rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE, that sucks! I hope you are feeling better soon...I hate having colds!


I forgot to tell you guys what happened on Saturday....kinda interesting....

I got the SDX started, and it doesn't like being cold...so it stalled out....which I am used to, it's no big deal, fine when it's been warmed up.

I went back over, started it back up...backed away...and gave it some throttle....and the blades just sat there....so I gave it some more..and the engine was just freewheeling...so I thought....and figuring something in the one way or clutch...

Then Charles yelled over..."it's running backwards"....

Sure enough, I shut it off, and restarted it...and it was fine....I have always known that 2 stroke engines can run backwards, have heard of it happening on dirt bikes (imagine what happens on THAT when you dump the clutch...lol...[X(])....but I have never seen it happen on a glow engine...

Apparently, Charles has....lol...

Just thought you guys might enjoy that little bit of info....would be kinda interesting on a plane as well....

Glenn

evdreamer

Mark,

Your inverted photos look good. When you get comfortable doing them flying gets more interesting.

Hope you and your son had fun trick or treating last night.

Glenn,

That is good you got to go flying a couple of days ago.

Do you know how the engine started running backwards? Now if that happens to me I will know what is going on.

JPEE,

Sorry you are sick.

Nick

JPEE

WOW Glenn, running backwards! I have never ever heard of that in my life! We all rode two-cycle street and dirt bikes, but again I have never heard of that happening.

As far as getting better, I think I have to feel worse before the "better" comes. Should the better not come and I go the "Big Hanger" in the sky, tell Judy you are entitled to all of my RC stuff including my planes as you MUST take the good with the bad LOL.

JPEE

JPEE

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH9N9comEy4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

You guys OWE me for this one, you wont believe this even when you see it!


JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Hope you get worse so you can get better soon...lol.. Just kiddin' of course...I do know what ya mean....

Nick,

I have no idea why it ran backwards, I started it the same way I normally do...maybe I didn't keep the starter engaged long enough...

All it takes is for the piston to come up close to TDC (Top Dead Center) and fire a tad bit early, and force the piston back down before the crankshaft finishes making that revolution, and it will start that power stroke the wrong direction, and it will continue to run that way, the engine doesn't care which way it runs, unlike a 4 stroke engine.

It was an interesting lesson, I'll bet I couldn't do it again if I tried...

I guess it does happen from time to time, Charles picked right up on it...while I was scratching my head...lol...

At least he was there and knew...I'm sure I would have shut it off and been checking the clutch, one way, and everything else, and found nothing, then restarted it, and it would have been fine, and then I REALLY would have been scratching my head! [X(]

Now you know.....

Glenn

rotarydoc

Nick,

I found this after writing my post...

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7043935/printable.htm

Glenn

cheyne

JPEE,

Thanks for the invite to your thread (who thought of the title?.....Sounds random for almost 500 pages). I flew two packs tonight and I am almost sure one is bad. After a few minutes of "touch and goes" (you might call them ground bumping) I went to power up and after I past mid stick the motor started to spool down. I reduced throttle and as I passed mid stick the motor came back. I am assuming the battery was so low on power the increased pitch was too much. I threw it on the charger and it only took 470 miliamps....Garbage.....

I also moved my throttle curve back to stock and the pitch curve back to stock (expo to 25% as well). However, after smashing it into the ground several times I put the pitch curve back to where I had it before (L 50 and up) so I could keep working on trimming. This thing just seams to be all over the air. I am slowing dialling the gyro back to get the bob off and I Am almost there but it does want to drift pretty bad and my back yard is only about 15x15'. The good side is I wont dare devil it too bad.

With the stock pitch setting and the aileron and elevator at -75, and the pitch at +75 it still felt too powerful. I was thinking that I need to dial that down even further for more control. And I assume start relying on the throttle hold instead of power down. Old habbit from the fixed pitch.

The hour we spent this weekend was more like 2.5. you must have been having fun. LOL.

Glad to have a forum for all of my questions. Thanks in advance!

evdreamer

JPEE,

That is an interesting video. It reminds me of a photo I saw of a plane with only one blade on the propeller. I can't remember if it was a real plane or a RC plane. The person was saying it was the most efficient prop design. However, people thought it wouldn't work, so it wasn't real popular. I never looked into to see if he was telling the truth.

Glenn,

That is interesting on what people had to say about the engine running backwards.

Cheyne,

Welcome to the group.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

JPEE,

Sorry your feeling under the weather. Wishing you and Judy a speedy recovery. A cup of Campbells chicken noodle soup may be in order...always works for me.

Nice vid of the one bladed heli, guess the counter weight was exactly enough to balance the bird. (?)

Glenn,

Nice to hear you got some flights in...no soccer intrusions.

Why would anyone mow the grass at a club on a Sunday...why not wait until a weekday when no-one is around??? Darn those plank guys that need 400 feet of runway to takeoff and land.

In the newbie stage of my plane days I did have my OS 40 engine start backwards...happened twice. Once with a chicken stick, the other with an electric starter. I believe it happens if you overload the engine with fuel...also caused a few props to unscrew and fly off as well during starting. Plus, not fun when you throttle to full and the darn plane starts backing up towards you. [X(] Who says planes aren't dangerous. Aww, those fun newbie days.

Did a bit of servo and head setup tonight on the 500...had to dig out the old Spectrum manual for that. I think I got a bit spoiled by the non-adjustable links on the 450 Pro, much simpler then the 500.

Halloween was good. We got a bunch of candy, um sorry...my son got a bunch of candy. Yeah, you know the parents get to dip in the stash. One thing that blew my mind...the ultimate laziness of todays kids...they get chartered around in the parents minivan from house to house. Get out and walk you lazy...omg, have we gotten this bad that we pack up the minivan to drive our kids around on Halloween?! []

Nick,

How's your project coming along...looks like its just about done. Are you getting any flying in before winter hits in what, a few weeks for you? [X(]

Cheyne,

Welcome to the thread and you found a great person to help you along...JPEE is a great teacher. Plus we are all here to help out as well. Be careful...you may start finding new heli's appearing in the near future.

One last thing...we got a new addition to the family...last Saturday we got a new cat from the local shelter. She's about 6 months old, hyper as heck, and can get into some very tiny places.


Mark

JPEE

Cheyne,

You got me.......................yes I was have tons of fun too.

Sound like things are moving forward for you. Did you ever measure your training gear to see if they are "exactly" centered at all four corners? I think once you get your trims set she will hover very well for you. Like I said, if she still feels to powerful for you, you can chose either of the ways I showed you to tame her, whatever works for your needs stick to it.

I dont want to scare you but the Blade 400 ESCs are noted for not being the best like the servos I told you about. Take care to note that if anyother battery does the same it might be the ESC. When you land "carefully" touch that ESC and see how hot it is. And by the way hovering is hard on the heli as there is not much air moving over the electric and it take more torq and power to heol up the heli in the static postion. No worries, theses are just facts for you to know about

So glad you got some hovering in.

Glenn,
You may be getting my stuff sooner than you think! Just kidding...........I am sitting on the fence in a stable position, I am not getting worse nor am I getting better. Judy is on the swing up which she is 8 days in. I am only like 4 days in so I have some fields to plow yet.

Mark,
So glad you and little guy had fun. Next year you should rent a Limo for the night and show your neighbors how the Heli set do it RIGHT. Glad to hear the 500 is coming along too. Here kitty kitty..how sweat she looks, a real curious one for sure.

Hey Nick

evdreamer

Mark,

I have been working on transferring my display code to a new chip with 4x more memory. The chip that I was using only had enough memory for one screen to work at a time. Now all of my code fits onto this new chip. Now I can go between the main menu, cell info screen, and the overall battery info screen. I need to work on the hardware to interface with the monitoring/balancing boards like I did with my other chip. Then I can work on the settings code.

I am almost working full time, so I haven't had a lot of time to fly lately. The weather is pretty good today, so I plan on going flying. I have a gallon and a half to burn through before winter.

It looks like you will have your hands full with the new cat.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Hope you are feeling better...

I'm not sure what happened to your video, looks like a blank post to me...I take it was a one bladed heli?

Nick,

Hope you can get some flying in today...and glad you still have some nice weather left...enjoy it while you can!

At least if your engine ever runs backwards, you'll know now...lol...

Mark,

Yeah the grass mowing definitely cut into my flying time, I was planning on getting another couple of flights in...[]

Cute kitty! I have one of my own...I'll have to post a pic or two...

That sofa looks like it's in good shape...SO FAR...lol...wait till kitty gets bigger and needs some claw exercise..,[X(]

Cheyne,

Welcome...

Lot's of help to be found here...lots of total experience in the hobby for sure...


Glenn

rotarydoc

Mark,

When kitty gets a little older, put her to work helping and giving you opinions on your heli setup like my kitty does...lol...

Glenn

JPEE

Hi Glenn,

I am not sure what your saying about my You Tube post of heli with one blade. The video is there on both my Iphone and both computers and plays as well???

Old Tiger looks pretty good there with the helis.

Sick or not it has taken me a few days to replace the frame and many other parts on my last 400. I did a test hover and as I remembered the old stock gyro doesent hold very well. I'll need to
get it outside and giver a wirl to see that everything is ok. Then I will sell both used 400s and the new never flown 400 which all BNF. Plus I still have have about 20 bags of new parts to
boot.

JPEE

evdreamer

Glenn,

I went through about a half gallon today. It was kind of cold, but there was hardly any wind. My engine didn't like the cold weather until it warmed up. I leaned it out about 3 clicks and it seemed to just sip the fuel. I had a 10.5min flight on my last flight of the day. Now my Velocity has more flight time than my 600.

Nick

cheyne

Ill probably need all those spare parts JPEE so dont go liquidating them. Heading out to fly before dark. Hopefull I dont have to place an order tonight!

cheyne

ZIPPY Flightmax 2200mAh 3S1P 25C

I was thinking this battery for my blade 400. What does the 1P mean again? Is that good enough? Its only 12 bucks. 3 of these should get me going.

cheyne

I cracked a set of blades tonight and realized I still have another unresolved issue. My main blade wont fit into the metal head grips. So I sand them to squeeze in and no matter how hard I try to be accurate they end up resting on the head at an angle. Thats obviously not good. Also the o-rings in the metal head dont appear to be efficient. With the mains all the way extended out straight the head will easily tip on the feathering shaft. Do I need a heavier set? I am going to place a big order (for me) in hobby king and I want to get all that I need now.

Batteries
o-ring
Cell tester
AC3 adapters
Power supply plugs

Possibly some carbons if they are really cheap.

As JPEE said, train on it and then build an align 450. I hovered for a couple minutes without toughing but it does not want to hold the tail. Bobs for a second and then the heli starts to turn left. I have to add right rudder (on the transmitter) every few seconds.

Exciting though.

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

Sounds cool on the Velocity flights...glad you were able to get such long flight times....be careful though, don't go too lean...[X(] When I flew Saturday, I richened up the SDX since it was very cool compared to last time out....it was down on power a bit, and was running at !60 degrees, I would have leaned it out a few clicks had I gotten another chance to fly...

JPEE,

The video is there and works now....it was not there from work or home earlier...RCU has been acting strange lately....like Tiger's pics came out HUGE, I have no idea why....

Glenn

evdreamer

Cheyne,

The P is for Parallel. The 1P isn't needed because it is assumed when it isn't written, like 3S by itself. S is for Series. When cells are in series you add the Voltages and when the cells are in parallel you add the capacities. 3S means there is 3 cells in series. 3S2P means there is 6 cells total with two 3S batteries in parallel.

Glenn,

Yeah, I was careful not to lean it out too much. When I got there it was running at 150 degrees with my warm weather settings. Then by the end of the day it was running at 190 degrees.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Well gentlemen...I do believe a new 500 has been born.

Only thing left is the gyro and clean up the receiver and wires.

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,

I'm glad to hear you got to fly today, did you perfect those rolling circles of yours?

Sounds like your new chip is a lot more advanced then the older one you were using, good luck with the hardware interfacing.

You have it wrong my friend...my wife will have her hands full with the new cat. Actually we got her b/c my wife's cat passed away in July...he was 14 years old. She is very excited to have a cat again and I am doing better this time, esp. since I had the chance to help pick her out. Her last cats were male and there were some battles with them...to say the least.

Glenn,

Whoa, big pictures of Tiger there! She (?) looks just like ours, Ginger, just a bit bigger.

RCU gremlins again.

We did get one of those 'as seen on TV' clawing platforms...the one that comes with catnip...so to dull the sharpness of the claws. It seems to work well.

JPEE,

A limo next year...your too much! Hope your feeling a bit better now.

Mark

cheyne

evdreamer. Thanks for the explanation.

oes anyone know how to fit stock blades into a blade metal head with accuracy? Also looking for some help if possible with a loose feathering shaft. Maybe the previous owner used blade 400 0-rings instead of a better fitting O-Ring?

rotarydoc

Mark,

Your 500 looks awesome, and ready for a maiden!

Did it come with Align CF main blades, and you swapped the stealth blades for them? That's basically what I did, I still have FRP blades on my 500...


I found this interesting...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...elicopter-tech

Who says coaxial helis are slow in FF?

Somebody needs to put one of those pusher props on a CX2 and see what happens...

Glenn

evdreamer

Mark,

That is cool your 500 is done.

I wouldn't call my rolling circles and figure 8's perfect yet, but I am comfortable doing them now. It helped a lot that the wind was pretty calm. I also worked on my flipping figure 8's and those still need a lot of work.

Yeah, this chip has some nice features. There is a bug some where in my code that I get to track down. I tested the communication and that is working and it displays all the background stuff ok. However, it freezes up when it tries to display the data.

Nick