Blade 500 X/3D tail on Atom 500: Mod makes tail a lot nicer

[P.I.Engineer]

This mod greatly reduces the load on the tail servo, you can try it out your self by taking all the blades off, unhook your tail control rod from you tail servo, spool up and try to move the rod. It's hard. With the blades parts on, it's real easy.

Here's all you need

grips: BLH1870
hub: BLH1869

Bearings: QTY: 4 of 4x8x3
Thrust bearings: QTY: 2 of 3x8x3.5

flip your tail slider links around so they'd be "trailing edge" control as if you were still using the stock grips.

and you're good to go.

[Shogun71]

Are you running the tail blade grips trailing edge or just have the links in the same position as trailing edge?

The picture appears to be setup for leading edge.

[P.I.Engineer]

grips are leading edge, the balls on the Blade grips aren't spaced like the atom's. They're on the same plane, so the slider links will sit weird.

flip the links around to as if they were trailing edge so the link will snap on better to the eflite balls.

[Outlaw10.5]

What is making the difference here?? Is it the weights?? Can the weights be used on the stock grips?? It may be the angle of the picture, but it appears that the slider links are in a bit of a bind. Are they?? Sorry for all the questions.
I was having a bit of a squirelly tail on mine and replaced the tail controll rod with carbon tubing and no guides. I really like this mod and have done it on all my heli's.

[GimpyGolden]

Going to give it a try.
Almost looks like 6Hv/7HV Ultimate Grips

[P.I.Engineer]

the balls on the grips always want to be the furthest away from the tail shaft b/c of centripetal force.

By putting weights on the perpendicular axis, you now how the weights wanting to get where the balls are, so they cancel each other out and you get much less load.

watch this video, this guy did all the testing.

T500 Align metal tail grip pushrod forces (8 min 54 sec)

It's fine relationship between the weights and the grip, it appears that blade did their homework(trial and error) to find the best combo.

I tried the weighted bolts on the stock grips, i had to drill the hole out to fit them, the force was not linear when i tried it out.


The links are not sitting on the ball straight on,they're at an angle now, it doesn't really affect anything. The new goblin comp tail does the same thing. But with the links flipped around your get a nice secure snap when you push it onto the ball.


this guy reads off the explanation.

Chinese Weight Modification for your tail grips with Bonus CRASH (6 min 34 sec)

[P.I.Engineer]

PLEASE TAKE OFF YOU MAIN AND TAIL BLADES IF YOU'RE GONNA DO THESE TESTS!!!

[tony521]

wonder if the metal grips will work just as well? And , doesn't it come with the bearings installed?

[Outlaw10.5]

Huh. Nice video explanations. I'll probably look into doing this too. Pretty drastic changes. So many of us just "stick a better servo on there" as the first remady for a poor performing tail. Or just star with the best you can afford, something like this could even make a mini servo work well.

[P.I.Engineer]

Right, that's how the 450x tail works so nice on a micro servo.

The grips dont come with bearings. You can get them from avidrc for cheap, or just search those bearing sizes. In my grips are bearings from a 300x, blade sr, and some traxxas truck bearings. I just found the cheapest ones I could.

Metal grips may not solve the problem, it's all about balanced center of gravity, you want it centered on tail shaft perfectly in line with the center of the hub, so that as the grips rotate the CG doesn't change.

I just designed/built an antenna tracker at work. I'm making a crappy, cheap, motor driver move a big heavy dish. I spent most of my time working out how to keep the CG static.

[tony521]

Oops!! too late, already ordered the metal grips, horizon had that 10% off going on , but didn't get the bearings, i'll get those later on, i guess.

[P.I.Engineer]

you ordered the blade 500 metal grips?

i just looked at them, they should be the same as the plastic grips

[Tachead]

Keep in mind that for certain applications polymer is a better suited material. It generally has better vibration dampening characteristics for one making for an even smoother tail. It also generally holds its shape better in a crash instead of bending like aluminum. There is a reason why Compass, Mikado, and others use plastic grips. They chose them over metal for a reason when engineering the heli. It wasn't just cost either.

[P.I.Engineer]

i'm also a plastic tail grip guy, they're too cheap not to run

[tony521]

just did that test without the servo rod connected, and it is very hard to move the slider. Poor servo was overworking. see what happens when parts come in for the mod. Yeah , i understand about the plastic grips, but no biggie, if these work well, i will get the plastic for spares.

[P.I.Engineer]

i got my stuff from hopmeup on ebay, they're the cheapest for blade stuff.

then i just searched the bearing sizes in the hopmeup store and pick out the cheapest bearings. These bearing really don't spin, so "quality" bearings aren't really necessary.

I've been running $1 main shaft and motor bearings from avidrc in my atom for about 130 flights now, no issues.

[Outlaw10.5]

Ha ha just order mine from hop me up too lol. Less than $20 for the whole deal.

[Outlaw10.5]

Got mine put together with the new grips. Feels nice on the bench, just need this poopy weather to clear to try in the air!!

[GimpyGolden]

Pick up my parts tomorrow but same poopy weather up hear. At least we're built for it, you guy's have a real mess down there.

[tony521]

I know the weather is crappy, but i am anxiously awaiting some feedback on this mod.