Has anyone flown a Logo 10 on 10 Nimh/Nicad cells ?

[Al P]

It seems the original L-10 was designed for 10 Nicads. The Mikado website suggests a Kontronik FUN 500-19 (1900 Kv) for an entry level motor. Doing some research with different hs calculators, I found that 10 cells Nimh and a Mega 22-30-2 (1700 Kv and 70 Amp max) w/20T = 1639 headspeed under heavy load, 1858 MAX rpm . This is easily enough for practice hovering and general flying.

Now we have the L-10 Deluxe that is often sold with a Hacker A30-8XL outrunner and 23T pinion for 4s Lipo. That is the setup I purchased two years ago and it hovered/flew well for general flying with max headspeed around 1800 (measured by me with a tach).

I realize the Amp draw will be higher with 10 Nimh vs. 4s Lipo, but many people don't want to learn (or crash) with a $200 battery. 12-13 cells Nimh would reduce the Amps vs. 10 cells, but I already have the 10 cell packs (for sale). I didn't try 10 Nimh myself because I already had a 4s3p Lipo to use so I purchaed the Deluxe Combo w/Hacker motor/esc.

It would appear that with the right motor and pinion, 10 cells would be suitable for learning/intermediate flight. I'd like to hear setup and flying comments from anyone who has flown their Logo 10 on 10 Nimh or Nicads.

[dahld]

Never flown one on 10 cells, so this may not be of interest to you. But about 4 years ago I tried my first Logo 10 on 12 cells (NiMH), and it was pretty pathetic. The motor was a Hacker C50-13L with a 13T pinion. Can't remember the headspeed I ran. I was trying to fly forward flight, and wanted to do loops and rolls and stall turns, but never made it that far. I quickly changed to the "box", with 6S lipos, using the same motor. However, for hovering only, I suppose you could tolerate it, assuming you had no other experiences with more powerful helis, so you wouldn't know what you were missing. Flights were only 3-4 minutes, with the last minute being in effect a slow power down. It was a pretty miserable way to fly helis to be honest. Good luck!:o

[heli-nek]

I have not use 10 cell either, however, a few years ago, I had my 10 3D running on 12 nicds and the Hacker 50-11L motor. It was actually pretty powerful. The down side was that it stressed the batteries too much and caused them to vent, which in turn decreased its performance. I than upgraded the whole power system to run 6S LiPo and never looked back. It is running 10S now and it really screams.

[Danyboy]

Well, the previous owner of my Logo10 had his son flying it with a 12cell NiMh.pack.

Motor is a Kontronik Fun 600-15, 1500kV.
Only 1000 RPM but about 8mins worth of hovering time.

Not too bad, I'd say.

If you already expirienced different heli's, you wouldn't be impressed that much, but if it was your first heli, then it might be just ok. Also the higher weight might add to stability and smoother behaviour of the model.
So it might not be that bad of a thing to cover your basics with, even on the contrary. With that powertrain, you need to look more forward, think of your next movements, think ahead of the model, which is a very good thinking IMHO.
With more power, you tend to get the habbit of simply adding pitch and safe the situation, though wouldn't it be better not to get into the situation in the first place?

And still, I'm not that much of a fan of "buying some cheaper version, then upgrade when you need more", so I strongly recommend to go for Lipo straight away.
If properly installed, the pack will sit inside the airframe, so if it gets damaged, you shouldn't only worry about the battery, maybe as well as the surrounding stuff, which must have been broken in order for the damage to arrive at the battery... ;)
Doesn't have to be 6s, 4S also do quite well. Maybe use a motor-pinion combination that'll give you a lower headspeed at first with 4S (around 1600RPM), so you can only change the pinion to achieve a higher RPM (around 2100RPM) when going 6S later (if you still think you need it... ;) ).

Cheers,

Daniel

[Al P]

Thanks for the replies. I agree 10 cells might be marginal sport flying. I have a Mega 22-30-3 but the Kv is lower and not suitable for 10 round cells. Otherwise I would have to try 10 Nimh on my own, just to satisfy my curiosity if it would be a suitable platform for learning to hover.

I'm very happy with my decision to use 4s Lipo from the beginning. My only regret is the Hacker A30-8XL that comes with the Deluxe Combo. It runs very warm on hot days and is not rated for 5s Lipo. Last Spring I invested in the Z30A-1110. This motor is virtually the same Kv but runs much cooler. Now I can also try 5s or 6s (6s I doubt) and not ruin the motor.

[Chachin]

Hello Al,

I never tried 10-cells either, but here is an old video of how my 12-cell NiMH flew back in 2003. Unfortunately I put music to it which doesn't let you hear the system but you can still see that it moved around pretty well. I have a better 12-cell video from 2004 with sound (no music) but the file is too large (46MB) for me to upload it. Anyways here it is if you are interested:

http://www.chachin.rchomepage.com/LogoFlight6.WMV

I was just learning inverted flight and some aerobatics. Everything ran pretty HOT though, especially the 12-cell pack (it would sometimes droop down after flight). So 10-cells would push the battery even further if you took it up to 1900-1950rpms (unloaded) and did sport-flying/aerobatics. For hovering and cruising around with lower rpms it should work fine though. Good luck and let us know how it turns out if you decide to try it.

Chachin..