Michaelvg11

Hello All. I am a newbie. I have been flying gas planes for many years, however, since I live in a small condo outside of NYC, I don't have the room or place for ongoing maintenance, so I have decided to go electric. I am very interested in the Kyosho 540 Electric version plane. I will probably order it. The problem is I do not know enough about internal parts, batteries, charger, motors, etc. Everyone I talk to wants to sell me the most expensive, like hacker motors, speed controllers, or duralite batteries. I was hoping someone can breakdown the list of necessary accessories to get this flying with sample brands and maybe prices. This will give me a great jumpstart in understanding brands, quality and what I need to get into electric planes.
Your help is greatly appreciated.
Michael

normgoyer

Hi Michael, the best advice I can give you is don't buy junk, go for name brand from reputable vendors. You will not be sorry. You can't cheap your way into electrics. Norm

tIANci

Mike - I was in your shoes about almost 2 years ago, I even asked how the heck do the servos work if the batt runs out? I did not know of the thing called BEC. What I can say is that named brands will always work but do not discount the cheap China stuff. This works for ESC and motors on the lower end. Lower end for me means planes that do not exceed 25 size.

Which Kyosho 540 are you talking about? Is it the Edge 540 50? That is not a small plane. If that is the plane then a set up can be as follows:

Motor - AXI 4130/16
Prop - APC 17x8
ESC - CC PHX85
Batt - FP3,300 3S (x2 in series)

Find any equivalent you want. Can be a geared system even. Get a motor that can turn an APC 17x8 prop at about 6,000 RPM if you only want good aerobatic performance and say 6,750 RPM for really good 3D performance.

If I were you go for a Fliton Extra 330 or the Fliton EDGE 540. It may cost a little more but they are proven planes and you got a lot of info in RCU or RC Groups on it. Tons of info. The Fliton Extra flies really well.

Now some advice on the followig:

Batteries - please do yourself a favour and get the better ones like Poly Quest, FLight Power. DO NOT BUY CHEAP batteries made in China unless you are running on a low demand set up. Low demand means e.g. battery claims to give you 20C, if its a cheap China one you can expect only 18C max. If you run it on a set up that requires only say 12C then its totally good. But if you run it on a set up that need the 18C, you will get a 'pregnant' battery soon. I have tried cheap batteries and they always fail except for one from China that is really good stuff. So get 'expensive' batteries if your demand is high.

ESC - cheap ESCs do work fine! I am running branded ones like Castle Creation and TMM along side the El Cheapos from China like Tower Pro and High Model. On the lower end of the spectrum they are totally good.I run the 30A and 60A El Cheapos and they are fine.

Motors - if you wanna mess about only then the China ones do work fine, it might not be as efficient but they do work fine. Some are not as refined but they run well enough. If it is performance then of course you want the AXI/Hyperion/Hacker/Plattenberg etc My personal opinion is 400 sized motors can be from China, they are good enough for sure! But search the forums carefully and you will find that the new motors from China are super super cheap and they are running well enough. Try the Electric forums in RC Groups, a lot of stuff there.

Michaelvg11

Thank you for your help everyone...