Official Freewing 70mm Twin Me 262 Thread

[Alpha]

Maidened the 262 today. Graphene 6s 6000 65C fully aft, separate 2s 1100 LiFe receiver battery forward of the flight lipo. Uneventful as planned. 2 clicks aileron, 2 clicks elevator. Flies like it's on rails. Five minute flight with combined power settings, 3.8/cell remaining. Cruises easily on 1/3 power. Flight pack barely warm. Amazing. Set up the ailerons with 2mm reflex. No hint of tip stall or any other anomaly. Landed like "a butterfly with sore feet", as I heard it described by a club member behind me. As expected, it lived up to every expectation I had for it. I couldn't be happier. BTW, also remaidened the Flightline 63" Spitfire after completing the clipped wing mod with similar results. IMHO, a much better performing aircraft now in all respects. Good day at the field.

Congrats on your successful maiden and remaiden! I'm glad so many people are rediscovering just how slick a flyer the Freewing Me-262 is. It's one of the birds the Freewing factory guys here fly for fun, which says a lot.

[jetdoc]

Maidened the 262 today. Graphene 6s 6000 65C fully aft, separate 2s 1100 LiFe receiver battery forward of the flight lipo. Uneventful as planned. 2 clicks aileron, 2 clicks elevator. Flies like it's on rails. Five minute flight with combined power settings, 3.8/cell remaining. Cruises easily on 1/3 power. Flight pack barely warm. Amazing. Set up the ailerons with 2mm reflex. No hint of tip stall or any other anomaly. Landed like "a butterfly with sore feet", as I heard it described by a club member behind me. As expected, it lived up to every expectation I had for it. I couldn't be happier. BTW, also remaidened the Flightline 63" Spitfire after completing the clipped wing mod with similar results. IMHO, a much better performing aircraft now in all respects. Good day at the field.

[seaviper]

BVM is irrelevant. The 12S 5000W systems only run about 100 amps. The 6s systems run higher current at takeoff. Use Deans at your own risk with a 6S EDF.

[Icarus the 2nd]

I only use 2 connectors:
- 4mm bullet connectors for all my 3S planes
- 5.5mm polymax bullet connectors for 4S, 5S, 6S

They are really easy to solder plus you can stow them away easier in athe crowded compartiment because the red and black wires are completele seperated.

Tried XT60 and XT90 and EC5 as well but sometimes I almost damaged my planes because they need more force to unplug.

[mr.frankenjet]

I had deans on everything for ever and they are really good. I have found over time (a long time) the do where out as there is a "spring" gets weak and several started to have poor contact . With the new builds I'm building been using xt type,I like these and the chargers are starting to come equipped this way though I will not convert my deans until/unless they where out.The connectors seem to be really high quality and are ez to solder up, we'll see if they pass the test of time.
Deans are not rated for high current ( over 40+ amps or so) though they may be OK, here I have been using EC type,they too seem well built, so far so good.

Just my experience, everyone has a favorite.

[Icarus the 2nd]

Here's 2 happy pilots after a tandem flight, old vs new livery, in Belgian skies.last weekend.

I'm the one on the left, the other guy doesn't need an introduction :)

That new scheme looks very attractive don't you think so ?

[fhhuber]

Deans can have serious problems if soldering is not done right.

Overheating the blade while soldering the wire on will deform the plastic housing and you wind up with poor contact and a connector that gets very hot, which will melt the solder off.
The blade being soldered needs to be supported along with the plastic housing to prevent this. Clamping the plastic only will have the hot metal deform it and the blade will not be straight any more. Clamping just the blade, the plastic will shift...

Then the solder area is relatively small compared to a bullet fully encircling the wire. So silver bearing solder is recommended for both added strength and lower resistance.

Factory joints won't be using silver solder, they'll be using modern lead free solder. But they will be using a fixture that supports the blade and the plastic as the robotic system solders on the wire.

[jetdoc]

The Deans Ultra that caused the problem on my A-4 was not so much the fault of tbe connector itself as it was one of the factory solders on the connector. I've used Deans for years without incident on power systems up to 12s. However, a cold solder on any type connector is a bad day once it vibrates loose and begins to arc. I've recently switched over all my HV and high amperage applications over to the new XT90S connectors. These have the integral resistor to prevent arcing as the esc capacitors charge during lipo plug-in. I like them so much I've transitioned to XT's on all my lipos. XT60 or XT90 depending on amp draw.

[xviper]

Might depend on whether or not they're "clones". I can't tell a genuine Deans from a cloned one, so when I see one, I'm likely to change it. My first Freewing SU-35 from 6 years ago crashed. It went down like it had no power to anything. When I found it, the Deans were melted and fused together.

[fhhuber]

Better Tell BVM to quit shipping 5000 watt 12S EDF units with Deans....

They've been doing it for over 8 years. (that's how old my pair of BVM EVF 5 inch EDFs using NEU motors and Castle ESCs are and they still have the factory original Deans plugs)

I melted down an AstroFlight Wattmeter (rated 50 volts, 100 amps) trying to measure one EDF's power. The Deans didn't get warm.

[xviper]

I think it was Jetdoc If I am not mistaken. Apparently his 6s pack had a Deans connector which melted itself in the A-4 If I understand correctly. Correct me if I am wrong mr Jetdoc.

Hmmm, it should be criminal for any company to sell a 6s LiPo with Deans on it. I've had 4s packs come with Deans and I've immediately changed them to EC5. The only exception being the Admiral 4000mah, 4s packs, which I use in one of my Flightline twin props that came with Deans. Since the A-4 comes with EC5, he must have used an adapter to make the battery work or he actually changed the ESC plug on the plane to Deans. That would be inconceivable.

[seaviper]

I think it was Jetdoc If I am not mistaken. Apparently his 6s pack had a Deans connector which melted itself in the A-4 If I understand correctly. Correct me if I am wrong mr Jetdoc.

[xviper]

Deans can't handle that much power. I always just take off the connectors and put my own on. That way I know the solder joint is good. I use xt60's for the 4s stuff. And I use xt90's for the 6s stuff. Works fine. So do EC3 and EC5. But never use a Deans on a 6s jet.

As far as the esc's go, it's not that hard to isolate them or have them just not feed each other. I think that is what they have done. On my Su-35 they came tied together as well. The Freewing twins are designed to work fine in stock configuration. However, I separated them and used each BEC independently of the other. I needed to power two different receivers and wanted different power sources. But they would have been fine tied together. Every application is different. Now if you go and buy a couple other esc's, like YEP, then you better not do that. I killed a YEP in that fashion.

And that 262 flies great. She launches in like 20ft or something. Just bring her in flat.

Did your 262 come with Deans? My "Yellow 7" came with EC5s.

[seaviper]

Deans can't handle that much power. I always just take off the connectors and put my own on. That way I know the solder joint is good. I use xt60's for the 4s stuff. And I use xt90's for the 6s stuff. Works fine. So do EC3 and EC5. But never use a Deans on a 6s jet.

As far as the esc's go, it's not that hard to isolate them or have them just not feed each other. I think that is what they have done. On my Su-35 they came tied together as well. The Freewing twins are designed to work fine in stock configuration. However, I separated them and used each BEC independently of the other. I needed to power two different receivers and wanted different power sources. But they would have been fine tied together. Every application is different. Now if you go and buy a couple other esc's, like YEP, then you better not do that. I killed a YEP in that fashion.

And that 262 flies great. She launches in like 20ft or something. Just bring her in flat.

[xviper]

Realise that must remove red wire if powering from separate scource but also understood that you cannot have two ESC's fighting each other so have to remove red wire from one of them --- which I do on my scratch built twin and four engine models. Guess F/W have done some electronic magic in the A-10 and 262 because the red wires of both ESC's are connected, at least they are at the Rx end in mine.
Re your A-4, it was a pack failure then not an ESC failure per se but get your point, no power, no Rx, no flyee ! My swastikas are en route.

I don't think there's any "magic" involved. Those planes with the external BECs don't have built in BECs (or they're not hooked up) in the ESCs (HobbyKing calls theirs "opto"). Those red wires aren't live at the Rx.

[brk6188]

Realise that must remove red wire if powering from separate scource but also understood that you cannot have two ESC's fighting each other so have to remove red wire from one of them --- which I do on my scratch built twin and four engine models. Guess F/W have done some electronic magic in the A-10 and 262 because the red wires of both ESC's are connected, at least they are at the Rx end in mine.
Re your A-4, it was a pack failure then not an ESC failure per se but get your point, no power, no Rx, no flyee ! My swastikas are en route.

[jetdoc]

I have Callie's swastikas as well! Good luck with your back surgery. I had mine about 2 1/2 years ago with great results. The problem with my A-4 was with a bad factory solder on the Deans ultra connector on the Lipo. Came loose in flight, arced badly blowing molten solder and brass all over the battery compartment. That of course led not only to loss of thrust but loss of flight controls as well. That's why I fly with a separate receiver battery now. I've had no issues with the esc's or the bec's but if you power your receiver with a separate power source you must remove the red wire from the esc harness. That's why I disabled the bec's on the 262. Never again will I rely on a bec. Fry the esc or battery connector, lose the plane. No thanks. Regarding the elevator throw, I like plenty of throw at my disposal but will buffer it with expo.

[brk6188]

Have the A-10 and never a problem with the motors spooling up or ESC/Rx glitches so am assuming that Freewing have taken care of having two actively powered bec's on the ESC's i.e. no red wire removal required, on the 262 ?

Maybe I am pushing my luck but have always stuck with the built in switching bec of the ESC's in my 80/90mm EDF models of which I now have nine. Never experienced any power system concerns or had any ESC/Rx shut downs.

Just order a set of fin Swastikas for my 262, (Callie -- $5) but having back surgery Oct 1 so she will be grounded for a few weeks.

jetdoc, just make sure you have three levels of switch controlled throw available, just in case ! Seems that the elevator is the sensitive axis. My first throw settings are always a guess anyway so cannot be specific.

[jetdoc]

I was told yesterday that they should arrive the first week of October(ish) along with some other items everyone has been patiently awaiting. Mine is almost ready to maiden. First thing was to reinforce the nose and replace the tiny battery tray from the factory with one of my own design that ties into the nose reinforcement. I've taken a day or two to search the interweb for a good consensus on control throws considering the instructions don't even hint of them. After my recent experience with my A-4 I've disabled the bec's on BOTH esc's and I'm powering my receiver with a separate 2s 1100mAh LiFe battery. Flight pack is a Turnigy Graphene 6s 6000mAh 65C Lipo fully aft with the Rx LiFe forward of it. Balances perfectly. Good thing too because there's no more space in the battery compartment.

[RMatteson]

Has any one heard if more yellow 7's were coming soon?