matthellyar

HI all,

Thanks for all the info in this thread.
I have just ordered two 37's one for me and one for a friend. I have been flying my DF4 for a while now and it is time to get somthing a bit more real.
Looking forward to keeping up with this thread.

Matt

armycopter

Hey Matt ~ I too went from the DF4 to the DF37. It's quite a different animal but a lot of fun. The DF4 is still fun but you'll be amazed at all the cool complexities of the 37. One bit of advice... at least get a lipo for it, the stock battery is not very good. A brushless motor/esc would be a great upgrade too...

matthellyar

hey Army,

Thanks for the advice I have a 11.1V 1550mAh 20C Lipo that I have been pushing the limits of my DF4 with. I think that should do for a start.

Here are some shots of the DF4 with too much power.

armycopter

That is a crazy battery on that thing! I can't believe you haven't toasted your 4 in 1! I don't have enough guts to try a battery that size on my DF4. I've got a 7.4V 1800mah 10C that did work good until it no longer took a charge. Now I'm waiting for another one in the mail...[&o]

matthellyar

Still waiting for my 37 to arrive, already planning what brushless to get for it, any ideas?
I am looking at an Align 430L or 420L, dont really know how to choose the right Amps for the ESC, any ideas?
Looking forward to seeing some updates on how your 37's are doing, pictures would be great too.

Matt

armycopter

Unfortunately my 37 has been sitting on my desk for the last two weeks grounded. I ordered (and received ) my new brushless motor and esc in a record 3 days (here is what I bought if you're interested)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

I have never seen shipping (from taiwan I think) so fast. It was actually faster than the USPS.

Anyway, I installed the brushless motor but my lipo has not arrived yet. It was suppose to be here last friday (over a week ago) but it's still a no-show. I don't want to use the stock battery on my new motor so I'm just waiting for the lipo. I'll let you know how it goes when it arrives. Maybe it'll be here today

matthellyar

Hey

I found an Align L430 3550KV and 25A speed controller together in a box for about $83.
I guess that since Aligh is selling them together the 25A controller will be able to handle the L430 no problems.
Does anyone know different?

Matt

armycopter

Well I finally got my 37 airborne again! It's been a long wait, however, the battery finally showed up, along with my Align balance charger. My new brushless motor and esc are all mounted with an Align 10T pinion. I had to attach a dean's connector to the ESC so that the battery would connect, but that was no problem. The only problem with the whole, "soldering thing," was that I melted a hole in my canopy by accident because I wasn't watching where the solder iron tip went. Grrrrrrrr.

When I first brought the heli outside and fired it up, I must have had the ESC/Motor leads reversed because the main gear would spin but the blades didn't. I quickly reversed the leads and the blades spun up just fine. It sounds like a totally different bird!! The outrunner motor with the high headspeed makes it sound incredible! I picked it up to a hover with no problems. Flew it around my front yard, across the street into my neighbors yard, and back again. When i put it down, it kind of "fell over," and banged up the main blades a tiny bit. When I went to take off again, the aircraft just spun and wouldn't allow me to put any tail rotor pitch it. As it turns out, the small allen screw that holds the tail rotor to the shaft had come loose. I guess I'll have to put a little loctite on it.

Other than that, it's an amazing aircraft. So much power, sounds great, gyro works great, servos work great. Granted a 10 minute flight is not a great indication of how it will perform in the future, but so far, its far better than I thought it would be. It's WAY better than the stock motor and battery. 12C, 1800Mah, 11.1V lipo is what I got.

By the way, my align balance charger seems to have fixed the problem I was having with my 7.4V lipo. The 7.4V lipo wouldn't take a charge from my esky balance charger, but took one just fine from the align. Now I'm back in business with my DF4 too!

Later guys! I'm hoping to get some good flying in this weekend. It's suppose to be in the 60's and sunny here in Maine!

soneebee

hey army

can you post some videos of your new setup it seem to me that you really got a great deal on the motor and ESC and it worked out fine with your DF37. post some videos it very hard to imagine how it flies.

armycopter

I don't know if anyone cares to see a newb flying slow and steady tail-in. I'll see what I can do about video. I may also post a picture of my battery holder reinforcement method. Basically the battery holder is very flimsy and I was worried about it breaking off in a hard landing, so I reinforced it with some heavy guage safety wire. Looks good and seems to really reinforce the battery tray.

I managed to get about 20 minutes of flight time today. I ended up spending an hour trying to figure out why my tail rotor was not working. As it turns out, I somehow reversed my dip switch on the transmitter inadvertently. Once I switched it back, all was good. Rock steady, sounding great, and balanced... I love this thing!

armycopter

Okay, what do you get when you combine a beautiful day with light winds and a crummy helicopter pilot? A DF37 with 7 broken parts. I bent the Main Shaft, the Main Rotor Shaft (different shaft), Broke the skids, Broke the steering sleeve, broke the tail rod holder, and broke the main blade holder. Also destroyed a blade. I was having a great flight but a gust took the aircraft and flew it backwards over my head. I tried to turn around and get the thing tail in before it came down but no joy. It's now in pieces on my desk. I guess it's 7-14 days of waiting again. It seems I get one or two days of flying and then I have to wait 2-3 weeks for parts. Is this the normal cycle???? GRRRRRR!

soneebee

ohh noo sorry about that dude... were do you order your parts how come it takes 2 - 3 weeks for it to arrive? what did walkera copy the 37 from? cant you use the parts for the heli that they copied it from? It's like my DF40 is like a copy of the BLADE CP but have'nt tried getting parts from the blade CP and swapping it with my 40. i guess it may work

matthellyar

Hey guys,

My two 37s arrived. one for me and one for a friend.
his was ordered with the walkera brushless and lipo, mine was just standard everything as I plan to put align parts in it.
My friend has not flown anything before so I looked it over for him and hovered it to make sure set up was right. The thing flys like a dream, head speed seems to be at least twice that of the standard motor. it is so much more stable than mine, I plan to put align motor, esc, servos and reciever in it. will double the price of the bird but I've read too many people complain about walkera electronics to risk it.

Got a message from my friend with the brushless on the second day after they arrived: "Completely destroyed head and such! Parts everywhere"
good thing is that we ordered a large amount of parts that looked likely to brake in a crash.
I will try to get some photos from him and show you all.

Matt
this is loads of fun.

chrizz

Hi! I have a problem with my new walkera 37. It hovers very well, except for one thing. It wants to turn right. Clockwise that is.

I have the stick on the controller (the trim below the actual stick) all the way to the left to counter this, but I still have to turn left all the time to keep the heli straight.

Any suggestions? I'm a total beginner... but I can hover the thing some what steady anyway.

Thanks.

HP03 BlackHawk

armycopter, check www.rcandme.com and look at their Walkera Dragonfly 59/60 parts...Only 2-3 days shipping with excellent prices, and they accept Pay-Pal...

armycopter

Is the 59/60 the same as the 37? I ordered all my parts last night from www.hooobby.com. Didn't get a delivery date, but another $50 down the drain[:@] What makes me mad is that it was flying really well... except I didn't have the tail dialed in completely. When I applied a lot of power the aircraft would spin right a little bit. Also when reducing power, it would spin left. It wasn't a major problem and I knew I had to fix it, however I was having so much fun, I figured I'd wait a bit. When the Aircraft got into trouble, I couldn't get the tail to stop going left and right as I was applying power (or reducing it). It caused me all kinds of problems and I crashed. If the nose was locked on, I would have been able to recover.

By the way, there is another thread that I asked how I should have my gyro setup, but no answer yet... does anyone know how the 006 gyro should be set? I have it on NOR (as opposed to AVCS), and REV (as opposed to NOR). My gain is about 80%. What is AVCS? I want to be in Heading Hold Mode (HH).

chrizz

My 37 is losing power after 20-30 seconds of hovering. It does not drop dead, but it's not near the power right after take off. Is this the brushed standard motor or the batterys fault? I have charged the battery 3 times now, and it's still like that. If I land and let it rest for a minute and take off again it's all good, and again about 20-30 seconds later the power goes down. I end up hovering on full power on a nearly full charged battery after a minute or two

armycopter

My brushed motor with stock battery setup did the same thing. You can try a couple of things:

1. Make sure the belt is not too tight... the blades should keep spinning by themselves for 10-15 seconds after you kill power.
2. Make sure your gear mesh is not too tight... again this can draw excess power.
3. Check your pitch on the main blades... make sure you're at 0 degrees at half throttle (I can't help you much on this one... still learning the process)

You wouldn't believe the difference when you switch to a brushless motor/lipo setup. It's night and day. If you don't want to spend the money on a brushless, simply switching to a lipo will help tremendously.

soneebee

hey army

after changing to brusless did it really made the heli better in hovering and stable? I think the stock motor with NiMh batteries are really weak and can only hover a couple of seconds before it becomes unstable with very poor headspeed.

chrizz

Thanks. I'll check those things. It might be the pitch or the gear mesh.

And another thing. I'm trying the PIT an PLT knops on the controller. They dont do anything, but the manual says it should... must they be activated on the controller by the switches on the back? The manual shows 10 small switches, I have 12, and the names on the controller dont say me anything It's the original walkera controller that comes with the heli.

HP03 BlackHawk

armycopter, AVCS (Angular Vector Control System) is lock mode (HH) and the NOR position is "Normal Mode" and on the 59/60 parts, I asked them at www.rcandme.com just to be sure and they replied with this:

Hi there,

If you need 37 parts we have them all in stock, that will work better, Let me know which ones you need and we can post them for you..

I have attached the parts pic for you.


Thanks


Tim

armycopter

Blackhawk
So I guess I should flip the switch to AVCS.... I did try it for a short time but it didn't work well. I must need to dial in the gain a little better. I'll try it out when I get the poor thing back together. It looks so pitiful in pieces. By the way, anyone know where to find a parts explosion for the 37? I took the main shaft out and now I'm not sure how it all goes back together! I'll have to go with RCANDME next time. I did look on their website but they didn't list any 37 parts.... I guess I should have asked.


Chrizz
I think it's dipswitch #8. You flip it over, adjust the knobs, and switch it back. Just be sure you really want to adjust them because once you adjust them, the factory setup is gone.

Soneebee
The brushless/lipo made it a different bird. Lots of headspeed. It climbs like a rocket, and sounds great too. I could never go back to the stock setup now that I've tried this. I'd like to switch my dragonfly #4 over to a brushless system, but it seems I'll be putting most of my expendable cash into the DF37 as I learn how to be a better pilot!

HP03 BlackHawk

Hey armycopter, what kind of batteries are you using in your tx? Rechargeable or alkaline or???

armycopter

energize alkaline, why?

HP03 BlackHawk

You may want to keep an eye on their voltage with a test meter or something other than the built in gauge. They don't last very long at all in my 6ch walkera tx to the point where I'm trying Energizer Lithium cells after replacing so many others types. If you use rechargeables they need too be 2300Mah or better to keep from dipping below 9.6v after just 3 or 4 flights... You will get a horrible kamakazee nosedive when they get low....And the meter on the tx may show them to still be good....