My heli thread (finally fixed it! also even more cats!)

[kitari]

I've flown several 3-4 channel fixed pitch helis with gyro, as well as my little cheerson cx-10 and phantom fc40, but I wanted to take a step up to 6 channel collective pitch helicopters and get started on some 3d flying. So with that said, would the blade 130x be a good place to start? Also just how hard are these things to fly?

EDIT: I decided to recycle this thread and use it for updates on my upcoming flights, crashes, repairs, and random cats that like to chill on the table.

 

[kitari]

Re: Any CP heli flyers around here? (3D flying)

Just wanted to update, I ended up ordering the Walkera Master CP and it's out for delivery as I type. Hopefully it'll warm up a little so I can take it on it's maiden flight or it's first crash. Either way, it'll be on video for your viewing pleasure soon.

 

[N017RW]

Re: Any CP heli flyers around here? (3D flying)

Yea I did for 6 years prior to buying a P2.
Align T-rex 450s.

I'm at the point where I want to spend time flying and not 'wrenching'.

The same flight controller technology we use in these quads is now available for CP's and many are now also flybar-less so they are much easier to fly now comparatively.

But as I eluded earlier to there is a lot of set-up and maintenance required to achieve good balanced performance.

 

[kitari]

Re: Any CP heli flyers around here? (3D flying)

Yea I did for 6 years prior to buying a P2.
Align T-rex 450s.

I'm at the point where I want to spend time flying and not 'wrenching'.

The same flight controller technology we use in these quads is now available for CP's and many are now also flybar-less so they are much easier to fly now comparatively.

But as I eluded earlier to there is a lot of set-up and maintenance required to achieve good balanced performance.

Yea, I'm sure I'll be fixing it more than I'm flying it but that's part of joy of heli flying lol. Also I'm using the infamous devo 7 with it so that should keep me busy figuring out all the settings as well. I'd love a t-rex some day but they look a little too fast for me at the moment.

 

[N017RW]

Re: Any CP heli flyers around here? (3D flying)

Yea I enjoyed the wrenching in the beginning but once I mastered it I was getting bored (and older) and now just want to fly. The simplicity of a quads propulsion system is quite a relief for me now.

 

[kitari]

Re: Any CP heli flyers around here? (3D flying)

Yea I enjoyed the wrenching in the beginning but once I mastered it I was getting bored (and older) and now just want to fly. The simplicity of a quads propulsion system is quite a relief for me now.

Well, first flight I broke the plastic rotor hub and stripped the plastic servos. I guess I have an excuse to upgrade to metal servos and aluminum rotor hub now. :lol:
Good news is I got it off the ground at least.

 

[kitari]

Re: Any CP heli flyers around here? (3D flying)

Update time! Finally got the rotor hub together, now I'm just waiting on the servos and I should be good to go. Gotta say I think it looks a little better this way. Here's some pics

 

[N017RW]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

Cool. Modern (no flybar).
A lot less linkages !!!

Enjoy.

 

[kitari]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

I'm starting to understand exactly what you was talking about by wanting to spend more time flying instead of wrenching! I finally got all my parts in and when I started it up, the flipping ESC went bad. :x So now I'm once again waiting around for more parts to come in so maybe some day I'll get to get my 2nd flight in. By the time I get this thing up in the air again, I'm gonna have a completely rebuilt heli. :lol:

 

[N017RW]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

Psssst... I warned you :lol:

 

[kitari]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

Another update, replaced the esc and tried to get it going again, but apparently that wasn't the issue. So now I'm just clueless as to what it could be at this point. I would say a bad motor, but the tail and main motor won't spin so I kinda doubt that's the problem. It might be a binding issue, but then again the servos work just fine... I just don't know. I posted about it on another website, so hopefully I might get some help soon, but until then I guess it'll just be an expensive paperweight. At least I have the good ol trusty...ish phantom! Well, it's been good to me so far anyways. (knocks on wood) Oh, and for anybody else reading this and you're thinking about getting a cp heli, you should keep reading the posts in this thread so you can see how much fun it is! I got one really short flight in, and I've just been trying to fix it since then with no luck. I'm telling you, it's just a blast! :roll:

 

[kitari]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

Ok, new possible solution! I got a bad charger it seems so I guess I'm about to be out another $20 for that. so let's see here... $23 for the rotor head, $34 for 3 metal geared servos, $20 for esc, and now it's about to be $20 for this charger. So almost $100 in parts to fix a heli you can get for $120.

 

[kitari]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

Don't ya just love this hobby

Yea, I knew this was going to be an expensive hobby, but I wasn't expecting to spend that much as soon as I did. It's ok though, because with that crash, I learned about how the servos are known to strip easily, and how to replace them with the metal ones, what the esc does and how to install it, what the receiver does, and how it's installed and binded to the tx, how to replace the rotor head, and quite a bit about pitch curves, the very useful throttle hold function (which could've saved my heli), and how to set fixed id for multiple aircraft on the devo7. There's so much new stuff to learn, but I love it! :geek:

 

[astdronenaut]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

Where are the cats?? :mrgreen:

 

[kitari]

Re: My heli thread (now with heli pics and cats)

Well guys, I finally figured it out. It was a bad charger the whole time. I ordered a new battery and charger and the battery came in today so I gave it a test run and it worked! So maybe it'll be a nice day tomorrow so I can get my second crash in. lol Also, here's some cats since this thread was lacking them.

midnight

oreo

la la

and there you go, the fuzzy trio

 

[kitari]

One last thing for anybody out there with the same issue I had, If your heli won't spool up but you have servo control, check the voltage on your battery after a full charge. If it's still too low, you might just have a bad charger.

 

[kitari]

Another update: After finally getting the heli back up and running I managed to get a decent flight out of it. I did pretty good with my hovering and even got a few autos in, but when I tried to do some slow forward flight, it ended up drifting away on me and I had trouble bringing it back and I got my orientation mixed up and it crashed into a wood pile. I'm actually surprised at how it didn't do too much damage for the crash I had granted I did manage to hit throttle hold before impact this time (last time it wasn't even set up). My first crash was on soft ground and it broke the rotor hub, and this flight it hit a pile of wood and somehow only bent the tail boom, lost a couple ball linkage things, and the canopy was damaged pretty good. So overall, about $10 in damage this time. So now that I actually got to fly it long enough to get a feel for the controls, I have to say, it's just like flying the phantom in manual mode, only you have to play with the throttle more, the controls are more sensitive, landings are trickier, and if you crash, you can almost bet you broke something. So until next time, I guess it'll be sitting on the shelf again until next flight. Also, I know I said I'll record my next flight and I didn't, but I'll get around to it one of these days. It might just be a hover video, but I'll try to do something.

 

[Happyflyer]

Nice bunch of furry ones! Meow!