HC Hobby Mosquito electrics

[Jim Forrest]

I have bought an HC Hobby Mosquito - what a beautiful model it is. I don't actually want to fly it - it is suspended from my Den ceiling. However, I want to drop thhe undercarriage, so I have a receiver (came with the kit), a LiPo Turnigy 2.2 battery, and a Turnigy Acucell 6 charger.

My problems are -

1. Connecting the battery to the charger doesn't seem to do anything. The text screen stays as saying LiPo Charge (0.1A at 3.7V (15)), the inbuilt cooling fan doesn't run, and as far as I can tell no charging is taking place. The larger (power) battery wires are plugged in as is the four pin socket into the charger.

2. On the Mossie there are 6 channels on the receiver - the 7th socket is marked as battery. But I have a cable marked as CH-7 which ends in 2 x 3 pin connectors (male pins). Where does it go?

3. The receiver has a three pin socket marked BAT - but the battery has two power leads (for the motors?) and a four pin plug!

2. Another cable in the kit has two spade fittings (quite substantial) which feeds two sets of black and red power cables (presumably for the motors). But where does the spade end go?

3. Yet another cable is a 3 pin plug with a loop attached connecting pin 1 to pin 3. Where does this go?

Sadly the manual is practically useless and just tells you to connect all of the plugs.

By now you've worked out that I am a complete novice at this so your help will be much appreciated chaps.

[Pete B]

Hi Jim, welcome to the forum. I don't have any experience of this model but may be able to offer some help with a couple of points.

 

Q.1.

If, by chance, you don't have a manual for the Accucell 6, you can download one here.

 

First of all, you need a good power source for the charger - either a well-charged lead-acid battery or a 12v+ power supply. If this isn't adequate, it won't start the charging process.

 

Once you have connected the battery to the charger, and with the screen showing as you describe, press the right hand button (start). The Amp display will flash. Press the status inc (3rd) button until it read 2.2A. Press the start button again and the volts display will flash. Press the status inc button until it reads 11.1V.

 

Press and hold the start button. The charger will display the number of cells programmed (3) and you then press the start button again to confirm. This will start the charge process.

 

You can see the amount of millamps going in on the screen and by pressing the status inc button, the voltage of each individual cell.

 

It will warble when the charge is complete. The voltage status should show 4.19 or 4.20 volts for each cell. Press the left button to complete the process.

 

This charger can do a lot but needs using to gain familiarity.

 

Q.3.

 

The main leads on the battery will plug into a, presumably,'Y' lead attached to the ESC's. The four pin plug (balance plug) is only used for charging. The thin 3-wire cables of the two ESC's will be connected by a 'Y' lead and this should be plugged into the Rx. This is the power supply for the radio.

 

There are just a couple of threads on here about the model, here and here. It may be worth PM'ing the owners to see if they can help with the wiring questions.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Pete

 

Edited By Pete B on 07/11/2011 08:34:02

[GrahamC]

Hi Jim. Again welcome...

 

Right - you might not like me telling you this, but.... If you are a complete novice, does that mean you havn't flown before?

 

If so, don't even consider flying this first.

 

No really; it will end in tears.

 

I know it sounds arrogant, and I've been there, and I did teach myself to fly, and it did end in tears the first time, and it was on something a lot more stable and forgiving than one of those.

 

You have done the right thing in asking for help. First thing. Be very careful indeed. You have a Lipo battery there, and it is very dangerous if it is misshandled.

 

Can I ask, have you flown one of the free SImulators that is available on the net? FMS is the best known, and a PC game controller can be set up to emulate (roughly) a transmitter. That is where I would start if you are keen to get going.

 

Then seriously think about joining a club. You will get a lot of help and support.

 

You might even want to think about taking it back if you were sold it by a shop who told you it was suitable for a beginner. (anyone else think its not?)

 

Don't get disheartened. It's a great hobby and very rewarding. It would be a shame to get defeated at the first hurdle

 

Now to your first question.

 

1] On your charger you will need to hold down the RH button untill it beeps to begin charging. If your battery is a 3 cell, you should charge it at 11.1 v and at no more than 2.2 amps . You need to work out how to set the charger up. Read the instructions and make sure you understand the charger. Don't charge the battery in the house. They can catch fire if misshandled.

 

Q2 (the second one! the spade connectors question)- it sounds like the power connectors? Did you buy the battery separately.? There is no standard connector in electric aircraft. There are a number of options. Is the spade connecter one of these? - If so its a Deans plug.

Q3 - (The 2nd one -actually Q5) that sounds like a bind plug. Its probably used to link the receiver to the transmitter. Hopefully the instructions will tell you how to do that. Look for 'binding'

 

As for the others. If you can work out how to post a picture that might help with some answers.

Edited By GrahamC on 07/11/2011 08:58:29

Edited By GrahamC on 07/11/2011 09:00:46

Edited By GrahamC on 07/11/2011 09:01:24

[Jim Forrest]

Thankyou Pete and Graham. Thanks to your instructions Pete I now have a fully charged battery. All I've got to do is get it connected to the plane! By the way - you mentioned the ESC's - what are they?

Graham - I used to fly early RC (batteries like half bricks and high wing balsa/dope aircraft) many years ago at West Malling FC. Your comments re flying the Mossie are quite right - I wouldn't attempt it. An experience with a 200 quid helicopter a while back which instantly thought it was a chainsaw and attacked a tree taught me to learn first. The tree won.

I bought the Mossie because along with the Spit and the Lanc, it is one of the most beautiful aircraft that Britain ever produced. It currently hangs in my Den on 60lb trace cord (fishing line) and will stay there. But I want to run the motors, flaps, UC etc - hence buying all the RC kit.

The model came with an Ghz AFHDS receiver which has 6 channels and an identical 3 pin BAT connection. I have connected all 6 channels but the BAT is a real problem. I have a cable marked CH7 with the correct BAT connection, but it terminates in 2 off 3 pin plugs (pins protruding). This doesn't match the battery of course. Another cable has the Deans plug and 2 Y cables, one with 2 red wires with female bullet connectors, and 2 black terminating in male bullet connectors. The battery has a red and a black wire with female bullets. So if I connect the two male bullets it will dead short the battery! I need a cable with a black male bullet and a red male bullet, terminating in a 3 pin connector for the receiver.

I could make it from the cables I have but the 3 BAT pins on the RX are marked S, plus, and minus. What goes on the S? Under the BAT markings it says 4.5 - 6.6V BIND. No idea what that means either!

Getting there slowly though!

 

I will try to sort out some pics.

[Pete B]

Blimey, I had to draw out what you were describing - and then I struggled to comprehend it!

Briefly, an ESC is an electronic speed controller, of which there is one for each motor. They are flat heatshrink covered components with three wires protruding from one end with bullet connectors, which connect to the motor.

 

At the other end, there are a red and black thick cable terminating, I suspect in a Deans Connector. This connects to a battery, in this case, with a 'Y' lead.

 

The other thinner 3 core cable, running to a small plug, carries the S (signal) wire, and a red(?) positive and a black/brown negative wire. This plug is connected to the receiver throttle output (Y lead in this case) and the receiver controls the throttle through the signal wire.

 

It's worthing having a look on the Beginners section for basic electric setups - Timbo, the mod, has written up many articles explaining the function of all components.

 

Don't think I'm chasing you away, Jim, by posting this link to a thread on the Mossie over on RC Groups, a US forum - which is just another resource for us all. There's a video on there which may answer a number of your questions (not having the model, it's difficult to understand their wiring philosophy).

 

If you can bear it, there's also a 100+ page build thread here.

 

That may well answer many of your specific questions. If there is anything you need clarifying, post here and we'll get through it.

 

Regardless of that, hang around here and post a few piccies of your progress!

 

Must get my dinner now.........

 

Pete

 

Edited By Pete B on 07/11/2011 18:55:10

[Pete B]

I would also add, for safety reasons, do NOT fit the propellers until you are totally satisfied with all aspects of the installation........you could seriously damage one of these ....or worse!

Pete

[Jim Forrest]

Life is never easy is it?

Anyway - a pic of the bits/connectors that I have -

 

The battery power leads have a twin pin socket. The motor supply lead has bullet connectors that match the wires coming from the motors - but it has the Deans connector which doesn't fit the battery plug.

The lead with yellow flags has the correct connector for the receiver - but the 3 pin connectors on each of the leads.

It strikes me that I need to connect the Deans into the battery plug, and branch off to supply the receiver. Am I right?

The problems -

1. Is there a Deans/twin pin socket adaptor made?

2. The lead with the yellow flags has a plug which matches the BAT connection on the receiver but the 3 pin plugs go into similarly flagged wires coming back from the wings - but I'm not sure where they go (UC?) The problem is the lead is marked CH7 - and there isn't a CH7 on the receiver - and the other 6 are all full.

3. It seems that I need another cable to connect from the battery plug to the receiver BAT connection. The battery has two wires - but the BAT conn has 3 pins, one of which is marked S. Any ideas?

4. As for the ESC's - I don't appear to have these - the motors have three wires feeding them - starting off all black and terminating in black, yellow and red at the motor -

 

Whether the ESC is buried in the engine/UC nacelle I can't tell. That bit came preassembled.

 

[Pete B]

Bear with me, Jim, I've just typed a full answer and lost the lost before posting...

 

I'll be back soon when I've done it again.!

 

Have you watched the video? There's a bit of useful info towards the end.

 

Pete

 

 

[Pete B]

Ok, try again

 

) The yellow female plug on the battery is an XT60. There is no commercially available adaptor to Deans, so you'll have to replace one or the other. I'm moving over to XT60's from Deans at present.........

 

The power Y lead, with the bullet connectors, is connected to the battery(when you've sorted the connector). The bullets marry up with corresponding leads from each wing. These leads go to the ESC's which are located under a screw-attached panel on the leading edge inboard of each engine nacelle.(see the video).

 

Once you've had a look at the ESC's, you'll see that there is a thinner 3-pin (called servo wire) lead coming from each ESC back towards the fuselage. These 3-pin sockets attach to the two blue-flagged plugs on the Y lead which goes to Ch1, the throttle.

 

The power to the Rx comes via these leads (red + and black - wire) and the white wire, from what I can see, is the Signal wire which controls the throttle.

 

The battery is never connected directly to the Rx - it would kill the Rx. The ESC provides a controlled 4.8V supply to the Rx.

 

2) I suspect that yellow-flagged CH7 lead is for the wing navigation lights. Ignore that for now, unless you have a pair of yellow-flagged wires leading from the wings. To connect these to the Rx, you may need to piggy-back a socket, which is a step too far at present!

 

3 and 4) I should have answered these above.

 

 I've found this on the Hobbyking product page:

 

Speaking of Y-Leads, each wing has 4 channels: Ailerons, Motor/ESC, Retracts & navigation lights, but Y-Leads are supplied to minimise the number of receiver channels required. So, if when the elevator and rudder servos are added, only 6 channels are required or 5 if you do not connect the navigation lights.

 

Those pairs of leads should be colour-coded with the tags.

Do you have a manual for this? I cannot find one online, unfortunately.

 

The RCG build thread starts at about page 28 and it's just a matter of wading through it, I'm afraid - the septics rather like to chew the fat..............

Let us know how you get on!

Pete

Edited By Pete B on 07/11/2011 21:17:27

[Simon Chaddock]

Jim

You don't seem to have all the necessary bits and some those you do have don't match!.

First do not connect your LiPo battery direct to the radio as the voltage is wrong and it will destroy the radio.

 

If you just want to drop the U/C then your best bet is to buy a servo tester.

This is a unit (it needs its own power supply) specifically designed to drive a servo directly. A control knob on the tester moves the servo.

It would simply be a case of connecting each servo plug in turn until you found which moved an undercarriage leg, move it to full down and then disconnect it from the tester.

 

If you really want to connect up everything on the Mossie then get someone who knows what they are doing to identify what is actually there, what you need to get and then help you connect it all correctly and safely.

 

A LiPo battery contains a lot of energy and incorrectly connected can release it all very quickly creating a serious fire hazard.

 

Cross posted with Pete B!

Edited By Simon Chaddock on 07/11/2011 21:10:44

[Pete B]

Despite what I've explained already, I would certainly echo Simon's suggestion that you get some hands-on assistance with this, Jim.

 

I note that you mention running the motors etc and this machine, like the heli, could bite!

 

Pete

[Jim Forrest]

Get expert help? - I've got the best bunch of experts I could wish for - right here!

We are almost there - with your help you've identified and sorted the 4 big problems that I thought I had -

1. Battery charging - now completely sorted and done.

2. Powering the receiver - now I know where the power comes from so I'll leave the BAT plug empty on the receiver.

3. Battery connection - just a plug mismatch which I can easily correct by changing the Deans for a female XT60. I have one so a simple soldering job.

4. The Y lead with yellow flags - I don't need the landing lights so I'll leave them out.

As far as the Manual goes - do you remember those early Japanese instructions for their radios -

Wind button round for click

Light up green signal glowing

Wind searching knob for transmitter

Etc. Etc.

Well that's my manual - but it's titled HC Hobby Mosquito! It has 26 pages - 7 of which are for the assembly with 50% of those in Chinese! However, all of the leads terminating in the fuselage are colour flagged so even I can't cock that bit up!

I will however connect everything up and then connect the battery for a fleeting instant - just in case.

The props are off and the thing is effectively nailed to the ceiling so it's not going anywhere.

Thanks for your help chaps - I will report back (assuming I survive !)