Mini Titan e325 drains batteries

[skullforger]

Hi,

I was wondering if I could pick your brain on something. I recently got back into rc helicopters. I have a 2009 Mini Titan, stock motor and esc, which hasn't been flown a lot recently. A couple of years ago everything was fine and I got 7-8 minutes of flight time and still have 20 percent in the pack.
Recently I noticed I only get about 4 minutes until the pack is drained to 20 percent.
Findings so far:
- motor runs very hot, battery also quite warm, about 30 degrees C
- belt tension seems fine, same as it used to be when I just got it in 2009
- I have changed the motor pinion<>main gear mesh, made it less tight, but without any changes in flight time
- flight time measured while just hovering
- when I turn the blades by hand, they stop turning quite quickly, but I think this has always been like this
- I have tried brand new batteries, of different qualities, and they all drain very quickly

Can this be a ESC or motor problem, or does it have to be something mechanical giving too much friction?

Many thanks,

Wouter

[Ritchieme]

That's a long flight time my mini titan used to give 5 minutes down to 20% and so does my 450 pro

[tourerjim]

I use 2200 lipo's in very good condition & I only get 4 mins, 5 & i'm minus 20%

[barryorbik]

I too only get four and a half minutes of sports flying with my Mini Titan with fairly new Overlander 2200mA C25 packs using the stock motor and ESC with 30% left in the packs, so your results seem about right but to save your batteries I suggest limiting your flight time to less than 5 minutes as 20% could cause damage to the packs.

[skullforger]

I'm sorry I forgot to mention that to measure these flight times I just hovered. Is this still normal?

[Bell47G]

I have a mini titan V2 runs time between four to six mins.
When you say the blades stop sudden, check motor pinion is not bent, and belt tension is not to tight but runs free.
Try not to run the battery to the limit it will damage the cells.

[Ritchieme]

Have you changed the head speed at all ?

[skullforger]

I use the standard motor pinion and main gear. Throttle curve is 0-70-80-90-100. Head speed speed seems very high but when I make it lower with the throttle curve, there is more vibration and also the tail can't keep up when doing pitch pumps.

[buzzbird]

I would say if you're doing any 3D with it then 4-5 minutes is about all you're going to get out of a 2200 lipo.
I get 6 minutes out of a 2200 doing relaxed circuits and sport flying - but hovering needs more power than forward flight, so that will impact your flight times further.
(That may be more because I use an ICE 50 esc and a 2221-8 motor, which are more efficient than the ACE items, and a flat governed 2600rpm throttle curve).

Stock motor and esc are well known for getting extremely hot. Motor usually starts screeching from about 150 flights (bad bearings) and the esc suffers from thermal cutout.
As others have said, check to make sure motor isn't too tight. Make sure belt is not too tight (common problem).
Vibration needs looking at, because you should not have any, no matter what you set your TC to. Maybe check blade pitch and balance on both blades.

And see what sort of flight time you would get if you do some relaxed circuits instead of hovering or 3D and see how that compares.