newbie f**k up-smashed up heli

[paulcobra]

mmm really should learn to use the throttle hold, before i even got round to trying my very first flight! not even got to hover this dam thing!,my esc burned out the other day while i was trying to set up my GL450, so being on a major tight budget due to unforeseen circumstances, got a esc of ebay, fitted it and connected the battery, big mistake, the new esc must work opposite to the old one as when i connected the battery, before i knew what was happening, the damm thing had hit the ceiling smashed the spotlight fitting, came back down and hit the floor before i managed to stop it, anyway cut eye and badly bruised shoulder and knee later, finally looked at the damage, feathering shaft(which i had a few spares) blades(only got carbon fiber(been told these are no good for beginners)so need to get some plastic or wooden), tail boom (need to get), set of servos(luckily these were only cheapo ones) as far as i can see thats about it,although i do have my suspect the esc is still not right as when i connect the battery now the dam thing just beeps at me, i was all for throwing the lot on ebay as spares(i have an old XL airframe too which i am not sure if i should get this flying too or sell it to fund the spares for my GL), i know this is not the sort of hobby that you can do on a shoe string but untill i can get my finances sorted i am determined to stick with it, hit my sim as much as poss till i can sort the heli out(the sim is AEROFLY DELUXE PRO anyone had any dealings with this? that could give me some pointers as to setting it up on a dx6i), anyone know any shops that take paypal? or anyone got any odd bits floating about?

anyway long story short i will be using that throttle hold alot more now.

[waveydavey]

Can you not disconnect the motor from the esc whilst your setting up, would help even if you forget throttle hold

[dandeman]

I have 3 esky 8g servos if you want them... Any good to you? If so PM me your address. (I think they all work?)

[Dedcalm]

If indeed your ESC was working in a reversed sense then throttle hold would cause the ESC to go to max rather than min throttle.

All ESC's I have ever come accross (both fixed wing and heli) have a safety built in to prevent hot starts. From your description it sounds like yours does not have this feature... Disconnect the motor from the ESC and work through the programming of the ESC.

When configuring a mates T-Rex 450 I found the throttle channel needed reversing to get the ESC to program correctly but I never had a hot start while working with it.

[paulcobra]

Can you not disconnect the motor from the esc whilst your setting up, would help even if you forget throttle hold

the reason i didn't dissconect the battery was to see if i had connected the 3 wires from the motor the right way round, was just gona give it a notch or two on the throttle to see if it was right.

[unwind-protect]

All ESC's I have ever come accross (both fixed wing and heli) have a safety built in to prevent hot starts.

Agreed. I've never seen a brushless ESC that doesn't have this feature.

Still, I'll stick an Allen key through the main gear if I've any doubts what's going to happen. It'll make a mess of your main gear, but hopefully not your face!

[paulcobra]

you say go through programing the esc?? i'm a newbie and wouldn't even know where to start with this.if you can point me in the right direction that would be great.

[Gav]

how about dropping the motor out the frame while trying it for the first time (but STILL leave the wires connected of course!)? better than the allen key in the main gear trick lol. Some ESC need a linear thottle curve too for programming 0 25 50 75 100 - and make sure the trim is Zero on the throttle before trying for the first time. Do the instructions on the cheap ESC read ok or is it bad translation?

Sorry to hear about the smash up though - take it easy and get the parts in slowly - have to be a bit patient with rebuilding with the big smashes.

good luck with it
Gav

[Dedcalm]

Agreed. I've never seen a brushless ESC that doesn't have this feature.

Still, I'll stick an Allen key through the main gear if I've any doubts what's going to happen. It'll make a mess of your main gear, but hopefully not your face!

Just take the main blades off the heli, then all you have to worry about is the paddles - far less dangerous. This is what I did when 1st running the ESC with motor connected - needed the motor to configure the ESC as its what makes the beeps...

[trillian]

Agreed. I've never seen a brushless ESC that doesn't have this feature.

Still, I'll stick an Allen key through the main gear if I've any doubts what's going to happen. It'll make a mess of your main gear, but hopefully not your face!

Yeah, usually if you start with the throttle stick all the way up it will put the esc into programming mode. The only other thought would be what the failsafe settings were but if the tx and rx were working that wouldn't be the issue.

I have to say, electric helis scared me for a while in the beginning just for the idea that once that deans is connected on the battery you have the potential for full power at any time.

Anyway, that's a horrid thing to have happen.

One other thing you can do with electrics which is not advised with a nitro is that you can remove the rotor blades if you need to just see which way the motor is turning or feel there may be a danger of something weird like that happening. (edit--- he beat me to it, but yeah with the blades off it's just the flybar and tail rotor to worry about but at least it won't get airborne)

[paulcobra]

how about dropping the motor out the frame while trying it for the first time? better than the allen key in the main gear trick lol. Some ESC need a linear thottle curve too for programming 0 25 50 75 100 - and make sure the trim is Zero on the throttle before trying for the first time. Do the instructions on the cheap ESC read ok or is it bad translation?

Sorry to hear about the smash up though - take it easy and get the parts in slowly - have to be a bit patient with rebuilding with the big smashes.

good luck with it
Gav

INSTRUCTIONS?? non with it(thought this was a bit stange myself but never bought one before so didnt know)

[liambaker996]

the esc will bleep if it is in setup mode this is what your esc could be doing liam

[andylinney]

Paul, I've been beaten up by an electric heli before so don't feel too bad about that for now. As the others have said there's a few ways of making sure it's all safe before programming. I like taking the pinion off, it keeps everything in place and is useful for setting up blade pitch and the likes. As Trillian said, the danger of a 'leccy heli is that as soon as the battery is connected you're effectively dealing with a live heli that can and as you've learnt today sometimes will go straight to full power.

The esc setup is something that to be fair, you needn't worry about just now. Once the rebuild is done, check the motor is turning in the right direction and leave it as is, the throttle hold needs to be your best friend from now on.

I usually go through a daft little checklist in my head when connecting my batteries now:

TX: On and correct model selected
Idle-up: normal
Throttle stick: all the way down and trim bottomed out

Heli: Blades straightened
Position: Can I get out of the way?

Battery: connect
Let the ESC initialise (you'll hear a few beeps) while holding on to the rotor head.

Throttle Hold: ON (using free hand)

Canopy: On
Carry the heli out with the tx held in my left hand so that I can keep the throttle stick pressed down with my thumb.

Then go fly - and do something similar in reverse when disconnecting it all, being especially careful when handling the TX / Heli incase something gets knocked.

I'll also only approach the heli when it's in normal mode, and the stick is down with throttle hold on. It's not too bad on the 450's but the bigger 'leccy helis can be quite scary when powered up as there's no warning of them spooling up, at least you hear a nitro engine start to rev-up.

[ChrisB]

Whenever i am working on stuff like this with an electric heli i simply slide the motor away from the main gear,bingo no drive.

[smiles]

With ChrisB on this always loosen the motor screws and and disengage the motor from the main gear and tighten back up this way there is no chance of spooling the heli up and only takes a few seconds to set back up after your finished. What make and model is the new esc someone on here must have the instructions what ever you do dont loose faith this is a very frustrating hoby at times but when you finally get it nailed it is well worth it


Regards Stuart.