Flight Profilers for Free Flight Models

This one's for Klippy! He asked a question about the title subject in my Blackburn build thread, so rather than clutter up the Blackburn with extraneous detail, I decided to start a new thread on the subject.

Essentially, a profiler controls the engine and other functions in the model to allow a pre-programmed flight. There are numerous versions on the market but this post will look at only one, the KP Time and Speed Controller: www.kpaero.com/ProductCategory.aspx

They come in several types for several different applications. I'll concentrate on two, the controllers for brushed and brushless motors.

Taking the latter first, this is what they look like, note the weight:



and from the other side connected to a servo:



The controller sends a signal to the two outputs defined by the potentiometers seen in the first pic above marked speed, time and decay.

Speed: defines the power output of the motor and can be set from idle to full power.

Time: defines the time at the power set above from about 2 secs to 35 secs (or longer depending on the controller)

Decay: defines the time taken for the power to fall to zero. It can be set from about 2 secs to 2 mins.

This provides an engine flight characteristic as follows:




Finally for this post, here's an application with a brushless motor. The model's a Vic Smeed Double Delta, published in Aeromodeller in the early 60s and originally powered by a Cox 0.010. The two cell LiPo fits on the trailing edge of the wing and is not shown in the pic. Note that an ESC is required to run the motor and that about 10 engine runs can be had from a fully charged 350 MaH 2 cell LiPo

Just as a coincidence I have just built a demo rig for brushed motors that I will be taking to Impington on 15th March and the inddor Nats in April, although it was primarily to demonstrate a new gearbox motor combo that I should have available....Heres the pics

Well anticipated Kev, my next post is on brushed controllers!

The KP brushless controller will run a brushed motor via an esc, the brushed controller will run a brushed motor direct. The brushed controller will not run a brushless motor, however.The operating principle of operation of both controllers is the same.

Here's a brushless controller connected to a KP01 motor, no LiPo shown





and with a KP02 in a Lacey M-10C power pod, again, no LiPo shown: