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e-Electric Conversions > Predator Max Electric

Ben74

Senior Heliman - Location: Long Beach, CA -

hi all. i have recently completed my conversion of a predator max to electric power. all it took was the creation of a motor mount and new G10 lower side frames, which i fabricated myself. here are some specs:

Motor: Kohler Actro 32-3 brushless outrunner
ESC: Schuzle 40.70WK
Battery: Tanic 11s3p 6600mah LiPo
Blades: 720mm Rotortech
Servos: Futaba 9252 on cyclic
Gryo: gy601 w/ 9251 servo
Receiver: 8ch Futaba PCM
Rx Power: SBEC supplies 5V from main battery. No Rx pack.
AUW: 11lbs, 2oz
Flight time: 10+ minutes of hard flying
Headspeed: 1850rpm

This heli is drawing about 2300W peak on the 11s3p tanic pack. With the motor running at about 89% efficiency, this translates to 2047W at the motor shaft, which equals 2.75 horsepower. i hope to get even more power with a 12s3p pack of the new 10C thunder power lithium polymers that i have on the way.

here's a few photos:

more photos available here:
http://www.netwiz.net/~ben/rc/pmax/

videos taken last weekend at the Mid Winter Electrics fun fly in san diego:

flying with 11s3p of the new 10C thunder powers, on loan from the mfg:
http://69.93.85.242/video/2004 MWE BH-Predator-TP.wmv

the heli has maybe a dozen flights on it so far. i am very impressed with the predator max kit. i like the design, the parts are good quality, and the thing flies like butter. butter on fire, actually.

naturally, some of you are probably wondering how much it cost me to do this conversion. unfortunately, it did cost a good deal more as an electric than it would have with a 90 engine in it. the motor, ESC, and batteries are all rare, top of the line items that will take a while to come down in price. however, there is a lot of money to be saved in fuel costs, so the high initial cost is offset somewhat by that. my goal in this project was to push the envelope for electrics and show what is possible with the latest technology. i encountered a lot of headaches and hurdles to get this heli flying, but it was also a lot of fun, and definitely worth it to me.

this heli will evolve as electric technology gets better. i will be receiving a 12s3p pack of the new 10C thunder power batteries next week, which i expect to outperform the tanics i have now. i will also work on lightening the heli. so far i have replaced the stock pmax landing gear with some lightweight carbon fiber landing gear that are used on the joker electric heli. perhaps carbon frames will be in my future as well.

cheers,
ben

02-20-2004 Over year old.

the Wasp
rrProfessor
Location: Vt

it looks like a clean setup !!

Jim

Jim
Buzz Buzz Buzz

02-20-2004 Over year old.

Ray Fernandez
Key Veteran
Location: Guam (U.S.A.)

Ben,

Nice looking setup. Like Jim said, very clean look.

I've been toying with the idea of a electric setup and was seriously eyeing the Fury ION. If only the pricing could go down, I would probably get one. Maybe in the future

Ray Fernandez - GUAM

02-20-2004 Over year old.

jwooten
Senior Heliman
Location: Cedar Bluff MS

I am a little behind Ben, but here is my version. I hope the weather lets me do some serious testing this weekend.

Jimmy

02-20-2004 Over year old.

jwooten
Senior Heliman
Location: Cedar Bluff MS

Why do we fly helis in the first place? It is not for the money. I like to build things. Right now they are one of a kind. For the FAI flyers out there, this thing is very stable. No vibrations.

If you have a problem paying $30 for a gallon of glow fuel electrics are not for you.

Jimmy

02-20-2004 Over year old.

Ben74
Senior Heliman
Location: Long Beach, CA

thanks for the compliments guys. jared, electrics are definitely not cheap right now, but us electric guys are fascinated with electric technology, so we like to push the hobby forward with unusal projects like this. the electric world is moving forward by leaps and bounds right now, and it's an exciting time to be involved with the electric side of the hobby. i guess it's the thrill of doing what's never been done that motivates me. one day, we'll all be flying electrics, i promise. however, it won't happen without someone out there blazing the trail. tony (misskimo), jimmy, myself and a few others have been learning many important lessons about high powered electrics though the conversion projects we've taken on recently. the knowledge we're accumulating will lay the groundwork for the future of the hobby.

let's not get into a debate about which is better, glow or electric. let it suffice to say that us electric guys just love electrics for their own sake. whether they're better or not is irrelevant. i'm not saying everyone should go out and buy an electric right now. i'm just trying to show people the progress that is being made.

02-20-2004 Over year old.

Lift
Elite Veteran
Location: Houston, TX

HOLY COW guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is some awesome stuff. No doubt about it electrics WILL take over this hobby. All it would take is one manufacturer to find a way to offer the cells & motors at a competitive price to IC stuff and we'd be on our way.

I know almost NOTHING about electric helis. But, I think it's great and look forward to their success. If you have never seen a good sized electric fly even with today's current technology then your missing out. Like I said....just a matter of time.

Thanks for sharing Ben and Misskimo. Please keep us posted!

Oh yeah, Ben no more fires PLEASE!

02-20-2004 Over year old.

nivlek
Elite Veteran
Location: Norfolk England

Why?Because they can.It's as simple as that.Personally I will never climb a mountain, but some people seem compelled to do so.I agree
that I.C. power is cheaper, and your heli will be lighter , but give it say five years and things will be much closer in terms of cost and performance, largely do to the advancement of battery technology but
partly due to these guys putting in the time and money now.So I applaud
their efforts ,looking forward to reaping the rewards,rather than questioning their reasoning.
I hope both of the machines bring much delight to their respective owners.

02-20-2004 Over year old.

Glenn in Den
Key Veteran
Location: Longmont, Colorado area

Excellent work!

Awesome!

Now image waiting for Century to do this . . . like I'm still waiting for my Predator gasser! Yikes! Don't go there . . . scarry thought!

Keep us informed!

Glenn.

I'm not really an R/C pilot, I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night!

02-20-2004 Over year old.

Ben74
Senior Heliman
Location: Long Beach, CA

1 hour to 90%, or 1.5 hours to 100% with the astro 109 charger. i usually charge to 90% at the field, since the last 10% takes so much longer. however, i often don't have time for more than one flight when i fly on weekdays, so it's only an issue if i'm spending a full day at the field on a weekend. sadly, i haven't done that for a while.

02-20-2004 Over year old.

dnts
Veteran
Location: Israel

That is some very nice power drill you got there, Ben.. 2300W you say? on a 11s pack? That's about 55Amps... YIKES... and at 89% efficiency, you still got some nasty 250W of heat to evacuate... or do you prefer the heli to smoke just like it's IC cousins...
Now, with electrics... the less it smokes, the better

02-20-2004 Over year old.

Darksyde
Senior Heliman
Location: Chur, Switzerland.

I noticed that on some of the Predators images shown in this thread, that the landing gear was all one piece CF. Where are the one piece skid/struts from?

02-20-2004 Over year old.

Darksyde
Senior Heliman
Location: Chur, Switzerland.

weight differences asside, I imagine that they would be less likely to snap from a hard landing than the stock Century gear. I have always found the plastic used in Centrury's strutz to be on the brittle side. I once cracked a set just putting the skids in. How much are the Joker ones btw?

02-20-2004 Over year old.

East Coast Tanics
Senior Heliman
Location: SOUTH DAYTONA FLORIDA

ordered my g-10 ben
another E pred maxx is fixing to be born !!!

robert

02-20-2004 Over year old.

DreamHobbies
Senior Heliman
Location: Long Beach, CA

Great Job Ben!

On another note -

Like they say, to each his own. I can think of alot of pluses for an Electric Heli:

Runs clean, no having to clean the oil and gunk off your heli at the end of the day. How many paper towels and cleaner have you used over the years? This adds up.
Very quiet, you can actually fly it in places where otherwise a nitro heli would be a nuisance. It's nice to hear the sound of the blades.
No glow plugs going bad, so no flameouts. I'm sure everyone has put an IC heli in one time or another due to a flameout.
No fuel, so no worries about fuel filters getting clogged. No fuel expense.
No starter equipment needed.
Yes, you have to charge them, but you still have to charge your flight pack, and starter equipment on an IC heli also. With the new high current digital servos, I see alot of IC heli flight packs being charged more often than once at the field.
No smoke trails, so in a scale ship this is a plus.
Final plus on my list, but not the last plus; with the advent of Lithium Polymer Technology, flight times can be longer than that of nitro helis.

I'm not here to start a debate, but rather to just point out some facts.

I primarily only fly Nitro Helicopters now a days, so this is a perfectly unbiased opinion. I'm perfectly happy with my nitro sucking helis.

Steve

Steve Campbell

02-21-2004 Over year old.

jimmyhua
Veteran
Location: Guam

Hey Ben,

NIIICCEEE. I like it. Too pricey for me though.

I saw the video, it was awesome.

I'll wait till Li-Polys are about the same price as high end NiMHs before I jump the gun

Jimmy

“No, try not! Do or do not, there is no try.”

02-23-2004 Over year old.

johnboy
Veteran
Location: South Lincolnshire nr Peterborough UK

for me i think it was worth the four and half hours download

.......very impresive and well done.....

¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤

02-24-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

blakka_1
Elite Veteran
Location: Northampton

Nitro helis beware!!! ben's awesome electric Predator is coming 4ya.

nice going, very impressive

02-24-2004 Over year old.

Ben74
Senior Heliman
Location: Long Beach, CA

small update: i have flown the electric predator on a 12s3p 5700mah gen2 thunder power pack, and have measured over 3000W peak! with 89% efficiency, that translates to over 3.5 horsepower at the shaft

. the performance, of course, is incredible. hope to have another video for you soon.

04-29-2004 Over year old.

Gary Jenkins
Elite Veteran
Location: Wilmington, DE

Very cool! What are the flight times like?

04-29-2004 Over year old.

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