In the thread about OS rear needle setups, Ken Cook said, 'I've seen more people injured removing the clip or nicad ignitor than any other procedure in this hobby.'

Not wishing the hijack the other discussion, here is a new one.

As Ken said, I, too have seen some pretty scary actions by people removing the plug lighter from inverted engine installations.

Also, my RCAT driver has the latest push and twist Sonic Tronics clip and trying to remove it from a Fox 35 results in the RCA connection coming away leaving the plug clip in place more often than not. For that particular model, I made up a connector with  an RCA connector at one end and alligator clips to connect to the plug so we just pull the cable away when the engine starts.

For the other enclosed, inverted engine models that I have in the pipeline, I have been looking at remore connections and particularly like the one used by Tony Bonello from Sydney.

He runs a short length of twin wire from the engine to two pieces of 1/8" brass tube glued into the fuselage side. Mini banana plugs are plugged into the brass tubes. If the twin wire is multi-strand, he makes an R clip from a piece of copper wire to connect to the plug centre.

There are only a few grams of extra weight but greatly improved safety.

I don't like the ni-cad twist off ignitors ether. I'm thinking about going back to the old style, alligator clips. Just need a battery source. Wish I hadn't sold my Glo-Bee battery years ago.

I've seen Team Racers with a LED in the cockpit to indicate the glow connection is complete.

Would only need to select the correctly rated LED and connection details.

G

I agree all the way! having narrowly missed having lacerated fingers for the umpteenth time. I have decided to use a permananet glow plug connector and a jack plug on the end of the wire. A good constant current source will prevent problems with variable resistance contacts in the circuit. Needling with front NVA s isn't a problem. fiddling with a glow stick IS!

Andrew.

What do you use for a battery?

Using a manufactured bulkhead-mount connector with the right current rating would solve a lot of problems, if you could make it look good enough.  The ones used for arming switches on the electric stunters should be just about ideal (as long as you don't mistake someone's electric ship for your glow-powered stunter, and hook up to it, that is).

Hi Brother Larry,

I used a small Radio Shack "project box" along with some nicads.  I put the connectors on it so that I can use any "clip" I want to and can put on one that matches the chargers.  It has worked great!

Bill

Alan Resinger designed and made a VERY cute and light little clip to the glowplug, and uses speaker wire. The clip is a piece of brass tubing, two pieces of small music wire and a piece of silicone fuel hose for insulator. The other end uses a 1/8" phono jack from Radio Shack. I believe Keith Varley used the same setup, but he's gone 100% electric after his bloodbath of two years ago. Alan gave me one of the clips, and I intend to use it, just as soon as I can find it again, and the phono jacks I bought, preferably both at the same time.

I fumbled the glow ignitor into the prop on my .46VF.  Bits of APC prop went all over and the ignitor was totalled.  Minimal ground clearance didn't help, but the arthritis in my thumbs were a major contributor to the fumble. 

Further, Pete Ferguson said he used a pair of Alkaline D cells for a whole season, and they worked fine. I went looking for battery clips for D cells, and all the multi-cell ones at Radio Shack are setup for series, NOT what we want. They're all plastic chit made in China now, so don't bother. If anybody knows where to find old-fashioned metal battery clips, let us know! I wanted to avoid a gel cell, but I'm going that direction, with a glow-driver/power panel and a long enough cord to reach an upside-down plane at a comfy height.     Steve 

I am thinking about building my own battery box so that I could plug in a new set of Alkalines from the 2-11 store, just in case they were found to be flat at an inopportune time. Working up ideas on how to do that...I envision a box of 1/8" ply with some fixed contacts on one side and springy contacts on other side, battery locators and a lid. I will still need an alternate battery set to plug into the side of the plane if the Gel-Cell in my pit box poops out, tho I can also flick the little clip off the glowplug and stick an ignitor on it.  Steve     

The 4 D cell pack I used blows the glo plug as soon as it's hooked up. The way the batteries are mounted it looks like I'm pulling 3 volts. Like they're in series instead of parallel.

I have been using the cheap 2 cell D battery holder from radio shack. You do have to put one battery in backwards so you only have 1.5 volts. You also have to do some mods to the wiring. But once its done it does work well even for the tough 1/2As. It will last many sessions. And just carry a extra pack in your box.

I've rewired a Radio Shack battery holder also.  Pretty easy to do.  I use one of the old fashion "clothes pin" style clips I got from Brodak.  Works very well, but not very practical for cowled engines.  I'm still working on that issue, but the battery box works great.  Just make a good connection from the clip wire to the box.  I tend to pull the box away from the plane using the clip to keep the clip away from the prop.  Pulled the wire out of the box a few times before I got an industrial strength solder connection.  Pretty aggrevating if your NiCad glo battery is also dead.

Paul

OK, splain it to me how to re-wire the 4 battery pack. I must be dense, thought I knew how to do this stuff.

OK, splain it to me how to re-wire the 4 battery pack. I must be dense, thought I knew how to do this stuff.

Larry,

Here's a couple of pictures of what I did.  Clip out the old wires and soldier in the new.  I put a small bolt through the existing hole in the negative terminal to make a good contact with the negative end plate of the battery.  Hope this helps.

Paul

Some glow driver options.

The first pic shows two drivers that I bought, factory made, to hold two D cells wired in parallel. The one of the left is for 049 glow heads. They came from a local hobby shop in Sydney so they are available.

The second is my RCAT driver. The silver cylinder in the middle of the pic is the push and twist Sonic Tronics clip detached from the RCA plug on the cable. Laying around it is the cable I made up with a standard RCA line socket at one end, a length of speaker wire that I had lying around and a pair of alligator clips.

Another popular option at our club is an Enersys Cyclon 2v, 8AH sealed lead rechargeable E cell. They are used in the battery packs of three cells—if I remember correctly—for powering emergency lighting like exit signs in buildings. Under Oz law, they must be replaces after a certain period of time. The packs are normally thrown away but one of our club members is involved in the replacement process so there is a constant supply of these multi E cell battery packs. Inevitably, at least one cell is on the way out but there is always at least one that only requires recharging. The cells all have 1/4" auto spade lugs on the top so all you require is a couple of insulated female spade terminals, a piece of 2-core cable long enough to drop the voltage from 2v to 1.5v and a couple of alligator clips and you are away. If you think a long cable is a bit agricultural, you can always put a resistor in the line and use a shorter cable.

And Larry, to stop blowing your plugs, you must wire all the positive contacts together and all the negative contacts together. Do not connect positive to negative.

Most of these battery holders, although wired in series or series/parallel, have all their contacts held together with small rivets. It is not a major task to take the rivets out and rearrange the contacts so that all the springs are on one side and all the buttons are on the other then you wire all the positives together and all the negatives.

I don't like the ni-cad twist off ignitors ether. I'm thinking about going back to the old style, alligator clips. Just need a battery source. Wish I hadn't sold my Glo-Bee battery years ago.

I never made the plunge for one of those Glo-Bee "Fire Plugs" (?), but I think this is the battery that goes into them. From Geoff's post:  Enersys Cyclon 2v, 8AH sealed lead rechargeable E cell. I tried Googling for it, and found a bunch of sources, but picked this one for local availability. Since I'm only planning on some D-cells for a backup to a power panel/12v. 7amp gel cell, I'm not going to buy one of these. But I know a bunch of guys that are rabid about how much they like their Glo-Bee batteries. If you can find one at a swap meet that has a dead battery, this will probably fix it up.    Steve

http://www.batteriesplus.com/product/23737-0850--0004-8Ah-2V-Cyclon-E-Battery/100085-1/102624-SLA-Sealed-Lead-Acid-Batteries/102633-Cyclon/2V.aspx

The one that fits in the Glo Bee Fire Plug is actually this one:
http://www.batteriesplus.com/product/23728-0800--0004-2V-5Ah-Cyclon-X-Battery/100085-1/102624-SLA-Sealed-Lead-Acid-Batteries/102633-Cyclon/2V.aspx
Any of their 2V cells will work, they are just different size/weight and total AH rating. These cells with long leads or a high wattage (at least 10 watt) .2 to .3 Ohm in series with the lead is far superior to any of the 1.2 NIMH or Nicd plug drivers, especially on cold days, or on a long week-end of flying. If you're concerned about size/weight check out the 2.5 AH size. It's the same size as a D cell, but with 1/4" spades for connection.
      Also, for those who are looking for nice twin lead wire, some of the new speaker wire is very flexable, relatively easy to find, and low resistance. 

Still having problems hooking up the d cells. The picture shows how I have it set up and its still blowing plugs.

OH!!!  

That holder forces you to connect pairs of batteries in series, which means that you'll always get 3V from it instead of 1.5.  I don't normally say "you can't get there from here, son" because there's so many ways to skin a cat.  But -- you can't get there from here, son.

One of my booster packs was due for replacement (it lasted two seasons then I forgot to disconnect the 1/2A plug from it -- them batteries gets warm when you shorts em' out!).  So I ripped it apart to show you the inner structure.

Solder on the appropriate length of 3/16" brass tubing to the tops and bottoms of the cells, cover with some scrap cardboard, wrap the whole thing neatly with black electrical tape -- voila, a booster pack.

Then schlep down to the Shack of Rats and get enough banana plugs to go with everything you might want to power up, and solder them onto their respective wires.  And -- you're set forever.

Use good thick wire -- there's no point making all that high-current power and then burning it up before it gets to your plug.

Larry,

If I'm seeing the photo correctly, you just need to solder a wire across the positive terminals.  I.E. the red wire should be soldered to the spring in the upper right part of the photo.  Leave the red wire as it is, but add a wire across to the spring.  Hope that makes sense.  Also, check the voltage with a VOM before testing it on a glo plug.  If you don't have one, I'll bet a neighbor does.

Paul

Paul, with that holder, connecting + to + and - to -, Larry will still be left with a 2-series, 2-parallel arrangement.  That'll be twice the voltage that the plug should see and without a resistor it'll burn out the plug.

I'm pretty sure that the way he's got it now it's delivering 6V, which is worse yet.

Tim, you're right. I'm gonna do your method. Will a solder gun put too much heat into the battery to solder?

Probably not.  It's counter-intuitive, but the faster you get the thing up to heat and soldered, the better it is for the battery.  That's because you are going to get the metal up to solder-melt heat -- the faster that happens, the less hot everything around it is going to get.  So using a soldering gun or a honkin' big iron is a Good Thing.

I tin the cells and tubing first, then solder it together as fast as I can while still doing a reasonable job.

I'm pretty sure that the way he's got it now it's delivering 6V, which is worse yet.

I would consider getting another 4 cell holder and wiring them all in series (12v.),  then feeding that into a power panel and reeping the benefits of having pulsed 12v to the glowplug to burn off floods automatically.  Steve

Paul, with that holder, connecting + to + and - to -, Larry will still be left with a 2-series, 2-parallel arrangement.  That'll be twice the voltage that the plug should see and without a resistor it'll burn out the plug.

I'm pretty sure that the way he's got it now it's delivering 6V, which is worse yet.

Tim,

Yes you are correct.  Sorry for the confusion.  I was in a hurry and didn't notice the 2x2 battery configuration.  I was thinking of the 1x4 battery configuration as shown in my pack above.  Thanks for clarifying for those I may have mislead.

Paul