kyleservicetech

Just a note, if your ESC has this function, program in a SOFT brake, not a hard brake. (The Castle Creations is one ESC that has a soft brake) I've had problems with the brake stopping the motor so fast, the prop unscrews the prop nut.

riverrat

Mr. Windyhill!

Sorry about your misfortune with the WattBot!! But @ our age you can't be expected to think of everything.

I am starting to think about using a check list on any endeavor of importance.

Regards!!
Jimmy

renindy

SunDevilPilot,
Because of your detailed posting of your BOT electric conversion, i :
1. became a a member of this fine forum
2. purchased the ARF BOT, (along with various electrics)
3. can't wait until it is finished!
4. like you, flew an .049 "gas" 2m glider (which was my 1st successful series of flights)

thanks for the inspiration!

SunDevilPilot

Thanks a lot for the compliment!

Wait until you fly your Bird of Time. I fly mine often and almost every flight find some good thermals. Lately, due to the monsoon weather, the thermals have been real boomers. Every bit as fun as I remember with my 2m and .049, only a little easier to deal with the electric.

SunDevilPilot

Desertdog

Thought i would review the watt bott after many great flights. The weather here has been really calm for the last 3 weeks and i have been flying on a regular basis and really love this bird. The electric motor makes it a real love affair for many different reasons. The other day i went out in the back pasture on the small bute and launched it over the field she climed out really steep and i just kept going up to around 1000ft? and slowly cut the throttle. Wow what a sight i could just see it and boy was it pretty, soared around a while and made some tight turns and started down over the field . I walked down off the bluff and down into the field and went out over the nabors alfafla field and headed in and came in over the sheep that were bunched up and when i went over them they jumped and ran off so i turned and came right over my head and "wish" a neet sound and what a beautiful sight that big bird with those big wings and came in for a nice landing.For me this has been a great project and im sticking with the arf watt bot.

Ron Folck

kyleservicetech

Brings back memories of my two "Viking" 10 foot sailplanes I flew back in the late 1990's. Electric power was the Astroflight geared 40's with a 15 inch folding prop and 18 RC2400 Milliampere Hour Nicads. Don't know how many two hour flights those models had, but it was a number of them. Those models had flights over 20 minutes in completely dead air.

As for altitude, several flights included a 35 mm camera, used it with photos taken of a baseball diamond to calculate its altitude was over 1200 feet. The model was easy to see at 1200 feet, but this model had been specked out at far higher altitudes more than a few times. The model had transparent yellow wing covering, which made it easy to see as the sun lit up the transparent wing.

renindy

Thanks SunDevilPilot,

I have the nose cut, BB's chipped out, firewall in, hacker A30L motor mounted, pushrods are inplace and just mounted the bellcrank block in the rear last night using 30min epoxy. From what you and the rest are saying, this sound like quite a floater!!!
Don

Desertdog

Don't forget to lay in a carbon fiber rod in the fuse with epoxie.

Windyhill

wing man9

hi all Im new here and Im on my second Bot wow I thought chipping all the small BB's out was going to be hard, they came right out on the second strike , almost in one piece. my first Bot was a kit and I made a lot of FPV flights with it untill the wing broke in mid flight right as a friend showed up and told me some thing just came off my plane it was almost half the right wing. It was at 2000 feet up at the time. I had turned on the auto pilot to say hi to him. thats all that was keeping it flying straight untill I took controll and crashed into the ground at 80+ mph. I should have left the auto pilot on .
well I have the ARF now and I have been reading this forum for a time so I have some questions whats the best outrunner motor to use and how about the ESC . I plane to use 4s lipo's 2650mah each. the power plant is next up on the build so Im looking for some tips here. any one?
you can check out the flight video's of my last Bot on www.youtube.com under camaro92026
may she rest in pieces
hay whats the best motor to use.

wing man9

I am gonna be running a justable votage regulator to my vtx, they say 6 to 15 volts input power. so whats the best voltage to run the tx at. in the past I have used a 4s straight to the tx and rx but I think its best to regulat it to 15 volts . a 4s can have a voltage of over 16 volts . same with the vrx they say 6 to 15 volts input power. both should perform best at a specific voltage but what voltage . more voltage is not always better and every tx rx is different. the one Im using is a 5.8 modo 500mw vtx from www.iftrontech.com and a yellowjacket 5.8 vrx.
should I use a voltage regulator on the reciever as well? my range was best with two 4s 5000 lipo's in parallel on the reciever and ground station ,and I used a 4s 3300mha flight pack that was also running the vtx. or was this to much voltage?

Desertdog

You are already off on a bad build as you are not listning to what sundevil laid out in the first of this thread. Follow his recomendation as the bird is perfect with this setup.

wing man9

here are some pictures of my build but Im not sure if I should go with the small motor with a high 1200kv inside or the bigger motor 770kv on the out side

SunDevilPilot

Looks really good!

SunDevilPilot

wing man9

it was nice that both motors had the same bolt patern so I can try both motors . I built my last one with the motor on the out side cuz I was trying to get the CG right with out adding to much extra weight to the bird. I needed my FPV video transmitter as far away as I could place it from the RC receiver so I installed it on the tail and did the same on this build witch makes the tail a bit heavy. I plan to have the receiver placed away from the FPV regulators as well so that puts it all the way back under the wing in the fuselage. Im going to also fit a 2650 mah 4s lipo just under the wing as well but up at the front just forward of the receiver, two other 2650 mah 4s lipo's will be placed up front under the canopy. this arangement of the batteries gives just the rigth CG with the motor on the out side of the fuselage . all three lipo's add up to a total capacity of 7950 mah . I know this bird can lift the extra weight as I have built it much heaver in the past . the flight time should be over an hour and a half on and off the throttle. the rvosd will be placed just under the lipo that under the wing. both tail servo's are also under the wing near the back . wow there is so much more room inside the ARF then in the kit. I will be reinforcing the wing as well. I added tricycle landing gear like I did on the kit. it makes it easy to take off and land it with the extra weight of the video gear and lipo's on board.
where do you get thous neat air brakes??? I see alot of people installing them in the wing. but I really dont think the bird needs alerons as you can roll her with the tail alone. what do you think?

kyleservicetech

Back in the 1980's when I was flying sailplanes, found it was a very good idea to put spoilers on all of my sailplanes. Those things really help get the model down from high altitudes, as well as getting the model down for landings.

They were nothing but a piece of aileron stock imbedded into the wing, with servo control to pop them up. I installed them in models from a Gentle Lady to several 10 foot wingspan Viking Sailplanes.

AEAJR

I likewise like spoilers on all my R/E gliders. Great for spot landings and for coming down fast without picking up a lot of speed.

renindy

It's been a while....Hoping to maiden my BOT-E this Saturday. Patterned mostly after SunDevilPilots design. Update to come.

Aaro

Hi,

A few weekends ago I enjoyed flying my e-Bot first time after last summer and first thermals were great. A great flight ended to the only obstacle available ... Bones were luckily tougher than BOT.

Aaro

SunDevilPilot

I'm glad to see this thread is still helping people build their Bird of Times. They really are a great flying plane. It will bring a lot of attention at the field. Something pure about the plane.

Have a great time!

SunDevilPilot

tobydogs

aaro,ouch! and bummer about the wreckage. glad your ok. stu

kyleservicetech

LOL ()

Yeah I almost did that in the mid 1980's with a 10 foot Viking sailplane. Was bringing it in for a landing nice and easy with the spoilers until it dawned on me, you idiot, you're driving it right at your head!!!

Those big rudder/elevator models don't turn very fast, so the idiot had to move really fast out of the way.

Leadchucker

If you have a Castle ESC and have Castle Link this is easy. The way I have my sailplanes is to set the brake to hard so the motor don't free wheel then set the brake ramp to slow to prevent spin off. I set the motor throttle response to slow to prevent spin off when powering up, LVCO to hard with normal current limiting and Auto/Lipo cut off voltage. All my sailplane motors are on a switch for off/on function and also all have a CAM switch to shut off at selected altitude. There is no proportional "throttle" with this set up so ESC ramping is needed even more. Throttle stick is used for spoilers or flaps.

mred

I have all of my gliders set up with throttle and spoilers both set to proportional channels so that I can slowly add power or spoilers the way I need them. I don't like on off switches for the motor especially. I guess that is just a throw back to my pattern flying days and am used to that. All of them are on the throttle stick just like pattern planes and the spoilers are on a side slider. I never did like the all or nothing like you get with a switch, but that is just me.

I really like the BOT and I think it is one of the best looking gliders ever designed. I am going to get one after I finish the one I am working on now and hopefully I'll have them both ready for flying this summer. I like the ARF and yours looks fantastic with that motor you put on it, but since I love to build as much as fly, I am going to get the kit. I will be putting a motor on it and spoilers too. Since spoilers are so easy to put on, all of my gliders have spoilers even if the plans don't call for them. I like the direct drive on the spoilers though with the servo arm driving the spoiler and a magnet holding it closed.

Ed

renindy

Well *this* saturday did the 2nd maiden. I fell victim to one of the classic blunders on my 1st maiden......rudder reversal incorrectly setup! Life can sure be humbling.

Well having the rudder servo correct, made all of the difference.

At well under full power, The bird climbed steadily, beautifully, smoothly and gracefully, my heart pounding all the while, as this is the largest (R/C) ship I've flown.

Again, components and inspiration based largely on SunDevilPilots setup. Landing took a good 500' when winds were light. With a 7-10knot headwind, landing was much more reasonable. Two flights total, on the same battery.

I thought I may have had too much downthrust,....not so, plenty of lift with the most modest power application.

I'm anxious to "stretch her legs".

Thanks to all on this forum that contributed. This has been an extremely helpful thread!

mred

Those 500ft landing is the reason I put spoilers on all my gliders. They put a stop to that and make for some great landings. Lets you nail the landing spot almost every times. As for reversed rudder, that is why I always do a control check just before launch, to make sure that doesn't happen. Had it happen once and never again. If you didn't put spoilers on this time, it's not to late to do it and they are worth their weight in gold when you need them.

Ed