Mini-HowTo E-Sky Lama V4 Resource Thread - Parts, Mods., Tuning, Upgrades, Etc.

[fly97]

I am a CX owner, but have a friend with a Lama, which is why I am here. www.lamav4.com is run by the same guy who runs http://bladecx2.com/, which is a total ripoff! I think i he is buying parts for other helis(lama and vortex), marking them way up, and claiming he is the manufacturer!

krshobbies.com has indestructible skids for the CX, which can fit the lama V4. He also has a lot of the miracle mart xtreme stuff, with cheaper shipping, and excellent service!

Check out his fact vs. fiction page, and he is talking about the guy selling $20 skids!

If you order from KRs hobbies, tell him fly97 sent you!

[blkdog7]

Originally Posted by fly97

I am a CX owner, but have a friend with a Lama, which is why I am here. www.lamav4.com is run by the same guy who runs http://bladecx2.com/, which is a total ripoff! I think i he is buying parts for other helis(lama and vortex), marking them way up, and claiming he is the manufacturer!

krshobbies.com has indestructible skids for the CX, which can fit the lama V4. He also has a lot of the miracle mart xtreme stuff, with cheaper shipping, and excellent service!

Check out his fact vs. fiction page, and he is talking about the guy selling $20 skids!

If you order from KRs hobbies, tell him fly97 sent you!

I don't disagree that the lamav4.com guy is a total rip-off. I still ordered them though, he was the only one I could find selling the new skids I wanted. I am not unhappy with the product at all, they work as advertised. But, I do feel totally hosed, the price is insane. When I opened the package and saw the two small skids and realized I paid $20.00 total I was about to cry. He charged me $10.00 to ship these?!?! He could have stuck them in an envelope for $0.41. They are indestructible, right? But, after I put them on and crashed a crap load of times my buyers remorse left.

Anyways... I tried buying a bunch of stuff from KRs hobbies but the guy was out of stock of everything I wanted. So, if he can actually stock stuff I want I might place an order with him!

[blkdog7]

Ok, I just installed the new inner shaft with Aluminum hub on my LAMA V4. Very easy install. Even for my sausage fingers.

Here is the piece:



I bought it here, at Hobby-Lobby, for $7.70

Install basically went like this:

1 - Remove Canopies and skids
2 - Remove Battery holder
3 - Remove collar on the very bottom gear (the one holding the center shaft in)
4 - Remove gear (note how it looked before pulling it off)
5 - Pull center shaft out by pulling from the top where the fly-bar connects
6 - Watch for the bearing at the top! It might come out with the shaft. If it does, no biggie. Stick it back in the hole at the top.
7 - Remove blade holder thingees from old shaft
8 - Installll blade holder thingees (with blades) on new shaft
9 - Stick the shat into the hole you took the old one out of (the outer shaft?)
10 - Place bottom gear back on
11 - Place collar back on
12 - spin gear 'til flat spot on shaft is lined up with collar
13 - Screw collar to the shaft (on the flat spots!)
14 - Remove aluminum top cap from the new center shaft (where the fly-bar goes)
15 - Insert fly-bar into the new center-shaft's top-cap cavity
16 - Place cap back on and screw on
17 - Attach fly-bar linkage
18 - fly!

First off, this mod was VERY easy and did not effect the stability of my heli at all. It flew as good before and after this mod. Which is good for me, cause mine is dialed in really well. It hovers PERFECT. Very easy to control. This mod did not diminish that at all.

The best part about this mod is that the fly-bar can't fly off! I kept losing the fly-bar in my backyard. Now, I don't have to worry. You can bend it, so don't crash. But before it would just fly off if the blades hit grass while hovering too close!

So, if you were on the fence with this mod, go do it!





Oh, the tails CAN crack, ugh!

[fauxhammer]

Guys I need new bearings for my lama...
story: I was flying my lama outside when a gust of wind came and I crashed. A number of things broke like my inner shaft (thank god I had a aluminum one sitting inside that I hadn't installed) and my aft motor (going to upgrade to xtreme) I fixed every thing but the bearing (the heli still spins in a circle at 60% throttle and up) why??? because I have no clue what bearings everyone is talking about. I just don't know where they are located or what they look like. can someone please put some pics up or something. I love flying helis but I need to fix mine first.

[cmulder]

there are 3 things you can do
1 get esky bearings ; the cheapes option but they are not that good
the other 2 options are 3rd party bearings and on the fist post of this topic you see a link to boca bearings who is selling a set that probbaly will not wear out.
Or get standard bearings (also from boca or localy) size is listen on the last page of yoru manual.

Originally Posted by fauxhammer

Guys I need new bearings for my lama...
story: I was flying my lama outside when a gust of wind came and I crashed. A number of things broke like my inner shaft (thank god I had a aluminum one sitting inside that I hadn't installed) and my aft motor (going to upgrade to xtreme) I fixed every thing but the bearing (the heli still spins in a circle at 60% throttle and up) why??? because I have no clue what bearings everyone is talking about. I just don't know where they are located or what they look like. can someone please put some pics up or something. I love flying helis but I need to fix mine first.

[MK]

Boca has a complete set for the Lama for $15 and $30 (for ceramic ones).

bkldog7,

Hobby Lobby is a good place to buy from. Try slickzero.com. Their shipping is $1.95 for First Class mail regardless of the size of your order. They ship fast too.

[lama lama duck]

Hi all,

The first batch of parts have arrive, and have been installed.

This was:
-EK5-0206 Metal Center Hub and Shaft (upper)
-EK5-0207 Metal Center holder set (lower)
-EK5-0209 Metal swashplate

Installation took about 15 mins, and full of confidence, I fired it up, and started to slowly bring up the power. At about half the revs i'd use to take off, it fell over without even leaving the ground...

The problem was with the lower center holder. I had screwed it's upper bolts into the hole that were already there, uncovered when I removed the original lower holder. This greatly twisted the swashplate backwards, making proper flight impossible. I moved the mount downwards, until at zero stick and trim, the swashplate was "perfectly" level.

This did a lot to fix the problem, but the heli was somewhat unstable now. This turned out to be the vertical plastic rods attaching the blades to swashplate. They were rubbing on the new aluminium guides, causing friction, and unbalancing the heli. Once this was tuned, the heli flies like a charm, even with 4 chipped blades.

I took a pic, and applied some 'shop shillz - hope this helps anyone else intending to install these parts.

[blkdog7]

So, Lama, is it ok now? I am holding off on the swashplate and center holder set. I have the parts but am really scared to put them on. My heli flies PERFECT right now. I'm not risking it.

LAMA, does your heli fly perfect now or is it still worse?

[blkdog7]

Well, I just ordered a carbon boom for a CX 2 for $18.99 with free shipping. I'm determined to make it work with my LAMA V4. I'll keep you updated.

I ordered the hollowed tail version of this, here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll..._promot_widget

[CanardianFan]

Originally Posted by lama lama duck

The problem was with the lower center holder. I had screwed it's upper bolts into the hole that were already there, uncovered when I removed the original lower holder. This greatly twisted the swashplate backwards, making proper flight impossible. I moved the mount downwards, until at zero stick and trim, the swashplate was "perfectly" level.

This did a lot to fix the problem, but the heli was somewhat unstable now. This turned out to be the vertical plastic rods attaching the blades to swashplate. They were rubbing on the new aluminium guides, causing friction, and unbalancing the heli. Once this was tuned, the heli flies like a charm, even with 4 chipped blades.

Just out of curiousity....

Is that drastically different than leaving the lower head screwed into the holes it is supposed to be, and raising the swashplate entirely?

Lengthening BOTH servo links by the same amount should keep your trim, and raise the whole swashplate the couple of millimeters it needs for the swash links to reach.

I put the e-flight aluminum swash on my CX2, and had to turn it 3 to 4 half-turns longer than with the plastic swash, even just to get the swashplate in the correct position to re-level it.

it sounds like you are doing the opposite for a similar effect, lowering the rotor head, rather than raising the swashplate.

[blkdog7]

Originally Posted by MK

Boca has a complete set for the Lama for $15 and $30 (for ceramic ones).

bkldog7,

Hobby Lobby is a good place to buy from. Try slickzero.com. Their shipping is $1.95 for First Class mail regardless of the size of your order. They ship fast too.

I added a link to slickzero.com in the main post. I'll give them a shot next time I need something. Thanks!

[fly97]

originally posted byblkdog7
Anyways... I tried buying a bunch of stuff from KRs hobbies but the guy was out of stock of everything I wanted. So, if he can actually stock stuff I want I might place an order with him!

Sorry, I might have something to do with that, he is local to me, so I pay no shipping. I have been dropping a lot of money on different parts, tweaking and whatnot. I also know a few other people local, who have helped buy his stock. I do know he is gearing up for the xmas season, and should be carrying more stock, and more variety.

Let me know how that tail goes. I am going to try to mod a CX2 tail for a friends Lama 4. I will try either the M3, or xtreme, to see which is more stable.

Has anyone here tried the Boca bearings? sounds good, but 15/30 bucks is steep for bearings. But if tehy are that good, might just be worrh it!

[BullGator]

blkdog7,

Love to see how your mod turns out! I've wanted to change the tail on my Lama since I got it. Been reading the thread on modding the BCX and there are tons of good ideas if you can get through it all. Fortunately work has been slow so I've had some time on my hands....

[lama lama duck]

blkdog7, to clarify my last post, yeah, after a hell of a lot of tweaking it flies fine now. But, I think that you would be best off following CanardianFan's advice over mine:

Lengthening BOTH servo links by the same amount should keep your trim, and raise the whole swashplate the couple of millimeters it needs for the swash links to reach.

The "hell of a lot of tweaking" I had to do could be done a lot better, and with more accuracy by lengthening the servo arms instead of moving the mount up and down she shaft. Damn, that is what you get for not asking first

With blkdog7, fly97 and myself trying out the tail mod, someone has got to be able to get it up and running properly!

Sorry about the post delay's, I am about 12hrs out from you guys in Aussie land

Edit: Thinking about it, moving the mount lower would have the tiny advantages of very slightly lowering the center of gravity and reducing the chance of blade strike, although 4mm won't make these effects very pronounced.

[fly97]

originally posted by lama lama duck
Edit: Thinking about it, moving the mount lower would have the tiny advantages of very slightly lowering the center of gravity and reducing the chance of blade strike, although 4mm won't make these effects very pronounced.

Might be more than you think, using the Vortex shafts only increases the length by 5mm I think. But the far better mod to reduce blade strike, is the shortened flybar. Dynam Vortex fly bar works for that also, as it is shorter, with bolt on weights.