RC Model Reviews

Hallmar, I also have the FPV Raptor. I saw in one of your post that you put the ESC behind the engine. Are you running long cables from the ESC to your battery in the nose? I've been told by others its not good to run long wires from your ESC to your battery. I'm curious how you have it set up. I have a 40amp Mystery ESC and a UBEC but I'm waiting for some banana connectors to be sent to me.

indianaflyer wrote:Hallmar, I also have the FPV Raptor. I saw in one of your post that you put the ESC behind the engine. Are you running long cables from the ESC to your battery in the nose? I've been told by others its not good to run long wires from your ESC to your battery. I'm curious how you have it set up. I have a 40amp Mystery ESC and a UBEC but I'm waiting for some banana connectors to be sent to me.

I have been a bit remiss in posting here and working on my FPV platform, but the next few days will be all toil and getting it done.

Yes I have run wires from the front to the ESC and that is a total of about 12cm. I do not know how that will affect the ESC, but I will let you know. I have run one piece wires as the ones I ordered from HK were only 10cm long and I'd need two.

I will be testing all parts on Sunday and hope to maiden here Monday or Tuesday. I know it has been a while, but real life keeps interfering

I'll research the wire question more and hope that Dennis or Bill read this post too...

I'm no expert, I just read a lot and have a head full of sometimes useful/useless info.
I don't see that you will have a problem in the Raptor, the recommended max length for Batt to ESC is 18inches/450mm.
The issue with wire length is going to be determined by your CG, the battery being the heaviest article your will no doubt be moving it to adjust CG.
It may be prudent to install all other bits and pieces,locate and adjust CG using battery position before deciding wire length. Having sufficient room and length to engage and disengage the battery should also be considered.
Having a higher rated ESC than required is also recommended.

cynr100 wrote:I don't see that you will have a problem in the Raptor, the recommended max length for Batt to ESC is 18inches/450mm.
Having sufficient room and length to engage and disengage the battery should also be considered.
Having a higher rated ESC than required is also recommended.

I have a higher rated ESC and the wire I used for the batteries to ESC connection is a bit thicker to take the additional distance. I also have the plugs well forward and an extra 1300mAh 3S battery to run all the electronics as an additional fail safe measure. It's worth noting that this plane can take about a kilogram of gear so I think we will be fine, but I'll test as I go before embarking on the first FPV journey and I will post a full list of all components, weights and set up specifications before too long.

I've managed to clear a few hours these next few days and I will get onto it straight away tonight. I have made some mods that I'll post this evening and over the next few days I hope to maiden her. I decided to put a full lighting system with beacons, strobes, landing lights and nav lights, so it looks pretty awesome. I originally wired them into the flaps so they came on when flaps were deployed, but I have put them on a different switch now so I can turn them on and off at will.

I have to say that with the availability of fast build planes, I didn't realise putting this together would take so long, but I am enjoying taking my time to get everything just right.

I do have a question for Bruce though, am I going to be able to remove the camera from the backpack and put it on my pan/tilt setup with wires returning to the Tx unit? If not I can build a new camera to Tx unit, but it would be nice to do this from the start.

I'll be trialling the Backpack and my first FPV flights with my AXN because I am more familiar with the handling and characteristics of this plane, but as soon as I am able I will transfer to the Raptor for the full-on FPV experience.

More to follow soon...

Hallmark

I read that it's better to extend the motor/esc wire instead of battery/esc wire.

I've made some progress with the FPV Raptor, but not without first having to overcome some issues.

I bought a motor for it a few weeks back and I decided to test run it a couple of days ago - just as well too! As it turned out it was entirely the wrong motor for the job and after less than a minute of running at 50% the ESC was cooking hot. So yesterday I went to Model Flight and picked up an E-flite Park 400 920Kv and an 8x8 prop.

I got it all home, installed and it went like a dream. So now I am one step closer to the maiden.



Now I have to finish the lights (only the strobes left to install) and work out how I will fix the landing gear before being ready to throw into the wind.

I have gone with two Dualsky 2200mAh 11.1v 3S in parallel and managed to shorten the distance between the batteries and the ESC by over 10cm so that should mitigate some of the previously discussed risks. I think I mentioned that the camera, Rx and lights will run off the Dualsky 1300mAh 11.1v 3S, so here's a shot of the front cargo bay where I'll place them with the excess of wires that will no doubt come soon. (I've seen a lot of messy FPV set-ups, but I hope to make mine neat and tidy.





I'm also waiting the delivery of my FY31-AP and Hornet OSD, which was supposed to arrive today, but apparently three days in China is about a week in Australia lucky them!

I'll put a few more photos up and when the Backpack arrives (should be Monday or Tuesday), I'll set it all up and see what we have to play with...

Here's a few other snaps...

Nice work mate , are you sticking with the 40amp ESC
Would be interesting to see some watt meter readings for future reference and confirm capability of the ESC to run cool.

cynr100 wrote:Nice work mate , are you sticking with the 40amp ESC
Would be interesting to see some watt meter readings for future reference and confirm capability of the ESC to run cool.

Thanks bud. Yes I am sticking with the 40A ESC because a) I already have it and b) it is well more than required for this motor so the heat won't be an issue.

I'll put it on the watt meter tomorrow and see what it puts out, but I doubt it will be the 350w that I'd like

I'll post the results for analytical comment...

cynr100 wrote:Nice work mate , are you sticking with the 40amp ESC
Would be interesting to see some watt meter readings for future reference and confirm capability of the ESC to run cool.

I got same brand motor "Eflite" and it's a 480 size 1020kv with 10x8 prop and with WOT pull 330watts. The original prop for this motor was a 9.75x9 or something like that, and i run this motor with a 30A eflite esc. Never get hot, but i keep the ESC well vented.