My new Skywalker 1900 is now on build...Having sorted out the UHF receiver for "Muxed" mode, it's now all working as it should with the Cyclops Storm AP.
I'm going to be using a 35mm 1200KV Turnigy G10 Motor.
I will be using a 12vdc BEC regulator to provide smooth clean power for the Storm and Video system, so I can use either a 3S or a 4S Lipo for power.
It's a large plane, and I'm thinking a single large capacity 4S Lipo would be a wise choice, say about 8000mah? Not looking for out and out performance, just a good cruising match for motor and Prop. Keeping the build very simple and low drag, but I'm considering clipping the wings maybe later if its too slow?
Suggestions please on the Lipo and also a suitable size prop for this motor?
Cheers..
:vulture:
I run mine on 4S and it feels just right. I haven't tried it on 3S but I've heard others say it feels a bit under powered. Is there any benefit to going 3S considering you already have your 12v UBEC in place???
Oh and I carry 10,000mah
Quote from: AdamG on March 03, 2016, 09:40:06 AM
I run mine on 4S and it feels just right. I haven't tried it on 3S but I've heard others say it feels a bit under powered. Is there any benefit to going 3S considering you already have your 12v UBEC in place???
Oh and I carry 10,000mah
Hi Adam,
No, it's just that I have a few 3S Lipos I could parallel together that's all.....but thinking about it, buying a couple of decent 4S Lipos seems more sensible....I assume you are using two 5000,s?
:vulture:
Makes sense, always nice to use LiPo's you already have.
Yeah I have 5 x 4S 5000's 25c. I use them in my SW, on my F450, and will also be using them on my Skyhunter.
They do fly well on 3s but if you want to climb at any reasonable speed, especially with weight onboard then forget it. It feels like a 4s plane to me. The FPV Raptor was the same (well, worse :laugh:) .. on 3s it was a nice cruiser, but 4s really turned it into a fully fledged version of itself.
Please Note:
A 12 volt BEC regulator will not work with a 3s battery, as the BEC cannot regulate a 12 volt supply from , when battery even fully charged, less than 12 volts.
On a 4s battery - all OK
Thanx for all your input guys, I have ordered 2 x 4S Lipos...10000mah.
Cheap at £22 each for a 10,000 4S Lipo....Multistar green ones.
After reading Blue flyers build notes, he had difficulty making it nose heavy enough. Since I wont be using a heavy GoPro etc, it seems a logical choice now. Going to keep it light and simple and as drag free as possible.
:vulture:
What's the URL for those lipos? I have one but they went back up to £39
Yeah the multistar ones are great for this plane.
I currently use 1x5000 mAh 4S and 1x2200 3S in my skywalker
Keukpa
Quote from: English Turbines on March 03, 2016, 12:40:35 PM
Thanx for all your input guys, I have ordered 2 x 4S Lipos...10000mah.
Cheap at £22 each for a 10,000 4S Lipo....Multistar green ones.
After reading Blue flyers build notes, he had difficulty making it nose heavy enough. Since I wont be using a heavy GoPro etc, it seems a logical choice now. Going to keep it light and simple and as drag free as possible.
:vulture:
Good choice ;)
Multistar.....10,000mah 4S Lipos....Find it here....£21.80p each:
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=64794 (https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=64794)
Dunno how good they are, but if your just cruisin around?
:vulture:
Quote from: English Turbines on March 03, 2016, 02:25:50 PM
Multistar.....10,000mah 4S Lipos....Find it here....£21.80p each:
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=64794 (https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=64794)
Dunno how good they are, but if your just cruisin around?
:vulture:
Thats mad cheap prices!!! :o :o :o was £42!!!
It will be perfect. 10amp at 10c = 10x10=100. So you can pull 100 amps according to its stated c rating, you wont even pull half of that, my max is about 43 amps on WOT :D
They are very good for a 5-10A cruise but the voltage sags a little when pulling more, I'm on just over 40A as well at full chat
Quote from: Steve W on March 03, 2016, 02:47:26 PM
They are very good for a 5-10A cruise but the voltage sags a little when pulling more, I'm on just over 40A as well at full chat
I'm using a 60 amp ESC with a 4 amp BEC....Im pleased these are rated high enough, never did understand that C rating...
I don't think my modest 1200kv Turnigy G10 will be a problem for it.
Anyway, the Lady at HK UK said my two were the last of the stock...lol....Only kidding...:)
They did seem a bit cheap at the time, so I bought em....maybe its a Sale?
:vulture:
4S definitely. Skywalker flys best heavy and with lots of power in my opinion.
And those packs are cheap because.... well they ain't that good. OK budget lipos.
I bought a bunch last year at similar slashed prices. One of them decided to become a 3S pack when one of the cells just completely died and the other two have pretty badly matched cells.
I hope they aren't too bad as I just grabbed one to use for field charging.
Quote from: Ratty on March 03, 2016, 05:01:16 PM
I hope they aren't too bad as I just grabbed one to use for field charging.
How?
Just plug charger into it.
Only charging small 1000-1300mah batteries so should get 6-8 charges of the 10a battery.
Good idea. I assume your charger takes over 12v ok?
Yer, I usually run it at 18v. ;D
Quote from: Ratty on March 03, 2016, 05:14:19 PM
Yer, I usually run it at 18v. ;D
Good stuff. I have a couple of Accucel 6's, haven't checked what input they can take, will check it out later ;D
Yer worth a check. That battery will get me an extra 6-8 flights for the price of 2-3 more battery packs.
Cheap air time. ;D
I wouldnt say I had difficulty getting the nose heavy enough... It was built with the intention of having a GoPro on the canopy, so naturally without the GoPro there it was a bit more tail heavy than it is now, still no dramas though.
Quote from: wgt40w on March 03, 2016, 10:35:37 AM
Please Note:
A 12 volt BEC regulator will not work with a 3s battery, as the BEC cannot regulate a 12 volt supply from , when battery even fully charged, less than 12 volts.
On a 4s battery - all OK
a fully charged 3S LiPo is 12.6 volts... so the 12v BEC would work fine up until the LiPo dropped below 12v... or am I missing something?
Its a big bird, and I think it will handle the heavier 4S Lipo.....
I didn't think about field charging though...will I need more than a 12V Lead acid to charge a 4S?
We do have two 12V Lead acid batts though in our hut....I think they are wired in series?....Have to check my charger now..
They was cheap though at HK..
:vulture:
A single lead acid will charge a 4s fine. ;D
Quote from: Ratty on March 03, 2016, 11:43:52 PM
A single lead acid will charge a 4s fine. ;D
Thanks Ratty..
Oh, I just quickly read my charger Manual, it's an Overlander Charger...It states a DC input max of 18vdc...but says it will do up to 6S...But is that when its on Mains Supply?.....Confused...:(
Anybody else got an opinion?
:vulture:
it doesnt matter about the voltage, charging is about capacity.
As long as the 12v lead acid battery has more mah than the LiPo you're charging, it's all good.
But you need a charger in the middle to control the charging process, make sure it doesn't put electrons into your LiPo too fast (current)
Quote from: Ratty on
Today at 22:43:52 (http://www.fpvhub.com/index.php?topic=48573.msg242561#msg242561)
A single lead acid will charge a 4s fine. ;D
Is that right? I thought that the 14V lipo battery would try to charge the 12V Pb battery because they'd try to normalise the voltage.
Quote from: Steve W on March 04, 2016, 12:23:46 AM
Is that right? I thought that the 14V lipo battery would try to charge the 12V Pb battery because they'd try to normalise the voltage.
which is why you wouldn't just plug them into each other, you power the charger from the 12v pb battery... this then controls the charging process to charge the 4s LiPo.
I don't know enough to give you a technical answer, but the charger will stop that happening.
We used to use a single lead acid to charge our 6s heli batteries, so it will defo work.
Ah right my bad, I missed the part about using a charger :laugh:
Oh yer you don't want to wire your flight pack straight to your charge battery. That will likely result in a puffy battery at best and a fire at worst. ;D
Field battery (whether it be lead acid or big lipo) ---- charger ---- flight packs.
Quote from: English Turbines on March 03, 2016, 11:54:15 PM
Thanks Ratty..
Oh, I just quickly read my charger Manual, it's an Overlander Charger...It states a DC input max of 18vdc...but says it will do up to 6S...But is that when its on Mains Supply?.....Confused...:(
Anybody else got an opinion?
:vulture:
The 18v is the max input it will take, and the 6s is the max output it will give.
My technical knowledge isn't the best, but I think if you look at the out put in watts rather than volts, the input and output voltage dont have to match.
For example, its being powered by 12v 10000mah battery = 120W
Now you want to charge a 4s, which is ~16v. 120w/16v = 7.5a max charge rate at 16v
I think that's how it works, someone will correct me if im wrong. ;D
The Skywalker 1900 E/T Vector I built and reviewed last year used the Multistar 4s 10,000mAh battery you mentioned on the first page. It works well. Balancing the nose required a little lead, but nothing silly.
I certainly wouldn't want to fly mine on 3S. I'm using a recycled 4-Max PPPO-3536 910 KV motor, which is maybe a little on the low KV side. Takeoff is at WOT and described as "lumbering".. Fine when cruising on the level at half power though.
Quote from: Ratty on March 04, 2016, 12:53:33 AM
The 18v is the max input it will take, and the 6s is the max output it will give.
My technical knowledge isn't the best, but I think if you look at the out put in watts rather than volts, the input and output voltage dont have to match.
For example, its being powered by 12v 10000mah battery = 120W
Now you want to charge a 4s, which is ~16v. 120w/16v = 7.5a max charge rate at 16v
I think that's how it works, someone will correct me if im wrong. ;D
Thanx Ratty,
Never used more than 3S before, this is why I asked the question. I'm no expert on electronics, but I can only assume it charges individual cells, so on a 4S in pairs maybe through the balance lead?
Dunno, it doesn't explain how in my Manual, and because its a Mains and DC input charger, the Manual simply does not say.
Seems like I started a bit of a debate here...lol.
:vulture:
Quote from: AerialAdventurer on March 04, 2016, 09:57:07 AM
The Skywalker 1900 E/T Vector I built and reviewed last year used the Multistar 4s 10,000mAh battery you mentioned on the first page. It works well. Balancing the nose required a little lead, but nothing silly.
I certainly wouldn't want to fly mine on 3S. I'm using a recycled 4-Max PPPO-3536 910 KV motor, which is maybe a little on the low KV side. Takeoff is at WOT and described as "lumbering".. Fine when cruising on the level at half power though.
Hi M8,
Thats interesting, Im using a 1200KV motor, so I may need to choose a slightly less pitch or smaller prop.....So, what prop size (and Brand) did you use..???
Thanx..:)
:vulture:
English Turbines,
1200kv should be fine, but hop on the ole' eCalc Prop Calc website and plug in your numbers to check the thrust ratio and current draw.
I used a TGS Precision Sport 9×6 propeller from HK. You might want to try a 9x4 at a guess.
Do a web search for 'aerial adventurer skywalker 1900' - I wrote a big photo build log article on my build, I expect you will find it quite useful. I won't link to it here to avoid getting my wrists slapped... ;)
Quote from: AerialAdventurer on March 04, 2016, 10:14:16 AM
English Turbines,
1200kv should be fine, but hop on the ole' eCalc Prop Calc website and plug in your numbers to check the thrust ratio and current draw.
I used a TGS Precision Sport 9×6 propeller from HK. You might want to try a 9x4 at a guess.
Do a web search for 'aerial adventurer skywalker 1900' - I wrote a big photo build log article on my build, I expect you will find it quite useful. I won't link to it here to avoid getting my wrists slapped... ;)
Thanx Adventurer,
It looks like an interesting build log with lots of Pics, I bookmarked it...I always like looking at others builds, you can always pick up some good ideas as FPV layout is always a bit of a compromise...
:vulture:
Glad you liked it. Overall I like the plane.. Don't do what I did and put the VTX on the tail though, that was a mistake in balancing terms, should have done the usual 'put it on the wing tip' approach. Good luck with your build :D
Quote from: AerialAdventurer on March 04, 2016, 10:30:57 AM
Glad you liked it. Overall I like the plane.. Don't do what I did and put the VTX on the tail though, that was a mistake in balancing terms, should have done the usual 'put it on the wing tip' approach. Good luck with your build :D
Lol...yes the VTX on the Tailplane did surprise me a little....How long a cruising flight did you manage using the 10amp 4S Lipo?
Mine will be on UHF and 1280mhz Video with a Cyclops Storm to look after it...:)
:vulture:
An hour should easily be achievable with the 10A battery.
Mine cruises at 6-8A so 80% of a 10A battery will give me an hour (in theory!)
Only real reason I haven't checked it out is because my small batteries powering my goggles + video gear onboard the plane won't last an hour :laugh:
Yes about an hour sounds doable with a respectable wind. In my maiden flight video you can see the OSD at the end, it used 940mAh in about 10 minutes. That was with extra throttle too because I was bricking it maidening my £400 plane lol.
An hour sounds good....Im going to keep it simple and streamlined as possible, its a big plane...I would have preferred the 1680mm version, but the price was stupid...If it needs it, it will be getting its wings clipped...:)
:vulture:
Just noticed the V6 1680 is down to £65 on HK UK warehouse. Must. Resist.
what did you do with my skywalker ewan?
Quote from: BlueFlyer on March 04, 2016, 02:31:33 PM
what did you do with my skywalker ewan?
I stupidly sold it as it wasn't getting much use since I had to put the seats down to get it in the car. I now realise that it's a small price to pay for such an awesome bird!