All-New Freewing PJ50 Twin 70mm EDF Jet - Official Thread

[Twowingtj]

xviper Good catch on the wing board connections. I like the simplicity of your idea for the light connections as well.

Would you be willing to work with Wildvortex and provide him with some measurements from your plane so he can design and make 3D printed nose gear braces for the PJ50T? I've used several of them on different birds. They really save a lot of stress on the nose retract when flying from grass. Hopefully, with your help, we can have some available when these birds hit the US warehouse. Thanks. See this thread:

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/classifieds-and-vendors/rc-products-for-sale-or-trade/334836-abs-nose-gear-braces-freewing-fms-e-flite-flightline

[xviper]

xviper, would you say that the version that you received is exactly as we should expect from the point of view of finish, fit, components, etc ? Or might it be a pre - production version specifically to get feedback ?,

I believe my unit is what will come off the container ship and end up in the various MotionRC warehouses. The RC Castle units come from the same production and not pre-production. The only difference is the lengthy delay in loading, waiting, processing of the pallets that were intended for the shipping method (sea voyage) and of course the trip across the ocean and the subsequent delays at the destinations (paperwork for customs, transport, transfer to trucks, etc). In many ways, the shipment of a single unit by post is far simpler and much speedier (and costlier).
All the bits and pieces of my plane have been as good as any Freewing product purchased previously from both MotionRC and RC Castle. The little glitches as seen with the mis-placement of servo leads into boards is not uncommon with these products. I've seen similar things with FMS products (eg. my V2 1700mm Corsair).

[killickb]

xviper, would you say that the version that you received is exactly as we should expect from the point of view of finish, fit, components, etc ? Or might it be a pre - production version specifically to get feedback ?,

[xviper]

While taking a break from working on my Flite Test Flerken, I've gone to the next step in PJ50 process. First one was to take inventory of all the parts. The next step was to check that all the servos are working.
Ailerons, flaps, elevators, rudder, steering, retracts ........................ all work. HOWEVER, take a look at the following pictures of the wing boards, left and right sides ...............................................



Anyone see the difference? One the left, the 3 servo leads are spaced. One the right, the 3 servo leads are all together next to each other. The one all together is INcorrect. The person at the factory didn't follow the directions and just plugged them in "willy nilly". I did a "dry fit" to see how they responded and sure enough, the AIL lead off the blue box worked one AIL and one Flap. Anyone not having worked with these wing boards would have gone "WTF"? Unplugging each lead and trying it in different slots cured it all.

Next observation .......................... on the wing board, notice the one light lead plugged into the board. Note that there is one empty light plug (2 pins) on each side. Now, why couldn't they have done a little modification to the blue box circuits so that the extra light lead from each side could be plugged into the empty pins? Maybe they can. I'll have to test it out to see the difference. Perhaps they don't blink the way they wanted. This would make it unnecessary to have to plug those into the blue box after the wing got attached. But see the following picture ....................................



They made a Y "pigtail" that is already plugged into the blue box for those 2 leads coming from the wing. But remember that there is yet a 3rd light lead coming from the light in one of the wheel wells. I presume that this one has to be plugged directly into the blue box. I'll make another pigtail that is plugged into the blue box. Then I tape all 3 plugs together, as well as taping the 3 leads from the wing together. That would make it just one motion to plug those in - 3 motions instead of 5.

Next, Minwax everything.

[xviper]

Since you probably can't fly it till spring, you may want to ship it down to me to spend the winter in Florida like a bunch of other "Snow Birds" do!

I may get a look at the BH "Gulfstream" next week (weather permitting) as a buddy who reps for them has one (just got it early this week) that she wants him to do a review of and some photos/videos in flight. I'll be using his camera equipment to do the photography but doubt he'll let me fly it afterwards (he knows my skills, unfortunately). We just completed the same for them on her new Russian Mig 25 and Gripen and some of the photos are already on her website. Nice aircraft! We're planning on using my SMC 5300's and 6200's to see how it performs, so it should be interesting. Apparently, it comes with a gyro, so only needs an RX. I'm definitely a MRC/FW/FL guy but do enjoy seeing other competitors models. The more the merrier!

I'd enjoy seeing those pics and videos but I guess you'd have to put in another thread. If it came from you, it would be informative rather than the sales pitch spam and promo like we've seen already for the X-Fly effort. I'm not entirely averse to the idea of getting one for comparison but I've got another pricey jet at the top of the list now (Freewing 8s F-22).
PS. Florida's a bit too far for me as a snowbird destination. Most of the guys I know around here are the Arizona/California types.

[xviper]

I am soooooo jealous! Lucky you. Decided on a paint scheme or leave as it comes?

-GG

For now, it'll stay as is. The only PNP/BNF plane I've ever really customized is my AL-37 in the WestJet theme. Decal'd by Callie and painted what couldn't be. I'm not a real good airplane painter, so I refrain from embarrassing myself. If Callie has an interesting set of decals for it, I may reconsider.

[GliderGuy]

This just in................

I am soooooo jealous! Lucky you. Decided on a paint scheme or leave as it comes?

-GG

[Hugh Wiedman]

Something to brighten up these cold, dark winter nites.

Since you probably can't fly it till spring, you may want to ship it down to me to spend the winter in Florida like a bunch of other "Snow Birds" do!

I may get a look at the BH "Gulfstream" next week (weather permitting) as a buddy who reps for them has one (just got it early this week) that she wants him to do a review of and some photos/videos in flight. I'll be using his camera equipment to do the photography but doubt he'll let me fly it afterwards (he knows my skills, unfortunately). We just completed the same for them on her new Russian Mig 25 and Gripen and some of the photos are already on her website. Nice aircraft! We're planning on using my SMC 5300's and 6200's to see how it performs, so it should be interesting. Apparently, it comes with a gyro, so only needs an RX. I'm definitely a MRC/FW/FL guy but do enjoy seeing other competitors models. The more the merrier!

[xviper]

Something to brighten up these cold, dark winter nites.

[Twowingtj]

xviper Let the fun begin!

[Gilatrout]

This just in................

Sweet.

[xviper]

This just in................

[avanti127]

My Livery...

I had Callie print me a color swatch of the platinum so I can take that and get it color match. I do that a lot with my planes instead of taking panels to HD.

[avanti127]

Yes I Y'd everything together. It worked really well without issue.

[xviper]

I have them on my AL37 for years now and they work great. Oops, sorry I have the Avro not Avians.

If only HobbyKing kept any stock on them. Did you just Y everything together? Throttle wires? Reverse wires? Defeat one of the power wires?

[Gilatrout]

My Callie graphics came today. At least that is here, patiently waiting now for the box to arrive. To cold to paint these days anyway.

My graphics arrived yesterday. Callie is amazing.

Going with this livery

I've been resisting heading over to the art supply store for paint. March is so far away...

[avanti127]

My Callie graphics came today. At least that is here, patiently waiting now for the box to arrive. To cold to paint these days anyway.

[avanti127]

Yes, it was the same with my AL-37 tail. Luckily, the WestJet theme had a similar blue on the tail section, just not the patterned effect of the stock decal. I just painted the part that needed paint and left the tail as it was. The vertical tail, I had the Callie decal to cover it all. If I were quicker thinking and a bit smarter, I would have used the spare vertical tail that RC Castle sent as a gift along with the whole plane. It was a blank canvass.
I've got the Avian reverse on 2 of my other jets and there doesn't seem to be much drag when "coasting" as I rarely have zero throttle while in flight and when I do during those brief moments, any additional drag is hard to detect. With near "idle" throttle, the fan still turns. My only unknown is that I'll be programming 2 ESCs "Y'd" together. I think it won't be a problem but won't know till I try it. I've read someone else has already done it with twin Avians. If it works out well, I may do the same on my AL-37.

I have them on my AL37 for years now and they work great. Oops, sorry I have the Avro not Avians.

[Gilatrout]

I calibrated the throttle on a y connection after initialization with the Bec disabled on one esc.

The escs were programmed either through the transmitter or programming box.

Was that 8 beeps or 9?

[xviper]

My concern was about damaging something when both throttle power wires were left intact. Even though one engine is opposite rotation to the other, this is done at the 3 motors wires, so from the ESCs perspective, both are running "forward" and when switched, both run "reverse".
Insofar as throttle calibration, Dynam have been using parallel powered throttle wires "Y'd" on their twins for a very long time and even ESC programming can (on the most part) be done while parallel powered, unless the 2 ESCs were vastly different in some way due to manufacturing errors. In the case of these Avian smart ESCs and the PJ, it's not just a simple throttle calibration or even ESC programming for "normal" things that most ESCs get altered for. In this case, we're dealing with making changes to the braking, motor rotation and switch assignment, running through a "ghost" channel. This is where I'm a bit in the dark. I guess I'll find out soon enough when I start "playing" with it. I've got the rest of winter to fix/replace stuff if I break them.