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How to keep your (ESC) cool

I use this trick to keep my “30Amps ESC” cooler and with longer life.

Usually the “ESC” with less than 50Amp comes only with an aluminum plate cover to serve as a heatsink, but covered with an heat shrink plastic.

This combination does not make much sense. So I decided to seek a better solution that does not involve much work.

What I sought was some aluminum heatsink used in computers (made for use in RAM or GPU chipsets) that were small and practical to use.

This was the solution that worked best. Aluminum heatsink + Thermal Adhesive tape.

Some come with the Thermal Adhesive already applied. Just peel and stick.

All work necessary is to cut the heat shrink plastic gently and only enough to properly fit the new heatsink on top of the original aluminum plate.

Done …

This trick will turn an 30Amps Esc in to an 45Amps one? No.
But it will allow you to use 28Amps (continuous) without the nasty electrical burning smell …

Hobbyking / St Model ASW28 Hacks

How to turn something good into something better?

As the original ESC does not work with a 3s battery, I’ve changed the ESC with a new one, and now it works great. Now we have enough power to fast climbs . I am using 1000/1500mAh 25c 3s batteries.

Simply cut the original cables that connect the motor to the ESC and put together a new set of 3.5mm Gold Connectors. Connect a 18-20A ESC and you’re done. Easy.

I did not change the motor, but the propeller is not the original (destroyed in a crash), but a folding 10×6  I recovered from an old airplane. With this setup the engine is not hot with 5-6, 100 meters (328 feet) rises for each flight. 20 to 30 minutes flight time on a normal day with an 1000 mAh battery. If the day is good for Thermal flight, we managed to have the asw28 in the air until we’re tired of flying.

To facilitate the landings, because this ASW-28 floats forever, I’ve put flaps (one more servo per wing). So, now I can land close to me and in shorter fields.

To put flaps, I cut the wing along the line defined by the ailerons up to 4 cm before the wing root. I embed a carbon strip of 6 mm in each of the wings and in each of the flaps to ensure greater stiffness of the assembly.

To attach the horn, I used epoxy glue and reinforced with toothpicks. After that done, I went looking for the simplest and cheapest of all servos. These were placed on top of the wing, since, if placed beneath the wing, the servos/horns would be too vulnerable.

First I tested the flaps with two positions (8º to fly in thermal and 20º for landing), but then changed, and left only the landing configuration (25º).

All these changes caused a decrease in the final speed of the ASW-28 in relation to the original version of the wing, but is now, an much more fun plane to fly.

Another modification that I recommend is the placement of a transparent adhesive tape (with 3-4 cm wide) along the entire span, including the winglet. This small change greatly increases the resistance of the wing and is very easy to do.

Video 1:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_HkOarjxJM[/youtube]

Video 2:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3VRV-TAGlE[/youtube]