Joe Bailey

What helicopter have you bought, servos depend on helicopter size and weight.

Turnigy blue lipos give decent power and last a reasonable amount of time. Turnigy nano techs give good power but seem to start loosing punch after 30 ish cycles Zippys are much like the turnigy blues. Gens ace are good solid packs that give good punch and power and seem to last a long time. Optipower give very good power and punch but they seem to die around 150 cycles or 14 months. Thunderpower are the best packs I've ever used, more punch for longer and the best power of any pack I've used. My oldest packs are over 400 cycles now and still produce decent power for smooth 3d. All this is from helicopter use, the packs take a huge beating compared to cars.

A nice simple explanation of what can be a very complex thing, Big thumbs up to you dude. I've been playing with rc since I was twelve, its been 19 years now. I'm amazed at just how fast this stuff is moving forward now and with the huge amount of funding now being poured into battery tech will get our dreams of half hour flight times and light weight before you know it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161297592230%20 This is what I use. It does upto 6.5mm bullets and 8awg cable with no issues.

What he said above Great value buggy to get racing.

Have you got the board programmed to self level mode? It sounds like the self is adjusting to the stick movements to keep it level all the time. Try flying in acro mode with no stabilisation on.

I've never found any issues with leaving for a week. If I charge and don't fly them that day I normally leave them till next week and discharge those first. I've got packs with well over 450 cycles now and have never lost a pack to use, only to crashing :S Lipos are like asking which nitro fuel is the best, ask 10 people the same question and you'll get 11 different answers.

As above, if the cells are bellow 4v each don't bother. It's only needed if the packs are fully charged. Even then if your planning on bashing within the next week just leave em' charged. The damage only occurs if they are left charged for long periods of time ( read many weeks ).

If your lipos are borderline they could be the issue. If all you want to do is back flips then upping the punch shouldn't raise temps on lipos. If its geared right it should make virtually no difference.

The f450/550 can be used with your dx6i, you will need sats or a rx. Not sure if it will accept sats. The f450/550 is a lot more adaptable and if you want they can be stripped and put into a dead cat style frame for proper fpv fun.

The main reason for not flying alone is safety, some one to keep an eye out while your flying and some one phone phone an ambulance (believe it or not the person most likely to be hit is the pilot) you can fpv but please be aware that the Civil aviation authority are now searching you tube for people flying outside there guidelines.

If you think a car attracts attention then wait till you start flying a helicopter in a public place. I've had crowds watching me fly my helis before. It's ok as long as they respect your need to concentrate but I've had idiots who thought it was it was funny to let the dog chase the heli. They laughed at me when I asked them to put it on a lead. They didn't laugh 4 minutes later when they were rushing to vets. The noise of a car is intrusive and multi rotors sound like angry bees flying around, they really arn't that quite. Pick your site carefully and be cautious with fpv (there's some really bad press out there now, 18year old lad currently facing prosecution in France) Above all stay safe and never fly alone.

Do a google search for multiwii design. There's mountains of info about the design theory and software of the multiwii open source controllers.

The ceiling is 400ft. The chances of it being detected by radar, none. Radar is designed to pick up large aircraft made of metal. Your phantom is like a paper bag to it. As long as it doesn't hit anything I wouldn't worry to much.

It's more than good enough to start with and a little monitor is good for passers by to see what your doing. Fpv is very private and antisocial when you shut the world out with a pair of goggles. At least with a screen people can see what your doing and make sure your not spying on people.

Hobbyking have the screen alone at $150 and its

The fpv scene has become a major problem world wide. Many country's ignored it at first and it's crept around under the radar for 5 or so years. It's suddenly reared its ugly head and there's now so many people doing it that the governments and CAA have no idea what to do about it. It's now gone to far to ban it in the uk. The French would only ban it because they don't make any money from it. All the gear is made in the us or Far East.

Is it a Tri copter or a H copter? The weight is critical. To light and they don't fly well to heavy and they don't fly right.

If it makes you feel sick It's not my fault. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrEFNsp22DY

The issue is voltage ripple on the supply pack. The Fets used in all esc' are susceptible to heat and voltage sag. This directly affects the gate shut off speed of the FET. Heat is fairly easy to compensate for, if the esc is this hot the gate close signal needs to start this much earlier in the cycle. Voltage sag is much harder to match and predict. Seeing as how a poor lipo will sag so much more then a good one and the esc has no idea how good the lipo is. It becomes impossible to write a firmware algorithm to compensate the the gate timing. Even with compensation there will be a point when the FET driver can no longer close the gate any sooner and you reach critical point. The + gate of one phase will still be wide open at the same time as the - phase causing a direct short failure across the FETs and as a result you get flames and smoke. The comment on mah does make sense but a better wording along the lines, use the best quality, largest capacity possible with your esc to ensure the best operation and life cycle of your esc.

UK legal is 25mw on 5.8ghz and 10mw on 2.4 ghz. ALL fpv flyers break this as that power output is stupid and even with the best base station would only get you out to 200m at the most. 500mw max output is all you need with some half decent aerials on your gear.

Minimum is screen/goggles, vtx, vrx, camera , and some soldering skills to put it all together, You could do it for

I think UBF is up your way. Ultimate build n' fly The chaps name is Jason Platts and he's a great bloke. Looks like a bull dog but really friendly and helpfull. Based in Retford Website. http://www.ultimatebuildandfly.co.uk/ A bit far but he is a professional instructor and one awesome flyer.

Try replacing you capacitor, it's only going to cost you

Just counted mine up, I think I need a bomb shelter to keep them in :s 12x 6s 5000 12x 6s 3300 6x 6s 1300 5x 3s 2200 6x 3s 4000 4x 2s 5300 saddle 4x 2s 5600 6x 2s 2500 rx packs 4x 3s 2650 2x 6s 2650 got me worried now, going to test the smoke alarms.