I found out that mine is really tail heavy. Even though the tail motor doesn't spin, it was tail heavy. Whenever I flew it, it would go backwards, but very slowly. So I put All the weight on the tail rotor, And it goes backwards now. And the flight times are getting longer, and it seems to need less trimming.

I got back from radio shack, and this one works!!! They let me test in the store. So I just had to fly it around the store some. I have only flown it for a minute or so already, so I haven't flown it much.

Ok, I started flying it and it just spins and spins a spins. It's not even controllable. Should I try and adjust the POT on SW2? And which way should I turn it?

Anybody?

return it

check the gears. the upper gear sometimes loses contact with its pinion. this is pretty common, and quite easy to fix. you'll notice on the pinion there's a few very small grooves on the outer edge, this is where the spur gear slips back into the pinion. i wouldnt play much with the other SW POTs, its pretty easy to get things out of whack with those.

nick

They look fine, and the blades are spinning. I should of explained it better.

I turn everything on, and then take off, it will go up to the ceiling so I let off the throttle and bring it back down to 2-3 ft above the ground. It just starts spinning like one motor is getting all of the power. It spins to the right. So I give it full left trim and turn the stick all the way to the left. It still is spinning pretty fast. Sounds like I got another bad one.

Edit: The whole time it's spinning, it is in the air.

OK, In the last 3 days I went through 2 MM and the same results as RC. No matter what I did it would sustain forward flight at all , I tried the following to fix it
1. SW3 turned CCW just a bit , if you go to far the tail motor spins all the time.
2. Twist tail about 5 degrees CW
3. zip ties on the motors about 1 1/2 " long w/ 2 rubber weights on each one
4. Balance the blades
5. Throttle spring removed
The best it does is tilt forward a little and go about 1' then stop , no reverse at all. When I tried to go forward in either direction it just starts spinning out of control and crashes. Then I have to put the top gear back in place and try , try , and try again. Ahh forget it ,I am taking this thing back and getting another picco z , they had one left. This is for a friend and I can't expect her to pay $ 80.00 for something that wouldn't. She wanted a picco any way. I got her an AA w/upgraded Tx and she loves it...

bummer to hear you guys are having such problems with yours. when the MM is flying properly, its a fantastic heli, better than the picco in my opinion (you get more control and precision over the picco, but the picco gets the speed - there's always a tradeoff).

but, like i said before, first gen production models always have more problems, wait till the 2nd gen comes out and things should be much better (probably cheaper as well).

nick

I will return it and get the 2 channel bladerunner or something. Waste of $95.

you could spend 50 bucks and get the "mega" BR, the KA-50 Blackshark. its like the normal BRs, but the motors are bigger and last longer, and the lipo is larger for longer flight times. its 3 channels as well. they've recently dropped the pice to 50 bucks too, which is good considering it was over 100 at one point, they've got spares too, which is always nice. i'll probably break down and get one of these too (i've already got 3 differant types of BRs, why not one more?)

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Pr...roduct=6018557

nick

I noticed that the bottom rotor spins slow, and the top spins fast. The motor that spins the top rotor, glides very well, like it's on bearings. The motor the motor that spins the bottom rotor spins slower and is like it is on rusted bearings. It's not smooth and doesn't spin like the other one. Also, once I turn the motors off, the top rotor spins after, the bottom rotor stops pretty quick.

This probably dosn't mean anything, but I think I should try and lube the motors.

RC18,
take a close look at the upper gear that drives the lower rotor. you'll see a notch where the two interconnect. this notch didnt seem to get formed well when they did the molding process so it does bind a little.

this is an easy way to get around that: take the upper rotor off, slide the middle spacer off, and then pull the lower rotor off. if the upper gear tries to pull up with the lower rotor, then you'll know its binding. you've got two choices if this is whats happening, both are easy to do. one, when you put the lower rotor back on, dont push it all the way down onto the notch of the upper gear, just a few millimeters so it'll drive the lower rotor. then, put the middle spacer back on, then the upper rotor, and see if it has freed up any.

if it's still binding, take the rotors off again and take a small file and sand the notch on both the rotor and the gear. put it all together again and see if spins easier.

one other usefull mod is to completely get rid of that plastic middle spacer. there should be two peices of silicone tubing on the heli. one that holds the upper rotor in place, and one on the bottom of the tail motor housing. take whichever piece is longer and cut it in half. take the upper rotor and plastic spacer off and slide one of the peices of silcone tubing down onto the rotor shaft till it's flush with the lower rotor. this will hold the lower rotor in place. next take a 2nd peice of the tubing and push down onto the rotor shaft about a half inch and place the upper rotor back on, then simply put the 3rd peice of tubing on the shaft to hold down the upper rotor. its saves weight, reduces drag on the system, and also gives a little more clearance between the upper and lower rotor so they wont clash as easily.

on a side note, my bearings and CF came today. took almost all day to do it, with lots of swearing and a little pain, but i succesfully replaced the stock rotor shaft (had a slight bend in it) with new CF and installed the bearings. the rotors have almost no wobble in them at all, maybe 1 millimeters worth, which is a far cry better than what it was. i still have a little bit of binding to fix, but despite that, my flight times have increased to over ten minutes (only got ten minutes before if i didnt use the tail motor). it was a pain in the butt to do the mod, but it is certainly worth it.

nick

I will try that stuff.

I don't know if this is the problem, but when I lift up the bottom rotor, the top gear comes up with it.

You said
"if it's still binding, take the rotors off off again and take a small file nad sand the notch on both the rotor and the gear. put it all together again and see if it spins easier."

But then how well the bottom rotor get any power?

yep, i mentioned that in my post, if that top gear comes up when you try to pull the lower rotor up, its binding a little. definitely dont file the notch away, all that needs to be done is to widen the gap in the notch a little bit so when the lower rotor and upper gear connect, its not such a tight squeeze between the two. still not sure why that causes such a binding problem, but i had the same problem. after filing the notch a little wider, it was better, i just used a fingernail file (they're life savers!).

nick

I will try that.

Even with the blades off, it seemed like the motor that powers the bottom rotor, is still binding.

The first time when I put the top gear and the bottom rotor togehter, I didn't put them all of the way on there. It worked for a little, but then stopped working.

I couldn't find a pico z in my area so I bought the MM. I think I got a good one. I have about a dozen charges on it now. It needs the trim adjusted as the battery runs down. There is only one trim so I can deal with that. It is really slow forward and back. I put the larger blade on the tail just to get it to move at all. Can I use a larger prop, like the prop off of an AA?

an AA prop wont fit, its for a 6mm motor (plus it would probably weigh so much, the CG would be back too far).

try putting a little weight on the nose so that the heli just barely crawls forward when you're not using the tail. this way, you can still hover and go backwards, but your forward flight should be a bit quicker (this type of particular heli will always have a slow forward speed though).

I don't know what to do with this thing. I have already tried the only 2 my RS had, so I guess i'm stuck with it[:@]. I would rather have 3 piccos for the $95 I paid for this thing.

why not just return it and buy some picco's then? i know it sucks to not get a cool new product to work right, but you might as well save your cash if nothing else. why did yours cost 95 dollars?

It cost $95 because I got the extra blades, thats 80, and some bats, thats about 90, then tax. I would return it for piccos, if only my RS's had them.[:@]

Thanks, Micro Builder. I put all the weight they gave me on the front. It works good enough for now. I guess if it went faster it would do the " pendulum of death " thing more often. ( or whatever that is called when it swings around until the blades hit each other)
Hey, RC18t145, they had about 3 more MM at the Radio Shack at 87th and Pflum. I called all over Kansas City ( RS and Toys r US ) and there are no pico z to be found. I want one too! Let me know if you find any.

Ched, go [link=http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2431387&cp=2032062.2032402.203 2406&pg=3&parentPage=family]here[/link] and go to the part that says "Other ways to get it". Than click on the thing that says "Available at most stores, find it near you". Type in your zip code, according to it, there are a lot that have it here.

It helps to have people that live around the same place as you.

Micro, I just tryed it out again, it works but after a couple minutes, the motor dies. It's not the drivetrain. I can take off the gears and everything, and the motor is harder to spin than the other, better one. Should I try and lube it with WD40 or something? HOw would I take the motor out to lube it?

best way to keep the MM from starting to swing and eventually crash is to be as gentle as possible on the sticks. the quicker you try to make it move, the quicker it'll get out of shape. when i go to forward flight, i push up on the stick just about as slowly as i can untill i'm at full throttle, i'm also controlling the yaw at the same time as thats when it really can get hairy.

RC18, i'd be willing to bet you could return the rotors and save yourself the 10 bucks. these things seem almost indestructable, they're just so small. as for the motor, it could very well be going bad, coreless motors can vary a lot from one to another so one could be great and the next could barely work. i also found out that the motors in the MM are customs, stronger magnets, longer lasting brushes, ect. its kind of a bummer cause thats what they did with the bigger BRs and their N20 motors. they would burn out and replacements wernt always cheap and you could only use that one kind. i havent heard anything in the way of replacement parts either. they should last a while, but it might take some hunting to find a replacement.

if you do oil the motor, use as little oil as possible, just a tiny drop on the shaft where it goes through the brass bushing. too much and it could get inside the motor and do some damage. i use liquid graphite for all my lubing, its non conductive and it doesnt hurt any type of plastic or metals, works pretty good too.

nick