Belt drive conversion

[Crash Gordon]

Have you guys heard about the conversion to make the tail belt driven?

I read about it in RC Heli's 4th issue, Apr/May 06. It says that Icon Micro Design has the conversion that includes: New Frames, Upper/Lower decks, Motor mount, Tail boom mount, ESC tray, Batt tray, Tail rotor pitch change lever, Pulleys and belt. You still have to get a tail rotor, new main shaft, and autorotation gear. The kit is supposed to be $70

Since I am so new to this all I don't know what the advantages or disadvantages would be, but I'm guessing that being able to autorotate would be kinda cool.

So what do you think??

[Gary JP4]

The advantages are getting rid of the tail motor which is prone to failure (doesn't last very long).

I think you can auto rotate with the stock setup just adding an auto rotate bearing on the main drive gear. There is a post in this forum about that. I think it would be hard to auto rotate with blades this small. You are depending on the energy stored in the blades to stop the decent when you pitch and cyclic up near the ground. Bigger models have more blade inertia and most say even a T-Rex is very unforgiving. These blades have little lead weights out near the tips just to make them fly reasonably well. May be someone has some videos.

I would like to hear what others think.

I think you would also need another servo for the tail and a separate gyro. The tail motor output from the 4 in 1 is for a motor not a servo to run the tail rotor pitch. You could get that output by hacking into the receiver but then you would not have the gyro working in the 4 in 1 because that is downstream of the receiver. Your receiver would send rudder input to a separate gyro and that could control the tail rotor servo. If you had an aftermarket (real) Tx you could have revo mix to control the tail but you would still need a separate gyro.

I think most folks doing this are running separates and do away with the 4 in 1 altogether and run there own Tx. Then you need Tx, Rx, motor speed controller for the main motor, gyro, and extra servo if for the tail with belt drive, or another motor speed controller for the stock tail. I think most doing this are also running brushless and that's one of the reasons they are running separates.

[heliboy1023]

It is a waste of money IMO. With this kit, to get everything you need just to get it to work (main shaft, servo, tailholder, bearing) you are looking at $100 or so with kit. Chances are this won't fly that well since now the main motor, which already is weak, has to power the tail, and the heavier frame, and the additional parts needed.

To actually get the thing to fly well, you will have to go all seperates. You will need gyro, reciever, radio, ESC, and brushless motor. A rough cost of midgrade stuff will be around $400-450. Mind you, it will only fly ok, since the head on the cp sucks.

That price doesn't include to cp kit, so figure final price if you buy the kit, and upgrade later to be around $600-650. For that much, you are almost in the t-rex price range, which will fly a whole lot better. So save your money, and just buy something else. If the tail is really giving you issues, get a cheap esc, and brushless motor for the tail.

[Crash Gordon]

I was pretty much just asking to get some info in my head.

I am planning on "maybe" going to a brushless system LiPo's and carbon blades, other than that I am going to just keep learning to fly and then I "know" I am going to get a better heli once I outgrow the Blade. I don't think throwing a bunch of money at it would make it much more than it is no matter what.

Thanks for the info though guys!

[morbeious]

Crash,

I tried the approach of learning on the blade, and tried making it better with hopups (ie, upgraded Tail, Swash, and changed controller), as a newbie it just didn't matter the blade almost ruine my chances of getting into heli flying.. :arggg: almost a yr of headaches and expensive upgrades, and blades. Well I finally bit the wallet and bought a T-rex, and within 30 days now I'm flying inverted.. go figure.. I suggest saving Money, and Time, and just got do whats right.. :smokin:

[Crash Gordon]

Geeze, that doesn't sound too good, why were you having such a bad time with it? I'm still learning to hover and all, but I am getting better each time I fly. I would totally love to buy a better heli, but haven't been able to work in over 7 years and getting $$ is very hard to do. Basically I asked for the Blade for Xmas because of the RTF and cost, mainly just to see if I could fly at all and if I would enjoy it. I know for a fact that I LOVE flying, and I am going to get a nitro as soon as I possibly can.

After I got the Blade I heard that it wasn't a good bird to learn with, but I have had fun with it and for now I am goinig to learn as much as I can with it, and I have ALOT to learn!!! Especially about how to get things set up and such. I'm just glad I have something to fly at all, and it's good that the LHS has parts in stock. I've been told that I couldn't afford to fix the T-Rex, but I haven't seen the price of parts so I don't know. I have seen a T-Rex and I loved the way it looked! I'll probably end up getting one sometime, but I might have to sell my truck to do it! :(

[heliboy1023]

Geeze, that doesn't sound too good, why were you having such a bad time with it? I'm still learning to hover and all, but I am getting better each time I fly. I would totally love to buy a better heli, but haven't been able to work in over 7 years and getting $$ is very hard to do. Basically I asked for the Blade for Xmas because of the RTF and cost, mainly just to see if I could fly at all and if I would enjoy it. I know for a fact that I LOVE flying, and I am going to get a nitro as soon as I possibly can.

After I got the Blade I heard that it wasn't a good bird to learn with, but I have had fun with it and for now I am goinig to learn as much as I can with it, and I have ALOT to learn!!! Especially about how to get things set up and such. I'm just glad I have something to fly at all, and it's good that the LHS has parts in stock. I've been told that I couldn't afford to fix the T-Rex, but I haven't seen the price of parts so I don't know. I have seen a T-Rex and I loved the way it looked! I'll probably end up getting one sometime, but I might have to sell my truck to do it! :(

If you get an se, and change the blade grips to plastic, here are parts, and the prices of them you will normally break on a rex:

Grips: $12 for 4
Blades: $12.99 for great pro woodies
Main shaft: $8 for 3
Feathering shaft: $6 for 3 (price may be off, I forget that one)
Tail blades: $4 for 2
Boom: $8 for 2
Maybe a servo gear or two, but at $4-5 a gear set, normally it isn't that bad if you do strip one.

So total cost for a medium first crash with the se is about $50 give or take a few dollars.
However, if you crash again, and break the same parts, it is only about $16 for new blades, since you will have all those spares they give you. So figure an average of $33 a crash, if that for a medium crash. On a cp, if you have a medium crash, it is:
Blades: $18
Main shaft: $6
blade grips: $5 (may be off, haven't needed to buy them in a while since I stocked up)

So a medium crash with a cp is about $29, only about $4 less than crashing a t-rex in a medium crash.

Now given, if you tip a t-rex blade on the ground, it can do a lot of damage (not being fast enough with hold), but a good training gear can easly stop that, plus it flies like a dream.

[Gary JP4]

Why would you go with plastic grips?

[heliboy1023]

Why would you go with plastic grips?
With my headspeed of now 2700, if I would keep the metal and crash, chances are I will bend something. Yet since I can still use the plastic safely (good to 3000rpm), they will break with the blades, taking away most of the energy, and that way, what is left over won't have enough force to bend any of the metal.

[Gary JP4]

Would you, and could you put them on an SE? I have an 11 tooth pinion and I am running about the same head speed (I think don't know if I trust my tach).

[heliboy1023]

Would you, and could you put them on an SE? I have an 11 tooth pinion and I am running about the same head speed (I think don't know if I trust my tach).
Yes, for the most part, xl and se parts are interchangable. The only things that aren't is the tail belt pullies.