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Easy Star is one of the most popular platforms for FPV and there are many useful modifications that can be done with handy materials.

Although I am fairly new to FPV flight, I have been building and flying RC planes and helis for several years.

Here is one of my Easy Star pre-FPV builds that some people may find useful as my approach makes it very easy to swap out your brushless motors and ESCs even when you glue your fuselage sides together. My approach also does not weaken the airframe with so many cut-outs, instead the plastic tubes strengthen the fuselage where Elapor is removed.

I came up with my very own "Lipton Ice Tea PET bottle motor mount" and a "tunnel" for internally mounted ESC. Alternatively, you can avoid side or bottom cut-out doors and use the "tunnel" to slide in other electronics and mount the ESC in the airflow on the top of the fuselage where most people put it.
[attachment=60]
As you can see from above, I mount many of my brushless outrunner motors on a fiberglass plate which then is screwed to the plane for easy removal. On this Easy Star I wanted to experiment with various size brushless outrunner motors (I have a lot of them) and to have airflow around the motor.
I noticed that 500mL Lipton Ice Tea bottle is made of really strong PET material. The neck under the cap has internal diameter of 33.3 mm and has a nice wide collar (empty Scotch tape spools on the picture below also come handy for the ESC "tunnel").
[attachment=62]
Since I use Jeti SPIN controllers with built-in Switching BEC (= less waste heat among other benefits), I wanted to mount the ESC inside the fuselage in an easy-to-remove way. I also put some plastic tubes in the nose of the Easy Star for air-intake. This way the air can flow all the way through the ESC "tunnel" and out through the tube from where the motor wires are connected to the ESC. The tunnel exits in front of the propeller, so this may help the airflow too. In any case, my 33A Jeti SPIN has never had heat problems and is further from other electronics. For the "tunnel" tubes on the image below I used 2 L Coca Cola PET bottle neck, Scotch tape spool and other different size plastic tubes I found:
[attachment=63]
Now I only have to drop the ESC in the "tunnel", pull the ESC motor side wires out of the "tunnel", and once connected to the motor, the ESC can be pulled back towards the nose to pull the motor wires straight. I use velcro to keep the motor wires neat as seen on the first picture.

The air intake in the nose can be seen below. I used neon yellow "duct tape" on the nose and bottom of the Easy Star to protect it on belly landings.
[attachment=65]

PS! I like to use Polyurethane (PU) glue on my planes as it is strong, lightweight and remains somewhat elastic even when fully dried. It foams to fill the gaps, excess is easy to cut away with the exacto knife and you can form it before it fully dries up. I used "Ponal Construct PU Leim", but many liquid PU glues such as Elmer glue and Gorilla glue are similar. I don't like to use the recomended CA on Elapor or other foams as CA becomes too rigid and does not fill bigger holes.

Last, but not the least. The most common mod is to enlarge the rudder fin. I just cut one out of from and covered it with Monocote film for stength and a vivid colour . I also cut all elapor control surfaces loose and use nylon hinges instead to have smoothly moving control surfaces.
[attachment=64]

I fly the Easy Star with 4S1P 1100 mAh A123 packs, but 3S1P 2300 A123 pack with bigger cells is also an option.

I hope these mods can be of help to someone.
Enjoy,
HaKK

(06-05-2009 11:11 PM)HaKK Wrote: [ -> ]Easy Star is one of the most popular platforms for FPV and there are many useful modifications that can be done with handy materials.

Although I am fairly new to FPV flight, I have been building and flying RC planes and helis for several years.

Here is one of my Easy Star pre-FPV builds that some people may find useful as my approach makes it very easy to swap out your brushless motors and ESCs even when you glue your fuselage sides together. My approach also does not weaken the airframe with so many cut-outs, instead the plastic tubes strengthen the fuselage where Elapor is removed.

I came up with my very own "Lipton Ice Tea PET bottle motor mount" and a "tunnel" for internally mounted ESC. Alternatively, you can avoid side or bottom cut-out doors and use the "tunnel" to slide in other electronics and mount the ESC in the airflow on the top of the fuselage where most people put it.

As you can see from above, I mount many of my brushless outrunner motors on a fiberglass plate which then is screwed to the plane for easy removal. On this Easy Star I wanted to experiment with various size brushless outrunner motors (I have a lot of them) and to have airflow around the motor.
I noticed that 500mL Lipton Ice Tea bottle is made of really strong PET material. The neck under the cap has internal diameter of 33.3 mm and has a nice wide collar (empty Scotch tape spools on the picture below also come handy for the ESC "tunnel").

Since I use Jeti SPIN controllers with built-in Switching BEC (= less waste heat among other benefits), I wanted to mount the ESC inside the fuselage in an easy-to-remove way. I also put some plastic tubes in the nose of the Easy Star for air-intake. This way the air can flow all the way through the ESC "tunnel" and out through the tube from where the motor wires are connected to the ESC. The tunnel exits in front of the propeller, so this may help the airflow too. In any case, my 33A Jeti SPIN has never had heat problems and is further from other electronics. For the "tunnel" tubes on the image below I used 2 L Coca Cola PET bottle neck, Scotch tape spool and other different size plastic tubes I found:

Now I only have to drop the ESC in the "tunnel", pull the ESC motor side wires out of the "tunnel", and once connected to the motor, the ESC can be pulled back towards the nose to pull the motor wires straight. I use velcro to keep the motor wires neat as seen on the first picture.

The air intake in the nose can be seen below. I used neon yellow "duct tape" on the nose and bottom of the Easy Star to protect it on belly landings.


PS! I like to use Polyurethane (PU) glue on my planes as it is strong, lightweight and remains somewhat elastic even when fully dried. It foams to fill the gaps, excess is easy to cut away with the exacto knife and you can form it before it fully dries up. I used "Ponal Construct PU Leim", but many liquid PU glues such as Elmer glue and Gorilla glue are similar. I don't like to use the recomended CA on Elapor or other foams as CA becomes too rigid and does not fill bigger holes.

Last, but not the least. The most common mod is to enlarge the rudder fin. I just cut one out of from and covered it with Monocote film for stength and a vivid colour . I also cut all elapor control surfaces loose and use nylon hinges instead to have smoothly moving control surfaces.


I fly the Easy Star with 4S1P 1100 mAh A123 packs, but 3S1P 2300 A123 pack with bigger cells is also an option.

I hope these mods can be of help to someone.
Enjoy,
HaKK

I really like the tunnel for the ESC, I am guessing that the prop sort of sucks air through the tunnel.

My Easystar is quite frankly a mess in comparison to yours, though in my defence it is the first RC plane I have ever built and has had a few mods made as I've moved into FPV. Oh well, I'll know better for my next Easystar build.. unless of course that Easystar turns out to be a flying wing instead

Nice job on the Easy Star ..Some good idea's there ..