RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
[quote]ORIGINAL: devmode I'm really having a hard time getting it stabilized. The main blades have a good gap when rotating, and I can't seem to get that closed up. There is a good bit of vibration when I spin up ... I know it is a newbie problem with a 1,000 answers already, but just saying I am having a hard time getting it tight. It wants to wander very quickly when I get it "floating" on the ground. Advice much welcomed... [/quote] From my limited experience I would say your flybar is bent...
Posted on: 1/25/2007 10:48 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5324310

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
[quote]ORIGINAL: funflyerr I just test hovered my Falcon with a new motor, the NEU 1105, running with a 4S battery. Boy, does this heli move well! I am really jazzed with this setup. I am using my Futaba 9CH transmitter out of choice, and 315 Pro Woody Trex blades. The stock servos, receiver and gyro are all working well. The climb rate with the NEU motor is amazing. [/quote] Any chance you can post a link to where this motor can be bought? Is it a direct replacement for the existing one and does it require any running in?
Posted on: 1/23/2007 6:05 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5312132

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
[quote]The most frequent casualty of longer blades.[/quote] To a fairly new person to this hobbie, what are we gaining from increased blade length? More surface and therefore more lift/control? Increased stability? The longer the blade, the faster the leading edge, this important in anyway?
Posted on: 1/22/2007 2:24 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5303821

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
[quote]ORIGINAL: Noobish simon Im running the Align fiber blades(the 315 yellow ones). Now im a newb but i think the falcon is more stable in a hover with these blades. The only down side I see is the increased weight makes for a little more spin of the bird during spinup. Also they are a little flexible vertically, combine this with weight and a semi hard landing today cost me the vertical
Posted on: 1/19/2007 9:23 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5292343

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
I just put on a set of 315 carbon Align blades and they fit snug. However I lifed the heli and it seemed quite a bit heavier, using my scales I noted that a standard set of Falcon blades are around 26 grams where the Align ones are 56! Anyone find the 315 blades extra weight has any negative effect on performance and battery time or is the extra weight better overall?
Posted on: 1/19/2007 7:39 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5291847

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
[quote]ORIGINAL: funflyerr And to do real 3D you will need to switch to the 3D setting on the mixing arms or use lightweight paddles. [/quote] Mixing arms? Can you go into more detail? I didn't know there were adjustments to be made on the Falcon 3D which would improve 3D performance.
Posted on: 1/17/2007 5:15 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5280839

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
Wow, 114 pages... I've been too busy to keep up to date and i've spent 2 hours reading from page 40ish! So my Falcon took a dive last weekend but i've got parts arriving so I should be flying at lunch time all this week. I do however have a question no-one seems to have raised. When going from hover to a max throttle climb out the cheap gyro lets the tail slip right by about 45-50 degrees. Changing the gain has little effect. If other people here go from a hover to a full throttle climb out what sort of movement do you get in the tail? Its obviously going to affect my confidence when I first try to do any 3D with it. I also get the odd twitch in flight. Sometimes the heli drops 1/2 foot and will yaw 10-15 degrees. I'm sure with the cheap electronics glitches like this are common, just wondered what everyone elses experiences are? Finally, I wish we could all either migrate to the .NZ forum or have rcuniverse create a section for this helicopter. A 114 page thread is simply stupid and kinda defeats most of the advantages of an online forum.
Posted on: 1/16/2007 3:20 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5272715

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
[quote]ORIGINAL: SkyUp Simon, As a simple test, you might loosen the tailboom and slide it back enough so that you can again turn the mainshaft. See if it catches then. This way you can tell if the binding is in the tail, tailshaft, tail gears or if it is indeed in the mainshaft area. Also check the main drive gear and the tail drive gear closely to be sure there isn't something stuck
Posted on: 12/16/2006 7:12 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5124181

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
I've had mine for about a week or two and only been able to go about 15-25 feet vertical from the back yard. I had a nasty dive and clipped a tree today, no serious damage at all really apart from the canopy is now stuck out of arms reach :) After checking the heli over the flybar was bent, moved it back into place and it seems to fly ok. However on powerdown there is something catching in the head. I stopped it, disconnected battery and slowly moved the head round forwards. None of the motor gears move and none of the balls on the swash and head unit seem to be catching each other. Yet at one particular point in the rotation of the head there it sticks. It is the same place everytime... Nothing is visually catching and if I spin the head with my fingers I can just feel it catching with my other hand feeling vibrations on the swashplate. Is there a bearing that might have gone in the swashplate? I can't think of anything else that is causing this.
Posted on: 12/16/2006 6:29 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5124054

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
moved house! :) Simon Thorpe
Posted on: 11/18/2006 10:12 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5010833

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
I agree, my order still stands with HL for now... I was just communicating my ebay find :)
Posted on: 11/2/2006 10:39 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4945959

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
10 are available on eBay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230046194051&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:UK:1 Too good to be true?
Posted on: 11/2/2006 9:59 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4945817

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
Called RaidenTech support, they are sending another servo and i'll swap over, if it fixes I send the faulty one back. Excellent support from them...
Posted on: 11/1/2006 4:14 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4942861

RE: Eliminating the whobble/vibration on the CX.
[quote]ORIGINAL: Rustysocket So why read a thread adressing vibration issues then? [/quote] Because I read most of the posts on the forum out of interest. I might in the future have a vibration problem and one of the remedies might be to swap over similar numbered blades. My post was a little short, I just wanted to convey the fact i've never had a problem with vibration from mismatched blades.
Posted on: 11/1/2006 3:16 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4942684

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
I tried using a LiPo 7.4 from my Blade CX and it worked well... the only problem was mounting the damn thing. Anyone here used LiPo's? If so, how are you mounting it in the heli?
Posted on: 11/1/2006 11:31 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4942021

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
I just swapped over the leads to both servos and the same servo was twitching, looks like I have a dodgy servo...
Posted on: 11/1/2006 4:24 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4941039

RE: Eliminating the whobble/vibration on the CX.
Not to be too controversial, but i've never paid any attention to the numbers on the blades and i've never had any serious vibration at all...
Posted on: 11/1/2006 3:18 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940996

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
Here is a short video of the problem I am having, it doesn't seem right yet I have been able to hover tonight after 3 flights. I will contact RaidenTech and see what they think. If I switch of the TX whilst the heli is still powered, it stops. So I wonder if the problem is to do with the TX, the 4in1 or the servo? http://www.daftdonkey.com/external/video/TwitchyServo.wmv
Posted on: 11/1/2006 2:39 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940968

RE: Eflite Blade CX
Heya Taffey! Yeah in Los Gatos at the Los Gatos Lodge. Been living in this damn place since March but should be moving to San Francisco in 4/6 weeks. If you want to meet up one night in the week, maybe do some syncronised flying ? :) Anyhoo... I've never had a blade strike yet!! I've had this thing up 40 foot and let it drop like a bomb and then apply full throttle, it seems to take about 15 feet to recover, but i've not yet had the blades strike. What on earth you doing to cause that? Maybe i'm just pussy footing around...
Posted on: 11/1/2006 2:27 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940955

RE: Eflite Blade CX
Thinking about this further. One of the biggest problems I had tonight was power. I'd get some height, dive and build up a load of speed, then climb really steeply and into another dive. However when I needed to make a change in direction or slow down the assent the motors were just not up to it. Are there any brushless motors that would fit onto this thing? :D
Posted on: 11/1/2006 1:50 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940914

RE: Eflite Blade CX
Right, conclusion so far. I did another battery with the card in and it just was a pain in the rear. Constantly swinging all over the place. Now I think that this isn't just my lack of ability, but the stiffer flybar was infact responding slower and therefore behind my inputs. So I had to second guess everything. To keep it in a hover I had a LOT of input on the TX to keep it there. So I took the card out and went out again on the 3rd battery... Hmm... forward flight was JUST as fast and responsive. I was utterly confused. Infact, I really threw the damn thing all over the place and at one point it went 25 foot up, and then dived at a sharp angle, leveled off and shot out of sight until I heard a *whack*. Bugger I thought... walked downstairs (my hotel room is on the first floor) and found it had happily burried itself in the bushes intact! Well, apart from ripping a mount on the frame that the skid attaches to. Anyway I bring it inside and find that the reason it was so responsive was that I had earlier removed the two weights from inside the rubber bits on the flybar! I had totally forgotten. So it was stable AND responsive. I'll get it fixed and see what it is like with the card and the weights back in. Maybe that will counter the delayed reaction... to be honest I think it's better to have a lighter flybar that reacts just as fast but with less weight.. if that makes any sense at all.
Posted on: 11/1/2006 1:48 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940910

RE: Eflite Blade CX
HOLY MOSES... Forward flight massively increased and it SHOT off into the night! Hah, was a real challenge bringing it back into the balcony though. I found that there was a lot more "swinging" effect that was hard to control. Not sure if this was just because it was now more responsive, or if there is something going on with the flybar responding slower to the heli's movements... gonna try another battery :)
Posted on: 11/1/2006 1:26 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940874

RE: Eflite Blade CX
I was sent this way to research ideas on limiting the flybar. My idea was to remove the aluminium top and insert some card. I cut up my business card into a thin strip, folded it 5 times, slotted into the top. Initially it was very stiff, so I broke it down a little by moving the fly bar around until it gave way a little more. Then flying was much more controllable, going to go and try it outside now... luckily the hotel has lots of lights so I can see where it is!
Posted on: 11/1/2006 1:21 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940862

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
[quote]If everything worked perfectly, it would be a pretty boring hobby. Setting up your heli is half the fun. And remeber patients is the key to a funfilled hobby like this. [/quote] Actually I really agree with that statement. The heli becomes more of your own creation once it's setup nicely. I can't wait one day to build one from scratch!
Posted on: 10/31/2006 10:08 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940267

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
[quote]As far as the servo glitch goes, thats a new one on me. Has it done this all the time??? Any good crashes perhaps? I always try to eliminate the obvious, but I can overlook some dumb things myself too often to admit. Hope this helps. [/quote] Great info on the blades, thanks. The servos did this from out of the box, it has never had a crash. I spent ages checking connections and then finally put power to the blades to see what affect it would have, none that I can see but it sounds like something isn't quite right. What is most peoples experience on here when they switch the unit on? Is it silent? Or are there any noises coming from the servos? My Blade CX sometimes makes a few changes when I power it on but the servos are at rest unless I touch the controls.
Posted on: 10/31/2006 10:06 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4940258

RE: 20 foot drop and minor damage
Oh my! More missions to accomplish :) I'll be reading the above tonight and putting plans into action sir! :D:D
Posted on: 10/31/2006 7:14 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4939506

RE: Falcon 40 (Exceed heli) Forum
Just got mine and have a few questions, mine seems to be a little unstable. 1. I checked the main rotors and it says they need to be tight, but free enough to let them move into position. I loosened them a little, they seemed rather right. Is this ok? They are loose enough for them to move about with only a little pressure and swing freely. 2. I checked the level of the paddles and swash plate, they all seem level and correct. However, when I connect the battery and have the TX switched on the rear servo is constantly "twitching". Making very small noises as though it is fighting to be in two positions. I've had it off the ground a few times and it seems to control well enough, is this normal? Overall it seems to have quite a shake to it as I increase the speed of the rotors. At the point where it starts to hover it seems to skip about a little. Also there seems to be the odd random movement in the tail, it shifts a little then stops. Mind you this is the only first flights i've had and it might require a little "settling in" and I might have some more fine adjustment to make.
Posted on: 10/31/2006 7:05 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4939465

Best rechargeable batteries for TX?
I need to get a decent set of rechargable AA batteries for my TX units. Anyone have recommendations for brands and a good charger? I would like to be able to charge 8 AA's in one go if possible. I think the highest rating is 2600 mAh as well.
Posted on: 10/31/2006 6:07 PM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "Electric RC Helis"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4939204

20 foot drop and minor damage
I've had my Blade CX for a month now and probably had about 40 flights. I feel i've now got to the limits of the heli and such tonight got bored. After 2 batteries of as much extreme and crazy stuff I could get out of it, my 3rd battery was spent just roaming around. I found it novel to hover close to the tree near my hotel balcony on the first floor.. chop a few leaves... then *whack* the envetiable happened... it just plumeted 20 foot into the concrete below... the damage? One split right down the middle of the cockpit, it was already damaged anyway from numerous whacks. One upper rotor sheared clean off at the base Bent inner shaft Thats it! I'll replace the blades and inner shaft, maybe the cockpit if I can be bothered. But even the skids survived... what a great heli.
Posted on: 10/31/2006 1:59 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4936612

RE: New Mini Electric is here the Falcon 3D!!
Rc_Heli, I think the problem is we have ONE thread for all the talk on this heli. We should either create a subsection on here like for Trex and Eflight, or we use another forum. THis thread is at 49 posts already and difficult to manage responses to who..
Posted on: 10/28/2006 11:57 AM by Author "Simon Thorpe" in the forum "RC Helicopter Beginners Forum"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4925153