Ark 500 power systems

[jeffrey cottrell]

Hi All

Any heli experts out there save my sanity.

I currently have two Ark 400 helis flying well. Looking for something a little bigger, and came across the Ark 500. Lovely looking model, and should fly well given my experience with the smaller ones.

My problem is how to power it.

Helis of this size seem to be powered by a 6s LiPo pack, with appropriate motor ( around 900 Kv ) They all seem to be for extreme 3D work, where the extra power is needed.

I do not need this sort of performance  for my flying, so I started looking at 4s setups, and there is where the fun started.

I figure to use 4s, I would need a motor with slightly higher Kv. So far, I have been told

1) 900 Kv is fine for 6s or 4s.

2) for 4s, keep the same Kv but a larger pinion.

3) dont even think of 4s, the current would be too high

4) use 2 x 3s packs in series.

On the face of it, 4 seems to make sense, except my 3s packs are 1800ma or 2100 ma. On the 500, I would be using them too near their maximum, which leads to shorter service life, and two at a time.

Anybody out there got an Ark, or any other 500 size running on 4s. How does it go, and what set up do you use? Could you point me in the right direction.

Cheers

Jeff