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Post by sean on Oct 26, 2007 12:10:24 GMT 10
Eric, if the RS70 is fine in your Opus it should be fine in the Bird! Its fuse appears to use a carbon/kevlar fabric. I'll run the antenna in a tube too, I suspect it will stick out the back a fair bit though...
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Post by ezza on Oct 26, 2007 12:49:25 GMT 10
Eric, if the RS70 is fine in your Opus it should be fine in the Bird! Its fuse appears to use a carbon/kevlar fabric. I'll run the antenna in a tube too, I suspect it will stick out the back a fair bit though... I guess it would hang a long way out the back of a 60 inch model. With the Banana I was worried about the ball links popping off the vtail, so I ca'ed a little piece of epp right at the back, bottom of the fuse. This stopped the ball links from ever coming off and allowed me to put a little hole in the epp for the antenna to go through. This way it is 'soft' where the antenna is wiggling around.
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Post by sean on Oct 27, 2007 18:06:33 GMT 10
Thanks for the tip Eric, I'll have to see how the aerial fits. I definitely don't want it to flap around out the back.
I noticed today that one of the ruddervator horns has been glued in at the wrong angle, it sticks out too much, fowling the side of the fuse. I think the best thing will be to carefully pull it out, enlarge the hole a bit and glue it in at the correct angle with epoxy and microballoons.
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Post by ezza on Oct 28, 2007 12:32:24 GMT 10
Thanks for the tip Eric, I'll have to see how the aerial fits. I definitely don't want it to flap around out the back. I noticed today that one of the ruddervator horns has been glued in at the wrong angle, it sticks out too much, fowling the side of the fuse. I think the best thing will be to carefully pull it out, enlarge the hole a bit and glue it in at the correct angle with epoxy and microballoons. Hey Sean, I don't know how the birds are setup but the horns on the vtails are usually wires that run up into the elevator and then have a ninety degree bend at the end. May not be so easy to pull out. My destiny ones did not quite line up so I got some small pliers and bent them to correct position.
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Post by thevon on Oct 28, 2007 19:07:33 GMT 10
Yep my Minij ones (which I made up) are like that - a ninety deg bend and they were fouling too so I had to bend them.
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Post by sean on Oct 28, 2007 20:18:04 GMT 10
Yeah I thought it'd be like that too but the horns are short, straight lengths of wire epoxied into each elevator, much like the brass aileron horns but pre installed (and not brass, and with ball joints...). I'll see what the best method to fix it is, I may be able to bend it with two pairs of long nose pliars, but I feel the best way to fix it is to reset it at the right angle.
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Post by sean on Nov 15, 2007 19:27:42 GMT 10
Finally the servos arrived today, ordered from the US delivery was quoted as 7-14 days but took 3 weeks exactly. Bought the receiver, a JR RS70 from Andrew of Falcon Gliders, it only took a few days to arrive! I now have pretty much everything I need for the build so made a start today. Servos: All digis. ;D Battery is 1650mah Sanyo AA 4-cell nimh, just fits in the nose: I decided before I bought this all white Bird that I'd need to add colour to the top of the wings, all-white would disappear against certain backgrounds and looked a bit plain anyway. Andrew had one with red tip spray but I'm not a fan, I like clean masked lines. I was going to paint the tips but some guys on RCG suggested I try sign writing vinyl, so I bought a couple of metres from a local sign writer for next to nothing to see how it looked. The results are good! It looks like paint, the vinyl goes around compound curves very well! Took a bit of pratice to apply - I did the right wing first and the left wing is much better. Andrew (thevon) told me a while back to use soapy water on the surface before applying the vinyl - on the right wing I sprayed some on and it didn't have much effect, the vinyl still stuck and bubbles formed easily. I very slowly worked the vinyl down pushing out bubbles as they formed. Then I did the left wing and this time soaked the wing with the soapy water... much better! The vinyl slid around on the wing beautifully, I slid it into place then squeegyed out the water from underneath. It did take a some time before the edges would stick down properly, I got the heat gun out to accelerate the process. Now it's all done the finish is amazingly close to a good painted finish, and much better than an average painted finish. There are very small bubbles here and there though, despite taking my time and being very careful I couldn't help them forming, but they can only be seen up close in certain light. The vinyl ready to stick down: Much better than plain white I reckon, I rippped off the design I used on my Reaper wings but without the black stripes. My girlfriend thought it looked better without the black . I cut the holes for the wing servos and they only fit with the mounting lugs removed, will need to glue them in. I plan on making some custom carbon control horns rather than using the standard brass horns, they're not as long as I'd like - nice big stiff carbon horns will give me less slop with slightly more drag but this will be primarily a DSer so firm and slop free controls are the priority. I'm also going to bolt the tail on, I'm just not confident with the idea of it being held on with glue alone. Looking forward to getting this Bird in the air, shouldn't take too long now!
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Post by ezza on Nov 15, 2007 20:37:32 GMT 10
Glad to hear everything finally arrived! The red looks excellent.
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Post by sean on Nov 22, 2007 0:18:26 GMT 10
Some more work done on this Bird today, wired up the wing servos. There are four servos in the wing so to reduce the number of plugs I wired up a harness that uses two 4-pin Deans connectors rather than four 3-pin standard connectors. Each pair of servos in each wing share common power wires with unique signal wires only. It's also possible to use one 6 pin plug for all four servos but i couldn't find a good 6 pin plug, and two connectors seems safer than just one. Sounded like a great idea this morning, and after four hours of work I had it all done! I'm used to soldering taking a while but four hours! Very fiddly work, much of the soldering had to be done with the servos fitted and the leads positioned in the wing. The second pair of servos took much less time than the first as I learned how best to do it. Now that's it's finished I'm happy with the result but if I'd used good ol' extension leads it would have taken about 5 mins to achieve the same thing . The finished result - one red plug and one black plug to avoid hooking everything up the wrong way! A close up of the lead that runs from the receiver to the wing plug. Note how one plug has no power leads, power for both servos is taken from the other lead: A few days back I layed up a carbon plate and will be cutting the control horns out of it. It's made from six layers of woven carbon layed up with West Systems epoxy. Very stiff and strong and about 1 - 1.5mm thick. Pic below shows the plate with a clevis attached for testing purposes:
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Post by ezza on Nov 22, 2007 20:23:33 GMT 10
Nice wiring job Sean. I have been too lazy with my builds so far and have just used servo leads. Looking good, especially that carbon!! Eric
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Post by sean on Nov 22, 2007 20:46:15 GMT 10
Thanks Eric, I cut the horns out and started mounting them to the wing today, they're very stiff and strong, should stand up to a hard landing nicely, will post some pics tomorrow.
What are your thoughts on mounting the servos? I was thinking of wrapping each servo case in masking tape and gluing in with an epoxy/aerosil mix. This seems be popular on RCG. I'd rather not use goop, read a post on RCG where Mike the Snake did that, and the goop shrunk as it set and distorted the top surface of his wing!
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Post by ezza on Nov 22, 2007 21:20:25 GMT 10
Hey Sean,
Wrapping the servo in masking tape works quite well. Just remember to wrap it somewhere that you can cut it later to get it out. If this makes sense? I did this on the Banana and had to replace a servo once, with no problems, just had to go slow, as the wingskins are very thin. You probably won't have to ever cut them out, since you used quality servos.
I have used goop a few times now. I have been lucky enough to fit servos that are fairly tight between the top and bottom wingskin. I position the servo with the linkages all connected and runing square and true. Then run a small bead of goop (only as thick as the wingskin so that it does not fowl the servo covers), to attach the servo to the bottom wingskin and let it dry overnight. Then I try and run a second or third bead of goop along any accessible edge of the servo and top wingskin. This has worked well and is really strong. Very easy to remove the servo with a cut to the goop. I like to try and connect the top and bottom wingskin to the servo if possible as it is really strong. I have seen balsa fillets used to do this as well. Just my 2 cents worth.
Eric
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Post by sean on Nov 22, 2007 21:46:19 GMT 10
Thanks for the info Eric, I think I understand what you're saying about making the taped servos removable. I also like the sound of using balsa fillets top and bottom.
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Post by thevon on Nov 23, 2007 8:57:04 GMT 10
Sean and Ezza, I don't know if this works in a mouldie situation, but I really like using hot glue to hold servos in. Dead simple, and easy to get out again, and I've never had one come loose. I use it always in the foamies and also in the Ricochet.
I don't make the hot glue terribly hot, just so it's dribbling out a bit. I put a blob on each face of the servo (bottom, each side) and maybe some inside the cavity too. Slide the servo in and you get some working time, so you can maneuvre it into the best position and hold it exactly level and straight. It's no rush, no stress. I usually let it set a bit then where it's flowing out the top I rub off the excess with a fingernail. You can use it for a really tight fitting potted hole, or if there's a gap the hot glue plastic does the gap filling.
When I want to take the servo out I just get a thin long hobby knife, hold the blade over a flame and slide it around the sides of the servo- it melts the glue again. Do that a few times, grab the servo and pull out like an old tooth. Also you can peel the hot glue back off the servo so it looks like new. I even use hot glue to hold the servos in place on the removable wooden plate in the Minij and they've never come loose yet.
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Post by skyboyken on Dec 4, 2007 21:13:40 GMT 10
Drool! For future reference, Multiplex do a very nice 6 pin connector. You can get them at www.flyelectric.com.au
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