Fenrir

Hello! Not so long ago, I bought my very first RC aircraft, a Syma S026G Chinook. I wasn't expecting a lot of it, just to have a bit of fun with it, being something new and different. I can't actually remember what made me look at RC heli's in the first place to be honest... Bought one from Amazon, flew it a few times, crashed it a few times, rolled it down a flight of stairs... Still works fine!


Mostly. I noticed that the front lower rotors were coming to a halt earlier than the others upon cutting the power. Not so much when it had been sitting idle for a while, but especially after having been flown for a few mins. I also noticed that it needed more forward trimming as the flight progressed. Otherwise it would become slow going forwards and would travel backwards while hovering still. I opened it up to find one of the front shafts in not so good condition, only made worse by me as I cleaned up the stock grease and used some shaver oil as replacement when putting it back together. The motors are all fine though, I confirmed this with some tests I stumbled across on here [moving them to different positions, powering them up, cutting power, observe].


So I started looking for spares, and quickly realised that a new heli was way better value than buying spares. I then thought about getting a 'spares and repairs' or used heli as that should be cheaper than a new one. I couldn't find much to begin with [UK], but I did find a job lot of 13 'spares and repairs' S026G's on a well known auction site. Too many, I thought. Too much clutter I thought. Will probably cost more than I want to spend.


Anyway, I went a bit mad and won them. Actually my wife did, she went slightly over the budget I set, so it's all her fault really! I now have 14 toy heli's plus almost as many remotes and chargers. My intention is to fix up as many as I can and keep whatever bits are left over as spares. I may sell one or two depending on how many I can get going. I also intend to double up the batteries [wired in parallel of course] in at least one heli for [hopefully] a longer flight time.


Here's my attempt at organising all this nonsense. They are numbered in the order I opened them up, with Ch01 being my Amazon bought heli. I have wrote their numbers on the boxes and on the bottom of the heli's to make it easier to keep track of whats what.


Legend:
Heli charge - Does the battery charge normally?
Heli fly - Does the heli respond to Tx controls?
Tx - Does the included Tx work as expected?
Charger - Does the included charger work as expected?
[#] = Fixed
Active = Flying regularly
Inactive = Somewhat works, may have issues, not being used
Decommissioned = Dead, dismantled, nuked, etc.


Fleet:
Active - 01, 04, 12, 14
Responsive Inactive - 08, 10, 13
Non-responsive Inactive - 02, 03, 05, 06, 07, 09, 11


Ch01
Channel - A
Status - Active
Health - Minor resistance on front lower rotors appears during/after flight
Upgrades - None
Heli charge - Y
Heli fly - Y
Tx -Y
Charger - Y
MaxBatteryVolts - 4.14


Major resistance on front lower rotors[#]


Ch02
Channel - ???
Status - Inactive
Health - Bent front flybar, not responsive to Tx
Upgrades - None
Heli charge - Y
Heli fly - N
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts -


Ch03
Channel - ???
Status - Inactive
Health - Not responsive to Tx
Upgrades - None
Heli charge - ?
Heli fly - N
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts -


Ch04
Channel - A
Status - Active
Health - Front upper rotor not working[#]
Upgrades - None
Heli charge - Y
Heli fly - Y
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts - 4.21


Ch05
Channel - ???
Status - Inactive
Health - Not responsive to Tx
Upgrades - None
Heli charge -
Heli fly - N
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts -


Ch06
Channel - ???
Status - Inactive
Health - Not responsive to Tx
Upgrades - None
Heli charge -
Heli fly - N
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts -


Ch07
Channel - ???
Status - Inactive
Health - Not responsive to Tx, bent rotors
Upgrades - None
Heli charge -
Heli fly - N
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts -


Ch08
Channel - A
Status - Inactive
Health - Bent rear flybar[#], unstable in flight
Upgrades - None
Heli charge - Y
Heli fly - Y
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts -


This one requires a video of its 'flight', just brilliant. Replacing that flybar made no difference whatsoever.


Ch09
Channel - ???
Status - Inactive
Health - Not responsive to Tx
Upgrades - None
Heli charge -
Heli fly - N
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts -


Ch10
Channel - A
Status - Inactive
Health - Rear rotors activate upon switching on heli
Upgrades - None
Heli charge -
Heli fly - Y
Tx - Missing
Charger - Missing
MaxBatteryVolts -


Ch11
Channel - ???
Status - Decommissioned
Health - No Power [open circuit near battery], damage to body plastic around power switch, front lower rotor gear deformed
Upgrades - None
Heli charge -
Heli fly -
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts - 0.80 [Have not attempted to charge]


Removed rear flybar for use on Ch08.
Removed front flybar for use on Ch13.
Removed front lower rotor shaft for use on Ch01


Ch12
Channel - A
Status - Active
Health - Rear upper rotor not working[#]
Upgrades - None
Heli charge - Y
Heli fly - Y
Tx -
Charger -
MaxBatteryVolts - 4.22


Ch13
Channel - A
Status - Inactive
Health - Missing 2x connecting rods[#], front lower rotors mounted too high[#], bent rear flybar[#], low power, front shaft incorrectly assembled
Upgrades - None
Heli charge -
Heli fly - Y
Tx - Missing
Charger - Missing
MaxBatteryVolts - 4.20


Ch14
Channel - A
Status - Active
Health - Good
Upgrades - None
Heli charge - Y
Heli fly - Y
Tx - Missing
Charger - Missing
MaxBatteryVolts - 4.17


There was only one good heli from the auction. Ch14 is perfect while the rest are either mostly dead or in some desperate need of repair. Quite a few of the rotors appear bent, I presume, as the cable ties have all been cut they are not held in their boxes securely at all and move around the box very easily. All in all, I'd say there are plenty of spares here to build at least 5 good heli's, hopefully more. To get my monies worth, I need Ch01 to be perfect, plus another 4 perfect flyers from the auction lot. Since Ch14 is already perfect, that means I only really need 3 more, although, one can never have too many heli's.


All the heli's that have responded to the Tx so far have been on channel A. Of course, it is possible that my original Tx doesn't even work on B or C as it should do, given the number of faults people have reported from various places.


The tools I have available to me include a cheapo multimeter, WD40 Dry PTFE lubricant, cheapo soldering iron from the really old Real Robots kids magazines, some electrical tape and some 63/37 soldering wire. I have basically no electronics experience, although I do understand Ohm's law, Watt's law and how to use a multimeter. I have only ever soldered one or two things.


I will update my 'fleet management doc' via Google Keep as and when I am doing tests and repairs, then copy that to here periodically to keep this thread up to date. This thread, by the way, will serve as both a public repair log and as a 'help me I'm stuck' kinda thread as no doubt I will get stuck, this being my first ever attempt at this sort of thing. Hopefully it will help other S026G owners who stumble upon it later, as they do appear quite popular.


If you've read this far, I applaud you! I really need any and all suggestions to fixing these things so please help me out if you think you can, it would be much appreciated. If you do have an idea for a fix, please reference the heli by its number to keep everything cohesive. Ch06, #6, heli six, or anything that makes sense will do fine. I will try to give credit for fixes which worked in the heli list, if I've missed you off, just send me a PM.


[Current Tasks]
-Focus on repairing the ones that do respond to the Tx, using parts from those which don't.
-Sort out Ch01 front shaft and make it perfect.
-Need help on 08, 10 and 13!

Fenrir

Just a quick update.

Numbers 04 and 12 are now fixed! Both of them had the same fault just on different motors. A single earth wire had come away from the solder joint and it was just a simple case of melting the joints, attaching the wires, charging and finally, flight testing them both. I also have a picture of the entire auction hoard in more or less one spot. Don't worry though I have moved them from the kitchen table.

Armour1944

This is immense, bro!

My Chinook's controller is not working correctly -do you have one for sale, please?

Whereabouts are you located?

Also, how much would the following be (in full working order)?
1. a model (just the helicopter)
2. a helicopter and controller

Fenrir

Well, thanks for the trip down memory lane, this post is pretty old.

I also haven't touched these things in several years so I've no idea what state any of them are currently in. For all I know, every single battery is now unusable. I know I pinched two of them at some point to replace a larger failed battery inside a dashcam.

I'm in the UK and I don't ever see myself needing all of those controllers so I'd be happy to sell one on. That is, if I knew where they were and could identify which ones worked and on what channels, etc. No point me sending you a controller that doesn't work on the channel your heli requires. As for selling an actual working heli, I suspect the batteries are all well past their useful life and would need replaced so I doubt I could arrange that for you.