General solo pro 229 help please

[tricky1400]

hi not sure if anyone can hep but I have a nine eagles solo pro 229 helicopter and i am still struggling to set it up correctly ready to fly .

it was meant to come set up straight from the box but it doesn't .

i have been through the menus on the transmitter and checked the throttle and pitch curves and they seem ok but when i spool it up i can go to full stick and the heli will not lift .

it has separate motors for the main and tail blades , the tail seems to be spinning fast enough but the main blades / motor don't sound as if they are at full speed .

the heli is brand new never been flown so i doubt any parts need changing , i am guessing it has something to do with the transmitter settings

the transmitter is a Futaba J6

here is a link to the helicopter type


any help would be much appreciated

 

[Admiral]

Good looking little helicopter, my first thought on your issue is the battery is either faulty or no being fully charged.
Do you have a battery tester or multi meter ? fully charge your 3s should be getting to 12.6V.

 

[tricky1400]

Good looking little helicopter, my first thought on your issue is the battery is either faulty or no being fully charged.
Do you have a battery tester or multi meter ? fully charge your 3s should be getting to 12.6V.

Admiral , good shout mate ,i just fully charged the battery with the nine eagles balance charger supplied with the helicopter , it showed the correct sequence of lights , green flashing light while charging , constant green plus audio beep when fully charged , then i checked the voltage on the 3 cell 11.1 v battery and it was 8.2 v !

would this suggest a faulty cell ? only 2 of the cells working ?

not good if it is because i have not even used the battery to fly the helicopter yet !

all i have done is plugged it in to check settings etc and attempt to fly

I dont have another battery the same size to fit inside of the fuselage but i do have a bigger battery same spec , 3 cell , 11.1 v , what i am thinking now is get that battery charged up and attempt to fly the heli with it , then if it works i can buy a few more batteries which will fit inside of the fuselage

thanks again for your help , i really hope this works as itching to fly the heli

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate if you have a 4 button lipo charger make a single cell lead up and try to charge the cell thats down , I did this on a battery and it works fine now

 

[Dennis H]

Admiral , good shout mate ,i just fully charged the battery with the nine eagles balance charger supplied with the helicopter , it showed the correct sequence of lights , green flashing light while charging , constant green plus audio beep when fully charged , then i checked the voltage on the 3 cell 11.1 v battery and it was 8.2 v !

would this suggest a faulty cell ? only 2 of the cells working ?

It definetly shows a problem with one of the cells. You have a 3s 11.1v LiPo Battery, correct? It should read a little over 12.0v's (or close to this) when fully charged. A balance cord or board that's faulty could be the culpert.

Using the balance lead, you should be able to see which cell is not charging. With a Voltmeter, the balance plug end with the black wire, start there holding your - pin there, take your + lead and move out one pin at a time. The second pin should show 3.7v +/-, the third pin should show 7.4v's */-, and the fourth pin should show 11.1v +/- a few tenths. Make sure you set your Voltmeter to the appropriate voltage.

Finding the dead cell should stand out. Or if you or a friend has an icharger 306, 408, 4010, etc., it will immediately show the cell voltage of each cell.

Or if you have a known good 11.1v LiPo, try it out on the Heli just to verify the motor spools up like it should.

Lets go from here. The above method does work, you just have to be careful. This is true with any method while using LiPo batteries.

Let us know, Dennis

 

[tricky1400]

i do have a 3s 11.1v battery

its new and hasn't been used to fly the heli

i have put a volt meter on it and identified the faulty cell , its the one furthest away from the black lead on the charging plug , the first two are showing voltage but the third cell is zero .

the first cell reads 4.1 , the second cell 4.1 , third zero

i have made up one off those pins shown in the video and plugged just the two wires to the dead cell into the lipo charger and i am not getting a charging light , its not flashing a warning light , just a power light and no charging light , i have left it for about 30 minutes but still no charging light .

not sure what to do now

should the dead cell charge with just the two wires going to it ? i have made sure the negative wire is the one closest to the black wire on the charging block

thanks for your help

ps

i have tried another 3s 11.1v battery on the heli and it spolls up properly and even flies
only problem was because the battery was too big to fit inside the fuselage i had to secure it under the fuselage , but it worked

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate yes it will charge using 2 wires but use a low amp to start off for the first try to charge the dead cell , it may recovery mine was not zero on the low cell it was 1.20 v and it did recover well so I have the battery working again so its worth a try

 

[tricky1400]

hi all it's been a while since I have posted but the helicopter has been flying great since getting a new battery .

Today I have another problem, when I power up and try to take off the blades spin up good until I reach 50% ish then instead of increasing revs the blades slow down and eventually stop and there is a " beeping " sound from the electronics inside of the body .
the battery is good , I havent changed any settings from when it was flying perfect.

not sure what to look for now ?

Has anyone got any ideas ?

thanks for any help

 

[RandyDSok]

Look at your ESC's manual for a list of beep codes. If so, count your beeps and look them up in the list of beep codes to see if that is telling you what the warning is about.

 

[D.O.G.]

Look at your ESC's manual for a list of beep codes. If so, count your beeps and look them up in the list of beep codes to see if that is telling you what the warning is about.

I agree with Randy. It almost sounds like, to me anyway, as soon as the ESC gets warm it wants to shut down. How old is the ESC, by the way?

 

[tricky1400]

hi I haven't changed anything inside of the helicopter since buying it . I have had it for 7 years now . I have had to buy another similar battery as the original one stopped charging. I have asked a few model shops here in the UK what they think and most seem to say the battery is faulty again . Spares are very hard to get for this model so I don't know what I would have to buy if the ESC is faulty . The space where the battery fits is so small I am having problems finding a suitable battery to try and then at least I could rule that out as being the problem .

 

[tricky1400]

I haven't got a detailed manual for it only a basic quick start guide , there's no mention of beep codes for the ESC doesn't even show how to tweek the transmitter .

 

[D.O.G.]

most seem to say the battery is faulty again

That could be true and probably the chepeist way to go.

 

[D.O.G.]

I found this that might help NINE EAGLES SOLO PRO 229 EC145 POLICE OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS MANUAL Pdf Download

 

[RandyDSok]

hi I haven't changed anything inside of the helicopter since buying it . I have had it for 7 years now . I have had to buy another similar battery as the original one stopped charging. I have asked a few model shops here in the UK what they think and most seem to say the battery is faulty again . Spares are very hard to get for this model so I don't know what I would have to buy if the ESC is faulty . The space where the battery fits is so small I am having problems finding a suitable battery to try and then at least I could rule that out as being the problem .

That could be true and probably the chepeist way to go.

I'd lean towards trying a new battery as well. Many batteries only last a few years and their lifespan depends a lot on how they are treated ( charged and discharge amounts etc ) over that lifespan. I looked through the manual that DOG linked to and didn't see any mention of beep codes in that either. So both of us are relying on the most likely thing to fail for our guesses as what to try.

 

[tricky1400]

I have bought a new 11.1v battery charged it up with my current balanced charger , checked the volts 12.3v and tried it on the heli.
It was a definite improvement spinning up past the 50% that the old battery went to but the helicopter still won't lift off the ground !
I have ordered a new balanced charger as I did read somewhere that the battery is meant to charge up to 12.6v when fully charged .
I will update when the charger is delivered later this week.
thanks for all your help.

 

[RandyDSok]

A few tenths of a volt difference shouldn't be the cause of it lasting that much shorter ( or longer ). New batteries may need a few cycles on them to get their max capacity but when you are just talking tenths of a volt, that is hardly anything to worry about. That doesn't mean a good battery charger isn't a good idea to have especially if you are going to have more RC craft that use LiPo batteries. On your post from Mar. 22, 2017 ... you had identified a battery with a bad cell... the two remaining good cells were tested at 4.1v when charged. Again a difference of just a tenth of a volt. That minor difference could be the cell or your voltage tester itself. Either cause is not enough for concern.

The issue does sound much like the one that caused you to post for help in the first place. In that, if I read it correctly, you found a bad battery was the cause. While it is possible to buy a defective battery, it would be the first thing to check. So test each cell again but don't concern yourself over the 1/10 of a volt differences.

The next two areas to look at are the power components... the ESC has power output limits it can provide and the the motors and drive components should not exceed that load that ESC can provide. Load is the amount of amps either provided or required. Your tail rotor has it's own motor, I think it works by varying the speed and not the pitch angle of the tail blades. If I'm incorrect, check that there is no binding in the tail rotor's pitch controls. Then check the main blades rotor head for potential bindings as well. If you don't find any signs of binding in those... that leaves the ESC as the potential culprit.

 

[tricky1400]

RandyDSok
thanks for your reply.
The original battery problem back in 2017 was a dead cell in the battery and I no longer use that battery.
I replaced it with a new battery and everything was OK for a while using the second battery.
Then this year I got everything out ready to resume flying and that's when this new issue started.
I am using the second battery with my original balanced charger and measured the volts after fully charging and it was 12.2v .
I then bought a twin pack of brand new batteries 11.1v and tried both of them, they were both showing 12.3v after charging but the helicopter still wouldn't lift , it did spin up faster / better with the new batteries but it won't lift off .
I ordered a new balanced charger and it should be here later this week.
I am hoping this will fix the issue but if it doesn't then I will be looking at the ESC .
not sure how I am going to get a similar suitable one because I can't find anybody selling spares for this helicopter.
I have checked the main blades and tail blades to see if they are binding but both are ok free moving.
Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions

 

[tricky1400]

hi thinking ahead if the new balanced charger does not fix the problem and I have to get a ESC any suggestions on what I need to look for please ?

I have a BL speed controller 20A for the main motor and a 5A for the tail , having no experience of ESC I am presuming there are 2 of these not one with both built in ?
Both motors are brushless and I have both of the Nine Eagles part numbers but these are impossible to find .

NE252426 MAIN 20A

NE252427 TAIL 5A

Any advice would be really appreciated as I really haven't a clue with the ESC .

I can physically change the parts but will I need to set them up or are they plug and play ?

thanks again for your help.

 

[RandyDSok]

I used the original problem with the battery as an example of what voltage you were seeing on the cells ... it was not a reference to this problem you are currently having but the voltages you saw then are also now what you are seeing now on the cells were also the same. This was just to show you that what voltages you said you saw this time were not what was important. It was also possible that your voltage tester was just showing the voltage a little lower than it was in actuality which is common with a lot of testers out there. To put it bluntly, the cells being at 4.1v per cell would NOT be the cause of your heli not being able to lift off. Replacing the charger then won't fix the issue but having a better quality charger is always good for other reasons like better balancing etc.

I then went on to describe the other two areas that YOU must look into for a possible cause since we can't do that for you. So look for bindings in the drive chains of both the main drive and tail rotors that may cause a high load... a high load is the same as a high amp draw. I didn't mention the bearings in the motors could also cause it but it is less likely and harder to test for, so I omitted that.

The other possible area was the ESC has gotten old and can no longer output enough amps for the loads it is required to provide. There is no easy way to test for this happening without specialized equipment. The only easy way to test for it is to change it out with a known good one. The ESC is just the heli's power supply and can be thought of in the same manner as any power supply, sometimes they get old and can't do as much as they once could.

Those two areas ... the drive chain and the power supply... are the two areas you have left to find the cause of the trouble.

RC vehicles fall into about 5 different grades of quality. Within each of them are also varying grades. I define those grades as Toy grade ( yours is in the upper range of this grade ), hobbyist grade ( what most of us here use but we also use some of the lower and higher grade stuff also ), professional grade ( what most of the experts in the hobby will use at shows etc ), commercial grade and finally military grade. Each grade you move up will have parts that likely to last longer but also cost an order of magnitude more to buy.