Official Freewing Twin 80mm F-14D Tomcat Thread

[kallend]

Good luck with the project - it's already a very heavy plane so try to keep additional weight to a minimum.

[latebloomer98]

Ive been meaning to join this thread for awhile now. I have finally come around to it. here is my FPV F14 tomcat. It is still a work in progress however when completed she will have the ability to expend freefall ordinance and will be out fit with a dual suite for both the pilot and the RIO. my plan is to have the RIO along in the backseat so I can take up my friends and or to have them do some of the work with things like the wing sweep, bombs and gear deployment so I can focus on flying the plane. The display is the non flickering version of RC gauges G1000 air data display. mine displays airspeed, altitude, attitude and distance away from the home point so I can ensure I don't fly out of range. I did have to adjust my Air-unit camera lens to get the display to focus but now the lens shows crystal clear instrumentation.

[xviper]

On your Slick, a throttle calibration will resolve that right away. On multis, if you've ever done a fly by and heard a kind of harmonic resonance sort of sound, that means the motors are not in sync. They are running at slightly different rpm at any given throttle position. Calibrate and you should never hear it after that.

[Kurtzz]

I didn’t get it figured out, I had help! Wow, I guess I’ve just been lucky on all my electrics, have never done this, not even on my A10, but I will now. I have noticed on my 59” AJ Slick when I switched it over to my DX9 the motor does not activate until 1/4 throttle or so, found out almost too late, brought the power back setting up for a landing, decent head wind, then wings started rocking, I was low, short, and wagging. I knew if I could get the nose pointed up my next move was firewall the throttle. The day was saved, thanks again xviper. Now going to set throws by the book and get a maiden in the next few days or so.

[xviper]

Houston (xviper) we have power. Yes, the lead with the extra wire is the BEC lead. I recruited my Secretary of Finance (wife) that can become the Secretary of War real fast, to lend a hand. I lowered the trim setting as suggested whilst she hit the bind button and I plugged both batteries in at the same time, worked like a charm until I powered it down and reinstalled the ply battery tray. Went to fire it up again and beep, beep beep real fast again, no power to the motors, control surfaces worked fine. Sooooo, powered it down, plugged both batteries in at the same time, work like a charm, repeatedly. My A10 is not as particular on plugging the batteries in at the same time, go figure. You mentioned calibration, is that possible without any additional hardware or cards? Thanks xviper!!

Good you got it figured out. The throttle calibration is something that should be done right after binding with any and all electric planes. To do this, it is necessary to plug both batteries in at the same time, so help is needed here as well.
To do T. Calibration ................................. TX on. Throttle stick to full throttle, throttle cut NOT activated, plug in both batteries at exactly the same time. Listen for the first beep tones, then immediately lower the throttle stick to the bottom. You should then get the usual start up tones and the cell count beeps. You're now done and you don't ever need to do this again until you change RX and/or TX. This is how the ESCs know what zero throttle is and what 100% throttle is and for a multi, this is how the motors sync to each other and run the same. For planes that you've never done this, even though the ESC/motor seems to run and even though your TX monitor tells you that the throttle goes from 0 - 100%, the ESC doesn't actually know this. As an example, your ESC may actually be going from -5% to 90%. This does not optimize your throttle reaction.

[Kurtzz]

Houston (xviper) we have power. Yes, the lead with the extra wire is the BEC lead. I recruited my Secretary of Finance (wife) that can become the Secretary of War real fast, to lend a hand. I lowered the trim setting as suggested whilst she hit the bind button and I plugged both batteries in at the same time, worked like a charm until I powered it down and reinstalled the ply battery tray. Went to fire it up again and beep, beep beep real fast again, no power to the motors, control surfaces worked fine. Sooooo, powered it down, plugged both batteries in at the same time, work like a charm, repeatedly. My A10 is not as particular on plugging the batteries in at the same time, go figure. You mentioned calibration, is that possible without any additional hardware or cards? Thanks xviper!!

[xviper]

I just picked a like new F14 with a Spektrum AR 9030T to pair with my DX9 Black. I have bound the two together and have the surfaces moving in the correct direction, haven’t set the throws or any programming yet. I’m having a problem, no throttle control and very rapid, constant beeps coming from the fan area. On other twin fan setups I always plug in the ESC with the extra wire first the the other, tried both ways but no throttle and constant beeps. This forum had me about scared to even fly this Tomcat because of the bucking on landing, then I looked in my hangar right next to the Tomcat is a Motion RC A10, the king of bucking it’s been called, never bucked for me after about 50 fights, I think I have this!!!

Thanks Kurtzz

When you say "extra wire", do you mean the battery leads with the BEC leads grafted to it? If so, it shouldn't matter if you plug it in first or second although I prefer to plug the one with the BEC first so the RX powers up right away.
The constant beeping may indicate that the ESCs cannot be or have not initialized. This may be caused by your throttle trim tab (next to the throttle stick) being too high when binding (it's in the middle as it is for any new model, right?). Try lowering it to the bottom and bind again. (Don't mess with the trim settings in the servo menu.) If this fixes the problem, next you have to do the throttle calibration. If not, further diagnostics will be necessary.
Being a twin with separate battery leads, you'll need to get help so you can plug both batteries at the same time - within about 1/2 second in order for the calibration to work properly. Failure to do so could result in the two motors not running in sync and/or one of the ESCs being programmed with brake ON.

[Kurtzz]

I just picked a like new F14 with a Spektrum AR 9030T to pair with my DX9 Black. I have bound the two together and have the surfaces moving in the correct direction, haven’t set the throws or any programming yet. I’m having a problem, no throttle control and very rapid, constant beeps coming from the fan area. On other twin fan setups I always plug in the ESC with the extra wire first the the other, tried both ways but no throttle and constant beeps. This forum had me about scared to even fly this Tomcat because of the bucking on landing, then I looked in my hangar right next to the Tomcat is a Motion RC A10, the king of bucking it’s been called, never bucked for me after about 50 fights, I think I have this!!!

Thanks Kurtzz

[nuts-n-volts]

You might try Promodeler servos. I discovered them a couple years ago and they are the best I've had. I use them in the MiG-29 as well as 60" EF Extra and Edge. Tons of torque. Best centering I've seen. Rock solid. Very affordable. I would not use anything else at this point.

[ticketec]

Hey Guy's.

Just thought I'd share it here because it has to do with the Freewing F-14. I looked high and low and couldn't find any good info on the conversion of these to turbine, so I made this video to help out anyone else who might want to do the conversion.

At the very end of the vid there is a few quick snippets of it in flight. waiting on my regular camera guy to come back from holidays for more video.


And I've also been chasing the wings rocking the model does with the wings swept. I had already replaced the elevator servos with some Hitec Hs-8058MG's, dubro ball links and machined a new shaft to remove the slop in the factory setup, but still getting the wobble. I then found that one of the HS-8058mg has slop in the gear train and that was equating to about 5mm of movement in the stab. Put a new one in there and its much better.

I would say that there must be some turbulent air coming off the wings when swept that is causing excitation of any play in the elevators. Not a fan of hitec servos because they do develop slop over time and they are not always the best centering servos, but used them because I had them. Going to try a new brand of servo that is super fast by comparison to see if the gyro can dampen out the last of the wobbles due to rough air.

https://youtu.be/pUzVXRXCTN0

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah next one I'll have my goggles on and bite the bullet.

[RRHandy]

Nice flight and landing.

[rifleman_btx]

Oh yeah, this is going to be so much fun!

[Evan D]

Looks very flyable! Nice.

[rifleman_btx]

Yes much wider, the old camera suuuuucked. These are night and day different here's the shop test to get a perspective.

[Evan D]

I assume wider FOV. Your earlier video was quite narrow.

[Elbee]

Do I hear the theme from "Star Trek"? ...boldly going where no man has gone before...Best, LB

[rifleman_btx]

Almost go time for fpv test flight 2 with the f14, 1st with the new cameras on my fpv rig these give give much higher field of view. I will post the video when. I get it all edited together at home. The new video will have front and rear seat views.

[rifleman_btx]

Quick test of my camera system. I am changing the cameras out and will test it again at the Brenham field. I just don't feel comfortable at this field anymore.

[lt1pwr]

I don’t but when I bought my F-14 from a friend I got the kit and didn’t use it. Make me an offer.

Hi Evan, thanks for your reply. I'll send you a PM.

Jay