JPEE

Hello Mark,

I wished I had a fix for you but I dont. Here in Cali for the most part we dont have the problem. However I know two guys in Phenoix AZ that suffered everything you are going through now due to the dry air. And they were flying TREX 600 and 600 Logo too. After the last time he had two hits while flying he sold off the helis and got a new Henseleit TDR. This is sad news indeed, I hope Nick might have a suggestion for you.

John

evdreamer

Mark,

Sorry to hear about your protos. I understand not wanting to keep a heli that has constant problems. I don't know how to fix that, since I don't know how it is discharging into the electronics. The only thing I can think of is it discharging through the motor mounts, into the motor, then into the ESC. If you use the internal BEC of the ESC then I can see it discharging through the rest of the electronics.

The wind gusts today are 40+MPH here. I am a little tempted to try and fly the Whiplash in it and see how it does.

Nick

evdreamer

John,

I added a spare connector to the Vbar today, so I could use the bank switching for each idle up. I also setup the govenor. Where is your throttle curve at on the 700? I had to lower mine down to 42% to get the HS I wanted. I calculated when the battery is loaded down the ESC should be around 80%, so I hope that is ok.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

I just realized how long it's been since I checked in...[X(]

Mark,

So sorry to hear your "double whammy"....between the job loss, and the mystery hits on the Protos, I guess this year is not off to a good start...I sure hope things look up for you soon...good luck on your interviews this week....

Nick,

Congrats on the new Whiplash, sounds like you are really loving it...and congrats on the aerial photography job coming up...how cool to get paid to fly!!

How do you like your Moto Razor? Very cool phone, with the thinness and the kevlar, high tech! Hope you are enjoying it...

JPEE,

Glad you pulled out of that close call in the last second...I sure don't want to read on here about a 700 crash...[X(]

I've just been working, tinkering with gadgets, and just chilling on the heli stuff, hopefully, I'll be re-energized when spring hits...

I'm not too sure about the future of the SDX though, as it seems we have lost the field at MHA...not sure if there are any alternatives for the future;

http://home.flymha.com/

So, we'll see how all that goes...not sure why they lost the lease...but that field is gone for good, it appears. Shame, it was a nice place to fly...not perfect, but it made a decent heli field..

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and Mark, I sincerely hope things start looking better for ya soon!

Take care you guys...

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

It is good to hear from you again.

I like how small my phone is. I don't really use it a lot. I mainly use it for emergencies and when I go out of town.

Sorry you lost your flying field.

Nick

JPEE

Glenn,

Good to hear from you as always. Your comments are sorley missed!I am extremely sorry to hear you lost your field, it looked really nice.

I am considering going to Bust Buy this morning and getting Judy a surprise, an iPad! wireless only. I have spoken to many people and because we already have and nice laptop I dont see the need to get the 3G. Ever since Judy got her iPhone 3G and our new 4SG she carries that sucker around the house and it is always close at hand lol. She sits while we watch TV and looks up stuff so I thought an easier and larger screen would tickle her just to use here at home. We also have an app for TimeWarner TV our cable company and you can watch LIVE TV on your iPad. That would allow me to take the small TV out of the kitchen and she can set the PAD up there while cooking.

I really wasn't feeling it, I have really cut back my flying. I don't want to lose my desire to fly. I HATE my field in the river bed, it looks bad, it is hard to fly above the trees and to keep them in mind. With that said if we lost that field 12 miles from home I would have to quit the hobby, damned if you do and damned if you don't you know. Judy sees me kinda board and said three days ago I need a new project and told me to get my name on the list for an 800 Mikado. Yes I did consider it, but really, I don't think it would make any happier than I am now with the 700. I am a very lucky guy to have a women like her. Not many wives (in my income bracket) say go drop $3,200.00 (with batteries) on a toy.

Yes I really got crossed up with the 700 the other day. I have had a stye? in my eye for three months now that the doc can't get rid of so I get surgery in a week or so. This will be my second time having to do this on my eye. I have just enough blurred vision that I am not as sharp as I should be. It is a quick sugery and I'll be cool right after that.

OBTW, I did take "A" flight with my FB 500esp and it was all I could do to kept that punk in the air. OMG how twitchy a FB heli is!!! I have to order a FBL head and slip in my other VBAR and then I'll be good.

Take care old friend

evdreamer

John,

Did you get an iPad today?

I just got done upgrading my v4 Vbar to v5.2. It was a confusing process and some bad translations didn't help either. It was kind of a PITA to tune the v4 software and the v5.2 looked a lot easier. I also like all the new setup features and the improved flight characteristics. All the settings were converted for me, so I don't need to redo all my settings.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,


Nick,

Glad you like the new phone, I have heard good things about it, it sure looks cool and thin!

I have been playing around with some Android devices lately, and I like them for the most part...but Android still needs a bit more polish yet to compete with Apple's iOS, but they are getting better all the time.

I see your frosty weather is headed my way for the weekend...we have had a very easy winter here so far....but it may change soon...

JPEE,

Judy and you will LOVE an iPad...don't forget that the latest, greatest one is not far off, probably in March...you could wait for it, and/or the price on the current iPad 2 will drop significantly....but, you can't go wrong even with the current iPad 2...very, very nice device!

Sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery, hope all goes well and a quick recovery....

Maybe a break from flying for awhile is just what you need...I am hoping that I come back in the spring with a renewed interest...but for right now, in the dead of winter...not so much...

Hope you guys have a great weekend...

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guys,

I did get it for $550.00 out the door, that kind of stung, but compared to a heli it was a breeze. And further that is was for my little Judy NO PRICE was to high. She spent more time crying with tears of joy than I expected. She was and is still elated and loves it!!!
We have Time Warner Cable here. I downloaded their software for free and we can watch live TV on the Pad! and.............. we can control our DVR through it as well. Because we have a laptop to tote when we are on the road I did not get the 3G PAD. The whole idea of this PAD was for Judy to use on the couch. But to my surprise she looked up a new recipe yesterday and stood it up in the kitchen and used it as a cook book! We are both tickled.
Nick, I am glad it was you that got your 5.2 update! A few of the guys here have performed their updates too. For me and my flying skills what I have in the 5.0 is fine. If I change one heli then I have to buy a second update for the other heli so they will fly the same and can be adjusted in the same way, not for me now.

Glenn, thanks for the tips on waiting but I dropped the hammer. Oh well......... thats life in the tech industry right LOL

Here is the new head I am putting on the 500 to FBL as soon as they come back in stock with my VBAR. notice how simple it is. It is a Compus Clone so to speak.

evdreamer

Glenn,

Sorry you are getting my cold weather again. It was 10 degrees here this morning.[&o]

John,

That is great Judy is enjoying the new iPad.

I was thinking Align was coming out with a head similar to that.

Nick

evdreamer

Guys,

I finally had time to convert my power supplies to a 24V setup. I tried to remove the AC ground internally, but I couldn't find all the connections. It ended up shorting across the other power supply. So I ended up cutting off the third prong on the plug and it finally worked. I also setup the Vbar for the new features on the Whiplash, so I hope to try it out tomorrow.

JPEE

Nick,

I'm glad you're VBAR update is going well and I hope you get to go out and try the whiplash and it works good for you very soon!

It is funny that you talk about your power supplies. I was with my friend that is a computer and electronic geek and he had his power supplies with him yesterday. He went inside and opened them both up and internally isolated them inside with those plastic nuts plastic screws plastic spacers. He just did not want to have on via the ground cord for the obviouse reasons to where at sometime he might get a shock. So now he is shock free and has the units taped together with no fear of getting a shock.
I'm almost done with my project where I have put my power supplies in a plastic toolbox and made a all-in-one battery charger carrier with the supplies inside. Today I just have to get a power cord grip so I can put a hole in the case and run a small pigtail out so when I set down my power supply charger carrier that it's easy to plug in a an extension cord.

evdreamer

John,

I just got done with a test flight on the Whiplash. The recommended settings for a 90 worked out really good. I only had to adjust the rudder gain by 5 points.

Good luck with your project. I just wrapped my power supplies in left over cardboard.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Guys,

I just finished my charger and power supply tote. I have two ports for 26 volts DC. Tried and tested it will push my Hyperion set off to the side drawing 16 amps and my iCharger drawing 30 amps for a little below 2C charging. As you can see my iCharger while pushing 30 amps will charge 6 packs of any size in a Parallel Charge. Of course the charging time then gets longer but it is tried and tested again at the field. I can fly my 700e for 7 minutes come in and land and set than packs right on the charger as they are near air temperature. Re-charge that rack on a 22 amps charge (2C) for the "1" tray and it is done 14-16 minutes. For those that might ask, my new Honda 2000i is pushing this whole load with both chargers as earlier described with power to spare. I pull from its available constant running amperage of 13 amps only 9 amps to power up both chargers.


Nick, I am so happy to hear your maiden went off well for you. YAHOOOOOOOOOOO

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO8UTrJKnpA[/youtube]

evdreamer

John,

Your power supply setup looks great.

I just got back from working with the guys who are trying to film the golf courses. We mounted the GoPro camera to the front of the Whiplash without the canopy on. We used some insulation type material with zip ties. It worked out pretty good. There is just a little vibration that they are going to try and work on, but the video turned out really good. We are going to try and setup a test flight at one of the golf courses to figure out what/how we need to fly/film. The first flight I discharged the battery by 50% and it took 20min to charge. On the second flight I was able to get a 7min and 10sec flight time. I was exactly at 20% when I put it on the charge. They are also going to try and ask around for other places to see if they want us to film it.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

Needed to get away from the heli's for a while.

Things are looking up so here goes: first...got the job I interviewed for last week so that was a major stress relief. Now I don't have to worry about no money coming in.

Second...decided to give the Protos another try. There were several things that were suggested I try all at once (generously lube the belt w/ silicon or anti-static spray...something I can do now that the belt is out of the heli...additional ground wire from the boom mount to the motor mount...and removing the aniodizing from the boom on the tail case side). I casually sprayed the belt and only had the ground from the boom to the boom mount, so that was not enough. Lastly, they suggested to removed the main and tail blades, spool it up, and touch the boom to see if I get any ESD...that will be the final test to see if I got everything covered.

I do want to give this heli a try as my one successful flight it did seem to have power and was quick. I feel it will be a fun heli once I get all the ESD issues worked out and am comfortable with it.

Glenn,

Glad to hear from you...and that mostly all is well. Sorry to hear about the field...nothing worse then losing a decent flying area esp with how rare they are becoming. Maybe something will present itself in the near future.

Hope you and Nick are buckling down for this wave of cold frosty air.

Nick,

Congrats on your first official flight recording job. Glad you were able to get the V-bar tuned in and have to say I'm amazed at your 7:10 flight time.

Looks like you and JPEE are really pushing those charging limits.

Hope school isn't too overwhelming this semester.

JPEE,

Sorry to hear about your upcoming eye surgery. I had to look up stye's to know what they are. Is it an infection of the eye lid? At least you know what your in for and as you said, when its over you'll be up and at'em again.

Your tote is absolutely incredible...very nice work. I love how it looks like a simple tool box and is very compact and clean. Great job!

Glad Judy is enjoying her new multi-taskable cook book, umm I meant ipad2.

Mark

JPEE

Nick,
It sounds like your set-up to film the golf course is coming along nicely. Of course, there is always the issue of the technical side before the actual filming. As I said in the beginning, keeping screen flutter or jello out of the picture frame is tough without high end sophisticated camera equipment, but I am confident you can. Also on the Go Pro use the 720 60 FPS and not the 1080. With it shooting at a faster frame rate that cuts down on the blur factor as the heli flies.
You should be able to get the 7 min without a problem. At worst, you might have to drop some head speed. Another thing is........... one of our guys has a device (a logger of some type) that he puts on the heli and then flies a pack. Then he comes in and reads the logger to see what his vibration rate is! Pretty cool, and that's how he took the harmonics out of his ship......... finding that "sweet spot" is so important for the camera. Let me know if I need to fly out there to Lincoln to act as your pit man and heli Roadie.

Mark,

What grand news to hear you passed the interviews and got hired. That stress load must have been huge. To lose a job due to down-sizing and then get picked up with-in two weeks shows you are a valuable commodity in your field, you should be proud of that as I am sure your family is.

Great news on the Protos! If I can make a humble suggestion, what I read some time ago when I was worried about my 600 belted heli was not to ground to the motor mount but rather the ground wire where the ESC plugs into the battery on its black wire. If you really think about it, the motor case might be grounded through the black wire. If you use and ohm meter that can be tested to verify. In any case this issue is not just for your heli but all belted helis. You can look up on HF to verify if you like, at 600 static or grounding issues.

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=66773

Oh I forgot that you can do another test to look for static build up. After you remove all blades spin the heli up in the dark and hold a florescent tube style bulb next to the heli and if it flickers the heli is emitting static power.

Thank you or the kind words on the charger tote. I have used it here at home so it tested and works fine. I did charge with the charger in the tray as you see it on the pictures and that works well. However, if I am doing a bit faster charge and the outside air is warm then the exhaust from the charger can't (to my satisfaction) fully exhaust with the charger sitting down inside what was the tool tray, but it works find for one battery. But like today where I will hook up three (3) trays on 1C in parallel there just is no room to that with the charger in the tray so as you saw in my other pictures it needs to be set up on the table. Multi use is what I was shooting for and I think I have it now. OBTW the whole charging set up cost me for PS's and ports and tool box.
$53.30 delivered on the two 750 watt power supplies.
$11.39 for the tool box delivered
$7.00 banana input connectors to accept the charger leads.
So there you have it, $71.69 for the whole deal except............................................ ............... $975.00 for the generator LOL. But remember this system will still work off of your car battery but at half amperage and speed. But here again, at home and plugging it in the bench top outlet you are styling my friends at full power.

evdreamer

Mark,

That is great you got the job.

Good luck with the Protos.

I have Tuesday's and Thursday's off from school, so that should help with HW. I have more HW this semester, but so far it isn't as intense as the HW like last semester.

John,

Right now the guys are trying to invert the image, since the camera is mounted upside down. I am letting them take care of everything related to the camera and I am just focusing on flying good.

2100RPM's is as low as I can go without dropping to a lower pinion count. My motor won't start up with anything lower than my current settings.

The Vbar can be used to see what the vibrations are like in real time with a blue tooth setup. Right now I just look at the logs. There are a lot of high vibration alerts in the logs, so I don't think the mini Vbar likes my heli, but I haven't noticed any bad side affects flight wise.

That would be cool to fly with you.

Without the motor running the case of the motor should be an open circuit compared to the black wire. The wires coming out of the motor and going into the ESC aren't directly connected to the black wire. There is a FET that goes between the two. Without power the FET will act like an open switch. Then the wires going into the motor are insulated from the motor. If the static can induce a Voltage in the wires then all bets are off with the insulation.

Nick

JPEE

Nick,

You can flip the GOPROs image in a heart beat. It is made to film upright or upsidedown, it is just a matter of changing the set up the camera. And...... even if you couldn't when you upload to MS Movie Make you can flip it there too.

I just got a one heck of a surprise! I unpacked my second VBAR I got on black friday to install in the 500 and noticed the hand book read it was the new 5.2 version!! From experience I know that they copyright the software so you can only upgrade one VBAR. It grabs that VBARS internal ID. That is to stop you from passing the upgrade around to your friends. So I decided to upload the 5.0 from the 700 to see if that will go in and save the 5.2 for the 700 later. So the one use of it go for the 700.

I think I follow pretty well in the static and the motor wires. But if you used the black wire from the battery where it joins the ESC would that not work? The battery would absorb the static.... yes?

evdreamer

John,

Thanks for the info on the GoPro.

That is cool you got your 2nd Vbar. I was reading on Helifreak or RunRyder about the shortage of Vbars at Readyheli today.

To tell the true I don't know that much about static electricity on helicopters. I didn't learn anything about static electricity with my last degree. Hopefully I will learn something with this degree. There is a device similar to the belt drive on helis that creates a very large static discharge on purpose. I would think a wire from each end of the boom would prevent static electricity from building up.

I just ordered another Hyperion charger. With that and my other charger it will be like I have a 1100W charger. I got it from RCdude hobbies and it was $50 cheaper than everywhere else. There are a lot of good deals out there when I look hard enough. I wish I looked harder when I first got into this hobby because I would have saved a lot more money.

Nick

JPEE

Nick, did you get the BIG Hyperion that is 500 watts per side? Hyperion EOS 0720i Super Duo Dual Li/NiMH/A123 Balancing Charger (7S/20A/500W)


I thought you were getting an iCharger?

evdreamer

John,

No, I got the Hyperion EOS 1420i. It is a 14S 20A 550W charger. I already have a 1420i and it is a nice charger for charging my 12S batteries. I will put one 6S battery on each charger. That way I can charge my Gens Ace at 3.77C. I was thinking about the Hyperion dual chargers, but this way I get an extra 100W and it is cheaper.

Nick

JPEE

Hi Nick,

I went out and read up on the 1420i and now see what you mean. With you new power supply you can push both chargers no problem. By the way...... I have 20 plus charges per pack on my GENS!


Who said a good preflight is not a good thing? I'm getting ready to go to the field this afternoon and take the 700E out for a spin, so with 30 plus flights now I did a SUPER thorough nose detailed preflight. Low

and behold what did I find, both screws on the mainframe that secure the boom struts were coming loose and....... the screws on the tailboom at the other end of the struts were really loose, all had been heavily

Locktited into place when I did the build. Hey, here is another surprise I found, one of my EC-5 battery connectors on one pole was split down the side! I don't think there was any real danger of a failure because

I at some point when I pushed the battery on the connector together that one pole probably would've slipped back and I would've noticed the brass pole had sticking out of the plastic. I see guys come and out throw

in a pack and take up their helis YIKES! I shutter when they do that because for the most part they do not do any preflight before they fly. I guess they consider if it flew last time out without any problems, then what

be wrong??? DUH

evdreamer

John,

I assume your Gens Ace's are still going strong?

I started using green loctite on the screws for the boom struts when I found out Bobby Watts and MA recommended to do that. So far those screws have never been loose on any of my MA helis. That is good you found all those things. I have found a few loose screws on my Whiplash after the first few flights.

Nick

JPEE

Nick,

Thank you for the advice, I will get myself some green Loctite. I guess the green is stronger than the red and that's why it holds better on those two critical areas?
Still all in all I think 30 flights and just those loose screws is a pretty good record! The cracked EC5 connector was strictly my fault with a little solder that had run over the edge making the diameter larger so when I squeezed it into the plastic body it split.

We are expecting cold, wind and rainy weather for the next 5 to 6 days so I won't be doing any flying till the middle of next week perhaps.

Take care