Sorry about that I had something to do!
Anyway
The helicopter was about £130, it came from a very small 'toy shop' about 40 miles from where we lived in devon. The helicopter came in 3 version's, the top of the range one (I havnt seen it), the next model down and mine the one here. The guy that owned the shop got 12 of mine and 12 of the next model up, he took everyone's details and tried to start a sunday morning flying club for them, we went 3-4 times but it was a bit far. I did manage to get a chance to fly the next model up though on a couple of occasion's, the difference between the 3 models was not that great in some way's. This is what I know of the differences.
The other model I flew had 2 battery packs instead of one
It came with a heavy dead basic camera that could only take a limited number of still pics.
It had a different plastic nose cone
The rest from what I remember was essentially the same, they both used the same frame and same motors, the other model was a fair bit heavier and flew better because of that, I found mine was too light, there was little control on take off.
In the end that what was what caused the big crash, I found you got the rotors spinning's and had to kind of start them pretty quick or the metal stabilizer bars at the top snagged the blades below! The problem was, just a slight increase from this point and the helicopter took off, but it was very quick so I found it difficult to take off in a controlled way. It would simply shoot straight up to about 10 meters, the other model was heavier so when you tried to take off, it rose at a more controlled rate.
In some ways that's good, it means I need to add some weight! This is ideal because the mods I have in mind will add some weight
,I am not going too heavy though, I am aiming for a weight between what mine is, and what the other type weighed.
After flying both I know the motors have plenty of power, the main rotors are driven separately in opposite directions from one motor each, I am fairly sure the motors are brush less, there is also a tail motor that I am sure just gets the nose to drop so the helicopter goes forward, the battery pack is also as far forward as the body work allows.
I am making it semi autonomous for now, maybe full GPS autonomous flight later on, this mainly depends on my getting my head around some of the maths involved for it.
First job is to try and find the controller, I will then remove the rotor blades and do some test's. There is an inbuilt problem with one motor, when they are armed and you pick up the helicopter, one of the motors can short on the body work and the rotor spins full pelt catching your fingers sometimes
,I had 4 stitches from the first time.
There is also a few repairs I need to make including a bad bend in the rear shaft, I have straightened it as much as I can but really it needs a new one.
As per advice I will keep an eye on weight, but it is fairly powerful for what it is, and I am sure it can handle the mods I have in mind.
So what do I have in mind? I dont have my book handy at the moment, but in the next post I will out line some of what I have in mind, I have thought alot about what I want to do, and apart from the fully autonomous bit, if I break it into chunks it isnt massively difficult. I am keeping the post's fairly short so those with a slow connection might find it easier to follow.
TBC
next post to detail a bit more of what I intend, feel free to comment, dont be offended if I choose to follow my own path on this one. I hope you will find the project as enjoyable as I hope too.