Radio Controlled Helicopters

I recently tried out a mini RC helicopter that was about 20 bucks from the drugstore. It was really fun! But I’d like to get one that is a little better, perhaps has more range, higher quality, and a lot of fun. Any recommendations? I would like it to be a mini, not a standard size one.

Thanks!

The E-Flite Mcx S300 is on sale right now for $99.99. Everything you need to fly is included. Small, durable, and fun. Everything you need and described all in that package. Here is the link:

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLH2300

Moneys not really an issue, but I don’t want to spend like $250 for some RC helicopter I just want to have a little fun with- so $15-40 is my preferred spending area, but I could go higher. Probably not more than $120 or so though.

I did a little search and people are asking really complex questions- like comparing features that don’t make any sense to me. I don’t know anything about RC helicopters, although I do fly RC gas powered hobby airplanes.

A friend of mine had an air hog that worked great, but then his younger brother got a new air hog for christmas that is different, and doesn’t work too well. I’ve seen other brands that don’t work so great either. Does anyone have any recommendations for some of the better "cheap" (as opposed to those several hundred dollar gas RC helicopters my father used to fly) electric mini RC Helicopters that can be used indoors and out? Thanks

For your price range, don’t expect a helicopter that can fly outdoors, but you can have a lot of fun with the little indoor electric helicopters with twin main rotors. I can commend the E-Flite brand. They do a little one called the Blade mCX. I fly a slightly bigger one, the Blade CX2, which has had excellent reviews, and which can be taken out on a very calm day. If you don’t want to spend as much as that I have also had good fun with the tiny Silverlit helicopters, including the PicooZ TandemZ, which is like a baby Chinook.

Is there a time limit on how long you can run your RC helicopter on a micro lipo battery?

You can not drain your li-po battery completely. The general rule is to not charge them 100% completely, and not drain them below it’s voltage. Doing so will cause the battery to begin puffing up and possibly blow up. Each RC helicopter has a manual and an approximate run time. The approximate run time is about 10-15 minutes. You should run only 10 minutes, which is the average run time on any aircraft.

If you want to buy an advanced RC helicopter, I will be happy to recommend a site for you.
http://www.rcroll.com Rcroll has all kinds of rc helicopter, rc airplane in stock to meet various needs of RC hobby fans.

I just bought a micro Walkera 4#3b RC helicopter and a Walkera LAMA 2-1. I was curious to know how long a 3.7V 400mAh Lipo battery takes to fully charge up?

Depending on how much you drained your li-po battery, will vary on the charge time. I hope you do not drain the battery all the way down because if the battery is below 3.7 Volts, then you could risk blowing up the battery, or damaging it. But typically it takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to charge the battery (1 cell batteries do not require balancing).
You have a li-po battery, and the charger should come with a indicator that has a red light indicating its charging and a green light that turns on when it is finished charging. Not having an automatic cut off charge is dangerous and could result in a fire. Refer to the manual if you still have it. I recall testing the Walkera product, and its suppose to have a light indicator. If not, run the helicopter for about 7 minutes (average tested flight time) and then charge it for about 45 minutes.

This RC Mini Helicopter is fully assembled and comes with everything needed to fly except double AA batteries for the controller. Its good for people ages 8+. This mini RC Helicopter has good flight characteristics and is very durable.

Read more…

So yeah, I’ve been browsing this website http://www.raidentech.com/mirche.html looking at micro RC Helicopters.

I’m thinking of getting one just for fun, at some point soon. I’m kind of a big kid at heart, when relaxing at home. I see some of these that only cost like $20 something bucks. I looked at videos of them on youtube and they seem to be very easy to control and fly very well. I see that I’ll have to choose carefully, as apparently there are a few that only have a 30 second flight time on a 5 or 10 minute charge.

Some have a 15 or 20 minute charge, and a 5 to 8 minute flight time. This is more of what I would be interested in.

So, some questions for those who have one: How long do these rechargeable batteries in this thing last? How many charges before a new battery pack for the helicopter has to be purchased?

Also…I see various 2 channel through 7 channel helicopters. All are not micro, however…and I like the micros.
Pardon me for being dumb, but what does each ‘channel’ mean? Why is 7 better than two? I see 2 and 3 channel micros.

Does each command/button from the keypad representing one channel that is responsible for each function…and each channel runs on a separate frequency for each function (so they don’t get mixed up?). Sorry, but I don’t know much about this techy stuff.

Which one has the longest flight time of the micros?
If any micros are more sturdy (as far as crashes and such lol) than others…that would be helpful, too.
Hi Anonymous,
I want to warn you that the $20 micro helicopters have a 50% failure rate out of the box. I have worked with many of them myself, and the members of my RC club got about 30 of them. Fully half would spin uncontrollably.

All the ones I had flew for several minutes on a 15 minute charge. There is no new battery for the heli. These do not have any user-serviceable parts. It is put in by the factory and you throw it away when it stops working. But the failures were always with the mechanics or with the electronics. The batteries kept going after a hundred charges (on the few that worked well enough to keep using)

Channels refer to the control features supported between the transmitter and receiver. Not individual frequencies for each channel, but rather coded data sent on the one frequency the Transmitter uses. Two channel helis have the main throttle on one channel, so that the heli can go up and down, and the rudder, or yaw control, on the second channel so that you ca turn the heli. There is no provision for forward flight. You typically add a bit of weight to the nose so that the heli always drifts forward slowly the entire time it is in flight. A three channel heli adds elevator, or pitch, control. You can make the heli lean forward and back, so you can control forward and rearward flight. A four channel heli adds roll control, so you can fly left and right (like a crab).
The next step is typically a six channel heli, adding gyro control and collective pitch. These are the helis that can do ore aggressive stunts, like inverted flight.

Before you buy, read and ask question on the dedicated RC heli forums. You will learn a lot, and get better information.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Helicopter_Beginners_Forum/forumid_165/tt.htm
http://www.rcgroups.com/micro-helis-42/

Good luck!

So yeah, I’ve been browsing this website http://www.raidentech.com/mirche.html looking at micro RC Helicopters.

I’m thinking of getting one just for fun, at some point soon. I’m kind of a big kid at heart, when relaxing at home. I see some of these that only cost like $20 something bucks. I looked at videos of them on youtube and they seem to be very easy to control and fly very well. I see that I’ll have to choose carefully, as apparently there are a few that only have a 30 second flight time on a 5 or 10 minute charge.

Some have a 15 or 20 minute charge, and a 5 to 8 minute flight time. This is more of what I would be interested in.

So, some questions for those who have one: How long do these rechargeable batteries in this thing last? How many charges before a new battery pack for the helicopter has to be purchased?

Also…I see various 2 channel through 7 channel helicopters. All are not micro, however…and I like the micros.
Pardon me for being dumb, but what does each ‘channel’ mean? Why is 7 better than two? I see 2 and 3 channel micros.

Does each command/button from the keypad representing one channel that is responsible for each function…and each channel runs on a separate frequency for each function (so they don’t get mixed up?). Sorry, but I don’t know much about this techy stuff.

Which one has the longest flight time of the micros?
If any micros are more sturdy (as far as crashes and such lol) than others…that would be helpful, too.
Hi Anonymous,
I want to warn you that the $20 micro helicopters have a 50% failure rate out of the box. I have worked with many of them myself, and the members of my RC club got about 30 of them. Fully half would spin uncontrollably.

All the ones I had flew for several minutes on a 15 minute charge. There is no new battery for the heli. These do not have any user-serviceable parts. It is put in by the factory and you throw it away when it stops working. But the failures were always with the mechanics or with the electronics. The batteries kept going after a hundred charges (on the few that worked well enough to keep using)

Channels refer to the control features supported between the transmitter and receiver. Not individual frequencies for each channel, but rather coded data sent on the one frequency the Transmitter uses. Two channel helis have the main throttle on one channel, so that the heli can go up and down, and the rudder, or yaw control, on the second channel so that you ca turn the heli. There is no provision for forward flight. You typically add a bit of weight to the nose so that the heli always drifts forward slowly the entire time it is in flight. A three channel heli adds elevator, or pitch, control. You can make the heli lean forward and back, so you can control forward and rearward flight. A four channel heli adds roll control, so you can fly left and right (like a crab).
The next step is typically a six channel heli, adding gyro control and collective pitch. These are the helis that can do ore aggressive stunts, like inverted flight.

Before you buy, read and ask question on the dedicated RC heli forums. You will learn a lot, and get better information.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Helicopter_Beginners_Forum/forumid_165/tt.htm
http://www.rcgroups.com/micro-helis-42/

Good luck!

Does anyone know how to modify a helicopter to shoot bottle rockets?because i bought a new RC and i want to modify my old old one to shoot fireworks.

Use an electric match to ignite them. You can carry an extra 9v battery and a servo to set them off.

please mention that my helicopter is really small as you can see in this link
http://www.brookstone.com/mini-remote-control-rc-helicopters.html?bkiid=hmpg|mn_flash|627067p|new|s2
I live in san marcos CA so remember that what you say is available in my city or not.

You could get a 2.4 Ghz Pinhole Wireless Color Camera with audio for about $300. But at that, it is no guarantee your helicopter will fly with it. That seems like a small helicopter and the flight weight seems like it could barely fly with 7 ounces. I would suggest getting a slightly bigger helicopter first.