I think I can make this work.......

[Turbojoe]

I've been playing around lately with a 180CFX and an mSRx and have been happy with them so far. Considerably cheaper to crash than my 450's or 500.

I was cruising the classifieds on RC Groups the other day and stumbled onto an mCPX lot for cheap enough that I couldn't pass it up. It came with 2 1/2 heli's and a massive pile of parts. I expected to have to do a lot of work to get one even close to flying. Well I sent the 3in1 up in flames on the first one from plugging the battery in backwards. Lesson learned! Moved on to the second one and the aileron servo was jittery and not moving most of the time. Pulled it off and cleaned it. Put it back on and drug it out to the living room and the damned thing flew! Actually flew pretty good! I've got a lot of pitch and throttle curve work to do as what is in the manual doesn't suit even a crappy flyer like me. Way to weak. At least I have a baseline though.

I got probably a dozen servos and 3 extra 3in1's with the deal so I think I'll go through all the servos first. Get them cleaned and verified good. Then I think I'll strip all the birds down and make sure everything is clean, lubed and working smooth. I love projects like this especially when I've seen first hand that it's going to be worth the work.

My big fumble fingers make it tough to work on these tiny birds but it's still a ton of fun. Looking forward to ending up with 3 flying birds from all the parts I got.

Joe

[Helithunder]

What a great score on the helis and parts, they are nice flying helis

[MariaFan]

Enjoy the mCPX heli's.

As long as you hit TH, they generally survive crashes pretty much intact.
One suggestion I would give is don't run any more throttle than you have to.
There is no sense in running a flat 100% throttle curve if you're just flying sport.
I've gotten 6-8 minute flight times out of mine flying easy.

[Copternewbi]

How's the durability of the 180 CFX? I crash my Mcpx a lot and it rarely costs me more than a few bucks to fix it. But would like a bigger heli to play with with some bigger screws to work with.

[Turbojoe]

Originally Posted by Copternewbi

How's the durability of the 180 CFX? I crash my Mcpx a lot and it rarely costs me more than a few bucks to fix it. But would like a bigger heli to play with with some bigger screws to work with.

I wouldn't call the 180CFX "fragile" but it runs very high head speed and it's not as crashable as the smaller birds. Servos and torque tubes being the most common replacement items. There are zero dollar mods that can be made that almost eliminate those problems but the biggest problem right now for myself and a lot of others is motor vibration. It seems to be hit or miss as to whether you get a good motor or not. I have a Hawk Creations motor on the way. Once vibrations are gone I don't think I'll have any complaints about the 180. There are a lot of good deals out there on the 180. Just treat it with respect and you'll love it. I haven't yet had the MCPX in the air long enough to give a comparison but I have crashed it a few times with zero damage. I like that!

Joe

[Copternewbi]

Thanks Joe, I appreciate the feedback. Eyeing a used 180 and a used 130x on Craigslist.

[Turbojoe]

So I've been flying around the living room having done nothing more than cleaning up one servo on this bird. I did pull out all the extra servos and cleaned them up and now have 22 working specimens. That's all I've worked on until today. I put 3 of the cleaned up servos on the 2nd MCPX and tossed a battery in it. It bound to the DX6 immediately. I copied the file for the 1st bird and did a test hop. It flew nice and smooth. Absolutely NOTHING was centered or optimized! Hard to believe. Something I did notice is how much more power this second one has compared to the first one. Looks like time for a new motor on the first one. I haven't been able to find any aftermarket brushed motors so I guess I'm stuck with getting the E-Flight. I thought about going brushless but not yet. I only paid $65.00 for this huge pile of helis and parts. I think I'm going to continue going bargain basement with the MCPX. With one new motor I think I'll end up with two really nice little birds for dirt cheap. I haven't even started to look through all the aluminum upgrade parts that came with the deal. This is turning out to be one of the more fun purchases I've made in a long time. I love working on helicopters. I think I'd rather build than fly.

Joe

[Copternewbi]

Probably going to get the 180cfx and stick with that for a few years of learning. Seems more durable than the 130x and better parts availability. I'll just be taking it extremely slow, and stick with hovering and circuits. I'm buying it used, but theoretically it only has a few flights on it. So hopefully the motor and tail vibration are in good shape.

[Turbojoe]

I have the 180CFX too. It's kind of a toss up as to which one I like more. The 180 is certainly more capable than the MCPX but it doesn't do as well in a crash. It's pretty cheap to repair though. The worst 180 problem I've had is the vibrating motor that new bearings and balancing didn't fix. I'm waiting on a new Hawk RC motor to get here before it hits the air again. For now the MCPX's are getting lots of living room flight time. I haven't had them outside yet.

Like you I'm more interested in hover and circuits. I can do all kinds of crazy stuff on the sim. I just don't have the testicular fortitude (or the repair money) to try it with a real heli.

I keep dragging my 450's and 500 out with plans of getting them in the air again. Hard to believe these little birds are almost as good.


Joe