450 Starting Problem..

Tony

Staff member
Okay, not an 'actual' marathon. I'm a "big ole boy" from the country so I can't even 'run' to the fridge to get more biscuits and gravy lmao. When I said marathon, I meant driving all day, non stop to get the load delivered when they said I couldn't. They told me that there was no way I was going to deliver that load yesterday and guess what, it is there lol.
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Ok,, after jumping through some hoops the P-BOX is in the mail, hurray!!
I fit the new ESC and motor in nicely and the new locator screamer gives me piece of mind for sure. :twothumbsup:

While I'm waiting for the P-BOX, can someone tell me what this plug thing is for? I've had a bunch of these charger harnesses for years and I still can't figure out what the heck these plugs are for...
 

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murankar

Staff member
I believe that is a glow plug starter. I could be wrong but I think that is What it is. a nitro thing.
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Hummmm,,,, probably is,, I never went nitro, that might explain my head scratcher....
If it is,, I wonder how it's used?
Rster...
 

Admiral

Well-Known Member
Hi Rob, I have one as well and always wondered what it was for, this video explains it, thanks for asking the question.

 

Tony

Staff member
It's just a nitro multi-charger adapter. One for glow igniter and the other two for the different receiver packs.
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
So that's what that plug think is for!
Cool video,, just one little detail about what was mentioned about NiMH batteries...
NiMH batteries were developed mainly to replace NiCad batteries because of the shallow charging memory effect. However, NiMH batteries should be fully cycled at least 3 times when new so the batteries full charging capacity can be reached.
After this break- in procedure, you can charge at any time without the shallow cycled memory effect... I use NiMH batteries in my UHF 2 way radios and love'm….. Everybody I know that used NiCad's had badly shallow cycled batteries. They charge all night and get maybe an hour in standby and a minute of transmitting time before the bottom fell out; not me, HA!!
Thanks guys!!……..…
 

Tony

Staff member
You are correct Rob, NiMh batteries don't have near the memory of NiCd, but they do still have a memory. Best thing you can do is store them for long periods at about 20% capacity (discharge them almost completely dead) and store them like that.

Those were the last batteries that needed to be "run in" like you mentioned. LiPo, LiIo and others don't need it anymore. NiCd was the #1 battery cell to do a hard run in because the faster you could get the power out and back in then back out again, the faster it would continue to do so. Charge slow, and it would discharge slow. Charge fast and it would discharge fast. We charged these things (NiCd) when I was racing at about 10 amps just to pack the power in them. They got very hot while charging so you had to run multiple fans on them or they would explode lol.

For your friend, tell him to discharge his packs to nothing (dead short) with a standard brake light (about a 2a discharge at 12v). Maybe not completely dead shorted, but at least very little glow. Then charge them up with the highest amp rating that pack can handle. They will get hot, get read for that. But after about 5 cycles he should get some life back out of them. Or, if they are cheap, just replace them lol.
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Hi Tony,
Wow there's more to the NiMH story that meats the eye "A"...
I didn't know that about the storing of the NiMHs. Years ago when we were using them for the UHF radios they were about 2/3 cycled 5 times a week, so we never really stored them. Now I only use 3 AAA cells for my LED head light. After break-in, I only charge when they run down. That way it's rare'n to go when I need it.

I also didn't know that about the NiCads… With the chargers that came with the radios of the day, you could never control nothing. Just drop it into the cradle and hope she fully charged when the green light comes on.
Awesome info on these batteries! I did not know those juicy details about these babies…
Are we having fun yet?
Heck, the computer says my P-BOX will be here on Tuesday! ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!! The chopper is fully reassembled and standing by!!
 

Tony

Staff member
Mind you that info is for batteries that we used for racing. In Nitro trucks, we charged the receiver pack at only about .2 amps so that it would last longer. But we always did a full discharge/charge to make sure we were getting max capacity.
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Man, you've been around the RC world that's for sure....

Ok time for the question of the day: …
On my HK Zippy lypos, (for the 450) they seem to go a bit wild when nearing the full charge point. Let me be more descriptive of the problem.

These packs have only 51 flights on them.
What starts to happen to a battery pack when it starts to fail? In other words, does the voltage begin to fluctuate from let's say, 3.7 to 4.23 volts per cell during the charging cycle? Then it will go some where low and back up to what ever? Two of the packs will take up the entire 120 min timer and then the charger shuts down and says TIME... Their not balanced either. All connectors are fine.
Does this sound like bad battery packs or chargers or both???
What do you guys think?

Now for some good news! I got my P-BOX today! First thing I did was plug in a battery .. It works!! Ok where was I,, yeah babee! let's have some fun!
I'll sure let you know if I have any difficulties get'n her back in the air.....
Thanks guys...
Rster...
 

Cyclone 7

Member
Is your charger not timing out before it has finished charging & balancing? You may have to look at increasing the charge time which is programmable on most balance chargers - 120mins seems a bit short. My safety cut off is set to 180mins for 1500-2200mAh batteries from Storage charge and I never charge or return to Storage at more than 1 amp.

When you connect your P-Box to the ESC make sure you have the polarity correct ie the plug the right way around. Hasn't happened to me but I've read of others making that mistake - not quite sure what the result is though; I imagine that it would just be a case of it not working!
 
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Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Sound advice on the polarity. The video mentioned to get that right too.. Will do....

About the batteries, how come 2 of the packs charge up to full in 45 minutes? Charge rate is 1C, 2650 mAh...
 

Cyclone 7

Member
Sound advice on the polarity. The video mentioned to get that right too.. Will do....

About the batteries, how come 2 of the packs charge up to full in 45 minutes? Charge rate is 1C, 2650 mAh...

If that is the case, then I should think that the problem battery has a bad cell - but I am no battery expert. It's always been a bit of a dark science to me! I understand the basics of lipo technology, usage & care but that is about as far as it goes.
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Ok, are you guys ready for this...
Everything went well for the programming of the ESC. It really was fun and easy.
However I never got to the throttle standardization part because I noticed the cyclic servos were not traveling right and my LED nav lights are not working either, say what?? How can that happen? I didn't change any of that programming; why would I?

This is what I did to straiten out the cyclic servos but I'm still very wherry as to how this thing got this way in the first place.
I reversed the aileron servo and went from a +75 to a -75 in the swash aileron settings... Their all moving correctly now.
Again; how or what do you guys think happened???
Do you think the heli might freak out in the air sometime?
Have you ever heard of this before?
Thanks guys!
 

Admiral

Well-Known Member
Not sure what is going on there but now that it's fixed have you checked that the gyros are moving in the right direct when you move the heli forward backward, side to side and left to right.
Most of us have been caught out that way at some stage.
 
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