STATIC ELECTRICITY

[nube11]

For the last few weeks its been unusually cold and dry in the nothwest. The combination of the weather and flying my b400 in a parking garage has created some serious static build in the tail boom. I could use some help grounding the helicopter. the buildup causes a yo-yo effect in the helicopter, the more static, the wider the range it travels up and down. Already put some silicone on the belt. Can anyone help? Please? thanx in advance guys! :arggg:

[LockMD]

Already put some silicone on the belt. Can anyone help? Please? thanx in advance guys! :arggg:


That should have worked, no? personally I prefer teflon (tri-flow).

[nube11]

The rate at which its happening has decreased, at the moment its only dropping down and not raising. So while there is improvement, its minor. Also, my lhs guy told me the silicone was only a temporary solution, he said the best way to go was to solder antenna wire into the esc. However today is his day off and i cant remember his specific instructions. Thanx for the response, i will use the teflon instead for future maintenence, thanxs for the input :lol:

[LockMD]

keep us posted - I've heard of several peeps having static probs and silicone/teflon (I think teflon will last longer) has cleared up the probs. I've never heard of anyone actually grounding it.

[widower]

I would think there's some humidity in a parking garage.

It's very dry here in the northeast and haven't seen any problems. I don't fly below -4degC.

What do you mean by yoyo?? I would expect that if you had a static hit, you would be on the floor because a restart of the receiver would take longer than the b400 would take to drop aprox 4 or 5 ft.

[sokal]

run a wire from the boom to the skids make sure it contacts the metal on the boom and the ground ie wrap around boom and the plastic part of the skids that way it will discharge itself on landing

[nube11]

Testing all the different theories this evening. I'll let you guys know what happens tomorrow. Thanks for all the input. Any other suggestions are still welcome. Thanks again you guys:)

[ChasHeliCop]

Maybe increase your head speed. Or possibly, if the garage is a closed structure, you could be experiencing rotor wash.

[sokal]

ummmmm rotor wash does not have anything to do with static electricity
and increase head speed would increase the static electicity
ie a ch47 produces enough static electricity to kill you if u become the grounding point
that is why all full scale helicopter have grounding straps on all rubber wheeled and the skids act as it gounding point
static electricity in a helicopter is deleoped in the rotor system its the friction of the air coming across the blades

and since most of the b400 is plastic static has a hard time disapating

[flyboy320]

I think what ChasHeliCop was saying is that too low a headspeed will cause what you describe ie. bobbing up and down of the tail. Try to increase it somewhat and see if that helps.

[skigolfmike]

I wonder if I am taking static hits on my B400 too. I see a 'glitch' every 15-20 seconds. sounds like the motor cuts out and comes right back in. I get a little tail wag when it happens, but that's about it. I'm going to do a little maintenance before I fly it again, so I guess I'll spray some tri-flow in there and see what happens.

FWIW, I played with raising and lowering the head speed on my B400 to try and get a more stable hover. What worked the best for me was a little more head speed than stock, but not as fast as idle up.

[LockMD]

I wonder if I am taking static hits on my B400 too. I see a 'glitch' every 15-20 seconds. sounds like the motor cuts out and comes right back in. I get a little tail wag when it happens, but that's about it. I'm going to do a little maintenance before I fly it again, so I guess I'll spray some tri-flow in there and see what happens.

FWIW, I played with raising and lowering the head speed on my B400 to try and get a more stable hover. What worked the best for me was a little more head speed than stock, but not as fast as idle up.


I did the same with head speed (yeah its more responsive) but I feel its more stable as well.

you might want to get a tube of tri-flow. The chemicals in spray cans to make it a propellent will eventually eat away your belt.

[skigolfmike]

you might want to get a tube of tri-flow. The chemicals in spray cans to make it a propellant will eventually eat away your belt.

Really, I had never heard that before. Where can I get a tube of tri-flow cheap?

I felt with the stock throttle and pitch curves the heli was very sensitive to throttle/collective changes. By raising the throttle curve it seems less prone to bobbing up and down. I think the reasons are higher head speed put more momentum in the head so the head doesn't feel the throttle changes as quickly. Also, the throttle curve is flatter than the stock curve in hover, which I think helps too.

I'm going to change the cyclic/collective servos out this week too. I have enough DSP75s to replace the E-Flite servos. They have the same case/gear train; however, the DSP75s look much better on the servo tester. Especially programmed in Heli mode, much better speed and resolution. It will be interesting to see if that makes a difference.