Any latest consensus on BLH3325 upgrade?

[navigator2011]

Hey all, I recently purchased a used Nano CPS, and I discovered right from the start that the stock brushed motor is, well, weak. I can actually hear the decrease in motor speed while I am flying. Reminds me of some of the Walkera helis I had a few years ago.

No longer being accustomed to weak, brushed motors, I immediately went searching for a brushless upgrade. Apparently, the most direct route is the HH BLH3325 upgrade that is intended for the ncpx. It seems that people either love this or hate it, with the general consensus leaning a bit toward leaving things stock or going with a MMW brushed motor.

I realize this has been discussed quite a lot, but I am wondering has there been any change in the general opinion of the HH BL upgrade?

Really, I don't need increased power, but I do need stable power. And I need a motor that doesn't need to be replaced every few flights.

[mgfiest]

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=720967

you may want to read this

[FR4-Pilot]

I just picked up a Nano CPS as well. I'm keeping an eye on the power thing too. It's not a powerhouse, but that's okay. Stable power is a good thing though - I agree.

If it starts giving me trouble I'm going to switch over to batteries (and power leads) with the JST-PH2.0 connectors first.

[navigator2011]

I found the HH BLH3325 upgrade at eBay for $19.95. At that price, I couldn't resist. Even if the power is no more than the brushed motor when I first take off, I'll be happy with that.

Pretty sure my brushed motor is giving up the ghost. I can hear the speed winding down throughout each flight, and I start dropping out of the air at around 3:00, even with new 220 mAh batteries.

[FR4-Pilot]

Wow - good price for sure.
Looking forward to your opinion of the upgrade

[navigator2011]

Originally Posted by FR4-Pilot

Wow - good price for sure.
Looking forward to your opinion of the upgrade

Yes, I will definitely be posting my results.

[navigator2011]

Well, I installed the HH brushless, and it seems quite a bit more powerful than my dying brushed motor. Haven't flown a full pack yet, but I did hover around in the garage. I will give it a proper flight tomorrow.

Couple of things though. I noticed the gear mesh is awfully tight, not sure how to adjust that yet. Also, the throttle range seems to go from about 25% to 35%. At 25%, the heli flies like the brushed motor at the end of a pack. I wasn't able to get any motor speed higher than 35%. So, not a lot of room for adjusting things.

[navigator2011]

Flying outside this morning in foggy breeze. My 220 Glaciers came down at 3.80V after 3:30 with very little perceptible head speed loss.

[FR4-Pilot]

Sounds like a success. Besides that gear mesh ... Throttle still flakey?

Did the tail handle the extra power okay?

I may finally get a flight in this holiday-weekend, if I hurry ...

[navigator2011]

I was wrong about the gear mesh--it's just fine, only the motor's magnets are stronger than the brushed motor. So, it felt notchy when I turned the rotor.

The throttle is fine, but there's just a narrow window to work with. I may just pick my favorite head speed and just have expo and D/R vary with the flight modes.

Here are a couple picks of my finished Nano:


I decided to leave the ESC pressing against the underside of the canopy so that the rx board is vibe free--seems to work fine.


Also, I didn't attempt to solder the signal wire to the little resistor on the board, there's just no way for me to do such tiny, detailed work. So, I soldered the signal wire to the white motor lead that plugs into the board. This approach more closely matches what is shown in the nCPX conversion manual, and it seems to work just fine on the nCPS.

So far, the brushed tail motor seems to handle the power output of the brushless motor. I let the tail motor rest for a couple minutes between packs, too.

[navigator2011]

Hi guys, I decided to do a write-up of my experience installing the brushless motor upgrade into the nCPS:

Installing a brushless motor into a Nano CPS

[FR4-Pilot]

Excellent! I will check it out in the morning. Thanks for doing that

Time to hit the hay ... too many toilet/plumbing repairs today

Managed to get one flight in today. I think I'm going to turn my pitch down from 100/100 to 90/90 or so. Seems too easy to bog the motor when giving collective (not stick banging though). That or the motor is weak or the power connectors are acting up.

[junior10]

Very cool, I gave my old brushless nano to a friend and have been missing it ever since. I think it's time to upgrade the cps to brushes now that it's been broken down so nicely. Thanks and good job

[navigator2011]

Thanks, guys! I hope it helps.

[treys1]

Originally Posted by navigator2011

Thanks, guys! I hope it helps.

Thanks again, just ordered mine based on your report since it was so cheap.

[treys1]

Upgrade complete.

I upped my positive pitch to 150 in the servo menu at the same time and this thing pitch pumps like a mosquito on crack at 35% throttle now (the highest one I have set).

[navigator2011]

Glad to hear it's working for you.

I set my servo travel to give about 40 mm of blade separation at the throttle end-points, which equates to about 13 degrees of blade pitch. This seems like a good starting point for me.

[Chris1683]

Like you, I started with the CPS and found after a while that the stock motor was too weak. I also installed the BLH3325 into my CPS and while performance was good, I did not like that I couldn't use a smooth throttle curve. The brushless was pretty much full speed or nothing.

I ended up getting the CPX, put in the HH Brushless upgrade and never looked back! Once I realized I wasn't flying in Safe Mode anymore, I really had no use for the CPS.

[navigator2011]

I've been putting six packs through this Nano every morning before work, and I have no regrets about installing the brushless upgrade. Motor performance never gets in the way, now, and the moves that I wanted to train are coming along nicely. In fact, I think I've made more progress in the last two months than in the last two years!

I decided to put the Nano and its batteries in a convenient carrying case. I thought I share what I did in a blog:

Putting the Nano CPS into practice

[mikem65d]

navigator,

Love the case you posted over on rgc.
How did you cut it out so cleanly?
Looks like a laser job