Motor Replacements: Falcon'd Rapidstrike, Banshee'd E.Rayven

Further progress and updates on motor replacements. The Autorayven project has been shelved for now, partly due to Rayven related alignment issues and partly because of how perfect the Rapidstrike is. But more on that later.

This is the LiPo I bought to run my Falcons. Turnigy 3S 1Ah 45-90C, it should put out more than enough current to run any single stage Falcon build. This was for when I originally wanted it for my now-shelved Autorayven project, but it conveniently fits just above a Rapidstrike's pusher box, ideal for a Bullpup Rapidstrike.

The E.Ray previously ran Tamiya Mach Dashes on a 1S, so further battery tray alteration was needed to provide the Banshee motors with a 2S. I managed to get my 2S (800mAh 40-50C) to fit in with a little battery tray cover bulge, which is good enough for me.


Here's a firing vid of the E.Rayven.
I'm not happy with it, there are still some alignment issues that cause squibbing and serious range loss, but I'm not sure what else to do. If anyone has any suggestions (besides shivving the magwell which I've already done), I'm all ears.

Now on to the Rapidstrike. Externally it's no different (as seen in the top picture), but internally it's been completely overhauled.
Derp completely forgot about my lever clip (mag) release.

Not the best looking but it works. It was constructed using one of the many junked pieces of plastic amassed from modding.


Obviously its motors have been replaced with Falcons, but besides that all switches have been replaced with high current microswitches, and wire with what I think is 17AWG.

The 3S fits in the Rapidstrike's battery box with plenty of room to spare, had I foreseen Falcon-ing a Rapidstrike I would have bought a larger 3S. The battery box cover (removed from the battery tray) fits on easily with plenty of room to spare.

Unlike the E.Ray, I'm really happy with how the Rapidstrike turned out. It handles quite well, is very comfortable to use, and performs incredibly well.

I'm quite happy with Falcons, they rev high enough to get really good performance, spin up very fast, and are really cheap (~3USD per motor). It's probably my go-to 130 motor where battery space is not a huge issue (such as Rapidstrikes), so that a good sized 3S will fit in no problem.

I'm not so happy with Banshees, though I'm fairly sure that's primarily due to Rayven alignment issues. They rev up higher and louder than Falcons, yet I was getting performance that was on par or worse than the Falcon'd Rapidstrike. I attribute this to Rayven issues. They also seemed to rev up slower than Falcons, which I don't like. Meishels are even cheaper than Falcons though, at less than 2USD per motor.

The Rapidstrike will probably get combat use soon, exams are over in a few days so I'll be inviting some friends over. The E.Ray won't be until I can get the alignment issues fixed.

EDIT 19/6/15:
I've made a few tweaks to the E.Rayven and it's much better now. One of the things I did do was replace the rubber skirt that goes in front of the flywheels.  Interestingly, with the rubber skirt in I seemed to get better consistency, groupings and a slightly higher average range compared to not having the skirt. Note that this is purely from anecdotal obvervations, I don't have a chrono to give proper scientific numbers and it wasn't tested in a properly controlled environment.
Nevertheless I'm fairly happy with its performance, with a decent fly residue coating it seems to get slightly better ranges than the Rapidstrike that currently has almost no residue.