motormat

ok guys so as you know i got the v4 for xmas crashed it well i got it back into the air and it seems like it has a lack of power ? such as like when hovering the 3 in 1 is green and if i hit the throtle it will stay green to a sertan point then it goes red does anynone know what that means idk if its bad or not but if i get it into the air and power up it loses power not sure whats going on any sugjestions ?

amad

Does anybody know if this comes with an extended shaft or is it normal length? Thanks

http://cgi.ebay.com/Esky-LAMA-V3-V4-...1%7C240%3A1318

pgroom_68

Hey Amad,
Bad news I'm afraid. All of those metal upgrades that I have got from HongKong (around 30 so far - last one Xmas Eve) COME WITH STANDARD LENGTH SHAFTS. What I recommend is to buy an Extended shaft coloured silver (from USHobbySupply.com) [link=http://www.ushobbysupply.com/product_info.php?cPath=53&products_id=589&osCsid=dcc9a20a71cdc8602290b6b72e90e9d8]corrected link here[/link], get one of those sets also coloured silver from HongKong & combine the two (I hope you have better luck with TBE than I did) I only retain the Xtended shaft & swashplate on mine after the dreaded TBE (Toilet-Bowl Effect) ended my play time quite abruptly!. OR BETTER STILL JUST GET A SILVER SWASHPLATE FROM HONGKONG (A BIT HARDER TO FIND!) & XTENDED SHAFT OF COURSE FROM USHOBBYSUPPLY.COM

Peter
UPDATE: Sorry Amad, I had the wrong shaft in the link from USHobbySupply.com (I HAD the BCX Xtreme shaft). It is fixed now - again, sorry if you had already used it - I'm sure Michael will understand if you can still adjust your order! Grovel, grovel.

pgroom_68

Hey cjennjr,

You will find the Lama4 (whether 2.4 or not) to be a different monster to any CP (or, for that matter a FP) - but can become an expensive obsession to "bling up" if desired! I have a CP which I cannot fly (scary killer blades), and a #4 FP which I can (basic hover/figure 8 level) - but never grew a desire to try anything larger. Is the G2 an electric or Nitro?
Anyway, when you come inside at the end of a day flying outdoors, nothing compares to snuggling up in bed with your Lama. As someone just said, "the wife will have to sleep on the couch tonight"! Not literally, but due to snow in some places, it does make it necessary to fly indoors![8D]
About the Tx "clicks". If you are using the original Tx & you no longer want the clicks (temporarily - as this mod is reversible)
For the rudder adjustments you will have to get the flat blade screw-driver out and remove the front of fuse to adjust the pot marked "prop". Read from a least 10 pages back, also good advice posts #824, 841 SORRY - THERE NO FAST WAY TO LEARN ABOUT THESE BEASTS[8D]
Peter

pgroom_68

Hey Amad,
Sounds like you are having to much fun for one person. You can buy just the canopy front or the entire canopy in either silver or blue on ebay if yours won't make it through much more of the same treatment (I would post a link here but it would be from HongKong).
When the light blinks on the heli, the 4in1 is setting the gyro.
I actually do a "sneaky": When I first go to fly I switch on the Tx & then raise the throttle stick about quarter way. Plug in the flight battery on the heli and it will blink RED and steady RED. Adjust and "tuck in" wiring. Then place heli in take off position and grab Tx and lower throttle stick. This way the heli is on a flat, stable surface when it blinks GREEN & steady GREEN. I have not had any problems with doing it this way in hundreds of starts.[8D] Thought I would share that. Now I will get abused by the purests out there amongst us. Still, Amad, it is "worth a try" and this heli won't jump at your throat, or into orbit, like a larger FP one would if you tried the same thing.[sm=shades_smile.gif]

Peter

pgroom_68

Hey motormat,
The LED always goes red near to full throttle. The 4in1 is expensive to replace. The good news is it probably is not that! Tighten up the two phillips-head screws onto the flat part of shaft A (inner shaft) first. Remove battery & you will see them. If problem persists, it may be either a battery current draw problem (new battery required to solve - you will probably need three anyway in a months time), the gears are not meshing well (or broken a tooth). Is there any new noises? Is the heli rotating anti-clockwise quicker than before? It is difficult to know what your problem is without knowing more info...

Peter

pgroom_68

Hey everyone,
I have a question now. Has anyone tried these [link=http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=370132665917&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=024]blue[/link] or these [link=http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220331900271&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012]yellow[/link] coloured blades? Are they "Hardened" Xtreme white blades that have been coloured to match one of my Lama4s colour-scheme? Cool.[sm=shades_smile.gif]
A word of warning - if buying these make sure you get BOTH upper & lower sets!

Peter

amad

Thanks for the advice. I'll try that. So the blades don't spin up when you plug the battery in with the throttle up some?

motormat

Thanks for the help nope no new noises the bird is outta the air for now broke my last set of blades =[ ill get more info when i have more info thanks for the help so far

pgroom_68

Amad,
The safety feature of the past few years on Tx prevents this...

Peter

amad

I just tried it and it worked. That's much easier than trying to plug in the battery while it's flat on the ground.

cjennjr

To pgroom 68: I adjusted the "prop" and adjusted my gain afterwards - it's flying much better now. It's still not locked perfectly; just a little CW motion. I had to go reverse rudder (I'm so used to looking at the tail instead of the head of the helo, the head left means tail right to me, so I adjust accordingly). That's what so good about these helo's; you can personalize them to suit your taste. Awaiting my Xtreme blades and lighted stabilizer (already got my navigation lights hooked up) and I'll be good to go!!!!

pgroom_68

Cjenn jr,
Did you get to try out the Tx "fuel hose" mod? Some left over fuel hose from your Rapter's tool kit will do. It is worth the 5 mins with a screwdriver.

Peter

Hednin

So I've got another question regarding the Lama V4 and tuning...

I bought the upgrade parts and while they're very cool looking I think they're causing some issues. I've already removed the blade grips because they're just so crappy with all those little screws/parts but now I'm getting worried about the metal swashplate.

Every time I fly there seems to be yet another fine tuning adjustment needed. Either the heli drifts to the right, refuses to hover in trim when yesterday it was just fine, or when given forward drive it tracks to one side or the other.

I tore the heli down completely again today and pulled out the stock parts to compare. The thing I notice the most is that the CNC swash rides *significantly* higher than the stock plastic part. (I even tried moving the swash lower, down from the factory mounting point) To compensate I was lengthening the connector rods, but the distance is so great that the rods themselves seem to be flexing because they're extended so far.

Has anyone else noticed this? Why would the manufacturer put these *upgrade* parts on the market when they don't adequately fit the heli?? I've looked around, but I can't find replacement connector rods that I can be sure fit the ball joints. Are these standardized parts or do they vary with each manufacturer?

Right now I'm going to take the advise offered very early in this thread and I'm dumping the upgrade parts. I'll keep the turbo shaft and the Airy blades, but other than that I'm back to the original parts.

Let me know if anyone finds any upside in using the CNC parts. (other than glamor shots for "Lama Quarterly" )


Thanks,

Matthew
Seattle, WA

pgroom_68

IS THERE ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE...HELLO...I SEEM TO BE THE ONLY ONE THAT IS FLYING...TYPING...FLYING...TYPING (you get it)

Hey again Matthew,

I have had mixed results also with metal swashplates - but never noticed a "significant" raise in the level that they sit at in relation to a plastic one. I would assume that you have a dud one. Sorry. There are differences in the levels, its true. But, without traveling into work (which is a no-no for me @ present 'cause my wife says I have to be in holiday mode) and visually looking at the differences I can't say I've noticed. Let me be more detailed. I have two metal-swashed (if that is a word) Lama4s (one is actually in a Dauphin body) - both with extended shafts and two more with original plastic ev'rything. One of the metal ones I got second-hand and is my bash around toy to try things out on - it never really flew properly! The other I have upgraded from scratch and like you tore all the alu off again except the swash (& extended shaft of course). NOW IT FLIES REALLY WELL! except for a rudder adjustment due to lower battery levels every three or four minutes it is great! I even tried it outside - a first for me - before Christmas near the beach and it flew in light winds well. Metal upgrades, I believe, are always a gamble - just repackage it up and sell it again on ebay!
I don't know if there is any benefit in alu anything - it is just a bling thing - there might be smoother running in the swash dept - barely!

Peter

cjennjr

pgroom 68: I have an Exceed Raptor G2 electric, not the nitro version. It'll be a while before I progress to that level. I'm just enjoying my battery operated toys for now.

pgroom_68

Cool man![sm=shades_smile.gif]

I have never got so much flying in as I have these holidays either - I'm having a ball! Work..?...What's work?...I never want to go there again!!

Peter

The Collector1

My Feedback: (2)

I had to turn my Gain extreme left to stop it from rotating, now it just sits there nice and steady. I hope you have better luck with the lighted stabilizer, I tried one and it gave my lama a nasty tbe, but once I removed it it was back to normal, right now I have one of those all metal stabilizers and it flies even better than with the stock one, but it seems heavier though

amad

I searched through this thread and found a few things, but I'm not sure if it is the problem I have. I suddenly have a tail shake problem along with a TBE problem. The only thing I changed was the extended Xtreme inner shaft and I put new white blades from dealextreme.com on it. I tried to adjust the flybar link thingy longer and shorter. It seems to do better when shortened as far as it goes, but still does the shake and TBE some. Before I put these parts on, it flew fine. Then again, the reason I'm putting this parts on is due to a pretty hard landing (a.k.a. CRASH).

Any ideas???

The Collector1

My Feedback: (2)

I had a problem like that and I realized that my outer shaft was bent, but how I found out was I looked at the heli from the top while the blades rotated slowly( I know dangerous) I thought it was the inner and changed it but it still wobbled so I changed the outer and it stopped

1morecrash

what I do is this.
remove the extreme inner shaft
and power up the heli with just the bottom blades and youll know if its wobling.
if it is not, then it could be the inner shaft the way to check
is to roll it on something smooth and see if its not bent.

amad

Well, now I have bigger problems! I went out to fly it and try it out. I had just finished putting in the Xtreme extended inner shaft from USHobbysupply and crashed it and bent the inner shaft!!! I don't know why it keeps crashing. It does it when I am doing the same thing. I am trying to fly forward while turning right or left. I turn the rudder to nose right, while pushing forward and yaw right. Then all of a sudden it leans way too far and NOSE DIVES!! Why is it doing this? It is really aggravating. I just bent a $12 part that I flew for 3 minutes with. It also bent the heck out of the fly bar. Is that able to be straightened well enough? If not, what does the shorter flybar do compared to the longer one? Also, can the extended inner shaft be straightened enough, or do I need to just buy another one?

Plus, if anyone is wondering about the white blades from dealextreme.com, they are NOT unbreakable. In the crash, one of the lowers broke off at the blade holder. The rest survived, though.

The Collector1

My Feedback: (2)

My friend heli cried for freedom today, ok he liked my lama so much that he bought a knock off one I dont even know who makes it but alot of the lama parts fit and I know this because every time he crashed it I used my old stock parts to get it airborne. I did order a aluminum inner shaft because he broke both stabilizer heads.

Anyway we had them outside and mine flies like a brick because of all the stuff I added but I like my brick it doesnt get pushed around by the wind too much but my friend turned his on and it just spooled up to its max and took off and kept going over the houses, the trees, it went for blocks until we couldnt see it anymore[:-] He tried chasing it but I was way to high to do anything about it.

His transmitter was an AM 27 mhz and Im thinking that was the main culprit

pgroom_68

Tail shake can usually be removed by unlocking the gyro a little with the "gain" on the 4in1. As suggested before TBE (Toilet-Bowl Effect) is really tricky to totally get rid of. It is sometimes (well I found out from one of mine) due to the flybar being just a little bent or off centre (imbalanced). Did not induce shaking or vibrations - just when starting to hover it would do its own thing! The first time was really something to behold - and I thought I could get rid of it fairly simply by adjusting the servo link arms. It did improve it, but I haven't been able to fix it completely. The Xtreme shaft should not be the source of your problem - but the head of it does connect to the flybar.
I AM ZEROING IN THE AREA OF THE SOURCE AND WILL KEEP YOU POSTED SOON![8D]

Peter
UPDATE: Pity about the broken shaft mate - condolences - I hope me Airy blades are up to MY antics!
At $12 a pop - you would want to try and straighten it out (roll it on glass - and bend gently by hand).
P.P.S. ushobbysupply.com has Goldslinger flybars that are made of CF - no interference problems

downunderdog

I think that TBE can happen if you have the blades clamped down too tight - so they're not able to fully straighten out when the heli spools up and are imbalanced. The fact that one broke near the attachment point suggests that could be it? Bent inner or outer shaft, out of balance or bent flybar, binding linkages anywhere, binding of the blade holders where they attach to the part on the shaft, binding of the blades in the holders are all likely TBE contributors. Most can happen in a big crash (don't ask how I know that so well!).

I agree with pgroom_68 that tail shake (back and forth, not up and down) is probably related to having your gain adjusted too high. It could also be related to poor meshing of the gears on either the inner or outer shaft and the motors. With the battery disconnected and removed, look at the gear on the appropriate (one is attached to each rotor) motor while turning the upper and then the lower rotors slowly by hand. Do they move smoothly and constantly through the whole rotation of each of the rotors? If not, then it might be time for a new outer shaft (as you've already replaced the inner and, I assume, the gear that goes with it). Also, make sure that the gear is firmly tightened onto the shaft.