AtomicFlyer

Congratulations! With full sized aircraft we would joke that any landing you walk away from is a good landing. In the RC world, I think you could say any landing for which no parts break is a good landing.

Sure hope my replacement servos come in the mail soon so I can doing something other than fly the simulator and read/write posts here.

Marc

setforvb

GTX- Thanks for the links.

All,
Today I installed the Super Skids kit and Super Boom kit. All in all, a fairly easy install and nice kit to work with. The heli looks way better and feels a lot more rigid. I should of listened to my gut and stopped after that, but decided to swap out my stock servos with some Hi-Tec HS55's. Not sure what I did, or if a had a bad couple of new servos, but one just hums and gets real hot and the other seems to work - kinda (a little jittery). Not really sure what's up with them. So after some testing and trouble-shooting i decided to put the stock servos back on. One thing i wasnt quite sure of was how to remount the servo horns so that the elevator and aileron work correctly. I just eye-balled it and put them on so that the plate looked level. LoL, I still havent tried to take off yet so I'll just asume it's right until i get some suggestions from the board (or crash). After re-installing the stock servos and tightening everything up it seemed to be back to normal. The main rotor still spins slowly at zero throttle. One thing i did notice with the tail motor...if i'm testing it and spin it up full throttle it sounds like its changing speeds from 3/4 to full throttle to 3/4 to full throttle. Is this an indication of a bad tail motor or maybe this is related to my main rotor spininng at zero throttle problem. So maybe the 4&1 is out of whack like Michael suggested. Thoughts and suggestions for replacements?

Thanks folks,

Cory

Mcflyman

Wow! setforvb you did all that upgrading and you don't no how to fly yet? Its best to leave it stock until you can at least hover because your going to bust a lot of those new upgrade trying to learn. Flying with the Sim is a hole lot different that flying the real thing. Glad you no about Michael over at HobbySupply he will keep you in parts . Good luck

AtomicFlyer

Cory,
Mine was doing this too when I was holding it and spinning up the blades. I assumed it was the gyro making the tail motor dance like that, but it seemed to calm down once I was actually in the air hovering.

For what it's worth, my technique for learning to hover (which I only accomplished last week for a full battery pack) was to throttle up, bounce off a wall (or some other immovable piece of furniture), break a part, replace the part, repeat from start. I'm not advocating this since it ran up a parts bill almost equivalent to the price of the copter, but it worked for me.

Marc

HeliSmith

The one with a hum is jammed up inside or let's call it bad. The jittery one is interference either antenna or you have the lead wire over a power wire. You need to run your antenna so that it never crosses itself. Will try to find a picture to link.

To mount the servo horn unplug your motors. Now turn on the TX+HELI. Pop your stick a little to get it for sure center. Put the horn on as close to 90° as possible. Now get your links in the horns and level your swash in this same fasion. While you are messing with servo horns you may want to move the link two holes over, to the middle hole or so, of your servo horn. This will make your heli less twitchy while you learn.

I will let others help you with the tail as I am jumping in late and I haven't read to make sure what has been suggested. Could also be interference though.

Antenna wire running


See how it runs straight from the receiver and then I wrap it so that it never crosses itself? Could get torn off in a crash but never has for me yet. But better to run it back to the skid then forward to the tube. I just did it that way because I was trying to avoid all those power wires.

HeliSmith

Oh and the spins at zero throttle is your throttle trim. Move it to the middle.

bitzernohelp

ordered parts from U.S. hobby on the 30th got them today great prices and fast shipping plus the 2 4 1 deal is unbeatable.
Thanks Mike

setforvb

Heli - Thanks for the idea about the antenna, I'll give it a try. With the servos, I think i reinstalled as you described; Seems to be working ok. Also, I wish the throttle problem was as easy as just moving the trim, but I've tried it Up, Down, Middle, and the main blades still spin slowly at zero throttle. When the trim is all the way down, the blades spin the slowest and vice-versa. It's like I can't trim it far enough down.

Atomic - interesting flying technique. Not sure I'll follow your lead on that. )

All, been so busy with new baby (7 months) and work but finally got 15 minutes of pseudo flying in last night. I actually think I saw some light under the skids for a split second before I hit the emergency throttle down abort button. More to come..

Cory

setforvb

Does anyone elses DF4 sound like its giving off high pitched morse code sounds? As soon as I plug the battery I hear these high pitched noises coming off of something. I need to get my ear in there to determine if its the motor, servos or the 4&1.

GTX SlotCar

My guess would be that it's coming from a servo.

Fugitive_Bill

Hey,

Agreed, Could be a servo. Just move the controls or trims a little and see if noise goes away.

Could also be the 4n1 esc on the point of wanting power the motor. You know like when you VERY slowly
power up you'll get a slight 'ringing' sound before the rotor starts to turn.

Bill.

Mcflyman

Are you using the screws on the servo arms , If so you may have the screws in to tight back them off a little and see if the noise stops.

setforvb

Upon further investigation, the morse code high pitch beeping is coming from the motor. I'm thinking the 4&1, because of my main blades spinning at zero throttle, may causing all these minor problems. So I may get with USHobbySupply Michael and order a new one. On a more exciting note, tonight I achieved lift off! No doubt about it, I even had to jump outta the way because I got a little carried away on the throttle and that sucker started chasing me! But, none-the-less, I was airborne. What a good rush! So I spun up and spun down as much as possible for the remainder of my stock battery and then finally decided to charge up my new 7.4 1300 lipo battery I got from SuperSkids. It took about 1hr 20 minutes to charge and is much easier to mount than the stock and much lighter. So i kept doing mini hops until i crashed into the couch and popped something loose where the main blades attach to the shaft. But, after i took it apart, it just needed a little brute force to snap back into position. Looks like some ball bearing in there?

So tonight i started thinking of a paint scheme for the canopy. What kind of products have you guys used to paint your heli? Techniques, suggestions?

Thanks

Cory

HeliSmith

I am sorry but it sounds like the radio throttle contacts aren't lined up right and this is your problem. A new 4in1 will not fix it. Sounds like it isn't centering. Wish I could help but so far I haven't had to work on a Walkera 4 channel radio.

xyster101

Got my #4 for Christmas. I have a small apt and I have been flying in there for now. I am able to hover and land on the coffee table now! I also upgraded to super skids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_iUzz16IMM

setforvb

What's the proper way to align/position the fly bar paddles? Specifically the angle of the paddles.

Thanks,

Cory

jtspin

The paddles should be flat - no pitch.

-JT

brettw

Hi Guys,

Whats the best alternative to the Walkera tail motor for the DF4?

Its like picking numbers in the lottery on getting a decent one from Walkera.

Cheers

Brett

five-string

xyster101, good hovering. I was waiting for the cat to launch into the air after the heli. Did you break anything on that last crash?

Has anyone had success changing frequencies in the tx and rx? I tried pairs of crystals (72 mhz, single conversion) in two other channels (43, 45) and got no response from either of them.

Two of my family members have DF4s and we want to fly together. Right now we are all on ch 54 (72.870).

Michael has one alternate channel coming for me. I need a third channel to cover my needs. Anybody have an idea why the standard crystals won't work?

xyster101

Thanks Five-string
I did not break anything in that video. I did have to readjust the paddles a few times. I bought a pitch gauge from the LHS for $14. Works great. I set the paddles to 5% to give a bit more lift.

jtspin

I don't have a #4 4-in-1, but the 22E Rx takes a dual conversion crystal.

-JT

xyster101

So I have my super skids installed. What a great product. Adds stabilitiy, strength and they make the helicopter look less cheap. Get'em. Great deal. After this picture the wind blew the heli over the edge and it fell 30 feet to the ground. Only broke a blade!

HeliSmith

Doesn't sound like it's ready to leave the nest yet.

HeliSmith

You guys know about [link=http://www.super-skids.com/superskids3D.htm]SuperSkids3D[/link]?

five-string

Thx, jt. Can anyone confirm this for the #4?