Offshoot RC Models/Drone Hobby Thread

[DocBob]

Shithouse weather for flying, so thought I’d crack on with the Speedboat build that’s been sitting with a pile of custom parts crammed into the box waiting for me to get around to it.

Started by chopping out all the original mounts and anything else not required and in my way

Constantly checking where everything is going to fit as I go.

Spent a while with the Die Grinder and Burr bit smoothing everything out and test fitting the parts, cutting and temporarily routing some water cooling lines as well, so tomorrow can disassemble and start Epoxying everything in place.

Will swap out the XT90 on the 150A ESC for an EC5 Plug and make up some “in series” Lead Sets to be able to run twin 3S batteries with XT60 plugs to achieve the 6S 25V power feed.

120A continuous and 300A burst current for the EC5’s, whereas the XT90’s are only good for 90A continuous and 150A burst, and the ESC can handle up to 900A in 10 second bursts … hence the need for water cooling!

Another reason for why I went away from the original Outrunner type air cooled motor to a much larger and more powerful In runner motor, to which I was able to add a water cooling jacket that can’t be used on the Outrunner motors.

Heat is a big issue in these boats, because being 100% water tight certainly doesn’t allow for much air cooling and leads very easily to cooked motors and electronics.

I even fitted a pair of batteries in place to check the CG of the Hull, and everything balances out exactly as the stock standard boat.
Using the old drive tube as an alignment tool to ensure everything is sitting in the exact right location when I go to Epoxy the motor frame into place.

Still have to modify a few parts to fit my custom drive shaft that I’m making from larger diameter Stainless Steel tubing to allow me to fit some needle roller support bearings to the end of the drive unit, as the original smaller design kept snapping under the stupid power that I kept adding into it.

I have designed all this to handle the 25V, 150A powering a motor that will comfortably sit at 45 thousand RPM all day long, as the motor is actually rated to 60 000 RPM!

[Maiphut]

I’ll give you a hand, slap a Donovan in there

Just joking of course or it’ll sink. I’ll need to buy more Methanol

I have a joke with my Doctor, I said we should go into business then we will take over the world.

[BME]

There’s an opportunity, in the straight of hormuz…!!

drumpfs deal ain’t inked yet… so time to jump in and one up it…!!
GO… !!

[Maiphut]

Funny you mention it my Aunty hmm what’s for her 70th bd.

I know we’ll get her a part of Scotland so she owns that. Step aside dump.

One of the support for taking care of that part of land get a plaque etc.

Nope step aside dump my Aunty owns it now, hers, not yours. Had a joke about it so funny.

[Maiphut]

@DocBob this H5 could be the end of the Black Swan as they have zero immunity. AAand here we go. Allready cancelling chook sales.

Bummer like a cooked chook and a bum nut or several. Some not all atm.

[DocBob]

Been having a hell of a time getting stuff out of China over the last couple of months and I’m fkd if I know what’s going on, as never had any issues with this for decades previously?

Ordered this beautiful Messerschmitt BF 110 Fighter Bomber from the first retailer over 4 months ago, then was returned to Seller from the Chinese Port Authorities.
Their excuse was that the parcel was “too large to ship”.

It’s a fkn foam model Aircraft, NOT a bloody motorbike or electric Scooter!

Got refunded straight away by AliExpress and spent the coin on ordering another one from a different seller, but ran into the exact same issue over a month later where the Transport was denied and sent back to the Seller yet again.

Had the same issue with the much smaller Messerschmitt BF 109 Fighter Airplane, thinking that the Parcel was much smaller at around half the size, and yet was told the exact same issue in regards to being able to ship it?

So yeah … was also denied shipping and returned to sender, which once again pissed me off because these CANNOT be purchased anywhere else in the world and was SO excited to have been able to track one down and purchase it…

Now after 2 months of watching tracking and logistics of my next most difficult to find and purchase Model, I only just got notified night before that my purchase had ALSO been returned to sender.

Got immediately refunded by AliExpress and was able to find ONE more Seller that has this rare model available, so laid my money down at a much higher price to hopefully be able to actually get it shipped out of China.

B25 Mitchell Bomber with all the bells and whistles, but still concerned that even though I’ve managed to secure the purchase, the Chinese Port Authorities could STILL reject the Parcel and return to the Seller after months of waiting for Customs to clear the Shipping.

It seems that the Chinese “ABF” is no different to the shit we are dealing with here in Australia.

It’s bloody frustrating to get so excited over being able to track down and purchase such rare Aircraft, wait months of watching that purchase track across China to eventually arrive at the International Port Customs, only to be rejected and sent back to the Seller without any recourse for alternative shipping arrangements.

They are foam RC model Aircraft, not Gelbasters/Airsoft/Military Equipment or Gun accessories FFS!

On a lighter note, despite many months of waiting and anxiously emailing the sellers due to multiple tracking/shipping delays, these 2 purchases have actually arrived in Australia and hopefully will find their way to my doorstep in the next few weeks.

[Maiphut]

@DocBob

B25 Mitchell Bomber with all the bells and whistles, but still concerned that even though I’ve

It’s been going on for months mate. Why I can’t get shit delivered for business. Toys, nope, Auspost shat the bed couple weeks ago. Oh well fuck ya’s then. Stems from the top.

ADF has been telling Federales for ages, they no listen. I suppose you can’t when somebody elected a malaysian lesbian Sum ting wong.

On a lighter note a Aus farmer 80 odd now passed told me a good experience one day. B25 Mitchell bomber, he was the tail gunner. A couple zeros came in, he lit them up with twin 30’s. I was helping get his sheep shawn, he was highly decorated.

He survived and was a farmer in Australia producing food. English bloodline, Australian born. Top fellow.

Sad day when his time was up. Oh well we don’t last forever, myself included. Full honours

[DocBob]

Hmmmm… Spending these winter days indoors creating wild shite with my RC Hobby Planes, Boats and whatever else every mate in town needs fixing.

Here is 3 aircraft that I built between 4 or 5 months ago, and yet still have never left the ground!

Every single model that I build has SO many factory faults it’s unbelievable.

I’m sure that they do this on purpose to guarantee failures and catastrophic crashes to be able to sell more overpriced parts or complete replacement models.

Here’s the Servos in the F4U CORSAIR that operate the Rudder/Tailwheel on the right and dual Elevator controls on the left.

Nicely spaced Servos and works a treat.

Here’s the AM6 Mitsubishi ZERO with the twin Servos, again Rudder/Tailwheel on the right, Elevator on the left.

Servos a bit tighter, but still clear each other and work well.

Here’s the fkn Hawker Typhoon Rudder/ Tailwheel Servo on the right and Elevator Servo on the left as supplied from the Factory.

Does anyone see a problem here?

Yeah I can now spend a bit of time with the Dremel to fix the issue, but might explain why I couldn’t even control the damn thing taxiing around in ground loop tests let alone trying to take off and SHOULDN’T require me to fix their fckups!
Brand new “highest quality FMS Products” out of the box and wonder why I spend so much time modifying shit before I even attempt to put them into the air.

Whaddaya reckon @BME , can you fly tail dragger Aircraft with the Rudder, Tailwheel and Elevator completely locked out?

How many innocent people new to this Hobby have destroyed their Aircraft from factory faults such as this on their very first attempt at flying through no fault of their own?

I’m currently glueing EVERY single control surface on every single Airplane, as the F4U CORSAIR lost its whole tail rudder, right hand takeoff/landing flap and motor mounts completely detaching themselves only just testing out ground looping before ever attempting to leave the ground.

All 3 of these Aircraft still have a lot of parts and work ahead before I’m confident enough that I can actually get them into the air and NOT have to go back to the manufacturers arguing that they are selling deathtraps to the innocent first time Hobbyists.

P.S. Excuse the messy wiring, I tore shit apart so I could take pics of the Servos!

[Maiphut]

@DocBob

How many innocent people new to this Hobby have destroyed their Aircraft from factory faults such as this on their very first attempt at flying through no fault of their own?

I’m currently glueing EVERY single control surface on every single Airplane, as the F4U

Umm do you really want to see my first flight on a brand new RC plane. It was a gamble as spent 2 weeks getting all the control surfaces squared away.

Right, programmed in the controller mid so could trim on the fly.

One fatal mistake, bit windy. Got about 10ft off the ground, gust of wind, wing overed tip stalled. Splat. Hmm made a right mess of that

I seem to have more success throwing my wallet in the air and see what effin falls out

[DocBob]

Don’t worry mate, you’re not alone on that one!
At least they are easy to repair with a bit of tape, glue and patience.

Swapped a few bits around and hope that worker who originally put this together at the factory got the refresher training that he obviously needed!

Much better now and can actually move everything without any clunking, jamming or binding.

[Maiphut]

At least wasn’t like a Queensland lady I spoke too last week. What, I’m fucking over this, here I can do you one better.

Ooo look out, private entity hit the gov overide button. What a legend, bless her. I nearly asked for a date but thought better not haha

[BME]

why not.?
you only live once…!

[Maiphut]

Well I did think about it LOL

Thought twice, better not push my luck

[DocBob]

Got a good surprise today, getting a message that CTI Transport were going to do a drop off, but I was in the neighbouring Town for the day with a mate and met up with my Sister as she was out on a tiki tour on her motorbike and happened to be passing the same old Pub that we were “refreshing” in.

Finally got both the Hurricane and FW190 delivered at the same time, despite over a month delay on top of the 2 months already waited for shipping, and almost was cancelled and refunded by the Sellers due to the long delays, but luckily decided to hang on and wait a bit longer for delivery.

I was only expecting one delivery, but the truck driver called and said he had 2 parcels to deliver, which made me even more keen to get back to town and check them out!

Eventually got home and decided to head up to the Weir to do the unboxing seeing as though it was such a nice day.

Didn’t unpack everything, only doing a quick parts check in the boxes and a quick read of the supplied literature.

Got back home and did a full unbox and parts layout, keen as mustard to launch into them, but it’s meant to be raining for the next 5 days, so will restrain myself and use those wet days on the workbench getting these two built and electronics installed.

Hawker Hurricane:

Full scale lighting installed along with actual functioning retractable Aluminium Telescopic Hydraulic Landing Gear.

Flaps are split and segmented, plastic hinged, ball connectors and made out of ABS, not cut/pinched foam like the Ailerons.

FW190:
Even older model without lighting and solid retractable Aluminium Landing Gear, but a solid build with plenty of scale details including plastic hinged flight controls, one piece main wing and plenty of historical Marking Scheme options.

Gonna be a fun few days ahead!

[Maiphut]

Nice, I happened to be at my delivery address. Aus posty came down direct in to my delivery address on the electric go karts they have, one “me” parcel.

Oh look, finally my drivers licence rolled up after I did it 3 weeks ago haha. Doesn’t matter, get the invoice and all paid for incase I cop the double bubbles.

Still waiting for a roll of packing tape though, that’s in fkn NSW as of this morning. Fat lot of fkn good that’s going to do me. The tracking is insane on it. I just shook my head, mm ok LOL.

Packing tape. Where’s my fkn holiday

[DocBob]

Couple of rainy days worth of work and pretty much got both Aircraft 90% finished, only waiting on some electronics to arrive to get them fully completed and tested.

FW 190:

Nice metal retracts.

Has proper dual plastic hinged Ailerons, but only pinch foam hinged Flaps.

Hawker Hurricane with nice scale lighting:

Metal retractable telescopic landing gear with spring shocks.

Nice scale Split and Segmented ABS plastic Flaps with plastic hinges.

Only a few extra little paint/decal details to add and then wait for the next B25 Mitchell Bomber to arrive hopefully sometime in September.

[DocBob]

Plenty of new aftermarket parts arriving almost every week at this stage, as am working on finishing not just the new model Aircraft, but also modifying the older ones to improve their handling characteristics and scale details to finish them off to my requirements.

Not forgetting that I’m also still doing custom modifications on my RC Speedboats, Rock Crawlers and CP Helicopters at the same time!

I was never happy with the ridiculously small/out of scale Tyres on the main landing gear on the F4U Corsair, which not only looked wrong, but were also terrible at handling takeoff/landing on the only grass and gravel “landing strips” that I have available.

Measured the space I had available for the retractable landing gear mechanism and ordered a few different size tyre combo’s to see what were the largest diameter tyres I could fit and function without any issues.

Here’s what I finally went for, which are quite a larger rolling diameter than the originals.

They even fill up the wheel wells much better whilst still functioning without jamming on anything throughout their operations.

Old vs. new:

Now have much more ground handling capability over long grass and rough terrain, along with additional prop ground clearance in the event of nose overs if the wheels do dig in on takeoff/landings.

Managed 5 full flights yesterday and kept going until I ran out of batteries, with MUCH better ground handling capability than the much smaller tyres …but unfortunately this particular ARROWS 1100mm model/brand F4U are renowned for their extremely weak landing gear.

They kept continuously bending through almost every single landing, causing “nose overs” slamming the motor cowling into the grass and requiring straightening before every takeoff, otherwise even the slightest bend wouldn’t allow them to retract properly, causing me to have to land again and restraighten every single time that they failed to retract.

By the end of the last landing and last battery, the metal was now soft as jelly after being continuously flexed so many times I just gave up and flew with the landing gear extended the whole flight.

Will now research the online forums and order whatever replacement landing gear that others have used to overcome this issue.

Otherwise it’s a good flying Airplane considering that they are known to handle like a dog because of the fact that you can’t scale down the weight, physics and engineering of the original real Airplane into a much smaller and lighter version and expect it to be able to fly the same way.

[DocBob]

Speaking of scale, the Prop size was something else that kept tripping my OCD for realism.

Obviously the model had a size scaled down for battery longevity, less stress on the electronics and plenty of ground clearance to prevent prop strikes on takeoff/landings, but looks so wrong when parked up and on display!

Original vs. my aftermarket scale “display” Prop.

I don’t fly with the display Prop, even though it’s the correct scale for this model Aircraft, it’s just too large for the battery/motor/electronics to handle, and even now I’ve fitted the larger tyres, it still only has about an inch of clearance at a level landing attitude, leaving VERY little room for error!

Small scale flying prop as fitted out of the box:

Proper scale replica prop true size to the original Aircraft, but unfortunately only for static display purposes.

That bent wheel doesn’t look so bad from this angle!

[DocBob]

May as well keep posting shite while I’m on a roll!

The Psycho TYLOSAURUS project had its final few parts roll up last week.

I was waiting on a waterproof RX box to fit all the electronics into, as the old waterproof RX and everything else was destroyed by fire in the last deep sea submarine high speed crash and dive!

Have replaced the RX with a spare Aircraft unit out of my parts pile that enables me to simply set up another channel on my Aircraft TX to operate instead of buying a complete new waterproof Speedboat specific RX/TX system.

Velcro onto the hull with more Velcro to hold the horizontal Aerial on top of the RX waterproof box for the max height possible, as these are Aircraft receivers, not surface/ground tuned units normally found in Cars and Boats.

The second vertical Aerial will be fitted through a hole through the top of the hull deck and sealed with some Marine Sikka.

[DocBob]

As for the batteries, they are having to be test fitted and modified as the build progresses to ensure that everything is going to fit inside the hull and able to be fitted/removed once the Hull is sealed back together again.

The OVONIC batteries arrived first and fitted well, so chopped off the battery leads to make them as short as possible and to fit the huge 150A plugs.

They fit perfectly within the Hull even with the deck fitted, and easily fitted/removed except for the water outlet hose on the left hand side … so will have to modify the routing of the hose to exit in a different location to get it all to work smoothly.

The TURNIGY batteries are a little shorter, which is why I ordered them, but unfortunately too wide and tall to be able to fit in any orientation I have tried with the Hull deck attached.

There’s a little bit more room if I slide them forward to clear the top deck, but that throws the CG WAY too far forward to create an even worse high speed Submarine than it already was

Also requires room to clear the locking latches on the waterproof hatch cover, which definately ain’t gonna happen with the TURNIGY batteries.

I’m glad that I didn’t chop the leads and fit the 150A plugs to them when they arrived a few weeks back, as at least now I can put them away and will come in handy for a couple of more Aircraft builds that I have coming up.

Will get a few more OVONIC batteries instead, as I have VERY little room to work with inside the Hull, and at least I know that they will fit in comparison to other brands.

I’ve chopped off over 15cm worth of cabling on each of the batteries, motor wires and ESC wires, totalling nearly a full metre of unnecessary cable length across the whole system to reduce resistance and ripple currents/spikes that destroy electronics and overheat plugs and components.

Have swapped out the battery plugs, ESC plugs to 150A connectors and even upgraded to the largest size possible on the 3 phase motor plugs for the most efficient power delivery as possible.

If this cheap little 45kph boat that I already had cracking over 100kph with mostly stock parts doesn’t get up and yipping even harder after all this work, I don’t know what else will!