Black0ut

hello. Well, lets see. my Blade 400 was flying fine, normal main rotor speed. I left it for about a week. Got back to flying, charged the batteries, made sure everything was tight and stuff. Went to go fly the heli and i noticed that the heli was flying much lower in the throttle curve for some strange reason. the blades where moving much slower, but the heli was flying FANTASTIC. In fact, the heli wasn't trying to kill me this time around. no missing teeth, the head unit is not seizing up, the motor (i assume) is fine. I never touched the throttle/pitch settings on the controller.

In case you dont know what is going on. lets say that to bring the heli into the air (say 2 feet or so) and hover it requires 10,000 RPM (making up numbers because i dont know the true value). My heli is doing the same thing at 5000 RPM. And it is flying surprisingly well, very stable... but not really aerobatic.

anybody know what is going on? i fear that something might be broken because its flying to good (LOL).

jon6565

My guess is this:

You have a switch on your radio that says "Mode" with Position (forward) which is '0' and position back which is '1'. When at position 1 you are in what is generally referred to as "Idle Up" an almost constant head-speed except for a dip at mid-stick. When you are learning tape this swtich at '0' !!! What is more, when at position 1 you will have negative pitch which will drive your heli into the ground if you are not careful. To try this theory... make sure you are at 'exactly' half stick and flick this switch. You will see the head speed jump immediately and if you pull the stick down you will have negative pitch pushing the heli into the grass.

I think it's a safe bet if you are a noobie.

Idle Up or Position 1 on the mode switch is what enables you to fly inverted.

Jon

Coyote64

Good theory jon, but in idle up you would not be able to stop the heli though. Low stick mid stick or high stick would still have motor running at at least 50% - 100% unless of course you were using throttle hold to kill it at the end of a flight prehaps

But Jons theory still stands in the way it seems to be half power, if nothing electronic has failed the only logical explanation is idle up, either that or your throttle curve on your dx6i is wrong. Mine has lost all its settings before for no reason. Failing that its an esc problem or burnt out motor issue i would think

Black0ut

good theories, but thats not the problem. I have played with idle up mod and such... resulting in me pile-driving the helicopter into the ground. that was a long time ago though.
throttle and pitch curves seem to be fine, at stock settings. Im going to have to play around with it some more. it wouldn't be the first time i had to take a DXI6 controller back!

Its a really complex problem to explain. I'll see if i can take a quick video to show.

JPEE

Blackout,

A quick 2 cents.

I kinda new my DX6i throttle was going out as the the throttle was not smooth and heli when hovering or trying to fly very slow was difficult, it jumped in graduations. Then I got a DX7 and switched everything over and WOW............power WAZ-ZOO! and that was a month ago.

This past weekend I goofed and left my Dx7 on over night and she was dead as a door nail in the morning as I was leaving with the guys to fly, three helis and a plane. So I grabbed my old standby DX6i and and got to the site and re-bound everything over from the 7 to the 6i. Crap the Heli would not respond from NORMAL to STUNT or idle-up as some call it. I had lost a 1/3 of my power in my 400 and 500 not to mention they were difficult to fly this way so I came home early.

So your right it very well might be your transmitter. Try to get a friend to loan you his/hers or go to the hobby shop as they always generally have one there and just re-bind and see how it goes.

JPEE

Black0ut

thats a good idea. I'll see if a friend of mine has a DX7 i could try out.

JPEE

Blackout,


I would NOT use a DX7. You just can't take the information that is in the DX6i, write down and transfer it to a DX7 as they are a bit different. You are speaking to a guy that tried. Thne after TONS of frustration I came out her and asked for help. Then I was told by other what just told you. For instance, if you a trim setting on the your DX6 you CANNOT just put the same trim in the DX7 NOPE it just is not that simple. Try to have some one use a DX6.

Also I have going to share some gold with you. This is a page that does tell you how to program a Blade 400 to a DX7. Now this is all for a STOCK heli and servos. If you have upgraded your servos then be sure to take the rev/normal settings for servos and put those in the DX7 per your brand.

JPEE

Spektrum DX7
In the “System Mode�:
Input Selection (INPUT SELECT)
GEAR = GYRO
Swashplate Type (SWASH TYPE)
3 SERVOS 120*
In the “Function Mode�:
Dual Rate and Exponential (D/R & EXP)
AILE
POS–1 POS-0
EXP + 15% EXP +20
D/R 80% D/R 100%
ELEV
POS–1 POS-0
EXP + 15% EXP +20%
D/R 80% D/R 100%
RUDD
POS-1 POS-0
EXP + 25% EXP +35%
D/R 70% D/R 100%
Note: These values serve only as starting points. It may be necessary to decrease or increase the
values per your preference.
Servo Reversing (REVERSING SW)
Ch 4 (RUDD) Reverse (REV.)
Ch 6 (PITC.) Reverse (REV.)
Travel Adjustment (TRAVEL ADJUST)
RUDD
L 90%
R 90%

Swashplate Mixing (SWASH MIX)
AILE + 65%
ELEV + 65%
PIT. + 80%
throttle hold (THRO HOLD)
ACT HOLD Pos.
HOLD SW 0.0%
Throttle Curves (THRO CURVE)
Point–L Point–1 Point–2 Point–3 Point–H
NORM 0.0% INH 50.0% INH 100.0%
ST–1 100.0% INH 85.0% INH 100.0%
ST–2 100.0% INH 100.0% INH 100.0%
Pitch Curves (PITCH CURVE)
Point–L Point–1 Point–2 Point–3 Point–H
NORM 35.0% INH 50.0% INH 100.0%
ST–1 0.0% INH 50.0% INH 100.0%
ST–2 0.0% INH 50.0% INH 100.0%
HOLD 35.0% INH 50.0% INH 100.0%
Note: In order to perform auto-rotations, it will be necessary to set the Point-L value for HOLD to
25.0% or less.
Gyro Sensitivity (GYRO SENS)
AUTO
RATE:
0: 70%
1: 70%
Note: These values serve only as starting points. It may be necessary to decrease or increase the
values in order to achieve the proper gain setting value.
Timer (TIMER)
DOWN–T
4:30

ttennis1600

my blade 400 is flying fine but the head speed in normal mode seems to be slower. COULD THE MOTOR BE ON THE WAY OUT OR THE ESC

JPEE

ttennis,

I would do a few things to insure your transmitter (known later here as TX) is working correctly and to know of it is/isnot your motor.

1. Go into your TX and go to the monitor screen. Then put your your throttle stick dead in the center. Now look at the indicator arrows on the screen and see if it shows you are truly in the mid stick postion. Next pull it back and forth to see if your travel is the same both ways.

2. I would next verify that the thottle curve is still at the factory settings listed above. Then follow up with stunt or idle-up mode and verify those as well.

3. Have you ever taken your stock motor down and re-oiled the bearings or greased them?

4. And after all of this it is possible that the motor has lost some luster, but man that would take a lot of HARD flying. The only thing there to deminish is the coarting on the windings and that breaks down with heat. If you decide at some point you want a new motor and want to go "stock" I have a seller that can beat the market by $20.00 delivered.....send me a PM.


Again as I said above I thought the same thing as you, my 400 was losing power and it was not until I got the Dx7 that I found my DX6i was defective. Another traite it had was
that when hovering say 10 feet and then tried to raise to a higher elevation it was jerky as it rose up and a bit difficult to control. It just was not smooth..............clearly I noted that went away when I made the change to the DX7. Right now my DX6i is in to Horizon for an overhall. I love the Dx6i, it is nice and simple, I will never let it go, it will be my back up.

Good Luck JPEE

ttennis1600

i think i may have found yourheli problem MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR PITCH AT MIDSTICK IN IDLE UP 0 ON THE PITCHGAUGE i had the same problem everything is fine rpms are up. unhook your wires from motor to be safe so heli dont spool up on you good luck

Black0ut

this from has been dead for a while... mostly because i got extremely busy and started building crawlers, and working on my bigger non-rc vehicles. It is the blade pitch that is causing this problem -if you can call it a problem.
I dont use the idle-up setting, for two reasons 1) i got a new controller... the old DX had a manufacturing error (check battery compartment for code thing...) and i dont know how to reprogram that setting. 2) last time i did the idle up i forgot and hit the ground at 200mph. I was picking wooden splinters from my eyes for weeks. lol.

I might have manually adjusted the cyclic (?) by accident when i was cleaning and whatnot... and the result is more pitch at lower RPM. the motor and ESC im pretty sure are fine... though i could always buy a spare.

thanks.

JPEE

Blackout, I am not sure what your asking? or are you just reporting these issues. If you need DX6i help it here for you.

JPEE

Black0ut

nope just reporting that it was in fact caused by too much pitch.
though for comparison, could you (or anyone) post up some settings you have on your DX6i. Normal flying mode.

choppersrule

Blackout,

Throttle and pitch setting are an animal that can drive you absolutely nuts. They can be different from one heli to the next, even if the same type. In this case a B400.

Try these and experiment with them.. all in normal mode: (DX6i)

Trial #1:
Throttle:: 0, 25, 50, 75, 100
Pitch: 35, 42.5, 50, 75, 100

Trial #2
Throttle: 0, 40, 60, 80, 100
Pitch: 41, 42.5, 56, 75, 100

The throttle settings for trial#2, is agressive, however, it gives excellent throttle response at all stick positions.

If you need more head speed, lower the first 3 settings by 2 or 3 percent at a time, until you find your sweet spot.. It'll take time to do that.

Let us know how it goes.

Dave

Black0ut

Trial #1 is good. blade pitch was off by alot (ridiculous amount)... so i fixed that, then put in the pitch/throttle settings. Back to normal. I kept record of my old settings as well, for those days that i just want to fly slowly.


BTW... these things work 100x better in the winter than in the summer... though its hard to fly with gloves on.

PoorFlyer

I am glad I found this forum as my wife just bought me a blade 400 for christmass. I enjoyed reading all the issues and the fixes people found for them.Thanks to everyone for posting their issue('s) and the responses as I am new to flying a heli or any r/c as far as that goes. Love the B400 though, and hope to avoid to many crashes.