Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
06-07-2009 | 03:48 PM
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From: Ashville, PA
Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
After building the plane and after a number of taxi tests (which included cycling the NiMH battery pack evrything seemed ok and ready to fly. I hade timed the runtime of the battery pack to about four minutes of flight time. Took it to the fiying area and with full power and a long takeoff run it got aout three feet off the ground. It is terribly under powered and I would like to know what I have to do to get it up and flying.It has the NiMH 9.6V 650mAh battery. Can I go to a higher voltage battery without hurting the motors or what do I have to do? Thank you
Ray
Ray
06-08-2009 | 01:03 PM
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From: Poolesville, MD
RE: Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
A standard 11.1v LiPo puts out about 10.4v under operating load.
This puts it well within range of the power requirements of your plane.
You should have no problems using a 1000 to 1200 mAh 3S 11.1v LiPo pack.
You may need to make an adaptor ( DO NOT change the connectors on the LiPo pack ).
This will give you an increase in power and flight times and should transform the plane.
However your motors will burn out slightly sooner...
e.g. in 3 years instead of 5 years.... depending upon use.
This puts it well within range of the power requirements of your plane.
You should have no problems using a 1000 to 1200 mAh 3S 11.1v LiPo pack.
You may need to make an adaptor ( DO NOT change the connectors on the LiPo pack ).
This will give you an increase in power and flight times and should transform the plane.
However your motors will burn out slightly sooner...
e.g. in 3 years instead of 5 years.... depending upon use.
06-11-2009 | 04:12 PM
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From: , NC
RE: Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
Just read your note on the 11.1V Lipo on the A-10 but am surprised you said it may shorten motor life by a few years.
For me, it shortened motor life to ONEMINUTE!
I bought the A-10 Warthog IIand the stock 650NiMH was anemnic so I bought
the 2200milliamp Lipo & the intelligent charger. The A-10's review did say using the 11.1v 2200ma should be no problem.
And, like you said, the connectors didn't match when I got it ysterday so I had to hack that with some electrical wire (anything thinner burned up!)
but unfortunately/apparently fried the ESC by misconnecting the plus & minus terminals by mistake. So I ghettofied & powered both motors directly from the Lipo by twisting 2 wires to act as a switch. Thus, I left the ailerons, elevators & front wheel servo to be powered by the NiMH.
When we connected both batteries &had the motors blasting away, the motors seemed to have burned-out in ONEMINUTE!
Their speed was very fast to start with and then got slower and slower and slower and then...nothing.
Currently, there's not even a spark when I twist the Lipo's switch (wires) to start the motors any more.
There was also a smell of something burning that my wife & my buddies smelt.
So, finally, I disconnected the Lipo to figure out what was going on.
The wires and motor terminals looked ok. I wonder it the motor coils had burned out.
Do you have any tips on what could've happened?
There is a capacitor across the 2 terminals on each fan motor. Could that have burned out?
Are those motors even capable of handling an 11.1v 2200ma LiPo!?
I'm quite disappointed. The review was misleading.
Please advise if you can.
Thanks,
-Kenz-
ps. I took a video but at 19megs is too large to upload here (3megs max)
For me, it shortened motor life to ONEMINUTE!
I bought the A-10 Warthog IIand the stock 650NiMH was anemnic so I bought
the 2200milliamp Lipo & the intelligent charger. The A-10's review did say using the 11.1v 2200ma should be no problem.
And, like you said, the connectors didn't match when I got it ysterday so I had to hack that with some electrical wire (anything thinner burned up!)
but unfortunately/apparently fried the ESC by misconnecting the plus & minus terminals by mistake. So I ghettofied & powered both motors directly from the Lipo by twisting 2 wires to act as a switch. Thus, I left the ailerons, elevators & front wheel servo to be powered by the NiMH.
When we connected both batteries &had the motors blasting away, the motors seemed to have burned-out in ONEMINUTE!
Their speed was very fast to start with and then got slower and slower and slower and then...nothing.
Currently, there's not even a spark when I twist the Lipo's switch (wires) to start the motors any more.
There was also a smell of something burning that my wife & my buddies smelt.
So, finally, I disconnected the Lipo to figure out what was going on.
The wires and motor terminals looked ok. I wonder it the motor coils had burned out.
Do you have any tips on what could've happened?
There is a capacitor across the 2 terminals on each fan motor. Could that have burned out?
Are those motors even capable of handling an 11.1v 2200ma LiPo!?
I'm quite disappointed. The review was misleading.
Please advise if you can.
Thanks,
-Kenz-
ps. I took a video but at 19megs is too large to upload here (3megs max)
06-11-2009 | 04:32 PM
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From: Poolesville, MD
RE: Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
Well you cannot connect the LiPo's directly to the motors as you did.
The ESC regulates the amount of power going to the motors.
What you did was basically dump the current from the batteries to the motors without anything to regulate the output.
This fried the motors.
The ESC - MUST - be used.
You probably also ruined the LiPo's.
RC power systems are not like toy motors where you can hook things up directly.
At this point you'll have to replace the ESC, Motors and battery, at a minimum.
The review was not misleading at all.
What you did was incorrect.
The ESC regulates the amount of power going to the motors.
What you did was basically dump the current from the batteries to the motors without anything to regulate the output.
This fried the motors.
The ESC - MUST - be used.
You probably also ruined the LiPo's.
RC power systems are not like toy motors where you can hook things up directly.
At this point you'll have to replace the ESC, Motors and battery, at a minimum.
The review was not misleading at all.
What you did was incorrect.
06-11-2009 | 04:52 PM
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From: , NC
RE: Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
Opjose,
thank you for your response and the education you provided me. Clearly, my own electronics/experimental
background has a whole new learning to conquer.
You don't by any chance know which model/part number that ESC is do you?
If you do, I'd go ahead and order it (from Nitro right now.)
Also, how could I have ruined the LiPo?
Sincerely,
-Kenz-
thank you for your response and the education you provided me. Clearly, my own electronics/experimental
background has a whole new learning to conquer.
You don't by any chance know which model/part number that ESC is do you?
If you do, I'd go ahead and order it (from Nitro right now.)
Also, how could I have ruined the LiPo?
Sincerely,
-Kenz-
06-11-2009 | 07:43 PM
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From: Poolesville, MD
RE: Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
LiPo's discharge very rapidly when they are connected to a low resistance sink.
This puts them over their thermal limits causing the polymer material to break down... you normally get a lot of heat out of the packs, and you'll notice a slight "puffyness" to the packs.
If the packs look like they did when you got them, with no new puffyness or squishyness, they should be OK.
The ESC is a pre-wired 10A brushed ESC.
See: [link=http://www.nitroplanes.com/guanlibrushesc.html]Click me for ESC[/link]
The motor is a fairly common Mibushi ( sp? ) type can brushed motor, used in many devices and commonly available.
[link=http://www.nitroplanes.com/guanlimotor.html]Motor click me![/link]
Guan Li is the vendor, but not the manufacturer of the motor.
In your shoes, since I would be looking at purchasing a replacement ESC anyway, I would look for a LiPo compatible brushed 10-20A ESC that I can use.
However this requires doing a bit of rewiring and is not as convenient as one of the drop-in replacements.
Of course you can go nuts in the other direction ( which I often do ) and opt for dual brushless motors with dual brushless ESC's but this would cost more to do than what you paid for the plane.
This puts them over their thermal limits causing the polymer material to break down... you normally get a lot of heat out of the packs, and you'll notice a slight "puffyness" to the packs.
If the packs look like they did when you got them, with no new puffyness or squishyness, they should be OK.
The ESC is a pre-wired 10A brushed ESC.
See: [link=http://www.nitroplanes.com/guanlibrushesc.html]Click me for ESC[/link]
The motor is a fairly common Mibushi ( sp? ) type can brushed motor, used in many devices and commonly available.
[link=http://www.nitroplanes.com/guanlimotor.html]Motor click me![/link]
Guan Li is the vendor, but not the manufacturer of the motor.
In your shoes, since I would be looking at purchasing a replacement ESC anyway, I would look for a LiPo compatible brushed 10-20A ESC that I can use.
However this requires doing a bit of rewiring and is not as convenient as one of the drop-in replacements.
Of course you can go nuts in the other direction ( which I often do ) and opt for dual brushless motors with dual brushless ESC's but this would cost more to do than what you paid for the plane.
09-05-2009 | 03:39 PM
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From: rochester,
NY
RE: Nitroplanes A-10 Warthog help needed
ORIGINAL: kenzdesai
Just read your note on the 11.1V Lipo on the A-10 but am surprised you said it may shorten motor life by a few years.
For me, it shortened motor life to ONEMINUTE!
I bought the A-10 Warthog IIand the stock 650NiMH was anemnic so I bought
the 2200milliamp Lipo & the intelligent charger. The A-10's review did say using the 11.1v 2200ma should be no problem.
And, like you said, the connectors didn't match when I got it ysterday so I had to hack that with some electrical wire (anything thinner burned up!)
but unfortunately/apparently fried the ESC by misconnecting the plus & minus terminals by mistake. So I ghettofied & powered both motors directly from the Lipo by twisting 2 wires to act as a switch. Thus, I left the ailerons, elevators & front wheel servo to be powered by the NiMH.
When we connected both batteries &had the motors blasting away, the motors seemed to have burned-out in ONEMINUTE!
Their speed was very fast to start with and then got slower and slower and slower and then...nothing.
Currently, there's not even a spark when I twist the Lipo's switch (wires) to start the motors any more.
There was also a smell of something burning that my wife & my buddies smelt.
So, finally, I disconnected the Lipo to figure out what was going on.
The wires and motor terminals looked ok. I wonder it the motor coils had burned out.
Do you have any tips on what could've happened?
There is a capacitor across the 2 terminals on each fan motor. Could that have burned out?
Are those motors even capable of handling an 11.1v 2200ma LiPo!?
I'm quite disappointed. The review was misleading.
Please advise if you can.
Thanks,
-Kenz-
ps. I took a video but at 19megs is too large to upload here (3megs max)
Just read your note on the 11.1V Lipo on the A-10 but am surprised you said it may shorten motor life by a few years.
For me, it shortened motor life to ONEMINUTE!
I bought the A-10 Warthog IIand the stock 650NiMH was anemnic so I bought
the 2200milliamp Lipo & the intelligent charger. The A-10's review did say using the 11.1v 2200ma should be no problem.
And, like you said, the connectors didn't match when I got it ysterday so I had to hack that with some electrical wire (anything thinner burned up!)
but unfortunately/apparently fried the ESC by misconnecting the plus & minus terminals by mistake. So I ghettofied & powered both motors directly from the Lipo by twisting 2 wires to act as a switch. Thus, I left the ailerons, elevators & front wheel servo to be powered by the NiMH.
When we connected both batteries &had the motors blasting away, the motors seemed to have burned-out in ONEMINUTE!
Their speed was very fast to start with and then got slower and slower and slower and then...nothing.
Currently, there's not even a spark when I twist the Lipo's switch (wires) to start the motors any more.
There was also a smell of something burning that my wife & my buddies smelt.
So, finally, I disconnected the Lipo to figure out what was going on.
The wires and motor terminals looked ok. I wonder it the motor coils had burned out.
Do you have any tips on what could've happened?
There is a capacitor across the 2 terminals on each fan motor. Could that have burned out?
Are those motors even capable of handling an 11.1v 2200ma LiPo!?
I'm quite disappointed. The review was misleading.
Please advise if you can.
Thanks,
-Kenz-
ps. I took a video but at 19megs is too large to upload here (3megs max)
Cause you bypassed the ESC, thats why.
