N450V2A Overhaul – Completed

Tonight, I’m picking up where I left off yesterday [LINK], while I listen to some awesome local High School Radio (KNHC).

Sunday nights from 6PM -> Midnight is Industrial and Alt music show called ‘On the Edge‘. Reminds me of a similar show that used too broadcast on KFJC out of Foothill College in [...]

Model Helicopter Blade Balancing – preliminary research

Since I was not 100% certain of the proper method of blade balancing, I’ve started up this page. You see, until 9:00AM this morning I was certain how to properly balance blades. However, after reading the ALIGN Trex450SE instructions, which contain this diagram, I’m not at all certain.

Blade Balancing instructions from the ALIGN [...]

N450V2A Overhaul – Day 1

I’ve had a few good flights, and few bad flights with the N450V2A. After locating a nasty wobble and some incorrectly manufactured parts, I’ve torn the bird down to just about the bare bones and have started a re-construction.

Starting here with this picture, I have already performed the following.

Replaced the Main bearings in [...]

EXI-450 Helicopter Build – Day 7 + First Flight!

After fighting with the gyro for a day, I finally cleared the programming on the DX6i and re-did ALL of it. I learned a few more things along the way. This is the final, current configuration that actually let me fly! I won’t pretend to say this is an optimal or even suggested setup, but [...]

EXI-450 Helicopter — Build Day 6

FRUSTRATION!!! Tried to fly but all I managed to do was cause the thing to spin like some sort of evil weapon. Despite my best efforts to solve the gyro issue, it was just not stable! At least the P-51 was treating me well yesterday. Even few it behind a long row of trees (accidentally) [...]

EXI-450 Helicopter — Build Day 5

Setting Re-duex.

When I thought I had it all figured out, I learned (in a rather painful way) that I in fact did not. At least no blood was spilled.

OUCH. A 450 blade at full throttle can hurt.

So, after a lot of testing with the heli double duct taped to the [...]

EXI-450 Helicopter — Build Day 4

The fourth day of construction starts with preliminary radio programming. Based on A LOT of information floating around on the web, I’m going to start off with the following settings for the bird. The manual for the radio itself is 139 pages, 80% or more of which are specific to the two primary programming modes, [...]

EXI-450 Helicopter — Build Day 1

I’m excited to be building this bird. I will say though, it’s a fair bit of work! Might be little much for a beginner getting into a hobby. I’ve been building models so long, I can’t exactly recall when I started! 4 decades of building is coming in handy here!

Perhaps it’s bad form, bad [...]

Good times, bad times, upgrading and crashing the CX3…

Good times. The Blade CX3 is one heck of a fun bird to fly.

The first update today was to add the factory heat sink for the main motors.

E-Flite CX3 heat sink

After removing one of the motors, installing the sink was pretty simple.

Heat sink install 1/2 complete

Motor re-installed [...]