Martin Harris - Moderator

Rich - there is NO POSSIBILITY that the production of methanol would be featured in a cookery programme. It is a nasty poison, ingestion and even significant skin contact leading to damage to the optic nerve, blindness, brain damage or death. There is little likelihood of methanol becoming scarce - it’s widely used in industry, as is nitromethane. Can we please drop this diversion and return to the topic of model aircraft engines.

Yes, rapid chargers are expensive - how much of this reflects their installation and running costs, I wonder, and will increasing competition reduce prices? On the very rare occasions that I fast charge (3 partial recharges - typically 40% of battery capacity i.e. @ 25kWh - in 15 months of ownership) it reduces the economy to somewhere in the region of the equivalent of 30 mpg for that amount of the energy used on the journey.

How true. On Saturday, the best flying day in (short term) memory our pits area was full of foam EDF jets with just a handful of EP propeller driven models. The only internal combustion engines were propelling members' cars - and even then, the proportion of electric cars arriving at the club is steadily increasing. I had nearly taken a "proper" model but due to a bit of ongoing personal maintenance work, I needed to avoid lifting too much so I let the IC side down as well.

It's not a bad reason to go into business. However, most profit on batteries comes from sticking a label on the package so in these cases, function and reputation probably take precedence.

Yes - by all means do. While this thread stays primarily focussed on Laser engine matters and without any unwarranted personal comments we’re quite happy to leave it to run.

Simultaneous charging of installed batteries often fails due to the charger’s “intelligent” features finding leakage paths or something similar through the common “earth” connections on the model which appear to confuse them and cause early charge termination. This can occur when using multiple chargers as well. I’ve found that using separate power supplies (e.g. mains on one and batteries for others to ensure separation) can allow the use of two or more chargers simultaneously - e.g. dual receiver batteries and onboard glow. The excessive freshly charged LiFe voltage can be tamed by means of a decently rated silicon diode in series with the supply lead (beyond the charge point). This typically drops @ 0.6V with a very good reliability risk - 2 additional solder joints versus multiple components and connectors in a BEC solution. While LiFe do have a flattish discharge curve, their state of charge can be discerned from an accurate voltage reading but given their energy density, can usually be over specified by a large factor compared with nickel based batteries giving a huge margin over the 700mAh packs which would give a comfortable day’s flying in years gone by.

Welcome to the forum Robin. I’m afraid Mike hasn’t been on here lately so he’s unlikely to pick up your request.

Not sure off hand but likely to be a standard metric coarse thread? However, prop nots tend to be a fairly high grade steel so you might do better by approaching the spares agents (elect?) Model Shop Leeds.

My personal experience and observation is that assuming you were at a reasonably competent skill level when you were flying previously, you’ll find that you’ll have little difficulty picking up again. Like riding a bike or learning to swim, the muscle memory seems to imprint pretty permanently. A simulator is certainly good for initial learning and one might give you some confidence but I doubt that you would need anything special.

I can only hope that the whingers were under the impression that you had a financial interest in the firm and didn’t know that you were simply an employee, Jon. Perhaps you might get the odd apology if any of them are big enough. Now that this is clear, it’s to be hoped that such comments will stop and you can immerse yourself in your new career direction. I do hope you can start to rediscover the joys of modelling purely for your own pleasure and relaxation very soon.

I've never used it but it seems to be an Oracover product - seems odd that so many reports of poor performance have been raised for a product from such a respected company. Could there be counterfeiting going on?

Welcome to the forum. Some photos and information such as a price might help spark interest.

I've often wondered if it refers as much to the effect on the copper. It usually manifests as crumbly black conductors.

Watching these posts with interest as I should be picking mine up tomorrow.

To be fair to Peter, I did raise the possibility in the first paragraph of my first reply! 😝

Welcome back. It's not only models that fly - time does too!

They've been almost universally adopted on high performance full size gliders at significant cost so there may be measurable benefits on larger models. To my mind, they are an ugly addition to the beautiful clean shapes that competition gliders evolved to in the glass fibre age.

Made a lot easier by another's experience a week or so ago!

As a wise man once observed, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers! It's an easy mistake to make if you are used to connecting the battery to a dedicated slot - although as you probably know, it's only for convenience as the power rails are commoned in the receiver.

I think you have the lead in a socket marked VCC? This is not the throttle channel. Funnily enough, someone else new to electric power made this mistake very recently. Unlike an IC setup, the ESC needs to power the receiver through the channel that supplies the throttle channel position data. I believe this is channel 3 on this radio.

Perhaps post a picture of your setup so that we can see what is plugged in to where. I assume you’ve connected the ESC lead to the throttle channel? I can’t say for certain but I think this transmitter complies with the normal direction - Futaba kit needs the throttle channel reversing before starting the process. You may need to train the ESC to the throttle channel - most require you to connect the battery with the throttle wide open, wait for the beeping sequence to stop/change, NO PROPELLER FITTED PLEASE, and then close it. The beeping stops/changes once it’s complete. Best to go with the ESC instruction leaflet which will hopefully have been supplied.

You should be able to use any similar spec. servo. Just be aware that there are variations in quality so look for a known make. If you go for Hitec you will probably need to reprogram your transmitter to reverse them but whichever you use, check for correct movement before flying!

We don’t normally use fully sealed bearings (there might be exceptions of course?). Some front bearings can be replaced with 2RS bearings but always with the inner seal removed. I would normally replace like for like though - air leakage may be a problem for two strokes and four strokes without rubber seals may possibly be designed that way to encourage internal air/oilflow through the tappet area. The rear bearing would normally be open as it needs all the lubrication it can get - especially with four strokes. On the other hand, I believe that even 2RS bearings aren’t truly sealed - the seals are only clipped into place.

All I can really report is that I haven’t had any failures, problems or concerns with any I’ve fitted. Mostly OS and clone single cylinder 4 strokes ranging from 20 to 120 and a Laser 62

IL200 posts moved to dedicated topic.