Doc Austin

The spinner has always been a pain on the Mini Pulse. Take a look at the new ElectriFly by Great Planes spinners. Not only is the backplate is thinner, but when you tighten it down the thing doesn't just spin around. It stays put.

The spinner is light and true. I've been using a Dubro, but this one is a lot better. I'm going to switch over to these completely.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXRAZ2&P=0

SackOHammers

Ah, you guys are right, I checked the package again and it is the 11X7E, not the SF as I wanted. Good eyes there.

I'll go grab an SF today... or maybe I'll cut a little away on the cone. Thanks for the pictures and the tip... that looks much easier than I was thinking.

As for choosing the 480 over the 450. Well, with so many people reporting the 480 provides a more interesting flight... and it is only $5 more... it was an easy decision.

ZX11

Here is my spinner set up. The e-flite props and the slo flyers both work with the stock spinners. The e-flite props have to be drilled out to fit the store bought 450 with its collet. The plug and play chinese knockoff motor comes with a smaller collet that the e-flite props fit without drilling. I use the slo flyer props since they require no drilling with the store bought 450. I suck at drilling straight. Notice that I use some washers to move the spinner backplate out. I bought some aftermarket spinners but never figured them out.

P.S. I sorta remember shopping for an aftermarket collet since the PNP 450 motor had a longer collet than the Park 450BL came with. I am not sure what collet that is on my plane. I think it is the stock one that came with the Park 450BL.

woodbender

I thought the APC 11/7E was the consensus ideal prop for the 480 set-up. Is the SF better?

Fliprob17

The 11x7E is the best overall with the 480 1020kv. The SF will provide more thrust, but eat up the pack a little quicker and will not match the top speed of the 11x7E. I liked both, and flew the 10x7SF for a lot of the time. It was nice having slightly longer flights with the 11x7E though.

As for the spinner, the stock spinner is just plain garbage, in my opinion. No matter how you try and set it up, something is always just not quite perfect with it. I hate the little snap-on cone as well. The DuBro is nice, but it has a really thick backplate, and just about does not leave enough thread on the stock prop. adapter to tighten the nut down when using the APC E props. It works with the SF props no problems, but the hub on the E props. are thicker. The only spinner that I have found that works with the stock prop. adapter, and the APC E props., with minor mods. is this new Extreme Flight Elite Spinner. You have to slightly dremel out some material, but it has a thinner backplate allowing the nut to properly secure without buying a longer prop. adapter.

Fliprob17

Those are very similar to the Extreme Flight spinners and are probably a great match as well.

SackOHammers

I think I'm just going to have to sand down the surface of the backplate a little. Thats the only way the Dubro will work. Modifying the Cone won't do anything. I'll have to make sure I do it exactly even so the prop doesn't wobble.

woodbender

Thanks for the prop info. It's great that you more experienced guys pass along this info.

Perfect flying weather today. I'm off for my second maiden flight; this time with my newly repowered MPXT. Ought to be interesting. I'm taking a big plastic bag along.

wedgewing

Hey Lon

I like the 11 x 7E and fly it on the MPXT without the fancy spinner (it looks fine without it). when it is up in the air, I can't tell if it looks pretty. I tried many methods to have it fit, and like other posters bagged it. If mine gets converted to a museum piece I will put the spinner on it.

Another advantage of the 11 x 7E (besides all the good comments from the other posters) applies to guys like us with "unimproved landing areas"

As you and I land on our russian runways, I have never had a time where a SF prop did not go bye-bye as it barely touched the grass. I like the big utilitarian prop base, and believe that it helps me from having to buy additional props.

I have moved the slow flyer props to planes I consider "slow flyers" and I float in with no prop damage. The MPXT is a fast flyer and can benefit from a prop that doesn't snap when I look at it.

busy converting the MPXT to become a snow rig now. just got a wet layer last night (yuch)

KP

woodbender

Snow.... is that the white stuff that's supposed to live up in the mountains? The stuff you see on the evening news? At least it ought to make landing smoother than on grass, don't you think? (Love the skis.)

I seem to be among the few who don't have issues with the stock spinner. I carved mine out something like ZX11 above and it seems to work fine for me. I removed enough material from both spinner and cone for there to be no interference with the prop at all. Used just a single washer so there's plenty of thread left. Works fine for me.

Also, regarding installing the eflite 480, I considered moving the tee nuts, but the stock firewall didn't really allow that. I used someone's idea of washers under the mount to bring the motor forward, then filed off the set screws a bit. (Couldn't bring myself to grind off the motor housing. It's too pretty.) Everything bolted up fine. In the end, to improve the location of the battery, I cut the extension sleeves in half. It moved the battery forward about 1 1/2 inches for the same balance point.

Maiden flight with new power was spectacular! (480-1020/ 11 7e/ 2100 TP/ HS-55) The old MPXT performs exactly as advertised. Unlimited vertical. Wow! And like Doc said above somewhere, the extra weight seems to give it some added stability. Landing approach much smoother with the extra weight. (Balanced on it's 70mm mark.) Didn't even need the plastic bag. Amazing.

Thanks again to everyone for all the great info.

SackOHammers

Woodbender,

Nice, grats on the excellent flight.

Some of your comments have me confused a little. You mentioned that you can use the stock spinner with only modifying it like ZX11 above. I don't see how thats possible. If you're using the 11X7E I think it has to be modified like S.C.C. on the previous page unless I'm completely missing something here.
I think ZX11 has a 10X7SF pictured there.

Here are some pictures with the stock spinner... it comes out roughly to the same place as the Dubro spinner.
I think I either have to grind down the sides of the stock spinner backplate and the cone like S.C.C. did, or I need to grind down the face of the backplate for the Dubro spinner.

woodbender

I did much the same as both ZX11 and S.C.C. Looking back at the S.C.C. post, it's much closer to what I did than ZX11's. To fit the prop, I ground both the backplate and spinner cone. I removed everything touching the prop and then some for a bit of clearance. Yes, it means removing quite a bit of material, and yes it's a pain, but in the end, it seems to work fine. Tempted as I was to just leave the thing off, I'm glad I went to the trouble to get it to work. I particularly like the look of the white spinner.

Mr Kamikaze

Has anyone ever tried removing the dihedral from a MP wing? The plane flys so well except it needs a lot of correction to hold knife edge. Was thinking if the wing was flat this would be improved. Or maybe it would just stuff the whole thing.

Fliprob17

Welcome to the MO POWER CLUB

Glad everything went well.......that is funny stuff about the plastic bag

woodbender

MO POWER indeed!

It's like driving a VW bug with a Hemi under the hood! Having flown the MPXT both ways; with (looking back) marginal power and now with the 480, I can safely say:

MORE IS BETTER

I'm certainly glad I had the 100 or so flights under my belt with the old set-up. Even with a much smaller power train, the MPXT flew great. As much fun as it is, the 480is a REAL handfull by comparison.

Fliprob17

Ya, it is good fun

I am trying to push just a tad BIGGER with my next MPXT. I want to put the Torque 2818T-900 in there, but CG issues may put a quick hault to it. It may wind up being way too nose heavy, and with the small, forward battery bay, you don't have a whole lot of room to slide the pack back.

woodbender

Couldn't you move the motor aft? When I moved my 480 aft about 1/2" I was able to move the battery forward 1 1/2". Maybe mount the Torque right to the bulkhead?

Fliprob17

Ya, that is an option, but the stock prop. adapter shaft length is my concern. It has to still be long enough to get out of the cowl, and still fit the prop. and spinner. May just have to cram the cowl a little further back, and possibly trim it a little. Trying to get this to work without a ton of work and/or extra parts, so that if it does work, and the plane does not explode it would be a fairly easy mod. for anyone to try.

SackOHammers

Hey fliprob,

I got the parts I ordered from you yesterday for the Mini-Pulse. Everything came in great shape, nice packaging haha. Now I know of two things that would survive a nuke.... cockroaches and that package.

Got the servos and linkages installed, finished the plane itself. Now I need to do a little soldering and fit the ESC, Receiver, and battery into place.

Thanks again for all your help.

impulse

Hey guys, I was following this thread in the early days but lost track. I recently crashed my Funtana and have picked this plane. What I need is cliff notes. Such as

Building Tips:

Motor Size:

Prop Size:

Hardware Upgrades:

Any general things that will help me get her up as fast I can, and safely. Thank you.

SackOHammers

Cliff Notes. This is cut and paste from my build post a few pages back:
Plane:
Mini-Pulse XT - ARF

Motor:
E-flight 480 1020 kv Park

ESC:
Extreme Flight AirBoss Elite 45 amp

Servos:
Hi-Tech HS55 X4

Receiver:
AR6100 Version 1.2

Battery:
Thunder Power 2200 Extreme
11.1V 2200mAh 3-Cell

Prop:
APC 11X7E

Spinner:
Dubro 2" Nylon - White

Wires:
2 X 6" servo extention wires
2 X 12" servo extention wires
1 X Y harness

Nylon Bolts 1" 4-40

I picked up everything from adchobbystore.com and horizonhobbies.com

Build tips:
Don't use the stock bolts to hold on the landing gear. Get some nylon 1" 4-40 bolts (pan head) Just search Amazon for them. Like $5 for 100 of them. If you have a rough landing you won't tear up your plane, the nuts will pop and damage will hopefully be reduced.
Screw in your canopy, don't glue it.
Make sure to check the alignment of your tail section pieces. Some of us are finding that when you screw it down it is to the left or to the right. Just shim one side with a small strip of very thin balsa to make it line up.
If you use the 480 motor you'll have to either grind down the bolt heads or the casing for the motor. You can see pictures on the previous page.
Make sure you get your center of gravity set like they suggest in the manual... or some people have moved it 3/4 inch close... to the main spar on the wing.

Thats about it... a summary of the build suggestions from the last 30 pages or so.

Good luck!

EDIT: That ESC is a bit overkill. Some use the E-flight 40 amp. Also, the wheel pants are cosmetic and you may choose larger wheels if you have tall grass. Do CoG after you replace wheels. Also, the spinner is cosmetic... and to get it to fit you'll have to grind it down... you can fly without it... again, do CoG without spinner if you choose to fly without it.

I almost got it together in one evening (minus mounting ESC, Receiver, Battery). Very easy to build.

Fliprob17

Glad everything got there safely I don't mess around with packaging Everything gets taped down, and wrapped in bubblewrap or buried in shredded paper. Nothing worse than ordering products, waiting for the shipping, and getting what you ordered all beat up You should see the plane boxes

Fliprob17

hammers covered a lot of it.

A ways back I put together a quick little review. Unfortunately it was after I killed my first MPXT, so I still need to go back and elaborate, add pics, etc. but it has some useful info. in it for now - http://adchobbystore.com/mpxt-review.htm

impulse

Thanks Hammers. I think the biggest tip was the grinding on the 480 motor. When people ask why you want a 480 over a 450, theres a simple answer. It's better to be oover powered than under. Any airplane I have built has had a larger engine/motor than required. More power can get you in sticky situations, but in most cases and highly benefit you. Whether it be windy conditions or have to power out of a aborted landing.

tmc_2

Hey guys i have a mini pulse with a 480 motor.
On its second flight only doing easy basic aerobatics, the rear right side of the elevator unglued from the metal shaft inside.
This happened mid flight and left me with only half the left side elevator working and the right side flapping like crazy! i was lucky it didnt crash and i managed to make a forced landing.

Has any one else had any faulty glue joints? it seriously makes me loose confidence in its quality... E-Flight is normally great stuff!

Cheers