Alwyn Gee

Hi, I've got the JP 480 si electric powered version and it's just covered with the recommended glass-weave tape and it has bounced a few times. The only bit to get damaged was the plastic motor pod as it is brittle. I would expect that covering it with a hard outer shell might have the same effect and be more prone to damage. I've flown mine in 40+ mph winds which is why I bought it in the first place. It is as it says on the box, "virtually indestructible". I patched up the motor pod with a balsa block to secure the motor & another balsa block shaped to replace the nose of the motor pod. The only plastic bit left is where the battery & ESC fits. Mine weighs just 1060g with about 120g of lead taped to the underside at the nose with another layer of G/W tape and it just loves a blow. Also makes a great howligan machine on a calm day.. Alwyn Edited By Alwyn Gee on 30/09/2012 01:49:14

Come on guys the mans a Geordie, or near enough, and thry're nowt if they can't talk. Alwyn

Wot!!!!!!!!!! No B2, Tim? Shame on them. Alwyn

Chris, The difference comes for me as I use a 4 x Multi-charger but each channel is still only 50 Watts. This means that charging larger packs ie 6s 4000mah I can charge two 3s packs at about 3.8 amps whereas a single 6s will only charge at about 1.9 Amps. These figures will be higher at the start of the charge whilst the voltage is lower but still comparably lower for the 6s, so it takes longer to charge. I know this as I have a 6s set-up for which I use either a single 6s pack or 2 x 3s packs. It takes a lot longer to re-charge the single 6s. Alwyn

I would charge as 3s 2600 as most chargers are max 50Watt output and the highr voltage reduces the max amps that the charger will produce therefore lengthening the charging period. Might not be an issue with such low Mah packs but worth keeping in mind. Theory is 50W/12.6V=3.96A max charge rate or 50W/25.2V=1.9A. These are obviously the numbers at the end of the charge and slightly higher charge rate will apply at the start of the charge process. This is much worse with higher Mah batteries. Alwyn

Not working for me at the moment which is probably just as well. Alwyn

Keep an eye on the Lidl website, they have it in twin tube syringes for £1.99 every so often and it is good stuff. I buy up 3 or 4 tubes each time it comes round. It is only 5 minute and it does what it says on the packet. Never had anything come apart with it. Alwyn

Hi Tim I'm so glad you've brought this up as I was beginning to think I just could not handle this plane in the landing faze. I too have noticed that it needed a fair amount of up elevator to fly level at speed. When it's sitting on the ground after flight there is quite a few degrees of up elevator obvious to see. I also noticed that when trying to land as I made my approach and turned on to finals and cut the throttle the model balloned alarmingly so much so that I am too high for touch down at the start of the field and so far have been unable to get a satisfactory flair for landing and have twice damaged the nose leg and u/c doors by coming in nose first. Another club member, who is a gold standard competition flyer also has this model and has the same amount of up elevator in his. We were both flying yesterday and he commented that he felt that it needed some elevator mixing with throttle. Not sure if he meant this for low throttle or high as I didn't think about it at the time. I'm toying with the idea of adding a little weight to the wing brace tubes at the centre of gravity to increase the wing loading slighty as I feel it needs to com in a little faster to keep good flow over the surfaces and better control but at present it is too floaty and if you try to flair it it just starts to climb again. A little more weight might just implrove the sink rate and still be able to lift the nose. I did this very successfully with my E-Flight Mentor that was a pig toland in a wind as it simply floated and had to be virtually hovered in. I increased the battery from 3 cell to 4 cell (making all the other correct adjustment to keep the Amps in check) and the extra weight has made ths the model that I always fly in a good blow now. It just needed that extra few grams on the wing loading to make it handle beautifully. I'm hoping I can get the same result with the venom. I flys beautifully till it comes to the landing. hope this helps Regards Alwyn

Well don't die just yet Alan, I'm sure you've got lots more wisdom to impart and lots more compliments to come. Alwyn

Hi You should always be working everything harder at full throttle as this is when you draw the maximum Amps & it is current draw that creates heat etc. Still with what you say about the power output you should only be drawing about 20A max. You say that you were using a 30A esc so provided your motor could also take more than 20A you should be within the limits of your power train. Ventilation can be a problem but this is usually more evident when running at the top end of your power trains capability and that doesn't seem to be the case here. Not sure what you mean by "mode of operation issue" but does not sound to me like you are over-stressing the system if your figures are correct. Could it be an issue with cheep pre-installed ESCs in RTFs Alwyn

Good on yer big man, you must be one of the old school that gives a fair days work for a fair days pay. Too often these days people seem to want as much reward as possible for doing as little as possible.   Alwyn Edited By Alwyn Gee on 30/08/2012 17:33:10

Hi Tim It comes with Deans connectors. It is pre-wired for using 2 x 3s packs or a single 6s pack and has a jumper supplied between one of the connectors for when you choose a single 6s pack. It's very much spaggetti junction in the radio bay though. Flys well, but I can see the nose wheel doors are likely to be vulnerable on grass strips so I've ordered a spare set whilst they have them in stock. Alwyn

Hi Peter Yes it is the Hangar 9 version and I would not lay claim to having cracked it completely but as I said earlier I do get more landings to stay upright than nose over tho' they're not always pretty, it can still tip side to side on the wing tips on that narrow undercart. The slower the better to reduce the length of the roll out. Also have to agree with the comment above to try to land directly into wind. Not a good model for a blustery day but a bit of steady head wind helps to reduce the ground speed. With electric flight all landings are dead stick landings but the windmilling prop creates drag and helps to slow it down after the throttle is closed so speed drops off fairly rapidly. I'm now having to re-learn my landing technique with my new Ready2Fly Venom as this is the first EDF I have flown and this does not have a prop to slow me down. My first three landings so far have been a little hairy to say the least. It just does not want to slow down when I shut the throttle. Alwyn

Hi I have this model with electric power and whilst it is not the easiest of models to land I have managed more times than not to get it down a lot more dignified than that. I still have the occasional final nose over as it stops but just up onto its nose and back down again. Lately I've had more trouble with it squirming around on take off but i think that's been me being too heavy handed with the throttle. I would agree with previous comments that it is comming in far too fast and when you are trying to put the tail down it wants to fly again and any rudder movement is amplified by the speed. I find it has to be a slow approach and then stalled into a 3 pointer to have any chance of keeping the tail down on grass. loads of elevator helps as well. If I remember correctly I increased the elevator travel from what was recommended for this reason.I also have 50% differential ailerons and 50% expo on full rates. Alwyn

Likewise, too far for over the counter shopping but cannot fault their on line business. Come on SMC, lets have an Edinburgh branch. Only joking, the prices would go up and I get most things next day anyway. Alwyn

Just thought I'd bump this back up the list now that all you Nats boys & girls are back.

Hi Just recently had to make up a lead to connect 2 x 3s packs in series for 6s. I usde the deans plugs that I had in my box but was one short. So off to the LHS to pick up some more. Only three packets of JP Accessories polarized connectors left so I took them. I only used the female half of the new connector as it's mate was already in place on the ESC. Went to plug this all together at the field and there was nothing! No power getting through to arm the ESC. Checked everything with my multimeter and all seemed fine. Still no power. Tried a single battery direct to ESC and bingo we have power. To cut a long story short the new JP plug is white metal on the female ends and will not pass the power to the gold pins on the ESC. When discussing this with clubmates it seems that others have had the same problem with the same plugs from the same LHS and one model was lost because they did get an initial contact but then lost it in flight. Has anyone else had any similar problems with these plugs or is it a bad batch. The strange thing is that the male side of these plugs appears to be at least gold coloured but the female side is not. Wont be using anything other than gold in the future. Alwyn

Hi I went for the 4500 Turnigy 6s purely based on physical size and weight. Although it flew fine I had quite a bit of up trim in so I thinks it's still a little nose heavy. I've also orderd 2 x 3s 4000mah from the euro warehouse which are a bit lighter so may have to include some weight with them. I will try some detachable weight on the tail with the bigger 6s pack, maybe a strip of velcro under the tailplane to secure some strip weights. Shouldn't need much as it's quite a long moment. Alwyn

Unless you pay a lot of sheckles for your charger the usual charging ouput is only 50Watts. This means that your average 3s pack can only be charged at a maximum of around 4 amps when it reaches 12volt no matter what you set on the screen. this being the case you will be lucky to find a pack that you can charge at 5c. Most of my flight packs wont even reach 1c when I'm charging 4s packs. Even my 200w 4 channel charger is still only 50w per channel even when there is only 1 channel in use. Patience and spare batteries are a virtue. Alwyn Edited By Alwyn Gee on 23/08/2012 21:43:57

Hi folks Just an update to my post above. A full refund of the VAT charge & Parcel Force handling charge was posted to my PayPal account today by Ready2Fly. I would like to say that any misgivings I had when the double VAT situation came to light have been swept away by excellent service by this retailer, especially Tino, who dealt with everything for me by email very efficiently. I would not hesitate to use them again in the future. I'm now just waiting for my battery from HK UK which should be here tomorrow to get this bird in the sky. Oh, and some decent weather. Alwyn Edited By Alwyn Gee on 22/08/2012 15:06:17

I have just purchased the Venom direct from Ready2Fly and have potential problem in that their website stated under the delivery info that as they charge 19% VAT there is no further VAT or Customs charges to the customer. This is not strictly true. They thought they had an agreement with their courier for this within the EU but When I Queried why I had been hit with VATfrom customs & Parcel Force handling charge, they checked with the courier and discovered that it did not include the UK. Initial emails during the purchase took a day or so to reply but when the problem was discovered responses were much quicker. The person I was in contact with, Tino, has made all the right noises in that he asked for details of the charges I had incured and would re-imburse my PayPal account. I gave this info on Friday and he said this was passed to the finance department for refund but as yet this has not been forthcoming. A fellow club member also ordered the Kit version after me and although he has not got his yet he has been told the same as me to notify them of any charges. Tino also said that they are changing the web site so that uk customers will not now be charged VAT. He said they had very little dealings with uk customers direct so had no experience of UK Customs. Pleased with the quality of the model so far but as yet not flown. Tino did advise me that Boomarang Jets were retailing them in the UK but this did not come up on a search when I was looking for one. I notice that their price is slightly higher than the direct currency conversion from the Euro price from switzerland but you would face the extra PF handling charge over and above the VAT charged by customs Alwyn

Hi PatMc Sorry I can't get photo's as the ESC is buried in the guts of the plane. Its the Ready2Fly Venom that I have and it comes ready wired for the single 6s or 2x 3s. It is definitely in series but because they have taken the wires directly from the ESC to seperate deans plugs and then bridged the other neg & pos accross these plugs you can only break it at each battery connector to fit the in line Watt meter. I realise that this is the reason for only reading half the voltage. Common sense is starting to kick in now and tell me that the Amps I see on the meter must be the full draw as if this was only half it would mean that this 90mm fan was pulling 114A at 22.2V and producing 2530W for a 5.5lb foamie aeroplane. I just couln't grasp what I was seeing on the meter but I think that I now realise that the Amperage draw will be the same on both batteries but not doubled. So the 57A x 22.2V = 1265W divided by 5.5lb gives 230w per lb. About right for a fast jet I think. Its just the first time I've tried to check a duel battery set-up and I didn't have a single 6s to try it with. Would have been simple if they had fitted a plug on the ESC first and then supplied the series battery lead. But, Hey Ho, they do supply the bridging plug if you are only using one 6s pack. Alwyn

Thanks for your response Frank. The unit is an "Etronix Power Analyser", it simply plugs into the main power line between battery and ESC using only the main leads. In "Watt Mode", as throttle is applied it reads live Amps & Volts underload on the top line and Watts & AH used on the bottom line. I'm just not sure if the Amps are the total Amps being drawn by the EDF unit or if like the Volts it is only half the total consumption. I realise that I can put it between the other battery and ESC connector and see how that battery hods up under load. I am hoping that the 57 amp draw is the total draw as the supplied ESC is only 80 Amp. Alwyn

Hi This is an old thread I know but rather than start a new one this is the nearest match I could find. I'm trying to use my watt meter on a 6 cell set up that is pre wired to accept either 2 x 3 cell or 1 x 6 cell lipos. In 2 x 3s mode, I fitted the meter between one of the batteries and the esc with the result that it read 57A @ 10.6V & 500+ watts. (Can't quite remember the exact watts now but it was well over the 500). I realise that the meter is obviously only seeing the voltage from one battery but is it reading the total Amps. The watt reading I'm getting is only the Amps x the 10.6V so further down the line when both batteries meet is this going to be about double. As this is pre wired direct from the ESC there is nowhere to plug in to get the full voltage. the set up comes with a jumper lead in one battery connector for using a single 6s pack I would prefer to use 2 x 3s packs as if one cell or pack goes faulty it is cheaper to replace a 3s pack than a 6s pack. Any help with this greatly appreciated. Alwyn

Unless they are electric and reliable. Alwyn