Originally Posted by jonnewbie

...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBm_dLKnakI

I watched part of that video, and he states the Links can be turned in 180* increments. I seriously doubt it. Every heli Link I've ever bothered to take a very close look has "polarized" eyelets which are only to be installed in one direction (i.e. are intended to be turned in full 360* increments). The difference between one side of the eye and the other is one side's hole is beveled and the other side's hole is not beveled. The side with the beveled hole is the side that should be pushed on to the Ball. Trying to push the non-beveled side of the eye onto a ball is very difficult, and will often result in busting your balls.

Here's indoorheli's video:

mCPX Swashplate & Pitch Tips - indoorHELLi 006 (9 min 24 sec)

(He uses a Swashplate leveler tool, there is also a way to do pretty much the same thing with a tie-wrap, and it would be nice to do; however, I don't think it is absolutely necessary because of the way the EL and AIL Gyros work - in fact, I'm thinking time would be better spent making certain the launch site and Landing Skid were horizontally level)

BTW, I'm kind of a newbie myself, so don't take everything I say as expert opinion. I'm just trying to help.

Two fold question...

1. How does the tail section secure into the main body. Had a minor crash and the tail is broken and when I am looking on how to remove it I cannot see any screws or secure points. It seems to move freely?


2. Where can I find a "schematic" parts chart like the attachment I have loaded of my 9116 heli. Since I am a newbie would be great to see all the parts and how they are put together.

Thanks

1) Simply press fit both ends of the Tail Boom by hand. If you're running wires inside the Tail Boom, then I highly recommend being very careful when press fitting either end, making certain not to pinch or kink the wires. I highly recommend loosely winding the Tail Motor wires on the outside. I haven't had a problem with running the wires on the outside, although I'm careful when I handle the Tail Boom. I crash big time, and Tail Booms are one of my most common break items, but I'm OK with that because I cut my own from CF tube, and it takes less than a min to replace a Tail Boom without any tools if the wires are on the outside. If you don't pinch the wires going in or out of the Tail Boom, then I think the next likely place to damage the Tail Motor wires is over the sharp edge at the back end of the Tail Motor. I definitely make certain the Tail Motor wires have their heat shrink located at that sharp edge and do everything I can to route the wires so they are NOT press squeezed over the sharp corner. Walkera's use of a protective cover over the wires is a good preventive measure; however, the wire's heatshrink has to be properly positioned first, and the wires should be routed in a way such that when the protective Cover is installed it doesn't pinch the wires over the sharp edge more than absolutely necessary.

2) The official Walkera website: http://www.walkera.com/cn/upload/picture/MiniCP_ex.jpg

Does anybody know if the servo gears of Skyartec Wasp 100 Nano CP are the same with those of Mini CP?
Skyartec's servos are cheaper but they unfortunately use five wires, Walkera only three.

I have no idea what I did but my devo7 seems to have mixed up FMD 0, 1 and 2 modes: Normally FMD 0 = throttle and pitch are mixed together (rotor stops when throttle stick is in the bottom position) and FMD2 = throttle max both in bottom and max positions and I have full negative pitch with the throttle stick in the bottom position.

Now I get 0 throttle and full negative pitch when the throttle stick is in the bottom position! I've been all through the devo7 settings (well probably not) and copied the entire Tom Z settings . Any bright ideas on how to fix this?

I've totally lost patience and about to throw minicp/devo7 in the garbage bin. By the way does anyone in this sport spend more than a fraction of the time actually flying? I spend 95% of my time either soldering, ordering parts, googling the latest strange behaviour of my heli, is that normal?

Originally Posted by johan_alps

I have no idea what I did but my devo7 seems to have mixed up FMD 0, 1 and 2 modes: Normally FMD 0 = throttle and pitch are mixed together (rotor stops when throttle stick is in the bottom position) and FMD2 = throttle max both in bottom and max positions and I have full negative pitch with the throttle stick in the bottom position.

Now I get 0 throttle and full negative pitch when the throttle stick is in the bottom position! I've been all through the devo7 settings (well probably not) and copied the entire Tom Z settings . Any bright ideas on how to fix this?

I've totally lost patience and about to throw minicp/devo7 in the garbage bin. By the way does anyone in this sport spend more than a fraction of the time actually flying? I spend 95% of my time either soldering, ordering parts, googling the latest strange behaviour of my heli, is that normal?

That's called learning and there is a lot to learn in this hobby as you advance. And yes, it gets easier. Once you have everything set up right, you only have some maintenance to do, and lots of flying.
Best to wait till tomorrow and have a fresh look at it.

Originally Posted by johan_alps

I've totally lost patience and about to throw minicp/devo7 in the garbage bin.

I'm volunteering to be that garbage bin!

Good luck!

I use to post this for newbies having problems learning to fly mSR or CB100:

Originally Posted by i812

I've posted this so many times already, what's one more time:

I recommend this training program:

1. Hover in one spot

   1. Nose away
   2. Nose right
   3. Nose Left
   4. Nose towards

2. Box Circuits

   1. CW Nose away
   2. CCW Nose away
   3. CW Nose right
   4. CCW Nose right
   5. CW Nose Left
   6. CCW Nose Left
   7. CW Nose towards
   8. CCW Nose towards

3. Circles

   1. CW Follow the Nose
   2. CCW Follow the Nose
   3. CW Follow the Tail
   4. CCW Follow the Tail

4. Flat Pie Plates?

   1. CW Box, Nose Center
   2. CCW Box, Nose Center
   3. CW Box, Nose Outer
   4. CCW Box, Nose Outer
   5. CW Circle, Nose Center
   6. CCW Circle, Nose Center
   7. CW Circle, Nose Outer
   8. CCW Circle, Nose Outer

Unless I had a lot of money to "burn", and a lot of "free" repair down time, I wouldn't try to fly fast without first mastering it SLOW, and I wouldn't try to fly slow, without first mastering stationary.

I think progressing using a well structured training program, may be cheaper, faster, and better than a wild anything goes approach.

I've been flying for about 2 years now, have recently started practicing flying inverted on the simulator, and I'm still using the above training procedure again, but this time it is with the heli "upside" down.

I think if a person masters taking slow baby steps, before taking fast big steps, then I wouldn't expect having to do extensive/expensive repairs.

Best wishes

Kung Fu Rice Paper FAIL (0 min 44 sec)

My flight time seems to be getting rather low.

I am noticing that my battery dies pretty fast and dont know why.

With the standard battery I get about 2.40min continuous flight time ....nothing major just hovering and moving around.

With my other batteries (upgrade ones from Helipal - 350mAh) - only lasting between 2 and 2.30mins?

Is this normal and if not what is wrong?

I charge them using the stock charger and when they are charged all say 4.2v on my volt tester. When depleted say between 3.85 - 3.93v.

(overall only about 10 flights per battery at the most)

Not much flight time = not fun

Originally Posted by jonnewbie

My flight time seems to be getting rather low.

I am noticing that my battery dies pretty fast and dont know why.

With the standard battery I get about 2.40min continuous flight time ....nothing major just hovering and moving around.

With my other batteries (upgrade ones from Helipal - 350mAh) - only lasting between 2 and 2.30mins?

Is this normal and if not what is wrong?

I charge them using the stock charger and when they are charged all say 4.2v on my volt tester. When depleted say between 3.85 - 3.93v.

(overall only about 10 flights per battery at the most)

Not much flight time = not fun

My timer is set to 4 mins ,,not sure what the volts are after this though,,using std and nano 240mah.

Stock configuration in normal temperatures should be able to get over 4 min hover and slow circuit flying.

The colder the LiPo, the shorter the flight time will be.

If the LiPo is otherwise good, the most likely cause for short flight time will probably be bad wiring having broken strands. Most likely occurrences of broken wire strands will probably be at the LiPo connector, and/or RX board due to them being flexed the most from handling.

Trying to find a wire with broken stand(s) can be difficult. The below re-post tries to explain why and how to do it:

Originally Posted by i812

Unless you have a really good (expensive 4 point) Ohm meter, you may not be able to easily measure the difference between a good wire with 7? strands, and a bad wire with 1 strand.

With a "normal" Ohm meter, both the good wire with 7 good strands, and bad wire with only 1 good strand will both appear to measure the same: very low resistance much less than 1 Ohm - down in the "noise".

The reason is due to Ohm's Law:

V (Voltage drop) = I (current through) * R (resistance)

I haven't made current measurements on any Walkeras, but to give you a "ballpark" idea of how the Voltage drops across wires with broken strands, lets use Ohm's Law and see what happens "on paper":

A heli uses the MINimum amount of power and current from a Battery when the Blades aren't spinning. I haven't measured the MIN current, but it is probably less than than 1 Amp current draw, probably closer to 0.1A

A heli draws the MAXimum amount of power and current from a Battery when the Blades are spinning at MAX rpm and pitch. I haven't measured the MAX current, but it is probably approaching 10 Amp current draw. I'm guessing this because the micro helis use 10 Amp ESC's.

I don't know the resistance of a good wire going between the LiPo and RX, but it is very small, something like 0.01 Ohm. My "normal" Ohm Meter measures down to 0.0 Ohm.

I don't know how many strands the wire has, but it is about 7. If 6 of them are broken, the wire's resistance will increase by 7. This means if the good wire with 7 good strands has 0.01 Ohm resistance, then a bad wire with only 1 strand left will have a resistance of 0.07 Ohm. A "normal" Ohm meter isn't going to be able to measure this increased resistance.

But will the heli be able to tell the difference between a good wire with 7 good strands, and a bad wire with only 1 good strand?

Let's use Ohm's Law, to determine what should happen on paper:

The MIN load Voltage drop across a good wire = 1 A * 0.01 Ohm = 0.01V = too small of a Voltage drop to measure

The MIN load Voltage drop across a bad wire = 1 A * 0.07 Ohm = 0.07V = 7 times more than good wire, but still too small of a Voltage drop to measure.

The MAX load Voltage drop across a good wire = 10 A * 0.01 Ohm = 0.1 V = small but measurable

The MAX load Voltage drop across a bad wire = 10 A * 0.07 Ohm = 0.7 V = very measurable = 4.2 V fully charged LiPo appears at RX as if it is 3.5V = time to land!!!!!! (even though the LiPo is fully charged)

I don't know how good my guesses were about the wire resistance and current usage are, but that wasn't the main point of my post. The main point of this post is the Voltage drop going across a wire isn't very noticeable until after a lot of current is going through it, the greater the current going through it, the greater the Voltage drop! The higher the resistance, the greater the Voltage drop.

Bottom line:

Unless all the wire strands are broken, measuring wire resistance with a "normal" Ohm Meter, isn't going to help identify a "weak" wire with broken strands.

Measuring Voltage drop across a wire with a "normal" Volt Meter at MIN load current, isn't going to help identify a "weak" wire with broken strands.

Measuring Voltage drop across a wire with a "normal" Volt Meter at MAX load current, is the most effective way to identify a "weak" wire with broken strands.

(Sorry for the long post, but I hope it helps, because I think many micro Walkera electrical problems are probably caused by bad wires with broken strands, but the wire problem really doesn't show itself until after the Blades are spun up, and approaching MAX current usage which results with MAX Voltage drop across weak wire(s). IMO, if a person knew which wire, replacing a wire is probably one of the cheapest repairs a person could make. Since I can get scrap wire for free, replacing a wire is a cheaper repair than using CA to fix stuff. I'm guessing many "broken" expensive Motors, ESC's, and LiPo's are trashed because of broken wires!)

Originally Posted by i812

Stock configuration in normal temperatures should be able to get over 4 min hover and slow circuit flying.

The colder the LiPo, the shorter the flight time will be.

If the LiPo is otherwise good, the most likely cause for short flight time will probably be bad wiring having broken strands. Most likely occurrences of broken wire strands will probably be at the LiPo connector, and/or RX board due to them being flexed the most from handling.

Trying to find a wire with broken stand(s) can be difficult. The below re-post tries to explain why and how to do it:

Ok I think I know what is the problem then....as per a previous post a few days ago about the wiring in the battery connector and how it keeps on falling out...as per attached picture.

Even though I opened the "v" shapes of the connectors and put back in, that only last one flight and they continually dont stay in and hence everytime I put a battery on I have to push the connectors in with sum force so I think I may have damaged some of the wires that join onto the metal prongs.

Sound like the prob cause?

First pic of how it was originally and second is how it is now.

If so was is best line of action?

Thanks

just got my new MiniCP and it's my first CP heli after the V911.
The main gear came off straight away and I realized it's only pressed on. There was a little oil on the shaft... Luckily I did not loose it and pushed it back on. Will keep a close eye on it! My question: the plastic main gear when turned gently by hand will not turn the motor gear but jump the motor gear. Is this ok? Nothing damaged, no crash, no warn teeth, all looks brand new (as it should)... Just came out of the box like this. Motor is firmly in place, not loose. Blades seem to run fine. Is this jumping there to avoid damage when crashed?

Originally Posted by torsten01

just got my new MiniCP and it's my first CP heli after the V911.
The main gear came off straight away and I realized it's only pressed on. There was a little oil on the shaft... Luckily I did not loose it and pushed it back on. Will keep a close eye on it! My question: the plastic main gear when turned gently by hand will not turn the motor gear but jump the motor gear. Is this ok? Nothing damaged, no crash, no warn teeth, all looks brand new (as it should)... Just came out of the box like this. Motor is firmly in place, not loose. Blades seem to run fine. Is this jumping there to avoid damage when crashed?

Have you tried moving the motor closer to the main gear? There are two screws under the main frame that attaches the motor, you can move the motor closer or further away.

Originally Posted by jonnewbie

so I think I may have damaged some of the wires that join onto the metal prongs.

Sound like the prob cause?

First pic of how it was originally and second is how it is now.

If so was is best line of action?

It might well be, I can't see on the picture, but you can try to reattach broken strands by soldering them back on. you can also resolder an entirely new connector onto the main board. But then you have to verify that you haven't short circuited before attaching a battery again.

I had a similar problem lately, and replace engine, connectors and batteries. every one of those actions improved flight time. But basically I find that battery life-time is extremely short, after only a few charges my batteries loose their edge. Don't forget to NOT keep you batteries charged, only charge them just before flying.