safari 4runner

what battery do you guys recommend with a 14x7 prop and the recomended motor? I am trying to get this plane set up for slow flying and 3D.

Greg Covey

You'll have to measure the power yourself with that prop size to see that you stay within limits of all the components. Good luck and welcome to RC Universe!

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On a tip from Great Planes, they suspected that my 4-cell ElectriFly 2100mAh pack was bad due to the low power measurements I posted so they sent me a new one. Sure enough, my new power measurements were much higher!

I measured 510 watts at 35amps using the APC 12x6 e-prop which will provide 154w/lb. This is just about perfect for 3D flying! This summer, my Edge 540T will have even more power for 3D maneuvers.

stiltman

Sorry I didn't reply right away to your question Greg. I haven't been checking this site so much since I've lost my Edge (get it?). But since I'm putting a new one together, I'm back. I'm using a Jetti Advance 70 esc, and I'm using that esc's bec. I'm using 3s 3300mah lipos, and 4 hs81 servos and the 35-48-1000 rimfire outrunner. Currently I'm blaming my transmitter. It's a JR x9303 2.4GHZ Heli version. The reason I'm blaming it is that 2 weeks ago I was flying my katana MD about 100 yards away and it lost all control and became a lawn dart. With the katana I was probably over 100 feet up so I had plenty of time to try jerking the controls around before impact. So I know I had no radio control at all. The Edge was about 40 feet up and about 40 feet out (measured horizontally) and I was doing a harrier. With the Edge the battery was fresh and I had only been flying about a fourth of its usual flight time. With the Edge Its servos were jittering on the ground until I picked it up then they went calm. With the Katana when I went to the wreckage the esc was not working. It didnt have any visible damage from impact, nor did it look or smell like it had burned out, but it was dead for good. The owner of the LHS said that he doesn't believe that it was the fault of the esc. Since the absolute only common component to both crashes was the transmitter I am blaming the transmitter. All of the equipment that was in either crash has been used countless times with no problems with my old 72mhz radio, so I'm blaming the new 9303 transmitter. One more thing, on the flight immediately prior to the fatal one with the Katana I did seem to have a couple of brief radio "hits" in which I had momentary loss of control.

Wingwrecker

But what are you blaming it on?

stiltman

Did I mention that I'm blaming the transmitter? Sorry if I left that out.

rcmiket

On Sale.......

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXVEL2&P=SM

119.00 Mine got here and I'm really impressed with it. At this price I might get a spare.
Mike

sevans16

I ran up my Electrifly Cap 580 with: 42-50-800 motor
ThunderPower 30c 4cell 2250mah
E-Flite 60amp Pro ESC
APC 13x6.5e

Max Amp draw is 50 amps.

ADANAC18

My Feedback: (16)

Hello:

I have an E-Flite Power 32BL motor.

Would this be a good choice for this plane?

I will be using a Castle Phoenix 80 esc.

Also do I need to go with a 4S pack or will I be OK with a 3S?

I am new to electrics and this will be my first electric plane.

ryanlala

ADANAC18,

A bigger battery is always better as long as you can get the weight and balance right. With an 80 amp speed controller you wont have a problem on 4 cells. I was running a 5 cell on my scorpion 60 amp, i just limited the throttle to about 80% and had nice long run times. The best piece of equipment you can buy for brushless power is a watt meter, they are about 50 bucks. Plug it in and try different prop combos, get your amp draw where you want it and from that you can figure your run times based on you battery capacity.

Wingwrecker

The Power 32 is the equivelant (sp?) of the GP recommended Rimfire 42-50-800 which is what I had on this plane and it was awesome! Truly unlimited vertical as far up as you want to go.
I would recommend 4s on this motor. In fact in a thread on the E-flite Pulse 25e, John Redman from E-Flite specifically stated that running the Power 32 on 3s was a waste and not great for the motor. He said if you want to run 3s then get the Power 25, otherwise go 4s. I ran 4s 2350mah 25cRhino's with this plane and it was a blast.

Almost forgot to mention that I did have the Power 32 in the E-Flite Diamante on 4s 3000, 12x10 APC and it was ballistic!

ADANAC18

My Feedback: (16)

Thank you for the info.

It has been very helpful.

TowerZach

Great info guys!

monkeygutz69

Fellas, got a question... To 3-D better You need less weight. With this bird @ 53 oz and using Rhino 2350 4s1p @ 25/37C battery, wouldn't it be a better choice to use Rimfire 35-36-1200 with 666 constant watts/815 surge watts and weighing 3.5 oz less than the Rimfire 42-50-800 with 925/1480 wattsand weighing 7 oz???? I mean, the battery can only put out so much juice,right? Is there any reason to go so far overkill (1480watts /3.3 lbs = 448w/lb) I know these are NOTreal world numbers but it just seems so overkill.. The 50" size Balsa planes are beautiful and I'm ready to get it going. Thanks.. MG

Wingwrecker

You may be right. Get one together and put up a vid to show what it can do.

stiltman

Well Monkeygut That 35-36-1200 rimfire seems like an awfully small motor to me. I have a Katana MD that weighs 34 oz with a 35-36-1000 in it and it 3Ds nicely, but doesn't have crazy pull out power. Ihave a hard time believing that the 1000kv and 1200 kv motors are that different in power. Ialso have the edge 540t with the RimFire 35-48-1000 in it. I use a 14-7 prop and a 3300mah 3cell. So My motor is the next one smaller than reccomended and I'm using a 3 cell instesd of the max of 4 cells that my motor can handle. My Edge does have truely crazy pull out power, and it weighs 56 oz. It handles nicely too. Idon't know that it would gain much by losing a few ounces. I get 8 minute flights with ease while spending most of the time going in and out of hovers. Let us know how it works out, but I suspect you would be better off with a little bit larger motor than the one you're talking about. Good luck.

monkeygutz69

Thanks stiltman,I'm kind of new to the electric game and don't have a lot of cash to experiment so that is why I asked. I know these are not real world numbers and 3D requires low weight and everyone tells me every ounce counts, but I think You're right. I don't see how a few oz will affect the wing loading that much. I think I'd rather  err on the large side. Besides, You can never have to much power!!!!!! Thanks,Best Regards, MonkeyGutz

Wingwrecker

The Turnigy 42-50-650 just got restocked at Hobbycity. Those sell like hotcakes.

seffer1986

My Feedback: (3)

Has anyone used a Hacker 30-10XL in one of these yet? I have one laying around with a Hacker 55A ESC and I am dying to try it out in this bad boy! What do you think?

bergstenba

After reading a number of good build reviews and flight reviews Ipurchased a 540T a couple of weeks ago. although all the reviews on this plane seem to gloat on the good points I thought I would share some of the not so great parts of my build.
1st when unpacked the trailing edge of the canopy had 2 nasty chips in it. Inoticed the canopy was not attached in the front pegs. Likely one good impact from the shipping co knocked the assembly loose from the magnets in the rear. Really GP a couple of strips of tape would stop that.
2nd one of the recomended Futaba servos on the right wing not only comes in contact with the covering on the other side but pushes it out just a little bit. This forced me to make 2 CF shims otherwise it looked pretty bad although i doubt performance would have been affected.
3rd I e-mailed GP about the canopy they e-mailed back that they ordered one for me. after waiting over a week with no new part arriving at my door step (I live less than 5 hours away from them by drive)i called them. They tracked me down in their system and informed me the part is on back order and wont be available for over 2 months!! I have problems with that !! this isn't something i broke, go to your warehous e open a box and get me my part I didn't buy your product to wait 2 months. the other issue i have is why wasn't i told it was going to take 2 months to get it to me.......well i guess i would be embarresed to tell a customer that to.
4th The wheel pants are more than just a little of a bad fit and require quite a bit of work. the issue is the flat washer supplied with the plane. It is several mm wider than the opening on the wheel pant. The choice is up to the builder either take a file to the washer or start doing some serious carving on the pant. well you could do nothing but then the pant is forced out and angled so bad it will ride into the tire.
5th plan on spending an etra hour or so with your iron and heat gun. It does tell you you may need to use your iron to go over the covering in the instructions, this is not a maybe it will be necesary. Ilist this as an issue only because the wings and control surfaces were pretty loose, not horrible but far worse than what i would have suspected.

overall
Price - average (luckily got mine about $20 cheaper than anywhere online)
quality - average (wheel pants and covering drive this)
build difficulty - average (again poor fitting wheel pants)
support from GP - Poor

This is the second plane I've gotten from Great planes because of their service I seriously doubt there will be a third. I will not be using their power system on this plane at this point I don't want to buy a system from them only to have issues and have to re-buy it somewhere else. Because of the issues mentioned above plan on your build taking longer than the 6 hours they suggest.

BB

patnchris

I have a question for those of you that have this plane. Possibly some of you have also had the Fliton AJ Extra 330. If so, I would be interested in a comparison between the two planes. I have owned the Fliton, but it is getting a little long in the tooth and am thinking about a replacement. As the two seem to be approximatly the same size, I would be interested in how the Edge flys in comparison.....Thanks in advance...Pat

stiltman

I have had both. In fact I did exactly what you're thinking about doing. When I crashed my extra 330 I put its guts into the Edge. So yes if your choices of motor and servo, etc. were good for one they will be good for the other. As far as comparing the flight charactoristics; I found that the Edge lacked sufficient aileron authority to hover. It would always torq roll. Perhaps a different prop would have changed that (I never tried). I was using a 14x7. (I listed my exact settup earlier in this forum.) As I recall the AJ had really good rudder authority. The Edge certainly had tons of it. I think that they had similar elevator authority (I wanted more in both cases). My 3 Edges (I kept destroying them due to radio problems) didn't roll very axially (that could have been due to my setup). The AJ did roll more precisely. The Edge had virtually no wingrock in a harrier, and I had a good deal of wingrock with the AJ. The edge was an inherrently faster plane than the AJ. I think that's mostly because the Edge Wings are remarkably thin. When landing the Edge you need to take a shallower approach since it doesn't bleed off its speed very fast (that took some getting used to for me). Hope that helps.

patnchris

Thanks. That is the info I was looking for. Am I to assume that the 540 is a little more robust, in the wood department as it appears to weigh, slightly more. My one complaint with the AJ Extra was that it could have used a little more wood in the fuse. I know that electrics are supposed to be light and 3Ding a plane this size on 550 watts is a tall order, but I'd have gladly given a few ounces for a little more substantial fuse.

yosephwhite

My Feedback: (34)

I picked up one of these 540t's on Craigs list NIB and will be setting it up for the spring. I'm not a 3D flier and was thinking of setting it up with the 3s battery and the standard 45silver series esc then upgrading if I can keep it from becoming confetti. Is this a good way to start or should I go big and set my radio to govern it down (I plan on gorerning it down anyway untill I get good control of it. I have an Ultimate of this type and do a fair job of controling it. What do you guys think?

hobbster126

I just got mine going. I have the pull pull set up and with a 4 cell battery as aft as possible, I think I still need to add weight to the tail. It's a little rocky on high alpha, hovers ok but not great. Has anybody noticed it to be nose heavy with 4 cells?

emederos

My Feedback: (78)

The main gear is super solid and almost unbendable, I believe I will just stay with this instead of upgrading to the cf gear. What do you think about the durability of the stock fiberglass gear?