Monthly Archives: May 2010

Radio Control, Technology

R/C micro Li-Po batter charger testing

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It’s come to my attention, that the little battery chargers that came with the various helicopters, might not be working up to par. Taking longer than I want to charge is one thing, but not charging properly is another entirely! A recent visit to the hobby shops indicated that it’s common for them to fail. But, they should be easy enough to test to see if they are applying a full charge by the simple use of a multi-meter.

Thus, I dug up my trusty Fluke (it must be over 25 years old now), put in a new 9v battery and started some testing.

All batteries here are Lithium-Polymer (Li-Po) 2-cell 7.4v batteries. 2 of the batteries tested are for the Blade CX3, the other for the Madhawk 300. Here is a link to the chart I created to document the batteries I’ve used.

  E-Flite Battery Charger ExceedRD Battery Charger
Exceed-RC 7.4v 1000mAh 8.4v     8.4v    
Tenergy 7.4v 900mAh 8.43v     8.43v 8.43v  
E-Flite 7.4v 800mAh 8.43v 8.38v   8.43v 8.43v  
Hyperian VGX3 #1 8.43v          
Hyperian VGX3 #2       8.43v 8.43v 8.44v

Results

Testing so far indicates that the chargers, although slow, are doing the job. One battery, the E-Flite 800mAh seemed a little down on power during the 2nd cycle of the test. It might already be suffering some degradation of performance. If that’s the case, it’s pretty pathetic. I plan to run each through at least 3 charge cycles to get a decent dataset.

Helicopters, Radio Control

CX3 repaired and flying again!

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The Blade CX3 is repaired and flying again! The $22 aluminum swash plate repair, actually has the thing flying better than it did right out of the box!

E-Flight OEM Plastic Swashplate E-Flight Upgrade Aluminum Swashplate

Here is a 3 min video of first test flights in the studio, and finally my 8 year old attempting to fly it, for the first time, outside! The crosswind was playing havoc but he did a pretty good job of keeping things together. I think he’s going to be a good pilot some day.

Even though it’s a Toy Co-Axial helicopter (a $200 “toy” to be exact), with the upgraded part, it’s a joy to fly. There is something so therapeutic about an activity that puts nice big genuine smile on your face. And in the end, what price is too high a price to pay for some joy? 🙂 Even though I’ve “outgrown” this helicopter in about 1 week of intense practice, I still want to keep it around, and even put some more upgrades on it! Such as this cool LED strobe kit I’ve seen on the web. Here is a video from a guy that I think, sells the best of them:

Here are a few pics flying it outside, just before dark. Shot with an f2.8 200mm lens, 50D camera set at ISO1600 and roughly 1/30th second shutter speed. Despite the slow speed and high ISO, I think the shots are work posting.

Blade CX3 spooled up and ready for takeoff.

Blade CX3 spooled up and moving out. Still in ground effect.
Blade CX3 after battery change, ready to go again.
Blade CX3 in flight.
Blade CX3 flies overhead.
Radio Control

Factory batteries for R/C helis

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This is purely for my own reference, but if others find this useful, then enjoy.

E-Flight Blade CX3

Factory E-Flite Battery
Brand E-Flight
Type Li-Po
Voltage 7.4v
Current 800mAh
Cells 2 cells
C Rating unknown
Model # EFLB0990
Dimensions 70mm x 25mm x 11mm
Suitable Aftermarket Battery
Brand Tenergy
Type Li-Po
Voltage 7.4v
Current 900mAh
Cells 2 cells
C Rating 10C
Model # 31104
Dimensions 73mm x 25mm x 11mm

Exceed-RC MadHawk 300

Factory Battery for Madhawk300
Brand unknown
Type Li-Po
Voltage 7.4v
Current 1000mAh
Cells 2 cells
Model # n/a
C Rating unknown
Dimensions 61mm x 30mm x 15mm
Helicopters, Radio Control

Unpacking the Madhawk 300

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Unpacking the Exceed-RC MadHawk 300 heli was easy enough. It comes in a variety of body styles. If there is one thing I’ve learned int this hobby so far, I’m going to CRASH. So I went for the simple ‘Normal’ canopy style instead of the cooler looking full-bodied birds.

Madhawk 300 at XHeli.com

Closeup photos of the heli

The box.
Parts as packed. Typical Chinese blister pack maze.
Parts unpacked. Heli, radio, battery, charger, spare blades (yeah!), mini-tool.
Programmable 4-channel 2.5GHz transmitter that comes in kit.
300 class electric heli - Madhawk 300 'Normal Edition'
Extra blades, charger, power supply, LiPo battery, mini-tools.
Metal rotor head and swash plate. Impressive for such little money.
Metal swash plate, and shaft-drive tail motor w/ heat sink.
Gearbox drive 3-blade fixed pitch tail rotor (plastic)
Bottom view with battery bay. Low in body and near rotor shaft CL.
Side view of heli with laptop to show scale.

I dot not yet have any in-flight video of this to upload, but I’ll say this. WOW, it’s fun! Establishing your first full hover with the blades of death whirling violently around, is as cool! The blades also make that trademark ‘whoop whoop whoop’ any proper helicopter should. It just adds to the fun.

There is a lot to learn about handling helicopter physics, but I’m finding that the 300 class with training gear installed is EASIER TO LEARN than the smaller co-axial craft. And the price is just about the same (or about 1/2 that of the CX3 to be honest).

So, the advice I’d received from a few people, and read on a few other sites is RIGHT ON. If you really think you are going to get into this, just buy a decent Fixed-Pitch kit for $120, add the $8 training kit and learn. You’ll be happier in the long run. Less frustration from slow co-axial heli response, heavier so you can fly in our outdoors, and it’s probably going to be fun to fly for quite some time.

So, once I get my head-in hover fully mastered I should have a nice EXI-500 built and ready to go. The EXI-500 will be good for years. I’ve met a number of people who suggested going from the little trainer STRAIGHT to the Collective-Pitch 500 or larger birds. And as crazy as it sounds, right now, I think they are right.

For now though, I’ll keep learning on the Co-Axials and Fixed-Pitch helis littering the house. Weather is pretty nasty outside so having some good indoor fun is a bonus. One of the next ‘upgrades’ to the CX3, after I fix the swash plate issue, is going to be a cargo hook. 🙂

Helicopters, Radio Control

Good times, bad times, upgrading and crashing the CX3…

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Good times. The Blade CX3 is one heck of a fun bird to fly.

The first update today was to add the factory heat sink for the main motors.

E-Flite CX3 heat sink

After removing one of the motors, installing the sink was pretty simple.

Heat sink install 1/2 complete

Motor re-installed and bolted back into position:

Motor re-installed.

The fame looks a little naked without the body installed. But it does not take long to put it back together, and ready for flight.

E-flite CX3 with body removed.

A little time lapse video of re-assembly:

Ready to enjoy some indoor heli flying fun.

Completed bird, and Spektrum DX6i flight controller

Well, it was, until the plastic factory swash plate decided to separate. I’d been fighting with adjusting the swash links most of the evening, after putting the heli back together again. I thought that maybe I’d bent a servo link rod during the heat sink install, so I worked on adjusting the cyclic/swashplate links.

Trying to stop a hard forward and starboard liftoff, and full rear cyclic would barely have any effect. It was not until an hour or so later I noticed that the plate where the servos attach was separating from the bearing and main rotor shaft. Duh. This explains why 2 directions worked great (pushing up on the plate) but the opposites failed (pulling down on the plate, but the upper bearing remained in position, thus no control. No control, but one check of an exciting crash!

The official term for this is TBE (toilet-bowl effect). Not fun. There is quite a discussion of the problem HERE. Once I discovered the problem, it was a matter of deciding how to solve it. There are a couple of solutions.

First of which is a pretty inexpensive factory replacement part.

Stock replacement swash plate.

Second is one of the CNC or cast metal solutions from E-Flite (the original manufacture) or other sources. Research indicates that the E-Flite is the one to buy.

E-Flight aluminum replacement swash plate.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other heils in the shop ready to fly.

Blade CX3 (left), Exceed-RC Madhawk 300 (right)

Aviation, photography

More pics of AirLift Northwest EC-135 N953AL

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It’s been months since I have seen this bird at Harrisons. It’s a great looking example of the EC-135 Eurocopter.

I’d more recently seen another EC-135, but it had much different livery, but still flew with the AirLift Northwest logo:

EC-135 N139AM

Here are a few of the photos I took today:

AirLift Northwest EC-135 N953AL starts takeoff.

AirLift Northwest EC-135 N953AL starts takeoff.
AirLift Northwest EC-135 N953AL clears the hospital helipad.
AirLift Northwest EC-135 N953AL climb-out.
AirLift Northwest EC-135 departs South-East.

I also have video shot with my old Canon DV camcorder (found it in a storage box yesterday). Right now I don’t have the right Firewire cable for my MAC. Hope to get that resolved tomorrow.

Software Development

A little model building.

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It’s been, almost a decade since I picked up an X-Acto Knife and built a styrene model. This weekend changed all that.

The reasons are many, some I can’t even go into. The ship was picked for 2 reasons. Price (about $10) and it had below waterline detail. That’s all I was looking for and this fit the bill. What turned out to be serendipitous fortune simply makes the project that much more poignant.

Blucher

The Blücher was a German Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser. The Kriegsmarine’s newest ship at the outbreak of World War II, having been in commission for just over six months, she was sunk by Norwegian shore defenses at the Battle of Drøbak Sound on April 9, 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung).

It took approximately 4 hours to formulate the plan for the build, and the first plastic was cut on Saturday night.

12 hours later, the final result. And I’m quite pleased with it. Moving some of the parts did not require much skill at all, but moving the starboard side screw was, well, a several hour effort. In the end, a fair bit of plastic welding was done, and body filler applied to completely conceal the original location. I hope you can see the final result in the side shot.

Blucher

I wish I could say more about it. 🙂

Helicopters, Radio Control

Maximum Geek-out. R/C + iMovie = ???

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It was bound to happen, taking the next step and actually taking 2 minutes to edit my little ‘movies’ (really a personal video diary of my learning to fly and crash little flying machines). Here are the first two that I actually was able to load into iMovie and convert.

First is the Revel Proto CX. My micro counter-rotating blade heli: I cut a bunch of worthless time (more worthless that this video, hard to image but true) out of the middle and focused on the ‘good stuff’:

Next is video of the bird #2, the Blade CX3.

EFlite Blade CX3 - MD520 Notar

I had just unpacked it, installed the training gear extensions (the funny orange balls) and bound it to the Spectrum radio that came in the ParkFlyer HobbyZone P-51 foamy. That was a nice little treat.

Blade CX3 - MD520 Notar

For the most part it worked great. Here 90% condensation of about 25 minutes of actual flight time with the CX3. This was my first attempt.

However, yet again, I managed to mangle the landing gear after a few panic throttle chops as it got a little close to big steel things that would break it. :/ Back to the hobby shop for MORE stuff!

Blade CX3 replacement landing gear. I left them 1 on the rack. At least they are not TOO expensive!

And finally, here is my repair video. First semi-successful attempt at time-lapse with the Canon S1100 micro-camera. The hardest part, I thought, would be learning how to do this with iMovie ’09. Nope, after some prodding around it turned out to be pretty simple. Sadly the camera was doing some sort of zoom-in and zoom-out madness. Site down before watching, you might get ill. Some are going to wonder about the music. Did I shot the video with this music in mind. NOT! Who’d try to shoot video like this, outside the brain-dead corridors of intellectual bankruptcy one finds in L.A. or N.Y.? No, but the frantic into to a good German industrial metal song just… WORKED! I only hope YouTube does not over-dub the music with something totally lame out of their music library, as I’ve heard they have started to do this.

UPDATE!

YouTube send me this message today. Hopefully they don’t over-dub the music. But, when you’re using a free service, their hardware, their network, it’s not a stretch to concede they own that copy of it.:

Your video, Eflite Blade CX3 MD520N (Notar), may have content that is owned or licensed by UMG.

No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information.