RC Model Reviews

Having subscribed to the xJet and RCModelReviews You Tube sites, I'm keen to progress from a HobbyZone Champ to the recommended AXN Floater before tackling my Parkzone P-51. This way i can also look at FPV at some stage.

All the parts are in (some only recently) at Hobby King, except the recommended 25/30 Hobby King ESC, no doubt out of stock due to a rush of purchases from people following Bruce's recommendation. Being an impatient sort, I was wondering if someone could recommend another well priced alternative so I can pull the trigger.

Thanks,

Simon

I like RCTimer's ESC's - I own several of them.

http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=go ... oductname=

They ship free of charge, which is always a plus

I'll second the RCtimer units, but if you wanted something you can order from HK, I'd suggest a Turnigy Plush. They seem pretty well spoken of, I have a few here that have served me well, but they are a bit more pricey than the HK branded ones, as well as the RCtimer ones. I don't have time to see what HK has in stock, but if they have an HK 30amp unit, you could always use that instead. It never hurts, other than weight, to go up in size on a motor controller. Going down in size could make it undersized and prone to failure.

Regards,

Christian

Just watch out that some of the Turnigy Plus ESCs only have a 2A BEC and that's not really enough to drive 4 servos reliably, especially on a model like the AXN if you haven't properly "exercised" the hinges before fitting the servos.

The HK SS series of ESC work fine (3A BEC) but I notice that the 20A and 30A RCTimer ESCs only have a 2A BEC as well.

My bad, I never checked the bec on most of those.... For the record, the HobbyKing 30A BlueSeries has a 3A bec and it IS in stock at the moment.... looks like it runs $ 10.47 so it's cheap enough and should be a good fit.

Regards

Christian

Hi All,

Thanks for the input.

I went for the suggested 30A Blue Series and ordered the gear on Friday. Still waiting for it to be shipped, so I'm not hopeful that it will arrive in time to play with it next weekend. It's a bit windy for me at the moment anyway.

Simon

Yeah, even AH admits there's about a 4-5 day backlog on stuff leaving the warehouse at the moment.

Bruce? Exactly how much current does a 9g servo consume? I'm kind of surprised that 2A isn't enough for 4 9g servos...

Chris

RCModelReviews wrote:Yeah, even AH admits there's about a 4-5 day backlog on stuff leaving the warehouse at the moment.

Bastage.

I ordered mine yesterday and then realised that the esc I ordered with it was on backorder. Well, I tried the instant messaging (which I hate, being old and slow) and got the lovely "Cheryl", who's English was decidedly un-Cheryl sounding (erm, reading?) but whom none the less helped me to change the order from the out of stock item to the HobbyKing 30A BlueSeries. Surprisingly, Cheryl then changed into "Janet" when she e-mailed me the bill for the price difference.

Meh who cares, HK did a good job changing my faulty order...but now I'm stuck waiting for it to ship.

Btw, I ordered from Honkers, because I was sick of waiting for it to come into stock in Oz.

EDIT: Just checked my mail and, wonder of wonders, it's out the door. Now all it has to do is navigate Honk Kong Post before the second coming.

kaptain_zero wrote:Bruce? Exactly how much current does a 9g servo consume? I'm kind of surprised that 2A isn't enough for 4 9g servos...

Chris

It depends on the servos, how stiff the control surfaces are and how hot the ESC has gotten.

We've had guys here with the stock ESC setup (Plug and Fly version) who found that everything worked fine until they plugged in the 4th servo -- then everything went crazy.

Replacing the ESC with one that has a 3A BEC fixed that problem.

Even if you find a 2A BEC works okay, who knows when it might be that the ESC gets a little too warm, you're flying faster than normal and the servos have to work harder to move the control surfaces, or something binds-up a little and bang -- no control.

Remember, with 4 servos onboard, each one only has to draw 500 thousandths of an amp (sounds better than half an amp) to reach the shutdown point of the BEC. Some stalled 9g servo can easily draw almost an amp each.

For this reason, I recommend a 3A BEC and making sure that you properly exercise the control hinges before installing the linkages.