Category Archives: Helicopters

Helicopters, Radio Control

Documenting research on 450 vs. 500 vs. 600 heli costs

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I clearly need to get starting on the construction of my first collective pitch RC heli. The only question is, WHAT size to buy? I’ve done a lot of reading, talking to people who fly them a lot.. and I’m leaning very heavily to going with a 500 instead of the typical 450. Or, I might just bite the bullet and go with a big 600 electric.

While I research this, I thought it would be wise to document that things I learned, not only for myself, but for anyone else that might be interested.

Electric R/C Helicopter Notes
  450 class 500 class 600 class
Battery Cells / Voltage: 3 cell / 11.1v 6 cell 7 cell
Rate / Capacity:   25C ~2300mAh  
Battery Avg. Cost $30 $120 $180
Speed Control
(ESC)		   70-100 amp  

DECISION! – Buying the 450-EXI.

OK, decided. Finally decided. I certainly could have afforded any of the 500’s (or 600 clones) I’ve seen, but I’ve learned a cruel lesson of late, with the MadHawk300. Having local parts is critical to me having FUN!. Having to search and wait for parts stinks. Luckily the local shop has plenty of 450 parts. But they don’t carry 500 or 600 parts. That alone was the deciding factor.

So.. I ordered the following:

Order Number: 854679
———————
Quantity Item
1 GY48V headklock gyro
2 FRP main blade for electric 450 helicopter(335mm)
1 EXI Leveler 450/400 (Green)
1 30A Electronic Brushless ESC Speed Controller [Volcano Series]
1 Alpha 400 (3500kv) Brushless Motor
1 EXI 450 ARF Radio Remote Controlled Helicopter Kit (Plastic Version 2)
3 9g servo
1 9G EXI Digital Metal Gear Servo D213F
2 main blades (these are replacement blades for MadHawk 300)

So, the clock ticks down on the delivery, scheduled this week of my first ‘Grown-Up’ hobby heli. I debated the $30 more for a metal version (or $70 more for the CF), but I plan to crash this thing, and I suspect that most of the parts on this that I’d upgraded out of the box, I’ll be replacing due to crash damage. Why waste the money? Plus, in the long term I plane to buy a nice scale body for it, with a cool 4 or 5 blade scale head (they can be had for around $150), and if I *plan* to do that, then why burn $75 on a CNC aluminum setup that I plan to replace soon enough?

I hope I don’t chop off a limb learning to fly it! 🙂

Update: 9-June-2010 — EXI-450 is here!

Helicopters, Radio Control, YouTube

MadHawk300 hover practice, however I killed tail drive.

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OK, this is frustrating. 20 some odd flights and the thing’s rear motor is going out. There is a dead spot in it, so, somethings on a hard right yaw, the motor does not start back up and it spins into the ground, breaking… more stuff.

I did manage to get in some good practice on the day before though:
WATCH VIDEO: MadHawk 300 Hover Practice

So I’ve started to research updates to this rear drive issue, and the lack of power in the main motor (seems to be losing power, turning freer than it should.. seems like it cooked too, too much hover practice and not enough cooling airflow?).

At any rate, I found this info on the Walkera 180 (same heli, different brand name) that might get me a really sweet flying ‘learner’ heli for friends and family.

I got this info off the RCGroups forum [LINK]:

CB180Q Conversion to Brushless
8g Outrunner – brushless C10 (2S)- 180 Serie
Tail Gear Holder from Q for Brushless direkt drive
26g Outrunner -brushless C20 around 4000 KV
pinion 16 T(metal) Modul 0,3, hole 2,3mm
20A ESC for Main-Motor
12 A ESC for Tail-Motor
Gyro WK-016 Gyro 8g 4-6V

RX 2801PRO
TX 2801PRO
good Lipo around 1200 to 1500 mAh

Here is another thread [LINK] with similar solution. It might be overkill for what I want to do.

Another idea on 'fixing' the MadHawk300 shortcomings.

Helicopters, Radio Control

Blade CX3 nearly meets it’s demise – out of action

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Yesterday evening, was a great evening to fly. Not much wind, very very light rain and nobody at the ‘fly zone’ to accidentally kill. When you are unleashing an 8 year old piloting a P-51 Mustang model, these are things you need to consider. To be honest, he’s better at flying it than I am.

While the P-51 was zooming around the park, sometimes slamming into the ground nose first at full throttle (foamy planes are really good trainers) I took up the two Helis for some practice.

First up was the MadHawk300. The CX3 and Foamy P-51 are both bound to the same transmitter, so I could not fly the CX3 while the transmitter was in use. I’d done some tuning on it, adjusting the motor. The last failed flight attempt was dashed when on run-up the main pinion began to slip at 1/2 throttle, keeping the heli from getting off the ground. I’ve since lock-tited those motor motor screws.

It few well. Adjustments I made to the swash gave me some really nice control. At higher speed and throttle, helicopter flight dynamics are not at all intutive to a guy that’s used to fixed-wing models. But it still went well, with a couple of hard landings, no big deal.

Then, it happened. While at the east end of the part, close to one of the Pavilion buildings, the tail suddenly started to swing wildly, it accelerated upward, then nosed rolled right and slamed into the pavement at near full throttle, doing quite a number of the landing gear and main rotor blades.

Madhawk 300 with broken landing skid.

🙁 Nothing that was too tough to repair, but I didn’t have the wrench to replace the rotors on site.
Toasted main rotor blade on the Madhawk 300.

At this point the battery on the P-51 was running low. I recouped the transmitter and started to fly the CX3. It was flying very nicely. Nicer than the Madhawk in fact! Zoomed round the park, turned on and off the model navigation lights, did some high speed passes, landings, just some fun landing.

Then, it happened.

Right in the same place the MadHawk had trouble, the CX3 started to go crazy, and started to go into the TBE death spin. I tried to regain control but no luck. It accellerated upward, then nosed over and went straight down, nose first into the ground at full throttle. 15′ was more than enough room for it to gain some momentum.

CRUNCH. It was not a nice scene. The following photos are after I attempted a field repair on the fusalage to fly again. Unfortunately it would not happen since the radio and transceiver were no longer talking to each other.

Once home, I tore down the heli (I’m getting far too good at this) and discovered that the radio receiver took the full-force of the crash. Part of it’s case was ripped off and one of the dipole antennas was missing. Oh oh!

Helicopter on the operating table. Trying to get TX and RX to talk to each other

Removed the plugs from the Spektrum AR6100e receiver in the heli, plugged in the 3-in-1 mixer, checked response. The mixer would not show it’s green ‘lock’ signal. It was not until later that I noticed that the signal lock LED on the AR6100e’s front was actually missing. But it was at that point I realized, that not only was the body smashed, the lower section of the frame mounts for the battery are broken, but the receiver is, completely, shot. I’ve broken at lot of things crashing R/C aircraft, but never destroyed a receiver. It’s at this point I’m thankful for using Spektrum R/C equipment. Replacements are 1/2 that of Futaba or JR radios. Still, it’s a $55 part. Ugh. 🙁

Close up of AR6100e broken receiver (unmounted) and 3-function mixer (mounted)

I don’t want to order a replacement receiver unless I *know* that’s what is broken. So I dug up the AR56200 full-range receiver I have, wired it in to the heli’s remains, and tested. Viola. 3-in-1 mixer lock and receiver lock. It’s a go. Now I just need to decided where, and when, to buy a new receiver. In the mean time, she’s out of commission.

At least I still have the MadHawk300 to fly. And if I crash that into pieces, well.. I’ll just say I have a contingency plan arriving for that soon as well. ):

What's next!?!

Helicopters, Radio Control

Digging this MD500E Scale Helicopte vid

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Found this on the XHeli.com Facebook page. Love the sound of these things.

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my EXI-450 from XHeli.com, hopefully in the next week! Then I’ll have to build it. Then learn to fly it. Then learn how to repair it after I crash. Eventually I want to add a body kit like this, and replace the stock plastic parts (ordered plastic on purpose, about 1/2 cost and I plan to replace it as noted) with one of these:

HAC 4 blade Rotorhead for 450 class Heli

Helicopters, Radio Control

CX3 repaired and flying again!

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The Blade CX3 is repaired and flying again! The $22 aluminum swash plate repair, actually has the thing flying better than it did right out of the box!

E-Flight OEM Plastic Swashplate E-Flight Upgrade Aluminum Swashplate

Here is a 3 min video of first test flights in the studio, and finally my 8 year old attempting to fly it, for the first time, outside! The crosswind was playing havoc but he did a pretty good job of keeping things together. I think he’s going to be a good pilot some day.

Even though it’s a Toy Co-Axial helicopter (a $200 “toy” to be exact), with the upgraded part, it’s a joy to fly. There is something so therapeutic about an activity that puts nice big genuine smile on your face. And in the end, what price is too high a price to pay for some joy? 🙂 Even though I’ve “outgrown” this helicopter in about 1 week of intense practice, I still want to keep it around, and even put some more upgrades on it! Such as this cool LED strobe kit I’ve seen on the web. Here is a video from a guy that I think, sells the best of them:

Here are a few pics flying it outside, just before dark. Shot with an f2.8 200mm lens, 50D camera set at ISO1600 and roughly 1/30th second shutter speed. Despite the slow speed and high ISO, I think the shots are work posting.

Blade CX3 spooled up and ready for takeoff.

Blade CX3 spooled up and moving out. Still in ground effect.
Blade CX3 after battery change, ready to go again.
Blade CX3 in flight.
Blade CX3 flies overhead.
Helicopters, Radio Control

Unpacking the Madhawk 300

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Unpacking the Exceed-RC MadHawk 300 heli was easy enough. It comes in a variety of body styles. If there is one thing I’ve learned int this hobby so far, I’m going to CRASH. So I went for the simple ‘Normal’ canopy style instead of the cooler looking full-bodied birds.

Madhawk 300 at XHeli.com

Closeup photos of the heli

The box.
Parts as packed. Typical Chinese blister pack maze.
Parts unpacked. Heli, radio, battery, charger, spare blades (yeah!), mini-tool.
Programmable 4-channel 2.5GHz transmitter that comes in kit.
300 class electric heli - Madhawk 300 'Normal Edition'
Extra blades, charger, power supply, LiPo battery, mini-tools.
Metal rotor head and swash plate. Impressive for such little money.
Metal swash plate, and shaft-drive tail motor w/ heat sink.
Gearbox drive 3-blade fixed pitch tail rotor (plastic)
Bottom view with battery bay. Low in body and near rotor shaft CL.
Side view of heli with laptop to show scale.

I dot not yet have any in-flight video of this to upload, but I’ll say this. WOW, it’s fun! Establishing your first full hover with the blades of death whirling violently around, is as cool! The blades also make that trademark ‘whoop whoop whoop’ any proper helicopter should. It just adds to the fun.

There is a lot to learn about handling helicopter physics, but I’m finding that the 300 class with training gear installed is EASIER TO LEARN than the smaller co-axial craft. And the price is just about the same (or about 1/2 that of the CX3 to be honest).

So, the advice I’d received from a few people, and read on a few other sites is RIGHT ON. If you really think you are going to get into this, just buy a decent Fixed-Pitch kit for $120, add the $8 training kit and learn. You’ll be happier in the long run. Less frustration from slow co-axial heli response, heavier so you can fly in our outdoors, and it’s probably going to be fun to fly for quite some time.

So, once I get my head-in hover fully mastered I should have a nice EXI-500 built and ready to go. The EXI-500 will be good for years. I’ve met a number of people who suggested going from the little trainer STRAIGHT to the Collective-Pitch 500 or larger birds. And as crazy as it sounds, right now, I think they are right.

For now though, I’ll keep learning on the Co-Axials and Fixed-Pitch helis littering the house. Weather is pretty nasty outside so having some good indoor fun is a bonus. One of the next ‘upgrades’ to the CX3, after I fix the swash plate issue, is going to be a cargo hook. 🙂

Helicopters, Radio Control

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

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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 and bolted back into position:

Motor re-installed.

The fame looks a little naked without the body installed. But it does not take long to put it back together, and ready for flight.

E-flite CX3 with body removed.

A little time lapse video of re-assembly:

Ready to enjoy some indoor heli flying fun.

Completed bird, and Spektrum DX6i flight controller

Well, it was, until the plastic factory swash plate decided to separate. I’d been fighting with adjusting the swash links most of the evening, after putting the heli back together again. I thought that maybe I’d bent a servo link rod during the heat sink install, so I worked on adjusting the cyclic/swashplate links.

Trying to stop a hard forward and starboard liftoff, and full rear cyclic would barely have any effect. It was not until an hour or so later I noticed that the plate where the servos attach was separating from the bearing and main rotor shaft. Duh. This explains why 2 directions worked great (pushing up on the plate) but the opposites failed (pulling down on the plate, but the upper bearing remained in position, thus no control. No control, but one check of an exciting crash!

The official term for this is TBE (toilet-bowl effect). Not fun. There is quite a discussion of the problem HERE. Once I discovered the problem, it was a matter of deciding how to solve it. There are a couple of solutions.

First of which is a pretty inexpensive factory replacement part.

Stock replacement swash plate.

Second is one of the CNC or cast metal solutions from E-Flite (the original manufacture) or other sources. Research indicates that the E-Flite is the one to buy.

E-Flight aluminum replacement swash plate.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other heils in the shop ready to fly.

Blade CX3 (left), Exceed-RC Madhawk 300 (right)

Helicopters, Radio Control

Maximum Geek-out. R/C + iMovie = ???

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It was bound to happen, taking the next step and actually taking 2 minutes to edit my little ‘movies’ (really a personal video diary of my learning to fly and crash little flying machines). Here are the first two that I actually was able to load into iMovie and convert.

First is the Revel Proto CX. My micro counter-rotating blade heli: I cut a bunch of worthless time (more worthless that this video, hard to image but true) out of the middle and focused on the ‘good stuff’:

Next is video of the bird #2, the Blade CX3.

EFlite Blade CX3 - MD520 Notar

I had just unpacked it, installed the training gear extensions (the funny orange balls) and bound it to the Spectrum radio that came in the ParkFlyer HobbyZone P-51 foamy. That was a nice little treat.

Blade CX3 - MD520 Notar

For the most part it worked great. Here 90% condensation of about 25 minutes of actual flight time with the CX3. This was my first attempt.

However, yet again, I managed to mangle the landing gear after a few panic throttle chops as it got a little close to big steel things that would break it. :/ Back to the hobby shop for MORE stuff!

Blade CX3 replacement landing gear. I left them 1 on the rack. At least they are not TOO expensive!

And finally, here is my repair video. First semi-successful attempt at time-lapse with the Canon S1100 micro-camera. The hardest part, I thought, would be learning how to do this with iMovie ’09. Nope, after some prodding around it turned out to be pretty simple. Sadly the camera was doing some sort of zoom-in and zoom-out madness. Site down before watching, you might get ill. Some are going to wonder about the music. Did I shot the video with this music in mind. NOT! Who’d try to shoot video like this, outside the brain-dead corridors of intellectual bankruptcy one finds in L.A. or N.Y.? No, but the frantic into to a good German industrial metal song just… WORKED! I only hope YouTube does not over-dub the music with something totally lame out of their music library, as I’ve heard they have started to do this.

UPDATE!

YouTube send me this message today. Hopefully they don’t over-dub the music. But, when you’re using a free service, their hardware, their network, it’s not a stretch to concede they own that copy of it.:

Your video, Eflite Blade CX3 MD520N (Notar), may have content that is owned or licensed by UMG.

No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information.

Helicopters, Radio Control

Fleet is expanding (heli 3 and heli 4)

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It’s beyond obsession at this point. I’m going to need a 12-step program.

Yesterday I converted some old ‘iron’ at the gun shop to one of these at the hobby shop (I don’t have a need for a piddly 9mm anyway). This is Heli #3:

Blade CX3

As I type, the batteries are charging for the Heli, and the transmitter.
Blade CX3 battery packs and DX6i transmitter charging up.

I saved $35 by buying the BNF (Bind-n-Fly) version of the kit. The Spektrum DX6i I already obtained is compatible with this (and the P-51 too as a matter of fact).

Then this morning, I received shipping confirmation of ‘Heli 4’ from the on-line retailer XHeli.com. This is my first time ordering stuff from them. What surprised me was that within 24 hours the merchandise was picked, packed and on it’s way!

Thank you for shopping at XHeli!
Your order’s shipping label is generated and is scheduled
to be shipped on 05/21/2010 via UPS.
EXCELLENT!!

New Heli and parts on the way!

I’m having it shopped to my office in Tacoma since I don’t want to have it sitting on my porch all day at work. Plus, there is ALWAYS someone there to sign for it, since we are 24×7 shop. Fast FAST shipping and great prices. We’ll see how it all works out.

This is what I’m expecting. 🙂

Exceed MadHawk 300

ESky Flight Training System

Now, I already had this one here. Which now I think I paid WAYYYYYYYY too much for:

RealFlight Basic

I’ve been practicing with it for a week now. It’s OK, and it has some cool planes in it, but the helicopter physics seem… weird. Really weird. And I completely irritated that I had to build a WINDOZE box to use the thing! Luckly I still had an old (circa 2006) Dell computer floating around, and it’s running Windoze XP (which the new software needs too.. got lucky there), but the hardware was not up to the task. Wish I’d known that when I bought it. So $100 for the software kit, then I had to toss in another $80 to get a decent DX9 compatible video card for the OLD PCI (not enhanced regular old PCI) interface, AND 1GB of memory for another $50. (poor thing only had 128MB in it.. not enough to even open the program.
So almost $250 to construct a flight simulator with a used computer!

Then.. then, I find this recommendation lurking around one of the Heli message boards. Heli-X.

It’s written in Germany AND it runs on Mac OSX!!!! So of course I downloaded it (it does not come with any controller, BUT the controller from RealFlight works PERFECTLY!). It’s also fairly pricey too at $50 Euro, and it only handles Helis BUT the physics in the trainer are SO much more realistic, at least to me.

Here is a shot of the simulator (sorry, I don’t have the controller hooked up at the moment so it’s just a shot of one model on the ground). It’s pretty good, and I’m learning that Variable Pitch, fixed throttle flying IS A LOT more intimidating that fixed pitch variable throttle!

Screen Shot of Heli-X

When will this end?