Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[rifleman_btx]

Well whatever you decide to do... let us know how it works out. :)

[SoLongSidekick]

I just realized I pretty much have to use option 2 if I don't want to have wasted a ton of money on a good FC. If I want to actually use the FC I have to route the flight controls through it. So there we go. Should be better for control response time anyways, but I highly doubt I'll notice it in a plane. But the S.Bus Decoders are freaking cool man. Most FrSky receivers are capable of outputting 16 channels, but how to get at them all? If you're not using an FC that takes S.Bus, you're stuck using the PPM channels and being capped to however many pins there are. If you do have an S.Bus FV, how the hell do you get the extra channels out? These decoders are great for adding unconventional accessories to planes. Bottle rocket launchers, bomb droppers, claw retracter/dropper, gimbals, etc.

After checking out some recent Flite Test videos, I'm absolutely going to add differential thrust to this bad boy. Look at the amazing flatspins they get out of the Dart by using it! See at about the 4:20 mark in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpP_Oj2WyGI. Now obviously that's a very different (and much more spin-worthy) airframe, but it's still a great demonstration of what differential thrust is capable of. Imagine how cool of a hammerhead stall-turn you'd be able to do with that set up!

[SoLongSidekick]

Jesus, if you thought the stock landing gear, guns, etc. in this model was bad check out this dog: http://www.bananahobby.com/5-ch-blit...html#navImages. Woof.

[SoLongSidekick]

Just found this funny little cartoon.

[quitcherbitchen]

I've got copper foil tape, so that should work perfectly. So now I'm trying to figure out if I should mount it where you did upside down, or as shown in the expertly-created mockup using your setup attached below.

Actually, I'm just now realizing that my actual canopy should be a lot cleaner than yours. Using a Runcam Split 2 and a Unify in a stack in the radio compartment, the vTx antenna in the very back of the compartment, I only have the FC/OSD, GPS, and PSY to mount.

It works better if you ground the shield to the negative side of the battery. That's what I did on my FPV plane.

[rifleman_btx]

This is true

[SoLongSidekick]

So this actually brings up my next question. I've been changing my mind so often on configuration and build-out that I haven't really even touched my P-38 yet. Most of it is actually still in the box. So I know the power configuration has changed over the years, but as of right now how is the power set up? I'm using two XT60 batteries. Does it come with XT60 leads to each ESC? Or as the ESC's wired together into a single XT60? Am I going to have to make a Y to run the batteries?

So here's my understanding. I glue the GPS to the underside of the canopy, then cover the bottom of it in copper tape. Then I solder a wire with a 1mΩ resistor inline (why?) then attach the lead to... what? A pin that I can insert into a negative line on one of the battery's balance leads? With two batteries, where do I connect it?

[rifleman_btx]

It will be two separate wires, more than likely if it's the first version it will come with Dean's. However not knowing what one you have I can't say for sure. As my original one had Dean's on it. If that's the case, you can do as I did and make a y adapter for single battery operation, or as I did in the tigercat and make a parallel adapter to your xt60s. Also what I'm going to do with my next P38 running twin 2700 packs.

[rifleman_btx]

And you only need to ground to one pack.

[SoLongSidekick]

You're going to run two 2,700mAh packs? Why so light?

But my question is regarding the ESC connection. Do they Y together? I don't really want to wire the batteries directly into the ESCS. I'd rather have them connected with a Y as one power source.

[rifleman_btx]

In that case no they do not. And yes 2 2700 mah packs in parallel, that will give me 400 more mah than my single 5000 I did on my first plane. It's not a very long duration plane, I got 6 mins off my 5000 pack. If I had 3000mah packs I would venture to say 7-7.5 would be max time for my flying style with this bird. And 6 is plenty of time when you only plan to fly in the line of sight distance as I did with mine.

[SoLongSidekick]

I don't want to derail this conversation but I wanted to post my next realizations in case it might help someone someday. I've been fighting back and forth between adding a camera in the nose and adding one to the tail. The nose would be much more useful (wherever I choose the second camera will be wired in with a switch, so I can swap back and forth between the views) for landing or just enjoying the scenery, but the tail camera would be much easier to install (there's already a wire channel running down there) and get much cooler shots with the airframe in the view. I had kind of abandoned the nose camera idea as taking the nose cone off is going to be too much work, and if I deform the foam and make it so the new cone isn't flush fitting that's going to look like crap. However the more I think about it putting an FPV camera on the tail is useless. That view wouldn't be all that useful in flight, and I would much rather stick an HD camera down there for later viewing. I also realized, after studying more pictures of the way the plane comes together, that there's a triangular air hole in the bottom of the nose and a small opening from the back that the canopy slides into. As long as I'm careful, I should be able to remove a section of foam from the back of the nose cone and insert the camera that way, then use a finger in the air hole to help position the camera for glueing. I'm just going to drill a hole in the very front of the cone the exact diameter of the camera lens so I can just glue it in that way and you'll hardly be able to tell (especially with the nose cone painted black like I'm planning to do).

So I'll have a Runcam Split 2 in the cockpit transmitting FPV footage and also recording HD footage from the cockpit, a camera in the nose wired to a R/C switch for stress-free landing without removing the FPV goggles, and a Mobius (or similarly shaped) camera mounted on the tail for some flights when I want a secondary HD view (that also has the plane in view). I'm working on the gunsight now, and if I have enough room under the canopy I'm also going to add an FPV cockpit (which is what I'm calling the yoke and throttle (with GI Joe arms attached) wired to the ailerons/elevator and throttle respectively). This thing is going to be the ultimate FPV P-38.

[SoLongSidekick]

I freaking love VAS. Look at how amazingly small this Minion antenna is! Pictured next to a tiny whoop camera with a VAS true dipole antenna (my favorite TW antenna). Hiding this thing upside down in the fuselage will be no problem! I'll probably glue a small piece of PVC pipe of the correct size in there and when I snap the FPV canopy on just slide it down into the pipe.

** EDIT ** I just realised with the stiffness and completely-by-luck perfect length of the cable it will just hang upside down about 1" below the underside of the canopy. Beautiful.

[rifleman_btx]

Pretty cool

[SoLongSidekick]

Damnit my brain is getting me in more trouble. With the countless hours I've in designing a custom livery and all my modifications, now I am finding it almost irresistible to turn this into a night fighter P-38M. I've never seen a R/C P-38M and god would it look cool. Plus, the radome under the nose would be an amazing place to put the nose camera I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to install. Plus I've seen a few P-38Ms that had this amazing mottled black and OD paint job.

Also, here's a tip for finding P-38 liveries. Google a serial number of a known P-38 example. I've seen a freaking ton of liveries in just the past hour that I had no idea existed.

[rifleman_btx]

Just remember to keep your video wires away from servo wires if possible also the vtx antenna wiring as well. If you don't, you can get wave lines and slight interference in your downlink.

[SoLongSidekick]

Yeah wiring is going to be a ton of fun. Luckily the vTx antenna has a pretty short cable, so it will go from the Unify at the top of the video stack in my radio compartment, straight down through the floor of the canopy, and should stick out just below the underside of the foam. So luckily I don't have to worry about that part of it.

[SoLongSidekick]

Found this interesting tidbit from Lockheed's website:

"Within six months, as the P-38 showed its versatility in North Africa, a lone hysterical German pilot surrendered to soldiers at an Allied camp near Tunisia, pointing up to the sky and repeating one phrase—“der Gableschwanz Teufl”—over and over.

Once the phrase was translated, U.S. officials realized the focus of the pilot’s madness. The P-38 had been given a new nickname: the “fork-tailed devil.”

[SoLongSidekick]

Does anyone see an issue with me cutting out the foam noted in red on the attached picture? I'm planning on gluing it back in place once I get the FPV camera mounted in the nose, but might not be able to in the end.

**EDIT** I just realized I might be able to just pull the foam back a bit and shove the camera through without any permanent damage, but that remains to be seen.

[rifleman_btx]

You can try it, but I can assure you, no one here has done that