KDE XF Blades review

[tntburnett]

What's good people. I got a chance to fly my my KDE and these things fly great sports and 3D. They are true to transition to different moves. They have great lift and and are really really stable. We already knew they can make great motors and aluim up grades but who knew KDE could design a great set of blades also. Lol look like KDE is trying to be like Wal-Mart have it all in one stop . The design of the blades is like my rotor tech blade I have on my fusion. To the air foil is a great design for the 130.

The KDE have a lil more lift than the kbdd and I think that's due to the air foil design and that they have a lil lighter feel. I will weigh them when I get to the hobby shop later this afternoon.

The price is great also $10.99 but shipping is a lil steep but that is because the price of postal but the good thing is that you get them in two days well at least I got them in two days so it was fast. The old saying is if you want something bad enough money is no object but I won't pay $30 express lol. Well enough of that here is a video on the blades sports and a lil 2d lol 3D flying with them.

Be blessed
Isaac

130x 3s and KDE XF Blades (4 min 19 sec)

Sent from my A100 using Tapatalk HD

[faceman425]

TNT good vid and informative as usual. What motor and battey are you running in that video. I see you got a bit over 4 minutes of good headspeed flight.

[tntburnett]

Originally Posted by faceman425

TNT good vid and informative as usual. What motor and battey are you running in that video. I see you got a bit over 4 minutes of good headspeed flight.

Thank u . I'm running the spin 8000 on 3s 300mah.

Be blessed
Isaac

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[taoY]

Issac, thanks for the review and video. I hope you don't mind that I use this thread to share my thoughts.

As Issac indicated, the first thing you'd notice is the tapered end at the tip. Other physical differences are: the length is 1mm longer and the chord is 0.5mm wider. The stock performance blade weight is 3.30 g. The stock bullet blade weights at 3.72. The KDE blade weights at 4.16 g. The CG of KDE blade is about 1mm more toward to the tip of the blade.

Personally, I prefer the stock performance blade over the bullet one. The bullet blade is more stable but the cyclic response is a bit too slow for my liking. After few flights with the KDE blade. Here are my thoughts:
1. The KDE blades has more lift than the stock blades.
2. It is a little heavier than the stock bullet blade. Therefore, it is more stable.
3. The cyclic response is comparable to the stock performance blade.
4. Even though it is heavier, the flight time does not suffer.
It is nice to see KDE is able to offer a blade that has the advantages of the performance and the bullet blades without their drawbacks. Overall, I like the KDE blade for this little 130X.

Here are some pictures.







I am also happy to report the crash test result. The 130X had an encounter with the gutter which broke the link on the main grip and the skids. It was the worst crash I had with the 130X so far. The KDE blade only suffers a cosmetic scratches. Here's the picture of the broken main grip.

Here's the picture of the scratches on the KDE blade.

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by taoY

As Issac indicated, the first thing you'd notice is the tapered end at the tip. Other physical differences are: the length is 1mm longer and the chord is 0.5mm wider. The stock performance blade weight is 3.30 g. The stock bullet blade weights at 3.72. The KDE blade weights at 4.16 g. The CG of KDE blade is about 1mm more toward to the tip of the blade.

It is nice to see KDE is able to offer a blade that has the advantages of the performance and the bullet blades without their drawbacks. Overall, I like the KDE blade for this little 130X.

Wow 4.16g! With that much weight and bigger blade area than stock, sounds like the best candidate for auto-training!

Thanks for the detailed spec tao and thanks for the flight review TNT. For my taste, stability of stock bullet blades is good enough for the 130X size so I don't think I need even heavier blades. That's why the KBDD is still my favorite so far if I want good balance between performance and stability (weight between stock HP and stock bullets while having bigger chord and length and more lead than stock HP). If I want all-out performance I put on the Lynx because of its super leading design and lightweight. Most of the time however I just snap on my stock orange bullet blades because they're cheap ($7.69 at Miracle-Mart), durable, stable to practice new moves, and don't require all mechanics to be in top condition to prevent head wobble with Lynx blades.

[tntburnett]

Originally Posted by taoY

Issac, thanks for the review and video. I hope you don't mind that I use this thread to share my thoughts.

As Issac indicated, the first thing you'd notice is the tapered end at the tip. Other physical differences are: the length is 1mm longer and the chord is 0.5mm wider. The stock performance blade weight is 3.30 g. The stock bullet blade weights at 3.72. The KDE blade weights at 4.16 g. The CG of KDE blade is about 1mm more toward to the tip of the blade.

Personally, I prefer the stock performance blade over the bullet one. The bullet blade is more stable but the cyclic response is a bit too slow for my liking. After few flights with the KDE blade. Here are my thoughts:
1. The KDE blades has more lift than the stock blades.
2. It is a little heavier than the stock bullet blade. Therefore, it is more stable.
3. The cyclic response is comparable to the stock performance blade.
4. Even though it is heavier, the flight time does not suffer.
It is nice to see KDE is able to offer a blade that has the advantages of the performance and the bullet blades without their drawbacks. Overall, I like the KDE blade for this little 130X.

Here are some pictures.







I am also happy to report the crash test result. The 130X had an encounter with the gutter which broke the link on the main grip and the skids. It was the worst crash I had with the 130X so far. The KDE blade only suffers a cosmetic scratches. Here's the picture of the broken main grip.

Here's the picture of the scratches on the KDE blade.

No problem. Great add on




Be blessed
Isaac

Originally Posted by DoubleCH

Wow 4.16g! With that much weight and bigger blade area than stock, sounds like the best candidate for auto-training!

Thanks for the detailed spec tao and thanks for the flight review TNT. For my taste, stability of stock bullet blades is good enough for the 130X size so I don't think I need even heavier blades. That's why the KBDD is still my favorite so far if I want good balance between performance and stability (weight between stock HP and stock bullets while having bigger chord and length and more lead than stock HP). If I want all-out performance I put on the Lynx because of its super leading design and lightweight. Most of the time however I just snap on my stock orange bullet blades because they're cheap ($7.69 at Miracle-Mart), durable, stable to practice new moves, and don't require all mechanics to be in top condition to prevent head wobble with Lynx blades.

I understand your point DC

Be blessed
Isaac

Sent from my A100 using Tapatalk HD

[taoY]

The good thing about KDE blade is it gives you stability and performance at the same time. The tapered tip and air foil design have the right combination to make it stable and the cyclic response is still fast. The flight time is not affected by the weight. It is less than a gram after all. The increased thrust is definitely more than 1gram. You can see all these traits from Isaac's video.

Check out this video too and see for yourself.

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by taoY

The good thing about KDE blade is it gives you stability and performance at the same time. The tapered tip and air foil design have the right combination to make it stable and the cyclic response is still fast. The flight time is not affected by the weight. It is less than a gram after all. The increased thrust is definitely more than 1gram. You can see all these traits from Isaac's video.

The concern of 1g extra weight on the blades is not on climbout acceleration, but mainly on cyclic agility. You can also get increased thrust from KBDD blades with similar increase in blade area. Even a difference of 0.5g between Lynx and KBDD makes a huge difference in cyclic agility. Also, flight time if affected will not be by the extra 1g but will be by the extra blade area.

[taoY]

Originally Posted by DoubleCH

The concern of 1g extra weight on the blades is not on climbout acceleration, but mainly on cyclic agility. You can also get increased thrust from KBDD blades with similar increase in blade area. Even a difference of 0.5g between Lynx and KBDD makes a huge difference in cyclic agility. Also, flight time if affected will not be by the extra 1g but will be by the extra blade area.

These are legit concerns which are also the points I was trying to make. Again, here they are, the cyclic response is still fast. The roll rate is conceivably the same as the stock performance blade. Check out Isaac's video, the heli is still very agile with KDE blades. The flight time in Isaac's video is 4 minutes.

[taoY]

I have to add that I had the same thoughts when weighted and measured them. But those concerns went away after I flew it.

DoubleCH,
If you are willing to try it and pay for the shipping cost, please PM your address to me. I am more than happy to send my spare pair to you. We can get your opinion after you tried it. More opinion is good for the community.

Regards

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by taoY

DoubleCH,
If you are willing to try it and pay for the shipping cost, please PM your address to me. I am more than happy to send my spare pair to you. We can get your opinion after you tried it. More opinion is good for the community.

That's is a great gesture! I'll have to take you up on the offer if the cost of shipping is reasonable. PM sent. Thanks.

[tntburnett]

I did notice that my flight time went up using these blades. I have a 3s setup and my times was close to 3,mins but I gain a whole min on the flight time.

Also by them giving more lift that less the motor has to work .

DH you wont be disappointed when u try them.

Be blessed
Isaac

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[DoubleCH]

Thanks to taoY I'll get my hands on a set to try out. I'm sure to post my review once I've tried them out.

[DoubleCH]

Received the KDE Direct XF blades for review. Thanks, taoY!

Here's my flight video and review of the blades. Unlike what TNT found, I do not gain flight time but the opposite actually. It's most probably because these are big blades that work best with bigger power like wider tires on a car to truly shine if you have the power to put them to good use. For TNT and others with good power, KDE XF help put the extra power efficiently into thrust than just blade-farts (like wheelspin on starting with too much power). For my setup with less power, the bigger blades are like wider tires robbing power from extra friction. Here I quote what I wrote in the description section of the YouTube clip:

"Received today the KDE Direct XF Blades from taoY from HF for review. First thing before putting on these blades is to do some measurements. Weighing in at 4.11g, these are the heaviest blades of the bunch including stock bullet blades, KBDD, stock HP blades, and Lynx, in order of decreasing weight. In terms of dimension, KDE XF is the longest by about 2mm (just guess, didn't measure). The rest of the blades are similar in length. Chord-wise, KDE XF again tops everything else, while KBDD has the 2nd most biggest chord. However, the 2 have totally different design. All of XF's extra chord is on the leading edge and more near the tip which means more efficient thrust for its weight with increased response while most of KBDD's chord is near the root tapered towards the tip partly on both leading and trailing edges which means more efficient thrust before stalling the blade without altering response much. I was surprised XF blades have even rearward CG than the Lynx blades which are the 2nd least trailing (or 2nd most leading) blades of the bunch to the XF. Upon closer look, XF seems to have an unorthodox airfoil design. Usually symmetric 3D heli blades have the thickest part around 30% of its chord but the XF blades have the thickest part further back towards trailing edge, perhaps to improves the blade's response but IMO may hurt its thrust efficiency.

Purely base on weight and dimension specs, KDE XF blades are basically bigger blades. Advantages are that they provide more thrust (i.e. cyclic and collective power), more stability, yet do not lose agility (due to most of the extra chord are near the leading edge of tip). Unfortunately, that plus its unorthodox airfoil design means KDE XF blades require more power to run best, especially at high HS and flying hard. I was able to bog my hp08s with 11T not by running too much AOA but simply too much "blade area" to drive. On the other hand, KBDD has a tapered chord which means providing efficient thrust with the least power required.

Flight tests pretty much confirm what I found from my observation on dimension and weight spec and airfoil design. KDE XF blades provide good cyclic and collective thrust/power given enough power input. Cyclic response is quick consider XF blades are the biggest and heaviest of the bunch, but understandably not the quickest of the bunch (Lynx wins hands down in that department).

In terms of predictability and confidence-inspiring aspects of the blades, overall, the KDE XF blades are good simply because of the big and heavy nature. They inspire pushing to the edge. However, these big blades require power to run them good. I suspect they'll work best with Spin 8000 and hp10s, or maybe even my hp08s if I were to run 10T instead of 11T. In comparison, I think KBDDs are still better in this department because of it's efficient chord design and good blade area size which doesn't bog due to requiring excessive power or bog due to running too much AOA. And because of efficient thrust for limited power input, KBDDs provide good cyclic and collective power and good balance of response, all of them provide good predictability and inspire confidence when pushed to the edge. In comparison, Lynx blades are the lightest and with its 2nd most responsive of the bunch nature, they provide very responsive cyclic and collective which may be good for smack 3D but not necessarily good for predictability or inpsiring confidence pushing to the edge. It's like flying my hp06v2-powered mCPx instead of flying my 130X. It loses the advantage of the 130X over the mCPx -- fly big.

For the best predictability and confidence-inspiring nature and best crashability, stock bullet blades still top all. They most forward CG of the bunch means the most trailing blade design for stability and direct feel although without KBDD's tapered chord design stock bullet blades are easier to bog running too high AOA, as a result of "blade fart".

Put aside all that technical talk, I think for an intermediate to pro pilot, the KDE XF blades are good overall because they "fly big" providing good cyclic and collective power (given a good enough power source) and good cyclic/collective response. Perhaps a setup with bigger power (or just better gearing) will do these blades better justice for me although probably most people won't even notice this. This is like choosing wider race tires for a sportscar. Most people will notice the extra grip on turns, braking, and less wheelspin on standing start, but for me I may be picky about the tires being "overkill" if I don't upgrade power to get full use of them.

Verdict: There's no 1 set of blades I like best. I like the KDE XF's fly big nature. I like the Lynx to show off quick response. I like KBDD's good efficient thrust and good overall stability and response. I like stock bullets for their durability and super stability for training purposes.

My Blade 130X Flight #1337 - 1346 with New KDE XF Blades Review (10 min 49 sec)

[Diogenes]

Glad to hear these reviews, I just ordered two sets today. Found a vendor with cheaper shipping, which was my original gripe.......

[mixfisto]

Good review DBLCH!

I'd love to hear from someone who's tried with the hp08 10t...

[DoubleCH]

I was going to swap over to 10T with my hp08s 8000kV last nite but in the middle of writing the review I fell asleep on the couch. It's nice weather out there so I'll fly as much as I can before sunset and worry about 10T later. Weather is going to be super nice all long weekend anyways.

[taoY]

Excellent write up, DoubleCH.

I like how you compare these blades from different perspectives. This is very informative and hits the nail on the head.

Thanks for identifying the strength of these blades. This will help people to pick the blades for the flying style and needs.

I like the KDE XF blades with the fly like bigger heli feel without sacrificing its agility. I tried the KDE XF blade with HP08S with 10T pinion (12° collective, 10° cyclic) and Spin motor with 11T pinion. The KDE XF blade works very well in both setup - as you pointed out.

Again, nice work. Perhaps you need to upgrade yours to 3S now.

[tntburnett]

Great review DH thumbs up. My 3s system love the KDE blades

Be blessed
Isaac

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[itsmillertime0]

Originally Posted by mixfisto

Good review DBLCH!

I'd love to hear from someone who's tried with the hp08 10t...

I got a pair today as well as a replacement Spin 8000 motor shaft. Put it back together with a 10t pinion but only got 3 flights so far. The last 2 were back to back with KBDD and KDE blades. I can bog both with full - at 100% and couldn't really tell a difference there. I could feel a difference in climb-outs and light pitch inputs while hovering. I might need some expo on my pitch channel, lol. The KDE feel faster so far with the 1 flight in a small space. I'm looking forward to getting some more flights in tomorrow.

On a side note both my HH C and D gears have lots of play. I filed a small groove in the tail spacer so that I could apply Loctite after it was assembled but still need to Loctite both my B and C gears. I also got the Xtreme auto-rotation set which I'm really liking so far. Fit and finish were perfect and replacement gears/ shafts are about the same as stock which is a plus. I wanted to try Lynx'es but can't pay $40 as I feel that is just absurd.

Also got a Xtreme alunimum double bearing pitch slider that developed mega slop in 3 flights. I'll be contacting them to exchange it for a tail case, feathering shafts, tail shafts or something, Anyone tried the Rakon double bearing slider?