Tail motor going?

[GT-R]

Hey guys,
I recently bought a Blade CP Pro as my first helicopter. Yesterday I hovered out my 8th battery pack landing only once (a fly wouldn't leave my nose alone lol).

Today I charge both of my stock battery packs and head out to fly. I try to get her into a hover, but have to continue increasing the throttle to maintain flight, by the time I know it the chopper has decreased altitude and I'm barely a foot above the ground at full throttle and 3/4 max. trim. I assumed it was the battery, so I let the helicopter cool down before popping in the second battery pack. Second battery pack in and same problem.

From my limited knowledge, I'm assuming the tail motor is about to die causing excess amp draw. Is there any sure fire way to know if the tail motor is indeed dying?

[HilliHeli]

Hey GT-R, I suppose it could be your tail-rotor motor "on it's way-out", how did the tail response seem prior to landing? I would think that you would have a hard time controlling the tail? What are you using to charge your Li-poly batteries with? I know I had problems with the small E-flite balance charger that was a part of the BCP/Pro kit, the LED's would function properly but the Li-po's would not recieve a full-charge, resulting in a loss of power much like you have described.

[GT-R]

The tail responded normally nothing out of the ordinary, even my attempts at flying today the tail seems fine, but the main motor was at around 105*F and the battery around 83*F. I'm using the stock E-Flite charger for the batteries; They are reading adequate voltages of over 11.0 volts, but I don't know the current they are putting out. I have a feeling that the batteries/charger are fine.

I noticed that after the flight yesterday the main rotor would only rotate freely in the clockwise direction and the pinion gear and shaft had quite a bit of side to side play in it. The motor seemed to "stick" if I rotated the main rotor in the counter-clockwise direction. I also checked the mesh between the pinion and main gear and this is what it looks like...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2631030493_0cc6bfb36e_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3107/2631030487_f1530427c5_b.jpg

It seems the pinion is too far from the main gear. I have loosened the motor mount screw and tried to position the pinion a hair closer to the main gear, but the motor will not move anymore; this leads me to believe that the play in the motor shaft might be the problem.

I don't know if this is a problem, but there seems to be some carbon (I'm guessing) build up on the forward portion of the motor case. The shaft also seems to prefer to ride a bit forward, hence why I cannot get the correct mesh. Here is a picture to help visual what I think may be the problem.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3185/2632514724_842b65d2f9_b.jpg

[HilliHeli]

Hey GT-R, Yeah, that's your problem, looks like either a bearing failed or some part of the motor is worn-out. Good job with the pics, if you run into any other problems (which I hope you don't), pics like those really help. The stock main motors are fairly cheap, have you thought about going Brushless?

[GT-R]

Thanks for your help HilliHeli.

I'm surprised the stock motor died in under 10 battery packs. I have e-mailed E-flite about this, as this chopper has been babied; NO crashes. :thumbdown:

If I can get a deal on a brushless system I'd jump on the offer! Something under $100 would fit my budget. :thumbup:

[HilliHeli]

GT-R, Under $100 is doable for a Brushless set-up on a BCP or a BCP/Pro, I really don't see alot of these type parts (Micro-Heli) listed for sale here on H-Freak but, try over on RCG (www.rcgroups.com (http://www.rcgroups.com)), there's alot more of the E-flite Micro stuff for sale there. Not to say that you won't find a set-up here, I usually check the classifieds on two or three sites and have had excellent dealings with the members of all three!
I run the E-flite Park 370 (4100kv.) BL motor with a Castle Creations Phoenix-10 ESC (this is programmable with the CC Castle-link and your PC) and it made a HUGE difference over the stock brushed motor. There are other motor/esc set-ups that are in that price range aswell so, you may want to do some research before spending your money!
You can also do some modifications to the stock motors to get some more power out of them, and there's another "fuse-mod" that will help you save the motor and electrics in the event of a crash. Check-out this site, www.bladecprepair.com (http://www.bladecprepair.com) , if you haven't already!

[GT-R]

Well, it turned out the main motor was indeed on its last leg. I switched it out last night and hovered my 9th and 10th battery packs today. I'm also happy to say I kept a steady hover for the entirety of pack number 10, maybe after the next pack I'll remove the training gear. http://image2-0.rcuniverse.com/e1/forum/image/s2.gif

Thanks everyone for the help!

[odam2k]

My main motor went after two weeks, same symptoms you described. I replaced it, and the next day it died again... bottom bearing on both of them... Now I add a tiny drop of oil to the bearings whenever I fly....

rod

[GT-R]

^^^ Yep that's what I do now as well. Every 5 flights I add some oil to the top and bottom bushings of the main motor. So far it has lasted about 23+ flights.