Hi!

I'm another newbie thats recently FINALLY gotten everything to click and the hang of nose-in hovering w/ the Blade CP (after many tries and 3x crashed in an indoor 8'x8' area). I've recently noticed something an I wanted to check w/ the experts on this but I'm running the stock NiMh batteries and the heli hovers eaisly above ground effect and ok in ground effect when I'm flying on fresh batteries. As I get near the end of my flight time, it seems that the heli is much harder to control laterally. I can usually hold a steady hover at full batteries but I feel like I'm riding a wild boar when the battery dies down towards the end.

So my question is, is this normal? I'm guessing as the battery drains, the discharge pattern is not longer constant so I'm getting fluctations in the rotor headspeed. Either that or I haven't mastered the hover properly yet and still overcorrecting? I'm currently trying to get a completely steady hover from liftoff to landing before taking off the training gears! Any pointers/help on this would be appreciated, thanks!

Nimh cells drop voltage very quickly towards the end of their charge. When the battery is nearly depleted your headspeed will drop quite a bit making the helicopter a mess to control. It's not you, just your batteries .

To avoid it, i'd suggest going to lipo power, you can't drain the packs down like you would nimh without damaging the cells beyond repair, so you don't need to worry about losing power towards the end of your flight. Your overall headspeed will remain (for the most part) consistent throughout your flight.

DracoC77,

I agree with Credence, go with the lipos, it makes all the difference in the world. I have a 8 tooth motor with a 1200 mAh battery, with flat bottom blades and get 20 mins. of fligt time consistently.. If you decide to with lipos, you have to get a lipo charger too.

See attached from Hobby Zone on Motor and Battery configurations:

Hope we helped,

Dave / Choppersrule

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Main Motor, Pinion, Heat Sink, Battery and Main Blade Configurations

When using the recommended main motor, pinion, heat sink and battery configurations we have experienced very good main motor life (better than any other models in this class). We have main motors in stock and Aerobatic Enhancement Kit equipped models with more than 100 flights that continue to perform very well.

For those who may be experiencing premature main motor wear, it is likely the result of excessive current draw causing damage to the motor rather than brush wear. Excessive current draw can be the result of using the wrong main motor, pinion, heat sink and battery configurations, improper gear mesh or constant power on blade strikes and crashes (shock damage). For these reasons you MUST follow the power system configurations recommended to achieve expected motor life. These configurations are:

EFLH1110A - 370 Main Motor with 8-Tooth Pinion:

For use with 3-cell Li-Po packs and flat bottom main blades. This is the most efficient setup for long duration hovering and basic sport flying when using 3-cell Li-Po packs. Must use a heat sink (EFLH1132).

EFLH1110B - 370 Main Motor with 9-Tooth Pinion (Included with Aerobatic Enhancement Kit [EFLH1168]):

For use with 3-cell Li-Po packs and flat bottom main blades for hovering and sport flying, with less duration than when using the main motor with 8-tooth pinion. Also for use with 3-cell Li-Po packs and symmetrical main blades for sport flying and aerobatics. Must use a heat sink (EFLH1132, also included with Aerobatic Enhancement Kit).

We suggest 860–900mAh packs for all-out aerobatics with durations up to 15 minutes and 1200–1320mAh packs for basic aerobatics and longer durations up to 25 minutes or more.

EFLH1110C - 370 Main Motor with 10-Tooth Pinion (Included with the stock BCP heli right out of the box):

For use with 8-cell Ni-MH packs and flat bottom main blades for hovering and sport flying. This is the most efficient setup for long duration hovering and basic sport flying when using 8-cell Ni-MH packs. DO NOT USE THIS MOTOR AND 10-TOOTH PINION WITH 3-CELL LI-PO PACKS AS IT WILL DRAW EXCESSIVE CURRENT RESULTING IN SHORT MOTOR LIFE, EXCESSIVE RF NOISE POTENTIALLY CAUSING RADIO “GLITCHES” AND DAMAGE TO THE 4-IN-1 ON BRIEF BLADE STRIKES OR EVEN DURING FLIGHT. Use of a heat sink is optional (EFLH1132), though it can help to improve duration and motor life.

EFLH1110D - 370 Main Motor with 11-Tooth Pinion:

For use with 2-cell Li-Po packs and flat bottom main blades for hovering and sport flying. We suggest packs from 860–1320mAh. DO NOT USE THIS MOTOR AND 11-TOOTH PINION WITH 3-CELL LI-PO PACKS AS IT WILL DRAW EXCESSIVE CURRENT RESULTING IN SHORT MOTOR LIFE, EXCESSIVE RF NOISE POTENTIALLY CAUSING RADIO “GLITCHES” AND DAMAGE TO THE 4-IN-1 ON BRIEF BLADE STRIKES OR EVEN DURING FLIGHT. Use of a heat sink is optional (EFLH1132), though it can help to improve duration and motor life.

Also, we find it is best to allow the main motor to cool to near ambient temperature between flights.

Everything mentioned above is true to the max. keep in mind that li-po's do have a way of changing the way the BCP will handle when i had the blade and switched to li-po's it was like a totally different heli faster head speed and less weight makes all the difference in the world hovering will have a very slight but true learning curve IMHO. Hope this helps,
Regards,
Phil.

Thanks for the guide. I just got a Triton charger w/ PSU for my NiMh (with an eye towards upgrading to LiPos). I also got a dual tail motor mount as I've heard that the Lipos tend to burn out the tail motors quickly. I've been looking into them and wondering about the thunderpowers vs e-powers. I've heard that the performance is much better on thunderpowers but the e-powers are 1/2 the price. For a newbie, is the extra performance from thunderpowers outweight getting 2 batteries (2x flight time?).

P.S. I just realized I didn't order a JST connector to interface the charger to the battery... DOH!