V-2 with wings rebuild 2021

Paul
"cut, strip, solder and heat shrink one lead at a time"
Certainly but soldering on all new balance leads is a bit more of a challenge.

crash
I have no real idea of the flight times but once it has lifted off (if it actually does) and climbed to altitude (say 6 seconds at 15A = 25 mAh) it should fly at a very low throttle (5A?).
At those amps it should be able to fly for a further 9.9 minutes but lets say 6 taking into account powering the Rx, servos, electrical losses and other 'guesses'.

The 850 mAh 5s.

It weighs 114 g compared to 110 for the 1000mAh 3s. I can live with the extra 4 g.
More to the point it charges normally and all the cells have exactly the same voltage. Hooray!

Quorneng wrote: Paul
"cut, strip, solder and heat shrink one lead at a time"
Certainly but soldering on all new balance leads is a bit more of a challenge.

Thought you was worried about the possibility of a short! I agree smaller wires can be tricky, I'm lucky in that I have very steady hands, I've said it before but holding your breath really does help.

As work on the HE 162 is virtually stopped waiting for the stab Rx to arrive I decided to 'reactivate' the V-2 which was also in need of a light weight stab Rx.
The solution was to switch the stab Rx from the Folland Gnat EDF for the heavier Rx and separate gyro that was in the V-2.
The arrival of the 30A 6S ESC was the final prompt.
The ESC connected up.

13A, 238W (the V-2 will weigh just under 1lb) and quite a racket!
I can't get over just how small the ESC is.
Note the magnet wire is soldered direct to the ESC. Its a 50/50 chance the motor will run the right way first time- it didn't!

It appears he was not Irish but a Major in the US Airforce!
.

As the V-2 is a stressed skin skin structure you just have to accept it requires a big but temporary hole to be cut to get something like the rx in and coupled up.

The ESC is mounted close to the top skin to be as far away as possible from the rx which will be mounted low down.
A view inside looking back through what will be the battery hatch.

3 servo wires, a power wire from the BEC and throttle from the ESC to be connected.

The stab rx is neat enough but it requires the usual trial and error roundabout of servo connection and Tx 'reverse' to not only get the controls (elevon and rudder) to work in the correct sense but also that the stab action works in opposition to an external influence. Get it wrong at your peril!
Ultimately the only rx 'hatch' will be small one directly over the gyro gains so they can be adjusted with a long screw driver.

Warm (for Feb), sunny, high pressure cantered right over the UK so little or no wind. Ideal after a long period being grounded. Hmmmm.

Ha!
Centered or cantered. It is all effected by Covid 19.

Nearly finished, just the battery hatch and some paint touch up to do.

No hatch for the gyro gain just a small oval hole.

The fuselage being thin white Depron it is actually quite light inside so it is easy to see the gain pots even through such a small aperture.
I rather fear those will end up as famous last words!

Hopefully you won't need to access the pots very often. I would be interested to know your method for setting up the gains. ? I normally set them to max, to check everything is moving the way it should, & then dial them back to about 11 o'clock.
Up to now I havent had to touch them after that, & the gyro seems to work well without causing any oscillation.

crash
Yes definitely set to max to make sure the gyro is working in the correct sense.
On the previous version of the V-2 I had the gains set as high as possible to get the maximum correction for the initial take off but it did make it rather 'inert' to any input as the gyro tended to correct to small stick inputs. In fact the EDF torque was initially the predominant force so it rolled a couple of revolutions as it climbed until the elevons and the wing forces were powerful enough to stop it.
It worried me to start with but it was actually a blessing in disguise as it meant that any initial offset at take off just resulted in a 'barrel roll' climb but the mean direction was still vertically up.
The rebuild will be lighter by about 30%. The torque will be that much less but the aerodynamics are the same so the 'climb roll' may be contained rather sooner. It could be more impressive or end badly.

The mk2 V-2 with wings is now complete.
A very short video of the test to demonstrate it will lift off the platform with a 4s battery. It should do even better with the 850 mAh 5s 'flight' battery.

Still nice today with just a bit more variable breeze so the V-2 had a go with the 5s 850 battery for maximum 'urge'.

To my great relief it still flies well. The noise at take off is best described as a "shriek" at 40,000 rpm with a 4 blade prop in a short cowling!
At its much reduced weight and power compared to the 70 mm EDF the torque rotation as it lifts off is much less. I guess it is almost with the capability of the gyro and the elevons. It was a bit out of trim which probably didn't help.
It does climb fast and flies on very little power. Maybe the CofG could come back a touch which would improve the aerodynamic power of the stab.
Just one flight as there were too many kids arriving from school to fly any more.
Now I know it flies I can safely pretty it up and remove the odd scar and 'nibble' from its 6 year life.

Well that's a good result ! What flight time did you get on that little battery ?