NZ_Neil
Senior Heliman
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
| For those contemplating building an eRaptor 50 here is some info that might help.
I own 3 Raptors and was keen to have an electic heli, since I have a workshop full or Raptor stuff and the remains of an old V1 raptor I chose to build an eRaptor50 out of spares.
In my Gallery http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/gallery/4313/ you will find some pictures showing some closeup - sorry about the clarity on some photos.
Specs
Raptor 50 with
Hacker C50 15XL motor
Master 77-O Heli Esc
UBEC
Two Pairs Of 4S4P6000 Thunder Power Lipos
Two Schultze 6330d charges
40Mhz R149DP Receiver
3 Futaba 9252 Servos (On Swash Plate)
GY401/9254 On The Tail
Mounting of UBEC & ESC
I mounted the UBEC on the inside front of the Raptor Frame with the Hacker ESC mounted above the motor. This configuration allowed for a very tidy wiring as its all inside the Raptor frame.
Receiver
The receiver is mounted upfront. I cut balsa block to fit in the front of the raptor frame and then mounted the receiver onto this.
eCCPM upgrade
Buy the eCCPM upgrade dont bother using mechanical mixing. But please note that some of the nice slender canopies (ie from CanopFX) will not fit over the eCCPM servo mounts. The wider Fibreglass body available from CyberHeli (and others) fits easily.
Battery Mounts
I created these from brass and then covered them in heat shrink.
After alot of though I decided to make the batteries slide in forwards and then strap them in with velcro. They work well and are easy to slide in and out.
Battery Plugs
After a lot of though I decided to go with the "Astro Flight 3 Pin Zero Loss" plugs. They are expensive (USD$10 a set) but :
a) They make a nice connection
b) I dont like the idea of seperate connectors flapping around.
c) I liked the idea that I could solder the wire inside the pin.
d) The Deans plugs look scary and look like an accident waiting to happen.
Motor Wiring
The three wires pin and socketed with heat shrink to the ESC which I have mounted above the motor inside the Raptor frame. The motor after a good workout reaches about 60celcius (God know what that is in Farenheiht ?) The ESC shows no noticeable heat despite its proximity to the motor.
Charging
I bought a pair Schultze 6330d charges so I could charge both batteries at once. I thought I was smart by trying to run them both of the same battery at once - WRONG
a) These chargers dont like being connected to the same battery at the same time - The instruction manual says this. I am going to do more experiments to solve this so I can get both chargers working together. At this point I have to restart the chargers once during their cycles and keep the charge current below 3amps. Its not causing the Lipos harm, its just a pain.
b) You need big car batteries a new 24amp/hr sealed Lead Acid Batt fails to charge them if you set the charge rate at greater than 2amps.
Dont get me wrong these chargers are great, they just need to be run on seperate Car batteries to work otherwise one or the other will detect a charge fault and stop.
Am I Happy with my eRaptor 50 ?
Yes very happy, I get 15 minutes of good flying out of her (all helis are female) She flys great, not quite the punch of my methanol R50 or R70 but a joy to fly around the park outside my house in the early evening when I would never do the same with a methanol one because the neighbours would complain about the noise (or smell)
Regards
Neil Harker
Auckland
New Zealand
1 Specs |
