ORIGINAL: HelisRule
Ok, I've checked it over good and nothing seems out of whack. So I finally got my training blades put on and adjusted for tightness. Put the [stock] battery in and started up the Axe. Something is definitely wrong here; very little power. I need some help troubleshooting...
Q1: Stock battery; will it discharge over time even if not used, and if so, do I need to keep it plugged into charger during long periods in hangar? Could I have overdischarged it at some point and damaged it?
Q2: Tail rotor; if I turn it with my finger it feels very notchy, not smooth at all. Almost as if the gear teeth are too big for the blade gear or the motor itself is not turning smoothly. Is that normal? Everything feels tight in the tail, i.e. motor mount screws tight. And tail spins up but I think it may sound different; not sure.
Q3: Throttle; When I start to throttle up, the blades start turning, but not like they used to, and just past mid-stick power drops off. I've noticed a degradation in power at the top end of the stick from day one as the battery got weaker, but now it's almost like turning off a switch; once I start going past dead center with the throttle stick, power just drops off and everything pretty much stops. If I back the stick back down to bottom and then start up again the blades start turning but then stop after center stick.
Q4: E-board POTs; really need help here. I'm 99% sure I have the middle one back at factory position but not sure about the bottom one. Before I stupidly started messing with them, the middle one was at about 12:30. Turning it counter-clockwise I could only go to about 10:00 before it stopped, so I'm pretty certain I have that one where it was. Unfortunately, the bottom one is where I'm unsure. I know it was originally just a hair beyond the middle one, like the 1:00 position, but I don't know what the relative counter-clockwise dead stop position was. I don't think it was as close as 10:00 so perhaps that POT was closer to its mid range? Does anyone know where these POTs should be from factory? Would having these POTs off have anything to do with my power problem?
Q5: Head: shakes pretty good upon start-up. Used to do that when the blades first started spinning but would level off and track nicely by half-stick. Now doesn't seem to be enough power to come out of it, or is there something else going on here? Like I said, nothing looks bent or out of whack and my last crash didn't appear that severe.
Appreciate any help.
Thanks.
Although not an expert by any means, here's my experience. I can't tell you for sure, but you might want to try and put on the original blades and see if you still don't have the power. In my experience so far, when I don't have the power, its usually been my motor going out, but it could be the training blades. I've never tried those. As for batteries, they all discharge to some extent over time and I would never keep batteries on charger during storage. If I'm going to store my batteries for a extended period of time, I keep some of the charge left in it so if it does drain down, it won't be to the point of overdischarge. The tail rotor, I believe is normal. Mine does the same thing and it fly's great. On Q3, I would think its going to be 1 one 3 things; Your motor wearing out, battery nearing end of life, (have you tried using another battery) or problems with the e-board. Personally, I think its the motor going. I had a problem just like that with my tail motor. Once I changed it out, it was flying good as new. Playing with the pots was something I've always stayed away from, but, if you haven't turned it more than 180 degrees like the manual says, I would just set them like they are in the photos and restart from there. Sorry, I've never had to mess with them myself. As far as the head shaking, that sounds like something is out of balance. I'd recheck everything on the head. Make sure everything is balanced out as much as possible and if you have a blade balancer, I would test them and see if they're balanced. I've only had to replace a couple and have never needed to balance them, but you never know with the new trainer blades. Sorry if I didn't help you out here, but I figured I'd give you some of my real world experiences in an attempt to help. Hope everything works itself out and let us know what you find out.