#1
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Flicker from Estes Holiday Sale
I’ll be getting back to my SLS Laser-X build soon but was intrigued by the Flicker which is the first night launch rocket offered by Estes since the Asrobeam around 10 years ago. I have done night launches before but crashed the strobe nosecone I used for night launches, so was interested in this when it went on sale for $10.50 over the holidays. It’s a launch set, I think it’s good that Estes has a number of launch sets that provide extra interest. There wasn’t much info on the website ‘Bright LED’s light up the sky!’. I didn’t look at the instructions online but they indicate the batteries are not replaceable and there are three flash modes, fast, slow and a combo of fast and slow. The kit box was wetted by a minor basement flood after Thanksgiving, but fortunately the parts are in sealed bags. The parts are the standard easy to build/arfs BT-55 based that Estes has produced the last 10 years. The part of note is a dowel which is used to push a rubber button recessed in the nosecone under the shock cord mount, a kid could probably push it with a fingernail.
Last edited by 5x7 : 01-26-2020 at 01:45 PM. |
#2
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The only gluing that needs to be done is the two halves of the fin can and the fin can to the airframe. The some threads of half the fincan were missing, as it looked like the plastic didn’t make it all the way. This caused no problems. I used gorrilla thick CA to glue the fin can together.
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#3
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The shock cord is pre installed and emerges from under the launch lug part inside the tube very close to the top of the motor mount. I used a 1.5 inch long piece of card stock from a mailer and glued it over the base of the cord to protect it, and the fin can was glued in with CA gel.
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#4
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The instructions call for the fins to be glued in, but the fit is tight and they are retained by the motor retainer so I don’t bother, and they can be replaced if damaged. The nosecone was very loose, but the light shines brightly through the shoulder, so I glued in a strip of paper in the tube to snug it up so all the light will be seen after ejection. I added a length of elastic between the nosecone and parachute. Most of the time on this kit was placing the peel and cus decals. There are additional star decals not pictured on the kit box. The kit says the batteries are not replaceable, but button cells can be seen at the bottom of the attached picture, so if the nosecone can be pried open its likely the can be replaced. The videos show the flash modes, but the combo mode is probably best as it appears to show all the colors best.
Mode 1 Fast Flash Mode 2 Medium Flash Mode 3 Slow Combo . Last edited by 5x7 : 01-27-2020 at 04:19 PM. |
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