My Ranger is afraid of Heights?

[SVORay]

My Night Ranger 3D refuses to fly. I bought the chopper used and crashed. It took me a few to figure out how to put humpty dumpty back together again. Anyhow, it's back together but refuses to fly. She will throttle up to a point where she acts like she's going to launch but instead barely hovers above the floor...1/8" off the ground at most! The blades seem to track pretty good and everything else seems to move the way it should. Also, my battery doesn't last for crap. It peters out after a few minutes of WOT thottle. I mean after a few minutes it starts slowing down and then completely stops. The battery pack always has a full charge and the TX has new cells. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[houff]

sounds like blade pitch is off. you can down load manual at.
http://www.venom-group.com/print_motion/manuals/VENF-6224_Manual.pdf

 

[SVORay]

Hey thanks:cheerful:


So do you think this would cause my battery to flake out after a few minutes?

 

[rocknbil]

It peters out after a few minutes of WOT thottle. I mean after a few minutes it starts slowing down and then completely stops. The battery pack always has a full charge and the TX has new cells.

Yeah the pitch is probably the bitch on the lift. However, is this a lipo battery? If it is,

starts slowing down and then completely stops.

You have (or the previous owner has) killed the pack by doing this. You are NOT supposed to run lipos down flat. Even a nimh pack shouldn't be fully discharged. Lipos cells should never be discharged lower than 3.0 volts resting voltage. If you do, they get thrown out of balance and will never hold a good charge again - in fact, this can lead to explosions.

Also we need to know "how" you are determining a full charge. The rest of this kind of depends on whether or not this is a lipo pack and what kind of charger you are using. I will add, though, both of these problems could relate to a failed motor. More info man!

 

[SVORay]

This is a stock Nimh battery pack and stock VNR wall charger. I'm guessing a pack is charged once the red light cuts off?

 

[rocknbil]

Yeah that should be good, but you never know what it went through and wall wart chargers are not all that reliable. I'd get a good peak charger and a voltmeter after it.

 

[SVORay]

Yes sir, now I can't get it to do jack

I'm not sure if the pack is junk or the charger. So I think I'm going to buy a cheap tester from Wal-mart and then chop up the wall charger to make a pig tail for my peak charger.

 

[rocknbil]

Screw that man, GO LIPO!

Higher voltage, less weight, your bird will find it's wings with a 3S lipo pack. You'll have longer run times and a more stable headspeed in normal mode.

A word of caution, dig around here for "the fuse mod." The N.R. I **think** has a 4-in-1 unit similar to the Eflites and Esky's. Even if it uses separate ESC's, the fuse mod will save you a *lot* of money.

If you ever crash in idle up (3d) mode and don't hit the switch fast enough, or if the tail rotor gets jammed while under power on for even half a second, what happens is this sends an immediate short-circuit spike up to 30 amps back to the 4-in-1 or ESC's and blows them, poof.

All you need are 7 amp mini-automotive fuses for the main motor and 2-3 amp mini automotive fuses for the tail motor. Unsolder the red wire from the main, solder one post of the 7 amp fuse directly to the positive pole on the motor, making sure it's a good solder so it doesn't short out against the can. Solder the wire to the other pole. Cut either wire on the tail motor wires and put the 3 amp fuse inline. Done.

Now when you crash if the blades get jammed under power you lose a 50 cent fuse instead of a $70 4-in-1. This mod has saved me at least 20 times. AutoZone hates me, I clean them out of fuses regularly.