Freewing A-4 Blue Angels Conversion

[purduephigam]

.......waiting patiently for lights, paint, smoke?

[RCjetdude]

Very cool! Yeah I'm on the road for a few days and was going to explain it, but looks like you got it handled.

Thanks you soooo much! It is much simpler just going through the radio. Gotta love Youtube tutorials. ;) I had a basic understanding of how it worked but the video I watch was very helpful and then I just played around until I figured it out. In the end, not that difficult to set up at all. :Cool:

[AceMigKiller]

Very cool! Yeah I'm on the road for a few days and was going to explain it, but looks like you got it handled.

[RCjetdude]

Thanks Dan. A huge shout out to Vic, Ace Mig Killer for reminding me of the Sequencing functionality in my radio. I reworked the gear and doors tonight to eliminate the GT POWER sequencing module which was inconsistent for my application and caused the gear doors to cycle when the battery was plugged in which is not good on the doors and servos. Now the doors are more consistent and the battery plug in problem is gone. Thanks again Vic! From the outside it doesn't really look any different than a few posts ago but here is a new video showing the doors working off the sequencer in my DX9.

https://youtu.be/8P5bkBrdJcI

[Grossman56]

Wow Steve, time to put out some mod kits my friend, that absolutely rocks!!

Grossman56

[RCjetdude]

Thanks Tom...sometimes I feel pretty old.:)

[Pogo]

Ok, the gear doors are done. After having established the first side it formed a pattern for doing the second side which took a fraction of the time to do the first.



Here is the video of all the gear and doors functioning together. I am so happy to be past this point. The rest of the build should be fairly easy.

https://youtu.be/v3eX10SbDlc

Steve, the quality of your work is one thing (outstanding) but the freakin' speed at which you do it is what really blows me away! I'm working on my A-10 cockpit re-work and opening canopy and at the rate I'm going it'll be Xmas.
Wait, I'm older than you, that must explain it...:Confused:
Tom

[GPJ]

OUTSTANDING !!!!!

Wish Freewing would do this to more of their jets. I'd gladly pay extra for that.

[RCjetdude]

Thank you sir! I am using a DX9..I hadn't thought of the possibility of trying to sequence the doors off the radio. I need to look into that...

[AceMigKiller]

This is fantastic work.
Which radio are you running? Might be able to program straight off the box.

[OV10]

Slick...as to be expected ;)

AGREE'd................:Cool:

[RCjetdude]

Yes. I want the lights on it but in looking at video of them flying they didn't appear to use them during a performance. I will set them to operate off a switch.

[purduephigam]

Looks great. Will you be doing an overview of the light install? Can't wait to see this thing finished.

[TiredIronGRB]

Ok, the gear doors are done. After having established the first side it formed a pattern for doing the second side which took a fraction of the time to do the first.



Here is the video of all the gear and doors functioning together. I am so happy to be past this point. The rest of the build should be fairly easy.

https://youtu.be/v3eX10SbDlc

Slick...as to be expected ;)

[RCjetdude]

Ok, the gear doors are done. After having established the first side it formed a pattern for doing the second side which took a fraction of the time to do the first.



Here is the video of all the gear and doors functioning together. I am so happy to be past this point. The rest of the build should be fairly easy.

https://youtu.be/v3eX10SbDlc

[RCjetdude]

Steve,

That is extremely awesome work! She's coming along nicely!

Thanks again Pat. I hope to be able to complete the other side later today.

[crxmanpat]

Steve,

That is extremely awesome work! She's coming along nicely!

[RCjetdude]

I took some pictures of what I did along the way to give a basic idea of how it was done. I removed some additional foam and a small section of plastic from the LG mount and cut a pocket in the foam then glued the servo in place with Foam Tac.



Then I had to extend the back of the door opening about 5/16" so I re-cut the opening and glued the piece to the back of the door. This gave the necessary clearance for the servo arm and pushrod. I use a piece of a spare wire puller that came in one of my recent kits for the rod and a piece of 1/8" styrene tube glued to the door for the door pivot. For a better understanding of what I did to install the pushrods check out the video on post #78



Once I got the pushrod the right shape and length so the rear door closed and opened properly I cut the forward blister off the wing with one of those utility knives that has the long blade you snap off to keep it sharp. It makes for nice clean cuts.



Next, I removed foam from the blister area to fit the other servo and did the same thing with a pushrod and 1/8" styrene tube glued to the door. The wires pass next to the wing connector board through a slot I Dremeled in the wood bracket that the board screws to. They will plug into a 1 to 4 connector harness I made special for the door servos. One thing to note, the GT POWER Sequencing Module cycles the doors upon power up. What this means is that you must remember to retract the gear before disconnecting the battery so when it does it on the next power up the doors won't bind on the wheel struts. Maybe a minor thing but I know I am going to want to display this beauty with the gear down and I can't imagine having to leave a battery in it the whole time. I may try to investigate other sequencers to see if I can find one that won't do that. Anybody know of one?



The push rods in place.

[RCjetdude]

Hey Michael, I have tried many different music wire arrangements. I had them closing well without servos but the opening part was not as easy. I finally decided to go the servo route because I was tired of fooling with it and ready to move on. I spent most of last night and part of this morning trying to figure out a 1 servo music wire arrangement that would work reliably and finally ended up deciding to go with a 2 servo setup. It is not that much weight and it will not be flying with ordnance or drop tanks so that saves some weight.

[Kloverzero]

Steve, this might be far fetched, but have you thought about trying to bend a piece of music wire and just use one servo per side? You may be able to bend one so that it is barely visible, and attach it to the strut door, so that it pushes and holds the wheel door shut as it closes. You would need to put spring loaded hinges (or bend a very thin wire) to force them to open and hold them there. It may be a little more work, but might save you the weight and extra pushrod figuring for the quad servo setup.

You are doing yeoman's work here my friend, and I am following this thread closely!!!