andrewtexas123

Ok as of right now my AA is dead

Not to worry tho it is not because of the battery change its because of the dog. I was flying the first flight with the upgraded battery and he jumps up and gets the tail of it. I yell "Drop it!" he drops it so not much damage i gave him his treat! Yes he is well trained..

Not to much damage but i have some ideas for a new build with these electronics in it. Should be amazingly floaty and a great indoor flyer!

Andrew

Garrett1234567

Has anyone replaced an aerosoar motor with a havoc/piccoz tail motor? Tell me your experience with it. Just for kicks wonder what an AA motor would be like

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

yep, swapped out the stock short can 4mm motor from the AS gearbox with the picco/havoc long can 4mm tail motor. i've also run the picco/havoc tail motor and prop by itself and didnt use the gearbox. it worked well, but made things a bit faster.

i'm not sure how much current the AS RX can handle, so i dont know if an AA motor would be too much or not. i rarely hear of anyone burning their AS's out, so who knows.

nick

ahaacobbler

Does this mean that there are no parts of the charging circuit on the Havoc airframe other than the low voltage cuttoff switch? Sounds like a great way to charge the Areosoar.

ahaacobbler

It looks like BSD micro is closed for a couple of weeks. Does anyone know where else I can get a 30mAh lipo? BSD also seems a little expensive if you are just buying 1 small item. $13 pluss shipping.

Thanks,
Cobbler

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

Michaels shop is pretty good, its overseas, but shipping is still quite fast (its been faster than shipping through the US at times). his prices are good too. he doesnt have the 30mah cell though, he does have the 20mah and 50mah however.

http://www.indoorflyer.co.uk/index.a...AYCAT&catid=45

Nick Leichty has the 30mah cells, and much smaller ones too (3.4mah!). his prices are like BSDs, but i dont mind pay the higher price for either shop, they're small family run companies that i'd be willing to bet have a razors edge profit margin and they're doing us micro hobbiest a huge favor (especially Nick with his insanely small RXs and picture perfect customer service).

http://microflierradio.com/Batteries.html

i dont work for any of these companies, but i've bought from them all on a number of occasions and have never been dissatisfied. i just know we'll always pay a higher price for our micro stuff!

nick

ahaacobbler

For those of you that are flying the AS with lipos, how do you keep from over-discharging the cell? Are you timing your flights, or does the AS start showing signs that the voltage is low?

Cobbler

Neurotex

I finally picked up one of these today for $16. So far I'm on the 20th charge
and all I get is 15 seconds of flight. It porpoises about twice around the room
and then hasn't the power to lift. Out side it has the range of about 10 feet
then shuts off.
I was thinking of adding the lipo and a s&t wing to it but the range is so poor
I hardly think it's worth the time. I'll have to think if the actuator, motor and
gear set up is worth the $16 or it's going back.
Not what I hoped for at all.

Electrolight

No offense AS fanatics but why buy the AS just to spend more money to upgrade It when you could Just wait for a TRU sale and get the AA for 19.99. It works well, trust me ;-)

Electrolight

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

15 seconds is a good average, you should be happy thats almost a dollar a second however! i should always give a disclaimer when i rave about the AS, in that my sole intention for the plane is to gut it and throw the foam and cap away - the parts are the only thing worth keeping. if one goes out to buy it, wanting it for a good flyer out of the box, i think we'd all be dissapointed

for 16 bucks though, the gear is totally worth it. just check out how much the equivilent gear costs at the micro shops - i'm not even sure of anyone thats selling 4mm gearboxes. i bought mine from Billy Stiltner (anyone seen him lately?) for 60 dollars - totally worth it - and i think Nick Leichty quoted me at around the same, and both were pretty much one-offs. you're spot on about going with a lipo and s&t wing though, you should download Billys Square9, tons of people have had good luck with it. even his square5.5, scaled up a bit, is a good candidate for the AS gear. i'll look around for my pics.

being the s&t builder that you are, i'd imagine LRF type building would be right up your alley

Electrolight,
the AS and the AA are quite two differant birds, i managed to fly very fast, very tight circles in my kitchen...once...but for the most part, its an outside or gym flyer. the AS though, despite its pitifull runtimes, is right at home in the home, right out of the box. it would probably cost less than an AA to get a 10-30mah lipo and charger for the AS and have some long long long run times (the 50mah works too, but pushes the speed up a bit).

nick

Electrolight

Charger and lipo for under $30. I'm a bit skeptical... What is the run time however with a 10mah or 30mah batterie.

Yes I would agree that the AS would be VERY cool if its run times were 10+ minutes stock.

Also, Yes I would definently catogorize the AA is an outside ,gym ,cafeteria ,or band hall flyer but its 25 minute run times beat the 30 sec. run times of the AS anyday ;-)

Electrolight

Neurotex

Thanks micro...!
After flying it around the shop I seemed to get 20 seconds out of it.
oooOOO! Got a figure 8 before she crap'd out.
I'll keep it for the gear and maybe try something with it. A wing would
have to be really light. Stick & plastic wrap.
The fuselage is a bit wobbly and it looses it's trim.
I wish the range was better. I have to point the controller at it constantly
to keep it flying.

I was thinking of charging the cap longer with another charger.
I used to do that with the EZ Chargers s&t free flights by making a cut off
switch and over charging them.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

alright, you got more flight time out of it than money you put into it...thats a good ratio!

a few pages back in the AS thread on RCG there are some plans for flying wings built for the AS. i've posted one of the plans here, but i think theres another one, both have build info, etc, and they both use a direct drive 4mm with picco/havoc prop as apposed to the geardrive.

a lot of IR gear has the range issue, and the "chasing the plane with the TX" thing. it doesnt help that the AS TX only has two IR emitters. some folks have removed the IR emitters from the PiccoZ/Havoc heli TX in place of the stock AS diodes. sounds like a good idea if you ask me!

here's Billys page, with the Square9 and other plans and good info: http://www.geocities.com/billy_stiltner/plans.html

here ya go, $5.56 for a 10mah cell, $9.91 for a 30mah cell, or $5.56 for the 50mah cell. http://www.indoorflyer.co.uk/index.a...AYCAT&catid=45
and the charger (which works great, BTW)for $16.18. http://www.indoorflyer.co.uk/index.a...&productid=217
if you went with the charger and the 50mah cell, you're only looking at $21.74, and his shipping is always pretty cheap. not bad.

run time with the 10mah is probably short, but still longer than the stock cap. the 30mah cell gave me around 8 minutes or so maybe, and i've heard people getting 15 minutes if they use the 50mah cell. thats a lot of flying time!

nick

Neurotex

Thanks again! I've seen that Square9 before and always thought is was
a stable basic design. I've noticed too that a lot of the lrf's have large
stabs compared to the wings. One thing I thought interesting about
the AS is the tail rudder on top cocked to the left to compensate for
the prop wash. That's something they never grasped designing the
SingleWing where they should've used it.

Neurotex

After getting the stock AS to circle the room about 8 times I had to
add a new foam wing. What I'd do after a charge off the stock TX is
give it a 10 second boost with 4 double A's from a seperate battery
pack.
After adding the new wing I had to add a new tail which eventually
led to tearing the whole thing apart.
I managed to break both actuator leads and after soldering that
together I mounted it to a balsa frame.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with it but I've found the CG is
really crucial on this plane when I was trying out different wings.
Now to make up some stick & plastic wrap wing and try and make
this thing fly again.[>:]

Racerx208

Cobbler,

You can avoid over discharge by watching for signs that the plane will not lift as well. Then you know its time to bring her down. On my stock AS with the Lipo mod, I get about 15 minutes out of the 50ma cell and about 10 out of the 30 ma one. Most of the time I alternate between full throttle and med. When I have it up to the top of telephone pole during large ovals I throttle back. Usually at that height med power will keep it at that altitude....
==========================
[link=http://www.aatoolbox.no-ip.org]www.aatoolbox.no-ip.org[/link]

Neurotex

hey, don't laugh... it flys!
Maybe not as good as the original but I've learned quite a bit from it.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

thats pretty cool, Neurotex. was it fast with the prop wash going over the wing? i bet with that short tail, trimming was a fun job whats the wingspan?

here's a pic of one of my AS gearboxes that i converted to a tractor configuration. if you've got some strong glue - anything other than CA - its a pretty quick and easy job. i just cut the D tabs off the prop and gear, then flipped the prop around and glued it directly to the gear. a thick glue works best so it doesnt wick itself onto the metal shaft (i used epoxy, worked great). this makes mounting much easier, and you can go with non-pusher type planes.

one other thing i did with this gearbox was swap the stock short can 4mm motor out with a piccoz/havoc heli long can 4mm tail motor. this gives a real nice boost in power with minimal weight gain.

nick

Neurotex

Some of the first designs I tried were a little too fast for the living room.
The plane pictured was slow enough with a 7"x 2.5" wing using 1.5mm balsa
sticks. Still I need a bit more power to make it it climb to the ceiling the way the
stock AS did.

I was wondering how to flip the prop. I passed on it because I couldn't remove
the axle pin. How did you remove the prop?

oh, and I keep forgeting to tell you the best set up I found for that P-40 race
plane: wing 1.5 degrees, motor negative 1.5, tail 0.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

hey Neurotex,
i couldnt quite tell from the pictures, but does the wing have any underchamber, or is it flat? if its flat, i'd try one with a nice airfoil on the top, it might give you that extra bit of lift you need to get up to the ceiling. the lack of lift might also be a trimming issue, but i've always had problems trimming pusher planes, so i'm not much help there.

to get the axle pin out, i just held onto the prop tightly at the base, then used a needle nose pliers to pull it out. it took a little twisting motion, but it came out without problem.

man, i havent built a micro plane in a long time. other than the one or two micro planes i did build this summer, my lightest plane was 3.5oz, heaviest was over 9! i havent even flown an AA in what feels like months. servos and foam and brushless motors are pretty darn fun, but its already getting chilly around here so i'll have to dig out my box-o-micro stuff pretty soon.

nick

Neurotex

The wing is flat. I hurried on it for time and built it straight. I was
going to soak the sticks and bend them but...
The micro's though are tough to trim.

I can see now that the axle pulls out from the base. Thanks!

Almost time to start thinking indoors but I'll be out there- even in winter.[&:]

Tommyr

I just got the Aerosoar, neat little plane. I fly it stock in a 12'x18' living room. I like it better than the death spiral inflicted PalmZ.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

i managed to salvage my CF and mylar LRF wing i had built for my LRF AA (cat got ahold of it!) and i decided to use it with the AS gear.

there's a few mods on this one, the motor has been swapped with a long can 4mm as apposed to the stock short can 4mm motor. prop has been reversed for tractor configuration. lipo added with connectors, all wires replaced with magnet wire, and i did a range increase mod to the TX using two picco/havoc heli TX IR LED units.

AUW is 4 grams with a 30mah lipo, wing is 9.5x5.5 inches, and probably my lowest wingloading of only .08g per square inch (less than 4mph speeds). the rudder needs to be enlarged a bit and i have to play with the thrust/incidence angles as it doesnt like to climb very much, but otherwise it works pretty well. the TX range mod helps quite a bit, i was actually flying it outside today with it. it was cloudy and i had to walk behind it, but thats still a LOT better than what it used to be (max range outside during the day for me was like 5 feet at the most!).

i'll try to get some video soon.

nick

ahaacobbler

Nice plane, Mircro. I am working on my AS lipo conversion right now.

Does anyone know what discharge rate I will need on a lipo to get good performance with the AS? I am looking at 50mah with 10c discharge. Will that work? It seems like I remember reading up higher that 20c was preferable. Is 20c on a 20mah the same as 10c on a 40mah - or am I off on my understanding of the relationship between discharge rate and capacity? What is the discharge rate on the havoc lipo?

Cobbler

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

I bought one today at walmart for $19.99,,its going back tomorrow,, too boring to bother with for me, I may add anothe $10 and get an aero ace again...Rog