Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Hello Hos:

A "Hot Charge" (in the words of one of my employees who is a R/C car racer) is to charge your battery at a higher Amp setting than is probably recommended. I am not a battery expert, but Seeing is believing. He recommended that I use his Car Battery Charger and use the High Amp (4Amp) charging setting. He said I would get much better performance and duration from the stock battery pack. The normal charger setting for most Ni Cad's I think is 2 Amps. I do not know how it works, but it does.

Hope this helps,

James

spicedcrab

hi u2, what you saying about a hot charge is true, since i raced cars too. but a hot charge will also dramatically decrease the capacity of the pack each time you do it. the racers i have raced usually get about ten charges or so on a pack before they are no longer good anymore for racing. you could still use them after that for sport but they will only hold about half to 3/4 what they would hold new.

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Well I didn't fly today because I a cycling my two battery packs to see what happends. I will let you know how my next flight does.

James

toddhosfeld

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks James keep me posted on this one.


Hos

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Hey Hos:

Too windy today in Kansas to fly. I just finished cycling my oldest pack for this plane. It has about 7 to 8 flights on it so far. I hot charged it as described above and we ran the plane on the ground to simulate run time. Alternating between full and 3/4 throttle, I had enough power to fly for approximately 8 min. and 50 secs. The motor continued to run for annother minute as the battery power fell off, and the ESC cut the power to the motor off at 9 Min. and 55 secs.

I'll tell you more as I analyze cell capacity on the other packs.

Regards,

James

toddhosfeld

My Feedback: (2)

James,

With the stock pack and the hot charge are you able to to mild aerobatics ie. loops, rolls type manuveurs. The time with the nicad is impressive. The one thing with nicads that is nice over nimh packs is they can take a beating and keep coming back much better. I have heard of people using the Sanyo 2400SCR Nicad packs and just running them hard and the charge and power of the pack keeps coming back with additional charges.

Hos

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Hello Hos:

With the stock packs I can take-off from a paved surface, fly average areobatics as you describe, (just not the whole time) and at this point I am getting over 8 min. flight times. Most of the aerobatics I am doing are in the first 4 min. of the flight because that is when the power is its highest. The second half of the flight still has good enough power to fly around with authority. You can do stall turns and if you dive to gain some speed you can do some hammerheads. The plane really is nice but it's not 3D. I have a Funtana ordered for that.

I think the other respondent will be right about battery capacity over the long run. I look at this from the stand point of a nitro or gas plane. After a while I'm going to have to buy annother can of gas...(more batteries). As for right now, with the times I'm getting and the replacement cost of the batteries being only $21, I'm ok with losing some flight time over time as I use these batteries capacity up. I guess it boils down to how you look at it and how long "hot charging" works for me.

I'll keep you posted on number of flights and how the batteries hold up. If you are game I would recommend giving it a try with one pack to see if you can duplicate what I'm seeing.


Regards,

James Andrews

twilly123

Hi

Thanks for the tip on hot charging the nicd pack. I haven't been using the stock nicd pack because of 4 to 5 minute flight times, Think I'll give the hot charge a try on the stock nicd pack since it came with the kit and won't be a great loss if I toast it. I have instead been using the gp3300 7 cell packs (charging at 3 amps) and getting about the same time you are getting on the nicd hot charge about 9 to 10 minutes. The gp3300 cost and weigh more but I think they have a longer life span making the extra cost justified. I built my sportster stock and ended up adding just a little over 1 oz weight to balance for the gp3300s. Would probably move the servo tray back next time to avoid adding weight. I will be using the stock motor, ESC and gear box till it gives out, Then I think I will try the Endoplasma motor setup as discussed on RC Groups, If the plane makes it that long, so far so good.

Tim

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Hello Hos and Tim:

After deep conditioning my third stock battery pack, I flew this morning in fairly gusty conditions. This pack is my newest one that came in my back-up Super Sportster and only has 2 flights on it. My flight time was 11 min. 41 secs., from take-off to landing. I do not know if the wind helped or hurt this, but it was a great flight anyway. After deep conditioning and discharging, this pack showed a capacity of just over 2200 Mah on my Accu Cycle plus. My second oldest pack showed 1850 Mah after it was conditioned once. I am continuing to condition it to see if I can get any more capacity back. I still get 8+ mins. flight time out of it at this point.

I think I should apologize to Guapoman for hijacking his thread, since this information is kind of along the same lines I hope it is contributing.

Regards,

James Andrews

bassmanh

My Feedback: (5)

carlos and all ,
well i have my SS EP all done and went to balnce it WOW it is nose heavy, even after i had built it with the servos to the back of the servo area. so i decided i would try and move the battery pack back as far as i could and then had the wing servo hitting the battery pack aaarrrrggghhh !!!! well i then used a balsa wedge block at the very back of the battery tray and was able to get the battery to go high enough to clear the servo.(still needed to add a little weight to balance it) now works like a charm and i even have enough room there to try an 8 cell pack of my SCR 2400s .

ran up the motor and was very pleased with the power the plane seems to have while using the SCR 2400 7 cell pack ( stock prop adapter working fine). thanks for all the posts on this great bird have fun flying it


bassman

toddhosfeld

My Feedback: (2)

let us know how the maiden goes bassmanh!


Hos

bassmanh

My Feedback: (5)

Hos,
it may be awhile before i get to fly the SS we here in wisconsin are still getting snow and the forecast shows snow showers almost everyday this week !!!!! cant wait until the cold and snow are gone looking forward to flying again. i have 2 other planes that im converting to electric that i cant wait to fly, my AT-6 TEXAN is going to be ready before long to, so cold and snow go away


has anyone tried to fly the SS EP on 8 cells yet ? just wondering what kind of performance it has with the 8 ?

by the way if anyone wants to know how i did the wedge to get the battery up away from the wing servo i just cut a small piece(as wide as the batt tray) of aileron material from a larger plane and glued it on the back side of the battery tray with the thickest part to the back to raise the battery pack, works very well. well good luck all .


bassman

P.S. DONT FORGET TO PUT LOCK TITE ON THE PINION SET SCREW !!!!!! I HAVE HEARD OF A FEW COMING LOOSE IN FLIGHT NO MORE THRUST.

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Just checking in Everyone:

Still getting over 8+ minutes a flight. I have probably 6 to 8 more flights on it. It has just been windy here in Kansas. My oldest battery pack was cycled last week and shows 2200 mAh capacity still when discharged on my Accurite plus charger. I am not seeing any diminishment so far in the batteries.

Regards,

James Andrews

toddhosfeld

My Feedback: (2)

That great James, I have not done the hot charge yet but will be as soon as the weather warms up here in Ohio as well. Your oldest pack is still getting 2200mah per charge? Could I get a good discharge/ cycle by just running the battery down with the motor and recharging with the 4amp charge? Or would you recommend discharging completely with the charger. Reason I ask is the charger I am using does not offer discharge of the battery pack. I wanted to cycle the battery a couple of times on the ground before flying the first time with a hot charge on the pack. Thanks


Tim

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Hello Tim:

The ESC will not allow you to run the battery all the way down because it is designed to shut the motor off while keeping enough voltage to operate the servos and receiver etc. You could leave the plane on just sitting there, but that would take quite a while. What I did was to go to an auto parts store and buy a couple of 12 volt brake light sockets and a few 1157 bulbs. I hooked them all up and wired it to the appropriate connector for the battery packs. They will drain your battery pretty quickly, 15-20 mins if not fully charged, and it all cost less than $20.00. You need to be careful and not just discharge them all the way. If I am not mistaken you can lose a NiCad cell if it becomes completely discharged. I remove mine when the bulbs are glowing about half as bright as they were when I started. Be careful, the bulbs get very hot so don't do it near anything combustible.

My oldest battery pack came from a Superstar EP plane I bought 1 1/2 years ago. The plane didn't make it long and that pack just sat around half charged until I got the Super Sportster. I just charged it up and started flying. It is my best battery.

Hope this helps.

James Andrews

batman1

Hello guys...this is batman from Italy! So glad that at least in US there is someone loving SS plane and writing about it. Guapoman, I read your posts in RCGroup and happy to know you moved here now.
Anyway, just wanted to inform you that my first SS has been destroyed ..my fault, servo connectors were not fully inside the receiver.....aaaahhhh stupid me!!
I have ordered the 2nd one from tower hobbies...after the order I discovered it is now available in Italy at 120 Eur (150USD) which was cheaper for me considering the 40USD that tower charges me to ship it here. Anyway, wanted to say that I had a couple of great flights with 2300mAh batteries Nimh but really bad ones with the standard Nicd battery, maybe it was faulty. I will keep you posted on my next experience and I think I will soon order the 600 geared motor from Tower that you have all tested. Take care! Ciao

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Hey Guys:

Just to let you guys know, I have put 8-10 more flights on my packs and I am still getting over 8 to 8 1/2 minute flights on each pack and that is with a normal take off on a paved surface. I was even able to perform a couple of outside loops. Unfortunately I had a close encounter with a powerline and then a tree, so the Sportster is grounded for repairs. I have ordered another one for back-up. I am thinking of fixing the first one with a brushless motor and some LiPo's. Have any of you tried "hot charging" yet?

Regards,

James Andrews

toddhosfeld

My Feedback: (2)

James,

The hot charging works like a charm! I am getting run times of 8 to to 9 mins. with power left over. Thanks for the tip on the charging, will hold off on the gp 3300 for now and save on weight and $$. Sorry to hear about your bird nesting in the trees.

Tim

Wizard61

My Feedback: (7)

Hello Tim:

Glad to hear it!!! Enjoy your plane, Mine was a great flyer. It has provided a great warm up for the larger nitro plane season that is getting ready to start here. I'll have my Sportster fixed in a week or two and will continue to cycle batteries and let you know.

Regards,

James Andrews

guapoman2000

Hello gang,

I get about 12 - 13 minutes of very powerful sport flying using the 7-Cells Gold Peak (GP-3300mAH, Ni-MH's) when my Super Sportster EP had the Stock power system.

It still gets about 11 - 12 minutes with the hotter Endoplasma 16-turn R/C Truck modified brushed motor.

Carlos

moodier

My Feedback: (1)

HI;Couple questions.Where are you finding those 3300 NIMHs can't find them in tower catalog?Going to order the SS think will get that S-600 GD power at the same time.THought would order extra batteryat same time what would you recomend?What about using a Li-po wouldn't that cut weight or don't they have enopugh output.As you can tell I am new at this but really like the plane.Thanks for info!!

toddhosfeld

My Feedback: (2)

James,

Not sure you are still checking out this post but if you are I am still have very good success with hot charging my stock battery pack. I am getting 8 plus mins. of flight time with each pack. Hope you are still enjoying your sportster!

Regards,

Tim

guapoman2000

Kyosho has opened their own outlet in California USA and because of this many of the regular distributors are not carrying Kyosho products anymore consequently you will not be able to find any Modified R/C Truck motors anymore from your regular Hobby suppliers until things get ironed out with who will deal with the new entity in USA.

I would try an alternative such as the Great Planes S-600GD brushed power system that Tower Sells since I tried this power system myself and the motor sports replaceable brushes and I think EPIC makes this motor and then, Great Planes markets it under their product line.

Hope everyone is happy with their models!
Carlos

bassmanh

My Feedback: (5)

hello everyone,

well was able to get to the field and FINALLY get the super sportster in the air. had my friend who taught me to fly take her up and trim her out for me. take off roll was less than 30 ft and it was in the air from our grass field, the plane was very touchy as i had a little to much throw in the ailerons but other than that flew great. inverted flight was good loops and rolls were OK. this plane does need a little more power so i will be trying my 8 cell pack of scr 2400`s next trip to the filed.

with the 8 cell pack and stock motor and GB im getting 29 AMPS and 220 WATTS at WOT so this sould give the extra power im looking for i hope if not i have a multiplex speed 680 i might try in it. well time to work on my new bipe have fun flying everyone.

mitch

Awall

My Feedback: (2)

Didn't read the posts on the set screw coming loose, and guess what? Yep! I lost the screw in flight and started to chew up the nylon pinion gear. I was able to land it dead stick, but I did flip it and snapped the rudder off. Just a minor repair.

Anyway, I should have remembered to check, tighten and lock tight everything before maiden.

Graupoman,

Thanks for the work on using the tower motor and gear box. I will be using this setup in the future.
I also agree about the some of the confusion going on in rcgroups.