Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

Hey all,

I apologize if this is in the wrong part of the forum; I may have missed the "help me" section of this wonderful place. Hoping perhaps y'all can help me figure out how to fix this, as I have googled and have found nothing. (That might just have been due to the distraction of the upset kid screaming about his broken toy helicopter, though!) Please bear with me, as I'm still learning the terminology for RC vehicles and mechanical components.

For Christmas my son received an Air Hogs Havoc Heli. It's a little thing, about six inches long, and it seems to be made out of some type of styrofoam-like stuff. When the cord on the controller is plugged into the helicopter, it's supposed to charge. (Charging mode is indicated by a light on the controller--when the light goes off, it's done charging). It used to charge just fine, and we'd get anywhere between four and six minutes of flight time. Now the little light on the controller just flashes on for a second, and then won't charge any further. We get about 15-30 seconds of flight time from the charge it does get.

As it's been opened and played with, we can't return it--store policy. So, we decided on trying to fix it first, and if we can't fix it, replacing it once I've saved my pennies again.

What we've tried:
1. Plugging the helicopter into a different known-good controller to charge. (This didn't work.)
2. Plugging my husband's (known-good) helicopter into the boy's controller to charge. (It's also an Air Hogs Havoc Heli mini copter, and it DOES charge just fine on boy's controller.)
3. Flying the helicopter until it won't respond, to drain the battery, then plugging it into a controller. (This also doesn't work for us--same issue occurs.)

From this, I suspect he probably damaged the battery internal to the helicopter itself. Does anyone know if there is a way to replace the little battery in the helicopter? If so, could I find parts at Frys or Radio Shack? Also, is it true if you accidentally nick the battery inside the helicopter it could go up in a little ball of flame?

Thanks in advance, RC enthusiasts! :) Anything you can suggest is most appreciated!

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

Mrs Miller. here's a link to the battery. http://www.bsdmicrorc.com/products.cfm?catID=10001 I think the heli has a 50 mah battery stock. The repair is fairly simple. Carefully remove or cut the sticker. Now put the exacto knife away. With even, gentle pressure peel the halves of the heli apart. I think you'll find a loose wire to the charge port. If not and you do need to replace the battery, that's easy as well.

Using a 25 watt soldering iron, tin the new battery. That means put a nice puddle of solder on each terminal. Verify your polarity, the full river brand is usually marked, the using your soldering iron heat up the solder on the existing battery one terminal at a time. When the solder is hot you simply remove the wire, noting the polarity(black is neg, red is pos). Once you have both wires loose, reverse the process. Once the first wire is installed put some electrical tape on it(or a bit of hot glue) to protect it. The same with the second wire. I use 0.022 hi tech solder for this type of operation

I'll see if I can't find a pic of the heli showing the internals.

I hope this is helpful.

Tim

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

I think that on this site you will be able to see what you want to see. http://www.piccoztoolbox.no-ip.com/

Tim

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

Thank you, Ferndale Air Force! I'll keep all posted on the outcome. Hopefully the patient will live. ;)

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

Good luck,

Tim

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

We are having a different problem with our Air Hogs Havoc Heli-- My son just purchased it a couple of days ago. It has been great until today. When he turns it on , the helicopter automatically starts full blast. When he puts the throttle in the middle position the heli stops. The heli runs full blast in the up and in the down position of the throttle. Another kid in our neighborhood is having the exact same problem. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated....
Thanx!

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

Hey Ferndale Airforce, Since you know so much more about the electronics of the Havoc, maybe you can give me a clue: I recently took mine and modified the bodywork. I replaced the cheesy paper paper fin with a lightweight balsa stab with a radiused cut out to clean up the air for the tail rotor. I then added landing skids made from laminated balsa, rounding them to look like steel tubes. Now I have a better looking and a lot better performing living room terror. But, where I am lacking is knowledge about the electronics. I would like to increase the size of the battery to get a longer flight time. It's ok now, but it could stand improvement. you stated in an earlier post that the stock unit is 50 mah. Do you think that I could go with a bigger battery without freaking out the system? I believe I can more than make up the difference in added weight by removing excess weight from the foam body work. Thank you, John

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

Rose, can you try your sons heli elsewhere? at the school or in a park? Wait, this heli works off of IR beams. Sorry, I had to switch gears. The usual culprits of control problems are flourescent lights. The flicker rate causes the issue. For two kids to have the same problem kind of stumps me. Since this is since Christmas, did something change in the house? Maybe a new TV? Just trying to get a clue.

Thorne, I'm more of a surgeon that internal guy, that said, I've read about guys stuffing 100mah batteries in. You did my best mod for this heli, but what I did was to take a foam plate, wrap it around a big hot sauce bottle. put in some water and micro wave it. The foam was formed(bigger than the bottle) and a hunter heli was made.

Tim

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

I saw a 90 mah battery that's available so it's worth a try. If it frys the system, it's not as sad as drilling a full scale RC plane into the ground and digging the motor out of the dirt with a stick. I like your trick for shaping foam. I'll have ta give it a try. I also want to switch the steel drive shaft with a carbon fiber one and switch out the bushings with tiny ball bearing races. That should give it better throttle response along with other good things.... I checked out the BSD Micro RC site you mentioned. Geez, I feel like a junkie.. All that cool stuff!

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

I have the same problem, I would like to know how to change out the battery in my Heli, will no longer take a full charge, very short flight time.

RE: Air Hogs Havoc Heli battery no longer charges
 

Air Hogs Havoc heli battery no longer charges ... so i charge heli until both green charging light and red on/off lights on the transmitter goes out each time (for 2 or 3 times) and havoc still works like new!!