Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

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Chris Lane
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Chris Lane » April 30th, 2011, 2:51 pm

Careful guys or you'll be having Murphy's Law taking effect. . . .

stewart clifford
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby stewart clifford » May 1st, 2011, 7:49 pm

The photo confirms that Murphy has been put on a charge for abandoning his post at RAF East Kirkby.

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 1st, 2011, 10:28 pm

We had a look at the local cat sanctuary today. Would you beleive it......
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Is that Murphy's twin? :D :D

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 1st, 2011, 10:36 pm

On a more serious note.....I have been looking for some multi terminal power connectors to replace the multiple servo connections that need to be made. Has anyone used these before?......
http://polevolt.co.uk/acatalog/Mini_Loc_Connectors.html

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These are crimped terminals, with self locking connection of the male to female blocks.

I found Ashlok connectors, but these look more robust and more suited to my large fingers :lol:

Any thoughts?

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 3rd, 2011, 9:05 pm

One last bit of building now completed. Because I have made the stab and fin removable the top curved line of the fus needed extending to the back edge of the stab...

This is the stab about to slot in place on the fus. I have built the top fairing with a slot in it where the fin now slots in. The small balsa blocks with holes in are for the stab retaining bolts. I have used a technique with these that has worked well before. Rather than having a huge hole for a bolt and a washer, the hole is just big enough for a cap head bolt (4mm thread) with a small washer, 7mm diamater. Down inside the balsa hole (and into the lite ply of the stab) there is a small length of ss tube (5mm od, 4.6mm id) which is epoxied in place. This tube forms the solid base for the retaining bolt to bear on.
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Fin slotting in...
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And completed..
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Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 3rd, 2011, 11:28 pm

And now all the pieces are ready to cover.....

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Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 7th, 2011, 12:38 pm

I had a chat this morning with a man who was covering with nylon 40 years ago (any guesses?). He gave me lots of tips and said start with a small piece. So here it is.....

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Just another 13 pieces, all bigger, to do now :D

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Denis Brown
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Denis Brown » May 7th, 2011, 5:59 pm

Andy Boylett wrote:We had a look at the local cat sanctuary today. Would you beleive it......
51_ruben01[1].jpg.png

Is that Murphy's twin? :D :D

I have been to the museum everyday this week to photograph Murphy and he disappears everytime I get the camera out. But will hopefully send a picture of Murphy in his happy environment at East Kirkby as soon as possible :lol:

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 8th, 2011, 8:11 pm

Thanks Den.
We have been to the local cat sanctury and re-homed an unwanted cat. So we now have 2 again :D

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 8th, 2011, 10:27 pm

Continued covering today. Having done one elevator yesterday, I thought I would try Harry's advice re covering large sheeted areas - so I have done the wing centre section....

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There are just a few bolt holes and undercarriage mounts to cut out and then it is ready for primer...
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Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 10th, 2011, 9:37 pm

Oh well. Finishing covering is proving dificult as I am having difficulty getting from house to the garage and back again (40m each way!). I got stuck half way today and had to call for help :evil: ......I suppose the good side of it was that I was on my way back to the house when my back completely went though :D

So, before that happened, I covered the fus rear....

This the underside showing access to the 2 rudder servos...
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And this is again the underside, with access to the 4 elevator servos...
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Euan Galloway
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Euan Galloway » May 12th, 2011, 8:31 pm

Andy,
looking good mate, can i ask if you have run up the motor yet? and if so how many watts and amps?? also i have smoked two of the 200 amp esc in the last couple of weeks<one at only 67 amps?> and the other when i powered it up?,
cheers Euan,ps lucky i bought them in the UK not HK as i have got my cash back.

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 12th, 2011, 9:28 pm

Euan Galloway wrote:Andy,
looking good mate, can i ask if you have run up the motor yet? and if so how many watts and amps?? also i have smoked two of the 200 amp esc in the last couple of weeks<one at only 67 amps?> and the other when i powered it up?,
cheers Euan,ps lucky i bought them in the UK not HK as i have got my cash back.


Hi Euan,
Thanks for the comments. I have run each motor and its corresponding esc with no load, run both motors together with no load and run both with a 30"x20" prop to approx half throttle....at which point Sam was being pulled across the driveway. My main concern has been to do with running 2 esc's together :shock:

I have also read of quite a few other of these 200amp esc's having burnt out as well. It may well be that there is just a fault with some of them.

I have another of these 200amp escs. We have been flying an LMA Genesis with a 200amp esc on it and it has behaved perfectly. I haven't measured its current because my ammeter only went to 100amps (but I have just bought another shunt so can do 200amps now!). I do know that it was taking way more than 200 because it would cut out. We had to set our throttle end point at 15% on the top half travel!

I have run quite a number of large motor and esc's. It is very importannt with big motors to get the timing of the esc set correctly for the corresponding number of windings in the motor. Small motors are essentially single windings ie its 3 phase and there are 3 windings. Larger motors can have more windings. I think the ones I am using in this plane has 12, so since it is 3 phase still it has the equivalent of 4 coils per phase. This means the timing can be 1/4 of that used for a single wound motor.

The escs we use for our model motors are very simple 3 phase motor drives. There is no position detection on the motor so the esc decides where the rotor is in relation to the magnets by sensing the resistance in each phase. If the timing is not matched then the motor can get into trouble. Have you ever wacked full throttle on and got a very loud screech from a motor? This is when the current being applied to a winding is slightly out of time and ends up trying to turn the motor backwards - you get one winding trying to drive the motor one way and another trying
to drive it the other way.

If the esc phases are 'fighting' each other then although the actual forward driving current may be say 67amps as you had, the current in a phase may be much higher and hence damage some of the FETs in the esc.

What have you been using with your esc's?

Cheers, Andy

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 12th, 2011, 10:47 pm

Done a little more covering today. I didn't realise that using nylon is very similar to using iron on film and many of the techniques are the same. I have started a wing and covered the wing-tips with their compound curves.........

Here is the nylon stretched around the complete wing tip (from underneath), with no slits and no creases :)
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And here is the fiished tip, ready for covering the other side of the wing....
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Euan Galloway
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Euan Galloway » May 13th, 2011, 4:47 pm

Andy,
Thanks for the reply i have been playing about with 120mm edfs, ramtech with the scorpion and also the XPS Dynamax <up to 20,000 watts if you can find a 16s esc??? i understand about timing etc and normally stick with my trusty Castle 160 hv,z or the Jeti spin 200,s ,the idea of a budget esc appealed but i think i will continue selling body parts to fund another spin 200,
cheers Euan.

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 13th, 2011, 5:48 pm

Hi Euan,
I have just been finishing a Eurojet today, trying to get if ready for Longhorsley in 2 weeks time. It runs on a 5" Ramtech with 5Kw Scorpian. The esc is a Turnigy 120amp HV and is fitted inside the ductwork in the sapce where the OS91VRDF cylinder head used to sit. The cooling fins of the esc poke into the airflow.

I find that the EDF motors are quite tempremental with esc's because they are very high kv. Because of the very high speeds (42k rpm above) the esc timing needs to be very previce. Any slight deviation and then it will lose the 'lock' and can burn out. I first found this when running 4200kv £8 motors on a small pusher jet with a 4.5" prop. Some of the cheaper esc's just blew up even though well within their capacity.

I can sell you 3 x OS91VRDF's and 5" fan units if you get fed up with elec :D :D :D :D

Cheers, Andy

Euan Galloway
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Euan Galloway » May 13th, 2011, 7:29 pm

Andy,
i find the offer of anything glow related ver :evil: y offensive wash your mouth out, i did see you had one of the PJP eurofighters<not comp arf matey its twice the size>anyway my edf motors are low kv 630 ish , same as your e Ramtech, if you need a concrete runway i have one<in co durham> give me a shout,
cheers Euan.

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 14th, 2011, 11:42 am

Euan,
I also find glow rather nasty :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

The idea of a concrete runway sounds good. Where's that? Is it a club?

If we keep talking jets we might have to use the jet thread!! I ran the Eurofighter at full throttle in the back garden last night. I ran it stood up on so it was trying to lift its own weigth, which it did with ease. This was with 12 cell 5000mah's in.

Cheers, Andy

ps, I have copied this to the Jet thread.............................

Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 19th, 2011, 7:20 pm

Completed wing....

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Andy Boylett
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Re: Spacewalker half scale 168" electric

Postby Andy Boylett » May 23rd, 2011, 10:49 am

Both wings and centre section now completely covered and the only place left to keep pieces is blocking the outside door to my workshop (you can just see it behind them!)...

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