Cal-Torque

Just don't completely drain the LiPo pack. Once it's below a certain voltage (can't remember what that is), it's garbage an won't charge again.

SkyBooger

GTX SlotCar,
Thanks for the response...Today is the day...I will get her up in the air at a local park.I practiced in the small confines of my kitchen last night...just gettin used to it.
It takes about 70-80 minutes to charge.
One more thing...the throttle is on the right side of the transmitter...is this a mode 1?I dont want to get used to the wrong mode.Then tackle a real copter trained on the wrong mode.
Have a good one,SkyBooger

GTX SlotCar

Yes, that's mode1. Most people in north america use mode 2. The only thing that's different is the throttle. All 3 other controls are the same. I find mode 2 more intuitive to fly with all cyclic on one stick - like a joystick. You can switch it around, but it requires taking apart your Tx and then partially disassembling both gimbals. Then it's just a matter of swapping the throttle and forward cyclic plugs.
Be carefull outside. Any small breeze will blow the Lama around and you often can't control it. One time mine actually blew over on it's side and crashed into my driveway. There was nothing I could do.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Where did you get that cool canopy? Im thinking of taking that bigass bikerack off and putting on a classic carbon tube with little fin. The sporty little canopy would really finish it all up. [8D]

Here comes the sunday edition newspaper on lama helicopters, so get comfortable.

Look at this video: XRB Lama - Tuned
Its the XRB lama, wich is said to basicly be predecessor of the E-sky Lama 2 (Lama 2 has fold-away blade holders and symetrical motor placement, where the XRB doesnt). But damn though.. I havnt had my lama 2 play in a sports hall or something like that, but can a lama 2 fly that snappy? The thing in the video bolts off like crazy.

Also, isnt the pot on the board just something that sets the gain, wich controls howmuch the yaw function should counter-act when the throttle goes up and down? Does the tail sway off when you hit the throttle when hovering? Or does it remain nice and center when you make the heli climb and decend, now youve adjusted it?

Also, look at the servos, the levers are a little longer then needed and theres extra holes further from the servos center. I was wondering, would the heli become more agressive if you moved the linkages to the middle hole or even the most outter one? Or does that mean certain blade clash? But I went on thinking and perhaps if you can manage to put the flybar weights closer to the middle, the whole counter balancing gismo wont be so persistant, and maybe by sacrificing a little stability that way the top blades react to sudden changes quicker?

Also, The motors get hot aswell on my lama 2, ive even heard that you better go get an egg timer and make yourself take a 15 minute break after a 6 minute flight (packs are known to last around 18 minutes), to save yourself the trouble of buying new motors every 50 flights or so. Old wives tales, or is this actually true?

Ive been having trouble getting it so hover at a given height. It keeps bobbing up and down unless I keep sjimmying the throttle stick every second (up a tooth, down a tooth, up a tooth...). Does someone know if the TX comes with an easily changable "rattle" spring in it? Ive had some chinese TX once with the rattle utterly unreachable.. Ive opened it once already to change the battery compartment to take TX packs insted of those annoying loose cells, but I forgot to look at the spring thingy.. [:'(]

Anyone tried any other mods and upgrades? Id love to hear about them!

MikeMc

I just ordered mine on Friday but haven't got it yet. I'm interested in one upgrade. More flight time per charge. Doesn't have to be continous flight time. Not interested in more voltage/power.

What about completely removing the entire tail? Sure it'd look funny but it doesn't do anything. Maybe move the battery back to ballance.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

It CAN lift up to 80 grams EXTRA (tried it), but dont do that for longer then a minute, the motors will utterly hate you for it.

Choppin off the oll tail wont render it unflyable, but it will lose quite a bit of preformance. Youll have to actually trim out the inbalance, because the pack is stuck in there like the spongebob theme song in your head after hearing it. It wont budge. Also, it will lose some of its backwards flying capability. The only way I can think of is to pack on some metal on the back of the motorunit to try and balance it out. Or you could go drastic on it and figure out a whole different way of mounting the pack under it. Ive seen people use rubber bands around the skids to put the battery in sideways so they can get more weight in the back end. She sure looks spaceship like when the tail is gone though. :P Im even thinking of messing around with a block of foam and a couple of graters and sandpaper a bit to make it look even more like a space ship. Might be an idea for you. I was thinking along the lines of a Jedi cruiser. [8D]

Also a tip for all of you guys, revell has a 48:1 static model of the KA-50 kamov "Black Shark" russian coaxial helicopter.
If you use a 450mAh 20C lipo pack on it (still gives you 10 minutes), you can put it onto your lama as a full body cover.
The servo levers are said to drop flawlessly into the hollow bits where the tubines are.




Oh, and I almost forgot the most important tip of em all:
Check your collar!

Bad:


Good:


It is supposed to be nice and snug like the bottom picture. Having it like the top one will result in the axle diggin into your lipo, and in the worst case will even chafe off the teeth of your gear because the top main gear is able to hit the bottom motor gear while running. Some of the lama's come already correct, but some of them are "monday" models, so you have to adjust it yourself. You do this by removing the battery of your helicopter, and then pushing the gears on the bottom up with your thumb. Then you take a piece of paper that you folded double very tightly, and place it onto the chassis under the collar. Unscrew the collar with a very small philips, and then push it down onto the paper while stil holding the heli, and then screw it on tight again. Pull out the piece of paper and youre done. Now the collar is on nice and tight with JUST enough room to spare to not clamp the axle onto the frame to tight. Now the axle isnt going anywhere.

thecheatscalc

hello, heh this looks like the thread for me, well, it looks like I'm going to get this, I hear the CX is amazing, but, the same for this one as well, and, heh it let's me get more christmas presents [>:] for nearly the same (better?) preformance!

What would happen if you CA'd the bar onto the bottomost gear? this may cause some interesting gyroscopic effects, and could reduce some of the drag as well as moving weight to the bottom possibly giving more stability.

One more thing, DIODES should be removed, these just prevent the voltage from flipping, which shouldn't happen anytime soon on this heli, PLUS it's causing you to lose energy (1/12 %) and any flux is stopped by those capacitors.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

The blade CX is supposed to have a better gyro, but I dont believe none of that, along with a lot of other people.
Also, Ive heard you can simply buy the lama for 95 dollars and bolt on a spare CX body to get a cheap version of the CX.

The bar? Wich bar? You mean fixate the flybar so it wont swivel anymore?

Not sure theres a diode on it, but I can only assume there is, just like all other ESC's. Do you mean one twelth of 1%, or one twelth of all capacity (8%)? And im not formiliour with tech talk (english anyway), but what is flux? Bouncing voltage?

thecheatscalc

ok heh the diode is usually on the motor, it's a black cylinder on a wire usually, which allows say + to flow though but when you put in - it has a super high restance. I have no clue how they make it do that, but, that's just how it works, anyways though it has a high restance it still lets some though which makes it less efficent. If you hook a li-poly up to a motor you'll hear some minor flux in the power output, which is normal for a rechargeable battery. the capacitors help to level this out and keep any noticable flux from being apparent.

And yes I meant the top bar but I keep forgetting that those play the same role as the paddles on a regular heli right? I do wonder why they don't make them a tad more aerodynamic though. Oh and this may explain why it has a slight twisting problem! the weights are adding a bit more air restance which is causing this problem.

MikeMc

I always thought the caps were to keep the motor "noise" from interfearing with the radio.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Sounds perty weird.. If you inverse polarity, it usually doesnt even make it past the ESC anyway. Maybe youre confused with capacitors? Those dampen the pulsing coming from the motor coms, so it wont travel back through the wires and rain hell on the sensitive electronics.

And the flybar on the lama doesnt do quite the same as a normal flybar with paddles. A normal helicopter steers on its flybar, the main blades are the mainly for the thrust. The lama has such short blades it just shufles its blades around directly. But the aerodynamic thing is a perty good call though! Someone should try making a brass paddle that weighs roughly the same and try that. The main reason I think they made it round, is that it doesnt require any pitch adjustment this way. (if one paddle is pitched more then the other, the thing shake like crazy).

thecheatscalc

yes, BUT, you know how it goes. Ok heh I think you're getting me confused still, here this is what I'm talking about http://www.personeel.glr.nl/koster/elektro/diodes.JPG

the yellow cap things ARE ballancers, as they're capacitors storing energy until full then on a slight decrease it just shunts that out leveling the curb a bit. They do also "somehow" keep the electromagnetic interference down as well, but I have no clue how that works.

Ok has anyone ever heard of autoscafe.com they sell this for $125USD shipped, but I'm just trying to check their reputation first before ordering, or is there somewhere cheaper you can buy it? I've found it for the same amount at the lowest store off ebay. I don't want an auction, just a buy it now.

GTX SlotCar

My Lama made the cover of this site the other day

There are no diodes. 3 caps. One to take up the starting torque and 2 to filter noise (RF).

The green canopy is a design I did in my CAD system at work. I printed it out on photo quality paper.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Haha, thats ingenious. You have a fold-out I could color and print out myself?

Moe3754

My Feedback: (14)

I burn't up the lama 4 in 1 and so I replaced it with a CX 4 in 1 that I purchased from my hobby shop and yes the gyro is better and it can be trimmed out better with the pot on the side,the CX 4 in 1 is of higher quality.My lama flew great before but it flys even better now that I have changed it out.Now my lama fly's as good as my BCX does.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

I was thinking of ripping it all out and using some loose components, like a PG-03 gyro wich is VERY good, and a 2 channel mixed speed controller. Maybe that way it flies a little better. Atleast I can try it because I already have all the junk just laying around.

GTX SlotCar

I didn't save all my work. Here's one you can have. No tabs on this one, but if you cut it right (leave some paper to fold and make tabs at the front and top) you should be OK. Otherwise just tape it. This folds along the windshield.

ROBTOR

Hey Everyone,

I have a Dragonfly V which is another copy of the XBR. I also have Raptor 30. But anyway on the Dragonfly I find when I push stick forward I not only get a lean forward but also slightly to the right. All the inputs of the cyclic give an extra component.

It is flyable and I don't really notice it because I'm adding compenstaion as I fly but its there. I was wondering if you find that in the Esky. I was thinking it could be the fact that the flybar is at 45deg. to the blades. On my Raptor and all other helis I've seen its at 90 deg. It looks like the Esky has it at 45 also.

Try holding it in your hand, bring power to hover, (still holding in hand), and push forward, back, left, right, and see if it is purely a force/tilt you experience in those directions.

Thanks

Rob

GTX SlotCar

Yes, if I'm going fas enough.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Hmm, I suppose that one isnt to scale when I print it out?

GTX SlotCar

It might be to scale if you print it at 100%. If not, just increase or decrease print size until it's right. You'll want to print it on regular paper and b/w first anyway to test fit it and get used to making the folds.
I didn't really spend much time on this. It was just something I was trying out.

MikeMc

I'm still waiting for mine to come but I'm curious how manuverable these are. Is it hovering with some directional control or 45 deg bank turn, 90 deg bank turn, a roll, a loop? Any or none of these. Just wondering where the reasonable limits are.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Gary: Well I like it about 10 times as much as the bubblebutt cabin its got now. So im gonna draw over the outlines and add the glue strips, then ill post it all over the net. Ofcourse ill add your name to give you credit aswell. Its the little things that make it better.

Mike: I think you can manage a 45' bank, it can dish out just like about any cheap fixed pitch micro heli, it just has a little bit of stability quirks you need to take into account. Letting go of the stick will probably make it level out and "drift" into that direction in an horizontal fashion. Normal helicopters just continue pitching off up to a point where it just drops down due to loss of down thrust I believe. Dont expect any loops and rolls though, thats collective pitch talk.

thecheatscalc

correct...

heh I'm going to be stea...using that canopy, do a lill pixil playing and have that thing souped up just for me! Still gotta get the heli, but, you know how it goes, got to make sure that I get it done so it's ready!

GTX SlotCar

I think the attachments here are compressed so the quality isn't as good as the original pic.

Anyway, this picture shows the tab points. At different times I've used tape or stick glue to hold it together. Printed on glossy photo paper it really doesn't look too bad at all.