yea that thread will help, notice he used mm when measuring, make it much easier to divide in half

Cured all my mechanical retract problems.... Electric retracts!

are electrics easy to set up ?

mmm no way to pricey..... for Electric retracts i think ill just try to work out my issues..

Really?

I'm using these on a 90 size pattern plane with great success.

At that price I purchased a set of spares just in case, but so far no problems.

http://www.nitroplanes.com/79p-003-912.html

+1 I've got a very similar set on a 5 lb twin EDF Mig 29. I've not had any problems with them, they're VERY easy to set up...

It's too bad that the advertizing is so cryptic. They don't seem to know what they are selling ( sigh ).

It took me a while to figure out that the 48g weight retracts were about the equivalent of a .40-.60 size plane's retract.

The weight and the diameter of the gear receiver hole, is the tipoff to their sizing.

I'd also advise anyone considering the NP or HK retracts to carefully measure their plane's retract areas and assure that the ones being purchased WILL fit.

Here is an example I found on You Tube
http://youtu.be/GuHB6bDYGNw

There is no adjustments on a retract servo (180 degrees), have you looked into using Du-Bro override system? it works excellent

no i havent what is Du-Bro override system

I tried to upload a pic but couldn't do it, just google "Du-Bro servo override"

If one has actually used the Dubro Overide or more commonly called servo saver successfully with mechanical retract Then they would have to prove it to me with a video before I would ever believe it. Man talking about a nightmare trying to use that on a mechanical retract setup.

Its bad enough that someone is trying to learn how do simple mechanicals for the first time without the complication of those. If one looks at that excellent video from HK I think think someone posted earlier, now visualize all those springs and wheel collors jammed up next to each other on top of that servo output wheel and remember each rod is going to be right next to each other at one point and it actually has to move sligjhtly over 180 degree, well there just ain,t room for all that stuff up on top of that output wheel.

RCWorld2000 My understanding is that you already have the airplane and mechanical retracts and have a new retract servo on the way. Ya know what, great this is as good a time as any to learn how to make mechanicals functional and you already have had lots of great imput by many here. The posted link to an excellent video on how the the servo looks and function I would pay close attention to it.

My best recommendation for you is to use what you already have and not start changing to other systems just learn how to use what you already have all those others can come later for you I am sure. Heck its even highly likely you will even acquire more airplanes down the line with with mechanicals.

Opjose or AMA 74894 I have a question for either of you concerning the HK electrics. OK I actually have a set one set of Chinese electrics, They are a set of tri gear type that came with a largish foamy 262 that I did some horse trading for (do a lot of that). It was something the original purchaser was a bit over there head with. Anyway the retracts work OK and and the airplane is a bit of a kick to fly. Maybe ten different outings now and three flights each time since that's how many of those humungous lipos I have and the gear which seems a bit lite for that rather heavy foamy seem to work fine.

To my question now: almost all those electric retracts come without the gear wires. Now ordinarily that would not be a problem as I bend up my own wire gears all the time even on some of my racers bend up new ones without those kinda pointless coils. So are they strickly just some obscure metric size wire and how would one know what or even if the proper wire was avalible some where or is there a alternate in good old SAE? Problem is I don,t speak metric and its gonna stay that way. So what are you fellows using for avalible wire? I would go ahead and buy a number of those gears to experiment with if I thought I could obtain the wire and wire that had received a reasonable hardening level as least to the level of K&S piano wire?


John:cool:

John if you want to change to a standard size wire(one thats measured in inches ) all you have to do is pull the trunion out of the gear and drill out the hole slightly to fit the wire of your choice the Hobby King gear is a knock off of the LADO units so when splitting the cases just be careful not to disturb the other components and pull the trunion out with the electric gear those little geared motors can get clogged with debris so its best to drill them out of the cases if possible.

just make sure the set screw is out of the way and your good to go,I have also seen guys use a brass sleeve around a thinner wire to fit the hole.

I haven't looked at the HK gear first hand only pictures so I am not sure if the trunion is plastic or metal but it shouldn't take much to drill out the hole to fit your wire of choice,I am starting to move towards electric gear I love the plug and play aspect over mech. or pneumatic air gear.

I have LADO retracts in several planes and just ordered a conversion motors for some century Jet gear I have

Stick with the retract servo. You will be much happier in the long run once you get the linkage worked out correctly. The hk and the eflite electric retracts are crap and will let you down. Crappy aluminum and marginal electric motors. Make sure you get a newer retract servo that can handle 6v. I have used servo savers on a couple of installs, but they aren't necessary.

thanks john and evryone else. my new servos came in today yes servos i ordered 2 kjust incase. hoping to work on it this week. And i do really like that video john is talking about it has given me a good understanding. and one issue i am going to change with the old set up the original owner had was he used the wrong type of servo horn i think. so i cam going to go to the disc type.. ill post some good news i hope and maybe some pics when i get them up and going..

Hey John...
I actually have not run into the 'what size is the wire' issue, all the servoless retracts I've used either came with struts installed already, or in one case I just got fortunate that I had the correct size wire int he shop already.
(sorry I didn't measure :) ) but I would assume they were of some oddball metric size...
I do completely agree though to RCWorld2000, stick with the mechanical retracts you've got.
they might be a bit more difficult to set up, but they are pretty monkey proof once done. (just try to make nothing but smooth landings from here forward :) )

Yup, the HK's are knock offs of the Lado.

They work well for the price, but as you've discovered they DO use metric wire sizes.

Normally I use metric gear wire that either come with the retracts or I've obtained via other means, but every once in a while I do run into the SAE vs Metric issue.

I've used K&S piano wire w/o problems. There is a slight amount of extra spacing when going to a suitable SAE size, but once the screws are installed there is no play.

Also if the SAE size is slightly larger than the metric equivalent hole, a bit of sanding with sandpaper is all it takes to get a fit.

I've never had to cut K&S brass tubing to make an adapting hole spacer, but that is another option.

Thank you very much BigTim, AMA 74894 and opjose for the info about the piano wire for the HK electrics so based on that and what I experienced with my DF 262 I think will go ahead and order up a batch of them to experiment with on various projects. Heck that thing weights seven pounds and the gear is holding up even on the rough lake bottom:)

John


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1962781

I have one of those too. It looks great in the air.

Having the thrust line so low makes for some harrowing takeoffs and power ups.

I've pushed the throttle up for takeoff, only to have the plane flip over on it's back as soon as it became airborn.

At least now I know to bring the throttle up gradually as it lifts off. Once normally flying speeds are established the thrust line is far less of a problem.

Must be nice flying off the dry lake bed... Does anyone call a pattern direction?

---

One annoying "feature" with those gears is the lack of the lockdown berg screws. The gear do not come with it.

Fortunately I have on hand a large set of metric wheel collars that have the right size screws I can cannibalize.

I have no idea of who makes its the gear was in it when I horse traded for it. The fellow was in way over his head with this airplane. Any way three of us have been working on our turbine wavers at this lake and I just brought the foamy along for fun. The 262 flies fine, nice rolling airplane but does not loop well.

The lake is a remote one that we are using for the waver Quals and so far one of our fellows has acheved the waiver and now can fly at our home field.

John:rolleyes:


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1964995