I'm stuck!!!

[fly]

Ok jj. anyway tried to give it a "diet" last nite and manage to bring it down to 298 gms, about 17 grams off the original but didn't really have the chance to test the picc coz my batts weren't charging properly. anyway i have an 8 cell pack of sanyos on slow charge now and will fly it in the evening or tomorrow morning.

read on PaulG's website that he didn't have good results with the GP packs but previously couldn't find any others besides GPs so hopefully the sanyo's and rayovacs i've just bought would help....

By the way, all 3 of my packs run warm (say 50-60 deg c) after a 2 min run which under it's technical specs is about 10 deg c above its recommended temp. that's why i suspected the packs output characteristics more than the motor...

although they are not the same do you think if i added CF spars (for stiffening balsa wings on planes) under the rotor blades would help the blades perform more like stiffer rob lee's? i have a couple of strips sitting on the shelf (dun even noe why i bought them in the first place [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]).

oh yeah almost forgot... my canopy weighs in at 11.4 gms..

[fly]

wOw 275.... i'm like still 20+ grams over *sigh*.

i've actually removed the rear plastic cover of the HS55 servos and drilled 3mm holes all over the remaining portions of the case and that took out about 7 grams. shortened the wires and last nite, i changed all music wire parts to 2mm CF rods.

one of the heaviest components i have should be the delrin main gear from warren's but not too keen on changing that because i really like its performance and durability and guess i would sacrifice abit of weight to keep that on....

After i finished building my sanyo's it weighed in at 100.3 grams about 4-5 grams lighter than the GPs hopefully the output is better than the latter..

anyway i have to thank the two of you for replying!!

where can one buy a decent (cheap) scale that will read grams ?

[fly]

Not too sure abt USA but mine, a digital one that reads up to 0.1 of a gm was salvaged from a chemical company which was selling old equiptment away.

know where too look now?

I don't think you should have that much trouble getting even 315 grams up with an Astro and stock blades on 8 cells. Are you sure you got your main pinion screwed in tight? If that's not it I would try a different battery pack.

Jeff

go to midway usa. they sell reloading supplies. They have a nice little digitial scale. It mesures in grains but you can convert to grams and miligrams.

[fly]

Hi espritjeff!
the more i think about it the more it seems like the cells have problem....

I'm usually behind the average flight times of the same setup by about 2mins especially since i converted to BL seperates about 3 months ago, i managed only tops 5min 45s out of GE. lately it's gone even worse, i have to land after a 2 min flight for the cells to "energise" if i ever wanted to fly above eye level (i'm a short dude, 174cm ht). Initially i was so pissed off but gotten used to it......

At first i thought could be my charger (schulze isl6-330d) having some problems coz then i bought a 7 cell pack for my ep concept but was having undercharge problems but that was due to operator error coz i didn't solder the pack's connector correctly and there wasn't enough charge going in.
then i realised that whenever i charge the GP cells although it was rated at 750mah i could only squeeze out 690mah eventhough i prepped it up to charge for max capacity (avg capacity 640mah.... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] ) but the 7cell 2/3a batts for the concept was charged on average to 110% capacity!!!

then i was so pissed off that i got used to it (again... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img])
and that's the end of my sad and sorry tale........

[JJ]

I wouldn't think a spar under the blade will help unless it was almost flat. I recommend you persist with the stock blades a while, duration shouldn't be a problem with them.
50-60degC sounds very hot after a couple of minutes, my packs are usually just hand warm after 9 - 11 mins. This does suggest to me high current or high resistance cells or a bit of both in your case.

[Malcolm]

Ideal AUW is arounf 250 - 260 g. (this is why they use carbon and not wire for the UC etc). The amount of weight the Pic can lift above this limit is limited, and tops out at around the 280 - 300 g mark. If motors are getting hot then they are having to work too hard.