Micro t28 problem

Ilyushin76

Another plane problem:rolleyes:.I was out flying my radian and decided to give my t28 micro a flight.After about 5 flights I was changing the battery and noticed no light from the plane or no servo noises.I changed the battery thinking it was a bad battery and still no power from the trojan.Anybody know what's wrong?

Kashkai

Could be a couple of things Eoghan. Let's start with the simplest:

1. Did you plug the battery in first which would cause it to go into bind mode?

2. The esc might have overheated and browned out causing a shutdown until it cooled. You could try the Trojan again tonight to see if it's rebooted.

3. The esc might be fried and you'll need a replacement. You can get one from hobbyking for seven euro

4. There might be a problem with your tx. check the batteries or see if it binds to the Radian.

5. The motor might have burned out. Replacements are cheap enough.

6. The rx is faulty. Hobbyking do a micro rx for six euro

Ilyushin76

Thanks for the reply Dave.I plugged in a battery there and discovered what's wrong.The battery leads seems to be damaged,if I move the wires in a certain direction when a battery is plugged in the plane turns on .I guess I have to buy a new battery lead?

Kashkai

Maybe not. Do you know where the dodgy connection is, ie at the battery or esc end of the wire? You might be able to resolder the wire or ask an electrician to do it. Soldering is very straight forward, basically joining two wires together by melting solder on them and letting them cool again.

This hobby can be a pain in the butt as I've found out during my time flying. I planned on flying my Radian down here in Clare this week only to find that my esc is faulty. I have a spare but it's at home

Kashkai

Eoghan

Found a place that stocks those wires for you. Google "Robotbirds"

Look under "Minium Parkzone Battery Connection Wire". It costs £1.75

David

Ilyushin76

Thanks Dave.I will order one of them.

I am having some bad luck aright with flying.I was flying the radian this morning and when coming in to land and it stalled and disappeared behind a wall,I gave it full throttle and reappeared undamaged but the propeller was struggling to turn.I landed it and had gave it some throttle and it was barely turning.I presumed I had over used the battery and checked it with my lipo voltage checker and cell 2 was below 2 volts while the other 2 where above 3.
I checked a while ago and the are all above 3 volts without being charged .It seems to be charging ok so hopefully its ok.What would be a good spare battery ?

I had a small camera on the radian and seen the propeller wasn't turning when I thought it was which caused the stall.I also seen how close I came to the ground:eek:

Kashkai

Are you still using the standard Parkzone charger Eoin? While it does the job, you should think about a better charger like a Sigma IQ2 (I've got one). It shows you how the cells are balancing as you charge them and can show if the battery is not being balanced as you charge it.

With regard to the battery's cells being above 3 volts after you took it out if the plane, this happens as the battery isn't under load when it's out of the plane. When it's connected to the esc, the rx is drawing power (I ruined my first battery by leaving it plugged in to the plane overnight and the rx drained the battery below the recovery point), even if the motor isn't turning. Looks like you flew too long on the motor. I have a quanum telemetry meter that gives you a realtime info on how much juice is left in your battery during flight. I usually land when the readout says I've 9.8v left in the battery. When the plane is on the ground and "at rest", the quanum then says I've approx 10.8v left in the battery. a quick burst of the motor will drop this back to under 10v.

To be on the safe side, I'd get a couple new batteries and bin the one you had today because if one cell is dropping below 2v, you could lose all power to the rx as well and thus lose the plane. You can go with another 1300mah battery or go with a bigger battery, say 1600 or 1800 mah. The extra power and weight suits the Radian especially in a wind. Hobbyking is your best mate for cheap batteries. Buy a few to make it worth your while. Turnigy is a good make while the Turnigy Nano Tech range are the GTI range with longer lasting power. Get a high 'C' rating of at least 25C for smooth power fl

Ilyushin76

I'm still using the standard charger.It charged the battery and I am just in from flying the radian.You have made my nervous there with your third paragraph.I will stop using the battery and get some new ones.Will these do and do I need to by adaptors as the connections look different?

Bruthal

You over discharged the battery by the look of it, possibly more than once. With close monitoring it can be seen if its ok, but a proper charger is needed that shows charge level, and some experience of monitoring its performance. Overall, with the price of them hobbyking batteries, a new one is a good idea alright. I have used hobbyking batteries a couple of years now, even in a trex 600, without any problems.


I have one of these as my second charger. Cant go wrong for the price. The stock chargers with the radian just about do the job, nothing more.

When buying the battery, get some EC3 connectors which you will find on the hobbyking site. They are the type for the radian, and i use them on everything now, including the EC5 size on the trex 600

I use 2200 mah batteries in the radian myself.

Kashkai

Eoghan

I didn't mean to alarm you but I had a crash with one of my warbirds last year while using a battery that had a dodgy cell, ie it would drop down to 2.5v under load. The hobbyking batteries are cheaper than a new plane

Those batteries you linked to are brilliant. I have four of them and have had no problems to date. The connectors on them are XT60's while your Radian's esc has an EC3. You can cut off the XT60's and solder on an EC3 plug to the battery or buy a ready made adaptor that has an female EC3 plug on one end and a male XT60 plug on the other - much simpler . Hobbyking sell them in a pack of three for two euro.

Look at getting a better charger as it's a good investment and will prolong your batteries lifespans and possibly prevent you using a dodgy battery and crashing a plane.

Ilyushin76

robbie7730 wrote: »

I have one of these as my second charger. Cant go wrong for the price. The stock chargers with the radian just about do the job, nothing more.

Will get one of them chargers.Would this work with the charger for my 1 cell batteries and what kind of adaptor would I need to get to charge these batteries that I use for my helicopter ?.What kind of power adaptor would I need for the charger ? (sorry for all the questions).

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

female EC3 plug on one end and a male XT60 plug on the other - much simpler . Hobbyking sell them in a pack of three for two euro

Can you link me to these adaptors as I cant seem to find them.Might get this battery now to be on the safe side ,will it fit the radian ?

Bruthal

Ilyushin76 wrote: »

Will get one of them chargers.Would this work with the charger for my 1 cell batteries and what kind of adaptor would I need to get to charge these batteries that I use for my helicopter ?.What kind of power adaptor would I need for the charger ? (sorry for all the questions).

No balancing is needed for a single cell battery, just plug into the charge leads via appropriate adaptor. I think the accucell 6 comes with adaotors. It has built in balance sockets for 2 to 6 cell batteries. I heavily use this charger even though its my socondary charger, and they are brilliant for that price. Charge AA bateries and all with it.

The battery for your heli has a jst connector, and no balance lead as its a single cell.

You will need a 12v power supply to power the charger. This is fine..
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6256__12V_5A_110_240V_50_60Hz_Power_Supply.html

Can you link me to these adaptors as I cant seem to find them.Might get this battery now to be on the safe side ,will it fit the radian ?

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10259

I just solder all connectors or adaptors up myself, but the above will be more handy alright for your useage as dave said.

Bruthal

Ilyushin76 wrote: »

Might get this battery now to be on the safe side ,will it fit the radian ?

It might be tight for the first few times but it should fit. This is the one we use here. But the one you linked should fit.

The max size is about 25mm x 36mm x 105mm, but its a tight fit at first as said. The velcro strap is not needed with the bigger battery.

The radian handles better with the heavier batteries, but a slight retrim of elevator control in flight will be needed. You could get the 1800mah version to make sure of fit, but we have used several different 2200mah batteries in radians.

Ilyushin76

robbie7730 wrote: »

No balancing is needed for a single cell battery, just plug into the charge leads via appropriate adaptor. I think the accucell 6 comes with adaotors. It has built in balance sockets for 2 to 6 cell batteries. I heavily use this charger even though its my socondary charger, and they are brilliant for that price. Charge AA bateries and all with it.

The battery for your heli has a jst connector, and no balance lead as its a single cell.

You will need a 12v power supply to power the charger. This is fine..
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6256__12V_5A_110_240V_50_60Hz_Power_Supply.html



http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10259

I just solder all connectors or adaptors up myself, but the above will be more handy alright for your useage as dave said.

Thanks for the help Robbie.So the 6 in 1 cell lipo adaptor will work with this charger to speed things up ?The 1800 mah batteries are out of stock so I will get the nano 1600 mah I linked to earlier.Do I need any other adaptors for the charger ?

Bruthal

Ilyushin76 wrote: »

Thanks for the help Robbie.So the 6 in 1 cell lipo adaptor will work with this charger to speed things up ?The 1800 mah batteries are out of stock so I will get the nano 1600 mah I linked to earlier.Do I need any other adaptors for the charger ?

Yes the 6 in 1 charger would work alright. the only problem is, all single cell batteries will be in parallel as you plug them into the adaptor, and so will require to be close to the same level of charge/discharge.

They will balance each other out because they are in parallel, but would not want to be much difference in charge level between them as you connect them to the adaptor.

If you plug in a fully charged one, and a fully discharged one, the charged one will rapidly charge the discharged one until they approach being equal, which would not be good for the batteries.

Kashkai

Hi Eoghan

Just back from my holidays in your scenic county so sorry for not replying to your earlier post (although I've seen that Robbie has pointed you towards the XT60 adaptors in Hobbyking;)).

I got this charger with my Sukhoi XP - http://www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=29323. Its the standard eflite 4 port charger and charges up to 4 single cell lipos. It can work off the mains or from batteries so you can use it in the field. That place I linked to are very expensive btw but it was the first link I came across - guess I'm too lazy to search:o.

David

Ilyushin76

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Hi Eoghan

Just back from my holidays in your scenic county so sorry for not replying to your earlier post (although I've seen that Robbie has pointed you towards the XT60 adaptors in Hobbyking;)).

I got this charger with my Sukhoi XP - http://www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=29323. Its the standard eflite 4 port charger and charges up to 4 single cell lipos. It can work off the mains or from batteries so you can use it in the field. That place I linked to are very expensive btw but it was the first link I came across - guess I'm too lazy to search:o.

David

No bother Dave you and Robbie have been more that helpful with all my stupid questions:o.The adaptors are out of stock so I will just get the connectors and solder them myself.I had a look at that charger before as its a bit of a pain charging 1 at a time.Its quiet expensive everywhere I look.A seen a few on ebay auctions going cheap enough might try to get one there.

Ilyushin76

Got the lead and plane is going again

Kashkai

Great to hear the Trojan is airborne again Eoghan. The weather forecast is for calm conditions from tomorrow onwards for much of next week so plenty of time to fly her;)

You might consider doing a slight mod to her to protect the battery lead from future damage. Get a piece of clear plastic and glue it over the point where the lead comes out from the nose to where it is connected to the battery. That way, any "rough landing" where the nose digs in won't have the lead getting dragged and possible damaged. Think of it as a skid plate for the battery lead. Just make sure the plastic is very light so it doesn't upset the cog of the plane. I've done this to my new Sukhoi XP as I belly land her and the battery lead would get dragged on the ground if the plastic wasn't in place covering the lead.

The XP is a nutter of a plane to fly. She is as agile as a helicopter and can turn on a sixpence. I'm looking forward to flying her this week once the winds die down.

Ilyushin76

Got the charger from hobby king and was woundering what amp I sould charge a 1200mah 1 cell battery at?

Kashkai

Is that a typo Eoghan? Did you mean 120mah battery?

The general rule of thumb is divide the mah by 10 to give you the maximum charge rate, i.e. 1300mah = 1.3 amp charging, 2200mah = 2.2 amp charging. However I charge all my batteries at 1 amp as it lengthens their life spans. The newer nano techs can be charged up to 5 amps but I wouldn't try it.

The little one cells would be tricky as they should ideally only get a little trickle charge. Can your charge be set for say .5 amp or less? I have a dedicated charger for my one cell batteries and a bigger charger for the larger batts so I can't really answer your question in full:o

Ilyushin76

Thanks Dave,no it says 1200mah on it.This is the battery here.The charger can be set to .1amps aright.I will charge it at 1amp to be safe.
Hopefully this batteries last as its the 3rd battery for the helicopter and the only last for a few flights,Robbie said it could be the charger so hopefully this charger will sort the problems.Did you bring the radian up for any flight the last few days ?:D

Bruthal

If only getting a few flights its likely over discharge is the problem. What i said was, with a proper charger you can tell what you take out of a bettery as a proper charger tells you what you put back in when charging it. Only 80 pervent of the battery capacity should be used. So a 1200mah battery should have 960mah`s taken from it at the most, so when you recharge it, it should not take more than the 960 to recharge it. The amount would be shown on screen and counts up during charging, on a decent charger.

Anyway, an over-discharged battery will be below 3.6v per cell when no load is on it, so this is another indication. If the battery is further discharged now, its voltage will rapidly drop. 3.6v per cell is around the 20 percent capacity mark.

For the charging its 1c or 1 times the Capacity. 1200mah (milli-amp-hour) would be charged at 1200ma (milli-amps) which is the same as 1.2 amps.

Since the 1200mah battery in theory gives 1200ma or 1.2 amps for an hour, charging it at 1.2 amps will charge it in an hour. You divide the 1200mah by 1000 to give you the amps charge setting, exactly as you would divide 1200mm by 1000 to give 1.2 meters. Not sure where the divide by 10 came from.

Kashkai

It was an attempt (obviously a poor one:rolleyes:) at irony, i.e. I queried if Eoghan had a typo in his previous post and I put one in myself, i.e. dividing 1300 by 10 does not give you 1.3. Must work on my sense of humour:p

Eoghan, can I ask what you need a 1200mah "single cell" battery for? Or is it a single cell. Single cell batts tend to be the small lipos for micro planes and helis. The 1200 battery, is it a 1S, 2S or 3S battery, i.e. 1, 2 or 3 cell battery?

Edit, ah now I remember, your Radian had a close call when the battery over discharged. You could look into getting a Quanum Unit like I have from Hobbyking for around €40 which is like a fuel guage for your lipo or (a cheaper option) a lipo monitor alarm that would give off a very loud high pitched buzzing if any of your lipo's cells dropped below 3.3v. Here it is http://www.brchobbies.co.uk/?page=shop&action=additem&item=183.

Bruthal

1200mah single cells are a bit pointless alright.

A 3 cell 500mah would be a slightly higher capacity and more efficient at the higher voltage. The more power thats needed, the higher the voltage will tend to go, as there are less losses at higher voltages for the same power, so more cells are used in series.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

It was an attempt (obviously a poor one:rolleyes:) at irony, i.e. I queried if Eoghan had a typo in his previous post and I put one in myself, i.e. dividing 1300 by 10 does not give you 1.3. Must work on my sense of humour:p