>>> Eggmotor - Throttle

Throttle/Kill Switch Unit...

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The hand-held throttle unit will allow you to alter the power/rpm during you flight. This in turn will control your pitch, so with no power applied your will slowly descend at the wing’s glide ratio. At full power you will climb and at somewhere in the middle you can maintain level flight. The addition of a kill switch allows you to stop the engine within a couple of seconds in case of problems or if you decide to switch off and utilize any available thermals.

These images are of my prototype throttle/kill switch unit.

Basically you need a 15cm length of tubing, it doesn’t have to be steel but ideally around 22mm diameter. Then scour ebay for a two-finger brake lever, 1.5m minimum of brake cable, a push-to-make switch of which it’s outside diameter matches your tube’s inside diameter, sponge handlebar grip, Velcro strap(available from B&Q) and a good length (3m) of wire. Perform the required soldering and fabricating and you should have something similar to the pictures above.

If you would prefer to buy a ready made throttle unit then I can make them to order for you. Visit the shop and purchase through PayPal. The throttle unit and frame sale options will be active very soon.

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Now you need to connect the other end of your cable to the engine.

An easy method is to modify the standard throttle lever and utilize it as a bracket for the cable end. Strip the throttle lever assembly down and cut the lever along the line as shown in the first picture below. Then mount it onto the fuel tank bracket as shown on the second picture using a spare screw/bolt. You will need a cable adjuster to thread through the other hole in your make-shift bracket in order to fit the cable through. You maybe required to open up the hole a little bit in order to fit the adjuster. I've used a cheap brass one and fitted a locking nut to the other side. It is just a matter of fixing the inner cable to the 'J' shaped governor arm as close to the end (near throttle rod/spring) as possible. If you fix it too close to the governor arm pivot point then the throttle will be difficult to actuate due to lack of leverage. I used a small nut/bolt set up threaded through one of the many holes in the governor arm and basically 'pinched' the inner cable in place.

The last item in this section is hooking up the kill switch circuit, this is quite a simple operation. Just attach one wire to ideally the engine or the chassis (ensuring a good earth). Then fit the other wire from the kill switch to the spare connector where the low-oil sensor wire was fitted (see picture). You might want to fit a bullet/bulb type connector to the end of the wire to ensure a snug fitting connection or you could snip the low-oil sensor connector off and either solder or 'choccy-block' them together.