ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

I used the factory recommended CG.
I flew with the following settings:

Wings out:
Elevator - 80mm up/down with 40% expo
Ail - 70mm up/down with 40% expo
Spoiler - 28mm mixed with elevon

Wings in, yet to test:
Elevator - 80mm up/down with 50% expo
Ail - 45mm up/down with 30% expo
Spoiler - 20mm mixed with elevon

drorso

Congrats!!!

What engines are you using?

ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

I got a pair of kingtech 160's. More than enough.

Jeti system. Awesome for all of the advanced programming and telemetry

scramble two

mauryr

My actuators came with a "7.2" writing in a black marker over them, I operate them on 2S, straight off the rx batteries. These are the proportional ones, was delivered autumn 2018.

Randy M.

My Feedback: (38)

congratulations! And did it loaded, sweet.
What is all up weight with ordinance?
I was considering k120's for mine. Curious if it would be enough.

ARA-Jet

My Feedback: (8)

67lbs with uat. I need to measure with full tanks. Will post when I am out next.

Thanks

drorso

Can you please explain the actuators options? in SM web site they offer digital actuators as an option. What is coming with the kit and what is the better option?

mauryr

I m not really sure about the whole history, but I think there have been at least 3 revisions of the actuators.
The older kits came with 11v actuators with just the closed/open position, with plastic ends which were prone to break. Then came aluminum ends, and then came the proportional actuators. My actuators were sent at the end of 2018 and these are proportional and operate on 2S

FenderBean

mauryr

They probably have, but I am unable to reach them. The airplane is currently in a box getting ready to get shipped under a whole lot of other boxes
I also have the original boxes as well, but same deal. Won't be able to access them until october sadly

scramble two

I e-mailing now with Skymaster and sent both acuators (aluminum) including electronics to Likai ... It is very bad if you have 3 different versions and the customer is not informed! I hope I get the newest version!

drorso

Supposed I want to use PowerBox system (with 2 Futaba 7008 receivers). PB Mercury SRS has 15 servo outputs. Can i manage with it, or I should use the Royal SRS?

my count for outputs, and here I need your advice if I'm counting correctly:

2 Elevator
2 Rudder
2 Flaps
2 Slats
2 Spoilers
2 Throttle
1 nose wheel steering
1 Speed brake
1 Gear retract (to sequencer for the doors also)
1 Brakes

Total 16. I didn't count Canopy operation and hook which i'm not sure i want to use.

Thanks, Dror.

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

Mine has a Royal SRS with the two R7008's as you mentioned. It does not have an operating tail hook or canopy and all the slots are full.....

drorso

Interesting... the Royal has 24 outputs, besides the 16 i mentioned, what else you use?

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

I didn't do the radio setup on it but it has the gear doors and gear retract/extend run through the radio. The programming interface on the Royal is not nearly as intuitive as the Mercury. It was tough enough getting the slat and flap servos programmed. Fortunately for me, I had a friend who's a Futaba programming guru and i just watched in amazement while he programmed the flap/wing sweep mix so you cannot deploy the flaps while the wings are swept and if you sweep the wings while the flaps are deployed, the flaps will retract as the wings move rearward.

The other issue was the engine setup as i wanted them both on one switch. I messed with the setup for weeks and could not figure it out. He fixed it in a couple of hours. Now you can put the three position switch at "0" and start the first engine. You have normal throttle and trim functions on that #1 engine. Flip the switch to the "1" position and you can start the second engine again with full throttle and trim control while the first engine idles.

Flip the switch to the "2" position and you have normal throttle and trim control of both engines simultaneously. My engines have consecutive serial numbers and were matched by the JetCat distributor before he sent them out to me.

Confession; I've not flown it yet mostly because I'm scared of it and also the pneumatic system needs to be completely redone, I bought the model from a gentleman who swore on a stack of bibles, that he had fixed the gear. He didn't......

drorso

Thank you so much. I liked the engines setup :-)
I watched 2 F-14s flying in Jets Over Kentucky event last month, hope you will fly yours soon.

I understand that programming will not be easy, hope to manage with the Futaba 18 i have.

mauryr

SBUS will make your life much easier with a futaba 18. You'll be programming each server independently, run a single heavy duty (really heavy duty) cable all over the plane, and you're all set.

FenderBean

drorso

Sounds great. can you explain or refer me to a source where i can see how to use SBUS, how to connect the servos, and what hardware (what is heavy duty (really heavy duty) cable?) i need?
I assume we are still talking about PB Royal SRS with two Futaba 7008 Rxs?

FenderBean

I use the Emcotec battery backer system. Its what Sbus in a large model like this needs in my opinion. I went away from PB due to the high cost and I didnt use most of the features, I use the radio to accomplish most things. You can search youtube for help videos on this and I think Espirit has some videos explaining the emcotec system.

mauryr

In mine, I use multi strand copper cables awg 16, what you'll generally find in a home power system.
I install 2 2s batteries in the nose, merge them with high current (40A+) diodes into a single cable and then run the power straight through the awg16 cable down to each servo, splitting as necessary, segmenting the backbone as necessary with an XT60 coupler.
No powerbox required, no emcotec required, no additional failure points added.
For the sbus you do the same thing, running a single wire from the (single) rx at the sbus socket over to all the servers, splitting as required when required.
On the f14 in particular, I have a 3way split at the wing spar within the fuselage (one way for each wing, one for the tail) then I have a 2 way split right before the engines (one for each side of the tail).
Wing actuators require their own signal cable (you can tap the main bus for power if your actuators are 7.4v) because they are not sbus capable, so must be plugged to their own port in the rx.
This way you power the whole airplane with a heavy duty power system which is as powerful as your batteries with hardly any bottle necking.
The smaller servo wires and servo connectors which connect your main bus to the servo also act as a fuse. Should the servo ever short out, that's where the circuit will break, leaving all the rest of the airplane's electric system intact and the plane controllable.

mauryr

This is the same system applied to a different model (the rebel pro). At the bottom you can see the 2 battery plugs, 2 voltage meters, the black package contains the diodes. As you move up the bus you can see a servo connector - that's for a regular servo used for the nose wheel steering. The split at the center powers the receiver, taps into a servo connector for the wheel steering signal and the blue wire is for the main sbus tap. The system then continues with the main connectors for the wings (green plugs carry sbus signal - 2 pins for redundancy - and landing gear actuation/brakes). Finally the last part is where the fuselage disconnects and in this picture the 3way split for the 3 tail servos is missing.

Nowadays the xt60 are available as a 3 way connector, which is perfect for high power sbus backbones:

drorso

Now i have an idea :-) do you need to use special servos with this SBUS?

mauryr

Yes, futaba SBUS Servos. Their latest is a 70 kg servo, I put these on the elevators as the 30 kg ones were occasionally hunting for the center.
Or, if you want to go lower budget (they are pretty pricey) you can use regular digital servos with sbus decoders available from futaba. In the rebel pro for example, you could put a decoder in the tail and split the signal to 3 regular servos. In the F14 there are so many servos I wouldn't know where to begin though... 8 in the wings, 4 in the tail, steering, tail hook, various other junk