Flying Information

Bulletproof Your Glo-Driver

By MHTjef

Every Glo-Driver I ever owned had one huge problem. The wires would always work loose at the plug connector end and leave me stranded on on the one day that I had to squeeze in a flying session! Those add-on things that the heli carries are one problem that is easily dealt with ... I stopped using them ... but on the driver side you have no choice.

Last year I bought the ultimate Glo-Driver at the Weak Signals RC show in Toledo. It’s made by the good folks from Radio South, and is called the Pro Driver 3. This thing is ideal, with interchangeable connectors of different lengths to fit virtually every situation. Even with this design the weak link is the wire fatiguing at the connector end leaving me stranded yet again.

However, I wasn’t going to let this plague me anymore, especially considering that I now had the best in ignition control. The following is a step by step procedure that anyone can do with simple tools and it will render whatever driver you use, bulletproof. In this case, the connector is a 1/4 turn type, but even the squeeze and release types are prone to wire failures. So here is my proven home made strain relief system.

Wires always seem to break here. So cut then both off , strip the ends and tin them with solder.

1) First open up the hole in the screw-on cap. We are going to be putting a very thick build of wire and shrink tube through that hole and it needs to be opened.

2) Chamfer the cap’s edge so there is no chance for it to cut through the strain relief as it gets used and abused.

3) You’ll need some lengths of shrink tubing. I made mine about 1.250 long each. If you can get the stuff that gets sticky when heated, get it! That kind will glue itself to both the wire and to itself. The single larger piece shown will cover both wires together. The complete “stack” of shrink tubing makes for an excellent strain relief.

4) If you do not assemble the parts so that they look like this BEFORE you solder and shrink you will be swearing a blue streak. Why? Because you’ll have forgotten that the other side of the wire is still attached to the unit and you’ll not be able to slide the stuff from that end ... will you?

I like to use this propane powered soldering iron. It was the subject of a past ToolUp in MHT. An important apart of it’s usefulness is the hot gas that escapes out the exhaust ... which you can just see on the shoulder of the tip. That escaping gas is perfectly placed for shrinking.

5) Solder the wires in. Note that the shrink is still not shrunk. Do that after the wires are secured to the connector so that the shrink goes OVER the joints. It just makes everything more secure.

6) Shrink up the wires over the joints. Here it is obvious why I like to use the self-adhesive heat shrink tubing. It sticks to itself and makes a two wire cable. Neatness counts!

I have these two systems that go with me to the field at all times. Not much weight here so I consider this to be cheap insurance.

The Radio South piece is terrific, especially the differing length interchangeable connectors. I adapted that system to my ancient and very reliable Ofna/10cell glo-driver (its battery pack also doubles as a starter battery for 30s and 50s). Both have had the connector ends modded. In fact the Ofna was the prototypes for the Pro Drive mod.

7) Slide the cap down and screw it on and you’re done. Now doesn’t that look nice and neat too? You can control the amount of flex by how much shrink tube you build up and how long the tubing itself is. Above the assembled clip is the connector itself. Radio South has saved me much grief by allowing me the privilege of three different lengths of connector. I have all three and use them. For that last bit of ultimate, you could change out the stiff and cheap vinyl wire that comes with the unit for some silicone multi-stranded stuff like the RC car guys use. Silicone wire would also provide you with some cold weather flexibility as well.

8) You can do this all day long ...
for a hundred years...
... well maybe at least five.

The Enya #3 Secret!

Okay ... so now you have this awesome built and blueprinted Glo-Driver, but it fits every plug on the market except the Enya #3. Unfortunately, this is totally Enya’s fault. Their plugs are great but they do have the dubious honor of being tough to get a connector attached and detached. The problem is that there is just not enough space between the end of the connector and the plug’s gasket for a clean and smooth push to release (or install).

1) The Enya plug and the Connector can be a bear to install and remove. The plug has a taller hex shoulder - to gasket dimension than say, an OS #8...

2) ... which is best shown here, in this cutaway. OS #8 below and Enya #3 above. They are shown with the top edges of their individual hex sections aligned. You can see that the washers do not align. I know it’s a wee difference but that difference is what makes the Enya a tough task. That dimension is within the manufacturing tolerance of the connector, which is why we have to fix this ourselves. What it that dimension? Dunno, But ..

3) .... which is why I turned the edge down until the plug fit. If I had to guess, I’d say that between the three connectors I modified, I took off about .004 - .008. That’s all! You can do this with some sandpaper, but turning is much more accurate.