acebusa

I know a lot about these now, And I have done many modifications to keep this in the air, I will be glad to share some things I have done, Is there any home repairs you have done, or web sites to get upgraded parts? Post some things that might help us that have the 22E out.

acebusa

Is aluminum upgrades worth the money?

Ah Clem

Acebusa,

Excellent thread! I am going out to fly the VNR3D on lunch today, so I will probably have questions for you quickly.

I just installed a three cell Lipo and had to turn the gain way down on the gyro.

I am curious as to your knowledge on the PZT and PLT knobs. I have been piecing things together from several different forums. PLT seems to be pitch limit trim and PZT seems to be Pitch Zero Trim. So far I have adjusted PLT just to where the motor does not bog, and PZT so that the RPM is not excessive at liftoff.

I am thinking of attempting to locate the Hornet X3D instructions on the internet and studying those, as these machines appear to be copies of the Hornet.

At any rate, any info that you can provide will be much appreciated!

Ah Clem

OK,

I finally got the VNR3D into fast forward flight today.

It is much more responsive than the Blade CP and does not have the tendency to pitch up in forward flight that the Honeybee CP2 does.

The VNR3D seems to be neutrally stable in forward flight (goes where you point it, stays where you put it in terms of flight attitude) and has, thus far been extremely impressive.

Tail authority is very good, but I may adjust things to speed it up a little. I did have to adjust the gyro down when I added the Lipo (not a big deal). The tail stays right where you point it in the air.

The stock radio was dead solid, although I did not take the machine that far away (probably a couple hundred feet or so).

I have not tried any aerobatics yet.

acebusa

You seem to be on the right track with the plt, and the pzt dials. But just for a little more input on them I will share what I know. As you already know you cant change them without switching the #8 switch on the back to unlock. (to the left) The plt (pitch limit trim) Will adjust the range of the servos, If you turn to the left the range of the servos decrease, and to the right increases the range, This will affect the lift, and if you make the range too big it will be hard to control your height, a slight movement of your throttle will send your heli up way too fast and when you chop the throttle it will slam down. Another thing to remember is if you make the angle of the blades too aggressive too fast than it will over work the motor, and will not get your blades up to the proper rpm, and cause it not to climb. It will also cause the heli to spin harder to the left because the blades have too much restriction with a lot of pitch and are not cutting through the air smooth. The pzt ( pitch zero trim) is important to set right also. You want your heli to began lift around 60-70% throttle, you can do this by your pzt knob by turning it to the left to increase pitch, and to the right to decrease pitch. Something to know is if you make your heli lift at too low rpm it will cause it not to get up to rpm and cause it to fly heavy, and when you try to increase the throttle it will actually loose rpm, and altitude, and because the pitch will increase and the rpm will decrease the heli will began to spin more to the left and you will have to correct more with the left stick. The speed of the blades also helps create a gyro affect, and the faster they spin will make the heli more stable, if your blades do not get up to speed, flight will be more unstable. If the blades spin too fast before lift off it will cause the tail motor not to keep up with the blades, and cause your heli to spin to the left also. Try to adjust it around 60-70% is about perfect for smooth flight.

acebusa

Ok I give up, I have been doing a ton of research on the aluminum head for the walkera 22E. I cant find any one that has tried it. No body seems to offer one for this model either. Im going to just take a leap of faith and order a full aluminum head for this thing. Hope it works.

Ah Clem

Acebusa,

Did you look into the aluminum Hornet head? As these appear to be Hornet clones, there is a reasonable chance that it would fit.

Also, have you rolled yours yet? I have not flipped the 3D switch yet (I am planning to do this on the bench with the motors disconnected first to check the pitch) so I have not tried any aerobatics.

acebusa

Thats the head I ordered Yesterday, Its the hornet super head. It looked just like it so I just ordered it. I dont know of anyone who has tried it yet. Guess I will Know soon.....I havent tried the 3d switch, Im not good enough yet, but I know it seem to be easier to set up the pitch by leaving the motor conected and holding the bottom of the heli, hold on tight and set the throttle at 50% and adjust the pzt so that it does not pull in either direction, than give it up thrust and make sure it pulls good, than give it down thrust and make sure it pushes about equal to the up thrust. If not adjust it in the pzt, and plt dials till they are about evan.

Ah Clem

Ace,

Are we the only ones flying these things?

acebusa

Seems Like it.

acebusa

Whats the deal with that? It is a awesome machine for the money.

acebusa

Im thinking about carbon fiber blades, I think I found a place to fly without hurting my chopper when I crash.. My stock blades almost survive but after several crashes the plastic begans to peel up. I think the carbon fiber will last for a long time. What do you think?

Ah Clem

As soon as Venom releases the carbon fiber blades, I will be buying a set!

I just wish I could get more stick time.

acebusa

Do you crash often? And if you do do you trash may parts when it hits the ground. I have found a few ways to make the bird survive better if you do. Just let me know what you break.

acebusa

Just got my hornet superhead from helihobby today, I havent got to fly it yet but it looks like it will work! A few things I dont like about it so far is they use super small set screws to assemble it, and they dont send a hex key with it, I am a mechanic and have hundreds of dollars in tools and did not have the right one to fit it. Standard places only have allen down to .050 and it needs to be smaller than that, so I couldnt evan mess with it when I got it.

jdreyes

Hi Guys, got my Dragonfly 22E, while trimming, taped the skid to the table and after applying around 50% trouttle while tracking the main blades the ball connector on the ball linkage set (upgrade-HM-22E-Z-38) broke down. Tried to fixed with superglue but still break after applying force. Tried also to use the standard flybar connector (HM-22E-Z-07) but the bird didn't respond to the control. Please help....

Ah Clem

Ace,

I have not crashed mine yet. My last crash was probably two months ago with a Honeybee CP2. I was attempting to fly inverted, got crossed up, and down it went-OUCH!!!

At least I did hold it inverted a few times (at altitude) before I dorked it.

I am spending a lot more time on the simulator now, as you might imagine.

The VNR3D is still nice and new and I am holding back with it for a while. I suspect that it will be easier to fly upside down because the tail holds better.

I almost pulled a frontal lobe trying to keep the Honeybee from piroutting when upside down.



JD,

Can you drill a hole in the arm where the ball was molded on and bolt a TREX ball on?

Or, can you do what Ace did and obtain a Hornet part?

acebusa

I drilled a hole and bolted a metal ball through my plastic blade nips when I use to break them off, It works well, but it is hard to find the right size ball. You have to also change the link if you switch to a standard ball. I finaly got the hornet super head on my 22E It wasent too bad once I had the extreamly small tool to fit the set screws. You have to modify it a little cause the main drive shaft is shorter, You have to flip the main gear over, and than adjust the ball screws on the servos almost all the way down cause the swash plates sits lower. It flies way more responsive, and seems like a strong setup. The stock blades also will not line up with the holes in blade nips, you have to drill a new hole in the blade. If any one orders this head be sure to get the little allen wrench or you will just be able to look at it on the bench.[&o]

acebusa

Jd...... If your 22E is not responding to directions You might check the black rectagular part on the fly bar. If you wreck it or anything it is possible that the little ears on the black piece that the flybars weights bolt on to break off and wont hold the flybar straight than it wont work your directionals.

Ah Clem

OK Ace,

I broke a part today (or actually, re-broke it). I had broken the carbon fibre tail skid while installing the battery on a cast aluminum garden table about the 2nd day out and had Zapped the rod to hold it (it was not broken off, but it was splintered and weak.

My antenna was taped to the tail fin attached to the rod.

Today the rod let go in flight, and the tail fin and antenna got sucked through the tail rotor. Pretty interesting to watch. I landed and found the antenna wrapped around the horizontal stabilizer. I unwrapped it and continued to fly.

I now have 10 or 11 flights on the machine, and it continues to perform well. The gyro is turned all the way down. This thing is soooo much quicker than the Blade CX that it is not funny. I need a lot more stick time on it, but am enjoying it immensely.

jdh_nz

Did something similar. I glued the part back on, waited for that to dry, then drilled a 1mm hole down thru the centre of the ball and glued a metal dressmakers pin in through to further strengthen the connection. It's worked brilliantly so far.

Also, after a nose dive into the deck the connection to the blades nip broke. I found that rather than gluing the connector back on, simply using a threaded 2mm hobby bolt generated a far strionger connection. (I'll post a photo if anyone's interested)

One big problem I had recently was the main motor brushes wore out and shorted out the reciever blowing the 22mf surface mount caps off the board. Seems I'm alone in suffering this problem after reading some of the other threads, but taking off the 6v caps alongside the FETS) and replacing with 10v surface mounts (along with a new motor) has solved that one.

However, the 22e is a lot of fun to play with and worth investing time (and money) into to keep flying, even if the plastic connections have a habit of pating company.

Okisub

jdh nz- please do post some pics of your repairs. I love the whole "when it breaks, don't just fix it -improve it" thing [8D]

jdh_nz

You can see the top of the bolt I've inserted just to the left of the stabilizer rod connection. All I did was get a 2mm bolt, drill a 1.5mm hole where the plastic welded connection use to be and screwed it in tight, then back off about half a turn. There's no friction with this, and to balance the head I did the same thing on the other side. This has worked perfectly so far.

acebusa

You turned the gyro all the way down? What did that do for you?

Ah Clem

Ace,

1) The nose was still hunting back and forth at the RPM I am running with the Lipo so I had to turn it down.

2) Even all the way down, it still holds the helicopter very steady. This has the steadiest tail of any tail-motored micro that I have flown (EF Sabre, Blade CP, Honeybee CP2, Rotofly).

3) I learned in 1975 without a gyro, so I don't turn them up much anyway.


JDH,

Nice repair job!