Does anyone have the same problem as I do? When I charge the heli through USB cable, the LED light come up dim in a few minutes and becomes bright in about 5 mins. Anyway, I usually disregard the bright red light and continues charging for about 45 mins. Everything seems normal. The heli flights great. Just wondering if it is because the cable is defective that the bight red light comes up so soon?

Originally Posted by okgeorge

Does anyone have the same problem as I do? When I charge the heli through USB cable, the LED light come up dim in a few minutes and becomes bright in about 5 mins. Anyway, I usually disregard the bright red light and continues charging for about 45 mins. Everything seems normal. The heli flights great. Just wondering if it is because the cable is defective that the bight red light comes up so soon?

When the lite is brite red you are done...if you keep charging you will eventualy kill the battery......read the instructions on charging.

George, I think you're okay. I had one of those 'bad' USB cables that you described, but my helicopter would charge and fly just fine. Then on one occasion, I had to get RMA for a defective helicopter, I threw in that cable and returned along with it.

You see, the USB plug has a very simple circuitry and an LED in it. In the absence of a nominal current flow, as in the case of charging, the LED will light up. That's why it lights up when you plug in the power source and no load at the other end of the cable. During a charge the LED would go out. But when the over-protection circuit on the battery end kicks in, because it has reached ~4.2v, it cuts the current off. Now the USB plug doesn't see a load the LED lights up again. Unfortunately, bad soldering could sometimes mess up that current sensing function and your LED is always up, sometimes dimmer than others. When I had my bad cable, it will be dim when it should be off, then it will glow bright when it should be on. Not a big deal.

When in doubt, you should have a voltmeter and probes on the PCB to monitor the charging, until you are familiar with the process. Then time your charging time acccordingly. The key is that as long as the over-charging circuitry on the battery is working, you are PROTECTED from over-charging, even when you leave the helicopter plugged in with the USB cable. When you monitor your charge, you should see something like starting from 3.7 volt, climbing up to about 4.2v, then it *jumps* up to 4.65v, signalling that the over-charge circuit has kicked in. 4.65v is the unloaded voltage from the charging cable, nothing is being send to the battery at this point.

Originally Posted by Daryoon

Blog post up: http://www.hacksmods.com/2011/12/sim...le-canopy-mod/

And the video:
http://youtu.be/9xwyyYwDGXg?hd=1

Daryoon, once again you and Heli Pad have come up with a brilliantly simple and effect mod. I was thinking along the same lines but I was going to try and glue stick pins onto the canopy where the original screws went. This mod is much simpler to perform and preserves the factory LOOK. A couple questions: Is the Swann canopy the same size or bigger than the stock S-107? Also what battery are using? When I use my Turnigy Nano-tech battery it barely fits inside the canopy 'loose' with just the canopy and wires to keep it from moving around.

Jlk69, the Swann canopy is the SYMA S105 canopy. The S107 has the same critical form where it slots meet at the bottom and where the screws are located. Except the S107 has longer "flares" just off the screws, where the S105 rounds off around the screws. Minor differences aside, the two canopies are interchangeable. I think Daryoon was using the Thunder Power battery, but a Nano Tech should fit.

Thanks Jon. It should work the same with the s107 canopy. That's what I originally modded until I destroyed it with acetone. Oops.

I used Nanotech, turnigy and thunder power with no problem.

Daryoon & Heli Pad, I hope you don't mind but I posted a reply in the Syma S107 battery upgrade thread with a link to this post (#9802). BTW I already did the canopy mod on one of my blue S-107's.

Hi, Heli Pad,

Thanks for your detailed clarification.
Now it confirms that it is my charging cable which is defective. Just called amazon (where I bought my S107) and they agree to refund me a credit for the defective USB charging cable. WOW

Originally Posted by Heli Pad

George, I think you're okay. I had one of those 'bad' USB cables that you described, but my helicopter would charge and fly just fine. Then on one occasion, I had to get RMA for a defective helicopter, I threw in that cable and returned along with it.

You see, the USB plug has a very simple circuitry and an LED in it. In the absence of a nominal current flow, as in the case of charging, the LED will light up. That's why it lights up when you plug in the power source and no load at the other end of the cable. During a charge the LED would go out. But when the over-protection circuit on the battery end kicks in, because it has reached ~4.2v, it cuts the current off. Now the USB plug doesn't see a load the LED lights up again. Unfortunately, bad soldering could sometimes mess up that current sensing function and your LED is always up, sometimes dimmer than others. When I had my bad cable, it will be dim when it should be off, then it will glow bright when it should be on. Not a big deal.

When in doubt, you should have a voltmeter and probes on the PCB to monitor the charging, until you are familiar with the process. Then time your charging time acccordingly. The key is that as long as the over-charging circuitry on the battery is working, you are PROTECTED from over-charging, even when you leave the helicopter plugged in with the USB cable. When you monitor your charge, you should see something like starting from 3.7 volt, climbing up to about 4.2v, then it *jumps* up to 4.65v, signalling that the over-charge circuit has kicked in. 4.65v is the unloaded voltage from the charging cable, nothing is being send to the battery at this point.

Ok, George, that's interesting. I don't know that Amazon would give you a credit on the defective USB charging cable. So, what did they do? They give you an amount enough to buy another cable or what?

Like I said, chances are you're charging cable is charging fine, but the LED is confusing. You should verify things with a meter. You could use the credit to buy another cable about $3. Or you could apply the credit towards an AC wall charger. I like the AC charger because it charges faster and I don't need a PC/USB port. Or, you could just keep the credit for future.

Originally Posted by Daryoon

Thanks Jon. It should work the same with the s107 canopy. That's what I originally modded until I destroyed it with acetone. Oops.

I used Nanotech, turnigy and thunder power with no problem.

I noticed the Thunder Power 160mah (i assume the 25C) I have two and, am asking for two more for Christmas

Do you have a close up shot of the soldering job joining this:
http://www.horizonhobby.com/products...w-wire-PKZ3052

to the board. I assume you use this connector. You know, cutting it down and so forth. Sorry, my eyes are not serving me well lately I would love to do the mod but this step is very unclear to me. I would more than likely hard wire the connector and do some velcrow to hold the battery. Don't know if my soldering skills are good enough for this mod you have.

Mike.

They initially offered me an exchange for the heli with the charger. But I am quite satisfied with the heli itself and afraid the exchanged one would not perform as good as my current one. Also S107 is out of stock on their website (available only through 3rd party sellers). So eventually, the nice csr offered me a promotion credit which I can be using on my next purchase on amazon. She said it is like a 10 dollars off coupon that would show up on my check out page. Unfortunately, it cannot be used on the 3rd party seller on amazon which offers the charger. But I am already very happy now

Originally Posted by Heli Pad

Ok, George, that's interesting. I don't know that Amazon would give you a credit on the defective USB charging cable. So, what did they do? They give you an amount enough to buy another cable or what?

Like I said, chances are you're charging cable is charging fine, but the LED is confusing. You should verify things with a meter. You could use the credit to buy another cable about $3. Or you could apply the credit towards an AC wall charger. I like the AC charger because it charges faster and I don't need a PC/USB port. Or, you could just keep the credit for future.

Chap,
It's actually two mods. One mod to make it easy to remove the canopy. That way, people can simply solder on the parkzone battery lead that you linked to. I expect this is what many people will do.

The second mod just takes that concept one step further and demonstrates how you can reuse the battery protection circuit in the stock battery, to make it not only easier to connect and disconnect the battery...but retain the USB charging feature. But of course, this mod is for those who are comfortable with a soldering iron.

I'll try and get a clearer photo. Keep in mind that I only shared the mod. I didn't do a how-to like I did with the Canopy mod yet. And I am not sure if I am going to...because there hasn't been much interest IMHO, and many people find soldering difficult.

Anyways, I used the parkzone/connectors from HobbyKing. I have all the links in the original post: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=9735

But if you want to get modding right away, you can desolder the charging port on the PCB board and relocate that to the protection circuit.

$10?!? George, I think you are a winner here. Whether or not you could apply that to 3rd party sellers is pretty immaterial. This is like getting half price on your S107. Nice! How did you get attention from a nice CSR? I could never get any help from a person from Amazon. Please advice.

I just realized something. Nobody ask about the other modded items I had on my heli.

http://www.hacksmods.com/2011/12/sim...le-canopy-mod/

Heli Pad, I feel that recently amazon has a lot improved for their customer service. If a returned item was sold by amazon (not 3rd party fulfilled by amazon), they even immediately refund on the item at the moment UPS scanned your returning package. If one CSR is not helpful, you can call back later to have another CSR help you. A bit off the topic in this thread though

Originally Posted by Heli Pad

$10?!? George, I think you are a winner here. Whether or not you could apply that to 3rd party sellers is pretty immaterial. This is like getting half price on your S107. Nice! How did you get attention from a nice CSR? I could never get any help from a person from Amazon. Please advice.