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Solo Pro

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Magnet Wire Tips and Tricks

In almost all aspect of life, having the right tool makes the job much easier. When flying micro helicopters and quads, everything has to be micro sized in order to avoid adding unneeded weight that may robs the motor of it’s performance.

For wires, magnet wires, also known as enamel wires, are a must have in your tool kit. The bigger brand names such as Horizon Hobby with their Blade lineup of heli, uses magnet wires for their antennas and for the tail motor. Nine Eagles is another manufacturer that uses magnet wires to extend to the tail motor.

I find that a good gauge for these wires are about 30-32 AWG, measuring about 0.0085in or 0.02mm. You can find magnet wires if you search for them online. Locally, my Fry’s Electronics and Radio Shack have them in spools that will last you a long time.

Alternatively, you can find the right gauge magnet wire in small motors often used in toys. Also, fans used in computers is often another source, though I find they can sometimes be thinner than 32ga.

Perfect 32ga magnet wire for these small motors

Simply take apart the motor and unravel the wire. Taking care not to rub against the rough armature and accidentally nick the enamel coating of the wire. One motor yields a lot of wire. After taking them off, you’ll see they are wavy and kinked.

A trick I use is to simply hold a section of the wire between each hand and running them back and forth against the edge of a a cutting mat, metal rod, or any edge that will not nick the wires and will not get damage if the wire start to cut into it. This trick will quickly straighten out the wire with a couple of passes. See the photos below…

Rubbing the wires back and forth along the edge of a table, metal rod or cutting mat will straighten out the kinks of the wire

To solder these magnet wires, you have to remove the enamel that coats the copper of the wire. The enamel is to prevent the wires from shorting out while wound up in the motor. Some people may scrape the thin enamel coating off. The trick I learned is that the enamel coating can be quickly burned off and the wire tinned at the same time using solder.

I put a blob of solder on the tip of my iron and touch the end of the magnet wire to it.

Touch the end of the magnet wire to a solder blob for a second to strip the enamel and tin it at the same time

It takes but a second and you get a perfectly tinned tip, ready to be solder. Easy peasy. :)

Perfectly tinned magnet wire without any hassle

Another tip for you. If you want to lower the overall resistance and thicken up the gauge of the wires, you can twist a few strands of the magnet wires together. I do this by putting one end into the power drill and hold the opposite end. The hand held power drill will make a perfect twisted bundle of magnet wire.

Put a few strands or more of magnet wire to a power drill and it will create a perfect twist

Here, you can see that three 32ga magnet wire twisted together has more copper than the original stock wires that feeds through the v929 boom. Because each wire has the enamel coating, despite having more overall copper, the twisted bundle is equal to the thickness of the original wires with it’s insulation. Which means you can still feed a positive and negative pair through the carbon fiber boom.

Three strands of 32ga magnet wire to replace original stock v929 boom wire

I like to use the magnet wire because it’s cheap, lightweight and it’s coating looks like anodized metal.

One final trick, for aesthetics, I will use the same color for positive and negative. To keep track of the polarity, I simply mark the each ends of the negative wire with a black sharpie so I properly solder it to the negative terminal. Twisted togther, they looks like an performance “upgrade.” :D The cooler looking it is…the faster it goes. ;)

That’s all there is to it.  Hopefully this post helps you guys. Happy modding!!!

9 Comments on Magnet Wire Tips and Tricks

Charging Clip for Nine Eagles, Trex 100 and v911

If you fly micro helis such as the Solo Pro, Trex 100 and v911. You’ll quickly find that they each employ their own proprietary battery connector. What is an easy way to be able to hook these battery up to your programmable charger?

Simple. Take a clothespin and insert two tiny screws 5mm from each other. Then wire it up like the photo below to create a charging clip.

You can make more than one and wire them up to parallel charge. It’s easy to clip on and off and works great.

Pertinent Links:
RC Groups forum post

5 Comments on Charging Clip for Nine Eagles, Trex 100 and v911

v911 Main Gear Alternatives

I was given a Xtreme Productions delrin main gear for the Solo Pro. So I took the weight differences between the v911, Solo Pro and Xtreme.

The v911 is the lightest, and very slightly thinner than the other two.

Here’s the weight of the stock v911 main shaft compared to the Solo Pro’s carbon fiber main shaft. In case you’re wondering, the Solo Pro main shaft is a drop in fit. No mods needed.

Categories: Helicopter, Solo Pro
2 Comments on v911 Main Gear Alternatives

Using Jim Stoll’s 9958 Jig for v911

I was asked the following:

Would the holes for BSX match up with holes for V911 main shaft. I plan to get this jig to make main shafts for 9958, V911, Bravo SX from 120SR tail boom.

Well, the jig does a good job of keeping your drill bit straight and true. And if you know what you’re doing, you can definitely use the 9958 jig to drill out holes for other helicopter’s main shaft.

The unique thing about the v911 is that they did a very good job of cloning the Solo Pro. I believe the Solo Pro stock main shaft is a direct bolt on. And because it’s already made of carbon fiber, buying the Solo Pro main shaft and fitting it on the v911 is probably the easiest way to go about it.

For those who like to hack and mod their stuff. Or those who can get hollow 3mm CF tubes, or even those who wants to make their main shaft out of a solid CF rod, then the following photos should help.

I took apart my Solo Pro so I can put it’s main shaft on the jig for comparison. You should be able to use the jig in two steps to fabricate a Solo Pro/v911 main shaft. As you can see, the top two holes of the Solo Pro lines up this way.

That means, from the front…line up the top of your carbon fiber tube to the BSX line. Secure with some tape.

Flip over and drill the top two holes. (Top two “ALL” position)

Once the first two holes are drilled, flip the whole thing back to the front. Remove the tape. And move the CF tube up to line up with the bottom of the word: MSR.

Again, secure with tape. Flip the jig over. Drill the hole, then cut the CF tube using the bottom of the jig as a guideline. Take extra care not to splinter you CF tube.

That’s all there is to it. It’s pretty easy once you do one.

1 Comment on Using Jim Stoll’s 9958 Jig for v911

Xieda 9958 with Solo Pro Head

Many people like the unique head design of the Nine Eagles Solo Pro and Bravo SX. With the flybar on top, it gives it a unique, stable flight characteristic…yet maintain agility and does nice tight turns. So here’s a simple mod. Take the Solo Pro head and shaft. Drill a hole for the shaft collar and then cut about 7-8mm from the top. Drill a hole to secure the Solo Pro head. Easy peasy.

My initial impression is that it flies really well. I need to do a more thorough flight test as it’s too late to do that at the moment. I just wanted to share since this question has popped up to see if this is even possible. I’ll update this post with more of my thoughts and refinements and photo later. Until then, enjoy…

18 Comments on Xieda 9958 with Solo Pro Head

Xieda 9958 RX versus Solo Pro RX

Someone on RC Groups mentioned that they wanted to use the low cost Xieda 9958 RX board as a replacement for the Solo Pro and Bravo SX boards. Here’s a side by side comparison photo for your modding/brainstorming purposes.

2 Comments on Xieda 9958 RX versus Solo Pro RX