Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
Very impressive, George !
It's amazing what can be done with micro R/C equipment now for so little $$.
When I first got into R/C aircraft in 1978 equipment was totally reliable, but other than the EXTREMELY expensive Cannon R/C micro gear, R/C gear was still quite bulky and heavy.
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Thanks. Yes, R/C gear used to be so big and heavy, at least for digital. My first R/C gear was an ACE "Baby" rudder-only system with a magnetic actuator. IIRC it was about 1.5 to 2 ounces all-up. I made a rudder-only R/C B/G in May 1980 which was my first successful R/C B/G. By August, I got a Cannon 2 channel flight pack and built a model for it. 1.5 ounces for 2 servos and one receiver, plus 1.25 ounces for the 110 4.8V mAh Nicad pack, for around $200. Used that in a 144 sq in R/C B/G that flew so nicely that I had my first R/C thermal flight, over 10 minutes, which was stunning as i'd never even flown an R/C sailplane in a thermal before.
Nowadays, for R/C gear that will work very reliably for E6 powered R/C R/G's, the servos are 5 grams each, long-range receiver about 6 grams, and 110 mAh LiPo 7.4V Battery pack weighing about 7 grams, for an all-up weight of 23 grams (I will note the servos are Dymond D-47's that can accept 7.4 volts. Most other servos fry their feedback pots on 7 volts so would need to add a 5V voltage regulator).
The total cost for those components would be about $80.
Of course there is much smaller radio gear, and lighter, which can be suited for lower power R/C RBG's. And less expensive servos than the D-47's ($20 each), but they are superb servos with great quality, reliability, and power for their size/weight. Some of the tiniest servos have reliability issues (like dying). And some of the ultra-cheap Rx's have crappy range, and I do not mean ones meant for indoors or “park flyers”, I mean ones that are supposed have "full range" that crap out at 1000 feet or less.
To end this message..... I made up an animated gif of the last landing on Sunday.