harryxtc

hi just bought a honey bee fp on ebay and for buying couple extra batterys. the hbfp comes with ek2-0851 charger 0.8 amps was going to buy another one then i seen the NEW ESKY EK2-0852 that comes with the honeybee cp2 and it has 2 outputs for 7.4 volt and says its 1.5 amp automatic adjustable current. so i was wondering does it charge 1 11.1 volt battery atr 1.5 volt or 2 7.4 volts at the same time at 0.8 or will charge 2 7.4v at 1.5 at the same time or how does it work. or if you can recomend another cheap charger trhat will charge faster than the 0851 or 2 batterys at once i would appreciate it cheers
and advise would be helpful

SeaBear

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Is it normal for these things to run pretty hot? I'm guessing a little heat should be normal but how hot is ok? I ran one pack....just trying to learn, mostly on the floor, and my main motor was more than warm it was pretty hot. Tail motor was not as hot but also warm though it seemed what I would guess was normal. But not the main motor. Should I just get some heat sinks or is this an indication of a bigger problem?
Thanks

mrasmm

if you didn't break in your motor, or just because of the fact that they are cheap motors and the mfg tolerances from one motor to the next can vary, the motor could be burning up. It all depends on how hot is hot? 30 or 40 above ambient is pretty standard.

Chances are though it is pretty normal, and might go down if you break it in, and will go down if you add a heatsink or two.

SeaBear

My Feedback: (1)

How do you break it in? It's probably too late for this one but for future reference...

SeaBear

My Feedback: (1)

Found a post in the archives about hooking up 2 aa batteries to the motor and letting it run till the batteries are dead....will that do it and is it too late to break mine in? I've run it about 4 or 5 packs so far. Thanks

Whirley Bird

My Feedback: (1)

On another thread one person said to run the new brush motor in water.
That keeps the brushes from depositing all the crud on the armature and after that you should be OK.
I have 22 hours on mine but like I said so many times I run the heli light and just do pattern flying.
No 3D stuff.
Vegas/

mrasmm

I wrote up a guide for just such an occasion =) Sorry about the delay, I've been of for about 4 days.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5628228/tm.htm

lemme know if you have any q's. You shouldn't though, I really made the guide as comprehensive and as simple to understand as possible =)

It's not as good now as it would have been right at the beginning, but 4 or 5 flights isn't too much, and you'll probably be just fine =)

maxtheknife

I picked up an HB FP the first week in June. I've had all kinds of trouble and so far have probably about 2 hours of stick time on it because of all the crashing and repair cycles. Heh. I almost decided to give up on it and move ahead to the Honey Bee King 2 after reading all the info about it. But I'm going to bulldog up and try the FP some more till I learn it. Then if I have any more money left in my hobby sack after all the expected future repairs, I'll spring for the HBK2.

If they sold an HB FP bare bones kit I'd just buy that and start over. My little chopper is battle scarred but it's still hanging in there with the structural integrity. It really is quite tough after all is said and done. I just hope this next setup session goes better so I can actually hover and fly that dude! When I get it all back together and tweaked to the utmost of my capabilities I'm going to take it to a large open field and hover if possible and then catch some air!!! I'm going to finally get some altitude so I can feel the thing out and see how it handles. I'll be flying over tall grass so the crash landing(s) shouldn't tear too much stuff up...

mrasmm

I've seen a bare bones kit for the falcon 40 for about $40 bucks or so. That's basically the same heli. I think I saw it from raidentech or something like that.

bpd282

Maxtheknife,

A replacement HBFP is only $35.00 here. http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id...62&pid=W289468.

Good company- They ship fast.

mrasmm

somehow the period got put into the link, so here is the same link but without the period that will get you there http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id...62&pid=W289468

good find =)

maxtheknife

Thanks for that link. I thought I'd looked all over but I guess I missed that one. I wish I'd waited till this morning to place my order for spare parts. [&o] Live and learn. I'll order the bare bones next time and when all the parts are gone I'll probably throw in the towel on this HB FP project and buy a good quality Sim program. Maybe if I practice enough by the time I feel confident the quality control will have gone back up on the HBK2 and I will have better luck. I put in about 40 +- hours on the FMS sim program from Esky and really felt like I'd do ok with the HB FP. In a perfect world it would have worked out that way. It's no one elses fault that I happened to pick the most difficult RC hobby to learn.

I really enjoy fiddling around with my Honey Bee, but it's pretty frustrating trying to learn 'hands on' with no experienced pilots around here to help me shorten my learning curve. My LHS is an hour away and they don't sell any Esky products so they're no help in the setup. I think I might just drop in on them again with my little HB FP next time I make the trip and see if they can give me any pointers with the setup just the same. The fellow was very friendly and knowledgeable. He flew a small coaxial chopper around in the store while I was there and talked me into flying his Real Flight simulator so he could see what my level of skill was. He was frankly surprised that I was having trouble operating a fixed pitch RC chopper because I'm very competent on the sim. I'm hopeful that I can progress to the HBK2 because I really enjoy this type of thing. I approach RC helicopter flight like Whirley Bird on the forum. I have no use for 3D stunts. I just want to be able to lift off and fly around and make myself and my family smile. When I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about buying ANOTHER RC chopper, she just said "why, when you can't even fly the one you've already got?". Heh. That's when I realized she was right. So back to the drawing board...

johnny_p

Max,

I'm new to the game as well, but please let me share something with you. Sims are good, the FP is OK... but there's nothing that compares to heli that responds to your input. Don't be fooled that the FP is an easy bird to learn on, it's not; if you want easy then get yourself a CX2, just don't take it outside because it's an indoor bird. The FP is squirrelly without a doubt. It's been said by many that I've spoken that they wished they would have learned on a TREX then stepped down to micro's. Reasoning, responsiveness. Share this newfound information with your wife and hopefully that will shed some light on the subject. Plan B & C requires just sucking up the grief you'll get over all the purchases your GOING to make and/or... making sure your honey do list is completely empty. Cheers.

JP

maxtheknife

You make some good points Johnny_P. In all fairness, my wife is really supportive of me and anything I want to do. I take good care of her and she takes good care of me. But I can't put anything past her either because she knows me too well. She may roll her eyes at me when I finally decide to order an HBK2, but she'll be out there watching me fly the thing just the same. She laughs at me when I fly my little Air Hog around the living room but when I ask her if she wants to try she says no. Hee hee.

Anyway, I believe you about the Honey Bee FP being difficult to learn on. I guess that's one reason I plan on taking it to that big field so I can really get airborne. I'm going to get some flight time one way or another. And it might actually be easier trying to hover at 50 feet instead of down low to the ground. I've been watching video's from RC Universe and it gives me a terrible itch to fly what I have. I just don't understand why everyone in the video's try to rip their heli in half in mid air. I watched one of a TREX 600 and I don't think that thing ever experienced level flight or a hover the whole time. Some peoples kids...

InaFix

I have recently been able to hover my HB-FP w/2 cell Li-Po battery after completing the RADD flight school regiment. I find, that the stock battery will only yield about 5 minutes of flight time. It seems that ppl are reporting much longer flight times in this forum!After a full charge with the stock charger, my digital meter shows 8.45 (no load) voltage. During a normal flight, the battery runs down, the response becomes sluggish and power diminshes... However, the voltage at this point is still approximately 7.45 volts! I have substituted a 1300mh battery and flown with similar results. []

Hmmm... Research in this and other forums seem to indicate that a Li-Po pack should function until appx. 3 volts/cell = 6 volts cut off voltage by the ESC.

I would certainly appreciate any input regarding this situation.

KCinNC

are you charging the Li-Po with the stock HB charger ??? [X(]

mrasmm

no load it should run down right to what you are doing =)

Honestly it sounds like that is working properly. How many cycles do you have on that pack? and how long is it taking to charge, and at what rate of charge, and what size is the battery?

to me though it sounds like your main motor is going out. Is it getting hot? how many flight hours do you have on it?

InaFix

KCinNC: I am using the stock HB charger, which charges @ 0.8amps with the stock 800ma Li-po battery.

mrassm: I also thought of your motor assessment and have already replaced the main motor with the same stock unit. The battery itself, has approximately 50-60+ cycles on it and in the beginning, it would take about an hour to reach full charge, that seems to be normal. Now it is charging in about 20-30 minutes after a flight! That is what prompted me to check the battery voltage(s) before/after a flight.

I previously mentioned that I had substituted a different 1300ma battery and the before/after flight voltages were pretty much the same. I am inclined to conclude that the ESC may be the culprit, perhaps as a result of some of my less graceful landings! Hehe!

Any suggestions or thoughts on this idea based on your experiences? Or should I just be happy with a well trimmed machine that is flying well?

mrasmm

hrm.. if it is the ESC you can just replace the FET. It's an N-channel fet that's rated for something like 9A each and there are two of them.

Honestly though to me unless I am wrong it sounds like either a weak battery or a bad charger or both.

Is the motor getting real hot, or the 3 in 1? How many amps is the heli drawing? Do you know someone with a bit better charger that could tell you how many mAh the pack cycles to?

Have you checked the gear mesh on the main motor to make sure that it is not too tight?

InaFix

I wish to take the time to Thank You for your help...

Gulp!... I don't think I have to expertise to be disassemble the 4 in 1 to replace any parts. The motor does not seem unusually hot and I do have a heat sink installed, so that probably helps. I did inspect the motor gear mesh and it seems to be satisfactory, however, it was a good suggestion that I had not thought of myself.

After reading your last post, I am inclined to believe that perhaps the charger is the problem, b/c the 1300ma battery which was charged with the same charger gives similar voltages and flight times. It should increase flight time is I am not mistaken? I wonder what voltage your battery displays after a flight?

Unfortunately, I don't know how to check the battery amperage. Any suggestions on this item?

mrasmm

yeah, no problemo.

To check the battery capacity you need something like a digital discharger. Maybe someone you know has one or something. The only other way to tell is if you have a known good charger that puts out X current, say 800mA, and your battery is 1300mAh, then it should be taking 1h 40m to 2 hours to charge.

As far as the voltages, depends on how many cells you are running, but take 4.2 times the cell count to get the starting voltage, and 3.7v times the cell count to get the ending NO LOAD voltage. Hopefully that helps. hrm, I just re read your post, and your battery voltages look good, so if you don't have a nice charger, the only thing you can really do is go off of the time on the charger you've got. It's gona be hard to diagnose this one without this info, because yiou don't know weither to look to the 3 in 1 and or the motor, or the battery.

The gear mesh should be able to fit two sheets or so of 20lb copy paper between it, just as a general guide line.

also make sure that everything is lubed up well and spins freely, this could also reduce your flight time, like the shaft and the head and the links. The other thing it could be is a wire short to either the main motor or the tail motor, or the tail motor could be failing and drawing alot of extra amps.

alexrgz

Hi guys I just order one HBFP MK3 the question is if the lipo 7.4V is not sufficient to fly or if is not the fly time that I expect, can I use 3cell Lipo battery I already know the tail motor will suffer but the question is if will I burn the speed control the 4 in 1??? thanks for reply me guys.

USHobbySupply

It can be done on 11.1 volts. I have modified and unmodified 4&1's and both handle 11.1 volts fine. Of course, i'm less worried with the modd'd 4&1.

As a note, its probably not for the beginner. Tail and throttle response are much snappier. And if you crash with the throttle anywhere but off, you run an even higher risk of burning up the 4&1.

alexrgz

thank u for reply, I just try it and love it, and I did much better with 2cell lipo than the 3cell lipo, the problem was the time flight with 2cell 800mh was around 8min, with 3cell was around 20min very good time flight, but with the 3cell the tail was sometimes out of control, son I'm thinking to get a 2cell 1100mh lipo battery from MAXAMPS.COM and the weight is 55grams, 10grams more than the stock 2cell 800mh. Should I have problems with the weight? Should I get more minutes in flight time?, thanks again for your post, cheers.

FloridaGuy27

hello everyone, I have been searching forums all day for help lol, I am a total noob to rc helis(only heli I ever flew was those little havoc helis) I found out the hard way that the HBFP is ALOT harder than I thought. day one I spent ALOT of time looking up ways to do repairs...and doing them lol. I have owned my HBFP about a week now and can get it to hover a couple inches off the floor inside for a few seconds, and get it up a couple feet outside for around 5-8 seconds before I either set it back down because I am loosing control, or it comes crashing down from about 8inches to a foot high lol I know there is ALOT that I dont know about flying helis, but it seems hard to get a stable lift off, and once in the air its hard to keep it steady. I have adjusted my trim to the best of my ability as I dont really have an indoor space big enough to get it really trimmed with some type of slight wind effect from outside.
doing ALOT of the FMS sim and doing great in it for the most part...I can hover pretty well for a long time moving around slightly, and re center and land, I can also fly around in the sim with good control and bring it back and USUALLY land lol. but the real thing is ALOT diffrent than the sim is to me..
anyway, any tips, help and info is VERY much welcome, as I need all the help I can get lol