Hey all,
Took the zero to the field today for its maiden, and took off from our grass field. I was amazed that it actually did that. But thats where my amazement stopped. The thing had no power to climb out, even from a handlaunch it wouldnt climb. So I think I may have it under powered. My question is what type of battery are you guys using for yours? I bought a few LIon packs and they wont do it. A guy at the field had a 6 cell 700mah pack and that wouldnt do it either. Both would get it off the runway, but neither had enough to get over 6 feet off the ground. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Warren

8 cells.

Warren:

Use 8 cells 720 mah NiMH either the Ray-o-vac from WalMart or
Maxell cells. I'm assuming your pack was 6 cell also. You must have read the Backyard Flyer test report where the 6 cells flew
the plane great with strong climbout ?

Randy

rreiss,
Thats what I read, must have been using 6 car batteries in a real plane with the zero taped to the bottom. LOL. Mine didnt climb out at all it stalled at 5 feet and nosed into the high grass. At least its somewhat durable. I will have to make up some 8 cell packs.
Thanks for he replies,
Warren

Hay,

I must have missed the boat on this cell issue. But, when I bought my Zero I also purchased the GWS flat pack with the Niro? servos and battery pack. Now if I counted correctly I there is 6 batteries in this back. From what I'm reading this pack is junk am I correct?

Dave

Dave:

Save that 6 cell pack for something that doesn't fly.
I suggest you build a couple of 8 cell 720mah NiMh pack as I
mentioned above. You'll be much happier with the power and
duration. And put the cg at 45 or 50 mm NOT the 60/65 mm
the instructions say. It is tooo tail heavy at 65 mm

pdansalvish:

I too bought the GWS flight pack. Does yours have a picture of the zero on the top of the box? Mine came with 6cell 7.2V Nicad standard servos and 4 channel r/x. I have had to replace everything except the r/x to get the plane to fly. I went to the hs-55 Hitec servos and did as rreiss did and made myself a couple of 8 cell packs that I picked up a Walmart. You will also have to bump your ESC up to a 10amp if you currently have the ICS100 it will only push 5amps. My 5amp ESC went out on the second flight. The electrifly C-10 from Great planes makes a good replacement. Make sure that your CG is at the bamboo spar. I have read many threads on RCgroups and this seems to be the sweet spot. If you have not already put the plane together then test fit your battery pack (8Cell) prior to assembly. I had to file the battery compartment untill the battery pack would fit as I had already put my plane together. Good luck and hope this helps.

EF

I am just putting together my Zero and was hoping to use an 850 ma Li ion battery.

By sounds of it this will not be a good plan.

electriflight

Yes I bought the setup with the Zero on the cover. Why did you not use the small Niro servos? I'm already starting to put some $ away for a new ESC. My LHS has an FM Direct 20 AMP, which I will probally get next week. As for batteries, what batteries are using from Wal-Mart? Are they ones they sell in the camera dept?

Any thanks for the input.

Dave

Have any of you guys changed the power set up. I noticed that you can go from the suplied 280 to a 370 setup. There appears to be several different gear ratios available for the 370. Any suggestions. I only picked mine up yesterday.

Craig:

A friend of mine has used the 370 setup on a foam board profile
3D plane. It was the 3.75 gear. From what I could tell it was the
same engine with just a different gearbox bracket. The "B" unit
4.4? ratio would give good torque with a 10x 7 prop.
I would stay with the stock motor but use the 8 cells.

Randy

That is my plan for now. I'm gong to costco to pick up the cells today. Thanks

Craig:

Go down and read my thread on Zero Tips where you need to fit
the battery before you glue the halves together. The best fit for
cg is about 1" in front of intrument panel with the back end of
pack. I made a double row of four cells. That's why you need to
cut away some of the foam in battery slot.

Randy

Thanks randy. I'll have a look for that thread.