Posts: 1991
Joined: 10/7/2005 From: Gorham,
ME, USA Status: offline
PLEASE DON'T REPLY HERE. THIS IS JUST A FEW TIPS TO MAKE YOUR LEARNING EXPERIENCE A LITTLE EASIER. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, PLEASE PUT THEM IN THE WALKERA DRAGONFLY #4 THREAD.
You just got your Walkera DF #4 and have tried scooting it around the kitchen floor. You've probably noticed that it's hard to control and if you try to take off, it goes to the left. Don't worry, all this is normal.
Micro helis like the #4 are very light and get blown about with even the slightest breeze. When you're scooting around on the floor, you're in what's called GE (Ground Effects). The wind from the main rotor is blowing on the floor, bouncing in all directions including up, and blowing your little heli to the point where you have precious little control. Eventually you'll be able to fly here, but GE is no place to learn. While you're learning, you're bound to get into trouble. When you see it coming, don't try to fly out of it. Just cut the throttle immediately.
Before you can start flying around like a pro, you've got to learn how to stay in a controlled hover, 2 to 3 feet off the ground, with the tail of the heli pointing toward you (this is called Tail In Hovering). This is the easiest position to fly in. When you can do this easily, 2 or 3 times, through an entire battery charge, you're "Accomplished at this step" and can go on to the next. Don't go on to a next step until you're Accomplished at the one you're working on.
Once you're accomplished at tail in hovering, try hovering the heli with it's left side facing you. When you're accomplished at that, try it with the right side of the heli facing you. And when you're accomplished at that, try it with the nose of the heli facing you (called Nose In Hovering). Only when you are accomplished at hovering with the heli pointing in any direction should you try flying it around. Start out with short forward flights away from you and backing up the heli to get it back to you. When you are accomplished at this, try flying forward and then turning the heli so you can fly it forward back to you. Remember that you're doing all this at 2 or 3 feet off the ground. Don't be surprised if it takes a couple months to get to this point.
When you're accomplished at forward flight, you're ready to start learning how to hover all over again, but this time at about 7 or 8 feet above the ground. Things will feel different at this altitude. It'll be a little more scary and you'll have to get your bearings all over again. Don't worry, it'll only take a couple days this time. When you're accomplished at this, you're on your own.
There are things you can set up to make learning to hover easier. If your flybar didn't come with them, add the flybar collars. Next, adjust your flybar paddles to a positive pitch (for learning only). Turn on your Tx and Rx and use your trim to make the swashplate level, then add about 5° to the paddles. With the swashplate level, move a paddle over the canopy and adjust it to about 5°. Turn the rotor so the other paddle is over the canopy and adjust that one too. You can play around with different settings, but I probably wouldn't go over 10°. This will give more lift and stability, but will also load the motor a little more. You may lose a few seconds of flight time on your battery, but it may be worth it.
You're usually better off with less control while you're learning. This can be accomplished by connecting the flybar to the short arms of the swashplate instead of the long ones. Also, you can move the link rods toward the inside of the servo arms. The attached picture should help you understand what I mean.
Learning how to apply stick input also helps. If space permits (and you should give yourself room when you're learning), try to get used to the throttle input needed to hop your heli 30 to 36 inches off the floor. That will get you out of ground effects (mostly), the heli will drift less, and you need to be that high to trim your heli. It'll be more stable. Practice it until you get used to it. Then, use small, quick stick inputs to keep the heli in one place. You almost have to give stick movement before it needs it. For example, when your heli takes off, it'll probably go to the left. Before it swings back to the right like a pendulum, give it a little left aileron - one or two short bursts to keep it in place. Once it's steady and level, you can give it a little right stick, then a little left, etc., and move it in front of you again, slowly and level. Timing on the stick inputs is everything.
Posts: 1991
Joined: 10/7/2005 From: Gorham,
ME, USA Status: offline
quote:
oh really how do i tell if its a 2005 version does it have to do with the version # ??
Yes, that's one way for sure. On eBay it's the best way because some are selling Version 5 but showing stock pictures of version 4. The changes didn't all occur suddenly with version 5, though. Version 4 was slowly upgraded. I guess, technically, someone could have the 2004 model but still have all, or most of, the upgrades. In this case I can tell from the picture that there are no flybar collars, the canopy is sporting the 2004 stripe design, the main gear doesn't have the metal bottom with the set screw which means it probably doesn't have the circlip and the gear can't be separated from the main shaft, the rotor head is the 2004 style without the head stiffener (which you can buy and you DO want), and in newer versions (late 2004 and 2005) the swashplate has a brass bearing (which you can buy and you DO want). Not all the changes matter. In most instances the 2005 parts fit with the 2004 parts. The main frame is different where it's cut out for the servos and the tail motor mount is a bit different, but it really doesn't matter much. The parts that need to be changed together (are not compatible between models) are the Rotor Head and the Top Frame Connector. The bearings spacing in the Rotor Head is different in V4 and V5, so you need the correct Top Frame Connector to go with it. I think the Receiver is a little different inside, too, and the 2004 receiver seems to be a little more robust (less problems with it). If I'm wrong about this, someone please correct me.
HERE is a link to a 2005 version. Even the box is different. I've bought from this vendor before. He has good deals on LiPobatteries.
< Message edited by GTX SlotCar -- 2/1/2006 1:02:06 AM >
Posts: 1991
Joined: 10/7/2005 From: Gorham,
ME, USA Status: offline
quote:
So, how do I set the tracking on the blades?
Put a light colored piece of tape on one blade near the blade tip. It doesn't have to wrap around the blade. It just has to be visible from the trailing edge. Fire up the heli. As the rotor (that's both blades together) spins, look at the left side of the rotor plane (that will be the trailing edge of the blades and it gives you a wider profile). See if the white tape is higher or lower than the blade without tape. Turn off the heli. I usually find it easier to add lift to the lower blade, but the reverse is sometimes necessary, too. Grab the lower tracking blade with one hand close to the rotor head. When you start twisting, you don't want this to break. Grab the middle or end of the blade with your other hand and twist the blade to increase the pitch angle. You'll be twisting the trailing edge down. The twist will spring back some, but enough will stay to do the job. It doesn't take much. Check the tracking again and make sure one blade isn't lifting higher than the other. If it is, twist the same blade again to increase or decrease pitch. Then, check it again.... etc.... Most of the lift comes from near the blade tips. Even though the tangent velocity of the blade span is the same, the tip is still traveling faster and creates more lift.
< Message edited by GTX SlotCar -- 2/1/2006 1:55:46 AM >
Posts: 1991
Joined: 10/7/2005 From: Gorham,
ME, USA Status: offline
quote:
I want to get a LiPoly battery. What voltage should I get for my DF4, 7.4v or 11.1v, and do I have to worry about the weight?
There's more to this issue than weight and voltage. The current rating of the battery (mAh) and discharge rate (C) are very important for flight time and performance. A lot of the LiPo's that people are using are 6C to 8C, so weight may well be an issue and staying between 800 & 1300 mAh is probably a good idea to keep the weight down. But, at 10C the battery weight shouldn't matter as much. I could barely make my DF36 hop off the ground with a 2200mAh, 6C battery. I could make it hop for several minutes, but hop is all it would do. But with an 1800mAh, 12C LiPo, I can fly with plenty of power for about 20 minutes. All the mAh rating denotes is storage capacity.
Sometimes it's easier to visualize what's at work here if we put it in terms we can actually see. Let's say we want to drive a water wheel. If we drop water onto the wheel from 7.4 feet high, it will turn the wheel at a given rpm; enough to get the job done. If we drop water on the wheel from 11.1 feet high, the wheel will turn faster. In this case the height of the water (and gravity) make up the voltage. We've got to store the water that we're dropping, so we put it in an 800 gallon tank . When the tank is empty, we can't deliver any more water until we fill it again, or re-charge it. We fill it less often if we make our tank 1800 gallons. The tank size is the mAh rating. Now, to deliver the water from the tank to the wheel, we're going to use a 1/2" garden hose. The size of the hose is the C rating. And, just so we don't miss anything, the wasted water that splashes off the wheel would be Heat in a real battery setup. Let's say our water wheel is happily turning with the water tank at 7.4 feet, but then it slows down because we put a little resistance or pressure on the wheel. What can we do to speed it up again? Increasing the size of the storage tank won't do any good. It makes it run longer, but not any faster. We could raise the tank to 11.1 feet. That will help a little bit for a little while, but as we add more resistance and try raising the tank even more, we soon find that water will only run so fast through that 1/2" garden hose no matter how high the tank is. A better solution would be to change the 1/2" garden hose to a 3" fire hose. With the resistance on the wheel, it'll turn faster with the tank at 7.4' and a fire hose than it will with the tank at 11.1 feet using a garden hose. In other words, going from a 6C rating to a 10C rating would seem to be more important than just adding voltage.
Posts: 1991
Joined: 10/7/2005 From: Gorham,
ME, USA Status: offline
quote:
My helicopter is dead. The transmitter has new batteries but it won't light up.
You may have only put 4 batteries in the box. Pull the box out and put 4 more on the back side. The Tx (transmitter) takes 8 AA batteries.
quote:
My helicopter won't run. The servos move, but the blades won't turn.
Always turn your transmitter on first, then the helicopter. If the throttle stick and throttle trim control aren't in the down position far enough, the blades on newer DF4s won't spin when you increase the throttle. This is a safety feature so you won't plug in your DF4 and have the blades start rotating unexpectedly. You can try giving it full throttle and then back to zero, wait a second and give it some throttle again. The blades may spin this time. If they don't, unplug the DF4, turn off the Tx, put the throttle in the downmost position, turn on the Tx and plug in the DF4 again. Now your blades will spin when you increase the throttle.
quote:
My controls on the transmitter seem backward from what the manual says. My throttle is on the left stick.
The are 2 stick position configurations. Mode 1 and Mode 2. Mode 1 is widely used in Europe and Asia. Since your DF4 is from China, the instructions assume you have a Mode 1 transmitter. Mode 2 is widely used in No. America, and is becoming increasing popular by younger people in the rest of the world. In Mode 1, the forward/back control and rudder control are on the left stick, and the throttle and left/right control are on the right stick. In Mode 2, the throttle and rudder are on the left stick, and all the movement controls are on the right stick. It operates like a joystick and is often thought to be more intuitive.
Posts: 12
Joined: 3/6/2006 From: Elizabethton,
TN, USA Status: offline
Hey Gary, My name is J()N. I recently bought the Walkera Dragonfly 4 and I really like it! The only bit of concern I have with this model is after it is airborn, it likes to dance around quite a bit. I am constantly yawing front to back and side to side to keep it in a hover. I have balanced the swash plate out even as well as balance the battery back where it is center. Is there anything you can recommend to solve this issure, or does the mini Heli's tend to do this normally? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!! Take Care!!
Posts: 81
Joined: 1/16/2004 From: lamar,
MO, USA Status: offline
What a great web site! I just got my DF4 today and the tons of help in here will save a lot of time and money, I know. But, right away I found a problem. I loaded the disc for the flight trainer in my pc and it comes up with a " Tx adapter not found". What adapter? All I got was the cable and the disc. Help!
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TIPS for Beginners on the Walkera DF #4 - 
