- at least not for me.

Long story short - I like this plane and the sport of flying. I think a lot of my problems come from trying to fly too fast in too short of a field, etc.. However, I do think the motor is a bit underpowered. As much as I had it in the air, it seems that when I made a mistake, when I tried to compensate for it, it didnt have enough umph to pull out of it. These mistakes were mostly trying to bank too much and when I banked the other way and tried to pull up, the plane just kept falling. Again, it might have been that I want high enough and didnt have enough time but it seems that if I had more umph, I could have pulled out of them.

Would a brushless help with that problem or am I looking in the wrong direction all together?

I think I want to put a brushless setup in this plane after I get the hang of it. Im thinking about buying a slow stick just to practice on before I tear this Spree up too much more so the brushless would be down the road.

I will be trying again tomorrow to see how well I can fly - or how gracefully i can crash it Do you guys have a better suggestion for a first plane that would be very very easy to fly without taking too much damage? I hear the slow stick is about the best.

Thanks again for all the help!

monjo

My Feedback: (4)

GWR, I realize this was an old post, but I just purchased a Spree and happen to have the MPJ 25/35-20 motor laying around. Did you have a 3:1 or 4:1 gearbox attached to the motor? Also, I was wondering what mount you used / how you mounted the motor? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for your help.