Kasowitz

I got mine flying !! I was wondering, what does the red flashing light on the side of the HouseFly indicate ? I noticed it wasnt flashing at a steady interval, I think it was at one time....does this indicate low battery or something ? I was just flying my housefly, with some great success, but I could only get it about 2 1/2 feet in the air, no higher, even with full throttle. How come I cant get it up high ?

Kasowitz

Hmmmm....Im not getting lift. Any ideas guys ?

JohnY2004

Usually that bearing right underneath the fuselage would wear out quickly. The outer shaft spins the top maingear on top of the fuselage. In order to remove the outter shaft, you need to remove the inner shaft, smashplate, and the servo arms.

The inner shaft is very easy to remove. Just loosen a screw that holds the lower maingear to the inner shaft and remove a link from a ball joint at the upper blades.

Kasowitz

Im having serious problems with my HouseFly now. After completely reassembling the thing (this time tightening the top blade assembly down onto the outer shaft) the top assembly came right apart on first flight. Am I supposed to make sure the top blade assembly is tight like that, or should it be loose ? I noticed when I had it put together before I had it loose where you could move the top blades up and down a little, and I got plenty of good flights out of it this way. What is the proper way ?

rocketrob28

Hey Humvee, have you been able to find any replacement parts for the housefly that are not o.e.m. parts? Like does anyone make a trick holder for the fly bar instead of the plastic one? I have broken that holder twice now!! Very frustrating since you have to disassemble a large number of things and then wait a week to get the shaft with that flybar holder on the end. FYI I did get mine balanced and trimmed correctly and it flies great. Forward, backward, left, right, figure eight, etc. works great. I am now very happy with it, but it would be nice to find a company that has something better than plastic replacement parts for most of these items we all seem to be breaking frequently.

Kasowitz

Ok guys...other problems resolved. Now a new problem. It seems I can only get 1 flight lasting about 2min with proper lift. After this I can only get the Housefly about 3 to 4 feet off the ground, then on about the 3rd or 4th flight im down to a foot off the ground. Where is all my power going !? This is after a 50min full charge. I am nowhere near coming close to the 10 to 15min flight time as mentioned. Any tips ? Do I need to buy a new battery ? Thanks guys !!!

humveecrusher

Kas...have you checked the tracking of the blades? That will effect lift and flight duration. What I mean is make sure that the blades look as one as they spin. Hold the HF at eye level and power it up just enough to watch the blades spin. Check the top blades first. If they look as they are one then they are ok. If they look split like a snake tongue then pop off the ball link on the bottom ball. Screw the link in 180 degrees. Check again. Do this until the blades look as one as they spin. If it gets worst, then turn the link out. Now do the same with the bottom blades. If they look split pop the link off of the ball and screw the link in. I think that by screwing it in increases pitch. If the pitch is increased to much it will help lift but reduce flight time. The HF flies best if the blades are tracking correctly. Also make sure that the blades are balanced. This will also help a lot.

As far as the battery charge, it is possible that the battery could be going bad. Try the tracking and balancing and see if that helps. If the battery is short lived a new one can be bought at Grand Hobby on eBay for $12.95. It is the battery for the dragonfly 5 which is pretty much the same heli. The parts for the dragonfly 5 also fits the HF and are very reasonably priced.

Hope this stuff helps. I am having a great time flying mine. As my skill increases and crashing is reduced I'm finding out that the HF is a very nice heli and I am Very satisfied. I may even buy a Dragonfly 5 for under $150 for a nother heli to mess around with. When these helis are set up right they are a blast to fly!

humveecrusher

I have not found any other replacement parts other then the original or the Dragonfly 5 parts. Hirobo might have some that would fit but I really don't know.

I agree...once the HF is set up right it is a blast to fly! I have found out that the way to find parts is not to crash!....LOL. Hopefully if the HF becomes more popular more parts will become available.

humveecrusher

Also I have found that if you let the HF sit for a few seconds after the first initial flight the battery power will bounce back. Sometimes I have to sit it down several times during flight. I'm not sure why this happens.

As far as the blinking light....it is the gyro. When the HF is first powered on the light will flash very fast for 1 - 2 seconds. That is the gyro initializing. Then it will flash randomly. Hope that helps.

CostaRica1

I have a X-Effect from Hobbyzone, same problem...I can't make it lift after a litle crash that messed the blades.....I starting to going crazy.

Kasowitz

humveecrusher thanks for the tips !! Thats a great price for a battery replacement !! I might pick one up just to have a spare. I was curious though, you gave me tips to check and fix the tracking of the blades, but you also mentioned that balance is important. I was under the impression that balance and tracking were the same thing? Whats the difference? Thanks ! Ill let you know what I find out tonight.

humveecrusher

Not so. To my feeble mind, tracking means that the blades are spinning in the same plane so they look as one. Balancing makes sure that the blades all weigh the same. The best way is to weigh them on a scale. I used packing tape to add weight so all four weighed approximately the same weight. This cuts down on vibration. If you don't have a scale then tape the blades together at the roots so the holes line up to make them look like an airplane blade. Use a small screwdriver or something small enough to be able to spin the combined blade on. The heavy end will drop after it stops spinning. Add tape to the lighter end that's sticking up. Do this until the blade stops spinning and returns level...kind'a like a see-saw. That way the top will be close to balanced and the bottom will be close to balanced. Hope this helps.

humveecrusher

Concausa, make sure that the blades are tracking properly and that the flybar (stabilizer bar on thr top rotor) is rocking back and forth freely. If the blades got wacked good they probably got out of wack so re-track.

Kasowitz

humveecrusher, ive checked the tracking and it looks good....it seems to be a battery issue. When first throttling up the heli jumps into the air about 2 feet then comes right down to about a foot, then will go down right above the floor and hover a few inches above the floor. After a fresh recharge however I can fly the heli up to the top of my ceiling and fly it around the room, usually I land within 2min and when I try and take off again I have lost my power it starts to do what I just mentioned. Gotta be the battery dont you think ? I ordered another one btw from ebay, thought it was a great deal and I could always use a second.

Kasowitz

I would be interested if anyone out there had a comparison of the Housefly/Dragonfly versus the Bladerunner heli ?

humveecrusher

Mine does the same thing, but if I let it set for a second or two I can keep doing that for up to 10 minutes. Sometimes the flight time is longer then others and I don't know why. I'm thinking about buying an 8.4 V 100 mAh Li-po and charger to get longer flight times but the battery is $36 and the charger is $46 so I'm not sure if I'm ready to shell out the cash yet. I will probably buy the battery that you bought along with some parts as the Dragonfly 5 parts are interchangable.

As for the comparision between the House-Fly and Bladerunner...I can do that as I have 3 Bladerunners and the House-Fly. The BR is awesome for what it is. It is perfect for indoors as it is light and can be flown anywhere inside. It flies very well and is very stable. It does need some minor mods to improve its forward flight. It has a 3 channel transmitter and receiver. The throttle is on the left, pitch and yaw is on the right so it can confuse us if we are use to having the yaw on the left but is easy to adapt to. The later models have a longer lasting battery which can fly up to 10 minutes on a charge and are found on QVC.com. For $65 it is an awesome toy!

The House-Fly, even though considered a toy, is more like a true RC Heli. As you know it is a true 4 channel with all the controls like it should be. This heli is a little more tricky to fly and is harder to set up but is very stable and fun to fly. The forward flight is slow but faster then the BR. The flight time is about the same or maybe a little longer. I enjoy both as they both put a smile on my face! If I had to choose....I would have both!

Kasowitz

Cool Thanks for the info. Mine is flying pretty good now except my controls seem a little weak. Yaw works perfect, Pitch backwards works pretty good, Pitch forward doesnt seem to work at all in flight, and the Rolls seem to work ok just are really sensitive I try not to use the roll yet. Any ideas about the forward pitch ? I really cant get this thing to go exactly where I want it to go yet, but its getting closer.

humveecrusher

Glad to hear that it's flying better for you. All the controls behave the same way on mine too. I believe that is the nature of this heli. I find that forward flight is limited too. Part of it is because of the center of gravity. I moved my battery holder forward about an 1/8th of an inch by drilling new holes. That helped some. Make sure that the screws on the arm that connects the servos are loose enough to allow the arm to move freely but tight enough so they won't fall out. That too will help. Also, I will "throw" it into forward, so to speak. That sometimes is abrupt enough to drop the nose and give it some good speed. It seems to increase in speed in turns too. That's always fun! With practice the forward flight will get better. That is the only complaint that I have too, but it's really ok for indoor flight. Keeps me from hitting things...lol.

I think that these motors get hot and that is why I have to set it down. I'm thinking of drilling holes in the rear casing to allow the main motor to cool better. As you get better on the controls you will find that this heli is very fun. Happy flying! and let me know how the new battery from Grand Hobbies works out. Hope this all helps. Thanks.

Kasowitz

I got some more flights out of it last night. I got it flying better and better. I was able to take off and land on a stack of pillows I had setup, I wasnt able to take the most direct path there but I got there and landed ! Its amazing when an RC heli goes where you want it to go . Good idea about giving some ventillation for the motor I will look into doing the same thing. I lost the fake tail rotor last night in a crash, the whole thing broke off along with the very tip of the tail. But it still flys fine without it ! Not even going to worry about trying to glue it back together it will just fall apart after the next crash again.

I also think the motor and battery heat is what cuts down the flight times. I am only able to keep the heli in the air for about a min of flight around the room before I start losing lift and have to set her down. After that I have to let the heli sit there and cool off for a few min, then I can fly again. I wish I could fly it longer than a min, but I wonder if these motors could even handle that without burning out. Thats the only thing Im afraid to repair on this Heli, if a motor burns out.

humveecrusher

Glad to hear it Kas! I think that any heli is hard to land it exactly where you want it to. It takes a lot of practice! I even have a hard time puting my Bladerunner where I want it, although it is a little easier then the House-Fly. Ground effect starts to mess with it a little bit that close to the ground but I too am getting better.

I just had a wicked crash about an hour ago. My battery was doing great for a change and I was getting super power for almost 5 minutes and I got a little cocky and took it to close to the ceiling. Whaap!...right into the ceiling, knocked off the stabilizer bar, knocked a top blade off, dropped like a rock 7 feet to the tile floor and broke the bottom plate of the battery holder where the screw goes and broke the tail boom. I glued everything back together and repaired the battery holder plate by gluing a flate peice of plastic to the front part where the screw goes and drilled a hole for the screw. After the glue dried I tried a flight. Everything seemed to be balanced so I took it up. It hovered pretty good so I tried some forward flight. Oh man!...it was all over the place so I brought it down and inspected it. In the crash, the nipple inside the swash had broke off and was missing allowing the swash to flop around. What to do now! I got to fly, so I looked around and found a little T-nipple from a small air hose. After checking the fit of the tiny pin I cut the end off with a utility knife and glued it on the collar inside the swash to make a nipple. Now I'm waiting for the glue to dry and will report after lunch on how the repair worked.

humveecrusher

Just got done with a test flight and all is well! In fact, the forward flight has improved to the point that I have to be careful not to give it to much at first. I am happy!

rocketrob28

Hey humvee, you mentioned that you broke the piece that holds the flybar, how did you fix it? Were you lucky enough to find the piece that broke off and ca glue it back? I have broken that flybar holder mount twice now and have obviously had to buy two inner shafts. Very frustrating, but damn its a lot of fun!!!!

Rocket rob

humveecrusher

Hey Rocket...I got lucky and broke the blade holder and not the flybar holder. Everything that I've broken I've used super glue with great success. The blades hold unless I hit something [X(] I also broke the nipple off of the inside of the swash today where the pin connects through the holder as I said earlier and made a nipple from a T-nipple from a small air line. Worked great! I'm back in the air as good as new. Super glue works good if you have all the peices, and if you don't...improvise!

Kasowitz

Im getting a lot of power cut offs, where the heli just shuts down and drops from the sky. This will happen to me after the 2nd flight. I unplug the battery, plug it back in, and then it will fly fine again for another flight or two, then cut out again. Then as the battery gets weaker ofcourse it cuts out more, but it seems Im getting some either random ones at the beginning or something is wrong with my battery. I dont think its from heat as neither the battery or the motor seems very warm on the 3rd flight, after resting the heli for a few min in between. I try not to heat it up too much.

Kasowitz

Oh ya, it did once cut out on me on the first flight after a charge. Was flying for about 25 seconds and it cut out and droped.