Official Freewing F/A-18C Hornet 90mm EDF Thread

[curlyculp]

Someone on RC groups did an extensive test of the blue box. Something like 3400 cycles with 3 different receivers. His conclusion was that there is nothing wrong with the blue box.

Yet it seems to me a whole lot of these F18's have crashed inexplicably. Is there another model on this forum that has so many posts in the "all of a sudden..." genre? I had a couple hard-over's on mine and then the lock up. I for one am not impressed looking back in the fuselage at that mass of white wires. Not to mention the box isn't in a place where you can easily check the security of the plug-ins. I'll replace them with a neater, direct installation. I've only read one post I can recall where the user bypassed the blue box and got the same unpredictable result.

Using the same receiver, btw, I have in several other aircraft and have never had a glitch.

It's not necessarily a design fault. Could be a bad batch.

[Evan D]

There have been some that have had issues. The same MCBE is on a few different planes. His sample set (he did not say how many he tested and I hope it was more than one) didn’t have notable issues but that doesn’t mean some people haven’t had issues, especially when running non stock BECs and ESCs.

[Carlbrainiac]

Attention Motion RC guys. You still haven't updated the EU page. It still says grey pnp eta late July

[MANFRED]

Not flown my BA yet but the stab mounting plates did not pass the test and peeled up. Probably going to use 30 min epoxy with some holes in the stir and plastic for the ooze effect. I am also replacing the servos with HT MG 85 digitals. Would like to bypass the blue box for ailerons as well but not sure how to rewire as they all go into the wiring harness. Any advice is appreciated

[fredmdbud]

Someone on RC groups did an extensive test of the blue box. Something like 3400 cycles with 3 different receivers. His conclusion was that there is nothing wrong with the blue box.

Brandonmoon

[curlyculp]

Not flown my BA yet but the stab mounting plates did not pass the test and peeled up. Probably going to use 30 min epoxy with some holes in the stir and plastic for the ooze effect. I am also replacing the servos with HT MG 85 digitals. Would like to bypass the blue box for ailerons as well but not sure how to rewire as they all go into the wiring harness. Any advice is appreciated

At the root of the wing where the white plug is, you can unscrew it and the aileron and flap servo plugs are plugged into the back of it. They're marked on the back of the plug board which is which. Just unplug them, get a suitably long extension and feed it through all the way to your receiver. Add a Y connector there. Elevators are already in the main body, but plugged into the blue board. Just unplug and run an extension and "Y". Rudders a LITTLE more complitacted because it's two rudder connections and the nosegear steering. Good news is you can toss the massive white wire bundles and actually see back there.

I'm of course assuming there's a "right" and "left" servo already for all and one won't have to be reversed.

My stab plates were fine. In fact doing a post-mortem and autopsy, the overall quality of the model is outstanding. I'll have a box full of spare parts. Only one servo stripped. The gear is in great shape. (it's really beautifully machined)

[MANFRED]

Thanks! I did pick up a servo reverser Y

[DCORSAIR]

Not flown my BA yet but the stab mounting plates did not pass the test and peeled up. Probably going to use 30 min epoxy with some holes in the stir and plastic for the ooze effect. I am also replacing the servos with HT MG 85 digitals. Would like to bypass the blue box for ailerons as well but not sure how to rewire as they all go into the wiring harness. Any advice is appreciated

Rewiring the F-18 wings is really easy if you have the extensions, I used the 12" from MRC, get rid of the ribbon cables first then unbolt the wing circuit boards two wires there, pull on them a little and you will see one is short and one wire is long, short is your aileron, long is the flap servo, I mark mine anyway with a silver Sharpie pen right on the connector, once you have your extension hooked up to the wing connectors just take some sewing thread, about two feet long or longer if you want and a axle wheel collar if you have any, if not then use a nut small enough to go through the fuselage hole, wheel collar is better because it's smooth and round, then tie the thread to the wheel collar and the other end to your extensions, I usually use Scotch tape to tape the sewing thread to the leads, then just drop the wheel collar or what ever you decide to use into the hole in the fuselage and with the jet on it's nose you shake it a little and weight of the wheel collar or nut will drop down so you can pull the wires through, then just hook up to your Y harnesses, mark those to, mark both ends of your extensions before installing and everything will be right the first time, works great, its better than one of those go get em wires that come in some of the kits, those hook on other wires and can be a pain, been using this method for yrs, hope it helps you.

The wheel collar and thread method works great on giant scale planes that need long leads from the tail, works great for these foam jets as well.

[Aros]

Watching Seafair an annual tradition in Seattle for 70 years. Unlimited hydro racing with the stars of the show being the Blue Angels airshow. NERD ALERT: The only thing cooler than watching the Blues on TV is my Blue Angel as the center piece!

My my wife is not impressed LOL

[fredmdbud]

Maidened my Blue Angels this weekend. Was a bit of a bumpy road getting here (first attempts were the base grey version): By-passed the MCB-E except for the LEDs, ailerons and flaps, everything else connected directly to the Spektrum receiver, ensuring battery cables and BEC wires did not thread through either cable bundles. Mounted receiver and BEC on opposite walls of the fuselage, and not directly across from each other. Used the stock outrunner unit instead of the (metal duct) inrunner previously installed as an upgrade. Did extended check cycles on the aileron and flaps servos - first sign of glitching would have been an immediate "down".

[Aros]

Nice work!

[Rcfiddy1]

So what’s the best elevator servos to use in place of stock ones?

[Veltro]

Not flown my BA yet but the stab mounting plates did not pass the test and peeled up. Probably going to use 30 min epoxy with some holes in the stir and plastic for the ooze effect. I am also replacing the servos with HT MG 85 digitals. Would like to bypass the blue box for ailerons as well but not sure how to rewire as they all go into the wiring harness. Any advice is appreciated

Probably just a typo on your part, but I wanted to point out that the HS85MG is an analog servo with torque of 42-49 oz.in. Make sure you get the D85MG as it is digital and has 50-60 oz.in. of torque. Motion doesn't carry the D85MG and Tower is out of stock, but Servo City has them at Tower's price.

[Veltro]

So what’s the best elevator servos to use in place of stock ones?

I swapped mine over to the Hitec D85MG. It fits the opening with just a small amount of sanding to fine tune the fit. You could probably also do it with an Exacto knife using a fresh blade, just be careful to not trim away too much plastic. The screw mounting holes line up perfectly.

[Veltro]

One last comment for the night. The Hitec D85MG does not fit into the servo pockets in the wings. You'll have to remove those if you want to change the servos. I'll be changing my flap servos to the D85MG.

Does anyone else find it strange that Freewing went with their 9g servo for flaps (22-26 oz.in.torque) in the F-18C when their F-22, F-4 and A-10 all use their 17g servo (35-42 oz.in. torque) for flaps? It might explain the tendency for the F-18C to sometimes want to roll in the pattern.

[Rcfiddy1]

I’m assuming one servo is reversed if I want to use a y harness.

[Veltro]

I’m assuming one servo is reversed if I want to use a y harness.

On the elevator, yes.

[curlyculp]

Maidened my Blue Angels this weekend. Was a bit of a bumpy road getting here (first attempts were the base grey version): By-passed the MCB-E except for the LEDs, ailerons and flaps, everything else connected directly to the Spektrum receiver, ensuring battery cables and BEC wires did not thread through either cable bundles. Mounted receiver and BEC on opposite walls of the fuselage, and not directly across from each other. Used the stock outrunner unit instead of the (metal duct) inrunner previously installed as an upgrade. Did extended check cycles on the aileron and flaps servos - first sign of glitching would have been an immediate "down".

Just curious, but why did you not bypass the airlerons and flaps too? My flaps went split once... briefly... and have heard other flap stories.

[curlyculp]

On the elevator, yes.

The rudders have a reversed servo too, yes?

[DCORSAIR]

On this plane I still have my retracts and lights going through the MCBe. The only reason is I want the double and triple flash lights and you have to have something to power the lights so I have the retracts.

I don't think the MCBe turns the steering off retracted but I did a mix in my radio to do that.

Are you talking about the stock blue box that the F-18 comes with? If so, it does turn off the steering when retracted, that is where I was having my problems and almost crashed mine on the maiden, everytime the gear retracted and the blue box cut off the steering, my rudders would go left about 5mm on their own, then when I dropped the gear and the box would turn on the steering, my rudders went back to normal, I bypassed the BB and 46 flights later all is good. So I think alot of these problems are related to this delay in the gear myself, wonder if the power being cut off to the steering servo is cutting off power else where, just wondering is all, and I did see where they might be doing away with the delay on the gear.