FanFacts W
elcome back and Happy New Year! I hope that Santa brought you everything on your wish list, especially if it is R/C jet related! It’s a shame I was not aware of some of the following products prior to “gift-exchange” time, but it does provide food for thought when the MLK and Presidents’ Day sales roll around!
It seems as if everyone who goes onto the EZone (RCGroups) wants to purchase this, that or the other at Hobby King (located in Hong Kong). Sometimes they have some re- ally neat items that can work for us. As an example, my electric airplane packs are ei- ther “full” as marked by a simple clothes pin, or empty (no clothes pin). I do not differenti- ate discharged vs. storage charge since when I get home the packs get put on the charger and set for storage.
Recently, I was exposed to a really neat device which shows the charge status of your pack visually and easily, and it comes from the gorilla in the room: Hobby King. If you are into electric airplanes in a big way, and take multiple packs to the field with you, and charge bunches of them while you are there, the easy changeability of the slid- er from full to empty might be a great addi- tion to your supply closet in order to help keep things straight and avoid the sick feel- ing of a motor cutting out right after take off. Manufactured by Turnigy, these “Battery Charge Markers” are available in packs of ten for $3.99.
Also available is a five-piece finned-heat sink package with lots of extra length for $6.44. While many higher-end speed con- trols come with a machined heat sink al- ready designed in, most found in economy ARF packages do not, relying instead on a flat metal plate that is routinely covered with heat shrink tubing. With the combina-
PHOTOGRAPHY: GREG MOORE
Greg’s simple pack-charge monitor is a clothes pin clipped to charged packs (top). Packs that have been discharged or storage charged do not sport clothes pin (below) which makes identification super simple, provided multiple packs are not being flown and charged in a short period of time.
tion of no airflow over the flat plate, and having it most frequently buried inside a Styrofoam fuselage, a fried ESC and crashed airplane is an all too common result. Using either the Hobby King or a similar package available from Radio Shack (part number TO-202/220 for $2.49 each), cutting the shrink wrap away from the heat sink and affixing one will increase the surface area for cooling tremendously and help to keep the electrons flowing smoothly. A quick Google search will take you to many differ- ent sites with images of many different styles, most seemingly designed for comput- er parts. You might be amazed at all the dif- ferent styles/shapes that are available.
Since I have been discussing Hobby King, occasionally they have some really neat air- planes. Bob Ruff, from the Phoenix, AZ area, has been heavily involved with electric flight (especially edfs) for many years. He had been playing with an airplane called The Rebel, which unfortunately had a nasty ten- dency to depart controlled flight at a certain airspeed, when lo-and-behold, our gorilla (HK) brought out a look alike (in a smaller size) that he had to try (and let me fly). Well, its flight characteristics are like this: I threatened to put it in my car and take it home!
The Hobby King Fire Phoenix is an inter- esting airplane that appears to be a cross be-
by greg moore You can reach Greg Moore via e-mail at
jetflyr@comcast.net
Turnigy’s Battery Charge Markers (available from Hobby King) are another means of marking the charge status of your packs. These are simple and light with brightly colored indicators (above left) that you can’t “forget on the workbench” since they are adhered to the packs. This generic heat sink
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(above right) can be cut to size to fit any flat plate heat exchanger. It is available in many sizes from a multitude of computer stores and internet sites. This product is very similar to the multiple-size package Hobby King sells.
JANUARY 2014
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