Rhumba555
02-03-2007, 11:25 PM
Got the helicopter bug around Xmas and thought I'd just get a RTF and be done with it....HA! So I started with a HB CP2 (Blade CP) and flew it around a bit, crashed it a lot and spent a small fortune on replacement parts before learning that it really was a POS as far as quality helicopters go so I tried to upgrade it with a CNC head cuz the original plastic head was so sloppy I was having trouble hovering in the house. What started out as a minor upgrade turned into a full blown HDX300 Brushless seperates build. I don't know how the actual kit comes but I bought mine piece by piece over a few weeks. Here's the particulars:
Basically I followed Finless' videos:
HDX300 belt drive conversion
Microheli CNC "Blade" head
Plastic Tail setup (maybe metal in the future)
HDX300 Brushless motor/9 tooth pinion
Sonix 18A Brushless ESC
GWS 6 channel Reciever
Futaba T6XAS Transmitter (from my planks, doesn't work well)
Hitec HS55 servos all around (will upgrade the tail servo later)
HDX300 Blue main gear with autorotation bearing
HDX300 Landing gear (the wider flexible ones)
Carbon Fiber boom (recommended on this forum)
Stock symmetrical woodies and the stock tail blades that came with the tail system
Telebee HH gyro
Stock 3S 1000 Li-Po
I have built a lot of kits in my time, planes, cars, trucks, etc and I can tell you I have never had to modify, change, replace and find as many things on any kit as I had to on this build. To name a few:
Most of the links in the head were too tight, the links for everything else are too loose!
Tail servo mounts had sloppy threads, had to re-tap to 2-56
Had to order HB King servo linkages, no one told me that during the order process
Tail pitch slider would not slide on tail shaft, had to drill it out to make it smooth
No motor mount screws provided (odd metric size) Re-tapped motor for 4-40s.
Had to install the head servos upside down (output shaft at the bottom) because the HB King servo linkages were longer than the stock HB CP2's. This I found out AFTER I threadlocked them the other way! (Oh, and Locktite eats plastic)
Two holes on the top plate for servo mounts were sloppy, had to re-tap those to 2-56 also.
And the list goes on. Numerous other things that had to be fixed or modified. I finally got everything working and I'll tell you...HEAD SPEED! Man that brushless is awesome. However, I don't get liftoff until about 80% throttle and that is with about 8 degrees of pitch. when it does lift off it wobbles like a gyroscope, pivoting around as if it were hung by the head button, I still have some work to do with balancing and tracking and gyro adjustment and I know the radio is not helping me (it seems more designed for gas helis) but I'll get it eventually (hopefully). I will be upgrading the radio to a 7CHP someday.
Well, just thought I'd let you all know what I went through on this build. It was fun, challenging and totally frustrating at times. In retrospect, I should have just saved and gotten a Trex but I like this size of heli as it is small enough to fly in a basement. A Trex is definately next though.
Any tips would be appreciated and if you want photos just ask.
Basically I followed Finless' videos:
HDX300 belt drive conversion
Microheli CNC "Blade" head
Plastic Tail setup (maybe metal in the future)
HDX300 Brushless motor/9 tooth pinion
Sonix 18A Brushless ESC
GWS 6 channel Reciever
Futaba T6XAS Transmitter (from my planks, doesn't work well)
Hitec HS55 servos all around (will upgrade the tail servo later)
HDX300 Blue main gear with autorotation bearing
HDX300 Landing gear (the wider flexible ones)
Carbon Fiber boom (recommended on this forum)
Stock symmetrical woodies and the stock tail blades that came with the tail system
Telebee HH gyro
Stock 3S 1000 Li-Po
I have built a lot of kits in my time, planes, cars, trucks, etc and I can tell you I have never had to modify, change, replace and find as many things on any kit as I had to on this build. To name a few:
Most of the links in the head were too tight, the links for everything else are too loose!
Tail servo mounts had sloppy threads, had to re-tap to 2-56
Had to order HB King servo linkages, no one told me that during the order process
Tail pitch slider would not slide on tail shaft, had to drill it out to make it smooth
No motor mount screws provided (odd metric size) Re-tapped motor for 4-40s.
Had to install the head servos upside down (output shaft at the bottom) because the HB King servo linkages were longer than the stock HB CP2's. This I found out AFTER I threadlocked them the other way! (Oh, and Locktite eats plastic)
Two holes on the top plate for servo mounts were sloppy, had to re-tap those to 2-56 also.
And the list goes on. Numerous other things that had to be fixed or modified. I finally got everything working and I'll tell you...HEAD SPEED! Man that brushless is awesome. However, I don't get liftoff until about 80% throttle and that is with about 8 degrees of pitch. when it does lift off it wobbles like a gyroscope, pivoting around as if it were hung by the head button, I still have some work to do with balancing and tracking and gyro adjustment and I know the radio is not helping me (it seems more designed for gas helis) but I'll get it eventually (hopefully). I will be upgrading the radio to a 7CHP someday.
Well, just thought I'd let you all know what I went through on this build. It was fun, challenging and totally frustrating at times. In retrospect, I should have just saved and gotten a Trex but I like this size of heli as it is small enough to fly in a basement. A Trex is definately next though.
Any tips would be appreciated and if you want photos just ask.