Electric converted retracts
 

Hi Everyone!

Every so often there is a significant change that occurs in the hobby. Most recently, I have noticed the increased use of electric retracts in general sport aircraft. i understand that LADO and Down and Locked are offering electric / conversion sets. Has anyone tried them in the heavier jets ( 30 lbs plus ) and how successful have they been. I am seriously considering converting a set of Behotec C50 CARF Tutor gear to electric!

TIA
Dean W.
Canada

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

Their is a guy building the big fly eagle F16 on here doing the electric gear. Looks like they work great.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

The electric retracts are really slow. Ten seconds for the gear to come down, 11 seconds for the gear to retract. That's a really long time.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

If they got it down to 5 seconds.....?????????

I think from watching the F-15 youtube videos.... its 3 seconds for the gear to go away.

How about making it so WE can adjust it to what WE ...want?

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

Lots of electric retracts at Jetpower this year, it is the future!

Just got a set for a Prop warbird they go up down in about 3 secs

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

The time it takes is what the builder in the thread stated.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

The biggest benefits of electric retracts is lost to me when you need an air system for the brakes anyway.

If/when more electric brake systems become available then I might be more interested. Until then I'll stick to old-fashioned air systems.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

WhenI was assembling my Reaction X, I used Todd's Pro-link retracts and sent them to Down and Locked for conversion. I use redundant A123 6.6 volt Rx packs and power the retracts with them as well. After 4 flights I still have over 85% capacity left in the batteries. The wheels are Intairco and they are quite heavy. Retract or extend is less than 5 seconds. No way are they 10 seconds! It's a great feeling to know that when you flip the switch the wheels are coming down.

The plane weighs 33.5 lbs all fueled up with a Gallon of Kerosene.

Bob

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

Go to post #498 on page 20 in this thread

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10...20/key_/tm.htm

I got it wrong, it's 10 up and 11 down

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

Again at Jetpower this year most of the electric retracts had their own dedicated electric brakes.

The system fitted to the Jet 1A Retracts even stopped the wheel spinning automatically as the wheels retracted, also as far a I remember pulsed the brakes like ABS, like I said above the future, throw the air pump away!

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

I think the electric retracs will also be good at pulling gear doors closed. Setting up the doors on spring loaded hinges would eliminate the air system completely. The doors would have to be open when the gear are down.
Vin...

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

I cant wait, I think it is the way to go. I have EP in several foamies they work flawlessly. They just don't leak.
But that just me...

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

I am awaiting delivery any second now of the Lado/E-retracts rams to convert the Mick Reeves retracts for my E. E. Lightning. E-retract now makes electric door rams as well. With electric brakes just becoming available, it makes a conversion to all electric a possibility. http://www.e-retract.com/

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

I bought a set of Lado actuators that were a drop in fit to replace the air cylinders on some robart 622 retracts in an 86" warbird. The system at the time used a controller that allowed the stagger to be adjusted, but I found the amount of time for up/down to be too slow. What I also found was that because electronics shut down when resistance builds up, the retracts don't do a good job of working reliabily when they are asked to pull a door closed or push a door open. In my case, I have a Kawasaki Ki 61 Tony that uses a mechancial linkage to pull the inner doors closed when the wheel comes up into the well. I found that the resistance shutoff would shut off the retract before it was fully retracted.

I don't know if this has been improved/changed or what, but I ultimately took these actuators back out and put air back in. They did work, but they were very slow - somewhere between 5-10 seconds for a cycle and they could not operate mechancially linked inner doors without shutoff.

Just my own experiences.

Jeff Lovitt

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

Gentlemen

Thank you for your comments and we should keep this thread going. Hopefully, many of the well known jet airframe / retract suppliers will see this and appreciate that there is a market for electric retracts in the jet community. I just spoke in length with Mitch at Down and Locked and will be sending him a set of Behotec C50 gear ( CARF Tutor). I will report back my experiences along with some demo video once I have the modified gear in hand. In the meantime, lets hear about your experiences, thoughts on set up, other electric gear / door actuator options etc.

Cheers
Dean W.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

I have owned several foamies with elec gear and doors. They seemed to work great at pulling the doors up tight. I believe these retracs had travel stops (micro switches) built in instead of using elec resistance. Maybe that is the better way to go??
Vin...

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

10 to 11 Secs for gear down and up sounds scale to me. I would like to see them with a Ver Pit so we could set the time but that would just make them cost more. I have several Elec retracts and I do like them. I think it depends on the model. A bandit or Firebird. Yeayou might want to them work faster.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

Check these out at Dreamworks...

http://dreamworksrc.com/catalog/elec...er-p-1977.html

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

if you look at the real f-16 its pretty close, and times will vary with your gear. My gear have a long way to travel from open to close, so the gear takes longer. If it was a standard type gear like a robart it would be a lot faster probably 5 secs or less. I like electric because its easy, its clean and in "my opinion" its better, but just like everything else here you will receive negative comments no matter how good and bad it really is. Both have goods and bads, for me the goods out do the bad. My build does have some good videos and you can see the long threads for full swing so saying all gear will take as longs is false. Contact DNL they are freindly and will probably be able to give you times if they have completed a certain gear before. My jet actually lost weight with the removal of require air items for the gear, which was a surpise.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

Most modern jets retract gear in about 3 seconds. Check this vid out to see typical F-16 gear. Others are similar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvGSN0qPvQM

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

FB - Is the retract/extend speed adjustable? The Lado's on my P-51 can be adjusted to give that scale 'staggered' look when the gear is moved. Wondering if DNL has the same capability.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

I am using the Down and Locked conversion with Robart 630 series on my 41lb EDF DC-10. Love them. They are pulling a 4 wheel truck (about 1.5 lbs for the 4 wheels, struts and a couple brakes) up in about 12 seconds. Nice scale speed. They offer a faster motor for lighter setups. I am also using their sequencing controller for all the gear doors. The sequencer is set up so you can adjust servo end points for operation of gear doors and allows for door open/gear up/door close sequencing. It’s a great feeling knowing that if you can see the gear down there is no way its going to collapse on landing. Still using air for the brakes for now. Also, Mitch and Ron at Down and Locked were great to work with. Quality product.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

they can add to but not take away. If you want slower they can but mine is as fast as it can be for my gear.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

What is funny is I predicted a couple of years ago that this would be the trend and it was scoffed at by RCU readers. LOL. How things change.

RE: Electric converted retracts
 

i have DnL on my flyeagle F-14 and they do just fine i will put restrictors on my doors like Fenderbean did although i do like the solid slam close feeling...Dnl said they have a ABS brake system coming out i don,t know if it has or not i told them to let me know i would put one on F-14. i have this on a 6 volt setup [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxi7kkGSflc&feature=mh_lolz&list=LL1WaEE_c 9ZzlJ8gxRhdcrkw[/youtube]