Help with great planes cap 580??
 

Putting together the Great Planes Matt Chapman Cap 580. Its the 53" wingspan model. It recommends a Rimfire .80 and a great planes ESC for it. I want to sport fly and do 3D with it. Is this motor and ESC combo up to the task or should I look for something else. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Should be fine for what you want to do. I used a Rimfire 80 in a ten pound TF P-51 ARF, flew like a scalded dog, near unlimited vertical.

My personal experience with Rimfire motors has shown they are extremely powerful plus plenty of torque. Very reliable and trouble free.

Dick: Thanks for the reply. Will the recommended great planes ESC be sufficient as well. I only have experience with Castle products, that is why I ask. Thanks again for the reply. I'll be ordering the .80 soon. This plane should be fun!!

They probably recommend the SSL 60 which is what I used. It does not have a BEC so if you use it a separate airborne battery is required, If you have a Castle in that range it will work fine too.

I'm not a Castle fan as I used one of their 45A Esc with a Rimfire .32 in the slightly smaller CAP 580 Eagle on 4S. Motor would chatter at start up and pulse at half throttle. Discussed issue at Castle booth at AMA trade show. They said it was a motor timing issue and to discuss it with Great Planes at their booth. At home tried different timing per both suggestions, same issue. Telephoned Castle, rep said its the motor, can"t help you. Telephoned Great Planes, they offered to send one of their SS45A Esc to try. Worked perfect, they told me to keep it.

It's not the Castle product as they are used successfully in a wide range of products, it was the attitude that bothered me. I've been in R/C since 1966 so know a little about what I am doing. It was the brush off that ended my interest in them.

Being in electrics since brushed motor days I have learned success comes easier by using matched products from the same manufacturer. No issues since.

By the way the 32 size Eagle on 4S had unlimited performance including 3D. Your Eagle is only about 10-15% larger so with the 80 should be a monster!

Dick:

Awesome information there. Thank you again. I agree with you on keeping things matching. I'll be grabbing the recommended SS ESC too then. That's terrible with Castle's brush off. They are suppose to be helping us with problems, especially if they want us to use their products. I only mention Castle as that is all I ever used. I fly primarily helicopter and somehow I keep ending up with Castle controllers. So far knock on wood, I have had no issues. This will be my first "electric" plane so I wanted it outfitted correctly for what I was trying to do with it. Very excited about leaving the nitro cleaning rags and cleaner at home when I go flying.

Thanks again for the help

Dan

Electrics certainly do eliminate some of the field support. I used Castle Esc's the first couple of years for brushless. Liked the ease of programming.

They are becoming OEM for a number of manufacturers especially in 600-up helicopters. No question they make a good product. My Thunder Tiger helis all use Ace/TT Esc and TT Ripper motors (E325 through E550S) although TT is now using Castle in their high end FBL series RxR's.

I fly glow, gas & electric in planes and helis. Actually have too much stuff but wife knows where to find me!

Dick:

Sounds like you are a pretty well rounded pilot that fly's everything. I enjoy the tinkering of this hobby just as much as the flying. I suppose that's what drew me into helis 4 years ago. Started 30 years ago as a kid with planes and got away from it for a while. Well I'm back now and have a good home for my extra $$'s. I don't have a very large fleet accumulated yet, but its slowly growing. I'm not familiar with ACE/TT or even Ripper motors. I'm running Castle stuff, as you know and Align electric motor in my goblin and OS 91 speed nitro in my Rave. I long for Kontronic ESC's and Scorpion motors but they are out of my budget. I don't fly top end equipment but I sure do have fun with what I do have. I'm a little OCD ish about the maintenance and order of my RC stuff!


Dan

Thunder Tiger bought Ace Electronics several years back and use the name on their own electronics. Ripper Motors are Thunder Tiger branded versions. All work without issues in the helis I have E325 through E550S.

Gotcha. I should have made the connection with TT being thunder tiger. I have always heard their products were reliable. Would really like to try a Nitro TT 700 someday. right now I've got the bug for this 3Ding plane. I just love all this stuff.

Dan

Dick. Got another question for ya if you don't mind. I ended up getting the 60A ss ESC and the rimfire .80 for this plane. I'm a little confused about what battery to run. Is 25C the highest rating battery for planes? In the instructions it looks like they are looping battery's together. I would prefer one bigger lipo to get the job done if possible. Looks like it runs on 11.1 V so are they looping just to bring up the Mah? What about a 5300 Mah 30C 11.1 V battery. Would that be sufficient for 3D? Thanks again for the help. The ratings and capacities of all these motors and batteries gets confusing after a while.

This particular ARF was brought to market some time ago when higher capacity lipos were scarce or horribly expensive, hence the parallel connections to get more run time. A single pack will do the job nicely. Choose what ever capacity and rating that will fit without a great weight penalty. If you are planning 3D, lighter is better. If IMAC style aerobatics additional weight is preferred so the plane grooves and penetrates better.

Again. Great info Dick. I'm pretty partial to Pulse battery's so I'll look through their inventory and see what fits the bill. Thanks again. Almost maiden time. Pretty excited!!