harralk

My Feedback: (22)

I bought a Fun Piccolo about a month ago and it doesn't seem to have enough power to get off the ground. I started with the 9T pinion then went to the 10T with no luck. I have the stock motor, Piccoboard plus, 600mah Ni-Cd battery, HS-55 servos and a GWS 4ch micro receiver. (stock Piccoboard receiver either had problems or didn't work with my servos, either way this one works and it's lighter). I've tried to fly the Piccolo several times and only when the battery is fresh off the charger will it get more than 2 inches off the ground. I seem to only have enough power to hover a few feet for only a few seconds, then it's back to skimming the ground. Also I seem to not be able to turn left (against the main rotor) very well, as if the tail motor is also weak. The battery doesn't seem to be an issue, I can skim along for several minutes, but I was wondering if I need to upgrade the motor, go with lithium, which I plan to do anyway, or give up with this and just buy a CP heli. I do live at a high altitude, but I don't know it that's my whole problem, if so what should I do??? I just put on my 8T pinion as a last step before I put this thing in the shed until I find out how to fix it[:@] . I'm obviously new to this hobby, although I love it so far I just wish I could enjoy it more with what I already have.

Thanks

Zero262

Hi harralk,

Overcharging\cooking the battery can damage them as i found out the hard way. It still had endurance of about 7 mins but there was no power.
How hot did your battery feel after charging, it should only feel slightly warm when its charged enough.

Maybe the motor is damaged\ overheated?

Also, when you try turning the main cog or blades with you fingers does it spin fairly freely?
Maybe the gap between the pinion and main cog is too tight?
If the pinion cog on the motor is pressing up against the main cog to hard, that can slow it down.
If you watch the pinion cog and the main cog when you lightly rock them back and forth there should be just a tiny gap between them, about the width of a piece of paper it think it said.

Cheers
Steve

VinceHerman

Hi Harralk,
The stock battery is somewhat of a marginal performer. It will work if everything is perfect. No-friction in any of the linkages, no vibration, and perfectly smooth control. All of these are difficult to accieve for a beginner pilot. Most people have more success going with a different battery.
There is a lot of good information about the Piccolo on [link=http://www.pgoelz.com/piccolo1.html]Paul Goelz's site[/link].
[link=http://www.dream-models.com/h/flying-index.html]RADD'S SCHOOL OF ROTARY FLIGHT?[/link] helps new pilots learn with small damage risk.
The [link=http://www.ikarus-modellbau.de/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=138982&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1]Ikarus board Welcome page[/link] is a good place to find a lot of other Piccolo pilots.

Stay away from the CP micro helis for now. They have more linkages that need to be friction free and vibration free. They are less likely to survive a crash than FP and they are way more expensive to repair. After you learn to set up your FP bird, after you learn to troubleshoot problems, after you learn to hover, fly nose in and fly circuits, THEN consider the additional challange of CP.

harralk

My Feedback: (22)

Thanks Zero262, but I haven't ever overheated this battery. I too learned the hard way with ni-cd car batteries a long time ago. I have a 8 cell 730 nimh battery that I use sometimes, but it's a lot wider and doesn't fit in the heli very good and after I looked at Paul Goelz's website the other day I found that nimh batteries don't have the discharge rate needed for the piccolo. It too does the exact same thing as my stock battery. As for the main gear it's fine, It has just a tiny bit of space and I can't find ANY tight spots.



VinceHerman -
Thank you for you response. As for my linkages etc. everything on my heli was set up EXACTLY like it told me in the instructions, and then I started to tweak things after I found it wasn't working. I even had to SLIGHTLY modify the ball links to get them to be free enough. More than just the pinching they told me, I used a piece of fine sandpaper and lightly touched all around a couple of them. Don't worry, they are still slop free. I did notice a little drag from my AR link when I went to full cyclic and the swash had to bend the link all the way, but when I take the motor/servos out and check everything else they seem to be moving very free. The kit came with a bearing upgrade, so I have a full bearing set instead of the nylon bushings, and I know the main shaft doesn't have any friction.

The frustrating thing is it's set up exactly like it told me, with everything that came with the kit. I realize that the battery isn't very good, but neither is my nimh apparently. If I knew it would fix it, I would just get a 2 cell lithium. But to me this looks more like a weak motor or bad piccoboard. My friend got a CP Hornet at the same time I got my heli and he's having the exact same problem with not being able to get off the ground very well, which makes me think it's an altitude issue. I know that with airplanes at this altitiude I had to go up 10% in blade pitch and engine power, but that's not as easy to do with a piccolo. I'm thinking of putting a 310 motor in it, but I don't know if that will be enough.

VinceHerman

The 310 motor is almost identical to the stock 295. I would not count on enough improvement with it to make a difference.
Have you tried the ten tooth pinion (assuming that you are on the 9 tooth now)? That could give you a bit more head speed.
Of course, monitor motor temperature and battery temp at intervals to make sure you are not overheating things. Goin with a bigger pinion will increase the current.

harralk

My Feedback: (22)

I started with the 9T, then decided to try the 10T with both of my batteries, and just yesterday in desperation I decided to just try the 8T. I'm not expecting the 8T to work, but at least it's an option. I tried the 10T longer than any other pinion and I did notice a difference, but not enough.

quaker1

If its an air density problem try an 11 tooth pinion, or even a twelve? Youll have better control with the higher head speed too.

Its true they are a fine balance of power to weight out of the box and I feel a little less weight (Lipo) or a bit more head speed (11 or 12 tooth pinion) may make all the diference.

Good luck, they do fly well once you get things right.

harralk

My Feedback: (22)

Ok, last night I made an umbilical cord and ran off of a power supply. I set the power supply to 11V, same as the static voltage of my ni-cd. I noticed that the amps were getting up to nearly 3.5, but it didn't get off the ground. Also I noticed that with the 10T pinion back on that if would lift off the ground for just a second, but then it would fall back down again. At full throttle the voltage dropped to around 8.4, and it seemed to have less head speed. I'm blaming this whole problem on the Piccoboard, since I've seen several other people have similar issues with it and I know that it does have current problems. I'm going seperates with my electronics, and upgrading the motor at the same time to compensate for the extra weight. I'm really frustrated that this thing has been such a pain so far.

VinceHerman

Have you decided on which separate componnents you are getting?

harralk

My Feedback: (22)

I'm going with the GWS PG-03 gryo, the ICS-100 esc for the main motor, ICS-50 for the tail motor (I know it's not a high frequency like I should get, but I can get one later), and I'm keeping my micro rx.

VinceHerman

Does your transmitter have Revo capability?

harralk

My Feedback: (22)

I'm not sure if it does.....why?

VinceHerman

Because you mentioned going with separates, and you mentioned the use of the PG-03, a non-head holding gyro.

The PG-03 is a great gyro. As rate gyros go, it gets top marks from everything I hear. I have used one for some time now and it does exactly what it should do, dampen yaw changes. But you need to use mixing with it. Either mixing available on board from a mixing board, or from revo mixing in the transmitter. So, if you are getting rid of the Piccoboard, and you are going to use the PG-03, you must have a transmitter that has revo mixing. Preferably with a 5 point mixing curve (or better)

If you do not have a revo capable transmitter, you can still go separates. Juse use a head holding gyro instead of a rate gyro. HH gyros let you fly without a mixing board and without revo mixing.

harralk

My Feedback: (22)

oh ok. No this radio doesn't have revo mixing, but I was thinking of getting the Hitec Eclipse 7 also. I guess now this gives me a reason to go get it. lol.

gorto

harrak, have you try turning the travel (ATV) of the throttle channel to maximum?
I use the piccoboard, it has no way to detect the maximum throw of the throttle channel, it will not take off at 100% throttle.
May be the ESC is not giving full throttle when your throttle stick is at 100%. Increase the travel on your throttle to see if it make any difference.
I use the 9T pinion and throttle ATV set to 135%, the motor will reach max output when my throttle stick is at 100%.

harralk

My Feedback: (22)

yeah my throttle ATV is at max. I've been emailing Frank at Ikarus USA, and says that any altitude above 4000 feet can cause problems, and I live right at 5000 feet. But also I notice that it seems to have more power right below 100% throttle.

SexyPizzaMan

My Feedback: (19)

How is the piccolo fun, is it good outside?? Or is hummingbird v3 better?