JPEE

Hi Nick,

Good luck on your project, I hope the applications work well for you. As to flying, no worries..... school is number one!

We have had high winds here too at 45+ now for three or four days, seems like the days run together sometimes. However, it is supposed to be 85 today.

Mark's new heli is neat isn't it


Take care and good luck with your school work and projects

John

Aframomum

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Hi guys,

Got most of my chores done.

Got a quick video of flying a bit in my living room, do ignore the mess.

http://vimeo.com/22455373

Mark

JPEE

Mark,

I was gonna say after all I saw all of the stuff in that room that someone might a bit spoiled! But then I thought......................

ah why shouldn't Mark have two heli's LOL.


Seriously she flies pretty dang stable that's a given. I expect by next weeks end, Glenn will have one :-)

Thanks for sharing your maiden with us and the narrations were great! I cannot believe the head speed of that lil puppy, she sings.



Have a good weekend,

John

rotarydoc

Mark,

Nice video!

The thing looks amazingly stable for a CP heli of it's size, easily more stable than my Gaui 200, that's for sure, looks like Eflite did a nice job...

I understand the lack of room thing, and even though it's stable, I'm sure it's still kind of a handful in that small space...hope you can get outside on a low wind situation and give it a whirl...

I forgot which radio you have, a DX-7 right? I saw a post somewhere about Horizon not supplying setup for JR radios...something for me to research a bit more if I am thinking about it...or I could just use my DX6i (probably a better idea yet)...rather than lugging the case and 9503 around.

Looks like it will be a lot of fun! Keep us posted as usual! It's always good to see videos of "normal" guys flying a new product, you know how good Eflite always makes their videos appear....with some really good pilots, perfect condtions, etc...

Enjoy!

Glenn

Aframomum

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Day 2 of playing around with my mCPx.

It is durable as I've had 2 run-ins with livingroom furniture (the same stupid recliner chair ) and no issues. Of course I did take it outside this morning and even though it was quite breezy it held beautifully. I've yet to experience any problems with the tail not holding under normal flying (more on that later) and then I am still amazed with the FBL and what it does. And there are no adjustments to do, only in the radio, but no manual motor mixing/gyro gain adjustments with the screwdriver (can we say Blade CPP2 ). Glenn, I don't know if this is how it is with your mSr but I am really liking the simplicity of it.

Glenn, about your question on radio's, and your right I have a DX7...I checked my instruction manual and it lists any DSM2 computer radio being usable...also checked HH website and found [link=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/RelatedParts.aspx?ProdID=BLH3580&Category=Completi on+Guides&SubCategory=Recommended+Transmitters]This[/link] listing of radio's and they have your 9503 listed. I try to limit as best I can the need for multiple radio's.

I am still working on taming the collective down on it...this morning I lost it again doing a simple roll (yesterday was due to a flip)...something about the collective overloading the motor and causing the tail to piro out of control. Yeah, no kidding...it spun all over the place (outside of course)...I was able to recover it both times but will be trying some new pitch values later on today when the wind settles down (there is a thread of mcpx setup I saw here on the eflight forum).

JPEE, yes my wife got a job about a month ago and so things have been a bit more comfortable so I could do the new heli with no problem. But yes...no more heli's.

Nick,

In all my excitement with my new heli I totally forgot to wish you well on your Calculus test. You do sound like you are getting loaded down with exams and school projects but as you said finals in 3 weeks and then a time of peace and quiet. For a little bit.

Going to be heading to the hobby shop later today to take back the old grips...I am definitely keeping the feathering shaft and dampers...Eflight only wants the grips/bearings back and that's what they're getting. I also want to look into those parallel adapters so I can charge these tiny 1S batts on my normal charger instead of the dinky Eflight charger that came with the heli.

I think HH/Eflight did some prelim testing with this heli and was in a rush to get it out on the market before their competition (Walkera) and the issue with the grip failure didn't begin to show until recently (many more heli's being produced/flown then could a prelim test do). I really don't believe the issue was present during their prelim testing otherwise they wouldn't have let it go to market (remember how long it took them to finally release the CPP2?), but it seemed they did a decent job in fixing the issue both with the heli's on the shelf and already sold considering the severity of it. Just my 2 cents.

Having a ball down here

Mark

JPEE

Mark,

A word of advice before you buy a multi charger. Becareful on the multi chargers, often while they will charge several battery's "yes" butthey "and may not" balance them all all equally.

If the one battery reaches max charge then the charger may shut off! Check that out. What I made was a 3s charger cord for my chargers for these one cell packs. I have

some chargers that charge from the balance connector only. You can see one below. So I tied 3 of them up in series to and old battery balancer end.

It works perfect and it keeps them all at the same charge end voltage.


OOPS, I guess I was in error. I checked the shop and found it and I was a bit off. (I also pulled one battery connector for another project but there was three) .

I did in fact install a charge adapter for any style charger with power in and a balance cord as well. Hope this might give you food for thought. Here is a pic of

a charger than only charges through the balance port.


John

rotarydoc

Mark,

Sounds like the MCP X is coming along nicely. Good to hear that it is durable, that is what I have read...I think most of the time the links pop off, and/or the main gear pops out of place on the mainshaft...both easy fixes. I have read of a couple of guys breaking the swashplate, there is a ball that apparently breaks off fairly easily...

I am glad to hear that it held well in a breeze, something the MSR was not good at at all...(I sold my MSR long ago, BTW...didn't find it too much fun after the novelty wore off) and that the FBL seems to work very well.

Thanks for the info on the 9503, I was pretty sure it works, but the one guy was commenting on the lack of setup info for it...we'll see if I do end up getting one...I may very well just put it on the DX6i...

Yeah, see member "Rob1260" 's thread on MCP X setup....he's been at it for a while now, and seems to have most of the bugs worked out of his, and has it flying inverted very well from his videos...seems as you said, a pitch issue, I think he solved his by turning the links out a couple of turns, but you may want to read it over. I think most guys have found that the pitch is off at mid stick out of the box, and this causes the tail blow-out issue when flipping/rolling.

Sounds like it's a blast for the most part though! I also heard the flight times are a bit low, around 4 mins? How are you doing with that? Thinking about more batteries yet?

I called my LHS, no word on when to expect the shipment of new ones...but I'd like to buy it there from them when/if I do....help support them, I've not bought anything from them in quite some time...

Have fun! We've had some serious weather up here, but none that affected me directly, no power outages, etc...so I'm grateful for that, I think there might have been some tornadoes in the area as well...[X(]

Glenn

evdreamer

Mark,

Your mCPx looked cool flying around.

That parallel adaptor sounds like a good thing to have.

I stopped by a new Hobbytown on my side of town. It is really small, but they carry my fuel and that is all I buy there anyways. Now I won't have to drive across down for heli fuel.

I have made a lot of progress on the circuit I have been designing. I got most of the subcircuits working now and just need to test it in real conditions.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

That's good Nick that you have a Hobbytown close by to get your fuel supply. The circuit board looks good too.

Finally got my video of flying outside done today...think you'll enjoy it. Sorry but no talking in it...had my son with me so was doing double concentration but he does have fun watching dad fly his heli's. I am continually amazed at the flybarless function of this thing...it made my inverted hovering much more easy to handle.

Glenn,

I hope your LHS gets some in soon...I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I am currently at 3:50 flight time but have heard I can try going to 4:30 or so, I'm just wanting to wait until I can use my regular charger and see exactly what I am putting back to see how close I'm getting to that 80% rule.

JPEE,

I think I misled you on the charger issue...I got myself a parallel charging board that can handle 4 batteries and hooks up to any type of charger using a JXT plug. It is a way for me to use my existing charger (the one I use for my 550 battery) and so I can monitor how much I'm using each flight.

Also, these mini batteries don't have any type of balance plug. The board does the balancing during the charge. Unfortunately I have to get adapters for each port b/c Eflight changed the plug type with these new batteries for the mCPx, something about higher amp rating then the plugs used for the MRS and mCX's.

Well, here's the video (taken just a few hours ago )!

http://www.vimeo.com/22532320

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

That is cool that they built a new Hobbytown nearer you, so you don't have to go as far now. There is not one too near me, it's about 15 miles away, so rarely go there.

Your board looks cool, what circuit are you building there? I see a couple of IC's, and the one LED...

Mark,

Great video! That thing looks like a blast to fly, a lot of fun! I saw the nice inverted action there too...sure is nice to be able to practice that with nearly no fear...

That sounds cool on the flight times...

Now, did you do anything, adjustments, etc. from the first attempts at flipping it when the piro's/tail blowout was happening? Or was it just because you had a lot more room?

I have no idea when my LHS is getting, any, and I don't think they do either...

I'll have to keep in touch with them, for sure...


My field, MHA had their open house today. It rained like heck yesterday, and I thought the thing was rescheduled for next Saturday, but it was today. I had a lot to do, but went later on in the afternoon...it was quite windy...most of the guys were on their last flights, or packing up. It was a nice social hour though, that's mostly what I do when I go there anyways.. I didn't bring anything, as I don't have my AMA yet this year...

Looks like the MCP X is a blast....hope you are enjoying it as much as it looks like you are!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

This circuit does the same thing as my previous boards did like measure Voltage, temp, and balance the cells except it is for lead acid batteries. This time I am testing the whole circuit on my breadboard before I design a circuit board and find out one circuit is messing the rest of the circuit up.

That is cool you got to hang out at your club's open house.

Nick

jroo

Howdy!

Been catching up on whats been going on for the past few months. Looks like you guys have some nice new toys. I love that 550 and I have the mcp X on my radar.... I'm most likely going to get rid of the 120 SR for the mcp X. Anyone want the 120SR before I put it up on ebay?

I flew my 450 for the first time in about 2 months on Saturday. I had a blast. I was afraid it was going to take awhile to get use to it since I haven't flown in such a long time, but it came right back to me.


I missed the Austin heli fun-fly a few weeks ago. I kept thinking it was later in April, but I found out the day of that it was going on... Oh well, maybe next year.

Glad to see everyone is still flying.

jroo

Regarding the London website that was mention before. That site does not display any HTML5 features. It will run fine in IE8. All it is an Adobe Flash plugin called krpano (right-click on picture and see Flash options).

rotarydoc

jreue,

Thanks for the correction...I found that under a google search for "cool html5 websites" and assumed that it was in html5...but I stand corrected...

I would have done better to provide this link;

http://html5gallery.com/

Glenn

rotarydoc

Nick,

That is a good idea to test on the breadboard and make sure it's 100% before you go to the actual design...

Yeah, it was fun to see the guys at the club again. I just wish it wasn't so far away...[&o]

Sorry you can't fly for the next few weeks...but then you'll have all summer after school is out I suppose...

Glenn

JPEE

Hi Mark,

No misunderstanding, I knew what you were speaking of. I just wanted make sure that your batteries were independently charging

to their max or that they were in series so they would "all" balanced to the same voltage.

Great video of the little guy watching dad have some fun. Your inverted is "outstanding". It was kinda hard to see as the heli is so small

but I could see you inverted when you came in close. I don't know if I am right on this but it sounded like it bogged just a bit during flips

and such, I could be wrong. All in all that little bugger looks like loads of fun... to your health

I know that Walkera ( I believe) has a whole lineup of heli's set up the same way on the FBL. I flew one a guy had and I was pleasently

surprised with how it handled, but it is weird, I could tell it was FBL, there is a different feeling.


Nick,

As always, your working breadboard is a sea of wires and parts. Glad to hear that your making progress its upgrades. Also "mucho" good

news on having a big new hobby shop close for you now. Don't you have an Easter break to sneak on some flying?


Glenn,

Sorry you didn't get to fly, but as you said............... sometimes just seeing the guys and chewing the fat that can be great fun too. I am sorry

that field is so far from you and you have to take all of that time driving both ways and paying $$$$ for gasoline.

I see your already into checking up the new MCP-X and its bugs and fix's. I know you'll get one too, I saw it in my crystal ball lol.


Me:

I just finished a few small repairs to 500-2 and installing the new MGs into my DS-510 servos. I just did a hover out

front and they work well. What really TICKED ME OFF is, you buy an MG upgrade kit for like $21.00 ea. and they DO NOT give you the screw to

secure the servo arm! ! ! what kinda crap is this? The old ones were screwed into plastic, the MG's are threaded. I dang near threw a driver

across the shop when I found this out last night. I must have looked around for 45 min for screws and then I found two screws that were a perfect fit.

However, I needed a total of three! So with more searching and I found one more but it was way to long. So GLENN, I used the thread gage you

steered me to ( thank you again ) and I put the screw through and then used the Dremel to cut off the excess. When I backed the screw out the

threads cleaned themselves and I was "down town"!

I am gonna a take another break for a day or two and then start on my last project, good old 600-1 and bring her back to life.


Gray and very cool here with a touch of drizzle.

John

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

JPEE,

I totally forgot about the Align metal gear servo set...mine didn't come with the metal thread screws either and I banged my head for a while before realizing I had the right screw in my 'collection' of screws and bits. But yeah, that is a major PITA that Align needs to consider. Glad you were able to find the screws you needed and doing the improvision on the last one to make it work. In the end its all about progress.

Nice to hear you had the chance to try out the Walkera heli...I haven't really noticed the 'different' feeling of the FBL...it just goes into a stable hover almost instantly when you let off the sticks. To me it feels a bit like I'm cheating with how easy it is.

Nick,

Lead acid batteries? Are those found in cars and such? Or are we talking C and D type batteries? Or something much bigger? Either way I see your improving on your designs (and learning of easier and better ways of doing things from the problems you ran into with your last one ).

Hope you get a chance to get some flying in esp now that you've probably picked up a gallon or 2 of fuel from your closer LHS.

Glenn,

This morning I found a weak link in the swash...tried some different settings in the radio and had an instant blowout and didn't have the chance to recover. The swash ball to servo broke so I had to get a new swash from my LHS. I'll include a few pictures later tonight to show which ball broke and by the design I can see why...its just in a bad position. I think a metal swash would solve this (but no blow outs would also cure it ).

To answer your question...I had to make changes to the radio settings to get the heli flying like what you saw in the video (minimal blowouts). I'll go into more later on which settings they were as I'm at work now. A few other things guys on HF are doing is to cut down the trailing edge of the main blades by just a little bit and use a tail rotor from a mSr.

More later,

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Well, I went to go fly at lunch today....at my usual field up the street at the baseball/football/soccer park...

Seems they have installed a nice, new, shiny SIGN...[X(]

So, I started reading it....and was fine until I got to line #9, they seemed to have written it just for me...

Oh well...I did get to fly behind the Moose lodge...I can only hope that lasts...

I had been flying at that field for 2 years now....

Glenn

JPEE

Mark,

When I said different I didn't mean different flying but like you said..... the way the heli "rights" itself if you let up on the sticks. It was like a flying collective and then when I let go of the stick it was a coaxal and just stopped and hung there. OUCH in the weak link. That's great ( in a good way ) that you are living this problem so you can share them with Glenn down the line.


DANG ! ! Glenn, you did make an impression at the baseball/football/soccer park... I'll tell you this, they aren't going to heli heaven with us anytime soon[:@]


John

evdreamer

Mark,

Your heli looked like it did pretty good outside.

Yeah, the starter battery in a car is a lead acid battery. So are the 12V RC starter batteries, back up power supplies, and energy storage for solar cells. Most of the C and D batteries are an Alkaline chemistry. I think there might be NiMh C and D batteries and maybe a Lithium version. I don't keep up too much on those batteries. I have 9 12V 7Ah starter batteries that I want to test this circuit on.

James,

That is good you got to fly again.

John,

Sorry you didn't get a screw with your servo gears.

No, I don't get an Easter break that I am aware of. My old college had a lot more little breaks and this college has fewer longer breaks.

Glenn,

You could argue a heli isn't similar to a plane or rocket. Some how I don't think they would buy that.

Nick

JPEE

YOUR FUNNY NICK................. I don't think they would buy it either JPEE

rotarydoc

Yeah, it would be a nice try....but that fine print down there on the bottom is a pretty good deterrent...I don't think I want to fly badly enough to pay $1000, or spend ANY time in jail..[X(]

In reality, all they would probably do is make me leave....but you never know....if a cop was in a bad mood....

To be honest, it was getting to be a PITA to fly there a lot of times anyways, but it was nice during lunch breaks, because there is usually no one there then....I may still sneak a flight in here and there at lunch...we'll see....

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,

That dang near bites...but I have a suggestion for you concerning this statement from thier website:

§ 14-2-110. Model airplanes, rockets, and the like.
A person may not launch or fly a power model airplane, rocket, or similar device from a park area
without written permission from the Director.

Maybe if you contact...Rick Anthony, Director of Anne Arundel Recreation and Parks (see [link=http://www.aacounty.org/RecParks/]Link[/link])...and explain your situation and more importantly your age you may get a repreival letter from him that will allow you to continue to fly at this particular park. All he can say is no but doesn't hurt to try.

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,

To answer your question from earlier:

I took the settings that Rob2160 listed in his thread and they work very nicely. His pitch values are a bit odd for me but they seem to work (0 30 70 85 100) and dropping the pitch travel ATV's to 70 and 74 keeps things from bogging too much. Right now I have been using the weighted blades (fast flight w/ the front weights) but a few more flights and I'll switch over to the high performance ones.

Another thing I'll consider in the future if the tail keeps blowing out is to try this [link=http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=297864]mod[/link] that I was mentioning eariler. But I'm going to wait and see how this mod progresses and if any other changes come out of it.

I see microheli came out with a metal swash - $24.

JPEE,

I included a couple of pictures of my parallel charging board with the individual adapter needed for the mcpx battery connector. 2 batteries will not be enough.

Can't believe its nearly 3...going to bed now.

Mark

jroo

Hey Mark,

I'm probably going to pick up a mcp-X as well. Have you done any other mods? There seems to be quite a few listed on helifreak. I just emailed my LHS to see if they have the upgraded kits.