I am almost finished with my wattage live wire. I used Hitec HC 55 servos, a Kokam 2s 1500 battery, wattage 30 A esc, and JR r700 reciever with the case off. I modified the tail so it is not all-flying, and used better hinges. On a digital scale it weighs .926 pounds or 14.82 oz. Here is a pic:

My problem is that the battery is too big for the canopy parts. I know other people are using that battery, so what are you guys doing on the canopy?

Ok, I came up with something. I put velcro on the clear canopy so it covers the reciever and esc area. The battery just has to stay out in the breeze. I flew it yesterday, and was disappointed in the performance. My Aerobird had more power than this toad.

I used a Thunder Power 3 cell 2100 mAhr cell along with a Hacker B12 15L with a 4:1 gear box and a 11x5.5 prop on my Live wire. You had a good idea to make the rudder non-all flying I will do that also. With the stock rudder when I go to full throttle the rudder flaps back and forth. Anyway, I ended up hanging the battery underneath the wing near the CG using velcro and rubber bands. Sorry I don't have a picture handy. I also made a foam faring to protect the battery on my less than perfect landings. Anyway, this setup has plenty of power. All it took was adding a $300 power train to this little foam airplane! Lots of fun.

Cheers,

Steve

Thanks Steve, thats a sweet setup. Does it hover easily? What is your run time and auw?

I am going to try a 3 cell 1320 thunderpower next, and set the throttle endpoint at 80 % and hope the motor survives. I am under the design weight by 2-3 oz right now, does anyone know if I could fit a geared speed-400 motor?

Hi,

The AUW is 17.5 oz. Actually 18 since I added a buzzer circuit to alert me with the Li-Po cells get too low since my Hacker 18-3 controller does not have a programmable cut-out voltage appropriate to these batteries. As for the flight time, I'm not sure. This morning I had to land at 18 minutes to make it to work on time. The plane was still able to accellerate vertically so as far as I can tell it will fly forever. At half throttle it draws 10 amps and I don't usually go beyond that. If I average 7 amps out of a 2.1 amp-hour battery that works out to about 20 minutes though. Here is a picture of the battery installation. I ran some 1/16" bamboo skewers through the foam to give the rubber bands something to hook on to and there is velcro between the battery and the underside of the plane. It really is not slick looking but it flys great.

Steve

Thanks for the info Steve. Yep, its a bit ugly but its a heck of a nice system. What is that gear and wheels?

With the stock motor and 2s 1500, I only get about 8-10 minutes of really weak performance. My cells only take about 1000 mah after flying until cutoff, too. I dont know whats wrong, but its not much fun compared to well, anything. Im picking up a 3s today.

Have you considered using an MP Jet brushless setup with a gear box?
http://www.hobby-lobby.com/brushless_mpjet.htm
I've hear good things about them but have no experience.

As for my landing gear it is just 1/16" piano wire and foam wheels. Longer gear was needed to accommodate the longer prop. At first the gear was too floppy and the plane would hit its belly unless I landed perfectly (something I still don't do every time) so it is re-inforced with more wire and zip ties. You can tell I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to making my planes look great.

Steve

Well, I tried the thunderpower 3s 1320 yesterday, and even with the endpoint set at 70% the stock motor burned out in 2 minutes. I went to my LHS and got a E-flite eflm100, a speed 400 w/ 1.85:1 gears and 8x4 prop. It was the best thing they had, but I wonder if it would be better to find one with lower gears with a bigger prop.

Have you looked into a BB 400 like the Multiplex Permax 400 BB Motor located at http://www.hobbypeople.net/prdcls/motorac02.asp ? I don't know the specs on this moter but Watt Age also has a BB 400 Cobalt motor that claims peak efficiency at 18 amps so I bet it would work with 3 Li-Po cells. My understanding is that these motors use regular controllers and cost between $35 and $50.

Update: I put on the e-flite motor, and it works well. For the 3S li-poly, I set the throttle end point to draw 8 amps. Perofrmance is better than the stock motor at 9 amps. But 8 is still too much for the thunder power 1320 3S and the Kokam 1500 2S packs. They only discharge 1/2 capacity or less before the voltage drops. Does anyone make a speed 400 motor optimized for 11 volts? It would draw less amps for the same power (watts).

Maybe a regular 400 would work if you use a bigger gear ratio like 4.5:1 or 5:1. MP Jet makes some good gear boxes. This will let moter spin faster and sustain a higher voltage while drawing less current.

Steve

I've been thinking of getting a Live Wire since reading about it in the March '04 issue of Fly RC. They used a PJS 550R with the stock 9.6v, 800mAh NiMH battery. They say it flew good, but it only put out 75 watts per lb. I think I'd like a little more performance for a 1 pound plane, so I'll look at different motors. I fly an MP Jet 25-35/20 in my GWS Zero and it works great with a 3 cell poly. Performance really starts to fall off once the plane starts getting above 16 ozs though.

Update

I took off the speed 400 motor because it was geared too tall and drew too much power. Now I have a gws 350c with the 5.33:1 gearbox and 1047 prop. With a 2s 2100 TP li-poly, it weighs rignt at 16.0 oz, flys for more than 20 minutes, and has enough power for most stunts except hovering. With a 3s 1320 TP li-poly, it hovers easily, and will accelerate vertically. I only do that for 2-3 seconds at a time though, to save the motor. I'll be happy for a few more weeks, then I plan to get a brushless.

Here is a link to the specs on the 350c:

http://www.gws.com.tw/english/produc...system/024.htm

my 3dx is about 12 oz and with the 350c/d 6.6:1, 2000ma 2s1p it will hover. through several flights on the same charge. tried the 5.33 and it was a disapointment. 6.6to1 is the best with a 12X6 or 8 gws. How sweet it is.

Eddy Johnson
Fury Expert,OS 91
Raptor 60,YS 80
Raptor 50, OS 50(nite bird)
Hornet CP
Hummingbird
3dx
ultimate- 40"
yak54-40"

I originally set up my Livewire w/the stock motor & 1500ma 2S li-po. I mounted the battery virtically by cutting the foam right in front of the wing.
After stripping the gears in the original setup (about the 4th flight), I installed a canned 400 with a 3:1 gearbox. Performance was worse!. I finally broke down and went brushle$$. A PJS-800.
I also added an additional li-po cell. I mounted this one vertically, centered over the wing (under the canopy), again with a small slot to insert the cell slightly into the foam. My balance is still within tollerances.
Performance is out of this world! Verticle climp will end only due to dead battery.
The bru$shle$$ option was hard to swallow financially, but it sure resolved the performace issues, with no more weight gain than the canned 400.
I'm am changing my rudder right now, due to the full throttle flutter (plane looks like a fast moving crankbait. Flew the last couple of flight with the rudder pinned and linkage disconnected.

Has anyone tried a razor rz-300? Is it really a direct bolt in to the gws gearbox?

http://www.aeromicro.com/Catalog/raz...00_2691691.htm