Its got to be something like that... I have to say I didnt aticipate taking it apart quite this soon but mebbe i'll have a go tomorrow; just make sure everything is secure.
Micro Helicopters advice please ??
- Thread starter Invasion
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Its got to be something like that... I have to say I didnt aticipate taking it apart quite this soon but mebbe i'll have a go tomorrow; just make sure everything is secure.
It sounds like the plastic cog on your main motor is slipping against the motor shaft, mine's doing that, still awaiting a replacement, tried superglue and allsorts but once it starts slipping there's no real cure.
good to know the whine isnt part of the problem.
Mebbe i'll grab some photos & see if anyone can spot anything really obvious... I suspect its just my inexperience
Could be so many things...
For the tail problem try and spin the tail with your finger, it should be loose enough to spin freely several times, if not then just need to loosen it off a little by carefully pulling tail rotor down axle a little (just so it's not tight against tail housing)
For the bad battery life I can think of 4 things..
1. the motor pinion is too tights against the large main gear, it should mesh nicely without being overly tight. You can adjust this by loosening one of the screws on bottom of motor and just nudging that side back a little (the motor is mounted in slots for adjustment)
2. the motor is a duffer and just has no power except when at 100% battery
3. the lipo battery is a duffer, this might be it as would also explain the tail problems.. when these batts go low the tail is the first thing that goes.
4. as invasion said could be pinion slipping on motor axle.. you could take the motor off heli and see how tight it is.
It's a shame you don't have another lipo to try.. best place to get them is from the chinese site mentioned earlier in this thread, but may be worth speaking to heli torque and saying it's cooked, they should be able to sent you another.
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Think my 1st motor's finally had it.
Ran a couple of packs through this morning fine, but on the 3rd it struggled to stay off the ground for longer than about 2 mins. Put it down to a bad charge and tried another battery only for the same thing to happen
I've got a spare motor on the side, so I'll pop it in later and see if it makes a difference.
Ran a couple of packs through this morning fine, but on the 3rd it struggled to stay off the ground for longer than about 2 mins. Put it down to a bad charge and tried another battery only for the same thing to happen
I've got a spare motor on the side, so I'll pop it in later and see if it makes a difference.
Hey Guys, I'm interested in buying a RC helicopter, I've been tempted by this thread for a while now to get one. I like the look of the Walkera 4#3 as it has 4 channels. My budget would be around £60-80. Where should I look to get one at a good price? Also, is there any rival helicopters to the Walkera around that price range, and is there any other Walkera helicopters I should consider?
Soldato
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- 18 Oct 2002
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- 11,702
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- Cheshire
Personally i'd say dont go for the 4#3. Its great little helicopter, but it's clear it's not really a beginners helicopter despite the small size giving that appearance. Bigger helicopters are easier to control as they are slower to respond and are more stable in the air. Look at something like the Walkera 22E.
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 11,702
- Location
- Cheshire
Yeah, that's about right. Good price for what you get. Remember it's not really an indoor helicopter (500mm), unless you have access to a sports hall!
Depends whether flying space is an issue for you or not?
Yes, the 4#3 may be a little bit more difficult to grasp, but I get a lot more practice with the 4#3 due to being able to fly it in any room in the house.
If you've got acre's of space or can afford to wait for perfectly calm days for flying then go for the larger 22E, but for sheer fun factor on a first heli then I can't recommend the 4#3 enough. If you do consider a 4#3 then make sure you get the 'B' version. I haven't found this to be any more unstable or difficult to fly than either of the larger Walkera Coaxials that I also have (which now get no use at all due to the 4#3). Also don't forget that you can make the heli less responsive by adjusting the potentiometer on the 4in1 receiver if you need to when starting out, which you can turn back up when you get the hang of it.
Isn't the 22E 6 Channel?
Having only ever flown 4 Channel, I've always read that beginners should stay away from anything with more channels until they are competant at flying 4 channel helis first.
In the real world whats the difference?
I'm guessing that I don't have another stick to control, so how do the pitch and roll axis get controlled?
Having only ever flown 4 Channel, I've always read that beginners should stay away from anything with more channels until they are competant at flying 4 channel helis first.
In the real world whats the difference?
I'm guessing that I don't have another stick to control, so how do the pitch and roll axis get controlled?
you should be ok, they are past to customs when they get here but usually go straight back to parcel force within a day or so
looks like a nice machine, CP as well which means it's capable of steady fast forward flight and 3D flying
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On your transmitter you have a throttle and pitch curve. As the throttle increases the pitch of blades is 'mapped' to this. Good transmitters have complex computer controls to set up these curves, cheaper ones will have a simple knob to change the curve.
There will usually be two curves / settings, 1 for normal 2D flight and one called 'idle up' for 3D flight....
here is a rough idea of how curves look... please excuse my laymans terms I'm a noob in the extreme and just learning this stuff.
zero pitch (no lift with level blades) is 50% on the curves (and the pitch on heli swings maybe -10 degrees at 0% and +10 at 100%), the middle number of 5 positions is mid stick. a example normal curve would be
throttle% - 0 25 50 75 100
pitch% - 45 65 75 90 100
you can see that the throttle is set as a straight line from 0 to full, and the pitch starts off with slight negative pitch (to hold heli stable on floor) and then just ramps up... the rate you set these at can vary on tastes and the head speed you want the heli to have.
in idle up 3d mode the curves may look something like..
throttle% - 100 90 80 90 100
pitch% - 0 25 50 75 100
here at mid throttle the motor is running 80%, and the pitch is 50% (level blades), moving stick down increases throttle to max while giving negative pitch for inverted flight. increasing throttle gives positive pitch for normal flight
in idle up you can see how fast the head speed will be as heli is always at or above 80% throttle, but this head speed means very stable and highly manouvrable flight compared with normal mode, and way beyond a FP heli.
you must never power up heli in idle up mode, you can see that the blades would spin straight to at least 80% and trash the heli... you have to spin up in normal mode then near mid stick swap to idle up
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Can I suggest heliguy.com forums if we're going to get technical?
, was trying to explain CP heli's in as few words as possible.. you need to understand this for a CP machine, though the walkera tx should make it much easier as it hides all this away out of reach.i think the problem of moving straight to a CP machine is though it's setup and flyable from the box, if you crash it and smash the more delicate head and need to replace parts you may need to make sure your blade pitch is setup correctly again. you can get cheap pitch gauges on the bay for a few quid.
the higher head speed can also make crashes far worse and you don't have a 'pop off' rotor head to protect the heli, things just bend and snap instead...
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today at last all the MIA upgrades arrived... must admit I was shocked when I opened the package that the frame is just a stencil cut sheet of CF that needs all glueing together.
i rushed the job as was impatient but got it all together in about 2hrs...
fitted the MIA collar under swash to emiminate all slop in controls
fitted weighted lengthened MIA flybar
fitted direct drive tail
carbon look canopy
MIA Heat Sink
The heli certainly looks amazing now and on first flight it just feels like a different machine. It feels pretty much like a large heli, quite slow on the controls and not skittish like the normal 4#3. On first flight in a small lounge I was flying circuits / nose ins and piro's, something that is very hard on the standard heli... bad thing atm the batt life is only 4mins or so, deffo something wrong.
Will try a new motor in morning, but it's possible that either heli is now too heavy or the DD tail draws to much current.
Here's some piccys, including one next to logitech mouse for size comparison...still got a lot of tidying up to do with wiring and tidy up and lighten CF abit.
you can see the glue on the right skid in piccy below, on second flight the pinion on motor slipped and skid snapped when it came down
next to paddles is flybar weights, slow the heli down and make it feel like a bigger machine.. kind of miss the old feeling though already
still looks small compared with mouse
i rushed the job as was impatient but got it all together in about 2hrs...
fitted the MIA collar under swash to emiminate all slop in controls
fitted weighted lengthened MIA flybar
fitted direct drive tail
carbon look canopy
MIA Heat Sink
The heli certainly looks amazing now and on first flight it just feels like a different machine. It feels pretty much like a large heli, quite slow on the controls and not skittish like the normal 4#3. On first flight in a small lounge I was flying circuits / nose ins and piro's, something that is very hard on the standard heli... bad thing atm the batt life is only 4mins or so, deffo something wrong.
Will try a new motor in morning, but it's possible that either heli is now too heavy or the DD tail draws to much current.
Here's some piccys, including one next to logitech mouse for size comparison...still got a lot of tidying up to do with wiring and tidy up and lighten CF abit.
you can see the glue on the right skid in piccy below, on second flight the pinion on motor slipped and skid snapped when it came down
next to paddles is flybar weights, slow the heli down and make it feel like a bigger machine.. kind of miss the old feeling though already
still looks small compared with mouse
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today at last all the MIA upgrades arrived... must admit I was shocked when I opened the package that the frame is just a stencil cut sheet of CF that needs all glueing together.
i rushed the job as was impatient but got it all together in about 2hrs...
fitted the MIA collar under swash to emiminate all slop in controls
fitted weighted lengthened MIA flybar
fitted direct drive tail
carbon look canopy
MIA Heat Sink
The heli certainly looks amazing now and on first flight it just feels like a different machine. It feels pretty much like a large heli, quite slow on the controls and not skittish like the normal 4#3. On first flight in a small lounge I was flying circuits / nose ins and piro's, something that is very hard on the standard heli... bad thing atm the batt life is only 4mins or so, deffo something wrong.
Will try a new motor in morning, but it's possible that either heli is now too heavy or the DD tail draws to much current.
Here's some piccys, including one next to logitech mouse for size comparison...still got a lot of tidying up to do with wiring and tidy up and lighten CF abit.
you can see the glue on the right skid in piccy below, on second flight the pinion on motor slipped and skid snapped when it came down
next to paddles is flybar weights, slow the heli down and make it feel like a bigger machine.. kind of miss the old feeling though already
still looks small compared with mouse
Looking good Flukester
I would change those skids to the tuff ones if they have already broken
how is the boom on the new mia kit ? if it is a big imrovment I may give the 4#3b another go.
what glue did you use to stick it all together ?
I think the reduced flying time maybe the extra kit ?? will be inerested to see how long you get with new motor.
boom is fine on the new one, it's all just held together with superglue...
messed this morning with it and even with new motor it just wouldn't fly for long, i think it may be down to DD tail drawing to much current... quickly stripped it down and put everything back on old frame.
heli is still better as has the swash standoff thing and the longer flybar with weights... i think im pretty done with this little heli, not gonna spend any more and concentrate on beltcp
still a lot of fun to fly indoors though
i might try some time putting it together on carbon frame again but putting normal tail on it...
messed this morning with it and even with new motor it just wouldn't fly for long, i think it may be down to DD tail drawing to much current... quickly stripped it down and put everything back on old frame.
heli is still better as has the swash standoff thing and the longer flybar with weights... i think im pretty done with this little heli, not gonna spend any more and concentrate on beltcp
still a lot of fun to fly indoors though
i might try some time putting it together on carbon frame again but putting normal tail on it...
Hmm I think this is what has been bothering me I just dont think its worth spending to much on these 4#3b yes they are good fun, but time to move on to the bigger outdoor stuff.
Will be placing my order for the king 2