Disposable foam dinner plates are a good source for small bits of foam sheet. It may be to heavy, but its worth a try.

Sid

Thanks for the replies guys, looks like I am going to be stopping at TRU here after work. Didn't have enough time to get a couple yesterday. Hopefully I can get one today and the rain will stop so I can atleast fly it for a little!

Any other ideas for lighting up the plane? Those batteries that those three guys used to fly in their warehouse seems like a decent idea but there is no on or off switch. I am considering maybe using a 9v battery and some wire and a simple switch to maybe light up two small leds on the botton of the wing tips. Any idea if it will be able to carry the weight of a 9v battery? Could someone scotch tape one onto theirs and see if it struggles with it?

Any other modifications done would be helpful too, i have read about the wing extensions and I think I am going to do that after I fly it stock for a little and then take the bottom wing off.

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

the Biplane AeroAce weighs just under 20 grams, the mono wing weighs 17 grams. a standard 9 volt battery weighs about 45 grams. thats just too much weight for such a small plane, you'd have to switch to dual N20 motors and up the battery size quite a bit to be able to get that high of a wingloading to fly, and if it did fly, it would be a rocket

you can solder LEDs in parallel with the motors to get some light going (a resister might be a good idea too, an LED probably wouldnt like 3+ volts). if you do it this way, you dont add any weight but the LEDs themselves - no seperate battery to power them.

if you have the bipe, try removing the bottom wings. it'll lighten the plane, make it turn sharper, handle more wind, but your speed will be up a little.


i've attatched some pictures of some of the planes i've made from X-Twin/AeroAce planes electronics - there's an endless amount of designs you can build with these things. if it has two engines, it should be able to fly. (i also added pictures to my gallery. feel free to browse and ask questions on any of them, they're all really fun planes.)

nick

micro builder those are some very impressive planes!!...x-twin/areoace,,the airhog planes?? is there a site for these plans/planes and the electrics??...impressive!! ...Rog..looks like you have a living room hangar full!!

Wow is all I can say!! Excellent work with the AeroAce electronics. I don't think I could ever do that and actually have them fly! The box is quite... well.. unique! Now as far as the LEDs go. I just connect the positive lead from the lead to the positive lead from the motor... and same for the negative right? Will this work if I solder two leads (two seperate LEDs) onto the wires, one light for each wing tip?

I feel I may have to bust out my mad mspaint skills to show you what I am thinking

thanks Rog. the X-Twins were the original plane from overseas by a company called Silverlit. Spinmasters/AirHogs bought a license to use their planes and renamed them the AeroAce. they're basically the same plane, just a differant name and differant colors. the planes i built with the electronics from the AeroAce were built from 3 view drawings i found online. this site has a TON of 3 view drawings: http://members.fortunecity.com/inedesca/ you simple resize the drawing to the size of plane you want, cut it out, trace it onto balsa or foam, cut the foam out, put it together, and throw in the electronics. and of course, then you hope it flys without crashing!

thanks Meegosh. i've had the x-twin planes since the end of july, so i've had pleanty of time to build planes (and rebuild, and rebuild). the box is a mini version of a larger box called the Voltair Cube. i had built 2 other versions with single motors and actautors but could never get them to fly. once i got the x-twins, it flew the first time out - go figure, it flys really well though.

i've attatched a picture for the LEDs, its pretty much how you described it. there's another way to do it, but this should work, however, doing it this way may lead to a short LED life (3+ volts going to them might wear them out quicker). doing it this way will also give an interesting night effect: when you turn one direction or the other, one LED will go brighter or dimmer than the other.

i'll take a look around to see if i can find a picture i ran across of the otherway of installing them, but either way it should work.

nick

Yeah I figured the LEDs would burn out rather quick if just hooked straight up to the motor leads. Now I have to figure out what type of resistor to buy for it work and still be bright enough to see it. That would be a cool effect though, having the one light brighter whenever you turn. Too bad you would go through LEDs like crazy.

Thanks for the excellent mspaint drawing I figured that would be one way to hook it up but I would rather do it right and just add some resistors to it. Has anyone done this? What type of resistor should I use... guess I'll have to do some math. I guess it's really based on what the LED can take, correct?

UPDATE: I just thought of something... couldn't we just use christmas tree lights instead of LEDs? I have tons of these laying around and I do not have any LEDs. I understand that they are a little bigger but... who doesn't have a full strand of christmas tree lights sitting around that don't work? Everyone! Just a thought, I dont know if these will be able to handle the power any better than LEDs though.

Thanks again for all your help!!

What is the battery voltage for this plane? I understand it is a 130mah Lipo pack, any idea on voltage? I need to figure this out so that I can add my leds to it! Thanks in advance guys!

Any luck with the lipo transplant? I never heard anything back about that.

meegosh,

the xmas light bulbs might work, but they might draw too much current (they're meant for AC power, rather than the AeroAce's DC current). but, give it a try you could stop at a radio shack and ask them about the proper resister for your needs. i'm sure they'll have one there too for a cheap price.

all single cell lipos have a opperating voltage range from 2.9 to 4.2 volts. too much above or below those numbers can ruin the cell.

nick

edit: just got an email back from spinmasters about replacement parts (props!). they said they didnt have any yet, but hope to by december. just thought i'd pass it along.

The foam plates are the shiznit for making new rudders and elavators. $1.58 will buy you a lifetime supply of the stuff. I had gone to Hobby Town, Hobby Lobby....nothing in the line of this type of foam. I made a template out of bass wood (actully, the one I had tried to fab before......too heavy) I was able to make 4 sets in about 20 min's. Now if I could only find some of the alluminum stickers somewhere...thinking about going to Ace Hardware and buying some of those metal house numbers...think that might be the best bet...any other ideas? [:-]

-Bud

Don't know where to find al stickers. Maybe try heavy duty al foil on double stick tape. Who knows, it might work.

Sid

Maybe not everyone celebrates Christmas.

Here is a little plane I made with the aero ace electronics.. It was going to be a MAV, using the extremely lightened camera that is in the picture- but the aero ace electronics suddenly stopped working.

BTH

What about those lights that look like ice? Should have said holiday lights, I apologize. Plane looks sweet, what type of camera is that? Sad the AeroAce electronics died on you, any clue as to the cause?

Sad note: Removed the bottom wing and trimed the fuse. and it flew much, much better. On the second flight it was flying great until the breeze pushed it a bit too far away and I lost control. If they go out of range with the power on, it tends to stay on. I lost sight of it a couple of blocks away still flying on what lift there was. I guess it is sitting on the ground or someone's roof still powering away untill the batt is dead. Oh well!

Sid

Sorry bro. After that happened to be twice (flying when there was way to much wind...and I knew it) I put my phone number on the bottom of the wing....never know, might loose it one day and someone would actully call. I seem to be one of the lucky ones.....mine has a great range...only got it out of range one time....wind blew it away from me...fought it for about 7 min's before it finally got out of range, had to be at least 5oo feet, it plew into some tall pines....had to shoot it out of the tree with a BB pistol as it was about 200 feet up. It's been battered and abused and keeps on coming back for more! Now that I've figured out the foam plates for replacment tail material, I see it lasting quite a while. Think I'm gonna buy me another one and start modding this one.



-Bud

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well my Ace seems to be dead. I had it packed in a case for the long Thanksgiving trip and it got slightly smashed on the way. I figured it would be no big deal but it will not fly anymore. I have tried everything I can think of but it turns hard left and goes into a spiral every time you launch it. I pulled the bottom wings. No effect. I taped the bottom wings on the top wings like some folks from RCU. No effect. I'm at a loss now. The only time you can get it to fly is with full right stick and it still goes left. It sounds like both motors are turning at the same RPM. Anyone have any ideas?

Mike,

if both motors are indeed going at the same RPM, and they have enough to fly the plane, then i'd say its something with the main wing and the stabilizers. give a good looking-over of the plane, see if one wing is higher or lower than the other, and make sure that the verticle stabilizer is straight. if all the electronics are working fine, and the plane got smooshed, then it's probably the plane itself.

nick

I finally figured it out. The right wing had a slight twist in it that caused the constant left turn. It still has a tendency to turn left but its fine. I really don't think I like how fast it goes with the bottom wings removed and my son can't fly it anymore. When I get home I think the bottom wings are going back on.

Hey all! New guy here, read this thread this morning and had to have one. Quick trip to the local TRU and she is mine. Realy REALY! cool little plane. Maiden flight she landed on the roof (actualy the maiden flight was into the living room wall but that dosent count) got her down and flew A fiew circles around the front yard. Got in A fiew figure eights then my daughter showed up and wanted to play.
She flew it into the street and it got knocked around some by the wind of A passing car before i could retrive it but no damage. The real point here is im not much of A pilot and my daughter has never flown anything and both of us could keep it flying circles in my front yard after just a bit of practice.
Just kinda wanted to say thanks! love reading the forums and have learned A bunch here. You were spot on about this little plane being great!
Now If I havent lost everyone after that kinda long ramble, the paperwork with the plane says Li-Poly batterys.I have no experience with them but seem to remember something about them not liking to be stored discharged. Should I charge them before storage? or dose it make any real difrence.
Agan thanks for all the info ive gleaned here and thanks in advance for any reply's forthcomming
SW MO Dave

Glad to hear you got one and enjoy flying it! I always charge mine after a flight so it's ready for later in the day or in a day or 2. I wouldn't sweat it.

HAVE FUN!

Tom

GREAT! elevator and rudder replacement tips!

Through much trial and error....I have found a cheap, easy, light way to GREATLY improve the strength of the foam used from "grocery store" foam plates to fab replacement elevators and rudders. It is well worth the extra couple minutes of prep for the the results. You'll see will be that the foam will actually cut cleaner leaving nice sharp, strong edges/tips that are MUCH better than the original stock parts. The replacement parts are much less likely to crease, bend, Frey, slip.....basically wear out from use and abuse.

Use an X-Acto knife (new #11 blade works best) to roughly cut out the bottom of the plate.......the flat part....(a glass table top works best) Take packing tape...like the rolls that fit on tape guns....I like the Office Max brand....it seems a little thicker and more rubbery, ply-able than some I tried to use. Cut a piece roughly the length of one half of one side of the plate. Being careful as to not stretch the tape as you lay it down (stretching the tape will cause the foam to bow).......starting from one end of the plate, slightly, slowly, evenly press the tape onto the plate.....gently rub out any air bubbles as you go until it is all nice and smooth against the foam. It takes 2 strips of tape per side. A seam really won't matter as you will cut around it and use it as waste. You do however want both the slightly overlapping seams, on both sides of the plate, going in the same direction.....matching them up down the center as closely as you can "eyeball it" to leave you the most usable foam to use.

For this part I use the 1/32 inch basswood elevator and rudder I fabbed (strong, but too heavy for flight I found).....you can use the old worn foam parts just fine as well. Trace the patterns onto the tape/plate\tape sandwich with an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie. I use a small metal ruler as a straight edge to guide the X-Acto. I have found that it is best to cut the 'leading edge only!' of the elevator and rudder short by about 1/8 inch from the trace. This accounts for the added weight of the tape and still leaves plenty of surface space for the two. Using very slight presser on the blade, you want to "score" the material using several full length motions, rather than trying to cut through it in one pass. It takes me about 4-5 scores to cut all the way through. I find that I can either fab 2 elevators, or 1 elevator and 2 rudders with one plate sandwich just by tracing on either side of the seam.

Since the material is just slightly thicker than original foam material......it fits easily, but snuggly, into the T-Frame. There is no need to tape the elevator to the T-frame as was it was from the factory.......it just simply won't fall out without a slight tug.

To replace the "bendable aluminum sticker thingies", the easiest thing I have found.....so far.....is by using aluminum foil and packing tape. I take a small square piece of the foil and make about three to four, 3/8th inch ......flat, consecutive folds......pressing it flat with no wrinkles as you fold. Using a piece of business card inside is a good way to start it off perfectly flat...slide the card out when your done. You should now have a 3/8th inch flat miniature aluminum burrito. Cut this to lengths of about 5/8th inch pieces......about the same size of the original stickers. I spread these out on glass table top (or something similar) and place a piece of packing tape face down over these aluminum pieces. Then cut about a 1/2 inch x 1 inch area around these pieces. Use the pointy end of the knife to car fully lift an edge to pull up from the table. The tape sticks to itself like glue. Maybe not the prettiest hinges in the world, but they work pretty well.

Take that Bob Villa!...lol



Happy Flying,
-Bud

Hi All,

Great Mods an Great Tips I will try when I get my new one for Xmas.

Does any one have this problem?

My charger connector seemed to stop working. I plug the end into the bottom of the plane and the charge light does not come on.. I can get somewhat of a charge if I wiggle the cord. The light blinks and sometimes I can get a steady green light. Does any one have a work around for this?? I would love to hear some thoughts on this.

Thanks,

Marz

That happened to me too. It is because there is too much battery left. Just let it run a few minutes longer, then plug it in.

After each flight (today I had 3 flights!) I run the throttle full until it stops, then I charge it.

31 flights so far with mine.

Tom

Another tip for the Aero Hogs is to put balance the prop. It's a very complicated procedure:
1 Put your finger on the engine
2 Run engine
3 Feel for vibration
4 Place a small (very) on the back of one of the prop blades
5 Run engine
6 Feel vibration
7 If it's better do the same on the other engine.
8 If it's worse, take of the tape, go to step 1 (assuming you will not put tape on the same blad .