Reason I have been away....

[Jetgirl]

The reason I have not been here for a very long time, has been some health issues (those are now under control [YEAH!!!] and I ended my relationship with the guy I was dating who had all the cool tools and equipment (flew planks).

Been slowly trying to rebuild my life. My heli has been dying to be flown but unfortunately missing many vital items to be able to fly her. First item I need is crystals. I did get a radio, but it is channel 40 and all the crystals I have are channel 44. I would be willing to trade anyone my 44's for 40's I will put a post in the appropriate forum.

I also have many questions which I some I will ask in the newbie forum however, some of them I feel are really embrassing :oops: simple for someone else who knows was is going on. So I will be asking them here.

1. I have a charger, but don't have a clue how to power it up. Didn't come with a power source or anyway for me to plug it in to the house power. The charger I have is Celectra Lipo Charger for 1-3 cell lipo's. How do I get power to it so it can charge my batteries? what do I use? Power converter? if so what type? can I get a marine battery or a cheapy car battery and use that? What is easier????

2. How do you figure power source/capacity for the Heli. I have a Trex 450X. Do you go by manufacturer's specifications?


3. Where do you get a oneway bearing? I have looked at a few websites however, I can't find them. Also need a 120 degree swash plate for my spare and don't need fancy metal cos I am not that good yet.

I am soooo lost right now as I want to get back into flying however, I am not sure where to start. I did get the simulator!!!!! it is a G2 but I did get that and I finally found it and did play with it a few times.

I did get all my parts and a few tools, like ball link plyers, pitch gague, extra servos, 401 gyro, and motor. Didn't get a soldering iron, but was wondering if a soldering pen would work just as well. Not sure what else I would need to amass for repair and tuneups. (do have some supplies like exacto knives, helping hands, hex wrenches ectra)

Thanks for at least reading this far

Maddie

Melbourne Florida

[MarkD]

Your charger needs a 12v supply. A car battery (needs charging in itself) or a 12V bench power supply that plugs into your 110V house supply will do

A 3Cell 2100Mah battery is the norm for the 450 Trex's but your charger is on the upper limit to charge it. 2A (2000mA) is the max output and you charge at 1C ie 2100mA

The one-way bearing is a common item Part# HS1026. Any align LHS should be able to get one

[leslie]

Hi Jetgirl,

Welcome back, glad you are on your way to good heath! Sorry about the boyfriennd thing, but there's lots of fish...smirk.

On your battery charger, I use a propeak 12V power supply, it plugs into the wall and provides 12vdc that goes into your charger. There are cheap power supplies on ebay but you would have to wire the AC side, not hard.

As Mark said the bearing is fairly common, I use several online shops for the stuff I can't find locally. Rchover is a favorite along with modefo's and grandrc.

I am running thunder power tp2100 prolites on my trex's and evo2070's all are three cell lipos.

Lets see, my favorite soldering iron is the radio shack butane one, it works well and is portable, lots of uses around the house. You will want to add a set of metric hex wrenches to your toolbox.

As always this is the place to ask, I can't imagine being embarassed!!

Cheers,
Leslie

[TJRIDE]

Hey there Maddie,

Don't ever feel as though you can't ask a question. We will try and help every time. Sure am glad you are feeling better with the health thing.

TJ
:glasses2:

[BarracudaHockey]

You are more than welcome to come up to Jacksonville on the 19th, there will be plenty of help around and I'm sure with the crew that will be there you can get just about any question you need answered.

Glad you're feeling better. As for the BF, we didn't like him anyways! :D

[Rick Rotorhead]

Good to see you're back and feeling better. getting a good set of toy, sorry, tools, together is part of the hobby fun. Only two bits of common sense advice there 1) don't skimp on quality to save a buck, good equipment is worth the cost in the long run, 2) use HF 'natch, plus other Net resources to research the best items for the job before you leap in with your cash.

In my experience the 'soldering pen' type is seldom upto the necessary wattage equivalent to handle big jobs like heavy motor wires and Deans tabs etc. Get a big (60w) electric iron for the heavy duty jobs.

[Jetgirl]

Bummer, can't do the 19th, previous commitment.

Andy - does your club host other events or impromtu funflies? I figure it is about a 2-3 hour drive for me (as I am in Brevard County) would like to come up to see othes flying heli's sometime.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I am going to look at the LHS to see if I can't find the bearing and a power converter this weekend.

[Mr-C]

The Ripmax Propeak 20A power supply is a great value for around 80 bucks. It can handle either single or multi-battery chargers. With such a power supply, you'll need a way to cleanly connect the charger to it. If your charger input leads have banana connectors (pin connectors), you're good to go or else if they have alligator clips, then you can get some banana plugs, discard the plastic insulators and insert the remaining metal lugs into the charger outputs to clamp the alligator clips onto.

Keep your eye out for the Florida turkey gatherings that are organized in the events forum from time to time. Bring your stuff and questions to one of the gatherings and I suspect you will get plenty of help.

If you are having trouble finding a one-way, contact B&B Hobbies in Tampa (813) 681-2386. They have a ton of Align parts.

[BarracudaHockey]

We fly near about every weekend and there's usually between 5 and 10 regulars, you're welcome any time.

[kjfly]

Hey there Maddie!!!!

Welcome back - so glad your health has improved! :woohoo

You don't need that BF anyway - oops better watch what I say hubby mechanic might be reading :mrgreen:

Well, I've been VERY bad and haven't been flying yet myeself - and I don't have any real excuse - bought a heli to fly inside during winter and only flew a handful of times - just too bloody busy - I need to get my priorities straight - I need to spend a couple weeks on the sim to get my "feel" back and then I can get the real boys out again
:woot

You know you came to the right place to ask questions - I'm no good at the techno stuff - that's hubby mechanics' job - but I'm a great support and chearleader!!!
:banana


kjfly
:glasses2:

[Jetgirl]

LHS has this one on sale ($30.00 off) http://www.hobby-lobby.com/powersupply.htm

anyone have experience with this one?

thanks everyone I am grateful for all the support!

[AlanMcSwain]

Although I don't know of too many charger that will charge at more than ten amps, this is a good value for the money when you contrast to what is available at radio shack:

http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=power%20supply&origkw=power%20supply&sr=1

Alan

[BarracudaHockey]

Bummer, can't do the 19th, previous commitment.

Andy - does your club host other events or impromtu funflies? I figure it is about a 2-3 hour drive for me (as I am in Brevard County) would like to come up to see othes flying heli's sometime.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I am going to look at the LHS to see if I can't find the bearing and a power converter this weekend.

This was a day when not everyone was there :)

[Jetgirl]

sweet!

Most excellent! Getting all excited about finding the power converter so I can start flying again!

WOO you all rock!

[Jetgirl]

http://modefosheli.com/inc/sdetail/5757

found this one, will it work?

found with grandrc the propeak converter at a reasonable price! May have to splurge on myself some more. Been dumping $$ into my truck (hey she is almost 10 years old with all original parts, they are bound to break sooner or later, she has been extremely reliable until now) and need glasses (have vision insurance but not that best but better than nothing!). But hey my sanity I is worth it right? I have been staring at my heli for a looonnng time and not being able to play, I feel guilty! I think I got it bad!

[AlanMcSwain]

The link above does not a have a photo and photos of this equipment are important so you can see what type of electrical connections the box has. Some only have cigarette lighter plug jacks. You want bannana jack compatible binding posts as show in your first choice, but finding one with both is a plus. Keep looking and you may find one that has both binding posts and a lighter jack.

The lighter jack comes in handy when all you can find is the car charger for your cell phone.

[Jetgirl]

Alan - if you go to: http://modefosheli.com/chargers___balancers the one I was looking at is almost to the bottom.

mmmm as Andy and others have suggested, I think I will spend the money on getting a good power converter because that is something I will "grow into" as I get better with my heli.

Leslie, when you bought the propeak charger, did it come with a wall plug? I am absolutely no good when it comes to soldering anything. My exbf tried to teach me however, I just didn't get it. it was either the way I was being taught or I just didn't get it.

thanks again for answering all my :?:

[leslie]

Hi Maddie,

the pro peak is good to go, just plug it in and go. It has the AC side wired with a plug, the DC side has to terminals (+ -). You just connect to the 12VDC side. You might want to read up on soldering, it will be a useful skill with heli's :)

Cheers,
Leslie

[Jetgirl]

excellent! Gonna order tonight!!! I think Finless has video's on soldering which I will download to view several times LOL

Thanks for answering!

[AlanMcSwain]

You might want to read up on soldering, it will be a useful skill with heli's.


Sage advice. With the Nitro helis, you can get by without this skill. It's almost impossible to do eHelis without doing frequent soldering.

The 12v supply looks like a good value and has the right connectors on front. If you ever need a 12v Cigarette Lighter jack, you can find one at radio shack and wire it up to the binding posts.

[kgfly]

Jetgirl,

Glad your health problems are under control. Questions are always OK on Helifreak :)

Power supply
The PS from modefos is only "6-8A" and weighs ~11lbs to ship. Personally I would suggest the 20A supply from your LHS is better value and will serve you much longer. While the 6A supply will be OK for charging a single 3s 2100 lipo, if you go to larger helis with larger batteries, or decide you want to charge several packs in parallel then the 6A unit will struggle or fail. For the marginal difference in price I suggest the "Power Force 20 Amp Power Supply" would be a better choice. However you might choose instead to upgrade to a charger that has an integrated ac/dc power supply (see below).

Soldering
On the soldering front, certainly watch the Finless videos (you will find the soldering video in the TRex SE section). Then it would be a good idea to do some practice soldering *before* you are in a hurry to get something done for your heli. I bet if you hunt around on the web you can find some basic soldering tutorials. It is not hard but is a skill that requires a little time to develop, like any other. Here are a couple I found quickly:
http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm
http://www.mtechnologies.com/building/atoz.htm

Charger
The Celectra is a low end charger without a display or a balancer. As soon as you can afford it you should get a better charger/balancer solution as this will be safer, take better care of your batteries and allow you to properly monitor your usage and maximise your pack lifetimes.

When flying lipos it is important to never discharge below 80% of the pack capacity. The primary way to tell how deeply you are discharging your packs is for the charger to show you how much you put back during recharge. You need a charger with a display and this reporting feature.

Balancing is the process of ensuring that all cells in the pack are at the same voltage. A charger without a balancer can inadvertantly overcharge one cell or more cells and damage the pack or worse.

I would recommend one of two budget choices that are both excellent options:

1) FMA Direct CellPro4S (~$75). This is a fantastic little 2S-4S LiPo/LiFe integrated balance charger with everything you will need for fast and safe charging of flight packs up to about 4S 4000mAh. Still too small for a TRex600 pack but at only $75 excellent value. This unit does require an external DC power supply. Being LiPo/LiFe only, the CellPro4S cannot be used to charge your Tx NiCd/NiMH pack.

2) eStation BC6 (~$170). This is a terrific fully integrated multi-chemistry (Pb/NiCd/MiMH/LiIon/LiPo/LiFe) balance charger. It has an integrated ac/dc power supply (so no external DC supply required) as well as an integrated balancer and all the features you need for fast and safe charging. It handles 2S-6S lipos so could at a stretch be used even for a T600 battery, although it's low power output (50W) would mean it would take a couple of hours to do the job. Of course being multi-chemistry it can be used to charge your Tx pack as well.

So a 20A bench supply and CellPro4S would cost about $135 and a BC6 about $170. Both are good choices for your T450 lipos. The bench supply would also be fine for a larger charger (BC8, e902, TP1010, Hyp1210i etc) in the future if you ever need it. The BC6 is more flexible and more convenient for now. In the interest of safety first and getting the best possible performance and value from your lipos, I strongly suggest you consider one of these alternatives if you can afford it. If not, get the DC supply now and save up to get a CellPro4S ASAP.

Note when ordering a charger to also order any adapters you might need for the balance plugs on your lipos. There are a handful of different plugs used by the different manufacturers. Both FMADirect and rcaccessory.com carry a range of adapters for their respective charger products.

-----
I hope you are back in the air real soon. :D

[AlanMcSwain]

Note when ordering a charger to also order any adapters you might need for the balance plugs on your lipos. There are a handful of different plugs used by the different manufacturers. Both FMADirect and rcaccessory.com carry a range of adapters for their respective charger products.


This topic deserves an "Open Letter" post to the industry. Can we PLuhhhheezze standardize on ONE connector style??? Jeesh, I get dizzy trying to match different packs to different balancers.

[HeliDan]

Welcome back JetGirl......... Glad to hear you are good-to-go! :D

I agree that the 20A is much better and would suggest you procure the highest amperage PS you can afford since as you progress, you wont outgrow your power supply....

Although I don't know of too many charger that will charge at more than ten amps,

There are many power supplies available that that exceed 10A, it all depends on your needs. Price and form-factor play a role.

When I need more power than my 15A unit (or there abouts), I will go with an OEM style rather than a bench-top style witch is more expensive.. Not as pretty to some, but very well build. In my line of work I use many OEM style power supplies and my two favorite brands are Kepco (www.kepcopower.com) and Astec (http://www.astec.com). I specify Kepco and Astec at about 80% and 20% in the products I design. I have never seen either unit fail. Built in protection solves all but the dumbest mistakes. But they are not in the $75 range......

Good luck Jetgirl!!! :fly

[kgfly]

Although I don't know of too many charger that will charge at more than ten amps,

There are many power supplies available that that exceed 10A, it all depends on your needs. Price and form-factor play a role.
I think Alan was saying that there are not many chargers that output more than 10A, which I think is correct.

However driving 5A into a 6S lipo means drawing approx (5 x 6 x 4.0 )/(12 x 0.8) = 12.5A from a 12V supply or 11A from a 13.8V supply. Similarly, 5A into a 10S lipo needs 22A from a 13.8V supply. Hence the need for a high power DC supply to service the large packs.

[Jetgirl]

Well, I ordered the Propeak charger and a few other items I needed and got an email yesterday. It is on itsway!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG I am so excited, I hope it gets here soon so I can spend time tweaking and playing! My poor heli is sooooo lonely! LOL :woot