yetti831

I PM'd Opjose asking him how to break in an EDF motor. It is important that you follow these steps. Failing to do so will result in short flight times and premature motor failure.

He responded with the following:


Hook up the motor to the ESC and ready your TX.

Flip the TX ON and hook your charged battery to the ESC/RX.

Run your EDF slowly up to about 50% throttle. Hold it there for about 5 seconds or so.

Bring it back down to idle and wait 10 seconds or so..

Now alternate bringing the throttle up and down raising the EDF speed higher and higher each time, but keep the actual time at high throttle brief.

Let the motor cool, then run it up to 100% and hold it there for 5 seconds, no more.

If you have a meter, it is a good idea to check draw while doing this..

Disconnect everything and let the motor cool.

Use an offset screwdriver to remove the FAN screw, and remove the fan.

Note where the grub screw is holding the fan retainer onto the shaft.

Using a finger drill, drill a hole through the plastic EDF sleeve so you'll be able to insert a hex key driver to remove the grub screw.

Loosen the grub screw and remove the fan retainer.

You'll see that the brushless motor is held in place by two screws, remove ONE, apply a bit of blue locktight to it, and screw it back down firmly.
Now do the same to the other. This prevents you accidentally moving the motor from it's position while applying locktite.

Look carefully at the inner part of the EDF shroud. I'll bet you'll see one or two places where the fan blades have ground against the plastic shroud.
This needs to be corrected, as if nothing is done, the motor will overheat in flight and your flight times will be short... the motor will be "held back" against turning freely by the friction.

Normally as the motor speeds up the blades are pulled outward by centripetal force, causing contact with the shroud.

Put the fan on a blade balancer as if you were going to balance the fan. Place the balancer on a drill so you can spin it with the drill.

Spin the fan up and lightly touch some double folded fine grit sandpaper against the spinning edges of the blades. You want to remove a small amount of plastic evenly from all of the blades. Do this until you see that some plastic has been removed, not a lot is required.

Remove any flashing left over from the sanding, and balance the fan.

Add weight by putting a bit of scotch tape on the INSIDE of the light side of the fan hub.

Spin the blade on your drill, etc. if MUST turn smoothly w/o ANY vibration what-so-ever.

Re-install the fan retainer onto the shaft after applying lock-tite blue on the grub screw.

Locktite the fan screw as well but do not over tighten nor strip it.

Test the motor again. If you used a meter before try it again and you'll likely see a significant drop in draw at high throttle.

Put the plane together!

bobmaster

Hey I bought a RTF exceed f-35,,,,,do i really need to do this because they say it's ready to fly,,,,,,,,does this procedure is necessary...

simon

yetti831

It is not necessary, but is recommended. It will ensure that you get the most out of your motor. Good luck! I'm looking forward to getting my F-35 as well.

bobmaster

Hey,,,, you have the same airplane ,,,,,,the f-35....can you send me some threads on what is working and what I have to do to fix some issue that you may have happen to you....Ã*


thx

simon

yetti831

I don't have the F-35 yet. It just shipped today. But, I can give you some advice that was given to me:


Make sure you have ZERO slop... no movement what-so-ever unless produced by the servos.
- Center the TX and adjust the ailerons to be level.
- Center the TX and adjust the elevator to be perfectly in line with the center of the corresponding edge of the fuselage... e.g. level.
- Adjust the throws ( by moving the control horns & linkage points ) so that you get no MORE than 12mm of travel on the elevator at high rates on the TX.
- Move the ailron trim about 4-5 clicks to the right to offset the roll.

-Opjose

Good luck!

bobmaster

well I undertsand the most of what you are writing,,,,,I'm from quebec and i peak french,,,,,,,

what it mean....

zero slop,,,
TX (is it the transmitter)controler??

yetti831

Desole, Je ne parle pas Francais.

Yes, the TX is the controller, and the RX is the receiver.

Zero slop means that when your servos are on, you should not be able to move the elevator or ailerons at all without moving them with your controller. They should feel secure. You shouldn't be able to wiggle them back and forth. The only movement should be produced by your controller. If they are loose and you are flying, they will move around and possibly make the plane unmanageable, maybe resulting in a crash. I hope this was clear. Let me know if you have any other questions.

bobmaster

it's clear, I know what your talking about, when you say center the tx, you mean I have to trim to get the aileron well leveled.....right ???

bobmaster

Thanks to you for this forum because, I feel like I was forgotting someting before I do my first maiden flight......

what is a grub srew....lol

yetti831

Yes and no. You first want to center the trim on your TX before you attach your control horns to your elavator/ailerons. Then you want to align the elevator/ailerons with the corresponding edges of the fuselage so that they are level. This way your control surfaces are level with the edges of the fuselage and your trim is still dead center on your TX. This way, if you need to trim out the plane while in flight you have plenty of right/left, up/down trim left on your TX. But, yes, you want everything to be level.


Let me know if this was clear.

yetti831

I'm relatively new to RC, too, and this is my first electric plane, so even I don't know what a grub screw is, and I haven't gotten my F-35 yet. But, I'm sure once we're looking for that grub screw we'll probably know what it is when we see it.

bobmaster

Thanks at all man and I hope I will have the chance to re-speak to you about that airplane when I will got my f-35 in hand.

Thanks to a beginner from a beginner.

simon

yetti831

No problem. Feel free to PM me. I'm going to try to make a video of my F-35 maiden. Take it easy.

bobmaster

I'm so new to this forum that i don't know what it mean PM me......where is this fonction on this forum.........I will sleep soon it's like 1h30am in quebec city......

yetti831

"PM" is private messaging. Go to the top of the page and move your mouse over forums. You can find it third from the bottom in the drop down menu.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Interesting. I have never heard of having to break in a brushless motor. Why would you?? There is nothing rubbing, as in brushes. You break in a brushed motor, to seat the brushes. A brushless motor has no brushes and nothing is rubbing. The ball bearings sure don't need any break in. This seems like a waste of time to me.

yetti831

It's not so much that you're breaking in the motor, but that the fan rubs against the shrouding which puts undue strain on the motor. Perhaps I should re-title the post.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Oh, well that makes a lot of sense then! I stand corrected!

opjose

Guys I would NOT recommend this plane for a beginner!!!

It is really oriented to an intermediate to advanced flyer.

It is FAST and easy to loose control of. It is VERY sensitive.

In addition I would HIGHLY ( and again I stress HIGHLY! ) recommend that you add the two tail servos to give you elevator control.

I'm working on a build video that shows you how to do everything stated above.

For the tail servos you need two programmable servos, Spectrum has some nice $20.00/ea servos that are perfect for this, and their programmer is inexpensive.

As the plane comes there is a "Y" cable already installed for the two tail servos but there is no way to mix the TX for non-programmable servos.


Re: Grub screw

A "Grub" screw is the small black metal screw that you'll find holds the blade retainer to the motor shaft.

You use a HEX key to remove or install it.

A Grub screw looks like a little worm, hence the name "grub" screw, much like grub worm.

bobmaster

I'm a beginner in RC airplane but i alreally have flew one.........you said that the f-35 is tooo difficult for me !!!!! I will just do what you said about PRE-maiden flight and i tink alls will go right.....
Do you have any other trick .....

simon

opjose

Have you flown the F-35?

What have you flown before?

bobmaster

I had flow the f-4 phamtom fropm exceed, does it pretty welll, the f-35 is a kind od instable plane or stable stable, does it stall esilly

opjose

Great!

The F-35 is highly pitch sensitive because of the relatively large size of the tail ( elevator ) relative to the rest of the plane.

That is why it is important to restrict the movement of the elevator to about 10mm in each direction, and that you have the elevator very level when the transmitter is at stick center.

You must also have NO slop in the surfaces, and as the plane comes, a few of the holes are too large, which produces slop.

I also suggest putting some silicon adhesive on the included clevis screw holes to hold them securely if you use the provided hardware...



The F-35 is light so it does NOT stall easily... however the motor produces a LOT of torque so it will tend to roll in the air if you have the ailerons perfectly centered.

So to counteract this I recommend that you center the right stick ( radio ON ) and level the ailerons perfectly... then before you fly the plane move the aileron control trim about 4-5 clicks to the right to offset the roll.

However did I mention that I HIGHLY advise that the two additional servos be installed?

bobmaster

However did I mention that I HIGHLY advise that the two additional servos be installed?

What it willl change, istead of 4 channel there will be 6,
what two additionnal servos change on the plane configuration ?

Thanks for the great helping

simon

opjose

I'm referring to the F-35 EDF Jet.

It only comes with TWO servos not four.

There is one server for the left and right sides of the plane.

The left servo drives the left aileron and the left elevator at the same TIME, likewise for the right servo.

That is why it is a GOOD idea to add the two addition servos as I've mentioned above.