[grizak]

I thought I would post some initial impressions of the EME 60cc gas engine with AUTO START.

For those that aren't familiar with the AUTO START feature, it basically is an electric motor with gearing and a Sprag bearing mounted to the engine. This allows you to start your engine from your transmitter - no hand prop flipping!

We received a prototype of the EME 60 with AUTO START Kit installed (from the factory) a few months ago.

I installed the EME 60 with AUTO START on our Giant Stick Plane (we use this plane for some of our initial product and engine testing).

The installation is pretty straight forward - in addition to mounting the engine, you need to do the following:

-Solder switch/battery leads to the starting motor.
-Install a switch to activate the starter (EME has an AUTO START Switch that connects to the AUTO START motor and to your transmitter - we used the prototype of the EME switch in this install - it works very well).
-Mount a battery for the AUTO START - We used a 3S LiPo.
-Install a servo to operate the choke.

Remote choke operation is a must - it really doesn't make sense to have a manual choke on a AUTO START engine. If the choke was manual, you would have to bend down and set the choke on/off manually to start the engine. The idea of the remote start is to do everything from the transmitter.

We have been flying the EME60 with AUTO START for a couple of months now, and so far so good. The AUTO START feature works very well. It takes 4 or 5 short switch bursts to get the engine to pop with the engine cold and choke on - once it pops, it usually only takes 1 or 2 switch bursts to start the engine.

Here is a video of the engine starting on the ground:

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You Tube

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The plane also has an ULTRA IBEC installed - this eliminates the Ignition battery and allows for the engine to be killed via the transmitter. This allows us to perform an IN AIR engine kill with the IBEC and an IN AIR engine Restart with the AUTO RESTART.

Here is a video of an IN AIR engine restart:

[YOUTUBE]

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You Tube

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Overall we are very impressed with the AUTO START - works very well.

The AUTO START components (less battery) add about 18 - 19oz of weight to the plane (most of that is in the gears and motor).

We use a 2200Mah 3S Lipo - and can get around 40 starts before a recharge is required. So a smaller capacity(lighter) battery is no problem.

More information on the EME 60cc AUTO START can be found here - http://www.thunderboltrc.com/index.p...oducts_id=1660

Also - EME makes a "KIT" that can be used to adapt many 50-60cc engines (including the DA50, DL50/DLE55, DLA55, etc). The kit can be found here - http://www.thunderboltrc.com/index.p...oducts_id=1661

If anyone has any questions - let me know,

Grizak

[zdsh13]

That's cool... Inflight engine re-start... Could come in handy