Help! Can someone share their battery mounting/retaining scheme? My new Impact needs the batteries mounted well forward and I want to fit and connect them via the canopy opening. I also want to have a decent airspace between the packs. Oh and I want it to weigh zilch!

For raw material I have some 3mm carbon/bluefoam/carbon sandwich, liteply, 6mm carbon tube and 1.5mm carbon rod.

I've been looking at this for hours and can't come up with anything innovative.

Here is the setup in my existing model which doesnt have any airspace between the packs.

Malcolm

From the looks of your picture it appears that one pack is behind the other. You would need less supporting structure if they were side by side or one on top of the other. I have mine side to side with 1/4 inch balsa pieces glued between them to provide an air gap. A piece of 3mm carbon fiber/honycomg material provides the front support and the landing gear mounts support the rear. 2 pieces of balsa fiberglass composite glued to the bottom of the packs align the packs on the gear mount and prevent the packs from moving once they are snugged down with velcro. I use velcro cinch straps which I cut down in width and length to make them lighter. They provide a very tight mounting. Changing the position of the balsa fiberglass laminate sticks (actually I added a third) allows me to shift the CG.

Not sure if any of this helps you but some pictures are at http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_41..._4/key_/tm.htm near the bottom third of the page.

Good luck,
Stuart

In fact Stuart, this pic is of my old long Flightpower packs which are one on top of each other. I had already come to the conclusion that a continuous tray is probably not needed and that a front and rear support will do.

My TP5300s are too wide to sit side by side in the Impact lying down but could be fitted like this standing up on edge. I just don't want to fit permanent spacers to hold them 1/2" apart and would like to use one pair of straps to hold down both packs.

Thanks for your pics.

Malcolm

Stuart,
In your pictures it looks like you have a divider (Depron?) between the front and rear halves of your fuse. Is this an air diverter of some sort? If so, where is the air outlet? Do you have any pictures of the bottom of your fuse showing the air exits?
--Derek

Here are the first batch of pics I took of my Twister, and they include pics of the battery mounting area.
http://homepage.usask.ca/ajg360/Twister%2DAdam.zip

This was as close to copying Nedim Bek's battery mount as possible with materials I had. It is 1/4 balsa making up the two tray pieces, which interlock with light ply squares epoxied onto the inside fuselage wall. The 1/4 balsa is slit for the velcro straps. The 1/4 balsa has adhesive-backed velcro on its surface. The 1/4 balsa has been laminated on both sides with glass (no idea what weight cloth, but pretty light). Nedim used CF cloth, and I suspect it worked better, as I decided after feeling the strength to add a light ply former to the rear 1/4 balsa mount. This former is visible in the pics if you are looking for it. It is on the back edge and goes below the rear 1/4 mount.

Battery pics

The 5s packs are seperated by 1/2" balsa strips, the strips are held in place by a little bit of doube sided tape, the packs are held together by wrapping velcro (sticky on one side, loopy on the other). Credit for this idea goes to Chad.

Yes Adam, the simplest ideas are the best. I have been baulking at fitting the spacers to the pack instead of the model as I have a hard carry case that I can fit 4 packs in if the 5S,s are side by side but not with the spacers fitted. But I guess the spacers could be velcroed in too.

Incidentally the ProPeak/1010C charged a 10S at 5A last night no problem but the pair are blinking noisy indoors.

Malcolm

Bah, one 1010C is nothing. Try four ;>

Chad should post some pics of his Twister's battery mounting system tonight. He does exactly what you want to do.

A mate of mine set up a removeable tray rather than just the packs. the tray uses carbon rods, which slide in to slots at the front, just behind the motor, and it then attaches to mounting points using wing bolts at the wing tube. This allows huge versitility as to where the packs are positioned.

Derek there is a divider in the fuse and the air exit is just in front of it. The picture was right above the battery tray pictures.

I strapped the battery onto a 1/8 ply that is just slightly longer than the battery with packing tape.
The front of the " tray" slides into a small pocket I installed into the fuselage...the rear is held down to a small block with an 8/32 machine bolt. CG adjustments can be made by moving the battery along the plywood tray...then when you get it right, you can measure the spot on the little " tray", install the other sets of batteries on their trays, and batteries all go in exactly the same place every time. The whole thing weighs less than an ounce, and does away with that pesky velcro. the batteries are also very secure in this mounting system. for transport, I installed the little slotted piece and blind nut into my flight box for each battery... This keeps the batteries " safely tied down" in transport.

heh, I was trying to get away from those pesky bolts!