EDF units

[doctormike]

I can't believe, as flygirl stated, how inexpensive EDF units are. My mind is abuzz with what I can build and use these on for the powerplant! I'm even designing a racing boat. I'm also planning a Horton 229 flying wing. Man!... I'm excited! Doc :p

[gooniac33]

I can't believe, as flygirl stated, how inexpensive EDF units are. My mind is abuzz with what I can build and use these on for the powerplant! I'm even designing a racing boat. I'm also planning a Horton 229 flying wing. Man!... I'm excited! Doc :p

I have too many ideas to put into action... But as of now I have almost all of my fleet switched over to them. 50mm all the way up to 90mm are 10-13 blades... The sound that the 10 and 12 blade fans make when balanced is almost turbine like. and the thrust that we are able to get now makes them capable of lots more than the 4-6 blades of the past. My Freewing A-10 is amazing and sounds like a high bypass turbofan, my cyclone equipped EDF flying wing blows people away with its performance on 3s.... I could just go on and on about it all...

My biggest thing now is getting them balanced. Everyone has been coming to me to get their fans balanced...

[doctormike]

How do you balance them! Doc

[fhhuber]

Balancing the fan is done similar to a prop... put it on a balancer rig and remove weight from the heavy side or add it to the light side.

generally the weighting is done at the hub of the EDF fan kind of like balancing a spinner for a conventional prop. Takes a little more weight change to get the desired effect.

Note that some of the cheap plastic fans I'll spin at a low rpm and just brush the tips of the blades with fine sandpaper if there's mold flashing or they don't clear the shroud, then I balance the fan.

[doctormike]

Thanks! Doc

[gooniac33]

How do you balance them! Doc

There are easy and hard ways to do it. I am one that likes to take the easy way when possible. It isn't always possible to do it with a prop balancer so you need to get resourceful at times. Here is my youtube play list of how I have been doing it with my fans as of late... There are some results in there as well showing how it has worked.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsFORvKk7TcHU7vzg4fKclONM6sKKCSO0

[doctormike]

Man! Good vids. Thanks! Doc

[doctormike]

I just maidened my Funjet EDF conversion. Holy cow!!! Jumps out of my hand and flies perfectly. No trim needed. Center of thrust just right. I used a 70mm EDF and a 50A ESC. 2500/50 Admiral battery. Anyone have suggestions for a pocket radar? Doc

[F106DeltaDart]

I've been looking for one, but a GPS based speed indicator seems much cheaper than any of the nice radar guns. You can get the the sports-grade pocket radars, but they don't work all that well from what I've seen. Congrats on the fun jet maiden! Sounds like it's quite a blast. I have an EDF project that I will get around to someday.. I really want to do a Bell XF-109 (D-188) with 3 64mm-70mm EDFs, 1 in each nacelle plus a forward fan to stabilize it in VTOL mode.

[doctormike]

That's cool!!! Good luck! Thanks for the info. Doc