Schwede

While patiently waiting for my parts..[&:][>:][][:@][&o]..I tested this program to see if it works with PPJoy..
Who knows what program this is? See picture..I am bored.. where are my parts?[:@]

Heyyy, first one on page 13

tomcatguy74

My Feedback: (4)

Schwede,

That looks like Microsoft Flight Simulator. I am an avid MSFS fan. I have had all the MSFS's
Don't worry, your parts will be there soon.

Rob

cptsnoopy

I don't remember who posted that they put a 400(380SD) size motor in their #4 but this was not my idea... that being said,
I put a 380SD from my #45 in my #4 today and was very pleased with the results! I needed to press the 12 tooth pinion about 3/16" further onto the motor shaft to get the gears to line up. Also, I used an adaptor from an eflite 4200kv brushless motor that was purchased for my #35. after getting the motor in and the gear lash set, I plugged in the 860mah 2cell 7.4v lipo and flew around for about 20-25 minutes out in front of the house. I landed because I was worried about running the lipo down too far, not because the heli was getting weak... the heli is heavier but with the extra power available it hovers right at 1/2 throttle. it climbs at least twice as fast as before (that's not saying much because it was acting pretty weak before this upgrade.) but it is much better now than it has ever been... The rudder trim has always been near the left side of it's travel. Now with the heavier heli and more torque required to fly, the rudder trim is just a click or two to the right of center. One other mod since I am using the adaptor to mount the motor is that the canopy had to be cut to allow the motor to stick up through it. Thats a good idea anyway for cooling purposes. In addition to putting in the bigger motor, I also installed a deans antenna to see if I could reduce some of the glitch's as I am still using the stock walkera tx and 4n1 rx. the first range check was dissapointing but after rerouting the short antenna wire between the deans and the receiver, the second range check was more than double the first. still not what i would like but hopefully good enough to fly in the range that I can see the heli. I put the deans antenna on after I flew around with the bigger motor so I won't know if there are less glitch's going on until tomorrow when I will fly it around outside again. My first impression is that putting on the 380SD motor should cure any of the problems folks are having when their #4 is not climbing out of ground effect. I have no idea how this will work with the NiMh batteries but I can't think of any reason why it would not work fine. I don't know if the 12 tooth pinion is the best but after all that flying time the motor was only a little warm, not hot like before. Here are a couple of pics:

the adaptor


view of the motor mounted


the heli. note the motor sticking up just a bit through the canopy...

Schwede

Hey Mister tomcatguy74,

You are right! It is MSFS2004. I got it to work with my radio.. It is kind of cool since this helicopter behaves like a a real helicopter. So it is pretty slow to respond and therefore real hard to fly.
I am on a search for a good RC simulator. FMS is fine, I just don't like that the 'world' ends and the helicopter falls uncontrollable into the abyss..

Gunnar

Schwede

Great Mod, cptsnoopy!

Let us know if the batterie holds up with the bigger motor. What is the rpm compared to the original motor? Can you get a different (bigger) pinion to up the rpm some more? I bet you get some nice rotor noises with this setup!


Gunnar

[quote]ORIGINAL: cptsnoopy

I don't remember who posted that they put a 400(380SD) size motor in their #4 but this was not my idea... that being said,
I put a 380SD from my #45 in my #4 today and was very pleased with the results! I needed to press the 12 tooth pinion about 3/16" further onto the motor shaft to get the gears to line up. Also, I used an adaptor from an eflite 4200kv brushless motor that was purchased for my #35. after getting the motor in and the gear lash set, I plugged in the 860mah 2cell 7.4v lipo and flew around for about 20-25 minutes out in front of the house. I landed because I was worried about running the lipo down too far, not because the heli was getting weak... the heli is heavier but with the extra power available it hovers right at 1/2 throttle. it climbs at least twice as fast as before (that's not saying much because it was acting pretty weak before this upgrade.) but it is much better now than it has ever been... The rudder trim has always been near the left side of it's travel. Now with the heavier heli and more torque required to fly, the rudder trim is just a click or two to the right of center. One other mod since I am using the adaptor to mount the motor is that the canopy had to be cut to allow the motor to stick up through it. Thats a good idea anyway for cooling purposes. In addition to putting in the bigger motor, I also installed a deans antenna to see if I could reduce some of the glitch's as I am still using the stock walkera tx and 4n1 rx. the first range check was dissapointing but after rerouting the short antenna wire between the deans and the receiver, the second range check was more than double the first. still not what i would like but hopefully good enough to fly in the range that I can see the heli. I put the deans antenna on after I flew around with the bigger motor so I won't know if there are less glitch's going on until tomorrow when I will fly it around outside again. My first impression is that putting on the 380SD motor should cure any of the problems folks are having when their #4 is not climbing out of ground effect. I have no idea how this will work with the NiMh batteries but I can't think of any reason why it would not work fine. I don't know if the 12 tooth pinion is the best but after all that flying time the motor was only a little warm, not hot like before. Here are a couple of pics:

tomcatguy74

My Feedback: (4)

Schwede,

Yeah, I have had all the Microsoft Flight Simulators. I still have MSFS 95, 98, 2000, 2002, and 2004.
I even still have the original First Microsoft Flight Simulator on 5 1/4 inch diskette for the Tandy 1000sx computer from like 1980 or some where near that time. The first sim where the ground was green and the sky was blue and the airports AND the plane were just stick looking figures.
I grew up with MSFS and It took me till MSFS 98 to finally learn how to land on centerline perfectly everytime. Now I am learning how to land in a severe thunderstorm with 60 mph winds using my gauges and GPS to line it up. Its fun!!!!

How did you get the radio to work with MSFS2004?

I got an addon for FMS that lets me fly around in a really nice looking gym and there are even tables to land on(they are hard to land on but I slammed the heli on them twice) and poles to do figure 8s around. Here is a link for all the FMS links for addons. If you want that scenery I told you about above I can send it to you via email.

http://n.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html

Drop me a line at [email protected] and I will send you that scenery.

Rob

Schwede

tomcatguy74,

I have a couple indoor sceneries for FMS as well. Works ok but sometimes I like to change the view to chase and go crazy with the heli or just cruzin' and enjoy the scenery.
I played 2002 and 2004 a bit. I am not too good at it and sometimes the flight trainer kicks me out complaining I do not pay too much attention. That really drives me! It's kinda cool flying the big 747 from Canada (that's where I am) to Germany (that's where I am from).
MSFS uses the windows joystick settings. When I ran PPJoy and open MSFS some functions where already working, some where on the wrong axis. Took a while to get everything set up... All I did is reallocate the control settings inMSFS.
I found a program that searches the internet for pages and files for FMS and then downloads them. I got a ton of planes, some helicopters and a few new sceneries that way.

Gunnar

cardgabe

Thanks to those of you who gave me input on removing my tail boom and tail motor. I'm not sure which route I will take yet, but both sound like they should work.

As for my question on which sites are best to order parts from. I ordered new main blades from helihobby.com and they came within 3-4 days. So, for those of you who are in the U.S., I think this is the best site to order from, plus their prices seem very comparable. It cost me $14.95 total with shipping and handling for my main blades. When i ordered from other sites, they shipped from japan or china and it took around 10 days to receive parts. Now my only problem is that helihobby.com is out of stock on my main body. haha Oh well... i'll just wait a day or so. Goodluck everyone.

chris6414

My Feedback: (10)

Anyone have a schematic for the Walkera 4 in 1? I smoked a component on mine the other day but all is still well. I'm pretty sure it is a resistor that smoked but it didn't "open" up. Now it just has the resistive element exposed and it gets warm with the 11.1 LiPo but I take breaks and will see how it holds up. I did a short Google search and couldn't find anything on a basic schematic to tell what the component was rated at so I can replace it in the future. Thanks and if you find something be sure to post it. [8D]

cptsnoopy

The only flight with the bigger 380SD lasted at least as long as when I was using the 370 stock motor. the big difference was that the heli did not appear to lose power about 3 to 5 minutes into the flight and then have trouble staying out of ground effect for the next 8 to 10 minutes. with the same battery as before (2cell 7.4v 860mah thunder power) I was able to fly for about 20 minutes non stop with plenty of power at all times to climb out of sight. I landed only because I was starting to worry about how low the volts on the battery might be getting. I am using a 12 tooth pinion which is 2 teeth more than the stock 10 tooth. The motor did not even start to get hot. just barely warm. I did have a heat sink on it as pictured above. I did not generate much more head speed than stock only because the heli would then climb out of sight. There was plenty of power available. this is definitely a worthwhile upgrade. Your batteries should last as long as stock or maybe even longer. be sure to use at least a 12 tooth pinion or experiment with more.

I went flying this morning but I did not get to fly the #4 because I ran out of time. The #35 got a good workout though!

GTX SlotCar

Have you tried it with the 10 tooth pinion? Wouldn't it fly longer and be more responsive?

cptsnoopy

I don't know that much about correct pinion size... I figured that since the stock pinion is a 10 tooth I would use the 12 tooth that was already on the motor because the bigger motor has more torque. From how it flew, I am guessing that the 12 tooth pinion was a good guess. Since the battery lasted at least as long or longer than before and the motor ran cool it sounds "all good"

Schwede

Since we seem to be sinking, I thought that I will bring this forum back up to the top by letting you know that I still don't have my ordered parts yet. Should have ordered from helihobby....
I got my hands on [link=http://www.aerofly.com/]AeroFly[/link] and got it to work with PPJoy and my Walkera radio! Pretty cool! Flying characteristics are, as far as the fixed pitch models go (the only thing I know and can compare), pretty realistic.

Gunnar

GTX SlotCar

Speaking of parts, I needed a new flybar for my #4. The local hobby shop was out of 2mm carbon fiber rod, and so are a lot of online dealers. I found a dealer in Alaska that's sending me a 40" piece that he'll cut into five 8" lengths and put in a padded envelope and mail them to me. I'll trim them to 17mm when they arrive. So, I get 5 flybars for $4.85 including shipping.

cptsnoopy

just putting this on you for the small typo!

17mm or 17cm?

I had several sets of training gear from a couple of walkera helis so I had 8 flybar replacements standing by. I have used up three of them so far...

GTX SlotCar

Er.... 170mm

I broke my flybar on my hand. It was stupid. Since it's a slow day for the #4 thread, I'll tell the whole story.

I changed my receiver from mode 1 to mode 2. I had the heli on my kitchen counter (Breakfast bar) and was checking out the new control setup. The transmitter antenna was only partially up, but I was close to the heli. The throttle wasn't working (connected wrong). My wife turned on the microwave (don't know if that's what caused it) and at the same time the blades started spinning. Thankfully the battery was barely charged, so when the #4 flew up it didn't quite hit the ceiling. My eyes lit up; my son fell off the bar stool, and the little heli came down near my feet, hooking a newly broken blade and it's body around my leg. Can you picture this? While it was in the air, I shut off the transmitter, but since it wasn't connected right, the heli didn't shut off. I picked it up, but the single blade started spinning at full throttle and of course the whole thing was shaking like a belly dancer in training. It took me a few seconds to grab the battery connector between my fingers on one hand (the other hand was busy holding the shaking chopper) and pull it apart. I broke one main blade and the tail rotor, but the flybar was OK.
Not willing to set things aside until another day, I fixed the transmitter, took the good and broken blades off, removed the broken tail rotor and started to check things out again. Everything worked great, but without the spinning main blades, it was easy to forget about the flybar and stick my hand in it's path as it spun around.
The broken blades in the first part of this story was an accident, almost comical (as nobody got hurt). The broken flybar in the second part was just stupidity.

cptsnoopy

I was flying my hopped up #4 this morning and decided to work on left 360's for a change and ended up smacking the ground right in front of my feet...

I guess this means I need more practice doing left 360's!

Too bad it broke one of the stock walkera blades. They are the best ones that I have used compared to the replacements you get from the resalers in china. When I got this second #4 it came with a split tail boom which has not been a big deal but I was getting tired of it wobbling when the blades got a little out of position and the heli started to shake a little. So, as it turns out the blade CP replacement boom is the same diameter but just a tad longer. I figured I may as well straighten up a few issues before flying it again.

GTX SlotCar

I thought my #4 was a 2005 model, but now I'm not sure. One place that has all 2005 DF #4 parts shows the flybar with collars. Mine doesn't have collars. I'm wondering if any here has one that does.

It also shows the rotor head with a stiffener, a little plate that goes under it and the blades. Are there any other differences between the 2004 and 2005 models?

chris6414

My Feedback: (10)

2-56 collars work. I have a 2-56 aluminum flybar that I stole from my plane stuff after my carbon one broke. Does anyone know what is the best tail motor to order for a replacement? Heli-bobby has one but I'm wondering if their is a better one, even if it is more money. I'm running an 11.1 lipo now it finally took out the tail motor.

GTX SlotCar

When you do get your new motor, maybe a 5 to 10 ohm resistor on the neg. side would make it last longer. I'm not sure how many amps these little 020 motors draw, so I'm guessing between 350 and 500 ma.

chris6414

My Feedback: (10)

I think I'm going with the dual motor set-up or a higher volt tubine. I have pictures of these in an new post I just started.

cptsnoopy

i bought a piece of 5.3mm hollow cf rod approx 4' long along with the blade tail boom kit. I decided to use the larger diameter rod and it works great. The heli is flying again with most of the little nit-pic items fixed. just thinking about adding vertical and horizontal tail fins since I do lots of forward flight with it. with the stronger motor the replacement blades are working just fine.

cardgabe

This post is to retract my statement about hellihobby.com. Originally I had nothing but good things to say about ordering parts from them, and so far i haven't had any issues with delivery times or prices. My only complaint is that when an item is out of stock... it stays out of stock for quite some time! I figured I'd wait to order a new main frame from them for my DF4, because I thought they'd get it back in stock soon. It's been over a week and still out of stock... I should've just ordred from overseas and let it take 10 days to get to me. haha Oh well... for now I hope superglue is strong. I glued my frame back together and it seems strong enough for flight... I"m going to attempt it later today. It broke near the rear of the frame just in front of where the tail boom and rear landing gear struts attatch.

Also I wanted to leave a post to get this thread to the top of the list again! We're slacking on input here guys! Keep the comments coming, I love reading about everyone else's DF4's even if it's not always good news!

cardgabe

In reply to my last post... glue is not strong enough to hold the main frame together once it breaks. haha I was hovering in my garage when the tail went down a bit and barely hit the ground and snapped again... folding the heli in half. I'm just lucky I didn't damage my new blades I put on it... which by the way don't seem to work very well. I might need to twist them to give them more pitch. Anyway... time to order a new frame.

nathanacura

My Feedback: (2)

I know this is basic ... but I've never flown anything RC before unless you count taking 1/8th scale Nitro buggies to a BMX course.

I installed my training gear and I did my best to trim up my new Dragonfly 4. I spent a couple batteries skittering around my basement floor to get the feeling for all the controls then I tried some short hops. How steady should this thing be on take off? Should it basically lift straight up and require only basic input to keep it generally 'hovering' or do I really have to constantly have to fight with it to stay aloft and not float all over the place? I seem to fight with it and it just starts oscillating all over and I have to put it back down after a few seconds.

Also, what is the proper orientation of the blades on the flybar?(flat, 30deg attack, etc)

Does anyone have recommendations for the best store to get spare parts(a whole new heli w/o the electronics would be great)?

Thanks for entertaining this newbie post.
If I can get this thing 1/2 as high with 1/2 the control I had with the buggy at the BMX course ... I'll be pleased.