Get yorself a LiPo safety bag NOW!

As you might know LiPo batteries can explode while charging them (or by physical force). Yes you will get some notice before it happens because the battery will puff-up and start to smoke. But if you have left the batteries unattended while charging you won't see that and the catastrophe might strike down. Now, you should never leave your LiPo's unattended while charging them but who can sit and watch the batteries for a whole charge cycle?

What you should start to use is a LiPo safety bag! 

A LiPo safety bag is a small bag made out of a fire retardant material. You place your LiPo battery in this bag while recharging the battery. It is also good practise to use the LiPo safety bag when you are storing or carrying you LiPo batteries. Usually you seal the bag with velcro and only the charge cable is sticking out of the bag. If the worst should happen you have a good chance to dramatically reduce the damage.

Warning on the front of my LiPo safety bag

In the link to a YouTube search (below) you can take a look at various videos of LiPo explosions, with and without LiPo safety bags:

• YouTube - LiPo explosions

As you can see LiPo's can really cause a real mess so make sure you are protecting yourself and your home when charging LiPo batteries.

My LiPo safety bags are bought at HobbyKing (LiPo Charge Pack 18x22cm Sack) for 1.99$ each. Prices may vary and the size of the bag may also vary but they all do the same, reduce the damage if the worst should happen. The particular bag that I have will hold ~2-3 3S LiPo batteries at the same time. Of course this is dependant on the size of your LiPo sack. Mine is 18x22cm (or ~7x9 inches). I find this particular bag quite good because it has a good opening for the charging cable and you will be able to have more than one LiPo in the bag. The velcro used to seal it is robust and the price is really affordable.

LiPo safety bag

I think this is a cheap insurance so if you don't use such a LiPo safety bag when handling your LiPo batteries make sure you consider buying one (or more) bag(s).

Below is a selection out of many places where you can buy your own LiPo safety sack (different size and price):

• GraysonHobby LiPo Guard Kevlar Bag
• HobbyKing - LiPo Charge Pack 18x22cm Sack
• Amazon - Lipo Safety Sack Large

Hope this post was useful and that you really consider buying atleast one for your LiPo batteries.

/MidnightSunRC

Blade mSR throttle problem - SOLVED!

In an earlier post (here) I wrote about my problem with the throttle on my E-flite Blade mSR getting stuck on full speed and then after a couple of seconds it went down to zero without me being able to do anything.

Now I think this is solved :)


It seems as if it was my LiPo's that wasn't good anymore. I just received an order with some hobby items today and among other stuff I had ordered Turnigy 1S 160mAh 30C 3,7 V LiPo's (from HobbyKing). I ordered four of them since the price was only 1,69$ each. After plugging the batteries into the charger (that was included with the Blade mSR bnf kit when I bought it) and charged them fully I crossed my fingers and plugged one battery into the little heli and - YIPPEE! - everything was back to normal again.

Turnigy 1S 160mAh 30C

Places where you can find "mSR-compatible" batteries:

• GraysonPower 150mAh 3.7V for Blade MCX & MSR
• 150mAh 1-Cell 3.7V 12C Li-Po
• HobbyKing 160mAh 1S 30C

Lesson learned: If you encounter the problem that the throttle just locks on the Blade mSR and then goes back to zero after a few seconds make sure to check the batteries. Go for 150mAh batteries or more if you intend to purchase new ones.

Building the RCPowers F18 easybuild v2 - a 4 part mini series

After buying the ultimate RC course from RCPowers.com I decided to immediately start to build one of the planes from the bonus pdf-plans that I received with the course. The decision fell on the F18 v2 and I will cover my process from printed pdf-plan until the first flight.

(As a disclaimer I do not claim that this is the correct, best, most accurate or fastest way to build this plane. It is just my way of building this plane this time in order to get it up in the air and have some fun with it. Also, I don't have any connections to RCPowers so I think that I will need to limit the photos on my progress not to reveal any specifics of their designs. I find their work in RC exciting and the planes they create to be thoroughly designed.)

I will do this as a mini-series in four parts. Each part will include some specific steps and show my progress towards the maiden flight.


Part 1:
Include why I decided to start with this plane and what I have done up until the point when all the different parts are traced out from the foam sheets.
Part 2:
This is where all foam parts are put together into the final model.

Part 3:
Painting and installation of push rods and electronics.

Part 4:
Maiden flight

/MidnightSunRC

My R/C gear (the electic gear)

During the time I have been active in this hobby I have bought some various "electric" equipment. When I started to think about this, after listening to the RCPowers audio course, I can see that I have not been that focused. If I should start this hobby today I would focus to buy equipment that I can reuse in (almost) all my setups. Looking at my small "collection" I now see that I only have two items that are identical, two 3s 1550 lipos. Well OK, I actually only have one kind of servos, HXT900's.
Motor:

• Turnigy 28-26 1650kv
• Turnigy 28-36 2350kv
• Brushed motor included with the Easy Star (don't know brand or size)
• 2212-6 2200kv (looks exactly like turnigy but no name)

ESC's:

• HobbyWing Pentium18A
• HobbyWing Pentium 30A
• Brushed included with Easy Star (don't know name or size)
• 20A (looks exactly like turnigy but no name) 

Lipo:

• LM Fast charge 2S 1300 20C
• LM Loong 2S 1300 25C
• LM Loong 3S 1300 25C
• Gravity 3S 1550 30-40C

Transmitter:

• Spektrum DX6i
• E-sky (included with Lama v3 heli)

Receiver:

• AR6100 (included with the DX6i transmitter)
• OrangeRX 6 channel DSM2 receiver (works great with the DX6i)
• Corona 4 channel synthetic receiver (works great with the transmitter included with Lama v3)

Servo:

• HXT 900

Lessons learned: Be more focused when buying RC equipment in the future. This would save me money and I will always have spare parts if something breaks.

/MidnightSunRC

Bought the ultimate RC course

I went and bought the RC Powers ultimate RC course yesterday (you can find it here: RC Powers). I bought the master version where you get almost three hours of material and four (4!) of their pdf plans as a bonus. After looking/listening through the first few modules I really see that this is a good thing to buy. Even though I would say that the biggest audience for this course are the RC hobby beginners I would also say that this is a gem for those that has been into the RC hobby for a while. Actually, I really believe that I would have saved quite a lot of money if I had had the opportunity to buy this when I first started.

I think I will come back later with a small review of this course when I have listened through all the included material but just because of the good deal together with those bonus pdf plans I would already now recommend a buy.

Blade mSR throttle problem

Solution to my problem here!


Ok so my Blade msr has started to have a bad behaviour. I am flying around in a normal way on a fully charged battery, nothing fancy, and suddenly the throttle locks and I can't do anything. After a few seconds (maybe 5?) the throttle goes down to zero like the battery is dead. I have no idea what the problem might be but I suspect that it might be the 4-in-1 that is dying on me.
Has anyone had the same problem? Are there any solutions?
Cheers

Camera with OSD for rc planes - TX61 from RC-Tech

WOW, look at this! Camera with OSD for rc planes
This is what I want. The only drawback that I can see is that it uses the 2,4GHz band so you can't use your 2,4GHz radio to fly with.
Here is a link to a clip on YouTube where they are using this equipment: YouTube clip
I will get back with later posts on this topic because I find this as a "next step" with this hobby.
/MidnightSunRC