coralcape

My Feedback: (4)

I wanted to share my thoughts on full time glow. I had originally used this to make a Tower .75 run good. It kept cutting out, no constant symptom. Have a good engine man at field and he did his best on adjustments, still cut out. Tried different plugs, still cuts out. Then I came up with the idea of using full time glow. Bought a set of 4 NIMH bat. from Walmart, wired 3 of them in parallel and installed in plane, problem solved. No more cutouts. These are 2500mah name brand batteries at less than $10.00.
Advantages= safe starting, no more cutouts, plug life is not affected so far, better idle, no problem with different nitro content.
Dis-advantages= few extra ounces of weight, extra wiring and switch, extra battery to charge
If you have a balky, troublesome engine, give this a try, it just might help. It's cheap and effective. Good luck, red

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

Yes, this works fine. I have one engine that I'm running on full time glow. I did some research before I did it and others reported no problems with glow plug life as well.

www.cheapbatterypacks.com has a 3800 mah cell for around 5 bucks, and a 4500 for just a little more. They last quite well for a flying outing, and you can also recharge them from your glow driver charge port on your power panel in your field box.

AV8TOR

captinjohn

AV8TOR: The one engine you run with on-board glow. Was it one engine that would not work good with the Gas/Glow fuel mix? What Brand and size is it? Just curious. Thanks, Capt,n

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

The one I run with on board glow power is the Twist 60 3D with the Super Tiger .90. However, the only reason I run it with glow power is because I put a TOO large carb on it, and the only way to get it to transition well was to run the idle quite rich. The only way I could get it to run reliably with that big carb was to use glow power. If I would put a more reasonable size carb on the Super Tiger .90, I am positive it would not need glow power.

I was all set to put a smaller carb on the .90, because I had mistakenly put on the carb that was too large. But the top end power was so good, I decided to run glow power instead to cover the rich bottom end. Works great, and has a ton of power. Really, full time glow power, or at least part time slaved to come on below 1/3 throttle can solve a lot of tuning problems. It's also kind of cool to just flip a switch on the airplane and start it....

Note to everyone who may not have been following all the threads here: We are talking about Gas/Glow; as that's all I run anymore.

AV8TOR

coralcape

My Feedback: (4)

Just to expand on my original post. The batteries at Wally are $8 and change for four. These are 2500 mah NIMH and wired in parallel give me an entire afternoon of fliying. I find that the OS plugs take about 1500 mah, so you should have no problems with this setup. About charging, I think you will need more than a glo stik charger setup. I find using a 5 amp (MRC Brain) charger, it takes about 45-60 min to recharge after a days flying. Good luck, red

captinjohn

Do you charge the 3 cells in series or parallel? Thanks Capt,n

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

I imagine he charges them in parallel, the same as he has them wired up in the plane, and adjusts his charge rate accordingly.

Coralcape: You are right about a standard glow plug charger not being sufficient to actually charge a large capacity pack, but you can hook it to the onboard pack between flights and it can put some charge back in and extend your flying at the field if necessary.

AV8TOR

captinjohn

I think in series you can charger faster...the voltage would be of a higher input. Capt,n

coralcape

My Feedback: (4)

I do charge them in parallel as that is how they are hardwired. When fully charged, I have no problem for a full afternoon of flying. Good luck, red