Neo02
Posts: 270
Joined: 8/20/2003
From: Lugano, SWITZERLAND
Status: online
|
Hi Chris,
I fly an electrified Eclipse with the Plettenberg 25-13 setup. Mine weighs in 3.215 kilograms withouth the battery pack, i manage to keept it under the weight limit even with my "monster" 10S3P Kokam 6000 mAh (1'460 g). I can dig out all dry weights if you want (i posted them here somewhere, maybe a search would bring it up). Scrap the landing gear and buy yourself a carbon one, that saves a lot of weight. The rest is ok, you might want to make yourself honeycomb formers, servo trays and firewall to further reduce weight although it is not strictly necessary. I see no problem at all with the current 5 Kg limit.
I fly what you call an "intermediate" level, and the plane has plenty power for all the manoevers. There are no upline snaps or other power hungry manoevers in our sequences, but I feel that -with lighter packs- my Pletti would have no problems with. It has not, and will not, have the power of the Hacker setup, that just isn't physically possible. But it is very easy to setuip, requires no gear (no maintenance, no possible weak link) and runs smoothly out of the box. I run the "stock" 18x12 APC-E prop given to me by Manfred Greve of Germany. Last friday I received my 19x12 APC-WE (wide) recommended by canadian F3A team member Chad Northeast here on the forum (see the Plettenberg temperatures thread) so I can comment on this after I try it out next weekend.
Plettenberg has entered the market with the 30-10, which I want to try next: from what is posted this engine goes through all sequences effortlessly.
Cost is a major factor with electric - initial costs are VERY high and nowhere near a glow setup. I repeat: nowhere. Nevertheless, those who changed are happy with it and -at least for me- there is no going back to glow, even if I might save some $$$. Plettenberg is not cheaper than a Hacker setup, from what I can see. The cheapest is the AXI setup, I believe it's te 5330/18 although no-one really uses it. The AXI are no comparison to the Pletts, more amps drawn and less efficient, but very cheap and more than enough for the average flyer. I have a club buddy setting up an AXI-powered pattern plane, I will report on the efficiency ASAP.
ESC is another problem, the Plett won't run smoothly with the standard Hacker 77 or 90 but needs the Schulze 32.55K or bigger, made and optimized specifically for this engine but quite expensive, whereas the AXI and Hacker run fine on their own controllers. Haven't tried the CastleCreation Phoenix line, which is also quite cheap and should do the job.
Batteries are coming down in weight, size and prices; I was able to buy some Polyquest 3700XP 10S1P (15C/25C) to try, this pack weighs 922g, more than half a kilogram less than what I have been flying until now but with significantly more voltage under load. It also does cost about 1/3 less than what I paid for one of the 10S3P mentioned above. Now I need to set up a fastening system, as this pack goes almost to the firewall...
Chargers: there's a lot of chargers available now and it ultimately comes down to one's preferences. I went the Orbit route: 1 Orbit Microlader and 2x 5S Orbit Lipo-Checker (Balancer), but there's an infinity of possible configurations. Schulze, Astro, TP are all viable solutions. I bought only one charger and have no problem, but flew 10S packs. Since I'm going the 2x 5S pack route with the Polyquests, I will probably buy a second charger in the near future. Not that this is strictly necessary, though.
Feel free to ask further questions, I will try to post more data as soon as it is available.
Best regards,
-Fabrizio
_____________________________
Fabrizio Albonico
SUI 36291
|
Printable Version
All Forums >> Electric Aircraft Universe >> Electric Pattern Aircraft >> Eclipse- what are my options? 
Eclipse- what are my options? - 
