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Introduction
Glossary
1) Beginner issues
| A101 |
Why fly electric? |
| A102 |
How do I get started? |
| A103 |
What kind of planes can I fly with electric
power? |
| A104 |
How do I sign up for the AMA/MAAC? |
| A105 |
What Kind of equipment do I need? |
| A106 |
What special tools would I need? |
| A107 |
Can you suggest a few beginner setups? |
| A108 |
Are soldered or crimp joints better? |
| A109 |
What goes on which stick? |
2) Safety
| A201 |
What safety procedures should I follow when flying? |
| A202 |
What is an arming switch? |
| A203 |
When should I use an arming switch? |
| A204 |
How much power will I lose? How much weight will I gain? |
| A205 |
What is a fuse? Why use one? |
| A206 |
What type of fuse should I use? |
| A207 |
How do I choose the fuse rating? |
| A208 |
How and where do I install the fuse? |
| A209 |
Are there any safety precautions for the motor battery? |
| A210 |
How do I fuse a brushless motor? |
3) Batteries
| A300 |
Battery Basics |
| A301 |
What's Volt, Amps, "C" rating,
etc....? |
| A302 |
What are milli-amp hours? |
|
A303 |
How fast can I charge my batteries? |
|
A304 |
What is Nicad memory? |
|
A305 |
What is Cell reversal? |
|
A306 |
Should I cycle my packs? |
|
A307 |
Can I deep discharge an individual cell safely? |
|
A308 |
What is the discharge of a Nicad like? |
|
A309 |
Black Wire Syndrome |
|
A310 |
Low Tech Cell Matching |
|
A311 |
What are the effects of series and parallel? |
|
A312 |
What are NiMH batteries like? |
|
A313 |
Can I use Lithium batteries for electric flight? |
|
A314 |
What do the battery codes like SCR, AE mean? |
|
A315 |
Is it safe to solder directly to batteries? |
4) Electric motors
| A401 |
What does "breaking-in" a motor actually do? |
|
A402 |
How do I break-in a motor? |
|
A403 |
What does gearing do? |
|
A404 |
How do I compare an electric motor to an IC engine? |
|
A405 |
What are motor constants? |
|
A406 |
What's the difference between Delta and Wye Brushless Motors? |
|
A407 |
What is "timing"? |
|
A408 |
How much should I advance a speed 400? |
|
A409 |
How do I use the "speed 400 timing tool?" |
|
A410 |
How much heat can our motors dissipate? |
|
A411 |
How can I keep my motors clean? |
|
A412 |
What is a sensorless motor/controller? |
|
A413 |
How does a sensorless motor work? |
|
A414 |
What do the motor names (Speed 400,600, 05, 25) mean? |
|
A415 |
How do I do a "Water break-in" ? |
|
A416 |
How do I measure motor constants ? |
|
A417 |
Will this cheap Mabuchi 540/380 etc. be good for E-Flight ? |
|
A418 |
How many capacitors do I need on my motor and what values ? |
|
A419 |
Should I wire two motors in series or parallel? |
| A420 |
Where can I find some information on common
brushed motor constants? |
5) Speed controllers (ESC's)
| A501 |
How does a speed control work? |
|
A502 |
What is the advantage of a High Rate Control? |
|
A503 |
What is the best switching rate for a hi rate ESC? |
|
A504 |
How does a motor brake work? |
|
A505 |
What is a BEC and how does it relate to the speed control? |
|
A506 |
What are the disadvantages of a BEC? |
|
A507 |
What is a Cutoff? |
|
A508 |
How long can I fly once the cutoff takes place? |
|
A509 |
What is opto-isolation and what does it do? |
|
A510 |
How do I disable the BEC on my speed control? |
|
A511 |
Where does my BEC speed control plug in ? |
|
A512 |
Can I control 2 brushless motors with one controller ? |
6) Propellers
| A601 |
Why doesn't my Graupner folding prop extend all the way out? |
7) Chargers
| A701 |
How does charging current relate to capacity? |
|
A702 |
How can I make certain my packs are fully charged? |
|
A703 |
How does a peak (or delta peak) charger work? |
|
A704 |
Will my charger work with Ni-MH batteries? |
|
A705 |
Will a NiCad peak charger work with Lithium batteries? |
8) Model info
| A801 |
What are the differences between Indoor, Slow and Park flyers? |
|
A802 |
What are EDF models? |
|
A803 |
What exactly are EPS/EPP/Depron and other construction foams ? |
|
A804 |
What is the watts/pound rule? |
|
A805 |
What does the Watt-hours/pound rule tell me? |
|
A806 |
How do I match an electric power system to a given airframe? |
|
A807 |
How do I convert a gas powered plane to electric? |
| A808 |
Are there any proven electric setups listed
anywhere? |
9) Electrical formulas
| A901 |
How do I calculate duration? |
|
A902 |
How do I calculate Watts? |
|
A903 |
How do I convert units of measure? |
|
A904 |
What is Orme's Law? |
Reference resources
Mailing lists
FTP sites
Web pages
Newsgroups
Non-electronic Resources
Magazines
Books
Contributor Credits
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What are the disadvantages of a BEC?
Q. What are the disadvantages of a BEC?
A. Doug Ingraham, Lofty Pursuits
A BEC using a linear regulator has some very strict limits over which it can
operate. Modern regulators only need about 0.25 volts more input voltage than
output voltage. Therefore, a BEC that supplies 5 volts to the radio gear needs
5.25 volts from the battery. So a 6 cell pack operated at reasonable current
levels (<30 amps) is the minimum needed to be safe in powering a radio from a
BEC. Strange things happen when the input voltage drops below 5.25 volts. On the
other end of the scale one shouldn't try to operate a linear regulator type BEC
on more than 10 cells. At ten cells, the regulator may overheat and shut off. Of
course when they turn off the radio is turned off and the plane generally
crashes. I have seen a number of crashes that I am certain were caused by the
BEC regulator chip overheating. The characteristic of this event will be that
operation is fine for a couple of minutes into the flight and then radio loss is
complete. It is most likely to occur on high cell counts (8+) with many servos
(4 or more) and a fast airplane (the speed of the plane affects the amount of
current that the regulator must provide to the servos). The pilot generally
thinks he got interference and doesn't blame the real culprit. There are other
types of regulators that don't have this problem but so far they are not in use
because they are larger, weigh more than a small four cell receiver pack, and
cost more as well.
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