Originally Posted by OiOi

Wow, had recently bought another heli from RC711 (intended to be upgraded with a HK 14000kv motor). Today was the first day to fly the little thing (before it was all bad weather...).
Put that thing in the air, but it somehow lacked power, then after about 30 seconds, there was smoke coming out of the canopy. As i saw in there from the side, I saw that something was glowing red hot just in front of the servos.
Then it dropped to the ground.

First I thought there was a short at some servo-leads. But boy was I wrong. It was the servo itself. One servo PCB got so red glowing hot, that it melted a hole into the plastic encasing...WOW...
Anyone of you ever experienced this?
The funny thing is, that 'til the end the servo was still working...LOL

I have never burn one, but I did have several seize up soon after I got the Mini.
I took on apart and found a little piece of foreign material that fell out. I put it back together and it worked just fine. Maybe that's what caused your problem.

Anyone found any nice colourful blades that fit the mini. I have been looking for yellow or orange for better visibility.

kbd for mcpx is the only thing I found but also read a couple references about them being crap on the mini. I bet they would be ok on brushless though

Originally Posted by BThirsk

Anyone found any nice colourful blades that fit the mini. I have been looking for yellow or orange for better visibility.

If you like white and cheap NE Solo Pro 100 or 125.

Or get some identical black blades from HK ($1.xx a pair) and stick colored film (I do it lately because became kind of difficult to source NE blades) on them. Or prismatic film.

Folks, I have been hunting now for a few days to find a video or a detailed description of setting up the swatch plate and pitch for the Mini. I mean, setting it up all the way from the beginning. Here is my issue. One of my Mini's got banged up and the collar on the shaft moved thus pushing the main gear down. Now the swatch plate and the pitch are all over the place, the heli spins up but there is no lift so clearly it is the set-up ( I hope). I compared it with another of my Minis and the when I power up both of them, then looking at the links, the swatch plate and the pitch of the blades they are now totally different. So I need to start of at ground zero. And that is the step I can not find. Here is the question I can not find the answer to. What is the FIRST thing you do when you need to make these adjustments. For instance, should all the servo arms be up or down or half way or set by just letting the heli power up and put on a horizontal surface to let it " determine what horizontal means". and use that as the basis. Then, how do you set the swash plate ( is that using all 3 links or just the two on the back of the heli) what to look for, how to measure etc. And finally, when the swash plate is level, how to level the pitch. BTW I watched one of the video's that suggested that, if the pitch is out ( with level swash plate) you have to lower or raise the swash plate to get the blades level ( pitch ZERO I guess). SO then you are back to leveling the swash plate . How do you determine and how to you fix that issue ( order of things in which to approach the fix) . As you can see, lots of questions and no answers. And, BTW it does not help that the components on the Mini are SO TINY :-)

Originally Posted by HPCR

Folks, I have been hunting now for a few days to find a video or a detailed description of setting up the swatch plate and pitch for the Mini. I mean, setting it up all the way from the beginning. Here is my issue. One of my Mini's got banged up and the collar on the shaft moved thus pushing the main gear down. Now the swatch plate and the pitch are all over the place, the heli spins up but there is no lift so clearly it is the set-up ( I hope). I compared it with another of my Minis and the when I power up both of them, then looking at the links, the swatch plate and the pitch of the blades they are now totally different. So I need to start of at ground zero. And that is the step I can not find. Here is the question I can not find the answer to. What is the FIRST thing you do when you need to make these adjustments. For instance, should all the servo arms be up or down or half way or set by just letting the heli power up and put on a horizontal surface to let it " determine what horizontal means". and use that as the basis. Then, how do you set the swash plate ( is that using all 3 links or just the two on the back of the heli) what to look for, how to measure etc. And finally, when the swash plate is level, how to level the pitch. BTW I watched one of the video's that suggested that, if the pitch is out ( with level swash plate) you have to lower or raise the swash plate to get the blades level ( pitch ZERO I guess). SO then you are back to leveling the swash plate . How do you determine and how to you fix that issue ( order of things in which to approach the fix) . As you can see, lots of questions and no answers. And, BTW it does not help that the components on the Mini are SO TINY :-)

More than likely all that's wrong is your main gear slipped down on the shaft. Pull your skids or put a battery in & push main gear back up on shaft.

Originally Posted by Crash Survivor

More than likely all that's wrong is your main gear slipped down on the shaft. Pull your skids or put a battery in & push main gear back up on shaft.

Possibly but... I started to monkey with the adjustment(s) before I noticed the play in the gear and so I messed up the setting totally on my own I am afraid.

Originally Posted by HPCR

Possibly but... I started to monkey with the adjustment(s) before I noticed the play in the gear and so I messed up the setting totally on my own I am afraid.

Compare it to your other MCP & duplicate.

Originally Posted by Crash Survivor

Compare it to your other MCP & duplicate.

But it does not tell why I am doing what I am doing . I am looking to get a process so I know - no matter what the heli's brand is, how to approach the set-up as I explained . So I found another video that may get me closer to the total process . In this tread - Minis
Tx Setup Guides for Walkera & Blade - Update Devo Tx/Rx/MC Firmware -Save/Load Models post 13 seems to tell me more

Here is the link to the youtube video.

Mcpx 0 pitch setup (4 min 42 sec)

I was pointed towards finless bobs video collection a few months back and although there are a bunch of flybar and nitro vids, the first few were golden for me.
http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=41692

They aren't the most exciting videos but he has a real clear style, very experienced

Originally Posted by HPCR

But it does not tell why I am doing what I am doing . I am looking to get a process so I know - no matter what the heli's brand is, how to approach the set-up as I explained . So I found another video that may get me closer to the total process . In this tread - Minis
Tx Setup Guides for Walkera & Blade - Update Devo Tx/Rx/MC Firmware -Save/Load Models post 13 seems to tell me more

Here is the link to the youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9Ug...7&feature=plcp

Z
Well folks, this video gave me the information I needed to figure out how to get the swash plate and the pitch set correctly. So If it works for me, it could work for other people to... I had the heli flying ( and crashing again) in 30 minutes. Must say, that canopy and the way it " rides up" after even the smallest of bumps is ridiculous. Of course is splits as soon as you look at it like a cheap date. This is just not well thought out at all. So I am now trying to re-enforce the canopy with tape ( just sticky tape from Staples for instance), and put a strip of that just in front of the landing gear cut-outs. Like a dogs muzzle if that give a better picture. I am thinking that is a better than just flying without the canopy to protect the PCB .

Originally Posted by HPCR

Z
Well folks, this video gave me the information I needed to figure out how to get the swash plate and the pitch set correctly. So If it works for me, it could work for other people to... I had the heli flying ( and crashing again) in 30 minutes. Must say, that canopy and the way it " rides up" after even the smallest of bumps is ridiculous. Of course is splits as soon as you look at it like a cheap date. This is just not well thought out at all. So I am now trying to re-enforce the canopy with tape ( just sticky tape from Staples for instance), and put a strip of that just in front of the landing gear cut-outs. Like a dogs muzzle if that give a better picture. I am thinking that is a better than just flying without the canopy to protect the PCB .

Glad you got it going. One of the first things I do is reinforce the inside of the canopy with duck tape, do the top inside also they like to split down the middle. Another important thing is I hot glue all around the battery wires where they connect to the receiver. Helps keep the power transfer up by preventing strains from breaking in the battery plug.

Yeah man, I broke my canopy and skids before even getting outside.

People seem to use a bit of plastic stuck inside the front attached to the heli but I just used a single piece of sellotape stuck to the bottom of the canopy and along the base below the battery and over one of the 'rungs' before sticking back to itself.

Never had it move in a crash and the board seems well protected if your canopy does not pop off. Changed stuff around once and forgot to use some tape and the first crash mashed up the canopy again, retaped and all is safe.

My canopy is well beaten up but sellotape will keep it strong enough to protect your heli, just keep it moving so people can't see the frankensteinian repair job

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T...0/DSC00326.jpg

https://picasaweb.google.com/1012182...CMqwqJ6pwPaRKA

Originally Posted by Crash Survivor

Glad you got it going. One of the first things I do is reinforce the inside of the canopy with duck tape, do the top inside also they like to split down the middle. Another important thing is I hot glue all around the battery wires where they connect to the receiver. Helps keep the power transfer up by preventing strains from breaking in the battery plug.

yeah Thanks guys.. One wonders where those "engineers' learned their job.. So when you look at the video that I sent a link to, there is a very nice view of the power plug connection (heli to battery). I am thinking that just extending the power wires from the PCB about 1-2 inches and routing that connector underneath the skids AND AFFIX it somehow, you would be able to plug the sucker in time and time again without putting strain on the PCB and without having to touch the canopy at all. I have some 6 inch leads coming and I am going to try that. It should work fine don't you think?

If you have to re-solder it then yeah I would take that opportunity to cable tie it to something and add extension if needed, good call