GR7Racer

I also would reiterate my previous comments about routing wires in the area just in front of the cockpit floor. The servos and servo mount for the inner gear doors occupy most of this area and you'll need to plan on where the servo and battery wires pass thru this area so you don't have any clearance issues.

KMc

fhollahan

On all my gas planes (3D that is) I have been using a Fuel Dot mount high on the side of the fuse with a "T" to the carb. I have smaller warbirds but this is the first giant scale gas. Easy to fill and no gravity back flow even though I generally pinch it. Having the dot on the underside is new to me. I am thinking of just putting on the side/high again and it will blend in well enough as silver.

I'll bolt up the center section and work the gap issues carefully. Has anyone needed to reinforce the 2 dowels on the front edge of the wing or where they meet the Fuse? This type of structural integration makes me a bit nervous. This wing is going to be under a good load I would think.

Frank

Acs_guitars

My Feedback: (3)

No concern there, this is typical of most giant scale warbirds.

marksp

My Feedback: (9)

That's precisely my setup on a couple of other air frames as well as my plan for this one. Powersafe with (2) LiFe 2100 mAh packs (no separate ignition battery) and TechAero plugged into receiver with assigned transmitter switch for ignition on/off.

speedbrake

fhollahan: Is that a 1/4 scale pilot? Looks bigger than a 1/5 scale. Whatever the size, it looks great!

fhollahan

speedbrake: The Pilot is the one called out in the manual "WWII Pilot 15-inch size from www.warbirdpilots.com". They have a 12 inch version too. From a 1/5 scale perspective the 15-inch is the best one in my opinion. If you care about true scale, I believe the 12 inch would be 5 feet tall and the 15 inch a little over 6 feet tall. I think the 12 inch would look to small in the cockpit. The figure detail is really nice. Even has a chute on his back. Hopefully he does not need to eject

On the receiver/servos and ignition power discussion above, I already purchased (2) ED-Nano LiFe 6.6V 2500mAH Heavy-Duty batteries redundant to the receiver on separate switches, and (1) standard ED-Nano 2500 LiFe for the ignition. I personally like excess power capacity if I can afford the cost and weight. I did not know or consider running the ignition off of a "TechAero plugged into receiver with assigned transmitter switch for ignition on/off" described above. It sounds like it has worked well too. In my 3D gas planes I use 2 to 3 Li-ion batteries with the ignition always isolated to it's own battery. I have regulators on the 7.4v Li-ions. This setup has worked great for me with no problems ever. I check voltage in between every flight on the big size/$$ planes. This is my first use of LiFe after some guys at the field have had good experience with them. The weight is higher though compared to the Li-ion at the same mAh capacity. Looks like 3.5 oz for the Li-on and 6.5 oz for LiFe at 2500mAh. The weight adds up so going with 1 less battery would help using the TechAero approach if you are comfortable with less redundancy.

marksp

My Feedback: (9)

Pilot looks awesome!

BTW, are you running ElectroDynamics LED's as well?

cheers

fhollahan

As a follow-up to my battery discussion for the Receiver/Servos. I am not using HV Servos across the board. I have a mix. If you go with all HV servos completely, you could use Li-ion 7.4v without regulators.

fhollahan

marksp: I did not go with the LED's. I felt it was one more thing to figure out where to wire. I always remember to turn off the power switches after each flight since the servos are typically making enough noise to let me know they are powered. That said, it looks like a great idea and you could put them in the cockpit somewhere for added affect.

marksp

My Feedback: (9)

any one have a Hitec servo build list? Plan on going with Hitec programmable servos so I can dial-in (program) without radio gear, but am uncertain which ones map to the Spektrum "Low-Profile" servos.

Cheers

fhollahan

I am going with a combination of the Spektrum Servos (for Throttle, Elevator and Retracts), and Savox everywhere else. I have only use Hitec in the past, trying something new. My overall goal was to select servos that exceed the torque rating (certainly not less) and close to the speed in the manual. The splines are the same across Spektrum/Savox. The Hitecs are different. The manual only calls for low profile servos on the ailerons I believe, but standard servos fit fine, at least they did for me. Not sure why they call for low profile. The elevator has to be a "mini" servo to fit. It would be nice to program at the servo level but I have not done that up to now. Using the subtrim thru the radio to get centering is a pain, but I am thinking I don't need a lot of throw on a non-3D plane and if I did I can increase the travel some thru the radio. BTW, Hitec has a link to their servo chart right on their website that is nice to compare.

Has anyone used a choke servo? My plan is to put one in assuming I have the room. Seems like it would be a pain to try and work it manually.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Savox uses Futaba splines

marksp

My Feedback: (9)

Great info, thanks for sharing. The aileron servo's (low profile) are in fact, the ones that I'm struggling with. Can you share exactly what servos you've installed so I can determine the measurements? I'll stick with Spektrum for the retract servos given the retracts are designed around this specific retract.

Cheers

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

If memory serves the ailerons use standard servos the elevators each get a low profile.

Its been a a plane or 10 since that review though.

Also, the high end Spektrum servos are made by Savox, they just have JR splines

fhollahan

BarracudaHockey, you are right I went and looked at some of the servos I have for spline size/fit. Spektrum is JR Spline, Savox is Futaba, Hitec has its own standard. I had some Dubro JR and Futaba arms lying around as well as Hitec and tried them to make sure
.

The Elevator is definitely a small "mini" servo, not a low profile. In low profile and mini the height is just lower by about 10mm. Small space inside each elevator requiring a mini which has a smaller length and width than "standard" size. I don't understand why they recommend the Low Profile for Aileron other than some weight savings. The height is not an issue using standard size. The one they recommend is an expensive ($85) one to. You can get a better standard servo at half the cost from what I saw.
For a "standard" size servo I think the dimensions are in the L=40mm, W=20mm, and H=38mm or somewhere in that range. A (mm) either way does not make much difference and if needed you can widen a tight fit but I doubt that would be necessary. One thing I did was go to the Spektrum website and look at the dimensions/specs of the servos from the manual to get my baseline for looking at Hitec, Savox, or other servos. I am using Savox 1256TG for Aileron's, Flaps, and Rudder. It is way overkill for sure but I got them on sale. I went with one type in this case instead of varying it for each, just easier for me even though a bit more expensive overall. Key was to make sure I chose something that had the highest torque for these surfaces which is the Rudder I believe at least 140oz-in/6.0v if you went with the A6150 Spektrum option in the H9 Manual.

marksp, I would think you could do a HS-5645MG or HS-5685MH on the Aileron both metal gear with good torque the later one being HV if you want to stay in the Hitecs (Digital Sport and Programmable). They are half the price of the low profile Spektrum one and good servos. Check the specs out. Hope this helps.

marksp

My Feedback: (9)

Very helpful, thanks. I currently have the HS-5645MG for ailerons in my spreadsheet. Work great on 2S LiFe. Cheers

speedbrake

Follow up on retract problem: Horizon asked us to return our retracts so they could look at them and determine the cause of the malfunction. After three days of tinkering, they decided there was a problem with how the retract system was programmed. They said supplemental instructions will be forthcoming to remedy the situation. Although we followed the provided instructions, we missed something that caused our problem. The new instructions will clarify programming requirements and protocols. Sorry I can't be more specific, but the information should be available within a few days.

fhollahan

This is very timely with respect to the e-flite retract problem. I am not sure what problem your ran into but here are a few things I just ran into this evening. I have connected the 2 main and rear retract to the Retract Controller and connected to Controller to the Receiver. First issue was that the right side retract seemed so tight to the wing in the retract position that it hit resistance enough resistance trying to move to the down position that the motor quit on the fail safe. It may not have an issue with the wing flipped over (I am working on the wing with the bottom up) but it should not have this problem. I don't see anyway to adjust the drive or position. So I put small washers "1/32" thickness under each front retract screw mount. That solved the problem.

I don't have the inner door servos in yet but I thought I would try the Retract Programmer with the Controller to make sure it is set for the P-51 per the manual. I don't know if the Controller comes default setting to the P-51 or not. Plug power into the Programmer, reading comes up and says connect to the Controller. I do this and it is suppose to verify connection to the Controller as "ok" but it does not. Instructions are not real deep either. I am guessing I probably have the same issue you do.

fhollahan

I need to go back and read this thread again or write down a few things guys have run into and fixed so I don't spin my wheels unnecessarily

I went back and saw this issue solved by KennyMac that I just hit and worked myself:

"Another thing that was giving me trouble with the electric gear was the rib inboard of the mechanism which has a cutout for the strut to fit into when the gear is retracted. This cutout wasn't deep enough on my model and needed to be made deeper. The strut would press against it and not allow the gear to unlock when I tried to extend them. You might also install the small white shims that come with the gear underneath the mounting plates of the gear to gain more clearance. These shims have some peel and stick adhesive on them so you can stick them to the gear and they will stay in place while your are bolting them in."

speedbrake

One of the things mentioned was every component must be connected enorder for the entire system to function correctly. At least that was my understanding. I also didn't have the tail wheel and gear doors connected. I'm not an expert with the retract system so will wait for the additional information from Horizon.

Another thing I've noticed is the rapid battery drain while operating the landing gear.. I could get five or six cycles before the battery was too weak to operate the gears. This could be part of the problem I experienced or maybe a normal occurrence. I'm using an A123 2500mah battery. It has me considering using a separate battery for the retracts.

speedbrake

Repeat

marksp

My Feedback: (9)

Wow!

On one hand that's more cycles than most air setups. On the other hand, yet another battery for the retract system Is getting complicated.

JeffH

My Feedback: (43)

If the gear is using the much power per cycle, you could hit a low voltage situation when retracting the gear while all of the other flight servos are doing their thing. You may want to check the amp draw to make sure the wiring and switches can handle a full load.

Acs_guitars

My Feedback: (3)

Using the spec lipo packs, I did not see the same. While doing set-up I cycled them countless times without killing a battery

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

They are so cool to watch, it couldn't be helped.