icharger 106b+ settings

[brummycraig]

icharger 106b+ settings

I would suggest you could safely run those batts in the Heli for say 3 mins aprox each and do no harm. They would then be ready for a full charge when u get the power supply sorted. It appears that when the power went off no harm was caused to the batteries and those IR readings seem nice and low.

As a precaution when doing parallel charging, I like to charge them individually about every 5 cycles, especially if you have no time pressure, always nice to know they've had a good balance charge on their own.

[Hawke]

Thank you! At least I can test fly it on these batteries, cheers.

I thought it was possible to drain and kill a battery if it was plugged into a charger without power, or is that just with the cheaper stock chargers?

[brummycraig]

icharger 106b+ settings

Cheap stock chargers are generally s**t compared to the icharger which is a quality piece of kit

The voltages your batteries are showing indicate roughly to me that they are prob around 5-10% shy of a full charge.

When you run the Heli from a full charge, use the timer on your tx and use the recommended flight time from the manual, if you then charge the battery on its own the charger tells you how many milliamps have gone back into the pack. As a guide most people prefer not to run them below 20% charge so on your 2200mah packs this would mean putting back in no more than 1760ma. If say you only put 1400ma back in then you should be able to increase your timer slightly.

This is how I did mine anyway and they seem to be going well, sure others will chime in if they disagree!

Be interested to here how you be on with those Haiyin packs, presume from electriflyer?

Cheers

[Hawke]

Cheers, I'll let you know how I get on with the Haiyin packs if I ever get to fly the dam thing. I've just tried binding it, everything looked ok and it showed the lights it said it would in the manual but it doesn't respond to any control inputs. I've tried re-binding it but it won't bind again even to a different model on the tx and it now just ignores the tx.

Yet another thing that's not working, great. I don't think I'm ever going to get to fly this thing. Between having to change the connectors so I can charge the stock battery and also use the XT60 batteries I've got, having my PSU blow and now this I'm starting to think I've just wasted a lot of money. I don't think I can even return the 450x now I've switched the EC3 connector for XT60 but I had to change the connector on it to XT60 before I could even test it. Catch-22.

[tomatwalden]

I have to say, HH service is pretty good normally - especially if you phone them first to talk it through. Sure, they can't take the heli back and give you your money back as you've changed the connector from stock, but they will almost certainly still support you. Sounds like your issues are nothing to do with the connector change, so they will probably fix your heli FOC. If the problem is related to the change, they'll still fix it, but may charge if they think your mods are the root cause of the issue. Either way, they should still support you!

I would say though, if you can, find somebody nearby who knows what they're doing and get them to check it over. The last thing you want to do is pay to post a 450x only to find you've made some simple error on the TX config, or something like that!

HTH. T

[Hawke]

Thanks. I don't know anybody that can help me. I've read the book and done what it says, I don't know what more I can do than that. Its supposed to be bnf. I'm sick of messing around with it. I spent £500 on all this crap to have fun and fly it, not to be ****ed off every day that there is something else wrong. I'm sick of it and this is the last straw, I'm almost going to smash it to pieces and be done with it I'm that ****ed off. I spent every last penny I had on this and I can't afford to dump any more money into it. I understood that it would cost me money if I crashed it but having to spend more time, hassle and money just to get it to fly is beyond a joke. I just want to fly the f***ing thing. Is that really too much to ask after the amount of money I've spent?

Without the help and support from the people on this forum I probably would have gone crazy by now. Even though I'm really annoyed with this fiasco I've gotta thank everyone for their help. Cheers.

[cjcj1949]

There are people down your way. We need to talk through things. Feeling everything is against you is part of the hobby, most people go through it.

[cjcj1949]

Just out of curiosity, what's more important? The 80% rule or the cell voltage? I didn't check to see exactly what went into the pack, but ~5200mAh went into the pair of 3300 (so 6600) packs. That's pretty much bang on 80%, but each cell was still around 3.75 volts according to the cell checker. Does that mean more flight time for me or stick with 6:45?

That's a good question. If you look at the information on number of cycles against depth of discharge there doesn't seem to be that much of a difference between total flight time on deep discharge or shallow discharge. The 80% rule only works if you have an average load. If the load is too great or the lipo old or cold or your flying improves one cell of your lipo can get below 3v under load. It may well be 3.80 or 3.90 off load. I'm not sure though if it's the off load or loaded figure that matters. I try to keep the volts above 3.6V which usually means 3.8V off load. I think it's important to check the volts of each cell during flight as it's the weakest cell that breaks the battery. Probably in the past people were'nt that aware of what was happening and one mistake would shorten the life of a battery a lot.

We don't know much about charging rates either. Is 1C better than 2C? Is there a best temperature for charging? How careful do you have to be when connecting cells in parallel? We know that they usually stand some abuse, but we also know that they are not completely predictable, even when used professionally in aircraft.

They do work most of the time though and are getting cheaper and better. Probably best to do whatever works for you, but do fit a voltage alarm, it's better than the motor cutting out.

[Hawke]

There are people down your way. We need to talk through things. Feeling everything is against you is part of the hobby, most people go through it.

Thanks for the support. I guess I'll have to note down the flashes on the beastx and find the manual online to see if it gives an indication of the problem. I'll have to wait till I can calm down and look at it without wanting to throw it out of the window first though.

[cjcj1949]

It's ok to throw it out the window, just let me know so I can catch it. our stock battery has very high ir readings and shouldn't be used. The ir readings on the icharger are high for the third cell, mine does that as well. Your power supply should be returned and you should get a new one. I could do with more information on the heli problems. You could have a faulty rx/beastx. Have you tried both dsmx and dsm2 mode? Check that your mcpx still binds.

[Hawke]

our stock battery has very high ir readings and shouldn't be used.

Do you think I should I sent the stock battery back to horizon and/or complain about it then? What's the risk if I do use a battery with such high IR readings?

I could do with more information on the heli problems. You could have a faulty rx/beastx. Have you tried both dsmx and dsm2 mode? Check that your mcpx still binds.

450man has been very kind and just popped over to my house to look at it for me. My 450x won't bind to my Dx6i or to his Dx8 in either DSM2 or DSMX mode using his fully charged battery. But my Dx6i will bind to his 450x and to my mcpx so it's definitely a problem with my heli and not the tx.

I'm going to have to call horizon tomorrow and sent the 450x back to them by the look of it.

[cjcj1949]

I would mention the high ir reading to them. The lipo will probably work when warm but may give very short flights and hit lvc before you expect.

[Hawke]

Thanks. Here's the sequence of events and the lights that flash. Maybe this will shed some light on the problem.

On my first bind attempt I put the bind plug in, plugged the battery in and H flashed, I then turned on the tx in bind mode and some more lights flashed, I held down the bind mode switch on the tx until the lights stopped and status light turned blue. I then unplugged the heli, removed the bind plug and turned off the tx.

I then turned the tx on and plugged the battery in, the status light turned from red to blue to red at the same as all the other lights A to N lit up red. Then the status light stayed red while A, B, H, J, K, M all lit up red at the same time. Then lights A to N flashed alternately up and down and then lights H to N flashed alternately up and down. It then stayed like this with the status on red and N to H lighting up alternately and it ignored any input from the tx.

Now if I put the bind plug in H flashes but it ignores my Dx6i and 450mans Dx8. If I don't plug the bind plug in it gives me the same sequence of lights as in the previous paragraph and ignores my tx.

I've had a look through the ar7200bx manual online but I can't see anything in there that explains the lights I'm getting or what to do if it doesn't bind. It's not looking good. :-(

[tomatwalden]

icharger 106b+ settings

Thanks. Here's the sequence of events and the lights that flash. Maybe this will shed some light on the problem.

I then turned the tx on and plugged the battery in, the status light turned from red to blue to red at the same as all the other lights A to N lit up red. Then the status light stayed red while A, B, H, J, K, M all lit up red at the same time. Then lights A to N flashed alternately up and down and then lights H to N flashed alternately up and down. It then stayed like this with the status on red and N to H lighting up alternately and it ignored any input from the tx.

How long did you let the LEDs cycles like that for? They do this while the beastx and gyros initialise. When they're done, the swash moves a few times. Only after that will the TX make any effect I've known this sequence to take upwards of 10-20 seconds.

[450man]

I checked it out... we left it plenty long enough to be sure it wasn't going to bind. We then did the same with my 450X and bound fine with both my DX8 and Hawke's DX6i. I guess we left it 2 or 3 times longer than it took to bind with my heli. We tried it several times too with the tx at various distances and orientations but to be honest... it bought easily and quickly with mine so I am totally convinced that it must be the AR7200BX on his heli that has a problem... unless you can think why my and his tx binds easily to my heli but neither of them will bind to his?

It was pretty conclusive IMO.