Time for a trip to my LHS

[Cncguy]

Things to buy:
BATTERY TESTER!!!
Rotor Blades
An elevator control arm link
Two skid braces
Tail pitch control fork
Main boom
Two tail support rods
Flybar

I lost response to the helicopter in flight. After the crash, I tried out the radio and the servos were sluggish then after a minute, the controls stopped responding. I charged it for 10 minutes and the servos were back up to normal speed.

What is a good battery tester to buy?

[Felony44]

Sorry to hear about your bird. I almost did same thing last week i got very lucky and the controls died on the ground. I have a hobbico voltwatch2 but it does you no good if you dont check it before your flight. But the hobbico voltwatch is cheap and does the job. i also bought the hobbico MKII qiuck field charger with TX/RX plugs so this wont happen again.

[Motions]

If you use the VoltWatch, don't check it before the flight. Check it after the flight to get a better reading on the voltage after it's been under load. You will notice, if you turn the model off for 10 minutes, the voltage jumps back up. This can be a false sense of security.

It's much better to use a quality volt meter that can test the battery with a load to get an accurate reading of the batteries capacity. If you use the VoltWatch, just make sure that when it gets to the yellow, DO NOT fly again until you recharge. Personally, I prefer using the VoltWatch as an easy to check indicator.

[Cncguy]

Thanks for the info.
I checked the radio this morning after charging over night and the servos are much faster. I believe they were very low on my last two flights.

[Felony44]

The problem i had when the battery started to die was the gyro wasnt holding and the nose would turn left very quick almost like i was doing a piro that was my first indication of a problem.

[Helifino]

OUCH!! That had to hurt

[tdswan]

When are the services and visitation?

I also had a bad wekend with my Raptor. Had a boom strike on a sliding auto...mine fared a lot better than yours, but it's still sad. :( Hate to see these machines all twisted up.

[ErichF]

I use the Futaba Digital Load Meter/Discharger. You can use it with any battery 4.8/6.0/7.2 volt. Load up to 3 amps, discharge to auto cutoff at up to 3A.

Works nice, has backlit display and internal fan for discharge mode.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXEYM6&P=7

http://www2.gpmd.com/image/f/futm4165.jpg


Enjoy,

Erich

[Jorgecajiao]

Chin up man, it`s only part of the hobby. :o
Always check your battery before and after every flight and get yourself a voltwatch as a visual aid, when it shows yellow or low, time to recharge.
Keep us posted on the rebuild, Good Luck. :)

Enjoy................................................

[Cncguy]

I finally made it back to my LHS. It has taken a while because I crashed it few hours before leaving on vacation.
I enjoyed my vacation but it would have been better if I did not have a dead heli at home.
We drove 6 hrs home and I grabbed my list of broken parts and headed to my LHS.
It is 100 milles round trip to my LHS.
I bought everything on my list including a Hangar 9 DVT.
After arriving back home I pulled out all of my parts and my injured bird and started putting it back together, anticipating being able to fly in a couple of hours.

To my disapointment the tail boom they sold me is too short and the elevator link is for a 60 raptor. :mad:

I called them this morning and they are going to send the correct parts to me for free, but as you can see from the length of this post that I am quite bored. :(

I think this would be a good time to ask some questions.

I set the throttle for normal mode like it says in the manual. This means that if I pull the throttle all the way back it will kill the engine. It seems to me it would be better if it came back to an idle just under engaging the clutch and using the throttle cut to kill the engine.

Which way is correct?

What should the head speed be for hover in normal mode?

Sometimes the engine will not start through the remote glow plug.
I have pulled the screw mounting it and cleaned off the loctite, it checks ok with an OHM meter but if the heli does not start I can pull the cowl and put the glow plug batt on the engine and it will instantly start. Any ideas?

[helipilot2]

I bought couple of days ago the Trinton peak charger (Tower hobbies $89.00) and so far is pretty good. It will TEST and PEAK charge all your radio batteries (Rx/ Tx), It will even charge the 12V starter batt.

It will work on almost all types of r/c batteries Ni Mh, Ni Cd, Lipo, etc. It's pretty cool. You can also set the parameters for the charge cycle.

The only bad thing about it is that comes with aligator clips ( to connect it to a 12V batt. for power). I had to buy a 12V/13A power supply adding to the cost of it, but I know now the condition of my rx/tx batteries..

I though it was a great investment.....
JT