Don't know if there is anybody in SH who is better at staying "on message" then our mutual buddy Doc Holiday - who always reminds us to "have fun". I'm in the process of following Doc's orders with this, a decidedly non-competition oriented little time waster - that ought to be a blast!
Those who attended the Brodak Fly-In June '09 got a chance to see ( and some got to fly) the prototype of the new electric powered Baby Clown. Well two prototypes later, the package was finalized, orders placed and complete power systems will be available around the end of November. The new Brodak electric power systems slated for the Electric Baby Clown ARF will be available separately as a set and can be used on most any 1/2A models. Quiet electric power in a 1/2A is the ultimate noise-friendly answer for backyard or park flying and electric twins are WAY easier than IC twins! To prove that, I took on electrifying the Brodak 1/2A Twin Mustang.
Pix 1: The plastic firewall style mount used on many of the Brodak 1/2A’s is pre-drilled with the holes in a rectangular pattern for a Cox reed valve engine. The electric motor mount is an “X” with the mounting holes on a square pattern which does not fit all 4 holes in the plastic mount – but it will fit two holes diagonally - because of this the change out to existing birds built for Cox reedy's should be pretty straight forward. In most cases 2 screws is probably be enough to retain the motor, but it is a cinch to drill the other two holes (3/32” drill) for the other two 2-56 mounting bolts and nuts. The motor mount ends up skewed a few degrees – but that is of no concern and it still covers the mount and the notch for the landing gear wire.
Pix 2: We will be using two motors and two speed controls but only one battery and one timer to control our new thoroughbred. To accomplish this we will add a pseudo “drop tank” to the middle of the wing to mount the battery on. This will make battery access and change-outs a breeze and actually works in our favor by improving the vertical CG.
Pix 3: Two “Y” wiring harnesses are needed: one will connect the battery circuits of the two ESC’s so they can be connected to a single battery, the other will connect the signal harnesses from the ESC's so they can be controlled by a single timer.
Pix 4: A standard RC Y-harness can probably be found for the timer circuits, however one critical change is needed - note the red power wire from ONE side of the harness must be disconnected/disabled.
Pix 5: The two harnesses are installed in the wing center section with the plugs that go to the ESC’s exiting out the leading edge, the common plug for the battery exiting out the wing bottom center – where the battery goes. Finally the wire to the timer will exit next to the inner side of the outboard fuselage. The timer will be installed about midway back on that fuselage to kind of keep it out of sight while still making it accessible. Up front, we will install the ESC’s in the center most sides of the profile fuselages so they do not stand out quite so much.
Pix 6 & 7: The rest of the F-82 build goes pretty much to plan. I will cover all the subassemblies separately – like an ARF – then assemble them. More pix to follow...