OT (boy's toys) Oh, FFS

I *finally* recently spent out and bought a replacement rotor hub for
m Sabre indoor helicopter, fitted it and then found that one of the
servos had strpiped a gear in the same crash that broke the rotor hub.
A week and one new servo later and all was well.

Tonight I took it for a rather wobbly lap of the garden; the batteries
began to die, so I ran it on the ground to make sure they were
reasonably well discharged - and the aerial whipped up into the rotor,
wrapped round the shaft and broke off part of the swashplate
mechanism.

Bugger.

 

Ewwww!

 

You should've seen the first attempt.

 

Indeed. Especially since AFAIK you're not meant to do that with NiMiH
or LiPo batteries. ICBW of course.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

You don't need to do it with /any/ batteries.

 

ISTR that it helped with old NiCd?

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Well, I don't actually know what technology they are bu I suspect
NiMH. Supposedly don't need discharging as you say, but I left one set
charged for a couple of weeks *once* and they're now buggered to the
extent that the heli won't lift out of ground effect, so now I
discharge them. The other set, bought at the same time, are OK but a
bit aged.

Anyway, in the case of NiMH, it's not as if it damages them.

I hate rechargeable batteries.

 

I'm not sure there's a link there but wibble flip do

Why? I rather like them though LiPos scare me.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

AIUI, with NiCads you do; it's always been considered wise to store
them discharged to something like 1.1V per cell. This is especially
true if the charger slightly overcharges them each time they're
charged - the overcharging eventually causes the illusory 'memory
effect', which apparently can be countered by discharging them
correctly.

Anyway, as I've already pointed out, it's not as though it's a *bad*
thing to do to NiMH, if that is indeed what they are.

 

Only if you charge them to exactly the same point, then discharge them
to exactly the same point, over & over thousands of times. Which is
what NASA did when testing NiCads for satellites, & discovered the
memory effect.

 

Because they're temperamental bastards that need to be stored
carefully and, in the case of the lighter types, their performance
fades quite quickly with time. They also take considerably longer to
charge than discharge in a model aircraft, which means you can't just
recharge a second set while the first set is in use: you'd have to
have several sets on charge simultaneously.

LiPos scare me too: the charging voltage difference between 'not
enough useful capacity' and 'about to grenade' isn't that great. Not
only that but you can't trickle charge them, either: they can 'grow'
internal shorts if you try it. Very light and compact, though.

 

I don't suppose you're interested in something nice and spanky brand new
Pip?

A T-Rex 450 with ALL the aluminium upgrades (swahplate, washout mixers,
rotor head, teai gearbox and blade holders). Carbon everything else
including blades. Built to perfection and comes with 2 x 2200mAh Li-po
batteries, a Multiplex Li-po charge and a Multiplex Li-po balancer.

Brushless motor and it's companion ESC.

2.4Ghz transmitter/rx, Futaba GY 401 heading loc/rate gyro and top quality
servo's.

I built this for a bloke who decided it's too good for him to **** up
learning how to fly the thing, so it's set up for learning rather than 3D
flying, although 5 minutes with the Tx and it'll hover upside down no
problem.

The battereis have never been connected yet, so even they're brand spanking.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Connected to a balancer they don't cause any problems though.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Ahh. Cheers



--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

I'm going to regret this. How much?

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Sounds like the elliptical cam gradually slid up the beam shaft and
caught on the flange rebate...

 

I'm far from convinced by the theory. In practice, I have several sets
of (AAA) NiMH batteries in cordless phones, whose charging systems are
rudimentary at best, i.e. they just constantly keep a voltage across
them. This has lead to said batteries being almost completely useless,
in one case giving no more than 30 seconds of life, then after a few
attempts not even enough to light up the handset.

Exactly what's going on here I don't know, but putting them in a torch
and leaving it on for a couple of hours miraculously restores them to
full life again. This sounds to me like some sort of memory effect -
what would you call it?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Ace

Oh *interesting*! I was going out at lunchtime to buy new batteries for
all the phones in my house because of just that problem.

I'll probably still buy some, but I'll try the torch trick too, just as
an experiment.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

I have already made the greatest contribution to the fight against climate
change that I can make: I have decided not to breed. Now quit bugging me and
go and talk to the Catholics.

 

I've had a set in a Panasonic cordless phone pair for 6 years. No
issues. Standby time is still IRO 2-3 days.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

<Hollow voice>

If you have to ask the price you can't afford it

</HV>

Phil