Glossary

1) Beginner issues

2) Safety 

3) Batteries

  4) Electric motors

  5) Speed controllers (ESC's)

 6) Propellers

7) Chargers

  8) Model info

 9) Electrical formulas

Reference  resources
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Non-electronic Resources 
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Contributor Credits

What kind of equipment do I need?

Q. What kind of equipment do I need?
A. (Jim Bourke)

Generally speaking, you need equipment that is very similar to what other RC'ers require. There are only a few primary components: the radio, the battery, the charger, the aircraft, the speed control, and the motor. The amount of accessories you purchase are up to you, but most people typically buy things like a soldering iron, flight box, volt/amp meter, etc.

You probably already know that the radio is used to transmit the control inputs to the aircraft. I'll describe the electric RC specific components below:

BATTERY:

The battery pack is what provides power to the motor. Typical packs are composed of 500 to 2000 mAh cells. We can discuss the meaning of mAh (read "milli-amp hour") later, but for now just understand that the higher the number, the more charge the battery can hold. The weight of the pack is proportional to its capacity.

CHARGER:

The charger is used to charge the battery packs. There are three primary charging methods: trickle, fast, and peak. Trickle charging is a low-current charge that takes several hours to perform but is guaranteed to not hurt the battery. Fast charging involves stuffing energy into the pack at a high rate so it is charged in as little as 15 minutes, with some danger that the pack will be damaged if it is not monitored. Most low-end chargers provide both fast and trickle charging. The high-end chargers use a type of fast charging called peak charging. Peak chargers simply monitor the charge automatically so the pack cannot be hurt by fast charging. If you are going to be at all serious about electric flight, buy a peak charger right away.

AIRCRAFT:

For the most part, the aircraft is the same as ones powered by internal combustion. However, the electric systems are heavier than their equivalent IC counterparts, so electric aircraft are usually built much lighter than IC aircraft. Due to the high vibration caused by internal combustion, most IC planes are overbuilt anyway and can be easily lightened.

SPEED CONTROL:

The speed control provides proportional throttle control by varying the amount of power that is transferred from the battery to the motor. Not all planes have a speed control. Some use a simple on/off switch or just leave the throttle on full blast until the battery is exhausted.

MOTOR:

Today's electric R/C modeler has a vast supply of different motors to experiment with. Cobalt motors are considered to be far superior to ferrite motors, but are much more expensive. A new type of motor is the "brushless" motor. These are very expensive, but provide an even wider range of output possibilities at high efficiency. Most motors that are supplied in beginners kits are a type of ferrite motor called "can" motors. These motors are very inefficient and cannot be serviced like a higher quality motor. However, most kits will fly just fine with the motor provided so its ok to use a "can" motor for your first plane.