oldschool269

Gday , beside the usual bulldust with setting up my malkera, slipping tail , cranky speed controls that dont work , and fail , yesterday in the process of setting up my 36 with all shiny new bits to go and fly again , after a suspicious crash ( a breif no response from the walkera radio )

setting up with the transmitter on and all power connected .. it was all good until ....

the dam thing spun up to full revs and to my horror i could see the collective starting to move on the linkages ,!!! ,
looking at the TX , radio was on , throttle was OFF , trim was centre and fresh TX batterys wernt doing **** ..

this thing continued to rev its nut off , with the collective glitching hard..

it then picked itself up 3 feet in the air and just dropped , glitching hard
what could i do ?? it just got so much new Bling all over it !!!!

I WAS NOW CONTEMPLATING HAVING TO PUT MY BOOT ON IT TO STOP THIS CRAP !

after 20 seconds of terror , it decided to swich off , and i grabbed the thing , pulled the battery and sat down trying to relax a little and let the heartbeat return to nomal..

i took all the walkera radio gear and threw it in the bin....

using jr2610 now and i can fly ! and i dont need heart pills anymore to enjoy? this hobby

IF I CAN SAVE ONE PERSON FROM USING WALKERA RADIO'S
that is my story for today

Jason

james199

LMAO....now your heart wont skip a beat ......now you got no suspence..LOL... any how glad you saved your bird

borneobear

I removed all the walkera electronics (ALL OF IT) out of this heli very early on.

I saved the radio and receiver for a foam 2 lipo cell glider. Thought it'd be safe to put it on a plank. I mean, what could go wrong on a gliding plank?

WRONG.

Walkera... when will i ever learn?

thecheatscalc

well, try using your TX again (don't risk the heli just turn it on) now shake it. if yours is like mine you should see the battery light flicker... *breif loss of signal* guess what? my ESC reconises that and automaticly shuts off, resulting in a crash.

it's a GOOD heli and flies rock solid! but that blasted Tx/Rx!

here's what I went through-
1-not enough power, upgraded to align 420LF and 25A esc, new REAL 2100 li-po's ordered
2-servo strips replaced
3-gyro gives me heck, replaced with 401
4-tx has no sensitivity control for gyro (which is expensive) and Tx is becoming intermittent upgraded to spektrum
5-servos all replaced with spektrum ones (minus tail, that's using a digital one) new 35A esc (I blew the 25 one and the spektrum RX due to a... short )
6-accedentally left the heli and remote outside and mom backs over it in car... new spektrum and frame to follow... (the gyro survived (thank god!) and the motor, and the ESC so the damage isn't THAT bad... the battery was squished though...

so there ya go, just buy a barebones to start with, the spektrum is EXCELLENT! and cheap... the heli did fly amazing once I had it tuned before it's death... and it looks like my WHOLE heli is going in the bin now... but it's not dead! I'm getting ANOTHER ONE! (and hopefully a #4 to train on so I don't spend another few hundred repairing my 36 by me wrecking. the fixit to flight time ratio is currently 4:1

jtspin

[X(] Oh, the humanity!

krisma

rest in pieces

oldschool269

wow , i feel for you , i really do .it sucks the big one , as if it aint hard enough to keep them , in one piece already ..

for update , i have also got a gy401 on order and a 9650 digita servo on the way , i am sick of tail drift on my walkera's


when you rebuild that bird , pin the ends of the motor , the buzz over at the trex sites is that , the gold motors need pinning and the silver motors have threads so they dont just randomly fall apart like the gold cap align motors do ...

the gold caps were the early model motor, the silver capped align motors are update engines...and there is 3800 kv silver aligns out now..

choise
Jason

borneobear

thecheatscalc, I admire your courage to troop on. I would have trown the towel and taken up gardening.
Hats off to you dude!

thecheatscalc

what do you mean by pin the ends of the motor? the motor leads already have pin/cap connections and are nothing but stiff!

PS: thanks for the condonences, it was fun to call the visa people and try to explain how the accedent happened... I've thought about sending the spektrum radio back for repairs... just to see what their response is (muahahaha)
"dear sirs, the casing didn't hold up to a slight amount of pressure (about 2 1/2 tons) and failed causing some circutry to be damaged... is this covered under warranty?"

PPS:you'll love the 401, it holds the tail NICE and steady! just make sure to turn sensitivity to 80%

oldschool269

Im talking about the motor itself dude...!

click here

[link=http://www.trextuning.com/motorapart.php]align motor comes apart[/link]

with the motor, the gold main end caps of those seperate from the centre silver "drum" , usually with a hard landing.

they drill the motor at the base were the end cap pushes into the silver drum, and pin the cap to the drum with little grub screws,
ill go looking and get a link for you ...

cheers for the tip on the gain setting , i was told around 60 , but will keep that 80% close in my mind... thanks mate ,

Insurance ?? you are laughing if you can claim that one on insurance !!

Cheers

Jason

thecheatscalc

actually it was going really well until they told us the 90 day rule...

but yeah, for gain, if you've set the thing up right (eliminated vibration) the tail will lock SOLID at 80%.

PS: never had a problem with my motor... hmm... if it does fall apart though I'll just get some locktite and glue it, no worries for the moment however, it hasn't shown any bad signs. (those are amazing motors, especially for such a good price!)

oldschool269

the end word in recievers as far as i can see is these shultz Alpha 835w, man its a choice reciever , i have seen a $5K electric heli preform hard 3d with one , after that i was sold , and havent looked back in that dept..no crashes since , lol's

Hey Cheat ,

what digital servo are you using with the gain at 80 % ?? fut 9650 ??

just curious , with a fut 401 , the gain setting at 60 % was for solid hover with a hitech - hs 56 and 2200 head speed. , justa cheepy and alot slower in responce to the digital , so ill be setting up with 80% on the digital servo matey ... LOL's

i am using a himark motor , but will look into these 3800 kv aligns , if the 420 is good the new one should be hopefully even more impressive ...
again thanks for the tips dude.
Jason

Ah Clem

Jason,

With the exeption of the cyclic servos, I am running the stock radio. I may well be a glutton for punishment, but I really wanted to see the extent to which this machine was RTF. So far, the radio is working fine (I am on a replacement Walkera RX also, but it is a stock Rx). Watch me curse myself and have the radio take a dump after saying this.

Oh well...

The helicopter is very easy to fly and very, very smooth. It could stand a little more tail authority and it is slow on cyclic (has anyone ever rolled a stock one), but it is very relaxing to fly-sort of like an old-timer free flight with R/C. I will probably go to the brushless when the stock motor expires.

Your advice is very sound, I am just testing the waters.


The Cheat,

I am very sorry to see what happened to your machine. That is terrible!

I hope all is restored very soon.

oldschool269

im sorry man dont do it !!! ,
i have rebuilt more than i flew , with the walkera radio ..., its so bad ,

---------

my mate who has 9 yrs of heli under hid belt and al least 7 yr old helis !, He trashed his NEW 36 with the walkera radio , he was so pissed off , now he bags the little birds and brags how good his raptor is to fly , with its $$$ gt7000 gyro and $$$ brand name 12 channel radio , and digital servos all round,

of course its ffn good ,

my argument is if he put the equivalent gear on he would be happy ,
he recons they should work or get pulled of the market .. ?? what is really better for us newbies ????

---------

i also got an align receiver ( just to try ) and thought i would test it with my Yak shock flier , well, glitches , galore , so the align receiver is crap too.

shultz alpha 835w or a jr 770s or its in the ground , so i have found

Jason

Rattlecat

I think that is the reason for when a person shows up at the field with his/her Walkera , everyone stops looks for what you have , then yells, EVERYBODY RUN ! He's got a Walkera !
I think if you play it right, the Walkera business plan is sort of like getting a zero interest loan, only instead of paying interest you just keep upgrading parts until you have paid for whatever it is a copy of. And it is usually more expensive as with a loan, but crash it and you do not have to pay for something you no longer have.
You still have to explain where her jewlery money went !

Rattlecat

Oh, just to say I'm not predjudiced :

T-Rex, named for it's Terribly expensive Wrecks
Dragonfly Four, named by a golfer who thinks the best radio for it is a golf club.
Dragonfly 36, Three D Sickness
Piccolo, well, we can't mention that on this board but maybe it can play something other than Liberache songs.
Venom, the designer got a snake bite when recovering it from it's out of control flight.
Blade CP , that's easy , Constant Problems.
Honeybee FP, Honeybee Funky Prop. (They are, just get caught up there and try getting down without slowing the head till it tips over). But don't really worry about that, it is very sturdy and can gash you open quite a few times before it breaks !
Shogun Yo money sho gone, an you gonna have yo sef a modem problem, no mo money, no mo dem.

Break Time, back to work !

thecheatscalc

I'm using an hds-877 digital servo (brand... uhh... dunno, I got it at grand rc for a good price...) it works QUITE good and I recomend it! just don't put the push rod in the last hole, it's really fast, strong, and will max out the tail in about 1/3 of the stick I found the third hole in works just fine!

stable blade: sorry, but any heli is trouble, darned fun though! I still have the vision (once I get good) walking in with my Walkera crap (or so they say) then showing them a thing or two!

Rattlecat

Oh, that stuff was just my sense of humor. It did imply all heli's are trouble. So is general aviation and of course Ultralights. I had a CGS Hawk ultralight and it wasn't so bad at all. I got more than 350 hours of operation with very little if any as a matter of fact no parts failures. Just scheduled maintainence (tighten bolts etc.) and upgrades. It looks sort of like a Longbow Heli but is a fixed wing. But it is the same as the heli's, just keep ahead of failures. Don't wait for something to go wrong and use it that way then gripe. Anything that flies is just like my parrot. Take the feathers off and there sure ain't much there ! Everything is minimal (including it's brain).
And I plan to put a DX6 radio in my DF 36. The mechanics are impressive at least. Especially at the price. And that 36 just made my DF 4 seem like a sweet little tame thing ! Next - RAPTOR 90. Naw, just kidding.

Rattlecat

Here is something I found just now. You need to check the regulation (stability) of your tx battery pack. I checked mine with some NIMH aa's I was using in my cameras. * cell AA holder with "2000 mah" NIMH, TX off = 10.2 volts , TX on antenna in = 8.6v, TX on antenna out = 7.4 volts. Those batteries go back in the camera. And I did some glitch testing with the batteries, ant in, got glitches with the radio behind my back. Tried a regulated 12v power supply (Radio Shack 900ma) in the charger port, no batteries and zero glitches.
I left the DF 4 I was testing on my bench for two hours and the tx with the regulated power supply , I did not hear one buzz on two separate tests.
I plan to get a 10 aa cell holder for the Walkera TX, and with the 1.2v NIMH, will get the intended 12v the TX was made to run at. No wonder we get some problems ! 7.4 volts ? I'll bet I ain't the only one.

thecheatscalc

the DX6 is QUITE impressive, very nice controls, easy to set up (you can serously do it in under 20 min) and nice'n precise, a change to say the least with full control of ALL 6 channels. the range... well let's just say that if it gets out of range I think it's dead anyways! you AREN'T going to be able to see the heli! (they say 1000ft, I'd say it's probably more)

hmm interesting on the TX... I'll have to try that! though, I haven't had any problems with glitching, (I was able to serously get about 100ft+ back, which seems to be odd with a walkera Tx)

PS: the 36 is QUITE tame once setup correctly... just remember to not touch those blades! they can BITE! (even when they look like they're moving slowly... you find that out quickly

EDIT

PPS: also, one of the BEST things about the spektrum Tx is because it's on the 2.4 MHz spectrum it has one of those beutiful, non retractable, easy to operate, SOLID antennas, yeah it bends but atleast you don't have to worry about it!

Rattlecat

The 7.2 volts puts the TX down to a power level of 60% if 12v is the reference , if the power out/power in ratio is directly proportional. It's been a few years since I worked radio, I do industrial controls and robotics. That is if the tx circuit divides the input power between the logical ciruits and the rf output stage as usual. That would mean maybe a 5v regulated branch for the pulse generation and the rf amp would be directly connected to the battery.
I have been reading around and people are claiming reliable operation of the DX6 as far as a 1/4 mile or better. Maybe they will make an output amplifier for it in the future, but that can get expensive to engineer and certify.
Now I am going to look for a manual that is the same as the df 36. I need better info on TX switch settings ccpm setup, and especially on flybar and tail setup. The flybar paddles are crossed a little and that's not good on any other.

ben1101

Hey there!

Does walkera read these forums??? They seriously need to fix their elecs, but you get what you pay for I spose...

My 36 liked to go nonresponsive in a hover, and slowly drift towards the nearest solid object.... as I watch in horror!![sm=eek.gif]

Did this a few times then sent it back to china, its been 5 months now since I heard it got "lost" in the post and apparently is being returned....... but who knows???

Anyway I concur, ditch the standard elecs and upgrade!

Keep it up!

krisma

ben.. the funny thing is that if you go to the actualy walkera forum they have locked the entire since june. no more posting....hmmm