JPEE

Good luck Jreue, I hope the $$$$$$ grown for you!

JPEE

jroo

got 200+25 shipping. I'm happy with the outcome.

Last night i rewired my receiver and installed the gyro in my 250. Got it all programmed and ready to go.
The only thing left to do now is install the canopy grommets on my sweet ass new canomod canopy and drop a set of main blades on.

I'll send pics!

JPEE

Jreue,
Congratulations on selling the Blade 400!


Calling all Brain-e-acts, I have an anomaly!

I was helping my buddy on his HK 600 today. We thought the heli was ready for a maiden lift off so I was taking her up. I spooled her up and got some headspeed and just at lift off the heli did 360's on the ground. I did of the normal fixes and nothing worked. Then while testing we found tail servo/gyro has this anomaly. If you turn on the radio, turn on the BEC, then plug in the battery everything worked, aile, pitch rudder and so on. But ! ! !............the gyro sensing was not working meaning, when you shook the heli the tail blades did not move automatically like our other helis and thats why the helis is doing 360s. Again I did every test I know of, changed servos, RX, gyros all to no avail. Then by accident we found that if you leave the radio off, turn on the BEC and let the servos center, then the tail servo would work when you shook the helis tail. But as soon as you turn on the radio (in any order of start up) the rudder would move but not by itself when you shook the tail. So the last thing we tried was to use my radio ( we both have DX7's ) and bind his heli to my 600 slot. NOPE, all of the same problems. I asked myself how can this be?? but it is/was! So on a whim we tried a DX6i. EVERYTHING worked perfectly! I hovered the HK 600 here in my yard two packs and the heli did very well. So after the two hovers we re-bound it back to the Dx7 and the tail would not repsond nor lift off without spinning 360? Can you guys figure this out, we sure cannot. So we put her back to the DX6i and she was back flying.

It just has me so baffled that my 600 flies perfectly with my settings and yet I cant fly his hei with my radio...hummmm. Any thoughts are welcome boys.

I am going to use a Kontronic 100LV in my 600. While this choice is the most priciest choice there is, I will never have to worry now about my ESC over heating or having another issues, I HOPE lol. However, Kontronic is shut down now and not making any products. So I have to wait until the end of the month when they are oof vacation and new product supplies hit the USA.

John

jroo

Arg. Just when I thought i was good to go, something else happened.

The roller switch on my DX6i transmitter broke....

I took it out and you can see the rod that goes in the switch snapped clean off the roller. I superglued and let it sit overnight.

I installed back this morning, and it seems ok, but I still may send it in and have it fixed. I called Horizon Hobby, and apparently, they own Spektrum... They said they don't sell any parts of the TX, I would have to send it in. It's a 6 day turn around. bah.

Anyway, here are some pics.

jroo

Here are some pics of the 250 with new canopy and Align 780 gyro.

jroo

Hey guys,
I have an issue that has been plaguing my 250 for some time.

I've check and rechecked my pitch, and it is -10, 0 , +10 at low,mid,high stick
I have a throttle curve of 0, 40, 80, 90, 100

The problem is that lift-off does not occur until, what seems like, way too high in my collective input. It feels very different from my other helis. I am running some cheap $2 blades from HobbyKing, so that may be it, but I wanted your input first. I'm kind of running out of ideas.

JPEE

Jreue,
1. Sorry that your DX6i selector switch broke, this is a "very" common occurrance on that radio. The part that ticks me off in spades is that the Horizon won't sell parts, just like they won't sell you a new main shaft for any of their motor's. Sorry you might have to send it in but Glenn, myself and other's of all had to do that. Most of us have moved on to other radios but we ALL keep our DX6i on the ready packed safely away as a good back radio. As you read my post above, we pulled mine out yesterday for a test.

2. Your canopy look great! That's one nice looking 250 you have there.

3. Re your head speed and such. My 450 Pro is the same way. I have found that in order to have a high head speed so when I flip into "stunt or idle-up" the heli won't jerk itself this is just a result. Because the 250/450 are small their little blades make a heep of noise when the rpms are high. You could lower the bottom side of your curve so you wont crank any high rpms until like 70% throttle. You may try this. Spool up the heli and see at what point it lifts up and note exactly where the throttle stick is. Then once up note that stick setting as well. It is there just after the heli is in the air and there is a "load" on the blades and motor that you can catch up to your curve level you have now and run it up to where you were.

Good Luck JPEE

jroo

JPEE,

Thanks for the suggestion on the pitch/throttle setting. It's weird though. Rhis is a pretty standard curve; I use the same on all my other heli's, but it feels weird on this 250. In fact, when I first build this heli, I didn't notice this anomaly. It's point of lift off was the same as my others. Ever since my first crash where I had to replace the main blades, it's felt like this...

I'll let you guys know what I find.

evdreamer

John,

I don't know what is going on with your friend's 600.

That is cool you are getting a Kontronic ESC.

Glenn,

Have fun with the Mac App store.

Mark,

I think you will enjoy RCHeli magazine. There is a lot of close up pics of new helis and a lot of helpful info.

James,

Sorry about your transmitter.

I have never flown a 250, so I don't know if that is normal or not.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

COLD here, and windy, not sure what the wind chill is, but it's no fun to be outside!

Dave,

Thanks for stopping by, and visting, always a pleasure to have you join in...

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

JPEE,

You got me stumped on the radio issue, sure sounds like a setting somewhere in the DX7's is off, but I have no experience with them, I wish I could be of more help...

Good luck on the Kontronics, they are definitely top end stuff! Their support seems very good as well, I remember when Justin's Logo 600 fell out of the air, we thought it was an ESC issue, but turned out to be a motor issue, exacly what the techs at Kontronics said...

jreue,

The 250 is looking sharp!

That issue with the DX6i is a bummer for sure...been there, done that...mine didn't break like that, but was super/hyper sensitive, go to move it one click, and it would jump 5....Horizon took care of it no prob though...

Sometimes my Gaui feels that way, like it's got a whole bunch of headspeed (which it does) on lift off...kinda goes with the territory of small helis like that I think....it seems worse or more noticable after I've been flying bigger helis...as JPEE pointed out though, you can tweak the curves to get more lift at a lower headspeed if it bothers you....

Nick,

The Mac App store is cool, for sure...

I got a new toy...I ran out of electronic kits at the electronic supply house, I went to HOBBY LOBBY for a look, I was bored..and I found this kinda neat robotic arm kit...you assemble it from parts, gears, motors, PCB, and a controller, and you end up with a working robotic arm...that will be totally new to me, I've never built anything like it. The reviews seemed pretty good on it, so I'll see...

Mark,

I like RC Heli, lots of good articles...some more than others, but overall definitely worth the $25....

The editing/grammatical/spelling errrors drive me crazy, but most normal people don't notice or care...lol..

Not a whole lot new here on the heli front....


JPEE,

If I was in SoCal right about now, I'd be at Anaheim for the SUPERCROSS, starts at 10 PM my time...at least I get to see it live on Speed Channel...

Glenn

JPEE

Supercross, that's where I "The Super" walk accross the street in Anahiem right? LOL

The AMA is having big show here in Ontario which started yesterday through Sunday. They have like 200 booths I think it said and lots of stuff to see. I could not motivate my buddy to go. I am not gonna drive 60 miles each way to go alone, that's no fun.

The robotic arm sounds very cool, best of all it's not a heli????? I mean that a break will be nice and fun too doing something different.

John

jroo

Concerning the 250. The thing is, I know I can tweek the curves, but like I said, it flew fine/normal before, and I'm not quite sure what changed.

Other than stock parts/setup, I have
a different pinion - perhaps the different # of teeth?
different flybar paddles. They are from a CopterX 250. Perhaps the different shape?

It just does not make a whole lot of sense. I don't really want to just change pitch curves to get it to take off sooner. It seems like something is fundamentally wrong. I know it started lift-off sooner, before. It feels very odd/dangerous to be just lifting off and be way up near full collective.

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

James,

Your 250 looks really good with that Canomod canopy...everything looks extremely tight in there too, good job on a clean wiring job.

One thing about a after crash repair is that you can't judge how things were before the crash to how things are after...didn't you have to replace certain parts on the head? If so that can definitely cause some shifting issues with your throttle/pitch curves. Changing the pinion will also change your headspeed...I believe if your pinion increases in teeth (ie. 11 to a 13) your headspeed increases, whereas the opposite goes if you decrease it. Best thing is to adjust the throttle curve so to get the headspeed up before your pitch curve gets greater than 50.

On a side note...do you usually fly in idle up 1? If so, you may want to try just starting up in idle up 1...just flip the switch, bring the throttle switch to midstick, and slowly increase stick after the motor has reached rpm's.

Glenn,

How was the Motorcross (bike racing right?)? Those races sometimes have some very nasty crashes that I occasionally see on those extreme sports video's. [X(]

Your new robotic arm project sounds very cool...is [link=http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/robotic-arm-edge-881565/]this[/link] it? I was looking at some of there other projects and the Junior Electrician and Solar Powered Vehicles projects both look kinda neat. Have fun building! I'm surprised that you haven't mentioned an interest in model railroads - your place sounds like it has a large enough space to construct a small scale one...maybe in N scale. Just thinking outloud.

Sorry for the cold weather...typical for January I'm sure. Are you getting lucky and dodging the snow?

JPEE,

Your gyro problem is indeed confusing...what kind of gyro were you using? The only thing I can think of is to look in the menu section of the DX7...the input select where you have the AUX2 and Gear and double check that the gyro is selected for the AUX2 and INH is selected for the Gear. Also double check the Gyro Sens for the Rudder and make sure the gain is identical between the two radio's. Last, if the gyro is something of a clone, you may want to consider the gyro itself. []

Kontroniks ESC...wow that is bigtime. I was wondering if you were going to go for a CC b/c of their auto headspeed setting, but I'm sure all of the top end ESC's have that feature. Sorry for the wait but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

I've seen those Ontario show's in RC Magazines before and they look incredible...120 miles is a bit far to go at it alone though.

BTW, how's the weather shaping up for you this weekend?

Nick,

Ready for school tomorrow??? Jeez, that came up fast didn't it?!

Dave,

Good to hear from you and you sound like you had a good Christmas and New Year.

Thank you for the compliments. I really do enjoy how my 500 fly's and bet you have been enjoying yours as well.

Interesting you should mention the new nano batteries that Turnigy offers now...I have been looking to make a battery purchase and never considered them. Will have to do some reading up on them b/c they really aren't that much more expensive.

Not a lot going on...had a cold front move in so it's been very windy the past few days. Been trying to work out a bit to lose some of that tonnage gained from all those holiday treats!

Mark

jroo

I just counted the teeth on this pinion in my 250. That will make you eyes go cross-eyed. After numerous re-counts, including my wife counting, I came up with a 16 tooth pinion.

I remember when I went to go buy this pinion, they had a 15 tooth and 16 tooth. I could not remember the stock size, so I chose the 16. Well I was wrong.

So, it looks like my headspeed is way off from what I'm use to.

Mark,

I fly in normal, non-idle-up mode.
I've only flipped into idle-up 3-4 times, and that was to just get the feel of it.

My normal routine is to spool up in normal, take off, get to a hover, and then, if I want to flip into idle-up, do it here, after I'm hovering. But, like I said, idle-up is not even in this equation.

Could this higher headspeed cause me to not lift off until later in my collective?
It seems counter intuitive....

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hey James,

don't worry about the idle up right now, it was just something I wanted to throw out there.

Sounds like you got your headspeed up with a 16 tooth pinion...what are your pitch curves for normal mode, standard linear 0-25-50-75-100? If so you may want to adjust your throttle curve to maybe...0-50-80-90-100 and see if that helps. Right now it sounds like a bit of trial and error until you get it lifting off just after midstick.

You may want to try a magnifying glass with those tiny pinions!

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

JPEE,

I wanted to comment on your excellent job of frame modding...it looks like it was done at the factory and is part of the frame. Nice work there!

I see how the motor's size bulges past the frame and why you had to make the mods to get it to fit. Any flight reports with that monster?!

With all of your batteries have you or anyone you know tried those Turnigy nano's? Been doing a bit of reading up on them and they do sound nice.

Mark

jroo

Throttle: 0, 40, 80, 90, 95
Pitch: 35, 42.5, 50, 75, 100

Wait a minute. 95? at high stick....

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is cool you got a robotic arm. My old college bought a $30,000 robotic arm that only 3 people signed up to use. It was used for learning to program it and pick up objects. It had a conveyor belt to put objects on and sensors to tell when it passed certain points.

Mark,

I don't want to go to school tomorrow. I have enjoyed my break. I always dread the first day at a new school. It is going to be around 7 degrees soon and I have a long walk from my parking garage to my classes.[&o] I was looking through my computer programming book and it looks like a lot of fun. I also found out I already have a calculus quiz at the end of the first week.[&o] I was looking at the electronic classes offered and there are some cool microcontrollers ones that I will want to take.

Nick

jroo

Hahah

That was it guys. I think I goofed in my Normal Throttle settings somehow. I had 95 as my high stick setting rather than 100.

Just did a test hover in the garage. Feels MUCH better now.

JPEE

ORIGINAL: jreue

Throttle: 0, 40, 80, 90, 95
Pitch: 35, 42.5, 50, 75, 100

Wait a minute. 95? at high stick....
[/quote]

Jreue,
The number of teeth on your pinion can make a heck of a difference on your head speed. Since my motor upgrade on the 600 I used the same 13 tooth pinion on the new motor as wwas on the old one. However, while that gave me my head speed that I was looking for along with the torq I
desired it overwhelmed my current 75 amp ESC and it got real hot! So the only thing I can do for the time being is drop the head speed by lowering the pinion tooth count. The only thing I had on the bench was an 11T so I put that on which was a drastic change from a 13t. The head speed
went waaay down and the ESC and pack were nice and cold after my flight but not a head speed beyond crusing that I can live with even in the short term. So until my new ESC arrives I ran out yesterday and bought a 12T (splitting the difference) and that was a good split from too low of a
head speed to near high enough of a head speed that the ESC can handle and I have some power. The point of all of this is, "one" tooth can make a heck of a difference. Talking about your head speed, does the higher head speed change your lift off, I don't think so. To answer your other question, why shouldn't your 250 fly the same prior to the crash? I can only tell you that my 500 has been down several times, in fact "a lot" lol). And each time it has come back like the first day I bought it, except this last time. I am very proficient at my rebuilding this heli and yet this time I can feel a just a bit of difference. Why, oh it can be many things, perhaps the fly bar is not tracking perfectly, perhaps one of my washout arms is just a tiny bit tweaked as aluminum parts in the head do get bent, I found this to be the case sometime ago on another heli, you could barely see it the bent arm with the naked eye but who knows? but I do feel that this ever so minimal difference will pass after I few more flights, then it will become second nature and will become the new standard.
For pinion T count I use a Marxie and blacken one tooth looking down on it. then I use a small screw driver to tick to tap each tooth twice to make sure the count is accurate. Only yesterday I used my engraver to mark my 500-600 pinion's, why? because they look the same and use the same size motor shaft. While the Aligns have the tooth count stamped on the side of the pinion it is very easy to put the wrong pinion on the 500-600 heli. In order to make sure I was using the right pinion for the right heli I set a main gear from each on the bench and gently rolled the pinion over the gear. Let me tell you, that's a no brainer and you can feel the difference! The other thing that really helps is getting yourself a jewelers set of magnifiers [link=http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?category=&q=magnifier]magnifiers[/link] I know read you may have made your repairs to your liking and hovered in the garage, great news!

Nick,
Good luck tomorrow at school. There is plenty to excited about, "GIRLS" lol, I mean your new classes, but I pity the walk from the car to the class. New horizons for you are just ahead, enjoy the ride.

Mark,
GYRO's, Thanks for your input on that matter. The simple and unclear thing is, if my DX7 flies my 600 "with" and Ar7000 like his, and we tried 2 ea GY48 and 1 Walkera gyros it should have worked. We even tried and AR6000 with the same results thinking he might have a bad port on the RX. It is something we need to get to the bottom of, or for at least my own knowledge "I need to know".

While the nano's do have things to offer, charging at 5C and they tout more power here is an article I wrote awhile ago on another forum:
Hello BOB's
The new NANOS!
I have the new Hyperion Duo III charger. It is capable of charging two 6S packs. Here is the short version of the spec's.
http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-11...615i-6S/Detail
300W Per Port for 600 Watts Max CHARGE Output
0.1A to 15.0A max CHARGE Current in 0.1A steps (subject to 300W/port limit with 14.5V+ DC PS)

I am sure you see the charging power they tout, 15 amps! What I have found is when charging a Turnigy 5000 mAh 6S at 2C 10,000 mAh (10 amp) off of a DC 14vt 60 amp power supply I can only push 6.5 amps.
Because this charger is capable of accepting 24vts DC input power as well, I used two truck 850 CA batteries and that brought my charging max up to 9.5 amps per each battery, pretty good overall.

Where I am going with all of this is this..........While the sale factor of "being able" to charge at 5C most if any guys have a charger that can push 25 amps through the ports, wires, and connections. I have read up and most banana ports at max will only handle 10 amps per their rating.

So to make life simple I fly my 6S 5000 mAh packs down to 3.7 per cell and put back 3,700 mAh. After a 23 minute charge at 2C which as I stated while the charger is set for 10 amps it can only push out 6.5 amps at 12vt power supply of the wishful 10 amps on a 24 power supply.
( a special thanks to nick who made clear for me, amps, watts, and power supplies related to chargers and packs).

Glenn,
I watched part of the Motocross last night on TV, generally my son inlaw attends those meets. Those young men are GLADIATORS for sure!
Thanks for the kinds words on the Kontronic. When I hit PP on that my heart will skip at least one to two beats LOL. Sorry it so bitter cold there.

JPEE under the cold and grey skies in sunnny California

jroo

Guys I got a non-heli question.

My house is 8 yrs old. About 7 years ago I installed a ceiling fan in a room. The room has a single switch to control the light. The fan did not come with a remote, so I bought an aftermarket remote and hooked it up. Its worked fine for 7 years. It died a few weeks ago and we have been without remote control ability, just using the pull chains to adjust the fan/light.

Considering the remote was toast, I decided to remove it from the fan and just control the fan/light with the wall switch; pretty typical operation.

I got 3 wires coming from the ceiling: White, Black, Green
I got 4 wires on the fan: White, Black, Black&White, Green

The instruction manual for this fan states, that for a Single-Wall-Switch installation, the following connection should be made:

Ceiling Green - Fan Green
Ceiling White - Fan White
Ceiling Black - Fan Black and Fan Black/White

I've double and triple checked this thing but the switch on the wall does 'nothing'. Even if its OFF, the fan/lights still work. The only way i can control it is to pull the fan/light chains.

Any of you guys have an idea of what the heck could be going on?

The breaker that controls this room is mark 'Arc Fault Protection'. It looks a little different than the other standard breakers in the box. It has a little mini switch 'on' the breaker that says 'test'.
Not sure if that contributes to anything.

Could the switch on the wall be bad or something? It seems odd this would happen.

Thanks guys!

JPEE

Jreue, check you email and PM and call me JPEE John

JPEE

Mark,

Your advice was right on the money!

My buddy brought over his 600 again this afternoon and were working on it. After a test hover with the DX6i I sat down again and with your suggestion modded the radio. I had totally forgotten about that sub menu to make those AUX and Gear move around. That was it, you hit the nail on the head. I re-adjusted those toggles and we wiggled the heli on the table a BAM the tail servo responded. I hovered a pack through it and she did just fine. Thanks again for the suggestion/resolution

John

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

You hit the nail on the head, that's the kit I got! I was totally an impulse buy, and entertainment for the weekend....hey, it didn't cost anymore than a decent 450 Pro crash..lol..

Yeah, motocross is a pretty dangerous motorsport, I used to ride, raced once (that was enough!) and can really appreciate the skill and fitness levels those guys are at; it's a young man's sport for sure, on a professional level, you are all done at about 35 tops...

Some of the crashes are incredible...sometimes the worst looking ones are the ones they walk away from, and vice versa...it definitely takes a special breed to have the gonads to do that...

Some snow on the way on Tuesday, so they say...but nothing too major, 3-4 inches...I hope...

JPEE,

Glad Mark got ya straightened out...I remember having some issues like that setting up the 9503, I was trying to use the gyro menu, when I should have been using the Aux or gear settings instead, it can get confusing!

Hope your weather improves, and you can get some flying in.

That's cool that your son in law can enjoy that, Supercross doesn't come anywhere near here, closest is Atlanta..[&o]

Yeah, that's a ton to pay for the ESC, but you're getting the best!

jreue,

Glad you pinned down the lift off issue.

Nick,

I know how you feel about school, I used to hate the first day (didn't we all) of school...new place, new people, and the cold doesn't help any either, and that horrible quiz...

Hope your first day goes well...

The robotic arm turned out really well...a very well made kit, the fit and quality of the parts are top notch...and the end result was great, it can pick up things up to 4 ozs, and has a spot light on the claw. It works surprisingly well for a low cost kit...

Of course the fun part is now over, and it'll probably collect dust...lol...

Glenn

JPEE

Glenn,

We want pictures and or video of your robotic arm!

P