So far it's looking good, will test fly it and then let you guys know.

Forgot to ask, any other 3s motors other than the Walkera 002 that would be suitable?

Perhaps this one?
http://www.wowhobbies.com/turboace36...ion-1-2-1.aspx
or
http://www.giantshark.co.uk/hl2010-5...-p-405293.html

For my prosperity and for others in this hobby I have began recording some of my test flights that, for the most part were a bad idea in the first place and usually end badly. This is the latest one. I began to suspect this battery was having issues after a few crashes. After one of this pack's last flights it was a bit puffed more than usual and stayed that way for longer than normal. But it did return to normal and hard when cooled off for a bit. I knew I probably should not fly it anymore, but had to know for sure and apparently I was right. I use my batteries in chronological order and label them as I buy new ones. I usually fly all my packs by the end of the day. This one was labeled #1 in marker because it was the original stock battery that came in the box.

This is the strangest Lipo battery I have ever experienced. It seems to have a connection issue or faulty cell. The cells will charge to full 4.2v but will auto-discharge to around 4.17v and stay there on both cells. The first crash that indicated an issue i noticed the lower voltage before the flight and just though the pack was not fully charged. I lost power and responsiveness and crashed. The discharge cable seems to be secure and well soldered. The pack is capable of being fully discharged to 3.7V when flown softly or in a steady hover. For some reason it has an intermittent drop in voltage in at least one of the cells. When this happens the rotor looses power and the cyclic looses responsiveness as shown in the resulting crash in this video. Some times the battery alarm will even sound at the beginning of the flight then stop before i can land. Once landed the voltages are all normal and above 3.9v.

Hope this test flight helps someone before this happens to them.

4f200 - Test - Stock Battery Failure (2 min 33 sec)

Originally Posted by BenVK

Forgot to ask, any other 3s motors other than the Walkera 002 that would be suitable?

Perhaps this one?
http://www.wowhobbies.com/turboace36...ion-1-2-1.aspx
or
http://www.giantshark.co.uk/hl2010-5...-p-405293.html

I am not sure what motors will fit for sure. Wow Hobbies suggests this:http://www.wowhobbies.com/turboace81...alkera4g6.aspx

But you will have to fit your own pinion on. It's not so hard if you have a pinion puller/set tool. They are about $10-20 for the tool. I'm pretty sure these motors use pressed pinions and not set screw. I forget.

EDIT:
Sorry i think that motor is for 2S not 3S. Not sure.

Originally Posted by IntegrityHndywrk

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

Sometimes you just ask for trouble!!!

Glad it was only a blade.

Yup, I have learned -- once you have the FIRST battery 'flake-out' do not ever put it into an EDF or a heli again. If you know it has been gradually aging and gaining internal resistance, then you *might* consider it for light prop or glider duty, but even then, the best bet is with the fist sign of trouble, just cut the connector off to save the connector for a replacement battery (one wire at a time, please!) and put the battery into a glass of salt water for a few days, then dispose with regular trash. I find cutting the connector off right away keeps me from rethinking it and trying to 'save' it...

Folks, batteries with issues NEVER get better; only worse. It's just not worth it, since the life blood of your model is in that one component.

Originally Posted by thwaitm

Sometimes you just ask for trouble!!!

Glad it was only a blade.

Bah, thats nothing. You should see what my v120 has been though in durability testing alone. My v450 got ran though the ringer a few times when i knew i shouldn't fly it with it's rudder issues. No big deal. It's all in the name of experience and research. I don't ever watch TV really and I stick my nose in the books all day reading, for FUN. I know crazy right. The random article button on wikipedia was the best invention since the smartphone for me. Sometimes you have to live a little and step outside the box. Do things people tell you that you shouldn't do. Try a battery you KNOW is probably no good and even throw in a flip for the hell of it while doing it. Low and behold sometimes the best path will be the one less traveled. If anything you'll have something to laugh about later. But the real truth is you will have gained valuable experience which can't be read in a book and can give birth to a whole new sense of perception or even precognition based on your new found knowledge and experience.

4 hours after this video I crashed it again doing loops and broke A CF blade and grind the gear to hell. Strangely the ball linkage plastic tip ripped off a blade pitch link and went flying but the rest of the links and the linkage still there and is fine. There might be some bends in the shafts though, they are a pain to check for bends. Usually just easier to replace them. I will have to straighten the main shaft again if it's not cracked or broken. Above all that normal nonsense that is an easy fix. I FINALLY DID IT!!!! I BROKE THE FRAME! just the little section above the front right side landing skid, and in reality i don't see any reason to repair it, but I'm going to anyway. I'm sure there is some other issues i might need to fix but over all it was a pretty good nose dive into the ground wile doing back loops. Was excellent fun though. Unfortunately i didn't record that flight.

Originally Posted by tracknoob

I'm not sure I would recommend fibre, paper or other spacers that will readily wear. I found that for blade spacers, the best material is an old credit card, cut up and drilled. That darn plastic is both tough as heck, and also easy for the various mating parts to slide across.

Correct. I would not recommend anyone but me to use these.

Originally Posted by thwaitm

Ok. I'll do an orange one when I get a chance and you can compare!

After some consideration, I painted my canopy Florescent Orange. Well actually, I stopped by the LHS and this guy recommend that color. It's a very annoying color. If you stair at it long enough and then close your eyes, you will still see it. It's that annoying...

Folks,

I finally got around to fixing my 4F200 last evening (bent boom and tail shaft). And I flew 5 packs today - no crash. Hurrrraaaay!!! Boy did I have fun today. I have videos uploading to youtube as I write this.

I have one video which shows me holding an inverted hover for longer than I usually do. Finally... signs of this practicing is paying off.

Originally Posted by razorblade

Folks,

I finally got around to fixing my 4F200 last evening (bent boom and tail shaft). And I flew 5 packs today - no crash. Hurrrraaaay!!! Boy did I have fun today. I have videos uploading to youtube as I write this.

I have one video which shows me holding an inverted hover for longer than I usually do. Finally... signs of this practicing is paying off.

I on the other hand crashed and rebuilt my helicopter not once, not twice, not 3 times, but 4 times this weekend! All of which with minimal parts. One of which i knew was coming because it was a "test" flight with a suspected bad pack. I had to straighten the shaft 3 times, it think thats a record for straightening a shaft without it breaking! After my last crash i think i have some bent blade shafts though. But the tracking is still.... acceptable at this point. I'm just going to crash it again with what I've been doing lately. My crash while doing loops and rolls was a good one! I wish i was filming. I finally broke the frame and didn't have parts to replace it! I'm still flying with the busted frame! Who cares, it gonna hit the ground again before i get all my new replacement parts anyway. So i might as well get it tuned in a little better tomorrow evening and fly it again after i do some real work. Glad to hear your getting more comfortable in sustained inverted hover! Cant wait to see the videos.

I started my upload queue of 5 videos last evening - it finished well before I went into work this morning. Here is first video and last video. If you'd like to see the in-betweens please visit my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/razorblade201103

Took it out for 5 packs of 3D practice yesterday. No crash. Feels good to not crash especially after my 2 recent crashes, of which were pilot error. I better not jinx myself.

I painted the canopy an ugly annoying fluorescent orange color so I can this little fella and I modified my battery tray. The modification will accommodate some longer batteries that I plan on getting soon. I can take photos of the battery tray mod if anyone is interested in more details. There's not much to it.

Watch the second video around 1:12 for first signs of sustained inverted hovering.

Enjoy!

Walkera 4F200 AR7200BX 3D Practice - Painted Canopy and Battery Tray Mod (6 min 20 sec)

Walkera 4F200 AR7200BX BeastX 3D Flips and First Inverted Hover (5 min 28 sec)

Originally Posted by IntegrityHndywrk

After my last crash i think i have some bent blade shafts though. But the tracking is still.... acceptable at this point.

I have the same problem now. Either one of my main blade grips is bent or one of the main grip shafts is bent - or both. Blade tracking is off but only at low throttle. Since I am out of stock on blade grip shafts, I will continue to fly this way until my next crash. My inventory should be replenished by then.

However, there are some vibrations being transmitted into the gyro and I'm not sure if I can notice the difference in flight. Visually I can tell by observing the antenna of the AR7200BX flybarless controller. Right now the antenna wiggles at a high rate. When I had blade balance and tracking spot on, the antenna was as still as a humming bird.

Oh and now that I concentrate mostly on 3D now, I rarely spend time hovering upright anymore - maybe this is why it doesn't bother me.

Originally Posted by thwaitm

Glad it was only a blade.

Glad it's only a 200 size heli (and not a 700 size). If it were you'd be...???

The blades from my mCPX smacked into my for arm once... and drew blood. Honest!

Regarding 3S conversion... here's an old post where AlwaysCrash installed a TREX 250 2S/3S motor and the stock pinion fits without modifcation.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...&postcount=634

Originally Posted by razorblade

Glad it's only a 200 size heli (and not a 700 size). If it were you'd be...???

The blades from my mCPX smacked into my for arm once... and drew blood. Honest!

Yes, my v120d5CS-Pro drew blood on my arm as well. Quite bad actually, but it uses CF blades. The V120d02S has given me a good one before as well. I don't fly indoors anymore. Stupid to fly even these indoors IMO. I'll stick with the Trex 100 or v911 for indoor flight for now, thanks! lol.

Anyway AWESOME JOB on the flight improvements in your inverted skill. I have been screwing around a lot lately just trying to see how durable this heli really is. If i'm going to fly it in 3D i have to really crash this sucker up before i am able to not be scared to fly it, like i am my v450. I think i have accomplished some of that goal. I really think this heli is quite durable in its size class now. Yes it will have to be benched lots, but over all repairs are repetitive and commonly the same parts. I finally broke the frame on both sides above the skids. It still flies like a champ!!

The orange canopy does not look as bad as i thought it would, pretty cool! But after watching this video, you will see an event that would surely end in total disaster for most people no matter what canopy you have on. I consider myself EXTREMELY lucky that i even still possess my 4f200.. If it were not for flying on a sim with no range limits, i don't think i could have done this as comfortably as i did.

(copied youtube description: )
This past weekend was full of crashing the 4f200 for me. I think i rebuilt it about 4 times. Rebuilds are almost as fun for me as flying sometimes. It's just relaxing for me at times. I really wanted to fly today but I had a cracked frame just above the landing skids. On top of that i had some bent blade shafts and 2 stripped and slipping servos. Later i found out that one of the servo arms was also stripped and poped into a new position on the servo in flight on one side which caused some banking when i let off the cyclic. This was one of the funnest flights I've had in awhile for sure! Near the end of the flight the heli drops down in front of the tree line and i can no longer see the helicopter and loose all orientation! I decided to just punch out but was already in FFF in that direction! I think i might have actually went through a cut in the trees and punched out behind the tree line. It's very hard to tell from the video. But i am very much sure i flew the 4f200 and 2618V damn near their range limit today! If you consider the range supposed to be 100 meters and i was standing in the end zone area of an actual sports field and flew nearly all the way across the field diagonally.

It is also note worthy to mention that flying with 2 slipping servos with the original stock ESC would have resulted in a "Brown out" and loss of control. With the currently installed $9 hobbywing alternative I am currently using I had no issues and the servos held the swash rather well for being stripped and slipping. (lol)

4f200 - TEST - Damaged equipment and 4f200's Viability in flight (3 min 50 sec)