speedy72vega

I would like to know if anyone you know has converted this plane to electric power? If so, what was the difficulty level? What parts were required? I have ordered one of these planes (I haven't recieved it yet), and I am planning a conversion to electric. In the photos, it appears to have the motor mount pre-fabricated from plywood as part of the fuselage?? Obviously, this would have to be removed. Any help would be appreciated, Thank you.

opjose

Why remove the plywood mount?

I'll bet you could easily stick a 36mm diameter inrunner with a clamshell cooling mount on the plywood mount.

In that size you could also opt for a gear drive to swing a larger prop with lower watts required.

And if you go with an Outrunner, there are adapters for that type of mount.

I would suggest not to start cutting into it, until you have gathered everything that you need and are pretty certain of which motor you'll be using.

You'll want to develop at least 850 watts, with an appropriate prop for the motor and battery configuration you select.

speedy72vega

I have a 50mm outrunner I will be putting on it. It should pull 1000-1100 watts, at 350kv, 22.2 volt LiPo batteries. The outrunner needs a flat mounting surface, that's why I mentioned cutting the ply mount off. Any thoughts on this setup?

opjose

Sounds like it will be very overpowered!

You could cut the arms down, and use what remains to re-inforce your motor mount box, then use any of the standard mounts for that size motor.

The "GP Brushless Motor Mount Large Motors" is one possibility.

speedy72vega

I ordered an adjustable mount, just in case. I figured at least that way, it would be easier to set the total length in relation to the cowl. The pics of the mount I ordered seem to show that it would mount directly to the firewall. I'm not sure if that will be the final setup though, once I recieve all of the parts, I should be able to tell. I figured more power is better than not enough!!!!! The motor specs show that it is best suited for a 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 lb plane, which is close to the advertised weight for the 330L.

dditch

I'm not an electric conversion specialist but isn't 1000W like a strong .60 nitro?

On my first (and only) glow to electric conversion, I got a prop mounting bolt that mounted to the outside of the outrunner and the shaft went towards the fuse. It was a stick plane and did not have a cowl but I did get some aluminum hollow spacers and long bolts to extend the motor mount out some.

speedy72vega

Those are called motor standoffs. I didn't want to use them just because of the power level of the motor. I want to mount the motor with a solid mounting surface, that's why I got the adjustable mount kit. It just seems to me that the standoffs would tend to want to twist in the opposite direction of motor rotation. I think it would put a lot of stress on a small mounting area (where the standoffs contact the mount surface).
This is the first time I will be converting a plane of this size to electric, I think it will do good.
I should be recieving the plane on Monday, that's the delivery date posted by the shipping co. Hopefully my shipment with the motor and mount should arrive close to the same time, so I can get started on it!!!!!!
I chose this plane because I like the way it looks, but mostly because the price is very reasonable, and if I screw it up doing the conversion, I haven't broken the bank!!!

opjose

dditch: Due to inefficiencies, voltage sag, etc. you rarely get the actual power levels you are calculating to get.

The extra overhead ends up giving you the performance.

A .60 nitro engine would not be too much for this plane as well. He'll end up with gobs of excess power, but as long as the weight/loading is reasonable, this should not be problematic.

Speedy72vega's idea of making sure the mount is strong is a good one.

Electrics attain velocities much more quickly than glow engines. This means there is quite a bit of torque transfered to the fuse via the mount.

There have been some people here who have enabled ESC "braking" on some of the ARF Nitroplanes, gliders and promptly ripped the nose of the glider out. They in turn blamed it on the plane, without regard to the huge amount of torque electrics will return with big props.

speedy72vega

OpJose, I usually shoot for 15-20% more power than the mfr recommendations, especially since i'm up in Littleton, Co. I'm at about 5,400 ft altitude, and the air is thin. The planes usually need extra power and airspeed due to the thinner air. I figure that if the plane ends up having extra power, great! All I have to do is use less throttle to fly. But if the power is too low, I will have to rebuild the entire power sys.
I have a Stevens Aeromodel Edge 540, with a 50" w/s. Flying wt is around 30-32 oz, very light wing loading. SA recommended a 350 watt outrunner with a 10 or 11" prop. I ended up using a 388 watt 1450kv outrunner. I fly with a 10x7 prop, and it flies very fast, even into a strong headwind. Static power numbers are: 35 Amps at full throttle, about 382 watts, right in the power zone. I set it up like this so there is less chance of overload, I run a single 3s1p lipo, 2550 ma, I can fly for 6 or so minutes, and the battery only uses about 1250-1500 ma.
I plan on using 2 2650 ma lipos in series for the Extra 330. I figure that should give me decent power and decent flight times. What do you think?

opjose

Sounds good to me.

You'll be running 6S which sounds about right.

I'll bet that you could hook up four packs in a 6S2P configuration to give you MORE than double the flight times.

This should not overload the plane with weight.