Modifying electric r/c heli
05-26-2006 | 07:38 PM
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From: , ITALY
Modifying electric r/c heli
The flying bug bit me again (many years after an accident that totalled my beloved cessna sunlight 7), but this time I want to go for helicopters.
Being a total, total newbie, I opted for a counter-rotating model Ã* la BladeCX. Of course the RC shops around here don't have them, and if they can order them it's usually at ludicrous prices. So I hit ebay, and promptly missed, by a few seconds, an auction for a Dragonfly 5 at 85 euros [:@] gonna be eating my hands for a while on that one.
Anyway, I didn't have €160+ to spend on a new dragonfly or similar, and there aren't any other good auctions for anything of that level at lower prices, so I got what I could afford, which is to say a €55 imitation of an apache.
Linky here (there are actually more pictures of the real apache than of the model).
I didn't get it from that seller, but the heli looks to be exactly the same.
Anyway, I know this is probably the nastiest double-rotor heli in the whole world, but I still hope to have some fun with it, at least until I get some disposable money with which to buy myself a more serious one such as a BladeCX. It probably lacks the fourth channel (lateral movement), but oh well.
What bothers me about it is that (obviously, for that price) it has no nifty LiPo battery, but a weak 300mah nimh pack. Considering the average drain of one of these things, I'd say it'll probably last me a whole 5-6 minutes before crapping out.
Being the happy hacker I am, I obviously started thinking of ways to upgrade it before it even arrives in the mail (should be here by monday).
Considering the capacity of the battery, it's probably made out of 6 1/2AAA cells.
I happen to have 6 750mah AAA cells around, so I of course thought about using those, but they are rather heavier.
The auctions say the maximum weight at take off is 250 grams.
Would removing the whole plastic body (which is to say the cockpit, nose, wing pylons, various other pointless doodads and maybe something from the tail) lighten the heli enough to allow me the use of a 6-aaa-pack? I don't care at all for aesthetics, so I'd have no problems with a "bare" heli. What do you think?
Being a total, total newbie, I opted for a counter-rotating model Ã* la BladeCX. Of course the RC shops around here don't have them, and if they can order them it's usually at ludicrous prices. So I hit ebay, and promptly missed, by a few seconds, an auction for a Dragonfly 5 at 85 euros [:@] gonna be eating my hands for a while on that one.
Anyway, I didn't have €160+ to spend on a new dragonfly or similar, and there aren't any other good auctions for anything of that level at lower prices, so I got what I could afford, which is to say a €55 imitation of an apache.
Linky here (there are actually more pictures of the real apache than of the model).
I didn't get it from that seller, but the heli looks to be exactly the same.
Anyway, I know this is probably the nastiest double-rotor heli in the whole world, but I still hope to have some fun with it, at least until I get some disposable money with which to buy myself a more serious one such as a BladeCX. It probably lacks the fourth channel (lateral movement), but oh well.
What bothers me about it is that (obviously, for that price) it has no nifty LiPo battery, but a weak 300mah nimh pack. Considering the average drain of one of these things, I'd say it'll probably last me a whole 5-6 minutes before crapping out.
Being the happy hacker I am, I obviously started thinking of ways to upgrade it before it even arrives in the mail (should be here by monday).
Considering the capacity of the battery, it's probably made out of 6 1/2AAA cells.
I happen to have 6 750mah AAA cells around, so I of course thought about using those, but they are rather heavier.
The auctions say the maximum weight at take off is 250 grams.
Would removing the whole plastic body (which is to say the cockpit, nose, wing pylons, various other pointless doodads and maybe something from the tail) lighten the heli enough to allow me the use of a 6-aaa-pack? I don't care at all for aesthetics, so I'd have no problems with a "bare" heli. What do you think?
05-29-2006 | 03:22 PM
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From: Somewhere in the Adirondacks,
NY
RE: Modifying electric r/c heli
I would go for 2 Li-Po batteries. They might even come out to less weight. And you can get them in higher ma. Of course you need a charger for them. $25 bucks for a Great Planes one.
