newbie questions figuring stuff out befor buying

[medwardl]

im thinking about getting one of these but im wondering i want to build a helicam but first how long does a typical battery last. ands the average range of a copter, and how much added weight could one of the bigger models tolerate without having too much problems. i have a couple more questions that id like to ask but i cant recall them right now.

thanks
medwardl

[BLACKHAWK DOWN]

what battery and waht copter...

[BLACKHAWK DOWN]

oops didnt read right
well
first off for batterys stock ones useally nimh last 5-8 mins
for longer fligths buy lipo or liion batteries have 15-17 mins flight
it depends on what heli and what motor and esc u run tho. and how much strain is put on the motor due to blade pitch.
if ur using a little spy cam made for helis it shouldnt be the weight that matters at all but the interfearance
if ur talking about a larger cam or camcorder youll need bigger like .30 electrics or nitro to handle that load. bigger models are very expenisve in electrics
the shuttle plus is an awesome way to get cheap stable way to use a camcorddeer of like 2-3.5 lbs wouldnt be worth it in electrics
batteries for the huge brushless motors 5s-6s run 200 bucks
and chargers are expenisve
everything is expensive
u can eisly spend 2 grand on .30 electric and still not meet expectations.

[Aztek1701]

Hi there,

Like blackhawk says it really depends on what camera you plan to fly. In general a model heli can lift and fly about half its own weight.

The mini spy sized ones you can zip tie to the skids of just about anything. A t-rex (small electric) will lift a mobile phone or a PDA size object for about 5 minutes. To lift anything bigger you are really talking about a LOT of money. Century helicopters sell IC powered specialised camera platforms and there is a company in europe called minicopter that sells an electric heli designed to be a camera platform but you are going to be paying (at a guess) $3000-6000 for one of these.

Rangewise, its hard to say but you wont run out of range until well after you cant see the heli properly.

Hope this helps.... Azzy