evdreamer

Guys,

I had fun flying today. The wind was over 20MPH, so I had the whole field to myself. I had 3 hours of back to back flying. I went through a gallon in the Velocity and 4 flights in the 600. This time the Velocity was my most reliable heli. I was going to go on a 5th flight with the 600, but my charger was saying one cell was at 0V and another was at 4.3V after a flight. I will have to check into that.

rotarydoc

Nick,

Wow, that must have been about 12 flights in all I guess? Cool....I have never burned that much fuel in one day before.

I am glad to hear that the Velicity was reliable for you....I know it was discouraging there for a bit...

I didn't fly today, it's hot here again, feels like the middle of August, supposed to be mid 90's tomorrow and Friday, and we had some summer-like big storms earlier.

I think tonight is the first day of fall....it CAN'T GET HERE SOON ENOUGH FOR ME.....lol..

Sorry about the battery on the 600.

I was reading an article in the paper about electric vehicles, and it was mentioning A123 as a supplier for some car batteries, kinda neat....

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guys,

Mark, yea I don't want the 500 or 600 to go so far I cannot see it, hence the colors LOL.


Nick, glad you got to fly your socks off. DANG I cannot imagine flying for three hours nearly straight.


Glenn, sorry it is heating up there. Becareful what you wish for weather wise.......................remember the cold and snow.........


I have this vibration that makes the skids buzz real good and when the heli starts up or shuts down at a low RPM the heli wobbles like a blade is out of balance. Today I opened up the 600. First I took off the blades and checked their balance and they were dead on purrrrfect. Next I measured the paddles distance to the flybar cage and that was purrrrrrfect too! Then I pulled the head and spun up the main shaft and it looked perfect and I did a Glenn and set a screw driver on there to pick up any ticking or vibration, nothing again! I took the main shaft out and rolled it on a slab of tile and it too looked perfect, but I changed it for good measure. What I did find was the main shaft collar was a bit chewed up on the bottom. It was then I noticed that the top bearing block was upside down. I pulled that and checked the bearings and found that all A-OK. I reinstalled the block the right side up and the collar and then was getting ready to re-install the head less blades and spin her up again to look for vibrations less the blades even if they appeared to be perfect. It was then I turned on the BEC and it was then I noted the BEC did not light up and it was dead, boys I mean graveyard DEAD. I thought NO WAY so I checked the battery that I had just charged and it was at 4.0 per cell. Then I took and another 7.4 from my old CX2 and tried it with no good results. I split the shrink wrap and took my volt meter and started tracing power within the BEC and found it dead half way through. So I went Heli Direct SOLD OUT, I called my LHS..... Heli Hobby SOLD OUT. So I went to A Main Hobbies and bought it there with some other sundries so that should ship fast here in Calif.
So thats it from Sunny Calif and while today was cool and drizzily, Saturday is slated for 102! ! Glenn

JPEE

PS: A cutie for you. Me and the noob went into HeliHobby a few days ago to get some small parts. Everyone there says "JOHN" ............kinda like NORM when he walked into Cheers the bar. Then noob thought that was really great they all know me and I know them by first names. I told him........do you know how much money I have spent here for them to know my name when I walk in the doors? ? ? ? LOL

evdreamer

Glenn,

Yeah, it was about 12-14 flights.

Sorry it has been hot there for you.

I finally tracked down the problem. It wasn't my battery and it was my Hyperion charger. Either a trace opened up or a surface mount cap/resistor blew up. It was in the balancing circuit. I found a shorted diode right by the area, so I assume that caused the problem. It looked like a protection diode, so I took it out and put a wire across the open trace. I am charging a battery right now and it seems to be working fine. My electronic degree is starting to pay off.

Tesla motors was going to use A123's in their roadster, but they switched to another Lithium Iron Phosphate battery company. I really like the battery. I have abused mine a lot and they are still working good.

Nick

evdreamer

JPEE,

Sorry about your regulator. My Align regulators have been working pretty good for me so far.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,


JPEE,

Sorry about your regulator, and being so difficult to find one...

Sounds like my at my LHS, even though I don't buy much but fuel there anymore, I still get greeted by first name..

Oh, no, I'm not wishing for winter....just FALL...trust me, I have not forgotten last winter, it took a huge hit of my heli money, having to built that new shed....[&o]

Nick,

Great job on the Hyperion charger repair...hope it worked out for ya...

I just flew 3 packs earlier tonight. I have to go before dinner now, instead of after...

My 450 packs are getting tired...they are all 4 from 2009, when I got the first 450 Pro, so they are getting old. I have 3 new packs that I bought for the B400's this year, they are 1800 30C packs, and have very few flights. I strapped one into the 450, and man, what a difference in punch!

But of course, the CG is way off, and the flight times are shorter, but it sure woke it up!

There is a huge fun fly coming this way weekend after this one, called "Heli Invasion"....it's in Thornburg, VA...I have heard that Bobby Watts, Bert Kamerer, Curtis Youngblood, and Nick Maxwell will be there...[X(]

I'm not sure if I'm going or not, it's about 110 miles one way....that's alot of driving for one event, in one day...plus I saw Bobby and Bert earlier this year....so I'll just have to see when it gets closer...

http://www.heli-invasion.com/

Glenn

choppersrule

Mark,

Now that's an excellent price. Congratulations on the 500 ESP, you'll absolutely love it. I know I don't have to tell you, but I will anyway. Take your time on the build and spend lots of time on set-up. On a side note, I got my 500 from Flying-Hobby for $527 and thought that was a good price at the time.

You've been down in Florida for awhile now, I hope you're all settled in with the new job and all.

Take care and best to ya,

Dave

evdreamer

Glenn,

Yeah, my charger is working great now. I charged my 600 battery on it last night and it was measuring and balancing like it should.

That is good you have some new packs that you can use in the 450.

Yeah, that is a long way to drive for an event.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

My wifes friend is here from Jacksonville so havent' had much time to spend on the computer lately.

Glenn,

Have to say 110 miles isn't really all that bad - about an hour and a half right? I made a 4 hour trip once to pick up a plane that I got off of the marketplace here on RCU (needless to say it was a bit too large to ship safely ). Now that's wanting something really badly! Heck, I would check out and see if there is anything else to do around there if you go. Almost looks like a mini IRCHA, almost.

Looks like your going to be using your 1800 packs for a bit, what kind of flight times are you getting with those? Flying before dinner now - a definite sign the days are growing shorter. Wish for you a milder winter this year.

Dave,

Howdy to you in Indiana!!

Yep, been in Florida for 3 months now and am looking forward to getting out a lot more now that the weather's been cooling off a bit.

Planning on taking the little one to the Amtrak station so he gets to see his first train, not to ride yet, just to look. Last week had to get those child safety door knob covers cause our son learned to open the front door - on his own. [X(]

I remember when you got your 500 from Flying-Hobby - I still check with them to see what 24 hour deals they are having.

Nick,

That's quite a lot of flying you did - I think my brain would have shorted out after an hour. Congrats on fixing your Hyperion charger - once again your schooling is saving you money.

Mark

evdreamer

Guys,

I got my diploma today and graduated with honors.

JPEE

Nick,

After working at University for 35 years in student housing and first hand seeing the process of Freshmen to graduating Seniors I know what it took for you to do this. My hardiest
congradulations to you. You and your parents must be on cloud 9 today. The graduating with Honors is really no surprise, after interacting with you now for some two years her on the Forum for me it has been clear your bright. Enjoy the high today and may it last a long time. As you move on in life there will be many other highs but none like this with sence of "four year" investment and accomplishement. I got very close to my students and attended over the years many a graduation ceremony as well as the parties and families afterwards. Today is your day....enjoy it..... you earned it!

John

evdreamer

Thanks JPEE.

Nick

evdreamer

Guys,

I just read that Thunder Power is coming out with a battery that can be charged at 10C!

rotarydoc

Nick,

I second everything JPEE said, it's hard to top that one....

You deserve a huge CONGRATULATIONS on graduating with honors yet....great going!

All your hard work and studying paid off....I am super happy for you!

What are your future plans from here?

Wow, 10C charging???

Seems electric technology is improving in leaps and bounds....nitro engines are basically unchanged from 25 years ago...lol...dinasaours...

There is still something very cool about nitro though...the internal combustion side of me always has a soft spot for engines...not so much motors...

Congrats again Nick, great job!!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Thanks.

I am now trying to transfer to another college for an engineering degree. I have to send some more stuff into them before they make a decision to accept me. In the mean time I am just working and flying.

Now the charger companies need to step up the current capabilites to take advantage of the new batteries.

I like the engines too. It is a lot easier to find something wrong with a mechanical part than an electrical part.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,

Definite congrats on the graduation, and good luck on getting some good news soon with the engineering school. Most schools have already started the Fall quarter so does this mean you would start the program in the Winter/Spring?

10C is quite impressive - heck, that would charge a 3S lipo in what, 15 minutes??

I really don't think nitro engines can really do any more changes, except maybe to the carb portion (high and low needle settings).

Mark

evdreamer

Mark,

Thanks. Yeah, I plan on starting in the winter next year.

A 5C charge can charge a battery in 12-13min, so I don't know how fast a 10C charge would be. The CV part of the charge would be same amount of time as any charge rate, so I don't know how long the CC part of the charge would last.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

That sounds cool on starting your engineering degree this winter, I wish you the best on that when you get there....

Mark,

Yeah, not much room for improvement on the nitro engines, they are just about stressed as far as they can go output-wise, without sacrificing reliability.

Still, they are amazing engines, very, very high output for a normally aspirated (non turbo/supercharged) engine...in fact, if you think about it, they are downright amazing...

Take the O.S. Hyper .50 or Nick's YS .50....they make about 2 horsepower maximum, out of an engine that is one half of a cubic inch...or roughly 4 horsepower per cubic inch..

So figure that your average stock 2.5 liter 4 cylinder production car engine, which is about 152 cubic inches of displacement...if it were making the horsepower equivilent to the .50 nitro, it would have to make a tad over 600 horsepower!![X(]

Now, if we could put superchargers on our little nitro engines..... we could take another example, and figure that a top fuel dragster makes about 6000 horsepower out of 500 cubic inches....that is roughly 12 horsepower per cubic inch..[X(][X(]

That means our little .50 would be making about 6 horsepower !! But, that is still off of the best electrics out there, which they tell me are now pushing 10 horsepower....[&o]

Just a little food for thought...I guess I got carried away...lol...

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I saw a supercharger on a Nitro airplane engine in the Towerhobbies magazine.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Guy's

I have been working on making a "like" camera mount for my heli. Vic, again my thanks for the Vado information.

With permission and the support Justin who lives "down under" I made this mount after his. Tomorrow I will complete it with the camera sling as you will see in his video. My legs are to long right now but this photo is part mock-up. In the end after extensive web searching and reading reviews together with CNET rating this camera high and the camera shops here rating it high too with 1080p HD or 720 HD I ordered it today.
It is a DMC-ZR3A by Panasonic

http://www.youtube.com/user/juz70#p/u/0/z***bfncTLY

I feel very good that this whole project will work well when completed.

JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

That camera and setup looks very promising....looks like you did your homework!

Good luck on the project, keep us posted as always!

Nick,

I thought I had seen some supercharged nitro engines before for planes....all we have to do is adapt a little bit...

I know that O.S. used to make a Wankel Rotary model engine also. Not sure if they still make it, but that would certainly be unique if you showed up at the field with that..

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn, ask and you shall receive: [link=http://www.osengines.com/engines/osmg1401.html]OS Wankel engine[/link]

Here's the rest of the 4 stroke engines that OS has: [link=http://www.osengines.com/engines/airplane.html]Engines[/link]

Tower had some very hefty pricing for them too: starting at $899 and going through the roof at $3499 for a Sirrus 7 engine. [X(]

Gee, and I thought a 500 was expensive.

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

JPEE,

I don't think you will ever have any tail touching issues with that camera set up.

Very nicely done BTW. Can't wait for the field tests.

Glenn,

Since you put engine performance that way, I would have to say wow. I don't think I'll ever look at my little 46AX the same again.

It is quite amazing how these engines perform, esp with the abuse many of them are put through. My 46AX that I mentioned stayed in a tree (attached to a plane of course ) for 8 days before a good storm blew the plane loose. Unbelievably I just took it apart, cleaned and lubed things up, and the engine started right back up. Quite amazing.

Mark

rotarydoc

Mark,

Nice job researching that....I think that's the same rotary engine that OS has had for quite some time...

Let's see.....1.27 HP @17,000 RPM....not quite enough umph for a 600....but it might do real nice in a 500...

How cool would that be to show up at the heli club with a rotary engine powered 500??!!

Some of those 4 stroke engines are impressive....basically works of mechanical art !!

I wonder how you hook up glow ignitors to all the cylinders in that 7 cylinder radial engine? We'd have to get Nick to wire up a special glow ignitor system!

Those engines are very impressive indeed...

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Did you see this [link=http://www.osengines.com/engines/osmg1956.html]Black[/link] monster? Almost make you want to fly with no canopy just to show off the engine.

Just out of curiosity, the heli engines all seem to be 2 stroke - has that something to do with the slower response of a 4-stroke engine verses a 2-stroke? I never went to 4-strokes during my planes days - a bit intimidating at that time with the valve covers and boost in power to swing a much larger plane prop. I never quite made the transition, and now with heli's I don't think I will be.

Also, gets to be bad when the engine costs more than the vehicle its in!

Mark

P.S. - Alright, who else is working on a heli project right now?
Presently working on moving all the electronics on my CPP2 from one frame to another.