Re: Hobbico Superstar 40 electric conversion recommendations?

In article <1150408249.22960.0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
The Natural Philosopher <a@xxx> wrote:

| > What about battery cool down time?
| What battery cool down time?
|
| None needed with LIPOS.

Well, if you push them really hard, you might want to let them cool a
bit before charging again.

But LiPos aren't quite like NiCds there. If you push them hard enough
to make them hot, then they're not going to last long anyways. And if
your pack says 20C, and you actually fly at 20C, they won't last for
many cycles at all.

| > How much time do you think I spend wiping down a plane
| > between flights? 30 seconds for the wipe-down, and a minute or two to fill
| > the tank (why would you want to drain it?) is plenty. You can land and
| > charge and be back up in three minutes? Wow!
|
| Yes.
| If I have two packs charged last night ;)

Well, that depends on how accessible the battery is. Some can be
changed trivially, some require disassembling the plane somewhat.

(And if you're using LiPos, wouldn't packs you charged last week be
fine?)

| > It seems obvious that you have an ax to grind against glow planes. I have
| > nothing against electric planes. They are more expensive

Well, they're only more expensive once you get above a certain size,
or get into the high performance stuff. Unfortunately, that certain
size is probably around the speed 400 / 1/2A size.

For your speed 400 park flier with a can motor and NiMH batteries,
electric is certainly cheaper.

| Electric aint expensive any more

You must have a lot more money than I do! Personally, I'd call a
brushless motor, ESC and battery pack appropriate for a 0.40 sized
plane to be expensive.

(And while brushless motors aren't _intrinsically_ signifigantly
better than brushed motors, in practice once you start getting into
the decent brushed motors, you can have a decent brushless motor with
a little better performance for a little more money. At this point in
the game, brushless is pretty much the way to go unless a cheap speed
400 can motor or smaller is adequate.)

| and because you can fly almost anywhere any time

Depends on the plane. I wouldn't suggest flying a 0.40 sized plane in
your front yard, electric or not.

On the other hand, I've flown my glow powered (0.061) Superfly in my
front yard (well, I took off and landed there, but flew over the
street and other houses), and I live in your normal neighborhood.
Nobody noticed. It's loud, but not really any louder than a weed
wacker.

| and LIPOS stay charged fore months and don't need topping off,

Of course, for long life you want to leave them about 40% charged.

| I personally don;t have to travel 20 mile to a club and cram in as many
| flights as possible in the 5-6 hours I am there. I can just have three
| of four ten minute flights on a single pack, and then walk 50 yards, and
| charge the thing back up. In my home.

I don't think he was ever denying that electrics are convenient.

| > They have obvious advantages. They work well in the winter, are quite, less
| > mess, and less ground support equipment. Price and flight time are not
| > advantages, though.
|
| I fly longer than most glo flyers seem to. I can get 3 10 minute flights
| in a single charge.

Depends on your plane. And really, if a glow pilot wanted a plane that
could fly for an hour, he could easily make one.

| > A good engine, and not a knockoff, will be easy to teach a beginner how to
| > adjust

Of course, I've been flying glow for years, and that's what I hate the
most about it -- getting the engines running right.

| > and once adjusted, (for the first flight of the day, 1 to 3 clicks
| > on the main needle is average) will not need anything other than
| > attaching the glow battery and a bump by the starter. I could
| > have started my plane in less time than it took to read this
| > paragraph.
|
| I could have started mine in less time than it takes to type a single
| character...

Odd. It takes longer than that for me to plug it in. But yes, nobody
is saying that electrics are hard to start.

| Flap away, but the sales figures for electric machines tells the rest of
| the world that you are basically wrong.

Wrong about what? I don't recall him saying that glow was better or
more popular, only that he'd suggest a glow engine for that 0.40 sized
trainer.

Personally, I think an electric setup for a 0.40 sized trainer would
be better as long as you can spend enough to 1) get 15 minute flights
and 2) have at least three battery packs and 3) have performance
comparable to that stock 0.40/0.46 engine, however I also know that
this will cost quite a bit of money -- probably well over $500 just
for the power setup (with most of that going to batteries.) Compare
that to the glow alternative -- $100 for the engine, $10 for a servo,
$5 for a gas tank, $10 for a gallon of gas.

| People like electrics, and they now have the performance required to
| do a more than adequate job.

Did anybody say otherwise?

| A decent flight pack for a 25 sized model costs less than the ARTF
| it goes in these days.

You're on crack there. Or perhaps you have a different idea of
`decent' than I do.

Your typical ARF costs under $200 -- often around $100. Please, list
some decent flight packs (I'm assuming that we're talking about
motor+esc+battery rather than RX+servos here) that will cost less than
$200 for a 0.25 sized model and give similar performance to that 0.25.
Also, try and restrict yourself to something that will give us at
least 15 minutes of flight time.

| Motors have never been cheaper either.

Sure, but the motor is probably the cheapest part of the drive train
if you're talking about decent stuff. A brushless ESC generally costs
more than the motor, and the battery even more.

Electrics are here, and their market share is likely to only increase
as the technology improves and the prices come down. But for now,
electrics do still tend to be expensive once you get above the 0.10
sized plane or so. I'm looking forward to the prices coming down,
however.

--
Doug McLaren, dougmc@xxxxxxxxxx
"Wrinkled.... was not one of the things i wanted to be When I Grew Up"
.

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