Riverview

Heritageman, I used to work on avionics systmes on B52 bomber years ago and have stayed in the electronics field most of my life, and one thing i do knwo is that the main enemy of any electronic component is HEAT. I would not recomment installing a servo in the engine cowling. I will take a picture of my plane tomorrow and let you see how I installed the throttle servo. It sits under and behind the fuel tank adn is connected by a cable to the engine.
Take Care

Riverview

Cheez, I miss a spell checker !!! I should have proof read my message....

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview, I would enjoy seeing photo's of your cessna and the set up. I've been working on the set-up the last couple of days and now the throttle servo is back in the original location. I have moved the rudder servo backwards to another location. These servos were originally mounted like instructed ,but I had some adjusting to do which was very hard to get to.I did make my tailcone where it could be removed for any adjusting later. Also have a door made for refueling which makes it easily accessable.

Riverview

Hello HM, I am uloading a few pictures. The one of the engine shows the flex cable coming out of the firewall and through a wood bulkhead that the engine is mounted to. I installed a Saito 100 twin in my plane. I epoxied the cable at the point of the original engine mount but NOT to the bulkhead behind the engine. I can remove the 4 mounting bolts on the engine and the cable will pull out of the bulkead making it easy to disconnect the cable from the carb on the engine. The flex cable goes through the firewall and the outer shell is epoxied to a mount that I fabed on the servo tray. The servo on the left is for the nosegear/rubber and the one on the right is for the elevator. I have seen some builders building by the instructions, but it is pretty hard to mount the fuel tank, servos and nosegear linkage after the top end is built. I installed all of my stuff, tank included as I built outward on the plane. I mounted the tank on ome foam & used silicone to hold everything in place. I copied your idea on the luggage door for access to the electronic swtiches and charge jacks. I am using 3 batteries, 1 for the receiver, 1 for the onboard glow system, and one (6 volt) for the nav lights. I wanted the nav lights seperate from the receiver, plus using 6volts make the lights brighter. I can still switch the landing lights from the transmitter. All of my electronics will be hidden below the floor of the cockpit, which will be removeable.

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview, nice set-up you have. Did you have to add any weight up front ? How well does it fly? I would like to see more photos if you have them.

Riverview

Here are some more pictures of my project. AS you can see it is far from its maiden flight. As far as your question about balance, right now I can pick up the fuselage by the header at the front of the wing and it hangs pretty level. To early to tell about the balance tho. All of the electronics will be buried below the floor keeping most of the weight in the center of the plane. Note the sub-D 25pin connector on the brace between the wing bolt holes. There are 4 servos in the wing, each needing 3 wires and I am going to install nav lights and wingtip stobes so that adds another 8 wires to connect. Rather than try to plug in a bunch of individual connectors every time I mount the wing, I am using the Sub-D connector that will allow just plugging in the wing. The wires from the receiver and the LED light controller will run up behinf the interior side panels.
I am also going to use Robart Fowler flap hinges for the flaps instead of the hinge point that the instuctions show. When using the folwer flap hinges the control rod needs to be in the center of the two hinges to keep ti from binding. So I am reloacting the two flap servos from the original position to more in the center of the flap. This will keep the hinge point from sticking out the bottom of the wing. I did not like the looks of that.

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

I have a couple a questions I hope someone will try and answer. I have the lazer toyz leds lights in this cessna and was wondering about what battery to use. Think I've read somewhere that you could use the small little 9volts with them. Also need to know which battery to use with the Sullivan's on board glo ignitor.

Riverview

Hi HM, The glow battery you need is a number CP3600cr. If you do a google search, you will find many sources. It is a 1 1/2 volt battery. I used the MPI deluxe glow driver in my plane, it came with the battery and charger. I also added a charge port in the baggage compartment with the other electronics. (see photos above) I used a nav and landing light kit from RC-Lights. http://www.rc-lights.com/ I am making all of the nav lights wotk off of a switch (again in the baggage com) and the landing light works off of an electronic switch conntected to the receiver. LED lights have a wide visible radius, and normally lazer lights are only visible from straight on. The RC-Lights LED's will work off of either 4.8v or 6v. Running them on 6volts makes them MUCH brighter. I added a seperate 6 volt pack to run the lights as I did not want them on the receiver pack and I am running a 4.8volt battery on my radio equipment. Hope this helps.

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview, does your rudder and steering seem to work ok on the same servo ? I was wondering if the spectrum ds821 servo is ok to use are do I need a higher torque servo ? It doesn't seem to have enough movement to me.

Riverview

HM, yes the rudder & nose gear are both on the same servo. I built linkage just like the plans described. The servo sits on the left side & the elevator servo sits on the right side. There is very little load from the nose gear when on the ground & the rudder isn;t really doing anything and when it is in the air, all the load is on the rudder & nothing on the nose gear. I am using a Futaba 7 channel 2.4g radio adn futaba digital servos.
Take Care
Gary

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview, when wiring the lights do I just splice into the red and black on the lights with my battery leads and then to reciever ? I'm not sure how to wire the battery to power the lights.

Riverview

I would use a seperate battery for the ligths and not connect them to the receiver battery. I used a 6volt nicad for my led nav lights. All my nav lights are switched by one of the switches you can see in the luggage bay. They will get turned on before flight and remain on. The landing light leds in the cowl still run off of the 6v nav battery pack but they are switched by an electronic switch connected to one channel on the receiver. Myself, I don't like anything but the receiver drawing power from the receiver battery.

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview, I am using the same seperate battery as you are, and my lights works the same as yours do. I need to know how to wire in the seperate battery.

Riverview

RC-Lights.com has an electronic switch that will operate from the receiver, but switch the power from a seperate battery. Here is the link for the landing light kit with the switch
http://www.rc-lights.com/products/RCL5412E.html You can switch all the lights by turning the power on/off, or switch the landing lights & leave the nav lights on all the time like I did.
You need the controller with the nav light set also. Power from the battery is supplied to the controller, then out to all the led's

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview,how's work coming along on your cessna? Got all my batteries and ready to try hooking things up.

Riverview

Hi There, Heritageman, Was wondering if anyone looked at this thread anymore.. Glad you are still here. I have been getting quite a lot done on mine. The fuse is all glassed now and almost ready for primer. Was working on the rear window today. I am fabricating it so it will be removeable to allow accees to the inside. Got most of the instrument panel completed.
Are you installing nav and strobe lights in the wing tips? Was wondering how everyone hooks all the servo & light wires up when mounting the wing? I am going to try installing a 25 pin sub D connector so when I mount the wing it will plug in and make all the connections at one time. That will be my next project.

How are you doing on your plane. Will it be ready to fly this summer?
Gary

Riverview

Did you get the wiring setup for the landing lights? Are you using a 6 volt battery for the lights?

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview, I'm trying to figure the wiring out. My lights plugs into a empty channel on rx. So will I have to splice into the wires on the pigtail?Hope you can help me out.

Thanks Don

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

The lights will be powered by 1.2v

Riverview

Are you using the light kit from RC Lights? They have a controller that you can plug all of the lights into. The controller has two rows of ports, one switched by the radio and the others are just on when you power up the controller with a manual switch. The lights are fed with a seperate 6v ( or 4.8v ) battery so you do not need to use the reciever battery. You can still switch the circuit with the reciever running on a 4.8v battery.
I have the wiring configuation for their system
Gary

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Riverview, my lights came from Lazertoyz and they have one plug that goes to rx. My landing lights can be operated from tx.

Riverview

I just looked at their website. They look pretty nice. I like the lenses. Are the main lights switched manually and the landing light by the RX?

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

They can be operated from the tx.

Riverview

So where do the light get the 1.5 volts? The RX battery is 4.8v. Is it reduced? Not sure about your question about splicing into the receiver wires. mine has a pigtail that plugs directly into the receiver. Actually there is an electronic switch on mine that switches the 6volts to the light controller by the receiver.

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

I'm sorry the 1.2v is for the on board glow driver. The lights are 4.8 to 6v