RC toilet bowl copter repair

[sacc51]

This is a little RC copter I picked up recently. It’s great for crashing into walls, windows, floor, blinds, you name I can crash it into it, surely flying a full size copter couldn’t be this hard. Anyway every half dozen crashes or so something breaks, bends, twist, whatever, hence the different colours on the blades etc. This is a co axial type RC copter, it has two rotors on top and one at the back. Co axial copters are prone to toilet bowling when something in the gyro train binds, bends, breaks comes undone; or, basically every time I try to fly it. There is a little blade/gyro stem seen in the second picture, with hinge points jutting out the side, every now and again one or both of these little hinges breaks off or wear down making the copter toilet bowl, fortunately I did have a spare but of course all this crashing into anything that happens to be in the room soon saw the demise of both and I was ready to throw it in the bin and take up something simple, like brain surgery. Instead this afternoon I retired to the workshop and had a shot at fixing it. The gyro stem is quite small, about 22mm long and 3mm in diameter with two hinges on the side. First I had to remove the last remaining hinge then drill through the 3mm shaft with a .8mm drill and then enlarge to 1.4mm, once done I cut a 10mm length off the drill shaft and located it in the hole then reassembled the gyro/blade assembly and then re assemble the copter, dammed if it didn’t work, so I got the spare and did the same to that as well. No idea how long it will last - depends on how many objects in the room I guess. There is a reason why I’m playing with toys: I intend on getting a larger RC drone or copter with camera but rather than crash an expensive copter/drone into everything in sight I thought I learn on this little cheapy first - just as well it seems!
I think this would make an excellent project, using the plastic body parts and copying the working parts in ally, might even withstand my piloting skills!

[Stustoys]

Nice job on the fix. I'd be flat out seeing those parts these days.
I've found they do much better if you shut the throttle before you hit.... ummm I mean "land"
You might find a 4 channel more controllable, along the lines of this.(you have no roll control right?)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-4CH-2-4GHz-Radio-Single-Propeller-RC-Helicopter-Gyro-V911-RTF-NEW-/130739941913?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:AU:3160

Quads are way easier to fly.(well it depends on the quad, but the good ones fly themselves, you just tell them where to go)
Big helis (700mm blades) are pretty scary machines!

Want to have a go at fixing my latest unplanned "landing"? :D

Stuart

[sacc51]

I thought my crashes were spectacular, that's a doozy.

I had to use a loupe for the entire repair, but the repair turned out better than expected. I also had to shorten the inner rotor drive shaft by 7mm as the pin I stuck through the gyro shaft prevents the drive shaft from going all the way in. Hopefully it won't cause any problems. I also noticed with the rear down fin (whatever it's called) removed it seems to be more controllable, I removed it intentionally of course. I have a second mini that I use for parts now and was thinking of taking the battery out of that and doubling up on the one still working, should give a longer flight time and enable twice as many ceiling drops, blind entanglements and wall slaps.

I searched for 'roll' but couldn't find a understandable explanation so I've no idea what roll is. Mine is 3.5 channel anyway. I always shut the throttle just before I hit (the roof), I think that could be my problem though.

I read that single axial (?) copters were harder to control, not true I take it? I bought a quad copter at the same time as the coaxial, I'm afraid I didn't find that easy to fly or control at all, it really just turned into a bouncing ball - lasted all of a couple of days I think.

They advertise these minis as indoor RCs, that's true of course as long as indoors is a big as a football field.

I was thinking next of perhaps a wi fi quad/copter because you can then see which way you are going, when a quad is sufficiently far away it's impossible to tell which is front and which is back - aside from smacking the thing into whatever is handy. I thought perhaps with my phone attached to the remote I might have better luck in seeing where I'm going.

[jhovel]

"Roll" is the movement of aircraft and ships around a longitudinal axis (the one axis you can't control in a car :) )
The others are "Yaw" aroudn the vertical axis - equivalent to steering in a car, and "Pitch", tilting nose-down and nose-up.

[simonl]

Nice job on the fix. I'd be flat out seeing those parts these days.
I've found they do much better if you shut the throttle before you hit.... ummm I mean "land"
You might find a 4 channel more controllable, along the lines of this.(you have no roll control right?)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-4CH-2-4GHz-Radio-Single-Propeller-RC-Helicopter-Gyro-V911-RTF-NEW-/130739941913?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:AU:3160

Quads are way easier to fly.(well it depends on the quad, but the good ones fly themselves, you just tell them where to go)
Big helis (700mm blades) are pretty scary machines!

Want to have a go at fixing my latest unplanned "landing"? :D

Stuart

Crickey Stu! I thought I was the only one who did that!

It hurts doesn't it!

Edit: PS Definately Quads are the go. The ones with WifFi camera have a very limited range though. Most quads have 2 white LED's at the front and red/blue at the rear so you know if your coming or going. Well, until you get to a point where it's so far away all you can see is a black dot on the horizon. That's when a GPS return to home would be sweet!

Simon

[sacc51]

Thanks for that, so roll is: looking front on, the ability to tilt the craft left or right, or possibly 360 degrees in a roll? God I'm glad mine can't do that = imagine the damage I could do!

The little quad I had was capable of flipping and tumbling if you worked the controls right, I didn't have to work the controls right to flip or tumble it, just bashing into the wall, ceiling or floor did the trick.

[.RC.]

Want to have a go at fixing my latest unplanned "landing"? :D

Stuart


That one is designed for the Northern hemisphere, they put the wheels on the wrong side for landing... :D

[KBs PensNmore]

Every landing is a crash landing, it's just that some are more controlled than others.:rolleyes:

[Uncle Al]

It’s great for crashing into walls, windows, floor, blinds, you name I can crash it into it, surely flying a full size copter couldn’t be this hard. Anyway every half dozen crashes or so something breaks, bends, twist, whatever, hence the different colours on the blades etc. ........ but of course all this crashing into anything that happens to be in the room soon saw the demise of both and I was ready to throw it in the bin and take up something simple, like brain surgery. ...... No idea how long it will last - depends on how many objects in the room I guess.

Apart from the fun you are having right up to the point where a crash is inevitable, the way I see it is - you need a bigger room! A spare aircraft hanger would be ideal:D

Alan...

[Stustoys]

Not having roll and the tailrotor mounted the "wrong way". Means you have to turn with yaw. Which doesnt really work if you're trying to stop at the same time. Not sure you could roll 360......unless you were very high outside. the gyro slows it down after a certain amount of roll.(you can make them go faster but spinning them up while holding them forward at say 20 degrees, of course they dont stop so well then lol Gyros can do some very strange things.
Single rotors maybe a little harder(though I'm not so sure), but you can fly in any direction. Yours can only fly forward or back and as to be yawed to fly in the direction you want.(I have a dual rotor but it has extra rotors left and right to give it some roll)

Some of those little quads have 3 sensitivity settings. A mate bought me one and I think they are amazing for there size!

Going to have to dig them out tomorrow and see how good I am. The ducted heating really knocks them around lol


Crickey Stu! I thought I was the only one who did that!

It hurts doesn't it!

Edit: PS Definately Quads are the go. The ones with WifFi camera have a very limited range though. Most quads have 2 white LED's at the front and red/blue at the rear so you know if your coming or going. Well, until you get to a point where it's so far away all you can see is a black dot on the horizon. That's when a GPS return to home would be sweet!

Simon
That was my biggest, 1500mm wingspan. think I lost signal not sure, need a blackbox. Last major crash(my 1500mm glider), a loop to close to the ground(it came out even worse than the one above).... at least I know whos fault that was ;)
Some of the boys I fly with have large choppers and quads...... boy can those things throw themselves at the ground fast when things go wrong lol


That one is designed for the Northern hemisphere, they put the wheels on the wrong side for landing... :D
lol Up to that point it had at least 50 landings with nothing worse than a bent nose gear.

[sacc51]

Well so much for that fix. I used the thing half a dozen times after fixing the gyro shaft with no problems. flew beautifully; now, the dam thing is just spinning in place, using the trim control just changes the direction of the spin.
I swear this thing has spent more time in bits getting fixed that it has in the air - INTO THE BIN!
I might think about brain surgery for a hobby, has to be easier than RC copters!

[Stustoys]

Well that's a shame :( I've found the bigger they are the easier they are to fly. While the failures get more expensive, it is amazing what you have hot glue back together* lol

Better luck with the next one :)

Stuart

*I'm sure I could glue the above back together but for $60 I can buy a new fuselage. I've certainly fixed worse.

[sacc51]

Have a look at this heli:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CopterX-CX-450AE-V2-Kit-RC-Helicopter-T-rex-Trex-450-450-Sport-SA-SE-/171013593330?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item27d13458f2

[.RC.]

Well that's a shame :( I've found the bigger they are the easier they are to fly.

Well here you go :)


www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bell-Jetranger-SUPER-BARGAIN-/151646421482 (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bell-Jetranger-SUPER-BARGAIN-/151646421482)

[Jekyll and Hyde]

Have a look at this heli:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CopterX-CX-450AE-V2-Kit-RC-Helicopter-T-rex-Trex-450-450-Sport-SA-SE-/171013593330?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item27d13458f2

Yep, the trex 450 style choppers are pretty serious kit. I'm sure you're aware of this, but that looks to be just the mechanicals - no motor, no servos, no receiver, no gyro, no transmitter. Gets pretty expensive once you put all that gear in! HobbyKing used to have an good range of ready-to-fly stuff, as well as parts.

I had one of these for a while: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Brown-4-Channel-4ch-Mini-RC-Helicopter-Toy-HCW-531-GYRO-USB-Free-Shipping/201091057639?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3Df01fc444bd1341b6942ed2383a8d02b6%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D171013593330

Flew very nicely, and has very flexible blades and fairly soft body. I got mine from a different seller, who actually advertised it as indestructible, and had a video of him flying it in a warehouse, crashing from a great height, then picking it up and throwing it against a wall HARD a few times, then flying it off again, and repeating. Having flown it myself, I would say in any normal crash you'd be pretty unlucky to break it, and I'd believe the video - the blades absorb most of the impact easily, being so flexible. I did crack one of the landing skids, but that didn't affect it at all. What does apparently kill them though, is crashing into the strings to raise and lower venetian blinds - they wind around under the rotor, and snap the little plastic parts on the swash plate. Can't remember exactly what I broke, but I superglued it back into place because it wasn't something I could make, and got it slightly crooked. Toilet bowl central!

I really should buy another one, it was good fun to fly. I have a 3 channel of about twice the size, but its a bit too big for my house, especially since I always end up drifting sideways into stuff and instinctively I try to just roll away - but it doesn't roll. I had many many hours in a PlayStation game called RC Stunt Copter though, in which you had control of a 6 channel helicopter with challenges including inverted flight through goal areas, so anything less than 4 channel feels broken to me. If you have an old PlayStation (first generation) kicking around for some reason, it could be worth trying to find a copy, as its actually closer to a sim than a game in the way the chopper reacts to your inputs.

[Stustoys]

Well here you go :)
No way am I stepping into anything I'm flying ;)

Thats a lot of chopper for $95 but J&H has covered it not all being there, though there is a lot of metal so you might get to make your own spares. I havent flown bigger hellies. They take some setting up I believe but I dont really know the details.....have seen one crash though. I still haven't got my head around how they pull off some of the things they can do!!
To add a different spin on what J&H suggested, if you still want to learn to fly what helped me a lot is to buy a Tx* and then use it as the controller for a PC based RC plane/chopper sim. I crashed a lot of planes on them lol You just have to decide if you're going to fly mode 1 or 2.

Stuart

*I use a http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__47671__Turnigy_9XR_Transmitter_Mode_2_No_Module_AUS_Warehouse_.html
If you've used the old style 27mHz Tx you'll be amazed what you can do with these things. channel mixing(so your rubber is mixed with your ailerons for coordinated turns or pretty much anything else you can think of ) . different rate curves. travel limits, setups for aile-vators(for wings with no tail)

[sacc51]

Her's a good video. I wouldn't like to be in a heli that can do these manoeuvres...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgAy4yVOcO0