flipside69

I'm having a combination of some of the other folks' problems here and it's driving me crazy. When I first got my Walkera 5#10, using the original charger and 3 batteries I purchased and used with it, I could fly it non-stop for almost 10 mins. and no problems at all.

I have no clue here, but now after fully charging the batteries (doesn't matter which of the 3) I can get the heli. to go up and hover just below the ceiling in my garage (which I did before with no problem) for about 30 seconds but never longer than a minute. Then it slowly will descend (even if I go to full power) until it gently lands on the floor. At full power I can, at best, get it a few inches off the ground and that's it. Per an earlier post, I did make sure all the trim levers are in the neutral position each time before I turn on the transmitter and then plug in the batt.

What's additionally weird, is that under this condition, the only way I can get the heli. to climb at all is if I move the throttle all the way up into the upper right corner. Sadly, when this happens, the heli spins wildly to the right and will go up but can't be controlled. I have never crashed or landed hard. I have checked the pinion gears and how the teeth are touching the big gears and that's all fine. The motors don't even get hot. Mildly warm. I have heatsinks on both.

I have also checked the blades and they are parallel/level when in motion. My thoughts were that maybe the receiver was bad and so I purchased and installed a new one (not terribly stupid as I now have a spare anyway) and also thought the charger that came with it was dog-meat and so I purchased a LiPro imax B6 charger, and 3 new batteries, charged them with the new charger, even the original 3 batts with the new charger, too, and I get the same result. Should I discharge the Lipo's with my charger and then charge them up? I also have a spare pair of motors but if it was the motors I would think it wouldn't lift off at all to begin with...........

I'm frustrated here, and would appreciate any insight anyone has. I have poured over tons of info. about this heli. on this forum and I'm clueless as to the next step I can take.

GTX SlotCar

NO. That will kill a LiPo battery.
Do you have a multitestor or some way to read voltage and current?

flipside69

Hey, GTX.

My charger/balancer is an imax B6 which will I have set to charge at 3.75 volts and 0.5A. It won't tell me how dead/discharged the battery is, though, and the most I have ever been able to charge any battery was as high as 700mAh (maybe I just don't wear my batts down enough?)

But I don't have any kind of tester with leads or anything that will let me test the batts beyond that. I have, again, used the O.E.M. charger and my new charger that has a constant readout while charging and have set it to manual and auto and it always finishes charging before 1000mAh. I guess I don't know enough about it yet. Are there better batts out there that work with this heli that have a charge balancer lead? Guess I won't worry about that until I figure out how to fix the prob. at hand.

Hope that helps you to help me.

Thanks.

P.S. - Am I able to "Fast Charge" these 3.7V 1000mAh batts. and if so, what would be the proper setting?

P.P.S. - And would you be able to tell me what settings you charge your batts at for this heli.?

Cridom

I have the same problem so I hope someone comes with a solution am also frustrated i got 3 charged batteries and wont fly like this because its just not fun at all

Spirit1

Hi
Had the same problem, short flight times and low charge.
Check the power connector after a flight.
The one on my heli always got hot showing a power loss in the connectors.
Fitted diffrent connectors (Dean type) and flight times went from a few mins to 10 min flights connectors are now cold after a flight.

Tony

bladeskiller

I had a similar problem with my walkera 5#4. Short flight times, redused power for 1 or 2 minutes and then i could fly only a few inches above the ground . I changed the battery but nothing. It was the motors. I replaced them with new ones and my heli had plenty of power like a new one.
A faulty motor may still work but it gives only a little power and the current draw is higher than normal for a given power.




Kostas from Athens.

GTX SlotCar

You can't fast charge a LiPo battery. I don't have an imax charger and I'm not familiar with it's settings. You'll want to set the current for .5 to .8 amps on a 1000mAh battery. The fully charged cell should be about 4.1 to 4.2 volts. I use a cheap Esky charger for these batteries.

Problems with these helis can be frustrating, so it might help to remember that they're just mechanical and anything that's wrong with them can be fixed. The 4in1 is often the fist thing we blame for a problem, but usually the last thing to be at fault.
If your heli will climb when you get it spinning to the right, that probably means one motor is good and the other is on its way out. I don't have my 5#10 here so I can't check out which motor it is. I have a lot of helis and don't dare to give an answer based on my memory of this particular one. Start your heli up and give it a little throttle and full right rudder. See which blade is turning faster, and then trace it down to the motor. That motor is probably OK. Buy a replacement for the other one, or you might want to consider buying both motors. The good one will die eventually anyway.

For troubleshooting your problem, I'd probably do it in this order:
1. make sure your batteries are charging up to 4.1 to 4.2v
2. loosen your motors (or take them out) so your rotors/shafts/spur gears will spin freely. Spin them and make sure nothing is binding, even a little. Lubricate the shafts and bearings (you should do this anyway).
3. when you put your motor back in, get a good gear mesh. Too loose or tight and they will bind. Too loose and you'll strip the spur and maybe the pinion. If you get a lot of gear noise, your mesh is probably too loose. There should be a little play between the motor pinion (gear) and the spur (gear), and you have to check it all the way around the spur, not just in one place. Don't expect the spur gears to be perfectly round.
4. replace motors. If this normal maintenance (things you should be doing from time to time) doesn't help, replace the motors.

Once you get it flying, there are other things you should do to make it fly better and more efficiently; like balancing and tracking the blades.

I hope this helps.

flipside69

Thanks, all. I checked my connector and it's cold each time. I then went ahead and swapped out the motors for brand new ones and now I can get just over 5 mins. of good flying time before I can see a decline in power so that is a vast improvement.

Sure wish I could get it closer to the 10 min. mark.

And, Gary, thanks for the additional info. on the batts. They are getting and end charge of 4.2v and verified the gear and motor gears are touching solidly but not loosely or too tight.

Two more questions:

1 - Anyone know of anywhere I could buy a batt. that would give twice (or at least more) the juice of the stock ones that Walkera sells for this heli.? I have looked all over the net and the only one I can find are the ones that came with it.

2 - Anyone know of any other motor choices that will work with this heli.? Any brushless so they will last longer? (I am cooling down between 5-10 mins. every time anyway to try to make them last.)

Thanks.

Cridom

I took the motors off and tried them without load. and it seems like when I go full right rudder the lower motor spins like hell seems like its at full speed while the other stays the same. I also noticed that when I go left rudder the lower motor stop?
does this seem like a bad motor?

the lower motor seems to go from mid throttle to max skipping everything in between