charger+battery trouble (new bee)

[01562paul]

Hi guy's.
I've had lots of r.c.'s as you can see if you check out my youtube page 01562paul but im just getting started in 3D helli's.

I bought a blade 400 and i've only flown it once and loved it but when i came to charge the battery cell's 2+3 are flashing red on the charger showing no battery. The sharge status aslo flashes red.

My local model shop manager told me the battery is no good and i need a new one but at 50 quid its expencive.
I was told that helli's are cheep to repair but im not so sure.

Can i get a cheeper battery if thats the problem or is it the charger?

please help Paul

[Mart61]

I bought a blade 400 and i've only flown it once and loved it but when i came to charge the battery cell's 2+3 are flashing red on the charger showing no battery. The sharge status aslo flashes red.

My local model shop manager told me the battery is no good and i need a new one but at 50 quid its expencive.

It does sound like a dodgy battery. Did you buy the heli new? What batteries are you using? Did you over-discharge the battery?

I was told that helli's are cheep to repair but im not so sure.

Blimey! Whoever told you that needs his head examined!

Whilst the Blade 400 is perhaps one of the cheaper to repair, this hobby is certainly not a cheap one, from both acquisition and repair costs perspective.

Can i get a cheeper battery if thats the problem or is it the charger?

Sure you can. Check this thread out and do a few searches on this forum for "Blade 400 batteries" or similar.

Good luck.

[dam74]

Get a Revo 2100mAh battery for 34quid, you can get cheaper aswell. You'll need to change the JST lead on this battery as I think it's a JST-PA, whereas the Eflite/Align batteries are JST-XH. So it won't charge on the Eflite balance charger unless you get a conversion lead or remove the plug and fix a new one to it.

[jamesb72]

I had a Blade400 and it was a great heli, and it was cheap to repair.

I stuck mine in the ground twice, first time was practicing forward tumbles when cyclic servo stripped in flight and it went straight into the ground - damage was blades, main/feathering shafts, and skids - about £18 IIRC - 2nd time was when I was practicing flying inverted, and forgot to flick idle up, so rolled inverted about 15ft up and went straight down into the deck - blades were flukily OK, so it was main/feathering shafts, tail boom and servo mount - about £12 IIRC. I consider that to be fantastic value, as two big crashes for about the price of a set of 325mm carbon blades is cheap for me.

It sounds like you have overdischarged your lipo - if you can find someone with a Cellpro 4S charger, they may be able to recover this for you - as it can recover low voltage packs - you might get away with this ! In future you need to set the timer on your transmitter to about 6 minutes and stop flying when it beeps - ideally you need to leave about 20% unused in the pack on each flight, you can get lipo checkers to help work this out, but a fully charged pack on the Blade400 will be fine on 6 minutes of hovering/circuits etc.

For now I'd suggest you invest in a better charger - and some cheap lipos of ebay - this will cost about the same as one e-flite lipo, but will be much better.

The Imax B6 lipo charger is a proper balancing charger with readouts for each cell, so you can easily see pack is in balance and it will charge quicker and better than the e-flite charger - they are about £30 delivered from HK on ebay with a mains adaptor (see item 170406077120) - if you already have a 12v supply for your other RC stuff, you can get these for £24 delivered (see item 280425083351).

If you are sure you will stick with Heli's, or if you use lipos in other RC stuff, the rolls royce of chargers is the Cellpro Multi 4S which is about £60 delivered, but is fantastic - I have two of the older 4S version, they are automatic so you plug in pack and it will work out how to charge it automatically, and is the safest and best charger you can buy - only pain is it comes with a strange battery connector, so you need to make up an adaptor lead to JST-XH connectors which are standard on most lipo packs - once you have the lead though, you are away.

Lipos, I like the 2200mah Transmetric packs from ebay, I have paid about £26 delivered for a pair of these and they have worked great for me (I have 10 packs I think). Looking on ebay now I can't see any of the Transmetric packs, but some GE branded packs (which I've used the 850mah on my 250 and they work fine) look OK £11.66 delivered (see item 270484506924).

You also need to swap to Deans connectors, unless you particularly like the EC3 connectors (I hated them) - I like the grip type which are on ebay cheap as chips (item 330377593228 - 10 pairs for £8 delivered).

I'd suggest you stick to the e-flite wood blades, and don't buy any upgrades, the Blade400 flies fine as it is. Main issue I had was when I started flying forward tumbles, the servo gears can strip in flight - they are fine for hovering and circuits/loops etc, but when you get past that point, I'd suggest you think about either upgrading the cyclic servo's (I went for Hitec HS65HB which were about £40 for three) - or if you are sure you will stick with Heli's, then think about selling the Blade400 on (keeping the DX6i and receiver) and upgrade to a Trex 450 sport super combo.

[Nick B]

Loong max 1800 3S1P 25C-35C Lipo Battery

[dam74]

James I'll take a look at those Dean connectors as I hate the EC3s aswell. They're very hard to remove if tight. Personally I would remove the woodies and keep them as spares or if you plan on selling the B400 and replace with glassfibre blades from Blink. They're half the price of the woodies and do the job. You will crash and break the blades so if you can get some cheaper than the stock blades you might aswell.

As for servos and gyro I replaced mine out with the AcerLab D12-MG servos when I stripped the stock servos (regeared them now). They're cheap as chips (13gbp each) and have some good feedback at the heli shop that I buy from. Also using the AcerLab G-1000 servo which is 30gbp. It really depends on what you plan on doing in the future. You could upgrade your servos and gyro to some decent ones and take them onto the new frame/kit when you get one down the track.

[SadSack]

5C Loong Max Tipple 1800 3S1P 30C-40C Lipo Battery

New type of Cell chemistry less likely to break it over discharging for that last little hover And charged at high rates!!!

[trillian]

- I like the grip type which are on ebay cheap as chips (item 330377593228 - 10 pairs for £8 delivered).

I like the look of those and had not seen them before. I have some deans that are so tight it's a real biatch to get them apart.

[SadSack]

I like the look of those and had not seen them before. I have some deans that are so tight it's a real biatch to get them apart.

cheaper still New Deans XT style Ultra connector Plugs x 10 pairs

£5.55 posted

[Nick B]

Got some of them on a plank,they are nice n easy to pull apart,i dont break the wood now

[01562paul]

Thank's for all your help and advice guy.
I've sent the battary back to brentford rc and it is being delt with by spencer who has been most helpfull and kept me informed.
They have sent the battary has been sent back to horison and im waiting to hear from them and if they are honist and have good customer care they should replace the battaty free of charge.
The only thing now is that im unable to fly the hellicopter because of this problem.

I'll keep you guy's informed on the out come.
But if the battary isn't replaced then there will be a eflight 400 3d - battary on ebay and i will stay running cars and trucks.

[dam74]

So if the battery isn't replaced you're going to try and flog it onto some unsuspecting person on eBay just because you haven't had any luck getting it replaced. Causing that person to be out of pocket?????

If you've been into RC hobby to acquire a number of cars etc, then you know that it isn't cheap as tx'es, batteries, fuel, etc isn't cheap from one discipline to the next. It's people like you who give eBay a bad name, and being on the recieving end of people like yourself, what you have just said makes my blood boil.

[jamesb72]

if the battary isn't replaced then there will be a eflight 400 3d - battary on ebay ...

I read this as Paul will sell the Blade 400 MINUS battery on ebay, not that he would sell it with a duff battery !!

I am sure horizon will replace it - frankly I'm surprised model shop didn't just replace it for you and sort this out themselves, rather than leave you unable to fly !

[dam74]

Cheers for clearing that up James

I read it that he was going to sell the battery on eBay so that he could use the funds to buy another.

[Nick B]

I read it as,sell the lipo on the bay for cars and trucks

But if the lipo is fuct then its no good for nothing