Is my Twister CP really a Blade CP - have a look!

[Rick Rotorhead]

Hi all, I have a small e-heli marketed in the UK as a 'Twister CP'. I've made several posts about it already. However, I've just had a really good look at the photos of Blade CPs and apart from minor canopy detail the airframe and components look totally identical to my Twister CP.
I've put pics of my little bird in my Gallery, could a Blade owner please have a good look at mine and tell me - Do I have, in fact, a Blade CP???

[rdlohr]

Looks like a blade CP to me with a different canopy from what I can see. There may be minor differences, but it is the same design.

Rick

[akshaw]

I'm pretty sure it is an older version of the Honeybee CP2, which is what I started out with and which had a canopy identical to the one in your pics. Before I switched to the new version of the Honeybee CP2, I used to buy Blade CP parts from my LHS whenever I crashed, and found that these two helis were pretty much identical. But Blade CP parts are not interchangeable in general with the newer HB CP2.

[akshaw]

From one of your posts, you say your Twister tx is Esky. Here is the old Esky Honeybee 2
http://www.deeteeenterprises.com/NS.HoneyBee2.Kits.php

The new Esky Honeybee CP2

http://www.hobbyjapan2000.com/store/proddetail.php?prod=ESKY3D6B


Here is an interesting site that compares the Blade CP and Honeybee CP2.
http://www.galactec.com/neolith/content.php?code=cp2

[Rick Rotorhead]

Many thanks - I think the truth is that the Twister CP, Blade CP, HoneybeeCP2 are really the same design and make of machine with minor changes depending upon which distributor you buy from. The HB had a slightly different design of main gear wheel, the Blade had a slightly different canopy but identical mechanics.
That final link has some great info on mods etc, thanks. Like most things in life you only get what you pay for - since the Twister is cheap (£200 all in) it has sloppy head parts and a badly behaved tail/gyro. Servo centering isnt great either.
So no surprise that it hovers all over the place no matter how frantic I am with corrections and powering up or down produces large yaws, piro rate is poor and she changes altitude by several feet every few seconds - in a word dreadful. However, I fully suspect that if I were to spend insane sums of cash on this dinky bird with full bling and max modding she'd probablly be a stable, responsive delight to fly (maybe!), but I can't afford to spend effectively double what I paid for her in the first place just to get her to fly the way a heli should! I'm looking forward to a Trex SE later on and when that happy day transpires I will likely set light to the canopy and fly her to valhalla in a blaze of glory - this is definitely a love/hate relationship :lol:

[akshaw]

LOL Rick. Well, having gone a bit of frustration with the HB 2 (=Blade CP + AEK upgrade), for me one of the most remarkable improvements in this helis performance came when I switched over to the HB CP2 frame which comes with the Bell Mixing upgrade. If this upgrade is bought seperately from Horizonhobby, for example, it is only $25 U.S. dollars, an investment I would say is well worth the money.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLH1170

If you want better tail authority, try the DD tail mod which is only about $23 U.S. (see www.bladecprepair.com ).

Finally, if you are looking forward to a TREX, you may as well start by getting a better radio transmitter and using it to fly your Twister. Before getting a TREX, I bought a Futaba 7chp and a Futuba short single conversion crystal that plugs into the 4-in-1 for flying my HB CP2. The 7chp made a big difference in how my HB CP2 flys.

[Rick Rotorhead]

Well the Twister already comes with a Bell/Hiller head (and nice black cf blades). Funnily enough I've got a smashing Tx, (Futaba 9c) but I'm only using the Tx for my Reflex XTR sim at the moment, which is admittedly perhaps rather a waste of it. So, to use the 9c with the Twister will I need to use a matching futaba Rx crystal in the 4in1??

[akshaw]

Yes, all you need is a single conversion receiver crystal that matches your tx crystal frequency. Any place that sells a Futaba R146iP PCM receiver should carry single conversion receiver crystals that work with the R146iP PCM (which, by the way, is a very popular receiver for the TREX). You can use these same crystals for your Twister! I got mine from here.

http://www.deeteeenterprises.com/NS.Futaba.6CH.PCM.RX.php

I think if you get one, you'll love the difference. You can program the pitch and throttle curves, and can add expo to smooth things out at mid stick. If you don't know anything about using your tx with a real live heli, be sure to check out Bob White's (finless) videos on setting up for ccpm, pitch and throttle curves.

http://helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?t=12455