mx flight times thread...

[bigsix]

alot of you have seen whats goin on over in the 'rex 450 forum...spork and some of the others have had an impromptu "longest flight duration" contest..would there be any interest over here in helimax land to do something similar? not necessarily a contest, but maybe just time our flights and list setups and what not to see where we are at. I know my flight times are pretty short and would be interested in seeing what you guys are getting for time and what the set ups are that are allowing said flight times...just a thought.

[L0stS0ul]

ok, Here's my setup:

Heli: MX-400 Standard Kit
Upgrades: T-rex tail mounted servo upgrade with CF tail linkage and MX-450 canopy
Servos/Gyro: 3 HS-55's on the cyclic and 1 HS-65HB on the tail with a telebee HH gyro
Motor: JustGoFly 400DH on a 9 tooth pinion
Battery: ThunderPower 1320mAh 11.1v Prolite
ESC: MM-22 with 5v ParkBEC

flight weight: 575 grams

This setup pulls 13 amps spooled up with no pitch and 15 amps in a hover with the head speed around 2300 - 2400 RPM in a stable hover.

I'm getting 4-5 minutes of flight time on this setup depending on flying style. I am thinking of dropping down to the 8 tooth pinion for the motor. Should get me better duration at a sacrafice of some head speed.

[bigsix]

cool, 1st reply, thnx lost, is your time from slowff, hovering, 3d?

[L0stS0ul]

Right now that's from just hovering in the garage. The winds have been killer lately and I've not gotten out to the field to put the heli thru the pases yet (or my 3 new planes waiting to be maidend). I'm very happy with the cyclic response from my tests and I expect loops, rolls, and flips to be no problem. My flight time will probably drop below 4 minutes I'm expecting once I get out to the field. Gonna try it first on the 9 tooth to see if I can deal with the short flight times. I've got three 1320 packs for the heli so it's not that bad. :) Only nice part is by the time I get to the field it'll be really well dialed in. Every flight I'm still tweeking settings and getting used to the cyclic response. It's much faster than my old e-sky king used to be. Thing was a beast to get over. I've only had the mx-400 for 2 weeks so I don't have a lot of time on it yet.

[bigsix]

do you know how you jgf400dh, compares in terms of power?battery consumption to the align 430L?...just curious as to me 5 mins. of hovering on a 1320 seems pretty respectable....currently with the 14t pinion and my 430l with a Yt2100
I am only getting 7ish minutes my self, this is with my highest point on the throttle curve at 80 percent, i know i need to drop to a smaller pinion and should see some respectable increase in flight times (i think i am currently not really running my motor in the proper rpm range and it isnt all to efficient)...also what blades are you running, stockers? i have been pleased with the align 325 woodies myself..

[L0stS0ul]

I'm still using the stock blades. I got a free set when I purchased so I figure I might as well break these before I upgrade. They were pretty badly out of balance and did require quite a bit of tape to get them to balance. I'll upgrade to the align's when I wreck these. They seem to work ok.

It's not to bad getting 4-5 minutes hovering. Probably a little closer to 4 than 5 I would say. I've never ran the pack all the way down to cutoff so not 100% sure. the 9 tooth is a bit much for the 400DH. It is rated to 20 amps but I think it's much more comfortable in the 10-13 amp range. I know at 15 amps I'm starting to push the constant amp range on these prolites. The pack does come off hot. I run my curve currently 0 - 45 - 85 - 85 - 85 for the throttle. The JGF motors like to get to speed quickly.

[bigsix]

wow, i guess we are the only 2 mx pilots interested in wat setups and combos yield what flight times...oh well was worth a shot.
I'm tempted to get a T-Rex and start posting more up there just to have better conversation.

[Gizmo6035]

Here is my setup:
MX400 pro with all the metal head upgrades- grips, spindle and flybar/ paddles which are Align.
motor has been changed to JGF450TH with 12T.
Blades are 315 ProWoods.
Batteries are Apex 2100 15C with over 80 cycles on them.
ESC is a Castle-35 in governor mode and a 5V Park BEC.
Weight is 816 grams.
Flight style is mild acrobatic, loops, roles, flips, and some inverted.
I try to keep my flight time to around 6.5 min to conserve batteries, average recharge is around 1530 mAh.

[L0stS0ul]

Gizmo, Have you upgraded to the extended boom yet or are you still using the stock boom? I was looking at the 315's at the LHS today but didn't get them.

[Gizmo6035]

I am now running the extended bom but it is not required with the 315 blades.
I switched so that I could run 325 blades as well, it seems that the extra boom causes minor wag issues with the GY401 and the HS65HB that I am running.
315 vs 325 blades only have minimal effect on the problem, I think its time for a digital servo on the tail and an upgrade to the 6V BEC.

[kohouty]

i have a mx400 with a gy240 with futaba 3107 birds almost stock.it a pro 400
added so more pc. to the head and tail it flys great on wag at all
i had so wag at one time but the gy240 gain was set to hi run gain about 40% wag free.

just got done on my new rex 450se i put 401 gy with futaba s9650 on it
it took a little figuring out the 401 because the gain on the 401 are ajusted from the tx.
the 401 and 9650 WOW solid
for your bird i would put the s9650 it is a perfect mach for the 401.
go to horizonhobby and get microheli 9650 tail boom mount its 15.00
then you will have one rock solid BIRD!!!

[darkside212]

I have an mx450xs

Here's my setup:

gy240 with an INOLABS high speed analog servo (great tail hold!)
Quark 33A..I'll probably switch to a dynam or DNpower ESC
Emax HL2215 with 9T pinion PERFECT the hs is to my liking and the power is INSANE
dynam 5ch receiver
TPSG90's on the cyclic
Dnpower 2150 15C 11.1v packs

I only fly about 5 minutes at a time as it means less charge time :D
I sell the emax motor, tpsg90 servos, dynam receivers, and dn packs so I am biased


I'm probably going to buy another 450xs as tower hobbies has them for $250 and a $30 off coupon is available :D

I also LOVE the heli!

[L0stS0ul]

So I just got back from the true "maiden" of my MX-400. My radio timer hit 4:45 when the ESC hit the cutoff. That was with some fast foward flight and a roll. I've not set up the idle up yet so I didn't try anything else.

[helisforfun]

Flight time 10min simple eights and circuts no 3d

Well heres my set up MX400 with up graded red mx head align grips and carbon blades main and tail align tail case carbon tail boom align canopy 430L motor 11tooth pinion gy401 with Futaba 9650 servo Hitec HS56 pitch alerion , elevator. Castle Creations 35 ESC JR rec and Airtronics RD600 TX
using Thunder Power 2100

[fedex]

Not real sure what my flight times are atm, I've just converted to the Carbon ccpm frame and they sure seem to have jumped up a bit. 7 minutes on some older packs, running 430L 12T 315's. I crashed the bird, now its back to the 325's :) I'm using DNpower 2150's 15c & 20c

:fly

[windbender]

Here is my setup:
MX400 pro
sonix tail
65MG servos
kontronics jazz ESC( heavy)
AON 3500V motor (heavy)
electrifly 2100maH bat. (heavy)
SAB 305mm blades
AUW: 920 gms
Flight times: 5 mins- hovering and fig 8's

Wb

[Gizmo6035]

SAB 305mm blades
AUW: 920 gms


And I thought my heli needed to go on a diet :shock:
Have you tried longer blades to offset the weight?
I flew mine on a set of 305 woods and got low flight time and poor performance, 315s give me much better performance and 6 to 7 min flights with less than 1400 mAh required to recharge the battery

[windbender]

Hi Giz,
I think the main problem is the battery (180 gms) . I'll have to wait until i need new batteries to address this. Also the battery is rather long (5 inches), therefore it shifted the CG forward to the point that I'm carrying 20 gms extra tail weight to balance the heli ; this could be fixed with the longer tail boom and tail mounted servos- all projects for the future. As it is, it flies ok, so I'll just wait until it becomes an issue.
thanks for the suggestion.

Wb

[L0stS0ul]

I've got several more flights on my heli currently. With a MegaPower 1350mAh pack I'm getting almost 5 minutes of flight time with the 400DH and a 9 tooth pinion. With a ThunderPower 1320mAh pack I'm getting only slightly less. About 4:40 before the LVC cuts in. This is hovering it out in my back yard as I'm getting it dialed in. So far so good. It's flying really well. The 400DH is bogging pretty bad with the 9 tooth. I probably need to drop down to an 8 tooth to stop the bogging on hard cyclic changes. I've not got my pitch fully dialed in yet. I'm getting about -8 to +10 degrees. I'd like to get that -9 to +9 but it flies well enough like it is. I'm still futzing with my tail servo though. While the t-rex tail linkages and boom mounted system works I'm right on the edge of my left trim when flying the heli. I might need to either cut the linkage down or move up to the longer boom.

I am planning on getting the t-rex 315's for the heli as it stands now. The stock blades have been flexing quite a bit on me. One flight my black blade is high and the next the red one is high.

I'm actually really pleased with the mechanical CCPM setup. It's working great for me. This is the first time I've ever flown an MCCPM setup and I'm kinda shocked at how much it's dissed. This setup is working really well. Sure a pure ECCPM system is more precise but on some helis you really would not know the difference.

Since the pics were taken I have replaced the stock flybar and paddles with a t-rex flybar and t-rex CF paddles. Talk about a huge difference. It's a different heli with the new paddles. The current weight of my heli with the CF paddles and the TP-1320 is 570 grams. Not to bad as I see a lot of people are over 600 grams with their heli's

[Gizmo6035]

your bogging is more likely caused by batteries that are too small than a pinion that is too big.

[Gizmo6035]

deleted duplicate post

[L0stS0ul]

the TP batteries might be sagging a bit as I'm pushing them right on the edge of their c rating but the megapower packs are only about 50% of their c rating at 15-16 amps. If I drop down to the 8 tooth pinion the amp draw will drop and the batteries will be able to maintain the head speed better. Sure I could move up to larger batteries as well to get the same effect but a pinion is a lot cheaper than a 2100mAh battery :D