An Oldie But A Goodie

[Snoopy1]

Hey Doug,

I need to buy a new battery checker that shows the mah used instead of just percentage of battery capacity left. DO you have a good suggestion for what I should get?

Thank you very much Paul,

This plane is not only motivating me to fly more, but it is motivating me to get to work on my monster GP Stick. . . . . . Then I need to make up my mind whether I'm going to get my Lanier Laser done or put my TF P-47 together. Right now, I am leaning towards the Jug just because I want to hear that Saito 60 radial run for myself. . . . . . . .


Rob,

Thank you for your kind words and your insight WRT covering. . . . . . As a matter of fact, all of you fine gentlemen are more than welcome to send me all the covering and painting tips you want. I am aware of the problem @Snoopy1 mentioned about black covering and he is absolutely correct. . . . . . Dark colors are indeed a problem in the summer time around here. With all the help from you guys as well as my very talented friends in my club, I am confident my Extra covering job will turn out just fine. . . . .


I like that scheme too, but its a little bit too much black for me.

I have a question that one of you guys may be able to help me with. Will a home use style vinyl cutter cut Ultracote and its backing or am I gong to have to enlist the help of Decal Dennis?

Thanks Fellas

MAh can only be read while it is being consumed from the battery , you cannot read how much mAh from a meter. One thing I do is read how many mAH I can put back into the battery when charging and from there I can figure out how much I use per flight. Hope this helps.

 

[Jetpainter]

MAh can only be read while it is being consumed from the battery , you cannot read how much mAh from a meter. One thing I do is read how many mAH I can put back into the battery when charging and from there I can figure out how much I use per flight. Hope this helps.

Exactly. Fly a couple of timed flights, then charge it. See how much mAh you put back in and divide by your number of flights and then you'll know how much it eats per flight. Plus, load testing an A123 doesn't tell you much at all. Milliamps per flight is the way you know.

 

[HRRC Flyer]

MAh can only be read while it is being consumed from the battery , you cannot read how much mAh from a meter. One thing I do is read how many mAH I can put back into the battery when charging and from there I can figure out how much I use per flight. Hope this helps.

Exactly. Fly a couple of timed flights, then charge it. See how much mAh you put back in and divide by your number of flights and then you'll know how much it eats per flight. Plus, load testing an A123 doesn't tell you much at all. Milliamps per flight is the way you know.

Thanks Fellas. . . . . . .

 

[stangflyer]

Exactly. Fly a couple of timed flights, then charge it. See how much mAh you put back in and divide by your number of flights and then you'll know how much it eats per flight. Plus, load testing an A123 doesn't tell you much at all. Milliamps per flight is the way you know.

Yup! That is exactly correct. I know I am anal, but I keep an up to date record of all my planes. Logging flights, repairs, issues...(The famous Sukhoi glitch gremlins) and of course recharge cycles. At a moments notice, I can look back and compare previous flights and times with my recharge cycles. Typically, all my flight packs continue to be consistent. If I ever have a battery that is becoming questionable or a bit sketch, I will know it right away before I loose a plane. However, keep in mind that not all "identical" batteries will act the same exact way. And to that, any flight pack used to the same exacting time and usage will not necessarily show the exact same mah used. Example: Lets say you put three 10 minute flights on one day. Go home and charge the batteries. And lets say it takes 981 mah, (hypothetical number) Now you know each flight is using roughly 327 mah per flight. Ah but the next time out, you use 1027 mah's when you recharge. Which equates to 342.3infinite mah's per flight. Why the difference? Or how about this scenario? Three flights and you recharge with only 759 mah's used. (253 per flight) Mah's used is typically reflective of actual "ON" time combined with actual flight time combined with actual physical draw. Maybe you relaxed a flight and just poked holes in the sky. Using less power from the pack. Or maybe you really slammed them sticks and made that 260 grown from the exerting forces you put her through. Demanding more power being drawn out. It really all depends on how much "servo" draw is put on the flight packs. But my rule of thumb is this: If your consistent same amount recharge numbers are within a tolerable margin of each other, then realistically you can average out your usage. 981+1027+759=2767. Or 922.3infinite average mah's for three flights. If a flight pack is not taking the normal average recharge mah's, then I would question the batteries integrity. And probably not use it again. Funny thing is this. LiIon's react really oddly. My son had some ignition packs fail and we didn't even know they were failing. They would recharge the same way as they always would. But for what ever reason, they were falling flat within a flight or two. It was not until he put a storage discharge on them that they showed their ugly little faces. They went flat almost immediately. We have now added a "Storage" cycle to our battery maintenance program. I have some 7.4 volt (2s) 5200 mah LiIon Relions that are now rapidly approaching six years old. And to this day, they still preform as they did when they were new. I think a lot of that has to do with how they have been maintained. Never charged over 1 amp. and never allowed to fall below 60 percent of their normal mah usage. I don't know if any of this is useful to you or if it is something you may have already been aware of.

I will add this simple interjection. I am noticing a huge difference between the LiIon batteries and the Lipo's. The Lipo's seem to be far more consistent than the LiIon's. In that, they seem to be very equal in usage.

 

[HRRC Flyer]

Well, I had an AWESOME day flying my 260. Today was the first day I flew the plane more than once (I flew it 3 times). . . . . .. I am finally getting the routine established for starting the DA-50 the first time in the morning without flooding it. I can also attest the fact that the DA-50 is TOO MUCH engine for the plane. A DA-35 would be perfect for it When I take it out next weekend, I am going to try a Falcon 23x8 and see if it will slow the plane down a little bit.

Since I forgot to charge my batteries last night, I took my charger to the field this morning and did it there. After my one flight last weekend, I put 110ma back in the ignition pack and 140 ma in the receiver pack. I am curious to see how much they need after the 3 flights today.

I am also starting to lose trim covering pieces every flight. At this rate it will be just blue and white by the end of the flying season. This is OK with me because it will be less work for me this winter when its time to strip and recover it. . . . . . .

One question for you guys. Who makes the 2-56 & 4-40 washers with the rubber on one side. I saw them somewhere on here recently, but I don't remember whose thread it was.

 

[Jetpainter]

www.trimcraftaviationrc.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=6_49

I hope this link works. This place is awesome.

 

[Jetpainter]

I usually run a number 6 on a 4-40 and an 8 on a 6-32. It gives you more area. They're so cheap and the shipping is too that I usually buy a lot.
Take a look around the site, they have all kinds of nice stainless stuff at awesome prices. I'm going to put in another order very soon.

 

[HRRC Flyer]

www.trimcraftaviationrc.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=6_49

I hope this link works. This place is awesome.

The link worked Doug and you are right, the prices are great. I just ordered some #6's and some #8's.

Thanks Buddy. . . . .

 

[HRRC Flyer]

Well Fellas,

At least I had one good day flying my Extra 260 on Saturday, but the third flight got cut short on the third flight when the rudder started wagging like an excited puppy's tail. . . . . ..
I landed without issues and packed up and went home. I checked the linkage and the rudder was tight. I turned the transmitter and receiver on and check if the rudder would do it again, but it would not do it. So I packed it back into the Durango and went back out this morning. The rudder started wagging again, half way through my first flight this morning so that ended my day of flying right there. I am going to replace all of the servos in the plane. I have plenty of new ones around here somewhere. All I need to do is find them. . . . . . If I don't get slammed this week at work, the Extra should be ready to go by next weekend.

 

[WMcNabb]

Well Fellas,

At least I had one good day flying my Extra 260 on Saturday, but the third flight got cut short on the third flight when the rudder started wagging like an excited puppy's tail. . . . . ..
I landed without issues and packed up and went home. I checked the linkage and the rudder was tight. I turned the transmitter and receiver on and check if the rudder would do it again, but it would not do it. So I packed it back into the Durango and went back out this morning. The rudder started wagging again, half way through my first flight this morning so that ended my day of flying right there. I am going to replace all of the servos in the plane. I have plenty of new ones around here somewhere. All I need to do is find them. . . . . . If I don't get slammed this week at work, the Extra should be ready to go by next weekend.

Glad your 260 is still in one piece. Ailerons on Python 100 had a similar symptom. Replacing the wiring solved the problem. I’m guessing connectors were the culprit, since I didn’t change any servos.