dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

I am building a TF GS P51 and will be using a Revolution 52 gas engine; this engine is slim enough that all of it can be contained in the cowl, both the carb and exhaust are rear mounted and the only thing that would stick out would be an exhaust pipe out the bottom of the cowl, and the carb will stick through a firewall opening into the fuselage; this engine when used in this plane comes with a cooling fan and shroud to blow air around the crankcase; the cylinder head will benifit from air flow from the lower opening of the cowl; I would think that an additional opening would be needed on the bottom of the cowl to vent/exit the air; my thought to keep this opening to a minimum, was to use a funtioning aircooling vent found on the underside of the rear fuselage of a P51, behind and below the cockpit; the vent door could be servo operated and the servo activated by a thermostat in the engine compatment; when the compartment got too hot the servo would open the vent door and additional air could be vented through the firewall carb opening, through the fuselage and out the vent? does such a thermostat device exist that would send a signal to operate a switch or servo?

Thanks, Doug.

jetmech05

well you are correct you do need to vent the cooling air..this is exactly how a recip's cowl flaps work....if you could the perfect cooling air exit would be the radiator cooling exit on the bottom of the wing...open all the time

ChuckW

I don't know about a thermostat or sensor that will trigger a servo but I imagine you'd be able to find something that actually moved on it's own at a specific temperature. This could be attached to a door. You might be able to cut up a car thermostat and come up with something, depending on the temperature you are after.

saramos

Here's what you're looking for. It's called a ThermoCowl by Oregon Scale Aviation. It is a thermocouple servo controller.

http://home.comcast.net/~rich2001/osa/

I picked one up, but have yet to install it. I'll be using it a bit differently. I have an RCV 90SP fully within the cowl on my TopFlite Spitfire. To cool the engine, I installed a small electric ducted fan and ECS to exhaust the hot air out the cowl. The only air intake is between the spinner and the cowl, no additional air intake holes. I currently control the ECS on it's own channel. I plan on installing the ThermaCowl to control the ECS and free up the use of the channel I'm currently using. I suppose, with a Y, you could control a servo and an ECS if you found that you needed a little more oomph to get the air all the way back to the rear radiator vent.

Scott

rwright142

Saramos is right on. Buz at OSA is a great guy (I have the WingMan and Channel-3 products) and he is working on more things all the time. He's currently working on a circuit to synchronize twin engines.

Here is a post I did on Oregon Scale Aviation (OSA):
Has anyone else seen these products? There are incredible! I wanted to share this with anyone wanting to have their planes look and act more like the full scale ones. OSA contact info at the bottom of this post. I bought their WingMan and it is great!

Products they offer:
o MicroGear Ultra
o Channel-3
o WingMan
o ThermaCowl

Descriptions:
MicroGear Ultra Features
o P51 and Corsair Style Landing Gear Control
o Air or mechanical retracts
o Air or mechanical doors
o Transmitter adjustable door servo travel
o Fully adjustable speeds and delays
o Recoverable Fail Safe for emergency landings
o Selectable locked or staggered mechanical main gears

__________________________________________________ ________

Channel-3
Lets say you want your planes canopy to open when your in a landing configuration (gear and flaps down). This can be accomplished by connecting your radio receiver landing gear and flap channels to the controller inputs CH1 and CH2 respectively, and your sliding canopy servo to the controller output (CH1 or CH2 for servo reverse). Channel-3 will automatically open the cockpit canopy when your planes landing gear and flaps are lowered. The flap down position where the canopy opens is adjustable. The programmed dip-switch position enable set points are 20%, 50%, and 80%. Other exciting uses of Channel-3 are left to your imagination.

__________________________________________________ ________

WingMan
WingMan was designed to enable the scale aviation enthusiast to control the folding or sweeping of wings in a scale-like manner. Additionally, it independently controls a latching servo that insures a positive lock of the wings, while requiring only a single channel of the transmitter. Many safety features have been incorporated in Wingman, in order to avoid inadvertent wing fold sequencing during flight. First, wing folding will only be initiated after an arming sequence of the transmitter switch.
Features
* Four selectable wing sweep or fold speeds
* Fast Down mode to simulate faster lowering than raising speed
* Servo travel adjust from transmitter (fold servo only)
* Servo reversing for both latch and fold servos
* Continuous control even with loss of transmitter signal
* Sequences uninterrupted by noisy or missing transmitter signal
* Digital noise filtering to prevent spurious sequencing
* Fail safe return to previous position if switched during fold sequence
* High quality multi-layer circuit board technology

__________________________________________________ ________

ThermaCowl
ThermaCowl was designed to enable the scale aviation enthusiast to automatically control the opening and closing of cowl or cooling flaps in a scale-like manner. As the engine compartment temperature increases, the flaps open wider to allow further cooling. Because the flap position is controlled by temperature, ThermaCowl attempts to maintain a constant engine compartment temperature. This greatly aids in quicker warm-ups, and fewer lean run flame-outs. This control feature was found on many of the WWII era aircraft, and you will find ThermaCowl an excellent addition to your scale project to add that final touch of realism.
Features
o Proportional scale control of cowl or cooling flap position
o Requires only Power and Ground from receiver, does not load servo output
o Fully microprocessor controlled
o Adjustable start opening temperature
o Adjustable full open temperature
o No switches to configure, only 2 simple adjustments
o High quality multi-layer circuit board technology
o Designed and manufactured in the U.S.A.


Contact info:
Oregon Scale Aviation
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~rich2001/osa/
P.O.Box 1514
Beaverton, Oregon 97005-1514
Buz Hampton: [email protected]
Here's a video of their WingMan product: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBI1oA1Gjfc

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Thanks Guys for the info; The ThermoCowl is what I am looking for; my only concern with my proposed set up would be the vented air going through the fuselage interior and the possibility of gas/oil being blown in there as well; I realize its a gas engine and they are a lot cleaner; the exhaust exits out the bottom of the cowl as will some of the air, just not sure how much if any of the slime will be blown into fuselage?

jetmech05

I always tell outsiders to our hobby that if its on a full scale its been done in RC.
had no idea about a thermo cowl..Need to listen to myself I guess thanx for the info

bla bla

Listen, do your self a favour and leave the idea alone. It's just more problems. And then a load more on top.
Aircooled engines need cooling air... quickly!
10 seconds after starting the the pits the valves goin' to blow and the vent open.Wow?
64 Bucks, plus a battery.
But wait... theres more. Several mins' after you've landed and the engines cooled down. The vent closes. Double wow?
Why not just use a servo on an extra channel. In the pits everything closed...looks neat. Start engine, flick switch open vent(s) fly, land taxi back, stop engine, flick switch and vent closes. ROCKET SCIENCE?
Why even use a servo? Just manually open vent on start-up and close it on shut down? MAJOR INTERCONTINENTAL ROCKET SCIENCE?
Listen, the vents are going to be, and definately should be open, long before take off and during the entire flight.
Do you need a gismo to do that.
Make life simple.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Well excuse me; your idea BLA BLA is warranted, however, I was going for something unique and different, that no one else does, excuse me for wanting to be different, thinking outside of the box, I have been known to try something different, I'm not afraid to make the effort to do something different, if I had an extra channel I would use it, however, they will are all spoken for, but thanks anyways for your suggestion.

saramos

Hmm, thought better of it...


Some people enjoy the path less traveled, or even the path they make themselves.



Scott