pgroom_68

Hey again DrC,

...what a great use for a bird mate[sm=thumbs_up.gif]
O heck - the infamous burnt smell from the electronics - mate I hope it's your imagination and you don't need another 3in1[]

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]

Buz

Hi Peter... yes, you are correct. My first 450 belonged to him. He may still be making a few shafts... I really don't know. I've been working with Tony closely on this CNC machine. Then the tornadoes hit him and he really doesn't have much time to get back on again. I saw a few posts from him earlier... so, I called and he told me they finally repaired his internet access.

Buzz

pgroom_68

Hey again Buzz,

I don't think Ernie is planning on building titanium inner shafts for the BOL at present - he was just considering the idea! Tony IS a really good guy from my limited knowledge of him, and I really don't know what it is like to have to rebuild your life from scratch[X(] - I don't wanna have to go through it - 'cause it must be incredibly daunting[sm=cry_smile.gif]

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]

Dongskie

Finally got the extended shaft as Peter suggested, thanks mate!



Mounted and tested... crashed! lol low battery

http://youtu.be/2BQ5QP1Ap9s

Edmund2

Edgardo, depending how far you have read back in this forum you may have come accross comments posted by me regarding crash avoidance. Had I rather crashed compared to cutting the throttle to avoid a crash I would not have learnt some bad flying habits that is not good to have when flying non coaxial helis. By cutting the trottle I have flown a heli or two into the ground causing more damage.

I still enjoy flying my Bol's and no longer avoid crashing if it crashes so be it. Now if you do not yet have a 380 motor in your Bol get one and enjoy the additional power.

Edmund

Dongskie

Thanks Edmund, I'll keep that in mind. I think I like the 380 motor upgrade

and btw, will the stock ESC handle the motors without burning?

Dr. Colossus

I'm finally on vacation and have been able to spend some time with the heli. It turns out that it was the 3in1 after all.

After installing a new one and starting up the heli, the led flashed immediately, and the controls were responsive once again. So far I've only ran a few basic test at home but hope to take it outdoors this week.

During this process Ialso noticed that the little pin on the swashplate (circled in red) had fallen off. As Ihad no CNCspare, Isimply cut and filed a regular nail and fixed it with superglue. Iguess it's sturdy enough.

Anyways, thanks for helping out guys.

Man..Ican't wait to go nuts with my three new lipos and the new charger...

/drc

pgroom_68

Hey again Doc,

Great news - I hope you have it totally sorted mate! The "pin" should be OK too[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]

Jimi2f

Ive seen this happen before. did you recently rebind your bird? once I bound my heli with the throttle reversed and this happened twice fortunatly both times I had the blades off.
my2cts,
new to the list but not new to the hobby.
Jimi
PS I've have been reading the first 500 posts on this list and learned a lot of what you went thu with the BOL the first two years.
I have some questions and comments that I hope to post in the near future, I am impressed at how some of you helped each other befor the upgrades.

pgroom_68

Hey again Jimi,

...I've always been under the impression that IF you can help someone else avoid making the same mistakes you did - why not??

Looking forward to your input in the future...........[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]
P.S. Congrats on finding one of the best threads on the internet IMHO

Buz

Hi Peter!

Things got a little "toasty" here the other night. I was flying the BOL and as I flew overhead.... I thought I detected some kind of white vapor trailing behind it. Then, the vapor turned into black smoke pouring out the windows of the thing! Then, orange flames erupted from the battery .... My god... I'm on FIRE! I was still controlling it but I could hear all the servos going nuts as the fire reached the receiver. I cut the throttle... but it was too late. It went to full throttle and flew into the top of a tree. Since the motors were running at full throttle, the tree limbs bound up the rotor blades and... the mofsets burst into flame! I quickly connected 3 garden hoses together but by the time I dragged them out to the tree.... the fire stopped and finally it stopped smoking. I soaked it with water so the tree didn't catch fire. Now, I can't get it down from the tree... but it looks like the fire roasted it and melted the fuselage. I'll get pictures when I get it out of the tree... but this one will never fly again. That's my first lipo fire... was a fairly new battery... and I never dreamed a battery pack could burst into flames while flying!

I wish I had it on video! Even though I lost a perfectly good BOL.... the video of it flying in flames would have almost been worth it! My wife came running out to see what was going on. "What happened"
I just looked at her, shook my head and said...."MADAY!" lol Post mortum pics will follow.... you know you want to see the carnage!

Buzz

Jimi2f

Buz,
WOW, what brand/size LiPo were you using? And did you notice any poffy or ballooning of the battery before the infamouse flight happened?
Sorry for your loss,
Jimi

Buz

Hi, Jimi.... good to meet you!

I was using the standard 11.1v 800mah battery that came with the helicopter. You hit on the weird part. The battery was fine when I put it in the heli. No bloating, etc. That's the scary part. I have no idea what made it catch fire.
I had been in the air for about 5 minutes before it caught fire, so there couldn't have been much charge left before I hit LVC. I can't wait to get it out of the tree so I can get a good look at what might have happened.
Thanks for the note!

Buzz

Buz

OK, I got it down. 2 shots from the shotgun blew the limb off... but then the limb got caught in the tree.
But, my third shot broke it loose and it fell down far enough for me to reach it with a long piece of PVC pipe.
To my surprise, the battery did not explode!! It's fine... but it did swell up. When I post pics and videos later... you'll see where the wiring from the battery shorted out inside the helicopter... and set other wiring on fire.
It got so hot, one motor is hanging out of the port side window. So, I guess the smoke I first noticed was coming from shorting out wires. The mofsets blowing is what started the actual fire. Video and pics to come!

Buzz

Edmund2

Buz, please post the pictures. Would love to see it. Sorry about the loss but a second fire within a week on our threads makes me thinking about building a lipo charger box with ceramic tiles even though you indicate the lipo did not start this fire. Mine is currently stored in a wooden display unit that could cause me the loose my house if anything goes wrong.

Edmund

Jimi2f

Peter,
I noticed in your signature you are running your BOL's on a DX6. Can you tell me which recivers you are using. I'm using a DX7 and a AR6210 (that came withh my DX6i) with a Eflite 3 in 1 mixer EFLH2001. The results are mostly good maybe it's me but I can't get it to smooth out on the trim. It seems to be a little eratic and hard to control some tendency to spin left or right with just the slightest push on the stick. Thrust is good, left/streering is rough but correst direction as with side to side. Swash is perfectly level after power up to batery and I've reversed the correct servo's. I could bind it to my DX6i but that shouldn't matter. Or should I switch back to the ESKY 3 in 1 with the AR6210? If i can get this sussed out then I hope to install brushless from Dane at RTF-HELI.COM
Also what motors do you currently use.
Still reading whole thread up to #728 dated July 7 2009 just before the xtreame blades came out and you guys are talking about flybars.
Will soon post pics and night flying movies of BOL's
Thanks

PS: I get it now that you are on the other side of the planet from me!

Buz

Hi Edmund... yes it is strange that two of us have experienced fires. I'll upload two videos my wife shot while I was literally SHOOTING to blow the limb off the tree. But, she got too close to the heli after I got it down and all of the close in shots are out of focus. There is an abrupt ending to the video as the video card filled up. So, I'll also post a few pictures of the damage.

More later,

Buzz

Buz

Me again. I'm going to try to link to Youtube so you can see the video of me shooting my crashed and burning Big Lama retrieval. I'll try to get some better pictures uploaded also. If you look in the tree where I'm aiming the shotgun, you can see the BOL stuck in the tree. It took 3 shots... and a lucky snag with a long PVC pole. Every time I shot off one limb... it got stuck on the limb below! Hence the 3 shots. That tree needed trimming anyway. Ha!

One motor got so hot in the fire that the mounting screws are gone and the holes to mount the motor are HUGE where they melted through. No idea where the mounting screws went. This fire was not caused by the lipo battery itself.
The wires inside the helicopter that go to the esc's shorted , then when it hit the tree wide open, the mofsets really went up in a blaze. Wish I had my video glases on for that!




Here's the video... better pictures coming...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtly_AZQLd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ80fFVzUNM

pgroom_68

Hey again Jimi,

Yes, the other side of the rock from you mate

I have successfully modded 4 x BOLs and a Lama4 to run off my DX6i so far! But it was after I have progressed to 450-size birds so I haven't really tested out the limits of same to see how they perform. I followed the [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10487112]suggestions[/link] of Jeff (handle: jnail) taking apart a couple of cheap Esky 4in1s to learn a little more and discarding the receiver half replacing it with cheap DSM2 Rx (actually orangeRx seemed to be the best choice for me - they were only $5 each shipped!), and cracking open a couple of servo extensions to see how they work. All very interesting stuff mate!!!
Prolly the troubles you are having are linked to the mixer part of the electronics. As I suggested on a different forum - you should go entirely "separates". It is really not that tricky now, as the kit from Dane had two ESCs for the brushless motors last time I looked - so you really only need a coax mixer (Diogonis Design) and the best (and cheapest) gyro $ can buy - the [link=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10113]Hobbyking 401B "Cyro"[/link] ($12 & shipping)

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]

pgroom_68

Hey again Buzz,

Great excuse to prune that tree mate!
I didn't think a BOL would melt like that![X(]

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]

aircrash

Hello there!

It`s been a while I posted here.
I see Peter, Buzz, Edmund and miss the other old mates here.
I had to fly for a year and took one flight quite ok. Really better than I expected. Like there was no day past.
I fly mostly my Syma S107, as my little kid loves to watch.

I have a question.
Where do you buy Big Lama parts and/or heli now?
Is there a stock?


Greetings to all and good flights,

Spiros

aircrash

I think I saw Simon as a visitor too!
Hello Simon.

Edmund2

Spiros is still alive!!!!!!!!!!. Glad to see a post from you we have missed you, and yes we are all still flying but mostly on bigger stuff.Only one wihtout a BOL is Rickybob who sold his. H enow flies only big stuff.How are you andhow arelittle Spiros doing?

Edmund

sgbfly

You sure did! Hi Spiros!

I hope you and family are well

Simon
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rikybob

Hiya Spiros!!!

I almost deleted the post and I said..........HEY I KNOW THAT GUY!!

How is little Spiros???

b