Lite Stick Motor Uses

[Jason Nowell]

Lately, I've seen the motor that comes with the Pico/Lite Sticks on a myriad of different aircraft. I recently built a "slightly modified" Herr Eng. Stearman bipe (28" span). I lightened it up where I could, made the landing gear a little more flexible, and added a HiTech feather flight pack to it. My original thought was to use a geared 280, but it killed my wing loading. I decided to try the motor from an old (dead) lite stick, and guess what. ROG's, loops from "almost level" flight, and 6 minute flights on 7 110 mAh NiCads.

We fly at a basketball gym here in Dallas and last week, there was a mini-IFO, a scratch built Bleriot, a Mouse, and a Next Generation II all powered by this versatile power plant. Anyone else have any of these motors on non-lite stick aircraft, I'd love to hear about them.

The way I see it, you get a $20 motor, and it comes with a free airplane http://www.rcmicroflight.com/ubb/smile.gif

Jason www.nirac.org (http://www.nirac.org) - Go check out our new "Virtual Panorama" of some of the guys flying at the Bedford Boys Ranch Gym, I risked my life to photograph all of the angles while 5 airplanes were sharing my airspace in the basketball gym. It's a real hoot!

[SLOW FLYER]

Jason,

We have been doing a little poking around and discovered the following:

The Firecracker motor end-bell mikes out at .470".
It is the same on the POT-01 motor, too, and that is labeled as an N-60.
I did some comparing of the Firecracker (geared) and the POT-01 and
couldn't see any difference in performance, same prop, same battery pack, same current draw (This info is from "wolfie" from SFRC)

And the GWS motor has the same dimensions.

Conclusion is they are all made by the same company and imported by several different fellows.There might be a slight difference in the number of windings or the wire size. Their cost is in the $1.00 to $2.00 per range. They then add a little gear or two and charge us $17.00 to $50.00 for them.

A good markup or a rip-off. Your choice.

I'm hoping to have some of these motors for sale in the $2.00 to $3.00 range soon.(motor only. no gears)

Curt!

[Jason Nowell]

Curt:

Thanks, I too had noticed the simularity to the POT 01, but hadn't tested it quite that intensely. Rip-off, I agree! I really have been buying the $17 Lite Sticks just to get the motor, it's the cheapest way I've found to get one.

Do let us know when you have the $3 ones available, we'll probably buy them by the case here in Dallas. http://www.rcmicroflight.com/ubb/smile.gif

Jason

[JTinCT]

Dave and others, Check out this motor that I found in the Science Surplus Catalog. I spoke with them earlier today and was told that they had over 600 in stock as of now. While at their site order one of the catalogs. They have a lot of neat items that could spark anyones interests.
Here are the published specs:
Mighty Midget
Amazing, DC motor that is only 15/32” dia x 1–1/4” long with a 1/16” dia x 3/16” long shaft. A Mabuchi product, it spins at 3000 rpm on 0.10a @ 1.5 VDC and whirls out 15,000 rpm at 0.30 a @ 9 VDC. The perfect item if you want to move fast in a tiny space!
29756 MIDGET DC MOTOR $3.50 / EACH

I will be ordering a few to play with and will post my results on the RCMicroflight list and disucion group
http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm?subsection=18&sction=6&category=172
John T

[Ralph B]

JTinCT:
I beleive the motor you are looking at is a higher voltage version of the GWS motor. I bought some of these from All Electrionics and while they looked like the Firecracker, and GWS motors, they did not make as much power. I'm interested to know if your tests come out the same, keep us posted.
Ralph B.

[JTinCT]

Ralph
Well that is disappointing but I will give it a whirl(literally) http://www.rcmicroflight.com/ubb/wink.gif and try some things out. I may try a set up like the one on the Jonny Bee with the duel motors.
What tests did you do? How did you gear it? How many cells? And what prop did you use? Thanks JOHN

[Ralph B]

Hi John:
I'm sorry if I rained on your parade. The motors I got from All Electronics had the same RPM spec.(15,000 @ 9V). I bought a "Firecracker" direct drive from Cloud 9 when they were first offered last November. I made my own adapter so that I could mount it to a VL 5:1 gearbox from an old VL50B. The "Firecracker" at 5:1 Flew my test model very nicely on 6 50MAH. cells. The 50B flew the same model on 8 50MAH. cells. Duration was best (5 to 5.5 min.) on the 50B vs 3.5 to 4 min. on the "firecracker" (lower voltage = higher current to make needed thrust). The model was about one half oz. lighter on the "Firecracker" set up so I felt it flew much better.
When I received the surplus house version of the "Firecracker" I did a static test on 4 to 6 cells using the small prop that came with the "Firecracker". The RPM was very clearly lower,So much so, that I was disapointed. I did adapt it to the VL gearbox ,however, I did not atempt to fly it because I could tell that I did not have enough thrust to fly my "testbed". The good news is that the current was much lower.
I think your idea of gearing two motors to a common shaft has merrit. I have recently been doing some experiments with this concept, and I am enthusiastic about the potental I see for this idea. I encourge you to go for it.
Buy the way, if you are interested in seeing some pictures of some of my micro activity, my brother has included a few pictures on his website. Check out http://pw1.netcom.com/~bradleyp/index.htm
Keep me posted on your results.
Ralph B.

[JTinCT]

Not to worry, no rain on my parade. Heck if it starts to rain we'll just go and fly inside http://www.rcmicroflight.com/ubb/smile.gif Thank for the info, I appreciate it. I do like the low current so I will try a duel motor setup. I'll post my results back when I get them. John

[Jason Nowell]

Not to change subject.....but I have been tinkering with an "inverse" idea. I have built a few prototypes of a single motor, dual prop ducted fan unit. The way I see it, a ducted fan's efficiency is mostly reduced by the fact that the darn motor is right in the middle of the thrust line.

Here's the basic idea. I put a Speed 400 motor with a big 32 tooth pinion gear on it in between two tubes. Here's the fun part. I found some 5 bladed fans from old computer CPU coolers that were almost all fan (very small flat center section). I then took a cogged rubber belt from an old belt driven motorcycle and cut thin strips of it, and yes, glued the strips around the outside of the fan blades.

Without getting too long winded, I cut the tubes in half, mounted the fans on some music wire supported by the stationary blades at the front and back of each tube, and wallah! A dual fan, single motor EDF unit. Problem was, it produced exactly the same thrust as a Minifan 400 from Electric Jet Factory. Mine also came apart on the second test run...stuff flew everywhere. LOL

Not too practical for indoor yet, but there might be a little bit of genius buried in it all somewhere...maybe!

Jason

[Ralph B]

Jason:
Glad to hear about your experiment with the dual fan. I was thinking about doing the same thing, but haven't tried anything yet.
I have been experimenting with an Indoor EDF project using the GWS-Firecracker motor. I had hoped to develop it for this weekends DEAF Indoor event, but I started working on another project when I found out I would not be able to attend this year. What I did was use the KP 44MM fan shroud and rotor with an adapter to mount the firecracker motor. This is a very quick and easy conversion. I have been running on 50 Mah. cells (6). I want to use the 50's to keep the weight reasonable for indoor. The fan with motor weighs 26 grams. When I hold it verticle while running on 6 cells it will leap up out of my hand if released. I think the thrust is around an ounce or ounce plus a little more. I plan on building something around 150 to 180 sq. in. ,with a flying weight under 90 grams. Duration looks like it will only be 2 or 2.5 min. but the double time cells from cloud 9 may help improve this. I hope to have it for the next (first?) NIRAC event,or the Southwest conference in 2001.
Ralph Bradley

[Jason Nowell]

Ralph,

Glad to hear someone else is thinking of indoor ducted fans. Last week at our weekly indoor fly-in at the bedford boys ranch, the was a Pico Lite Stick J3 with a KP 44 mounted on it. It flew pretty well, though the flight time was generally less than 1 minute.

I have aquired a Hobbico Sonic Blast EDF free flight model for conversion. I too am using a GWS motor from an old lite stick to power the fan. I haven't gotten very far along, because I am trying to finish my Herr Stearman conversion for the DEAF meet this weekend. Sorry we won't see you there, I'm looking forward to it.

Jason