RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Hey Bruce:

How do you like how far your thread has grown? :D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I hate to say this but I hope you're now thinking "fuse mod". Probably would have saved you this aggravation.

Good luck with your repairs. As someone who has recently rebuilt his heli twice, I can feel your pain.

Bill

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I guess I was in denial. "Me? Need a fuse mod? Not me, can't happen to me, won't happen to... crap."

Sounds like CHEAP insurance at this point, especially from an experienced point-of-view; both in terms of money, but frustration as well.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

You did the group a favor by reporting your incident. Most of the time you just cut the throttle and it's not a problem. But you can't always anticipate every possible scenario and yours certainly falls into that category. Hey maybe it's time for that Belt CP (probably NOT, but I'm always looking for somebody ELSE to spend their money for a change!:D).

Good luck!

Bill

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Gooooooood Morning Flyers!!

Just wanted to let ya all know I got the new crystals in and I can now fly the falcon. It is a bit squirrely and has some pretty good viberations as it winds up. Tonight I`m going to ballance everything and fly it some more. WHAT A HOOT!! I ve had a big ol smile on my face since last night and cant wait to get home today. I have been eyeing the server room here at work I think it is big enough to pratice in or I may have to just take a few days off to play with this thing.:D:);)

Hover???? What the heck is that???

Thanks again.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Wade:

Glad you finally got in the air!

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Bruce, thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like all the effort and frustration that you go through to learn to fly one of these beginner's helis has really paid off for you.

There may be hope left yet!!;)

Bill

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Wade, Congratulations!!

As to "hover", I have no idea but I think they say that you'll know it when you see it! [sm=lol.gif]

Let us know how your crashing.....I mean flying.....goes.

Bill

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Thanks for the update Bruce, and glad to hear your new 'toy' is treating you well.

It's also good to see that you occasionally check back in on your thread. There is so much good info. here, and many of us might have crashed once and forgotten our Falcons without this forum.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Ya' know, the Falcon 40 thread almost died in its earlier days. Days would go by with only a hit or two. I was really learning a lot and wanted to share my experiences to help others out as well. Since there were no local heli pilots, I decided to hang out with you guys here at RCU. Still like popping in here to see whats up with everyone...

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Awesome! I knew we'd get you breaking parts soon enough!

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

You can always buy $25 worth to get over the $5 handling fee and sell the rest to us who don't use a fuse mode.
:)

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

What is (or isn't) your heli doing with the receiver?

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

You know, I even thought of doing that. I can buy, say, 20 of them and sell them for $3/each. The shipping costs (HA) would be about the price of a first-class letter. I even have anti-static bags to send them in...

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I'm at work on lunch now..hoping i can find some more info on smoked MOSFETs.

i have maybe about 2 hours total time messing with soldering, i got some leads done on a motor, and a few other items laying around the house to practice on. when i get the replacement super MOSFET thats being recommended, what is the procedure to get it attached? in simple lamans terms. from where to where needs to be bridged/connected.

anybody have any tips, or links for a beggining "solderist" like me?

am i supposed to put tip on the parts, then let solder flow down to tip? or am i supposed to let it "drip" by holding it closely above the part i want connected. like i said, im at lunch at have limited time to check previous backpages today.

links or text/pics ..either will do. but if you have personal advice , like to hear it.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

The best results I get when soldering is to first add some flux to both pieces being soldered and I 'tin' them (coat the end in solder). I then clean & tin the tip of my iron (an old wet sock is very good for this). Next, I place a small amount of extra solder on the iron tip, bring together the surfaces to be soldered, then I heat them up with the hot iron - the solder that is coating the pieces, as well as the little extra on the iron, usually flows where is needed. As soon as the solder flows, and making sure that the joint is sufficient (it all looks 'silver'), I blow on it to cool it down and test it's strength by giving it a slight tug; if it stays, you're on your way!

I am actually looking forward to this mod. I will likely order a MOSFET tomorrow (PAYDAY!) and give it a shot.

I can order the OEM MOSFETS (10 amps) at about $.69 each, but why not get one that is 10x as rugged (100 amps) for 2-3 imes the cost. Someone else mentioned that if the motor does stall again, you will burn something else before you burn that MOSFET - a fuse, if you have one installed! :D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Some of the best pictures/videos on how to solder:
http://www.curiousinventor.com/guides


Sparkfun also has some good stuff:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/hdr.php?p=tutorials

Scroll down a bit, and you'll see
Crazy Soldering
Surface Mount Soldering Tutorials

As broggyr said, flux is your friend!

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

At 100A, you'll burn down your house! I would definitely put a fuse in place, since at that current, you would vaporize a trace on the circuit board (which is much harder to replace). [:@]

mrassm also posted another mosfet he found that was a drop in replacement, but could handle 21A
see page 32 #776

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

That's a good idea, I may just do that. Maybe I'll get one of each, for the halibut ;) :D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I posted photos of my Mods here before, just don't remember where? Its been at least a year ago I think.

Original Photos were on my old PC which I left behind when I changed jobs.

I used the HRF3205 MOSFET if I recall...

Never had one fail yet !!!! Its not a pretty mod, but it sure is a lasting one I'd say.

The last one I repaired was for for a fellow Fal 40 pilot who went by the handle RiggerBill here at RCU electric helis

Good luck, Robo

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I went back and actually found pics of the HRF3205 MOSFET mod, it looks very straight forward. I saved them for future reference ;)

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Bill,

I love how you put that.........................................:D

I did bounce it off the wall in my shop and was almost too scared to go look but it was fine. I`m going to order some parts tonight just to have some on the way.

Thanks guys. Happy flying.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

page 31 #773 & #774
:D

-Dave

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Hi all, time for a fun story thats a little off topic. Hope you don't mind.:D
So the day after I got my F-40 (1/11/08) I took it to work to show all my buddy's, one of them was looking into getting something a little bigger than the warthog that he got for his kids. He hasn't got one yet....he is a little nervous about the time it takes to learn how to fly it...and his younger kinds wanting to fly it/break it.
But there is 3 other guys at work that have bought new helis sense that one day I brought my F-40 to show. One guy got the ESKY HoneyBee #4 (new to the hobby), one of the other guys I know got a fancy new 3D heli (he has an older 3D and has a lot of experience with them) and the most recent is a guy that is totally new to RC helis......he got the Belt CP! he brought it to work today so I could see it/try it out. All i can say is I WANT ONE!!! He let me fly it and it was a big rush! (partly because I was way scared I would break his new toy if I crashed) But it seemed very stable in the air! (I only took it about 4-5 feet up) The giro did a good job of keeping the tail in place and the controls seemed pretty smooth.
I'm glad I have the F-40 to learn on so i had a weeee bit of confidence at the controls.
It was way fun! I'm gonna start saving my nickels and dimes!;)

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

WHOOPS, I missed the posted directed to me about the receiver...


basically mine is doing the same thing as BROGGY's. tail motor is fine, servos are fine, but dead main motor. (on my recent non working 4 in 1)

i have the old (first one broken) 4 in 1 as well, and the case is off. i can see the tiny "volcano" look on one of the chips, not very big at all, but its about the same size as the black circle thing that is on either chip.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Yep, that's ED ZACHARY what mine looks like, and in the same spot

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Yep, that should be fixable. If you're not comfortable doing the soldering, I can take care of it.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I have to say, this is an amazing forum, and I'm on quite a few.
We've posted 158 pages - almost 3950 messages at this point - and there is never a condesending or arrogant tone, flaming, etc; just great help, tips, etc.

Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum, I salute you!

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Hey all~
I finally got my parts back from Xheli and got my bird back together... I just had a quick question for all you electronic guys out there.

I have the stock battery pack and I am charging it with a Dynamite charger @ 1 amp, is this good/bad?

I only have 3 settings I can charge @ [1, 2, & 4 amps]

I just went to try and fly it for the first time and it wouldn't get off of the ground - which was making me think that the battery wasn't charged enough...

Thanks in advance!

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Hey Flyers!
Thought all of you would get a kick out of this. My parts list that I just ordered
Stuff I thought I needed on hand.

USHobbieSupply

1 x HM-004-Z-04 Main Gear and Shaft Combo **Ge (HM-004-Z-04) = $0.00
1 x HM-004-Z-04 Main Gear and Shaft Combo (HM-004-Z-04) = $5.00
1 x HM-004-Z-14 Rotor Head Core - Top Frame Connector 1 x HM-004-Z-14 Rotor Head Core - Top Frame Connector (HM-004-Z-14) = $5.00
1 x HM-004-Z-09 Main Rotor Blades **Get 1 Free (HM-004-Z-09) = $0.00
1 x SuperSkids - SS-300-Black-v3 (SS-300-Black) = $24.95
1 x HM-004-Z-33 Screw Set (HM-004-Z-33) = $4.50
1 x SuperBoom-10.5 (SuperBoom-10) = $14.95
1 x HM-004-Z-09 Main Rotor Blades **Get 1 Free (HM-004-Z-09) = $0.00
1 x HM-004-Z-27 Main Frame **Get 1 Free Specia (HM-004-Z-27) = $0.00
1 x HM-004-Z-27 Main Frame (HM-004-Z-27) = $7.50
2 x HM-004-Z-01 Rotor Head (HM-004-Z-01) = $10.00
1 x Esky - EK1-0224 Main Motor Heat Sink - BLUE (EK1-0224) = $1.50
1 x HM-004-Z-16 Canopy (HM-004-Z-16) = $5.35

Flying has been a series of hops, crash, hops, crash, hops, crash...................too much fun!

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Wade:

You're gonna love those SuperSkids. You gotta let me know how you like the SuperBoom!

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Guys,

There is a thread over on the Eflite forum that has a lot of good info as well. Thread title is "Struggling with Single Rotor Basics" Has alot of great info in it. I must say I have to echo Broggyr, this is an excellent thread almost too much information here.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Well, I ordered the replacement MOSFETS - two HRF3205 ( in case I screw one up :D ).

Also went to a LHS during lunch (HobbytownUSA) and picked up a spare tail motor and heat-shrink- they are only about 13 miles from where I work. They carry Venom & E-Flite parts, but some of those are good enough for me. I had so much trouble walking out of there! They almost had to follow me around with a mop to clean up all the drool ;)

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I just broke BOTH blades... LoL :(

I have access to Hobby Town USA - what do you guys think they'll carry that'll fit the Falcon 40 (for blades)? Any certain models I should look for??

I STILL couldn't get the heli to hover anything over a foot off of the ground... I think I need to go back and see what other people have done to fix this...

Thanks again guys!

~ Darryl :D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Darryl:

I am not sure, but I think different HobbyTownUSA stores may carry different brands. The one I went to had Venom Night Ranger II blades which will work. If they also have E-Flite, see if they have Sabre blades.

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I know!!!
When I was looking for replacemt crystals I went to both of the RC shops here in Little Rock. They didnt care to talk about the falcon but were so ready to sell me a 600.00 helo
Lots of nice stuff in there. I could spend a ton of money in there but then I would aslo have to pay ton of money for a lawyer if you know what I mean...........:D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

I`ll let ya know. The boom,super skids and frame are going to be for the future rebuild that I know I will have to do.
This falcon is pretty tough. The last 2 nights I have bounced it off every wall in the shop and crashed it into my boat, truck and a chair. The only damage so far is the canopy has cracked in a number of places. Our cat used to grab the air hogs in flight but he is scared to death of the falcon. It also may be my flying skills as no one knows which direction it is going to be headed...........LOL

It is really kind of funny when I get the falcon out everyone runs for cover.:D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

The longest sentence of a man's life?
"I do" :D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

Yep.............. I did foward that quote to the wife. She thought it was pretty funny :D

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
 

All I can add. Look out this Thursday!