Everything You Wanted To Know About Electric Powered Flight

[AEAJR]

Originally Posted by ChuckD

There was a very detailed sheet about how to use and program the esc. The exception was the part that said plug esc into receiver. Diagram was small and no help either.

The three wires that go from the ESC

Black or darkest wire - common or ground (same thing)

Red - middle wire - hot or power - this is what powers the receiver and servos from the BEC

White or lightest color - This carries the signals from the radio to the receiver which then tells the ESC what to do with the motor.

If you were to decide to use a third party BEC or a separate receiver battery you would cut the red wire so that no power came from the ESC/BEC.

Hope that helps.

BTW the servos are set up the same way Dark/Red/Light.

When I set up the wings on my big sailplanes I run one red wire that feeds both the servos in the wing, and one black wire that goes to both servos. That is their power.

However each servo gets a unique white wire so it gets the signal from the receiver that is intended for that servo.

So I only need 4 wires per wing rather than 6. Saves weight and space in the wing.

[ChuckD]

OK. I think I understand the throttle wires now. Need help connecting motor to esc. Both are erc(hobby lobby). Battery leads are color coded red blue & black. Esc motor wires are all black. HELP

[AEAJR]

My friend, you are making this much harder on yourself than it needs to be. This thread is an on-line reference book. It has has the information you need if you will just take the time to read it.

Rather than gain the info a bit at a time, you would be better served to go to the chapter that covers the topic that interests you. You are asking questions about the ESC. The ESC is covered in chapter 5 (post number 5) which is all about the ESC.

Taken from that chapter:

with brushless ESC, you match color to color as well. However if the colors don’t match then you need to observe the direction of the motor. If it is spinning in the wrong direction, reversing any two wires will correct this.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Post# ..... Topic

1 ............Preface
2 ............Amps vs Volts vs C
3 ............Sizing Power Systems
4.............Props vs. Amps
5 ............What is an Electronic Speed Control
6 ............The LVC, Low Voltage Cut-off
7 ............Who Needs a Wattmeter?
8 ............Why Use a Gearbox?
9 ............Extended Flight Times and Balance
10 ...........Battery Basics
11 ...........Lithium Batteries, Chargers and Balancers
12 ...........Six Keys to Success for New Pilots
13 ...........Things to Check on an RTF
14 ...........Now its Your Turn!
23 ...........The Role of the BEC in your ESC
24 ...........The Mythical Best First Plane
33 ...........What You Need to Know About Receivers
43 ...........WHAT DO THE KV RATINGS ON MOTORS MEAN?
51 ...........A DOWNLOADABLE EDITED VERSION OF THIS E-BOOK (editing by Ken Meyers)
71 ...........Estimating Battery Run Time

[gmtx77]

The link for the pdf version is invalid. Is there another location?

[AEAJR]

Yes, that link went bad but I managed to find another path to the document.
http://theampeer.org/everything-e-power.pdf

Note that that document is static as of 2009 and does not contain any of the updates and edits I have done since then.

[gmtx77]

Thanks for the lightning fast response. I'll download it and read it on the plane tonight!

[Mr.GFC]

This is my 2nd post on this forum, after having just joined today. I've gone through and read this entire thread and I must say THANK YOU.

While I am not new to RC, I am just getting back into it after about a 20 year absence. All I can sau about the changes in this sport/hobby is 'WOW, holly cow.' What a difference. What a difference in radio tech., building materials, not to mention the electric stuff.

Over the past year, I have been accumulating the tools and basic supplies to really jump back into the sport/hobby again, full boar. But today, in reading this single thread, I have learned more about the Electric side of the sport in the "does and don't s" and "how to's", than I have on any other website.

I now have a fairly clear understanding of the electric power-train. Much more so than I did on the glow, after having spent 5 years in it, 20 years ago.

While the technical aspect of it still isn't completely clear, I have a lot more confidence because of what I have learned, just from this thread, to move ahead with my current project(s).

Thank you for taking the time to think all this out and getting it on the web. It's very informative and anyone that takes the time to read it should have a better understand of all the subjects that you have covered.

Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute to this site soon, as I am gearing up to rewind a couple of motors next month. Living in Peru, I'm finding necessary to 'invent' a few tools for it, as well as other things that yall might have readily access to up there that I have no clue of, but I'll be sure to take pictures of what I do to post. Maybe get some pointers or ideas to improve what I'm doing from yall.

Thanks again for all the fore-site that you have put into this thread.

[AEAJR]

Glad you found this e-book helpful.

We look forward to your posts and your photos of the tools you build.

[Dimeflyer]

AEAJR
We always are thankfull when someone takes time to sort out the answers to the problems in our building and flying of the models we love !!
I hope you are having fun with your own birds guy !!
George

[AEAJR]

Me? If I was having any more fun I would be breaking the law.

The funny thing is that most of the planes I fly don't even have motors. I fly gliders and electric launched gliders most of the time these days.

[Dimeflyer]

Well that is still flying a model is it not ?
I still fly and build stick-n-tidhue balsa ,Rubber powered models and put E-power in some as FF or RC when the wife lets me skip out on the honeydo list !!!!
That is still building and flying a model plane in my book !!!!!
Be well and stay safe Sir !!
George

[hpasha]

This is an excellent thread for newbies, thanks guys.

[Dimeflyer]

Glad you like it here guy !!
George

[FlyWheel]

AEAJR: I have a spoiler servo question, which isn't talked about in any of the threads on the subject, so it's probably "common knowledge" for everyone else. When adding spoilers, will they self sync with a Y-harness? Or is there something special you have to do to "tweak" them? I have a digital computer radio, but it's only 5 channels, which means on any motorized bird spoilers will most likely have to be on the three position switch.

[AEAJR]

Originally Posted by FlyWheel

AEAJR: I have a spoiler servo question, which isn't talked about in any of the threads on the subject, so it's probably "common knowledge" for everyone else. When adding spoilers, will they self sync with a Y-harness? Or is there something special you have to do to "tweak" them? I have a digital computer radio, but it's only 5 channels, which means on any motorized bird spoilers will most likely have to be on the three position switch.

Matched servos should move in the sames way and while they may have slight variation it will probably not be enough to be a problem for spoilers. What will be harder will be to get the linkages matched. Getting them the same length with similar play will take some tweaking. So leave some room for adjustments.

Fortuntely spoilers are not critical flight controls like ailerons. If they are slightly off the are not likely to be enough to seriously impact your flight. Just make sure you mount them so the servos are facing in the same direction, not each other.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by FlyWheel

AEAJR: I have a spoiler servo question, which isn't talked about in any of the threads on the subject, so it's probably "common knowledge" for everyone else. When adding spoilers, will they self sync with a Y-harness? Or is there something special you have to do to "tweak" them? I have a digital computer radio, but it's only 5 channels, which means on any motorized bird spoilers will most likely have to be on the three position switch.

As AEAJR indicated, the adjustment of these spoilers is not that critical. The only important adjustment is when both are closed, easily adjusted with a clevis.

What I used was a small spring to pull them closed, and a pushrod and bell crank to push them open. The spoilers themselves were hinged with nothing more than the tape you use for hinges on the smaller models.

In fact, on one of my 2 meter models the spoilers were hinged with scotch tape. Lasted for years.

[Dimeflyer]

Kyleservicetech
You are either the bravest or the crazzyest model builder I have heard of ?
I would not trust schotchtape to hold parts on an R.C. aircraft , with my
luck those spoilers would end up hitting a person or a moving vehicle and cause one huge wreck that I wood be libel for the bodies and or repairs of all involved !
George

[AEAJR]

If you use tape top and bottom it holds quite well, but I normally use clear packing tape.

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by Dimeflyer

Kyleservicetech
You are either the bravest or the crazzyest model builder I have heard of ?
I would not trust schotchtape to hold parts on an R.C. aircraft , with my
luck those spoilers would end up hitting a person or a moving vehicle and cause one huge wreck that I wood be libel for the bodies and or repairs of all involved !
George

LOL

Neither did I, until some club members showed me their setups that worked very well.

Hinge tape was used on my two 10 foot span Vikings, that stuff was still secure when they were sold. But, that hinge tape would NOT be appropriate for rudder, aileron or elevator use on these big models.

[AEAJR]

OK folks, let's get back on topic. This thread is about electric powered flight. Motors, ESCs, batteries and the like. I will even stretch it to servos and receivers.

Let's take discussions about hinge tape and spoilers over to the sailplane forum.

[Dimeflyer]

AEAJR
Sorry about that guy !
George

[AEAJR]

No prob. Love to talk glider, just not here. As this is intended to be a resource thread on the topic I try to keep it close to the topic most of the time.

[Dimeflyer]

OK !
George

[barrosinc]

Thanks so much! Seriously!

[AEAJR]

LET'S TALK ABOUT SERVOS

Servos are not unique to electric flight so I have not included an article here, but if you have servo questions I started another resource thread on servos that can be found here:
http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64417