Heli wont get enought speed to lift

[mikegigabyte]

This is a new helicopter, a mystery sold by hobby people. I've only been hovering it and have run around 5 batteries through it using 2 different batteries. Went to mess with it today and both batteries were fully charged and couldnt make enough speed to lift it from the ground. Took to a hobby store my dad frequents where the owner flys helicopters. First what a mistake, the guy was badmouthing the whole thing, how its crap, the motors are crap, blah blah. I'm not going to drop $500 on a heli I dont even know how to fly, might as well learn on a cheap one.
All I wanted was his opinion on the batteries if they could go bad with less then 3 charges. We both verified with cell checkers they both are perfect, and each cell is perfect in both batteries. We did buy one from him thats twice as long and puts out a ton more peak power, or whatever he called it. Still a 3 cell lipo.

Anyways we get home even balanced the new battery and same thing, wont make enough power to lift. The day before I ran it 2 times hovering the entire time.
My dad is taking it into the store he got it from tomorrow but I was wondering could the esc somehow be reset? Or could the motor go bad already? The esc has no visible buttons or dials, and came with the heli. The motor is brushed but has no removable brushes to clean.

 

[HPIguy]

Check your fly bar paddles and make sure they're tight. They came loose on my CP once and it acted just the way you describe. I liked to have never found it.

 

[mikegigabyte]

Check your fly bar paddles and make sure they're tight. They came loose on my CP once and it acted just the way you describe. I liked to have never found it.

They do twist up and down on there own by hand as one unit, I just can't remember if they are supposed to do that. Do they need to be solid when everything is turned off. I left it with my dad so I can't check today.

 

[HPIguy]

They do twist up and down on there own by hand as one unit, I just can't remember if they are supposed to do that. Do they need to be solid when everything is turned off. I left it with my dad so I can't check today.

They're supposed to pivot up and down as one unit. What happened to me was the little phillips head screw that clamps the paddle to the fly bar had worked loose, letting one paddle twist on it's own. On my heli, with everything powered down, they are solid. Sounds to me like your entire fly bar might be loose. The reason this keeps you from developing enough head speed to lift off is that the paddles will flop around and turn flat side into the wind when you power it up. This creates enough drag to limit rotor head speed.

PS: Don't let the hobby shop guy bashing get to you. They're all like that. If you didn't buy it here, it has to be crap. While I feel their pain trying to survive in today's online based market, this isn't the way to attract new customers, or keep your existing ones.

 

[mikegigabyte]

They're supposed to pivot up and down as one unit. What happened to me was the little phillips head screw that clamps the paddle to the fly bar had worked loose, letting one paddle twist on it's own. On my heli, with everything powered down, they are solid. Sounds to me like your entire fly bar might be loose. The reason this keeps you from developing enough head speed to lift off is that the paddles will flop around and turn flat side into the wind when you power it up. This creates enough drag to limit rotor head speed.

PS: Don't let the hobby shop guy bashing get to you. They're all like that. If you didn't buy it here, it has to be crap. While I feel their pain trying to survive in today's online based market, this isn't the way to attract new customers, or keep your existing ones.

Thanks for the help, I will see if my dad can look into that, sounds like that could be the answer as I never had a chance to tighten anything down yet.

Yeah I couldnt see dropping a ton of money when first learning, I've always been buy it cheap at first then when you get better and still want to do it get the good one next. Anyways my dad did buy this one for me to fly, and he says he will buy all the repair parts too. I was happy with my Novus Fp but he forced me to go a little bigger with this one. That hobby guy ( owner ) is the main reason I dont hang around with other rc hobby people, they always have the best stuff and will make sure you know that. I'm happy flying in my backyard all by myself.

 

[PaulC]

Can't say much for the power problem.

The best money you can drop right now is on a sim! TBH.

From your other videos... can you tune anything on your radio or is it just as is? By tune I mean can you set the senstivity, swash mix, expo or dual rates? The heli looks very frisky for a beginner. Mine would be like that and worse if I didn't drop it's control throws to 40%. This makes it a lot easier to fly!

The gyro/tail going one way and then the other may be normal.

If you trim it left during one battery and then leave it there when you change batteries, the gyro will recenter on the new trim position.

Also gyro's are temperature sensitive and often drift one way as they heat up.

Buzzing/twitching servo is fine.... IF it's the tail servo. Even the tiny movements caused by wind while the heli is stationary can cause the gyro to react and move the tail servo one or two 'clicks' constantly.... then it might stop for a while.

If it's not the tail servo and the cyclic servos are twitching I wouldn't fly it TBH. A twitch in a cyclic servo could not only mean something worse is about to happen but could potentially cause the heli to suddenly lurch and head straight at you!

Have you considered going down the HobbyKing route? Consider this:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...lt-Drive_Helicopter_Kit_(Align_T-Rex_Compat.)

Electronics will cost you another $150 or so. You'll have to build it yourself and learn how to set it up, but... thats actually a good thing, means you'll understand it and be able to diagnos problems and fix it.

Its basically a clone of the Align Trex 450 Pro. Better model than the one in my video "It lives it flies" thread, 2 generations newer/better.

 

[mikegigabyte]

got it fixed, somehow a ball end part flew off on the last run. not sure what its called but it controlled the pitch of the blades