Jarod1200

I have a Hummingbird V2. I have had the worst luck with there hummingboards. I went through 4 hummingboards in 1 week. The store kept replacing them but I got tired of driving there over and over. Its a 45 min drive. They even replaced the whole kit for another the last time around. It still happened. I come home set it up and its good to go for a few hours and then thats it. The board lights up green like its ready to go but if you accelerate it flashs red. One of the boards actually burst into flames and melted the canopy. The only mods are a head stiffner and pro tail motor with a direct drive setup. Ok so I had enough of those crappy boards. I went with seperates. I bought Pixie 7amp for the main motor and a GWS 50 2amp for the tail. I followed the directions from helihobby's website. The results were a tail motor that was intermitten and acted like it was getting tons of interfence. And yes the motors have capacitors. I went back and bought a GWS 100 5amp for the tail as a replacement for the GWS 50. Came home redid everything and I was flying my bird again! I was so happy to have gotten away from those hummingboards. The seperates are almost the same price as a the hummingboard. Well it went great for a week then my main motor must have gone bad because with a fully charged lithium or birdseed battery it could barely get off the floor. Went back to the store and bought a Graupner 300 motor instead of the stock hummingbird motor. Came home popped that baby in and bang Im back in the air. But now a new problem has developed. The tail ESC cuts out at throttle up causing the bird spin around. Not a pretty sight. I think its due to the slightly larger motor drawing more electricity from the battery. It has caused the main motor to hog up all the juice. I fly with Thunder Power 7.4V 1900mAh packs. I wont waste my time with the birdseed batteries any more they only last 5 min compared to 30 min. So I dont know how to control how much juice goes to the ESC's. I have an idea. How about a seperate battery for the tail motor all together. I unspliced the power lines for the ESC's and put seperate battery connectors on them. I hooked up two 7.4v 1900mAh on to it and it was unable to lift off. Each lithuim pack ways 76 grams. The birdseed batteries weigh 96 grams. Im thinking ill pick up a 31 gram 7.4v 760mAh lithium. That would free up 45 grams and the two batteries would weigh a total of 107 grams. Remeber thats only 11 grams more then the stock birdseed battery. Has anyone done this or is this going to fry something? Im going to go and try and get the tail battery tomorrow if they have it. If this works I would have 2660mAh to run on. I cant wait to see the fly times if this works.

Mossie

I very much doubt you are demanding to much current from the TP cells.
I think its more likely a bad tail motor, or the TR slipping on the shaft.

Try a drop of CA to secure the TR better.

Remember also that the power demands of the TR are relatively small. Rigging a separate power supply to it is IMHO a complete overkill. The whole idea with Li-Poly is to save weight, not add it. Every gram is 5secs of flight time, and harder working components...ie, shorter motor life and higher current draw.

Jarod1200

I picked up the 760mAh lithuim for the tail to go with the 1900mAh for the main. Thats a total of 2660mAh. Combined weight of the batteries are 115 grams. I measured it with a digitial scale. Thats 19 grams over the stock birdseed battery. It didnt hover at the normal throttle setting it was definately a few clicks higher. About half way with the throttle got it in the air. I have seen the Airwolf scale kit and I know it adds extra weight to a otherwise stock setup. So I know it can handle a little extra weight. The tail ESC never cut out and the gyro was able to compensate now for a fast throttle up. Before if you moved the throttle to fast the tail would swing. I can tell you now that it is definately due to the tail loosing power from the extra draw. Now the throttle up is clean even if I throw it all the way up to keep from hitting the furniture. I am recharging now to do a timed flight. I will report back on the results. Im not sure what to expect. I just know I have my bird flying again.

Jarod1200

Well after all this work I finally have a heli that im happy with. While I was charging the two lithiums I trimmed the wires and connectors off the heli. I accumulated 4.6 grams of saved weight. Well I just flew in my living room in a hover or at liest trying to keep it still for a total of 34 mins. The power was smooth and control was great. I think its a safer heli because its not prone to spinning out of control from loosing the tail. Thats what happens what the battery gets low. Oh and for the results of the batteries they both took a full charge and showed that they had run low at about the same time. Actually it was the main motor that got weak first but the trim on the tail had already been adjusted several times. I am very pleased with the results. Im sure ill be going through motors weekly with these flying times. But if it keeps me flying who cares. Ill post pictures if anyone wants to see.

Super-Hornet

Shows us some picture will you?

Super-Hornet

Jarod1200

Here are a few photos. The tail ESC is mounted near the tail. The main ESC is mounted ontop of the gyro. The two battery packs each go to there own ESC. The tail battery is actually mounted in the front and the main is mounted on the underside. Ill be happy to answer any questions regarding this setup. It was a challenge and Im proud of my creation.

techcoast

Nice setup, I keep noticing that a lot of people switch to the Hitech servos as apposed to staying with the Century servos, is there a problem with the Century's? I know that I had one bum servo right from the git go, but I replaced them with (of course) Hitech HS-55's.

Jarod1200

The combo offered at my LHS was for a Hitec radio or a JR radio. The cost was $315 for the Hitec and roughly the same for the JR. I resold the tranmitter on eBay as soon as I got home. I got $40 bucks for it. So that drops the cost of the combo to $275. Yes I may have been able to do better buy purchasing online. But Im so glad I bought locally. I had so many problems with the hummingboard. The LHS really tried to do the right thing. They replaced the board a total of 3 times. I went through 4 boards in less then a week. It pays to buy quality electronics. You simply get what you pay for in my opinion.