Solman

I was flying with a friend who has a trex 450 today. We were both flying pretty good, but he got disoriented at one point and did a decent crash sideways into the ground. It also appears that he still had the throttle in 3D mode thought he wasn't. Ok, it happens, so I press on with flying and have a great time and did really good. I brought it back and then all of a sudden about 15 ft up (almost a hover), I lose power and drops. Power seem to have recovered about 1 sec before impact. Don't have a clue as to what happened. Luckily my damage was fairly minimal. I will have to replace the shaft, blade holders, and the spindle. Not too bad, but very annoying. I am still trying to figure as to what happened. I know I didn't do anything wrong. BTW, from what I saw TREX 450 damage was: main shaft both blades busted both drive gears chewed up broken skid bent flybar

Wnuk

LVC cutoff on your ESC likely. How long were you flying for when it happened?

Solman

I was about 6 minutes. I checked the battery afterwards and it had about 45-55% health. The voltage was good as well. I tend to fly on the conservative as far as time goes.

supra6

Was the RX led flashing, could have been a brownout. What ver. RX you have installed? After a loss of signal the TX/RX should rebind, up to that point the RX will comand what was set during the initial binding process, v1.6 RX's solved the slow rebind problem.

jon6565

6 mins is a fairly long flight for the Blade but obviously depends on what mA rated battery you were using. Just to clarify - when you say that the battery was 45 - 55% health, what were you measuring? Volts?

If you are using the 1800mA battery that comes with the B400, (or any battery for that matter) you should not exceed 80% of the mA rating of the battery. So on an 1800mA battery that is 1440 mA. That doesn't preclude low voltage as a cause however which is where I am putting my money as the ESC will drop power to save things!

As an indication, I fly 2200mA packs on my Blade 400 and I go max 5 mins and that is border-line 80% capacity (i.e. I put around 1760mA back in).

I did read once that hovering in Normal mode and having the motor labor will drain the battery sooner too. I don't know your flying style though. Do you fly in idle up and if so what's your curve?

Solman

I was using the 2200 mah battery at the time. For normal flying, I have been told depending on flying 7-12 minutes. I have my timer set for 6 minutes and this is the first issue that I have seen. I am not doing 3D yet, so it is mainly flying around fairly aggressive and doing hard turns. I usually throw some hammer head stalls in there, but that is about my max at this point. I did use the throttle up, but only for a short time. Using my meter, it didn't show it as being low enough to cause a problem. That is unless there was a sudden drain or loose connection happened.

jon6565

If I were you I would cut your flight time down to 5 mins and have a buffer in there. There is no way you will get 12 mins from a 2200mA battery with your suggested flying style. Are you able to measure mA back in with your charger?

I still thinking LVC!

let us know what you find...

Solman

I have a battery life checker that I bought for on the go.  I can check the status and do a real time.

JPEE

Solmon,
I agree with Jon 200%. I fly 2250 25C packs in my 400's. There is no way you can get 12 min "safely" out of your pack. My timer is set for 6 min. That gives me a cusion shops I want to push another min or twoon rare occassion IF I had been flying realy lazy slow. Withe 6 min rule if I fly in idle up I cut it down to 5 min period. We are talking a couple of hundred bucks up there not to mention labor and parts from crashs. Get more batteries and fly them shorter times. This will give two rewards. The batteries will last longer and you won't be crashing.
I also want to touch on what Jon said about checking the mAh-milliamps you have used out of your battery AND how much you you put back in. This is the all time most important factor in flying. Also the C rating of the pack comes into play as well. Again I only fly Hobby King 2250 25c packs.
I hope the info we have shared helps. Also, I don't what what this device you check your batteries with but nothing is better than a charger tha tells you RIGHT there what you put back in there.

Good flying JPEE

Solman

my stock chargers don't tell me anything. The battery checker I got was from hobby king. BTW, I agree about the 12 minute thing. That is just what I have heard and until now, never had a problem with my 6 minute rule.

JPEE

SOLMAN,

Here are two very good chargers that we use here. The first will charge TWO batterys with the yellow splitter seen on HK site. The fist charger is. 50 watt whic is good but Noe as fast and heavey duty as charger two. Number to is 150 watt so you can see the difference. We can charge two packs in 50 min. Give this a look.

50 watt http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...w/_accessories

150 watt http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=7523

Adaper to charge TWO 3S packs at once http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10993&Product_Name=Twin_pack_charge_lead_(2_x_3S)6S_w/_XT60

Special note. Hobby Kiing is changing all of their chargers and batteries and splitters to the new configuration. Take now and YOU may have to start buying some news if you want to keep what you have.

JPEE good shopping