Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

Sounds like if you have left motor, not fan damaged.
Try replace it along with a more quality or capacity battery.

ftjets

I took the time to check out the motors today. I swapped motors with the ESC's and the problem followed the ESC. It appears that i have lost an ESC. I'm not too enthused about buying another one especially since i would have to buy two to ensure that they match. Again, i'm sure that this is a great little jet but once issues arrise, correcting them does not seem to be worth it in my opinion. I will at least look for models in the future that provide access to the fan units so that when issues do arrise, there will be access to correct them. Not having instructions for the ESC's does not help either.

Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

Store it in a good place at your home, Viper.
You will repare and fly it soon. [sm=49_49.gif]

Juan.

ftjets

The jet still flies relatively decent even with the left motor not running up to par. I have to wonder if i have ever experienced what it is really capable of doing but while it does not set any speed records, it is still fairly fun to fly. I'll probably fly it until it dies and who knows, maybe some day take the time to fix it. Until then, i have an AK models SU-27 waiting to be built.

Silver182

My Feedback: (2)

Well go figure, I ordered a second SU-34 I like it so much..
NOTE: The supplied battery doesn't have enough power for the twin fan units. I tried a Rhino 20c 3700ma 4cell pack..it just fits the compartment, and I got 4 minutes of 85% full power flight. I had plenty of extra for a go-a-round..and taxi back. The finial numbers of power used after that flight was 3112ma used. The battery was just warm not hot! Actually the warmest thing was the 14-gage wiring between the male Deans power plug and the two ESC's... That wiring would be better if it were at least 12 gage..it gets hot and heat equals power loss!

Go to the Web site and click on details HL has now added a video about matching up the fan unit RPM's.
Lee

ftjets

Thanks for the info silver. I followed the video set-up. Both motors run but it is obvious that the left motor is much weaker than the right. By simply feeling the exhaust nozzles at WOT, the difference in thrust is quite apparent. Again, when i tried switching the ESC's, the problem followed the ESC so that is my diagnosis at this point. Bad ESC. Hey, someone had to get the lemon. Loose fan, bad ESC, bad retract/servo. What can i say.

Silver182

My Feedback: (2)

Xviper
E-mail Jay Burkart
Hobby-Lobby
http://www.hobby-lobby.com/support

Tell Jay what you've been going through..If my experience is any indicator he will totally satisfy your situation.....probably by totally replacing your aircraft!! Of course you'll have to wait till the next container shipment arrives, but I believe he will make things right.

ftjets

Thanks again for the info Silver. I don't always tell the truth either. I couldn't stand not knowing so i ordered two 50 amp ESC's and a BEC to replace the stock ones. It just sucks to have to tear apart a brand new plane to make repairs just to see how it really flies. While i am not an absolute expert on EDF equipment, I am fairly knowledgeable with electrical devices and I have little doubt that this plane was the subject of modification either at the factory or at the retail end and that there were issues needing attention which someone attempted to rectify at some point. I have spent a noticeable amount of money trying to satisfy my new found passion for electric flight but this experience has convinced me that i may need to re-focus on my long time love affair with nitro burning aircraft. I have been motivated to begin building my SU-27 and get back to old school fun. I am however, having a blast with my homebuilt foamy delta which cost a whopping $10.00 or so to build. It flies better than just about anything i have ever flown. But again, I am sure that the HL SU-34 is a great flying aircraft and well worth the money but i quite simply got the ugly duckling in my opinion and it has left a sour taste in my mouth. I will however, do as you suggested and steer Jay to this post and see what they may do to change my mind.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

I travel the USA and when on business and have some down time I visit hobby shops .
One thing seems apparent with these jets regardless of who is selling them to you . The stock product-compoants have problems .
WHile in Minnesota a few months ago , I was in a shop and watched a guy bring in a HL Jet for all new eletrronics , the plane was nice the compoants were not .
I am fule guy who tinkers with eletric , and my fun factor has been elevated with eletric but by total chance I have been steered in a lucky direction .
I was told with my prop planes to buy the brand name parts as after marker hop up .
So on my E-flight P47 ,I used a geard HiMax engine , thunder power pack ect and its a rocket that would rival my 90 size warbirds lol !!!!!

I guess my point is proceed with caution , when possibel only buy the frame and add your engine , speed control , servos ect as after market parts from reliable USA distributors who are proven in e-flight .
I am planning on a winter buy from the J-tech website of the airframe only on the swing wing F14 and SU 27 . Both jets can be bought frame only and then you can add the key parts

Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

Hi XViper:

Happy to know you still perseverant with the SU.
Can you post a video?[sm=teeth_smile.gif]

Thank's,
Juan.

ftjets

"I guess my point is proceed with caution , when possibel only buy the frame and add your engine , speed control , servos ect as after market parts from reliable USA distributors who are proven in e-flight"

I think that's the same conclusion i came to LDM. The SU-34 is a great looking jet and it did fly decent at one point after cutting the fuse apart and replacing the fans but like you have observed, i would rather order an airframe kit and install my own gear. I have no idea what caused the ESC to go. It was on the ground with the motors stopped when fellow fliers noticed smoke coming from it. I do like the Su-34 and have not ruled out buying another one but again, it would be the airframe kit only which is really a pretty good deal at $130.00. Plus, I see that they have padded the price of the reciever-ready version by another thirty bucks. All these new inexpensive, well equipped reciever-ready planes are attractive and i'm sure that there are many that fly right out of the box but getting one that doesn't can cause some hesitation with future plans for a new one.

ftjets

Hi Juan,
Yes, i get frustrated but i hate being beat up by a little airplane. I'll keep messing with it until i get it right. Hopefully the new ESC's will clear everything up. I also opted for an external BEC with ten servos installed. Maybe that will help take some load off of the ESC's. I have one video that i will try to post on my utube when i have some time.

Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

Yes, i get frustrated but i hate being beat up by a little airplane.
I love that spirt.

ftjets

Xviper
E-mail Jay Burkart
Hobby-Lobby
http://www.hobby-lobby.com/support

Tell Jay what you've been going through..If my experience is any indicator he will totally satisfy your situation.....probably by totally replacing your aircraft!! Of course you'll have to wait till the next container shipment arrives, but I believe he will make things right.

Gave it a try Silver. This is what i got.
John,
Thanks for the heads up. There has been a very small percentage of issues with the ESC's in the SU-34. We are in contact with the manufacturers and will continue to push for high quality electronics.
Thanks,
Jason Cole
Hobby-Lobby

I purchased a pair of 50A controllers from LightFlight RC. Not bad for $20.95 each. And before i get pounded for going cheap here, i've spent enough money adding electric flight to my R/C inventory lately to buy a new Harley. Speaking of which, i did buy a new Harley two weeks ago so my R/C budget is being scrutinized by the chief financial officer (wife) at this time. Besides, we have to experiment with new products. Anyway, they are installed along with an external BEC (castle creations, no expense spared there) and both fans appear to be working fine. The left motor is still not as loud as the right when the ESC sounds off so i don't know if it has been affected but both fans are pulling 30-35 amps each at WOT and 58-59 amps with both connected. The thrust appears to be plenty strong enough. I did have to replace the nose wheel retract servo also. I have no idea what happened to it. It worked on the last flight. About two hours from now i will find out how it flies and will share my experience when i return. I am looking forward to a fun filled morning of high speed fun.

Juan,
The best advise i can give is that my experiences with ready-to-fly aircraft have not been as pleasant as i would have liked. This applies to helicopters also. I went through a battle with ESC, servos and other issues with one RTF heli. Maybe i am just unlucky or expect too much but we form our opinions according to our experiences. My advise in this case would be to purchase the airframe kit and install your own electronics. It is a great little jet and it is a shame that so many issues have plagued mine but it appears that once i had one problem, they just kept multiplying which started when the fan flew off before i even got to fly it. However, if the new controllers work out and i get a few good days of flying with it, i will consider buying another one in airframe version and install some better components that i can be confident with. I'll let you know how it went in a few hours.

ftjets

What a difference! The new controllers appear to be working fine. The throttle response is great and the motors appear to be running smooth and with plenty of power. I will never know how it would have flown correctly from the factory so i can't compare but with the new controllers, it moves along pretty good. Now, if it will stay flying for awhile i will be satisfied and eventually order an airframe kit. It is fun to fly and gets attention at the field. So again, this is a great little jet but i would hesitate to buy the reciever-ready version according to my experience but we all look for instant gratification now a days and mine may have been the exception so one way or another go for it Juan. You will like this jet. Make sure that you connect everything and test the motors, servos, retracts and everything else BEFORE gluing anything together and have the option to return it if there is a problem. One additional step that i would recommend is to reinforce the glue joints on the control surface hinges. I found a few hinges loose. They are recessed into the foam so there is plenty of room to drop a small dab of epoxy into the hole. Being careful not glue the pivot point of course. This is my flight from sunday. This thing does look good in the air and almost sounds like a jet zooming by.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8f7M8905FM[/youtube]

ftjets

One thing i forgot to mention is the landing. Now, we all have our opinions an this is mine. I had a little goof on the first attempt in the video but on later flights i discovered that instead of cutting the throttle and feeding in power to touch down or just trying to glide in, the easiest way to perform a nice smooth landing is to simply fly it to the ground. I gradually reduce the throttle and feed in elevator on approach until the wheels touch down. Works for me. Make sure you switch off the thrust vectoring before landing. I tried it once and it does get a little funny on you. I'll probably try it again some time though just for fun after i have a replacement on hand.

Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

Excelent XViper.
I knew you were about to succede with SU-34.
Also the video is very helpfull and the jet looks great.
SU-34 is one of my favorite jets.

Just a few questions: I'm new in electrics.
1) What battery are you using?
2) What do you mean with controllers? Just to be sure.
3) What components do you recommend replacing from stock?

Thank you,
Juan.

ftjets

1) The kit came with a 4S 3000mah battery. I also have a Thunder Power 4S 3300mah battery which seems to provide a bit more power. Others have noticed what appears to be a small increase in power also with the TP battery. I would recommend setting your timer for three minutes for the first few flights and gradually monitor the battery discharge. Then you can slowly increase the time until you are at a comfortable level of discharge. An example = if i fly for three minutes on my 3300mah and i want to use no more than 75% of battery capacity (2475mah) to be safe and it only takes 2100mah to recharge, i might add 30 seconds and check it again until each flight takes about 2475mah to recharge. Hope that makes sense.
2) Controllers = ESC.
3) The motors seem to run well enough and i believe that even the airframe version comes with the fans and motors installed. I can't tell for sure by their ad picture but it looks like they do. And since you have to cut the fuse apart to replace them, i would recommend just leaving them in if they do come installed. If they don't i would install a good quality ducted fan motor and fan unit. There are too many choices concerning the ESC's for me to advise you. Maybe someone else with more experience can chime in here for that decision. I took a chance that new ESC's would fix the problem and finally allow me to have some fun with it so i opted for cheap and appear to have been lucky with the LightFlight ones. They seem to be working just fine. Servos can be any decent quality ones but they have the retracts set up for reverse style servos on one rear wheel and i believe the nose gear also because of the way they are configured. I have not personally seen reverse direction servos advertised that i can remember. Hobby Lobby sells the retract servos including the reverse ones so i guess you could get them from HL but i have had two burn out so far so i would either try to find another brand or use reversing modules on a good quality standard servo.
But remember Juan, mine may have just been an isolated case and you may get a reciever-ready kit that flies just fine. Things happen some times. If this thing holds up and i get some good flying time on it then it was all worth it because it is a fun airplane.

Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

How did your retracts servos burn?
Some kind of accident or they just burn at normal use?

ftjets

The rear retract appeared to be sticking causing the servo to bind. I have no idea on the nose wheel servo. It worked on the last flight and retracted on the bench (i retract them to put in the car) but after installing the new ESCs i was getting it ready for the field and checking everything out and the nose wheel retract simply did not work. I'm not an electrical genius but could it be possible that the burned out ESC was spiking the voltage and screwing everything up? That would explain some things. Who knows.

ftjets

I finally got around to re-charging the battery after the video flight. It took 2975mah to charge the TP3300mah battery which was used on the video flight. That puts it at around 90% capacity used. That was according to the video at 4:30 time from roll out to engine stop. I was probably at 75% WOT for the flight. I think i'll leave the timer at 3:00 minutes to be safe.

Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

3 minutes is not bad for that battery; Hopping that you can install a 3800 Mah some time in the future.
I'd do it.
I'm actually extending flight time with my little F-35 climbing and then cut the motor totally letting it gliding lossing altitude until critical.
Then throttle up and to the sky again.
Is fun.
Can you do this with the SU-35?

Juan.

ftjets

3 minutes is not bad for that battery; Hopping that you can install a 3800 Mah some time in the future.
I'd do it.
I'm actually extending flight time with my little F-35 climbing and then cut the motor totally letting it gliding lossing altitude until critical.
Then throttle up and to the sky again.
Is fun.
Can you do this with the SU-35?

Juan.

I've spent most of my flight time just checking the SU-34 out and getting it flying right so i haven't had the chance to try many manuevers with it. Hopefully it is back to normal and i can play with it now. It seems to have a reasonably decent glide ratio with no power but i will experiment the next time out. Unfortunately, just as i have put it back into the air i have been swamped with business and won't get out to the field until sometime next week at least. I will scan the vendors for a larger battery at some point to see what i can shove in there but there isn't too much more room to play with. The TP 3300 pretty much fills the cavity so i can't imagine that i can go much bigger.

ftjets

Couldn't help myself. Ordered an airframe kit. I will add that Scott (i hope i have that right) at Hobby Lobby went above and beyond to help me out and make me happy. My hat is off to him. Being a speed freak, one additional reason for buying the airframe kit was of course to put something a bit more beefy in it to have just a wee bit more fun. I intend to squeeze a pair of 70mm fans in it since the instructions include a section to do so along with some beefy motors and the biggest battery i can get in it. I'll probably try a Rhino 20c 3700ma 4cell pack since Silver has already tested them out with success. If i rip the wings off though, i swear that i won't blame it on HL. With my work schedule though, it may be awhile before i can chime in on that project. And the saga continues.............

Juan Garcia

My Feedback: (7)

I said before that I'm extending a bit the fliying time with my F-35 gliding it at "o" power.
Well that bit is really two times the original time. Lets say close to 10 minutes fliying.
Confirmed twice, today.

Juan.