Spirit 2m Spoiler Mod
06-08-2005, 10:39 PM
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Spirit 2m Spoiler Mod
Well, I have built two Spirit 2m ships and one has spoilers and one does not. When I built the second version, I did all of the mods that I found online to improve the flight performance, but I did not see any good mods for the spoilers. Some people glued in a servo on a piece of balsa to pull a string an some people used the stock setup with a servo and weight. I was not happy with either setup so I used a system of the original pull string and a rubberband to close the spoiler. I was afraid the weight method would not keep the door shut at all times. The rubberband was hard to adjust and would put tension on the servo when the doors opened.
I finally figured out a way to fit a servo in the wing with no glueing, without disassembling a working wing that positively opens and shuts the spoilers with no further maintenance.
I first cut thru the rib to allow my hs-55 servo to fit in and allow the spoiler door to shut. See pic. The remaining wood was hardened with thin CA, including the screw holes. I then drilled a hole from the root to the first rib on the spoiler. To start this process, I carefully aligned a drill with a bit that would fit inside a goldnrod sheath tightly. I drilled thru the first three ribs. Then I put the bit in the goldnrod sheath. This should be a real tight fit. I manually drilled thru the remaining ribs until getting to the first rib in the spoiler box. Then I ran the goldnrod sheath thru the holes for the servo cable to run thru.
Next I manually reversed one servo by rewiring the inside of it. I swapped the positive and negative motor leads and the two outer pot leads. Then I extended the cable connection using 22 guage wire from Radio Shack. The length of the added wire needs to be greater than the sheath length. I first soldered the wire to the servo side and covered the connection with heat shrink tubing. The connection should be about 1.5-2" from the servo since the soldered joints will not feed thru the sheath. I then feed all three lines thru the sheath and pulled the out the root of the wing. With about 2" hanging out, I connected the rest of the servo cable with the original. This will plug into my Y cable that is in the fuse.
Lastly, I drilled another hole in the spoiler horn. It is about 1/4" behind the original. I felt this would give the spoiler better action. I used a quick connect on the servo horn to feed wire thru to connect to the spoiler. I used wheel collars on the wire on either side of the spoiler horn to keep the rod in place.
Take a look at the photos and let me know if you have any questions. I think this will work much better than the stock arrangement and can be put in any wing.
Scot
I finally figured out a way to fit a servo in the wing with no glueing, without disassembling a working wing that positively opens and shuts the spoilers with no further maintenance.
I first cut thru the rib to allow my hs-55 servo to fit in and allow the spoiler door to shut. See pic. The remaining wood was hardened with thin CA, including the screw holes. I then drilled a hole from the root to the first rib on the spoiler. To start this process, I carefully aligned a drill with a bit that would fit inside a goldnrod sheath tightly. I drilled thru the first three ribs. Then I put the bit in the goldnrod sheath. This should be a real tight fit. I manually drilled thru the remaining ribs until getting to the first rib in the spoiler box. Then I ran the goldnrod sheath thru the holes for the servo cable to run thru.
Next I manually reversed one servo by rewiring the inside of it. I swapped the positive and negative motor leads and the two outer pot leads. Then I extended the cable connection using 22 guage wire from Radio Shack. The length of the added wire needs to be greater than the sheath length. I first soldered the wire to the servo side and covered the connection with heat shrink tubing. The connection should be about 1.5-2" from the servo since the soldered joints will not feed thru the sheath. I then feed all three lines thru the sheath and pulled the out the root of the wing. With about 2" hanging out, I connected the rest of the servo cable with the original. This will plug into my Y cable that is in the fuse.
Lastly, I drilled another hole in the spoiler horn. It is about 1/4" behind the original. I felt this would give the spoiler better action. I used a quick connect on the servo horn to feed wire thru to connect to the spoiler. I used wheel collars on the wire on either side of the spoiler horn to keep the rod in place.
Take a look at the photos and let me know if you have any questions. I think this will work much better than the stock arrangement and can be put in any wing.
Scot
