Syma Forum
Welcome to our Syma Forum - Please click on topics to view comments.You have to be a member to post-Free to join. Enter correct email as password will be emailed to you- All Syma Helicopter help and advice here. NEW- you can now change color of forum, bottom of page!
A A APlease consider registering
guest
Thanks for the info & advice JamDJ, definitely will take a look at that case study when it shows up..
The defective charger was from Epic Tech(HK SHIPPER) and they immediately refunded my money without requiring a return, good on them. As it happens, I had ordered another 110 V charger from another supplier and it works fine. I have three S107's so tried an experiment with them yesterday involving the new charger. Using a kitchen timer and a stop watch I flew each helo until it would no longer hold altitude, thereby insuring that the batteries were nearly run down all the way. Then, using the charger and timer I charged each one up until the green light came on the charger.
Charge time by the stop watch varied from 40 to 45 minutes. Then I flew each one again, making sure that I used both motors in maneuvering to maximise the load on the battery. Was pleasantly surprised at the flight times as two of them flew for 8 min, 45 seconds and one 8 minutes, 30 seconds. These were longer flight times than I had read that most people were getting which seemed to range from about 6 to 7 minutes. BTW, charge times using the supplied usb charge cords ran about 1 hr 5 minutes to get a good bright red light when plugged in to my laptop. I will keep a record of how long these batteries last. Also ordered a 200 mah battery and they shipped me an "upgraded" 240 mah battery. I will install that in my "test" ship and see how much the flight times improve. (read somewhere on this forum it is about 30 seconds) The Syma CH47 Chinook looks interesting to me so will order that one this week.
Hi fchurch and welcome! I got concerned about your battery situation when I read your
issue. If you get a chance, take a look at my "Battery Case Study" on pg. 4 of the general
information section, and definately follow the advice of others on the forum as well. I definately
don't recommend wall-style chargers, either. I fried the battery of my 1st 107 after about a month.
I thought I'd be smart and use my I-phone charger to avoid turning on my computer, well, wasn't
too smart. Got another 107 for my birthday at the end of June and followed the advice of someone on here
and began using the USB hub on my cable TV box. The results are amazing, in fact I'll have my
90-day case study update on the forum next week, plus 2 additional things I've learned along the way.
Coincidently, yesterday I got the nerve up to soldier in a replacement battery for my original heli,
works great after a brief test flight! Supernova's videoes helped alot and now I see that CPD is
starting a series on youtube. Good luck and happy and safe flying!
Just checked the battery and it looks like a tiny circuit board under the yellow plastic cover, so maybe I lucked out and it wasn't damaged by an over charge. Amazon doesn't cover the shipping back to the seller so I may or may not send it back, depending on how the seller handles this. We'll see.
It all depends... some have something that looks to be a protection circut, some don't, some motherboards do, some don't. All depends on when it was made, what batteries syma was buying, what boards they were buying, and whatnot. You never know really with this chineese stuff.
I would be sure to open it up and feel if it's soft, or look to see if there's a small circutboard on the battery. It sounds like it's ok, but who knows. (and if there's a little circut board on the battery, it's probably over-charge protection.)
For sure that charger won't be used again...I ordered it from Amazon so I'm sure it can be returned, I'll start that procedure today. I did fly the helo after that incident with no problems, flight time was at about 6-7 minutes. I read somewhere that these lipo batteries have an overcharge protection circuit, but not if that applies to the lipos that come with the S107 helos.
Well, sounds like it's a bad wall charger to me, and the fact that the red light was on with the USB charger means that the battery was more than likely overcharged.
I would suggest, even if it would turn out to be ok, that you at the very least don't use the wall charger. I don't know who you bought it off of, but if they let you return it, do that. I don't know about you, but it's just not worth it if you end up just blowing batteries with it. (especially how if they're too badly overcharged, they've been proven to blow out and, at the very least, blow lipo juice all over the kitchen floor, and at most, burn down your house.)
The 110V charger arrived and I plugged it in to one of the S107's that needed charging. Set the kitchen timer for 1 hour and worked on something else that needed doing so didn't monitor the charger during the hour. Checked it at the end of the hour and the red light was still on...gave it another 10 minutes and the light never did change to green, always a bright red. Unplugged it from the helo and plugged in the usb charger that came with S107 and it immediately showed a nice bright red. (no surprise there) It was my understanding that as the battery neared full charge that the red light would gradually change to green. Obviously that never happened. Anybody else run into this problem, or any suggestions?
Syma Freak said
Hi Fchurch74..welcome to the forum..some times I have found the usb cable to be faulty..what should happen is the light goes out on the usb cable until heli fully charged and then the red light should appear,however I wait until red light on the cable glowing bright red then charged..as you have a few Syma helis try another cable supplied.My view on charging any lipo battery is not to leave charging for ever,and you should be there when charging..I have lots of planes and quads,so am charging heaps of batteries per day..
After reading more posts and comment vis a vis the usb charger supplied with the S107's I believe the 45-50 minutes quoted will mostly charge the battery but a full charge takes slightly over an hour. I just wasn't waiting long enough to get that bright red light on the charging cord. This was happening with all the usb cables from each helo. Timed mine at 1 hr 10 min. yesterday and got the full bright light. Ordered the 110v plug-in charger from Ebay so that should cut the charge time to less than an hour from other comments I have read.
Hi Fchurch74..welcome to the forum..some times I have found the usb cable to be faulty..what should happen is the light goes out on the usb cable until heli fully charged and then the red light should appear,however I wait until red light on the cable glowing bright red then charged..as you have a few Syma helis try another cable supplied.My view on charging any lipo battery is not to leave charging for ever,and you should be there when charging..I have lots of planes and quads,so am charging heaps of batteries per day..
"Fly like a butterfly sting like a Syma" http://syma107.com
Hello and Welcome Fchurch74. I’m a newer member myself. I have had the same problem with a USB charger kind of flickering and not coming on fully. In my case turned out to be the charger. I have extra chargers so I just don’t use it anymore. I am interested in what the others have to say about the Lipo batteries.
Have flown fixed wing aircraft since 1949 but this is my first experience with helos even though they are a "toy". (sez so right on the box) Purchased 4 this week (had to have one of each color) besides now I can have one already charged and ready to go, and think of all the spares just in case. Today I finally got semi-proficient at landing on a heli-pad (magazine on the floor) These things are challenging and fun. Do have one question though...it's my understanding that the usb charger light will come on, and mine comes on but sort of a weak little flash is about all I see. Also, I thought the charge time was 40 to 45 minutes but the "charged" light doesn't come on until about an hour. (I'm using a kitchen timer) Not familiar with li-po batteries but will too much time on the charger cause them to overheat and /or degrade? Thanks for any info you more experienced folks can pass along.
Frank in Fremont
Most Users Ever Online: 211
Currently Online:
14 Guest(s)
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
MikeK: 178
SymaGuru: 32
justdon: 9
nope: 5
smith: 2
groggy: 2
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 729
Members: 20
Moderators: 0
Admins: 2
Forum Stats:
Groups: 7
Forums: 16
Topics: 1283
Posts: 8215
Newest Members:
Administrators: Syma Freak: 1452, JamDJ: 264