Blade 120 SR The mod list......post em' here!!

[UJSTIN]

The picture of the frame made me think that when I get this heli I'm going to go brushless!!

I mean look at that more than enough space to run a little outrunner in there, mod the tail a bit and prop a 2.9g bl motor on there. I'm sure it can lift 2 esc's from the reduced motor weight..


But.....I WANT A 450 FIRST!

[Tomy.]

My battery mount kept breaking for the first week simply from replacing the batteries so I wrapped it with a rubberband and super glued it at a few places. Since I did this about a week and half ago, I had not have one broken battery mount. But even if the plastic broke, the rubber band would still hold the battery in place.




(the white velcro on the picture is used to hold my Lego pilot)

[singingperry]

I did beef up the battery holder with CA at weak stress points and I bottomed it out hard on asphalt, so farf so good. Also ran some CA along the landing gear and zapped it to keep it from dripping. The gear also held up well. I did the same with the flybar and the heli caught a draft outdoors at high speed and nosed into the street. The flybar still broke as well as the canopy nose. Took only 5 minutes to fix.Very simple.

[Tomy.]

Originally Posted by singingperry

Also ran some CA along the landing gear and zapped it to keep it from dripping. The gear also held up well.

I was thinking about the same but then I decided to keep the cheapest part (or the easiest to replace) the weekest. So I did not beef up the skids, because they are only 4 bucks and easy to change. Strong skids means the mounts would brake on the airframe, more $$$ and much harder to replace because you need to practically take the entire heli apart.

[Pfloyd]

Here's one I did on my mSR and now the 120SR...

I was tired of when I would have a nose in crash, the canopy would get a dent in it..usually the eraser end of a pencil would fix it...well, I just got tired of it...

So...to Walmart and got a can of spray foam insulation and put some in the canopy nose of my mSR and 120SR...no more canopy dents or cracks. Weight wasn't very much as this stuff is supposed to be as light as air...so far, so good!

[singingperry]

Awesome idea dude! Definitely will be done. Thanx Bro!

[Tomy.]

Originally Posted by singingperry

Awesome idea dude! Definitely will be done. Thanx Bro!

Just what you said! How much did you spray into the nose cone?

[Pfloyd]

Not much, use a really small scoop to get some out so the battery will fit....

[lightbg]

She Who Must Be Obeyed wanted to go to A. C. Moore (Art and Craft store) to pick up some fall decorations. I spotted some foam doorhangers that cost $.50 each. Some eyeball measurements, a hobby knife, and a Sharpie marker produced a very simple blade holder. It may not be much of a mod, but at least it matches the rest of my birds on the shelf.

Jake

[Pfloyd]

I am begging to think that we all have way too much time on our hands...don't tell the wife!!!!

[BS-AV8TOR]

great mods!! did the skid trim right away.

so i have a dx6i what are some settings yall have tried that seem to help out?

also i noticed a few of you had the SR how does it hold up? i may invest in one in a few months.

I had a blade 400. lets say i jumped in over my head. lol so i back tracked and the 120 has been great. now i am ready to go cp again.

Thanks!!

[jonboy688]

Originally Posted by BS-AV8TOR

great mods!! did the skid trim right away.

so i have a dx6i what are some settings yall have tried that seem to help out?

also i noticed a few of you had the SR how does it hold up? i may invest in one in a few months.

I had a blade 400. lets say i jumped in over my head. lol so i back tracked and the 120 has been great. now i am ready to go cp again.

Thanks!!

i have the sr and the blade 400... i too did the same thing with the blade 400 and went over my head!!!! so i bought a sr120 and fell in love with it and the dx6i.... so i bought a sr hoping to help me with the blade 400..... well it deff did!!! i didnt even attempt train gear b/c i feel it made me crash more with the 400... and the sr was easy after getting use to the sr 120..... i was kicking myself in the butt when i seen how easy it was and what all i was doing wrong with the 400.... after the first flight with the sr i went inside and pulled the 400 out and was amazed how much easier the 400 was to fly!!!! the sr is great and fun to fly, and doesnt seem to scare me as much as the 400... but it is a 200.00 complete heli that is deff worth it!!! the tag wage is going to be there forsure!! and like always you will be looking for something better, as i am in the market for a trex 250 now since i got the hang of it... but if you already have the blade 400 i would say its easier to fly then the sr if you have the dx6i set up right... the controller for the sr i guess it what makes it so easy... you can hover 5-6 ft in the air and go full left right up down without crashing

[Heli Bones]

Great to see the thread still going with mods you guys are doing on the 120 sr.

I can get 14 min. flight times...

How..

Two ways.......One is to use two stock 500 mah batteries with a Y plug....just be sure that the two positive (red) leads from each battery go together......And be sure the two negitive(black) leads go together......This will make the batteries be wired in parelell which doubles capacity but keeps the same voltage as a single cell...so you will get 1000 mah at 3.7v.

Thats one way.
The other way is the way i prefer.
You will need a battery from a Blade SR helicopter,it is a 3S 11.1v 1000 mah 15C battery....that is made up of three seperate cells wired in series.
So if you seperate the cells you will end up with three seperate 3.7v 1000mah 15C cells .

The cells are held together with some double sided sticky tape so you need a slow carefull hand and a thin "knife"...something like a credit card with the edges dulled so you don't tear the foil that wraps the cell.
Slowly slide the plastic knife between the cells,very slow...it might take you 5 min to seperate one cell...you must go at it slow from one side then the other being carfull.
Once you have all the cells seperate from one another desolder the wires and don't let any touch each other or you could have a problem.

Now you can solder on some jst plugs and get some shrink tube to cover the battery...a cople layers....Or you can make a case for the battery like you see in the pics.I made cases for each cell with some PETG 0.015 thick and ca glued them together and slid the cell in.

I would not suggest seperating the 3S battery pack unless you have built battery packs before and have soldered ,or if you are carefull,use common sense,work in a safe place...weare safety glasses and have an out...a place to toss the battery your working on if something goes wrong.Then you should be just fine.
If you are scared or worried about doing it then it's not for you.

I also made a new battery tray for the new battery.It is made from some scrap lexan.It mounts to the rear of the frame with two tiny screws.
In the front it tucks up and under the front stock battery mount.The stock mount was trimmed to allow room for the 1000 mah cell.
The battery is now held on with the velcro that comes with the 120 sr batteries when you buy them.

Now,if you want the longer flight time and don't want to split up a 3S battery pack..not everybody is comfortable soldering on lipo batteries,i understand

So what you can do is run two stock batteries.There 500mah and if you have two plugged into the battery lead then you will have 1000mah,but still only 3.7v !
Two ways too do this.
One way is to get another female jst plug just like the one the battery plugs into.
Next you need to splice into the main battery lead.
Be absolute sure that the red wire is soldered to the red wire and the black is to the black wire.
It must be done that way,that will make the two stock batteries be parelell.
If you don't want to splice into the main battery lead then you could use a Y adaptor/harness........Again be 100% sure that red is to red and black is to black...If you have any question about it stop what you are doing and ask for some help,it's better to have to wait for someone to answer your question and help than fry your 5 in 1


My 120 sr has lights,a flashing tail a blue shining up at the rotor disk and a whit in the nose.There is also a small blinker pcb for the tail.
With the new battery tray and no battery the 120 sr weighs 100.0g..AUW is 128. g

Now about the extra weight.
It's great It gives a little higher headspeed and that helps it fly even better in the wind.And on landings......it is so much more easy to slowly lower it down to the ground.It looks so scale.
Before i would have to cut the throttle about 1/4 inch from the ground,now i can hover it mm's from the ground really well.I think it is due the the higher headspeed and it feels,i mean looks very real the way i can slowly lift off and set it down i like it a lot
And the motors run cool ,the extra capacity actually helps the motors run better/cooler.
The 1000mah cell is a perfect balance of weight and power with this heli imho.

Ok i'm sure i might have forgot some thing but here are some pics...more to come..

Heli Bones

[Heli Bones]

Here are a few more pics...

[BS-AV8TOR]

Originally Posted by jonboy688

i have the sr and the blade 400... i too did the same thing with the blade 400 and went over my head!!!! so i bought a sr120 and fell in love with it and the dx6i.... so i bought a sr hoping to help me with the blade 400..... well it deff did!!! i didnt even attempt train gear b/c i feel it made me crash more with the 400... and the sr was easy after getting use to the sr 120..... i was kicking myself in the butt when i seen how easy it was and what all i was doing wrong with the 400.... after the first flight with the sr i went inside and pulled the 400 out and was amazed how much easier the 400 was to fly!!!! the sr is great and fun to fly, and doesnt seem to scare me as much as the 400... but it is a 200.00 complete heli that is deff worth it!!! the tag wage is going to be there forsure!! and like always you will be looking for something better, as i am in the market for a trex 250 now since i got the hang of it... but if you already have the blade 400 i would say its easier to fly then the sr if you have the dx6i set up right... the controller for the sr i guess it what makes it so easy... you can hover 5-6 ft in the air and go full left right up down without crashing

I hear ya. when i first had the 400 just idleing up would send chills down my arms, it was intimidating. i was so nervous flying, heck i had the expo at 35 % so i could just hover. LOL

but now having the 120 SR i am very confident in fast forward flying, also orientation is now coming second nature. i have a blast with it. just crank it up and go. i went back to my MSR in the house and it felt like a slug. LOL I may have to put Negative expo on that one to live in it up.

The Blade SR may be in my fleet by christmas. i think it is a good size and from what i am hearing it is a nice heli. some guys just don't like it due to the motor driven tail. me i like it due to it is one less servo to worry about, no belt tension, and two ta three less gears to mess with.


" Take it easy "



Next question to Heli Bones....

when you added the two 500's inline did it make the heli feel sluggish. ??

I had a Axe Cx Micro a while back and it needed a 500 battery, i put a800 in it and just the weight took away the gain from the added weight.

but then it had two tiny motors compared to the SR's

Is this the same motor that is is the Blade CX2, the 380?? if so i wonder how putting in those hopped up extremes. would work?

that or i may have to look again but the motor the CP Pro uses looks like a beefy brushed motor.

Me for now i am fine with the power output. the blades seem fine to. not sure what pitch they are 8 degree or 10. as are most FP heli's.

I have only had my 120 for two weeks. that is a long time for me not to try and mod something. LOL so i ended up with the red canopy kit. not much true modding but sure made flying at a distance easier. down here with all the yellow green grass it blended into the background way to easy. so off with the yellow.

Great forum hope i can contribute some stuff later on.

[Heli Bones]

A few more pics with two stock 120 sr 500 mah batteries.
This was before i painted the battery tray,and before i decided to use the SR 1000mah cell's.

Heli Bones

[BS-AV8TOR]

Originally Posted by Heli Bones

A few more pics with two stock 120 sr 500 mah batteries.
This was before i painted the battery tray,and before i decided to use the SR 1000mah cell's.

Heli Bones

The two 500's side by side looks Sweet!! almost like putting twin turbos in a car.

[Heli Bones]

Next question to Heli Bones....

when you added the two 500's inline did it make the heli feel sluggish. ??

No,it certainly did not feel sluggish at all.
It did feel more heavy as far as where on the left stick it hovered.I'm using the dx6i and on one cell it will hover at or just barely above the line below half stick.Now with the two stock batteries or the single 1000mah cell it hovers at half stick with plenty of room left to climb.
When it has one cell on take of i have to kind of hurry and pop it up quick but with the two cells or the single 1000mah cell i can lift off nice and easy.I think it is because the extra weight gives it a little higher headspeed it allows you to better control the lift.
The first time i landed with the 1000mah cel (which weighs the same as two stock cells + or - 0.2g) it was like watching the helicopter leave the whitehouse..lol Really!!
Because it looked so real,nice and smooth.
Tomorow i am going to get a body/fuselage for it!

Heli Bones

[Heli Bones]

Originally Posted by BS-AV8TOR

The two 500's side by side looks Sweet!! almost like putting twin turbos in a car.

Yeah ,I like to think of it like a double barrel shotgun.........staring down the guy on your tail

Heli Bones

[BS-AV8TOR]

fuselage, as in a scale body kit? that will be interesting.

i have a exceed falcon 40. it is ok, after flying the 120 i all but put it away. i have a scale kit for it but i won't put it on till i fix the falcon so it is more reliable. having to add a fuse mod to keep from blowing the 4 in 1 controller, then if i fly to aggressive it blows the fuse and the bird falls. but to back up... adding the fuse mod. saves the 4 in 1 due to power surges and the occasional crash, if the throttle is not cut off fully it blows the mosfet in the 4 in 1, so i am told.

i just need to turn it into a paper weight. i'd probobly spend more money trying to fix it than doing any good. in the mean time i could have a different heli. oh well.

Flew Three Batteries today right before a thunderstorm hit. was great. I got to enjoy the CALM before the Storm. No pun intended.