Official Nexa 1870mm DHC-6 Twin Otter Canadian Yellow (Balsa ARF) Discussion Thread

[Gilatrout]

The OV10 props and spinner repainted to be more Otterly. I really like how they came out.


I also make a tin box for every plane I own. I keep things like wing bolts, extra screws, whatever I don't want to forget. The box generally fits in the battery bay so it won't be left behind. Unlike the wings. I haven't figured out how not to sometime forget the wings...

[Gilatrout]

Well, I'm annoyed.

So I decided to go with the OV10 prop and spinner set up. Seems like a perfect solution. 3 blades, counter rotating, good looking spinners on the Otter. No brainer right? I installed the recommended motors (Admiral 3520-950kV) in the wings and ordered the prop adapters and spinners.

They arrived today. Hurray \o/

The prop adapters don't fit. In fact, no Flightline adapter will fit on an Admiral motor as far as I can tell. The Admirals use 3 screws, Flightline uses 4 to attach the adapter to the motor.


So plan B. Going to now order the OV10 motors. They are same size but lower KV (3530-860kV) . I''m hoping I'm not screwing myself and underpowering the Otter. I'll have to see when the motors arrive and I watt test the revised setup.

I'm annoyed because I bought these motors for other ARFs and so far I've found them for one reason or another to be unsuitable for the projects, even though they are the motors Motion recommends. Sure I could go with 2 bladed props but no scale guy is ever going to find that tolerable. It makes me itch just to think about it.

So anyway, If you want/require 3 bladed counter rotating props, you will want to look at motor options other than the ones recommended by Motion.

[MeyerVW]

That is odd. I took the aircraft out into my living room and the color is not as bad. My room lighting makes this look horrible. Its still off but not that bad. So i will keep it.

[MeyerVW]

I could go down to space age paints to have a spray can made up. Its $25 for 5oz of paint. Did this with my Kuluka AL37. Repaint all the parts, they dont match anyway. Landing gear, antennas, windscreen, nacelles, and nose. I will have to sit on this a few days. Like the aircraft but my disappointment is high right now. Maybe a few beers will help.

[xviper]

I may return this bird. I pulled all the parts out to inspect and the coloring on it all is whack. So many different colors of yellow going on here. and none of them match each other. I dont want to spend more money to correct what should be correct in the first place. I wrote a ticket to them on this so I will see if we can work it out but this is disappointing..

It sure is. I hope you get a satisfactory resolution to this. I don't mind doing a few "tweaks" to any model, but this would be very annoying and unacceptable. I'm wondering if this whole pandemic thing caused a disruption in the paint batches being used to paint different parts in different places in the assembly process. Motion should inspect all shipments of these sorts of kits before sending them out.

[MeyerVW]

I may return this bird. I pulled all the parts out to inspect and the coloring on it all is whack. So many different colors of yellow going on here. and none of them match each other. I dont want to spend more money to correct what should be correct in the first place. I wrote a ticket to them on this so I will see if we can work it out but this is disappointing..

[xviper]

The nose and engine nacelles are a very different color yellow than the aircraft. Did anyone repaint these parts, with what color yellow?

That’s weird. Take a part of the plane that’s the right color to your local Home Depot and have them color match it. I have the tropical theme, so the plane is mostly white and the nose and engine nacelles were a good match.

[MeyerVW]

The nose and engine nacelles are a very different color yellow than the aircraft. Did anyone repaint these parts, with what color yellow?

[xviper]

Typical! This was the same reply they gave out for the Eflite 80mm F-16. A few people played with it to get thrust reverse. It wasn't till it was public knowledge on the forums that Horizon posted that yes, indeed, ALL Avian smart ESCs when teamed with any "smart" receiver could get reverse to work. Then they made a video to show it.

[Gilatrout]

I sometimes think some of those Horizon tech guys are handicapped by their own lack of understanding of the things they sell.
I think differential thrust may require an extra channel for mixing. A "ghost" channel like we see in those 6-ch. smart RX's are likely not to work because you need a physical port to plug one throttle channel into. I hope I'm wrong.

You are totally right about that. I sent them mail showing how it just worked using stock equipment and processes for setting up the feature.

This is their response
There will always be work arounds however, right now Horizon's official stance is that it does not work and that is correct. We glad to see that you got it working, Unfortunately we will not be able to suggest it to others in the future.

Thank You,

Matt G.

[Gilatrout]

I sometimes think some of those Horizon tech guys are handicapped by their own lack of understanding of the things they sell.
I think differential thrust may require an extra channel for mixing. A "ghost" channel like we see in those 6-ch. smart RX's are likely not to work because you need a physical port to plug one throttle channel into. I hope I'm wrong.

I agree, the ghost channel probably won't work for differential throttle. This is why I'm using an 8channel receiver on the Otter. I may ultimately end up going with the 10 channel receiver so that I can break out other controls into separate channels.

[xviper]

I sometimes think some of those Horizon tech guys are handicapped by their own lack of understanding of the things they sell.
I think differential thrust may require an extra channel for mixing. A "ghost" channel like we see in those 6-ch. smart RX's are likely not to work because you need a physical port to plug one throttle channel into. I hope I'm wrong.

[Gilatrout]

After some back and forth with various people at Horizon, I was able to set up the otter with counter rotating propellers and thrust reversing. Horizon said it wasn't possible, but it was, in fact, trivial.

I have it working and it is using stock Spectrum smart hardware

2x Avian 45A esc
1x 8 channel receiver AR8360T
Escs Y into channel 1.
BEC disabled from stbd esc. (Power wire removed from plug)

Escs were programmed using the Avian ESC programming box (V1). Default settings used except where specified below.

Stbd motor esc programming
Brake type Reverse
Brake Force 2
Rotation CW
Reverse Channel 9

Port motor esc programming.
Brake type Reverse
Brake Force 2
Rotation CCW
Reverse Channel 9

IX20 Transmitter - channel assign button I to channel 9 and reversed so that it reverses thrust when pressed.

It just worked

The cool thing is because the receiver is listening to chan 9 even though there are no outputs, I can use it without sacrificing an control surface channel

I will do some additional research to see if I can also add in differential thrust for water taxiing.

[Gilatrout]

Yes, I have both the OV-10 and B-24. The spinners from the Bronco are very nice, just the wrong color for the T.O. unless you do a military version and even those seem to have chrome spinners.

The references.for Canada 805 have black spinners, so that should be a simple repaint.

As to chrome, I've had excellent success painting plastic parts with my airbrush using Molotow Chrome paint pens. The paint from the pen can be airbrushed directly.

https://www.molotow.com/en/applications/marker-applications/liquid-chrome/

[xviper]

Thanks, I Hadn't realized the OV10 and B24 used same props. I checked the spinner from my Bronco and it should work nicely. Much appreciated.

Yes, I have both the OV-10 and B-24. The spinners from the Bronco are very nice, just the wrong color for the T.O. unless you do a military version and even those seem to have chrome spinners.

[Gilatrout]

Thanks, I Hadn't realized the OV10 and B24 used same props. I checked the spinner from my Bronco and it should work nicely. Much appreciated.

[xviper]

a B24 Propeller (9.5 x 7 Three Blade)

I'm using the HobbyKing Albatross props, so elected to go with the Albatross prop holder and spinner cone. Have you considered using the B-24 prop holder and spinner cone? If you want a prettier set-up, take a look at https://www.espritmodel.com/aluminum...-spinners.aspx
They are a sailplane shop but they sell spinners that you can adapt to whatever prop you choose and come with instructions on how to cut your own slots to fit your props.
These guys also make spinners: https://www.truturn.com/product-category/electric/
Another option is to find a plane that uses a 3-blade prop and see if its spinner appeals to you. For eg. The B-24 uses the same prop as the OV-10 Bronco. Look at that spinner and if you like it, it can always be painted. HobbyKing has a few 3-bladed prop planes. Look at them.

[long-love-rc]

long-love-rc My wife removes the wings on hers for storage and transport as well. She does use the nylon wing bolts to mount the wings. She shortened them to a better length so, not so much twisting is needed.

She doesn't use the wing struts either. The wing and tube are plenty strong. Simplifies set-up at the field.

We've not had any problems with the gear.

Her wing connections are much simpler. She uses a single multi-servo connector on each side. It combines the throttle, aileron and flap servos. Then the battery/esc connector. So, it's two connectors per side. easy to work with. Link to where we get them. She ordered two three servo connectors to do the job.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...-Servo-Harness

Twowingtj thank you! Happy flying!

[Gilatrout]

My Otter arrived early. Hurray for FedEx Sunday delivery

Everything was well packaged, everything safe. Beautiful looking airplane.

Before I put anything together I wanted to Watt test the setup. Using the recommended GP2 3520-950kV motor, a B24 Propeller (9.5 x 7 Three Blade) , an Avian 45Amp Esc, and a 4S 3200 battery

I topped out at about 41.5 Amps at full throttle. Closer to the 42 Amp rating for the motor than I'd like, but it was under it. Watts was 566, which I then based on a 9lb airplane (actual weight should be closer to 8 over all) puts me about 126 watts per pound.

She will fly.

Now I just need to figure out the spinner situation. Any and all suggestions for prop adapters and spinners would be appreciated.

I'm also reasonably pleased with how my pilot dude fits. Need to print him a buddy

.

[Twowingtj]

I thought about using these things myself but at the time, I was in too much of a hurry to wait for shipping. I may still get them one of these days. ThunderboltRC (in Canada) have been selling such things for years.

We use them on all of our planes with more that one servo per wing half. One click and you're done. No worries about reverse polarity or hooking up the wrong servos.