Small Brushless Speed Control?

[Messerschmitt]

Does anyone know how to build ,or have information on how to build a very small brushless speed control. Or if there is a company who makes a brushless speed control smaller than the ones the castle makes, any information would greatly help.

[PeteSchug]

The subject is interesting, but right now I can fly my smaller airplanes for twenty minutes or a half an hour with no trouble. Tiny battery and motor that seems to last forever and more power than I need for just fooling around.

I wonder how important it is with the really small stuff.

Of course if I could fly for a half a day at high speeds I would be interested, but the last time I flew my KP00 equipped Widget at a club picnic I stayed up long enough for at least three people to put in complete flights before I made the mistake of flying too close to someone else's transmitter. I wonder how long the flight would have been if I didn't do that?

Brushless is undoubtedly better in every way, and the state of the art is constantly improving, but ordinary motors and lithium poly batteries are pretty fantastic.

If you are waiting for itsy bitsy brushless stuff before you get your feet wet you may be wasting your time while you could be having fun while we all wait for commercial products to catch up to the state of the art.

Pete

[Fwilly]

I don't think duration is an issue. I have trouble getting enough power. I had to squeze every last bit of power I could out of an M20 on a single cell to make a plane that could torque roll. I also had to cut so much weight off the plane, that it was to flimsy to perform well at anything other than a torque roll. You might not have to wait as long as you might think for micro BL stuff. I have made an outrunner that weighed 10 grams. There is a 7 gram out runner in the works, and a phoenix 10 micro only weighs 2 or 3 grams without the heatshrink, and with lighter wire, but it does take 2 cells for it to run right.

[Dave Robelen]

Hi Fwilly,
I am having the same issue with power in the small birds. A straight KP-00 with a U-80 prop is fine for cruising, and the occasional loop, but it takes more thrust and low weights to really manuever. My set up with the LV M20 with high ratio gearing (6.5-1), and a custom 5.5 X 5.0 prop is a nice step up, but I look forward to a light and small brushless combo that is compatible with a single Lipo cell. Power is addictive, it is always hard to get enough, and really tough to have too much.
Regards, Dave

[Fwilly]

very addictive.... I've been building cdroms that give me atleast 1.5:1 thrust to weight, on my 3oz and higher planes, and they usually give a good pitch speed too. When I finally got my sub oz 3D plane going, I was totally unprepared for the drop in thrust and pitch speed, because BL has spoiled me. It was hard to fly. I have rewound a carbon brush n20 with 20 turns of 30awg wired in star, in a deep gear ratio(I'll have to figure out the ratio) that looks real promising. It may bring the weight above an ounce after I reinforce for the extra power, but I think it will let me pull out of a hover. I'm working on a bipe that should be a good match for the motor. My first bipe had great wing loading, but was just shy of hovering. I could do circuits in the living room, and the insane wing area allowed it to fly on the wing, even with the low pitch speed My mono plane had less wing area, but was light enough to hover. Unfortunetly, the long tail twisted like crazy, and added to the difficulty of flying it.

[PeteSchug]

The real question for some of us (me anyway) is: When are we going to have tiny brushless motors and controllers that are designed to deliver reasonable power on a single LiPo cell. On my small stuff that's all that I ever intend to use, mainly for simplicity, but also because I started out with an RFFS-100 and I really don't want a collection of one, two and three (and more) cell packs.

The lure of power is there I admit, and my Widget won't loop even out of the thirty foot dive. My Lil Skeeter started to flutter when I dove to do a loop, so I do see the need for more power and planes that I can trust not to fall apart. I have a cute design on the drawing board that in my mind's (unreliable) eye reminds me of the Aristocat, which I consider the best rudder, elevator, throttle plane I ever flew. Now if I can only find the time.

I am putting the finishing touches on my Kangke Monocoupe this week and if all goes well I can spend some time back in the world of tiny planes. I have the Aerographics Velie Monocoupe, but that is a huge 24 inches or so. I'd love to have one at 2/3rds that size.

I guess I am one of those "Don't mess with mister in-between," people.

Pete