micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

did you get a chance to fly it?

if you use normal scotch tape, you could shed some weight. electrical tape is pretty heavy. also, if you put the electronics on the fuselage itself, rather than the wings, it'll probably take corners a bit easier. with the weight on the wings, the motors might have a hard time pulling out of a spiral.

looks good enough to fly though either way. nice job

nick

Seek and Destroy

i wish i got a chance to fly it. i was playin with it some and the receiver wire came out of the the spot where it got soldered, but luckily i have good soldering skills(or atleast for my age) and i was able to solder it back together. before the wire had popped off i tested it and nothing happened or worked. and the charger didn't want to charge it for some reason. so i don't know what to do, do you know if there is any fix?? cause if there is that would help a lot.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

have you checked the TX batteries? quickest and easiest thing to troubleshoot first.

Seek and Destroy

no but i will check them later tonight. also i plan on getting some QUALITY radio gear for these things cause there so much fun!!! i'd like it to be a 3 or 4 channel radio. also are servos too heavy cause i hear there getting to like 2 grams now, so i want to know what would you suggest for a complete electronics package??

monstermaker13

you can make youre own servos using pager motors.

Seek and Destroy

how??

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

well, unfortunately, the TX signal is a propriatary signal, which means only the AA TX will work for the AA RX, so that limits you pretty much there.

you could buy a bunch of seperate parts, RX, TX, couple lipos, lipo charger, motors, props, actuators, and it'll run you around 200 bucks or so. but, Plantraco has their Delux kits, which comes with everything i just mentioned and is pretty comparative to the cost of everything else bought seperately. i know its expensive, but consider that i still use the same RX, TX, actuators and a few lipos that i bought over a year and a half ago (not plantraco equipment, bought it all seperately). so, if you really plan on getting into this hobby, its a worthwhile investment. if you think you might not do this for very long, it might not be worth shelling out that kind of cash. depends on what you really want to do.

there's other solutions though. buy a MicroFlyer or Rookie and fly it till it can fly no more. then, take out the motor, RX, and actuator and use it in your own plane (i did this with the ToonRacer from this thread and it flys pretty nicely, along with lots of other planes). this is only 30 bucks, so its a LOT cheaper, but its only 2 channel and its not proportional, but it would be a good way to start if you decide to not use AA parts on some of your future planes and would rather go more conventional with a single motor and rudder.

the links i posted in the "too many choices" thread will give you pretty much anything you'd ever need in the micro world, between the two of those sites, they have everything. both are good companies to work with too, i just got an order from bphobbies for a couple 30mah lipos and it got here in just a few days. BSDmicroRC is basically a large home opperated company, so they're very nice people to deal with.

nick

Seek and Destroy

i plan on getting into it so i'm going to get some of that high quality stuff. also i will check back with you tomorrow and see if i get it to work and charge. i'm going offline cause i need to go to bed.[sm=sleeping.gif].

monstermaker13

[sm=tired.gif]iv been up 2 ds strait and have gone threu 2 cases of cokes,[&o]

Seek and Destroy

i figured out what the problem was. i was messing with the tx when i noticed it felt really light like there were 4 batteries in it or something, so i opened it and sure enough there were only 4 bats. it still worked but didn't have enough power to control the plane or charge the plane. so i tool a pic, look in the mirror for a red light that shows the tx is on.

Seek and Destroy

micro builder, i got a chance to fly it today and it was way too heavy. did the one you made fly good?

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

the one i made flew well. what did yours do when you tried flying it? did it just not stay up, or did it nose down quickly?

if yours is too heavy, try sanding the edges of the plane so they're round, instead of just a flat edge. it wont do much for aerodymanics, but it'll shed some weight. also remove all extra weight, like the tape, its ok for the wires to hang free, and you'd be surprised at how much weight all the little things add up to. i noticed in some of your pics that you used a lot of CA, this is fine, but CA glue doesnt lose weight when it dries (abroid glue does, however), and CA is actually a pretty heavy glue. you'd be surprised at how little it takes to make balsa stay together. you may not want to make another one after just building your first, but i would suggest making a 2nd try. with the things you learned doing the first one, your next one will be even better, and it will be even lighter.

just out of curiosity, when you bought the wood, are you sure it was balsa? hobby shops always put the balsa and basswood right next to eachother, and basswood is a lot heavier than balsa. i made that mistake once or twice simply cause i wasnt paying attention when i grabbed the wood off the shelf.

nick

Seek and Destroy

i was at hobby lobby and my mom said that what i grabbed was it. yah i'm going to make a second version. when i was making it i had this ca glue but i ran out half way threw the plane. it didn't have much in it but it was thick and dried quick. so i got some more and it was runny and dried very slow. i will try ang get it done tonight but i don't think i will have enough wood(i said wood cause i don't know if i bought the wrong kind) to finish it. but my plane glides great. the motors didn't give it any lift so basicly i threw it and it glided into the grass. note: my plane weighed alot more than astock aero ace, i couldn't quite tell but i think it weighed 2x more than the stock AA.

btw did you see that my transmitter was running on 4 bats, theres pics of it if you go 2 page back.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

if you need more balsa, and go to the hobby shop, there's a little trick you can do to find the lightest sheets. grab a small stack of the balsa, and one by one, hold each sheet up to the lights. some sheets you'll be able to see more light through, some you wont, find the ones that you can see the most light through and buy it, those will be the lightest peices. if you think it'll still be too heavy, you could try 1/32" balsa for the wings, or at least for the tail wings. its more fragile, but much lighter. if you're going to build a 2nd one, you can do a little sanding after you cut the peices out and that will let you shed some more weight too. i use Medium CA, it's not as runny, and it cures very quickly. when you're glueing your peices, try just putting little drops of glue rather than a long bead of glue. the dots will spread out when you apply the balsa together, so it'll hold well enough. the more glue you use, the longer it'll take to cure.

since you're wanting to get into this hobby more, one thing you're going to want to get is a good scale. 1 gram resolution scales work just fine for models that weigh 10 to 15 grams or higher, but .1 gram resolution scales are the better way to go. you can get a pretty decent one here: http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id...07&pid=V720515

as for the 4 batteries in the TX, yeah i noticed that. most of the batteries in the TX are for the charging of the plane, the others are for the TX itself.

nick

Seek and Destroy

i don't think i will be able to build another plane today or tomorrow cause i have to get ready for the races tomorrow and tomorrow i will be at the race most of the day. so i'll try sunday and monday.

theyalwaysland

Rc18t145---You're plane looks great. It can't be that heavy--it looks like you used good techniques while building it. I built mine with my own design-but it looked fairly close to the ones that you guys are doing. The actual plane weighed 1/2 the weight of the aero ace without the electronics. It flew like a rocket! But I made mine with 1/16 in fuse and 1/32 wing and tail. Maybe a little to fragile for the speed! The stock Aero Ace motors put out 10 grams of thrust with a 11 gram initial burst. So they should handle a 20 gram plane fine. The Aero Ace weighs 17 grams.
Are you sure it was fully charged?

Oh and basswood and balsa are extremely easy to get mixed up!

Seek and Destroy

it wasn't fully charged, maybe htats why.

andrewtexas123

any one want to sell one

Neurotex

Yeah, it shouldn't be that heavy. Once you get the hang of it your planes
will be getting lighter and lighter.
It doesn't take much CA to make a strong joint. There are 2 types of super glue.
Liquid & gel.
The gel is great for tacking pieces into place. The excess should be removed with
a moist Q-tip because the build up is really holding nothing.
The liquid can now be used to fill in the rest of the joint since it saturates the
balsa better.

Seek and Destroy

i guess i got the liquid.

paulo810

I built the Toonracer shortly after this thread started. It was easy to build but as stated it is very tail heavy. After setting the CG by adding clay to the nose I test glided it. It glided very well and very fast. That was a problem for me because I really am looking to build a living room flyer. So, I have not persued adding the electronics.

Here's a tip you can use while doing initial construction on this or any model. I found this product called "Glue Dots" in a craft store. It is a roll of shiny paper with 1/2" or 1/4" clear circles of a glue similar to that kind you see things stuck in magazines or in the mail with. It is easy to use and "parts can be separated and even re-stuck, kind of like the way the AA is put together.

Check it out. I like it because you can experiment with wing placement, incidence, etc. without having to destroy any parts or remake them.

clovus

Are people using the pictures in the first couple of posts here to draw out the plan, or is micro sending them PDF's by pm??

I've always ignored the balsa stock in my LHS, but not anymore. Got a whole stack of sheets, sticks etc for a coupla bucks. It should be good for a few planes... RC planes are pretty addictive, but this micro stuff is so much fun i'm not sure if its legal.......

Seek and Destroy

clovus, if you want the pdf files all you have to do is say" micro builder, i want thte pdf files." i said that a page back and he sent me them in a pm.

clovus

Thanks will do.
clovus

Neurotex

No problem... what I mentioned is just my way of building which
is easiest for me. You can build the whole plane with either glue.
Which ever you find easiest for you.