Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[Aros]

Personally I don't think it will be a problem SM, especially given your self-admitted habit of taking care of your lipo's properly. While designating a pair of lipos for exclusive use in a single model is ideal in a perfect world, the main point of emphasis is the proper charging, discharging and balancing of the pair during their lifespan. I've used several pairs of batteries for multiple planes that may be used in parallel or series for some planes, without having any issue.

Again, it's how you treat the batteries and if you're cycling/balancing/charging and checking their cells equally, you should have no fear of using them in the P-38.

[Alpha]

Hi SM,
Please see my post earlier in this thread which discusses batteries for the P-38:

RE: Official Announcement: FlightLine 1600mm P-38 Lightning!!!

The largest packs dimensionally we tested were the two Admiral 4s 3000mAh 35Cs side by side, which is what the FlightLine 1600mm P-38 was designed around. Two Admiral 4s 2500mAh 50Cs fit and perform great as well. The 1400mm FMS P-38's battery space was severely lacking and we made a dedicated effort to maximize the FlightLine P-38's battery space without altering the nacelle's proportions. In fact the battery space was one of the driving factors behind sizing up the P-38 to 1600mm. We knew that we wanted a certain performance envelope which required a certain power system (the large props were a Must in my mind), which in turn informed the size of the battery, which in turn informed the nacelle size, which in turn set the aircraft's overall scale.

Note in the Specifications that the P-38 PNP has two separate motor/ESC circuits each with their own T-connector, which simplifies calibrating each ESC, or component swaps, without the need for soldering. Proper care for a matched pair of batteries hasn't shown any significant disparity in the cells over many flights (~150 flights across three paired packs). We did use an adapter which paralleled the two T-connectors to a single EC5 connector, for the ~50 test flights flown on a single Admiral 4s 5000mAh 60c (which has an EC5 connector)

Regarding proper care of a "matched pack", I treat two 4s batteries, purchased from the same lot, as a single inseparable pair. I will label them A1 and A2, for example, and always keep them together. They fly together, they're balanced together, they're charged together. I monitor each cell at a regular interval, and if anything ever begins to look out of the ordinary, I'll address it at that time.

You can use your Thunder Power 4s 2700s in the P-38. Since they're already in use, I'd recommend checking your four batteries and pairing them up with their closest partner. Then label them A1/A2 and B1/B2, then from that point forward endeavor to fly them together in your P-38. If you break them out singly for your other plane, that's fine, just balance charge it and ensure it's used with its corresponding "partner" when it comes time to fly the P-38.

All of this matching, balancing, monitoring, etc are extra mechanisms to reduce the risk of a surprise cell drop during flight, and also to ensure you're flying with packs as closely in sync with one another as possible. It isn't truly rocket science, but I'm more of a "Ounce of Prevention is worth a pound of Cure" kind of guy. Quality batteries, safe charging setups, and consistent monitoring are three Standard Operating Procedures for me. Knock on wood but I've never lost a cell in flight, ever. As in, ever. And as you can imagine, I fly A LOT The only time I ever run out of battery is during guided maximum flight time tests, where the objective literally is to fly a battery to near zero. Of course, even then, my onboard telemetry alarm set at a low but still safe level prevents me from flying the battery past the point of no return (poof).

It sounds like you take care of your batteries as well, and you use good brands, so you're in a strong position to limit your risk of encountering battery-related issues.

[Grossman56]

Yes, same here, I just got it this winter after Doc was saying that Varathane was better. I like the idea that it was made for outdoors and had the UV protectant in it. It applies extremely well and the shine is awesome. I apply my clear coats with a foam brush btw, I can better coverage as it goes on thicker with a brush, just keep an eye out for runs, you figure the balance out pretty quickly.

Grossman56

[Starck Mad]

Alpha and Aros...

Thank you for your responses! I will be very careful battery wise and I'm looking sooooo forward to getting my hands on my OD P-38!

[Aros]

You, me and a container-full of others! :)

[Grossman56]

Don't you just love when Alpha posts pics of these birds! I'm thinking there's a lot of guys out there that are sooooo jealous!! LOL!
Robart diamond treaded wheels huh (not eh, note that) Have to check to see if they make anything that would fit the 51's

Grossman56

[Aros]

In addition to the great mods Alpha has outlined earlier in the thread, another mod I will be doing is putting a screen mesh in the intakes and radiators. You can pick up black screen mesh (used for screen door repair) from any hardware store. I added it to my Legend Models P-38 and it looks fantastic and is another great way to add scale appeal to your P-38.

[TSHobbies]

Tomorrow is officially March! so, that means that the ship will arrive,customs will clear these, Motion will get them,UPS will pick up my package and deliver it all by tomorrow afternoon right? :p

[xviper]

Tomorrow is officially March! so, that means that the ship will arrive,customs will clear these, Motion will get them,UPS will pick up my package and deliver it all by tomorrow afternoon right? :p

Psssst .................. Wanna get in on the ground floor of a "sure thing". I've got title to the Golden Gate bridge. I'm selling it off real cheap.

[Alpha]

Hahaha. Let's all send Customs some Girl Scout cookies to give our containers a quick pass this time!

I was flying at PVMAC yesterday and there was a Ziroli P-38 there. 114" wingspan, the largest P-38 money can buy (lots of it!). My friend Jamie bought it from the owner after a stress crack developed on the maiden flight's not-so-rough landing. Some epoxy and reinforcing bolts and she should be flying soon at my field.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any photos on the ground to show just how large this P-38 is compared to people around it on the ground. It's larger than this Thunderbolt...

[Aros]

Nice! I heart giant-scale warbirds. :D

[Alpha]

To those wanting to solder up a parallel adapter to use their single 4s 5000-6000 batteries with an EC5 connector in the P-38, which arrives with two T-connectors, here's what I did. It took less than five minutes.

1) Obtain two female T-connectors. I used Deans.

2) Obtain an EC5 connector which matches your battery (Admirals have double female on the battery side, so I'm using a double male side for the adapter).

3) Solder a 1" length of 10 gauge wire onto the EC5's two terminals. Insert them into the blue plastic cover until they "click" securely into place.

4) Temporarily tape the two female T-connectors together so that the two positives are on the bottom.

5) Remove the insulation from the wire and split it into two.

6) Arrange the wires as shown in the first photo. The negative wire is split into two and touches the two negative tabs of the two T-connectors. Same goes for the positive wire to the two positive tabs.

7) Tin the four wires, then solder them each to their corresponding tab. Use 60/40 solder, I've seen people use silver solder which is wrong. Don't gob on the solder!

8) Because the wire is as short as is shown, there isn't an wiggle room for the wire to flex and touch an adjacent lead, but, still as a precaution I wrapped thin strips of electric tape in between each leg. Then, wrapped the entire assembly in electrical tape, as shown in the second picture.

9) The third photo shows the adapter in use in the aircraft, with an Admiral 4s 5000 pushed all the way back. In fact, from a Glacier 4s 5800 down to the Admiral 4s 5000, I push them all the way back and that's where she flies best.

[crxmanpat]

Nice Alpha! Gotta make a few of those up.

OK, I really wanted Allied Green, but I want one from the initial batch, so Pacific Silver it is. Pre-order submitted!

[Shirty]

I've seen some vids of the ziroli, beautiful bird. Todds is bloody nice too.

[crxmanpat]

Hmm, now that I've gone Silver instead of Green, maybe I'll need to do something a little different...

[Grossman56]

So, if I stated with this adapter....

http://giantpowerlipos.myshopify.com/products/ec3-female-to-deans-male-adapter-plug-no-wire

And then plugged it into this adapter.....

http://giantpowerlipos.myshopify.com/products/deans-parallel-adapter-no-wires

Would I not get the same thing without having to solder up my own?
Just curious...
Grossman56

[OV10]

Gman,
The first adapter that your reference is a Deans to EC3 whereas Alpha is doing the Deans to EC5 so your first adapter is wrong but the second is correct.

[Alpha]

Hmm, now that I've gone Silver instead of Green, maybe I'll need to do something a little different...

Yes Pat, do it! Putt Putt Maru was on my short list of liveries for the silver version if were to have done only one decal option. We opted for the four decal sets in the final PNP ultimately because they were all the same squadron that flew with McGuire and that gave us lots more versatility to offer customers, but I think your FlightLine P-38 would look stunning in Putt Putt Maru colors.

[Shirty]

Plus 1 pat. Do it mate! ;)

[Aros]

Happy March, Men! We know what that means! We will ALL be flying our P-38's THIS MONTH! :D