snooken

Hello all,

I made my maiden today "Finally" and everything went great. Had 2 good flights running the apc 6x4e prop with very little to none WOT. I have a couple of more flights with this prop to be nice to my batterys, then i will move up to the apc 6x5.5e then the apc pylon 6.5x5.5. I ordered my props from apc directly and received them tuesday. The 6.5x5.5 will have to be opened to fit on prop adapter, so i have to get a prop reamer tomorrow to do that. How important is it to use the round plastic inserts that come with the props. I only ask because none of them seem to fit over the prop adapter. Thanks once again for all the help. Time to charge my batterys for tomorrow.

Speeddriven

Recently I spoke with product support from the company we all know and love.They would not deny that there are problems with the Ar6100. After stating my case as to why I wanted to return my Ar6100 for a Ar6200,They finally sent me the Ar6200 free of charge.
My point is why even send your bird up with that problem looming.
Go with the AR6200 or 7000.
Sorry about your maiden interference problem Smoothound.It has happened to many of us.Hopefully the maufacturer will once and for all fix the problem if enough consumers complain.

iamman711

Hi Speekddriven, can you please share your claim number? This way, we can all reference your case/claim # and get an upgrade. You can PM me since I asked, or you can share it will everyone. Of course, only asking if you can help, but not expecting it of course. Have a great weekend all!

P.S. Does the AR6100e have problems too?

Stryker_Viking

In bed shivering in fever, so no flying for me this week, though I thought I should

REPOST FROM EARLIER PAGE...

If you owe any AR6100 or the AR6200 (old version without separate satellite receiver) send them in to Horizon for free update of the firmware. The upgrade adds what they are calling QuickConnect,

After update, the re-boot time for the receiver (in case of a voltage drop below 4.0-3.8V) will be approximately 0.4 seconds only, that is up to approximately 6.5 seconds faster...
I have learned that the reboot time now is so fast so it's hardly noticeable at all that it actually takes place...

One more thing..
If you are using a Spektrum receiver, its always wise to power your receiver off an external Switching BEC or use a speed control with a Switching BEC built into it.

The BEC’s that come with most but not all of the sub $50 Speed controls are linear.
You can confirm this by checking your ESC's data; If you see that the higher the cell count of your battery, the less servos you can run then you have a linear BEC.

Whats the difference??
Simply put:
A linear is basically a choke to limit the voltage, cheaper circuit.
Switching “clamps� the voltage at the selected output and it will only drop below that voltage if the input voltage drops below it.

Consequently - something is not right in our setups when the voltage is dropping that low, so it might be a good idea to test the BEC, this is how you do that:

Plug a volt meter in an open channel port in the receiver, I used an old servo lead that I had saved) and with the system on, load the control surfaces (apply pressure with your hand) while monitoring the voltage at the receiver. The voltage should remain above 4.5 volts even when all servos are heavily loaded. It’s important the above tests be done for an extended period of 5 minutes

Thought you all wanted to know...

Stryker_Viking

Flightops_69

I'm submitting a personal story of how certain hobbies should not be mixed together. I was flying out the backyard playground of Air Force housing (bad idea - but I wanted to fly) and decided to pull a Charlie Brown and land into the local kite eating tree. So I decided to mix paintball and R/C flying together and attempt to shoot plane out of tree. Didnt work. So I then found that if you mix Kayaking and Spear gun fishing together, you can make a really long pole. (2 kayak paddles and a spear attached by duct tape and climb up a ladder) Plane is now safe out of tree. Here are the pics for all your enjoyment. 1st pic: Aproach path (if you look really hard you can see a 15ft fence across grassy area) 2nd pic: Take off path 3rd pic: Umbrella tree (kite/plane eating tree) 4/5th pic: Aftermath (yes, plane has new hole from paintball gun, and covered in pink paint. <sigh>

Speeddriven

Thanks Stryker Viking.Your last post was very helpful.Do you know what is needed to run with the CC80?external bec?

Iammam,
I'll try to locate that reference #

Speeddriven

Iamman,Did not find any reference number,no receipt was sent with the AR6200.I would like for everyone that has a AR6100 to get a free upgrade,so that is why I shared that info.I suggest that you or anyone reference this forum when speaking to product support.

Gryphon

AR6100,

1) How many of you are flying with AR6100 in your Strykers?

2) How many of you have AR6100 in your current projects that have not been maidened yet?

3) How many of you have had crashes with AR6100?


********** Those of you who read these pages, but have never posted should consider to comment on above..........PLEASE.


I totally fear that many of you will not respond to this post...no one has to post.

It is o.k. to have 30 posts on this.

Forget what others say......what do you think? Speak your mind folks this is a pretty important subject.

We have heard from a couple/few people. What are your thoughts or feelings?


Thank you


Gryphon

Brazman

I had a successful maiden on "ultra" stryker II yesterday. I was a little windy to get a really good feel though the wind helped with the launch. I maidened on the same setup as I flew last being an estimated 2000 watts using a 6x5.5e this time instead of a cut down 6.5x5.5 pylon. I launched it at 2/3 throttle this time as the new bird is a little heavier (54oz). I had forgotten just how much thrust it has and it was really quite scary holding it with one hand. The launch was uneventful and trim was very close. After initial trim (2 clicks right and 1 click up) I put in a 2/3 throttle pass which felt very fast followed by a full throttle pass about 3 meters above the deck almost hands off (had the wind to contend with). 3 meters may not seem low but at 140mph+ in windy conditions on a maiden it feels like you are much lower. This plane is at least as fast as the last one and seems a little straighter as the last one had a very slight roll to the right at top speed which you could trim out though then it would roll left slightly at low speed. I am hoping to get some video tommorrow so hang tight.

Flightops_69

Very cool Brazman! I finished putting on 1 balsa elevon yesterday, and will finish the other one today.

Gryph, I use a JB Sport Jr - No glitches.

chippedprop

I fly with jr sport 6 ch dual conversion or hitec electron 6 dual conversion.
I have had glithes but is usually due to me pointing the ant. rite at the plane.
Uh!! Don't do this OK
CP

chippedprop

DON'T FORGET I'LL BE ONLINE LIVE TONIGHT AT 8;30 PM E.D.S.T.

YAHOO INSTANT MESSENGER - HAVE TO SIGN UPFLIGHTOPS WAS OUR TEST SUBJECT - HE PASSED

CHIPPEDPROP- SCREEN NAME

"SEE" YOU TONIGHT!!!!

Speeddriven

After going through 100 pages from parts 6 and 7, I have not seen one simple thing, how are you guys securing your canopy? How can you secure the canopy and still be able to remove it to charge and change out batteries? Trying to avoid using extreme tape. Does anyone have any suggestions?

From Part 6; page 76 - Ronrico418 made air ducts on each side for cooling. Will this cause more drag than necessary? Thinking of doing this myself and want to know your thoughts before I drill.

Thanks,
Speeddriven

Gryphon

Speeddriven,

You are referring to the following page:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_60...76/key_/tm.htm


I do that on all of my Strykers. The only one that didn't get it initially, ended up getting it later as MEGA_Zilla II.

I don't see it helping the cooling of the battery any. Well not much depending on the angle that you bring in the air.

I suggest you gradually open up the hole, first start from dead center. Before going to the full size opening, I suggest that you use hobby knife and make your opening carefully so you don’t break the edge of the side wall (outer tip). I stop with ½" opening.

Make sure to get the angle correctly as far as where the opening should come out inside of Fuse.

I never cutoff the side air vents, because by opening them up, I get additional cooling to the ESC and I also believe that will reduce some of the drag.
Personally I think it looks better with them left on and for me I like it that way.
I'm sure there is a very slight speed advantage by removing them, I assume that can not be much more than couple of MPH, so I go with what I believe looks better "To me" and the advantage of cooler running ESC.

I did do a mod for extra battery cooling once, but due to interference on my 72 MHz receiver that became not only a maiden crash, but it became a maiden crash and burn.

Original MEGA_Zilla:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_46...2Dzilla/tm.htm

Look below the front hatch for serious air inlets. I will be doing that cooling mod again before long. At this point due to a 3 minute part throttle flight on that ill faited maiden, I can not report back a whole lot.

___________________________

If you have the battery strapped down well and have no need to rely on a too serious a holding power for the hatches, you can use a couple of methods.

1) Magnet method. Instead of magnet on both surfaces, you can use section of hack saw blade for one of the surfaces and magnet will stick to it.

2) Use those plastic anchors that people put in dry wall (for pictures) into the foam (I guess with some glue) Then just screw down the hatches.

I have not used either method and you have read/ask about them.

So ask others for better description on those.

You can epoxy the front two hatches together along with a short section on the rear hatch to make one long hatch. This way, you can get to speed control wire to plug in the batery while keeping the speed control and receiver covered with most of rear hatch in place.

Cutting off the front part of the rear hatch to add to forward hatches has made my life much easier due to our 148mm and 160 mm batteries. I now install my battery with the wire coming out on the back side and I now shorten the battery wire since it does not need to come out of the front side and then run all the way back to meet ESC Connector.

_______________

Your next stryker can incorporate any changes that you learn from this build and use.

Share what you think can be done better for all of us to learn from.


Good luck on your maiden.

______________________________________________

On a side note: I saw more than one guy from Florida, spend a lot of time reading part 6 and 7, when I worked with them everything was covered in much less time for me......thanks guys.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone will be helped regardless of how much they read. The more you read the more you will learn.
_______________________________________________

Friends:

***Historically, people ask questions, build, and dissapear some time after without showing pics, video, sharing much of their expereinces and giving suggestions of what can be done better.
None of it is expected at all, but any sharing will benefit us all.
How about another report after you have flow the birds for a month and are totally used to extra weight, power, new capabilities?

Somegeek showed me how to build elevons and Stryker_Viking showed me how to do an easy 1/32" plywood mod to make it stronger. I added 3M tape to retain T.E. better.

Buggygovroom showed me about C.F. layout, others tought me how to lay the C.f. by easier methods. I learned to add a little more. C.F. for more longevity.

Mr mugen experimented and then shared his method for having an inch of epoxy on the fuse close to hatches so the 3M tape can be attached to it for hatch retension without damaging the foam over time.

Other people showed various methods of hatch retension.

Positive feedback in any area can be beneficial, although that particular mod might not be for everyone but it may be beneficial for someone.

On a setup that I like running 7X7, someone else prefered 6.5X6.5 for longer flight duration...great for them, I wanted the insane climbing instead. but the feed back was still good for some one.


Have fun everyone,


Gryphon

Speeddriven

Thank you Gryphon.

Us newbies need you guys more than you can imagine.
Here in my part of Florida,there are many at my
local flying field that have no idea that reaching speeds of 140+ is possible.
with a Stryker.
Guess you proved them wrong Brazman.
Get a radar on that thing man!

Vertical3-D

My Feedback: (20)

put my edf stryker on a diet, and I must say between the 3 inches I took off of each wing tip, and the nose reshaping it gained 15-20mph, oh and I also thinned the airfoil by about 1/4 inch near the center where its so thick, sharpened the leading edges, the tape was jsut an easy way to make the leading edges slippery...has resessed wheels cause i set down on asphalt sometimes, seems the be doing 60-70mph in level flight, handles great, slow flight for landings is still ok, slows to glider pace to land...whatta you think?...

Brazman

I love it Vertical. I can see a nose wheel on it..does it have rear wheels too? I'm guessing thats what I can see through the wings. I'd love to see a video of it taking off and landing. If i were you i'd look at taking the fake intakes right off like chippedprop did. Unless you like the look of them.

Gryphon

Hi all,

A few days ago Flightops_69, chippedprop and I got on yahoo Instant messenger and started chatting in real time. What was so cool, was that we clicked on the conference option and all 3 were in same window. Having a good old time.

About 7 hours ago, Chippedprop, Brazman and I were chatting live but it was not in conference mode due to his version of Yahoo IM.
Anyway I had a great time...as usual.

__________________________

Brazman,

I've already told you how happy I was about your maiden.....over the coming months, please plaster some data on these pages.

__________________________

Vertical3-D,

So far; you get one of the top honors for originality on this thread. Thank you for the great pics. Just so you know each post can hold 12 pictures .
This thread is your home and I/we look forward to seeing more details if you ever get around to it.
Usually when the wings are clipped, the battery needs to be pushed forward a little because the original C.G. spot is no longer ideal. If you have not played with it give it a try, and then optimize the motor angle some. Currently if using stock C.G. points, that would be like having a tail heavy plane due to loss of lift in rear of Stryker.

I have a question: I was not sure if you thinned the middle of fuse or thinned the center of each wing when you were refering to that 1/4" removal. I think you meant center of each wing. Your write up seemed fairly clear but I just wanted to double check. Wow that is awesome, besides King_Paul I have not met anyone brave enough to take that much off.....LOL...no wonder you picked up so much speed. In your case, I don't think you used a meat carving knife like he did. [X(]

Keep up the GREAT work....wow, I'm still smiling.....I love original work.

__________________________________________________ _________

Everyone who is a little lazy at times and puts things off raise your hands.......I'm waititng.....duhhh...looks like I'm the only one.[:'(]

o.k. we all crash at times, and we all have some parts that were defective, or worn out. We just put those parts aside knowing we will deal with them someday....RIGHT?

That's more like it, I knew I would start to see show of hands.

Find your distributors, ask your questions, fill out the RMA forms, write up the letters and ship the parts out....then wait...for weeks.

The sooner you ship the parts out, the sooner you get your parts back.

Yeah, I know it is a pain in the A-s. Look at it this way; AGAIN: The sooner you get those parts out, the sooner you get them back.

****Many of you just don't know that those parts are worth some thing towards getting a new replacement unit. Many companies have some sort of program to help you. Why do they have those programs; they want to keep you happy and flying and for you to remember that next time you want to buy additional items.


Castle Creations has a std flat rate free for repair of the ESC.

MEGA MOTOR USA, also has a motor exchange program (flat rate using rebuilt motors) besides being able to send out your motor for repair.

Thunder Power RC in Vegas will take your inside out looking batteries and give you a replacement battery at 50% discount.

Horizon hobby has a repair dept, they also take great care of their customers in warranty issues.

FMA Direct will take your smashed up Co-pilot and sell you a new one at $45 instead of $69 {pretty hard to crash with Co-pilot, but with 1 wing folded anything is possible} [8D]

If I remember right, Medusa Research didn't charge me for testing my UBEC.


All the programs are different, first ask questions from them, ask what if this, what if that, find out the turn around times and then bite the bullet and get it done and over with...send the bad parts out.

Last time I waited 4 months to send my parts out.....I had no good reason.....Some of you can easily relate to that....no you don’t have to admit...just get it done.

Ask about shipping, possible upgrades (may end up with less credit), Ask if they will charge you for testing the part to see what it needs or how much will it cost, Ask what if you decide that you don't want to have the repair done.



O.K. stop putting it off, do some thing with the junk around your house...spend a little bit of time and a little bit of money now and you'll have new, or repaired items that you can trust ready to go witting on your shelf instead of the pile of junk.

Who will be first? I have 2 guys in mind....besides me.

I have a couple of F-27B transmitters that before reaching full elevator deflection, they cause the moving surface to change direction and go the other way.....sitting for nearly 2 years, I want to build twin motored stock F-27B to do radar runs on 3S and then cook the stock motors on 4S with stock receiver/ESC unit and motor.....here comes the evil sounding laugh: Muhahahahahahahah


Gryphon

Vertical3-D

My Feedback: (20)

thanks guys, there are wheels in the back, and yeah I took the quarter inch off the thick part of each wing, the fake intakes are now functional battery cooling scoops, and you can see the little scoop for the esc on the back cover, I dont know if I'll be able to get any video but I'll take some pics of the other small mods tonight...I was a little worried about doing all this but it ended up flying very well...I make one mod at a time, then test fly it, then do some more...oh and when I did the wings I took a small power sander to them, one of the vibrating ones, not a belt sander or anything like that...

Brazman

Thought I'd post a couple of pics of the new bird. Second pic is side view of the elevons complete with maiden dirt. That is it's neutral trim. You are probably thinking that the gap looks draggy.. I doubt it is that bad though I have plans to fit mylars top and bottom over the hinge gap though this will only be when I'm trying to get avery last mph out of it (if it lives that long..it should if I don't lose it again.) The photos don't do it justice..it is really flourescent pink .

Vertical3-D

My Feedback: (20)

looks good, should be fairly easy to see, once its all the way tweaked if you still want more trimming the nose did ALOT for my planes speed, the thinning and wing slipping helped but combined they probably didnt help half as much as reshaping the nose did and it didnt affect the balance to much either

Speeddriven

Very Nice Brazman.What did you do to the bottom as far as paint?

Brazman

The bottom is just striaght flourescent pink.

Flightops_69

Note to you all, I flew today for the first time with balsa wood elevons. Wind was very strong, so I cut throttle and plane landed in park. When I recovered plane, both elevons did not work. I took apart servos (hitec 81, nylon gears), and found that the wires at bottom of both pots were black and melted. I "think" the elevons got pushed against a branch on the ground and shorted both. Was wondering if any of you have shorted out servos, and how do you prevent it?

Brazman

Never had any issues like this. Were your control surfaces standard size?