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'Bee Issues
Posted Saturday March 10, 2007 at 12:26 am
(4 years ago)
When I got my little helicopter for Christmas, I didn't know anything about the lithium polymer battery that came with it. For the first 10-20 flights, I made a special point of discharging my battery until it was too weak to turn the rotor at all. From what I knew about rechargeable batteries, that's what you do.
It turns out you're not supposed to do that with Lipo batteries. You're really, really, really not supposed to do that.
I stopped doing it.
Many additional charges past without incident.
After about 75 charges, I noticed that the battery didn't take nearly long enough to charge. When I plugged it in, it wasn't strong enough to lift the helicopter off the ground. Was it the battery or the motor? The motors are known for a pretty short lifespan, but on the other hand I'd abused the battery pretty badly.
I ordered two new batteries. But I wasn't content to order the same kind of battery that came with my bird. Instead, I ordered batteries with 50% more voltage and 33% more amp-hours. "I'll have more punch and longer flights," I told myself.
The new batteries arrived. They were physically too big. No matter. I used rubber bands to hold them to the frame in a haphazard way. I took the helicopter outside. It flew. (The motor wasn't the problem.) Boy, did it fly. Holy freakin' $)-(!+, did it fly. It lifted off the ground at about 33% throttle and shot into the air like a honey bee with a bad attitude, which is basically what it was. The tail twitched and ticked angrily from the extra juice. What had been a mellow activity turned into white-knuckled, sweaty-browed over-corrections as I tried to keep 300 grams of toy helicopter from hurtling into 2,880,312 grams of truck parked in my driveway.
I landed after a minute or two. "Too much power," I said to myself. I unplugged the new battery and hid it from myself.
Just for kicks, I plugged the "dead" original battery back in. The helicopter flew! What the heck? But now, the tail had developed a life of its own, with sudden (and scary) 90-degree swings. I tried every adjustment I could think of to correct the problem, but nothing worked.
I said to myself, "Self, that must be the tail motor." Tail motors have notoriously short lifespans, which is OK because they're cheap. I got my new tail motor today. I learned a little bit about soldering when I installed it. I wired it backwards the first time. That was stupid. I fixed it.
The 'Bee flew again. But the tail swings weren't fixed! I adjusted the gain on the gyro/mixer repeatedly without any affect.
Then I remembered what had started all of this: the original battery. I still hadn't replaced it. Is it possible that it's dead for all practical purposes, but still able to be charged enough to get me off the ground? If it's putting out power "spikes" that might explain why the tail swings around like it's got a mind of its own.
So I'll get a new battery (the recommended specs this time, thank you very much). If it's not that, then it's the 4-in-1 controller, and then we're talking about real money.
I hope the new battery fixes it.
But if it doesn't, I'm too addicted not to buy a new 4-in-1 controller.
It's just money, right?
Grown men are expected to spend their allowance on toys, right?
| Comments: | |
| Toby | 11-Mar-2007 at 3:24 am |
| Hmm... I've abused my batteries the same way. Didn't realize you're not supposed to do that. Maybe that explains my twitching, too. And my bloated batteries... | |
| Cory | 11-Mar-2007 at 11:53 am |
| I think it definitely could explain your bloated batteries, as I've read stories about overly-discharged batteries puffing up when they were charged. I've also heard that the charger that comes with out helicopters isn't worth much. | |
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