3wks and 5mins flight time, ken beauty

[dodgemcopter]

G'day, brand spankin new to helicopters and although I probly started backwards thinkin how hard can it be.............. Bought a Walkera 22e, crashed and broke, THEN come across this site full of people who know what there doin. Fixed the 22e following some info found here and thought best to heed what ya read and went and purchased a el-cheapo crash test pilot helicopter (Wind Hobby 300) and after rectifying all the low quality probs I managed to get a few charges from battery and got the hang of hovering. The instructions do state to charge batt for AROUND 2hrs.........or until the batt gets warm, it now only takes aprox 1hr to get "can't touch hot" and only lasts about 1-2mins before dying instead of 10mins or so. The batt is a Ni-MH 650mAh 9.6v and am wondering if there is a better alternative for replacement eg Li-Po like the 22e. No understandy with this battery technology and local shops won't help unless I buy thier product, Im thinking the Ni-MH is Kaput and just to piece me oorf the place of purchase don't carry spares, thanks in advance for any assistance

[Aztek1701]

Gday

Welcome

You might be able to get away with a 3 cell lipo but I dont know if they make em small enough for your needs something like this might do.. http://www.flightpower.co.uk/index.asp?currency=GBP&page=Products/index.asp^currency=GBP

The problem is that the voltage is a chunk higher so your speed controller might object. Unfortunately you cant get a 9.6V lipo its either 7.4 or 11.1

It would be worth looking around that site to see if there is something there that'll do what you want.

Hope this helps... Azzy

[dodgemcopter]

Thanks for that mate, after mucking around with some other batteries I can understand a bit better. I found that I discharged it to much before recharging and apparently Ni-MH don't like it too much, in the bin now as it started to smell like a burnt firecracker. Might just try a 7.4 lipo just to see how it goes. Once again thanks for the info.

[hawkman]

Be careful of any battery, LiPo stuff can get nasty if treated the same way....as soon as the heli appears to lose power you should land and let the battery cool and then charge.

Invest in a good charger, if you dont thrash the LiPo you can get it charged in about one hour....to about one hour and a half.

Nimh batterys were good when they came out...and still are...for flight packs to power radios and servos etc...but motors have such a high demand.

LiPo is good, just be careful with them and at least put them on a fireproof surface when charging...and pay careful attention to the charging instructions...quite a few folk have had a fire as a result of not paying attention. The Charger I use is a LiPo 4 and is '***** proof' which is ideal for me...I cant mess up the controls at all.

Be careful of buying budget batterys too...I did this and the balance lead started to fail on me...one main wire gave up as well...causing a crash of my Trex...I was pretty pissed off about that one.

Rob

[dodgemcopter]

Thanks for that Rob, I will do that. The chargers that I have are a bit simpleton to say the least, the el-cheapo just has a wall socket so ya plug it in and keep touching the batt until warm, I'ts like cookin a pie lol. Have found a hobby shop that will make one up for me.......cost half the price as the heli did to start with. After following alot of instructions found here on the 22e I'll give that another shot, see how much difference it makes.Thanks again for all your input.

[Aztek1701]

Just a small word of warning here mate..

You cant use the warm = charged measure with a lipo.... Lipos shouldnt warm up very much at all when charging.. if it does get hot, stop charging it immediately and get it outside quick.

Take care... Azzy

[dodgemcopter]

Yeah I read some stuff on how easy Lipo's can turn nasty. While on the subject of batteries, had one made up for this little el-cheapo and had smoke exit the speed controller. Not one crash yet every time I get it going something fails before the battery goes flat, never mind, lesson learned. Goin to put some more effort in with this little 22e, still havin lots of trouble settin up, lucky following that Radd's Flight School thing I don't gotta fly yet lol. I'm thinkin of lashin out and upgrading to alloy head, not so much for the bling but more accuracy in adjustment.

[hawkman]

Hi there, hope you dont mind but here is my gut feeling on the upgrade.

My experience is not vast by any means.

Upgrades are all well and good but they dont always deliver the results you expect. The slop and play in the current rotor head is not a bad thing as it can calm the heli down...if the tracking is always out then yes, make an improvement by all means...and the solutions are probably quite simple.

If it was me, I would try to get some more flight time and once you crash a few times you will get the idea of the most commonly used parts...THEN you could upgrade as you need to...but sometimes its better to have parts that do break...the most important thing is to shut that throttle if you know your pride and joy is about to hit planet earth...this will save quite a bit.

I would be careful of 'made up' packs, the guy who made your pack probably knows more than me...but with cheap ESC's and motors and so on...you could well get problems.

Maybe a better ESC and motor? maybe better batterys and a good charger?

Its hard to get it right, the initial cost of an RC heli and its gear to run/support the thing is always a bit steep.

Get these things right and its not so bad:

Good radio (2.4 ghz is the way to go)
good gyro
good servos
good motor and ESC
good charger with good batteries
decent tools...remember this! the tiny allen screws are probably 1/16'' size...the supplied allen wrenches dont always fit.
A decent pitch gauge is always a good idea.

a training hoop...make one up out of light plastic tube and a couple of bamboo skewers and elastic bands...fasten to heli and dont take it off!

Now...helis...you can keep going with the heli you have and make improvements to it....or you could get a really good heli which is very popular and well worth the decent radio etc as mentioned before. I have a Trex 450 XL which has been a capable heli...I dont fly it at the moment as it suffers from glitches...once I go 2.4 ghz then I will definately get it flying again, it copes well with a breeze...flys better actually. Parts are a sensible price and upgrades are many and work well. The basic XL kit oozes quality for sure.

Its up to you. most of my experience is based on Nitro and petrol, but the basic things are still the same.

Bang for buck? I like Nitro and am getting back into it...I fly petrol mainly but want something 'small' to replace the Rex while its grounded.

With electrics you really need the extra batt packs and a good charger to make it worth while.

Check out the Trex sometime, the package deals are not bad...though things like chargers are budget...and so are the battery packs...so be choosy if you go that route.

Rob