Bought a plane from a non flyer. It has a on board glow driver set up in the plane. Not sure if its a standard set up or his own "Rub Goldburg" type of thing. The guys dead so can't ask him. Any help will be appreciated. Also does anyone know what that charger outlet is .

That charging plug you pictured is a three conductor deans and it will tell you nothing about any manufacturer. It comes from a time when deans were popular for modeler to use on all their equipment. Even replacing the hodge podge of different manufacturers plugs on radio systems. At on time their was a hugh variety of plugs in use.

That on board system is simply a switch and is not a modern on board electronic system. Is there a need? In most cases you are better off learning your engine better and on board glow is crutch that will only cause problems.

I hope the battery that the schematic refers to is not the RC system battery.

I have not seen an Aristocraft or Expert servo in use in many years Are they three or four wire servos and what kind of plugs are in use, You are bound to run into problems there.

John

Seconded. Those servos aren't likely to still be good. Give the airframe a really good going over too. Glue can loosen up over time and that one has been built for a long while.

John...gotta disagree with on this one....an on board glow is nice for an inverted 4 stroke programmed to come on at 1/4 throttle or less. Of course thos is not a programmable on board glow.....
If the engine isn't mounted inverted I'd remove it if you can get to the glow plug....

No problem JM and I'll bet we may not disagree all that much. Yes there are certain times, certain engines and certain mounting orientations where the added weight (an additional engine battery pack for the glow) and complexity plus the need for additional charging requirements every outing may be worth it.

But my observation is on board glow is is just like flapperons. The fellows can,t wait to get it even when they are still learning on a trainer they just got to have it. That too is a crutch and folks tend to want to use it that way and of course that is a dead end that only leads to crashs early on.

On board glow can and will cause crashs or at least does nothing to prevent flame outs when used carelessly and in lieu of good operating and tuning procedures.

Another parallel thats certain to get me in hot water are flight box power panels for folks operating glow powered aircraft. These are promoted by the press and industry everywhere you look and truth is its just uneccessary fluff that every new flyer just has to have.

So any way I do agree there are realitively rare times a need for on board may arise but I beleve in most cases its counter productive to use them.

John

I do agree with John and the on board shown is not modern at all, it's how we did things before the industry decided to come out with different types as electronics got better. Every once in a while I will still make one up for someone like that, I find my home mades are better then the store bought. It's just a micro switch that goes on and off with throttle servo contact and you can set it {program it} so it goes on and off any place you like. No electronics to poop out on you! I agree with John that on board systems are not required in most cases, a well tuned and set up engine doesn't require them. I did try to install one of the Expert systema in my pattern plane but it was because of the cowl being in the way of my inverted engine. The Expert was a junker and only worked once in a while and if it was real close to the engine so I just installed a remote glow driver. {home made} The engine is tuned well and set up correctly so as of this date I have had no dead sticks at all. A required item?? Nope but they are sometimes a nice thing to have, just not very often. I see too many of them having problems at the field.
I do like my power panel though. As john mentioned not something required but I still like it. All mine is used for is the electric fuel pump installed inside my flight box. This time of year I can get a bit more juice to the glow plud then my glow stick puts out, that helps a lot with some of my long wired remote glow drivers but that's about it. I could do away with it and not miss it at all but I'm set up with one and like it.

He, he I knew that line about power panels would get me in trouble, anyway GB no problem. Here are my (electric) fuel pumps - all of them:

John

That's the charge jack that comes with the Electrodynamics remote glow.

http://electrodynam.com/rc/EDR-103/index.shtml

John, I have one of those electrics on my gas can and one in my flight box just in case my old stand by flight box pump goes out. I bought it used 15 years ago in another flight box that also had my power panel installed. I have a burnt out battery in my new flight box so for the last couple of years I use a car jumper to power my starter and have two wires that go to the power panel to operate my pump. I did go to Harbor Freight looking for those 18 volt batteries for my starter but they didn't have any in stock at the time. I may down size my flight box in the future and just go to the hand pump and glow stick but for now my rolling box is loaded with STUFF. I need the STUFF so I always have the box and the panel is installed in it. I'm the guy that everyone comes to when they need STUFF they don't happen to have. I'm at that point in time down sizing may be a good option. Until I do that the power panel is with me, not really needed at all but it does come in handy during the cold season.
Gene

Thanks guys for all your advice. You all have confirmed my suspicions about all the electronics in the plane. I’ll replace all the servos…. Eliminate the on board glow driver seeing my 4-stroke is mounted upright. And carefully inspect the airframe. Again, thanks for all your advice. Maybe someone now can tell me what the plane is.
Dick

John we agree after all.....I have been flying for awhile now.....a rookie to some of you 8 years....I have never owned a power panel or an electric fuel pump.....
You are correct in that an on board glow used as a crutch instead of a properly tuned engine.....is not good....
Good Flying to you Sir

Just thought perhaps a mention of one of the poor results of using a power panel. Can result in blown glow plugs when not carefull about which terminals are plugged in 12V. or 2V.How do I know??

I don't use a power panel just because of worries about tangling the wires. That and the weight you have to carry to the flight line.

cotman- Did you ever find out what plane you have?

One area that power panels are a real problem especially for new folks and I an not gonna even mention the 'D' word, is that little knob below the current gauge. OK first it is neccessary to understand there are two types power panels out there. The vast majority are simple manual types with that knob and by rotating it you simpy up the current and change the glow plugs to all sorts of pretty colors when lit up.

The other type is much more expensive and has circuitry that will automatically detect a plug that is partially flooded and increase the current all on its own to a level that will burn out the flood then return the current to a proper level. It will do this on it own and do it in micro seconts and will never even know.

Another type is the independant box that will also do this and is popular for certain types of high performance competition engines. I enen use one of these for certain types of these engines. Now back to these horrible cheap ones that is sold to almost every newbie that causes so many starting problems, yes causes starting problems in so many cases.

Our glow ignition two stroke engines are arguably semi diesel engines and thats a fact, and no I am no kind of engine guru I am just a survivor. All internal combustion reciprocating engines are easier starting when the ignition timing is retarded or closest to top dead center. But after starting this not gonna make much power. The best power is gonna occur with the ignition happening much further before the piston reach top dead center. Most all other types of engines other than our glow engines have simple mechanical systems and or complex
electronic sytems to automatically advance timing ignition time for various loads and retard it for easy starting.

But we can,t do that with our glow engines huh, or can we?

Sure we can and the easiest way we commonly do is simply switching out glow plugs of various heat ranges. That why we see these engdless threads on folks favorite glow plugs and so forth but I sure ain't going there

Now back to these lowly abominations (oh boy gone and done it agine and I'am in trouble all over agine) the cheap power panels that are sold to just about all the newbies.
Well it turns out we got another way with these panels to advance the ignition timing and thats by that simple little knob, heck if we crank that knob up the glow gets much hotter and make prettier colors if ya look at it and advances the ignition timing.

Only problem with that when we are trying to start the thing is advancing the timing is the wrong thing to do for easy starting. What most often happens with new folks and a lot of folks who been around long enough to know better is when the engine is cranky and not starting for any manner of other reasons, the first thing the folks do is reach for that nob and crank up on the current. That will do two things, first it will make the engine even more difficult to start (you have just advanced the ignition timing) and if you did not burn the plug out right away it will shorten the life of the plug.

Yup if I was a glow plug manufacturer I think I would go into making cheap power panels and sell as many as I could with big old full page adds of the things so they would look oh so impressive to new folks just cause its sells tons more glow plugs.

Most of the folks I choose to mentor end up thanking me for gently pushing them toward completely portable setups and really all they need is an inexpensive single cell glow stick or perhaps two with one for a spare.

OK here is the disclaimer, all of the above is just the opinion of this survivor and I ain't no kind of expert in nothing.

John