RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Guys, I just got back from flying at the museum. More people were watching the full size helis, but it was fun to hang out with the RC helis guys. I got a couple of flights in. I almost hit a full size heli. Some one told the pilot to come in for a landing nice and low right over our flying area. I was flying by the museum, so I couldn't see the heli coming in. It was super quiet too. One second I was flying, then the next the heli was right in my flying space and everyone was yelling full size heli. Luckily I pushed full elevator down right away and was on the ground before anything bad happened. There were four full size helis. Two were police choppers and the other two were private. I got a good look at all of them on the ground. They had a chicken wing contest inside, so I got to eat some good food. Then I walked around and saw all the planes on display. It has been a long time since I have been inside the museum. They had some really large old school bombers and some fighter jets. My favorite was the SR-71. I have been working on my computer program a lot lately. I converted all the data to a database and made it easier to use. I recently added a graph function. I am still learning to to make it look better. Nick
Posted on: 5/18/2013 12:34 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11515266

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, I am taking 12 Credit Hours for insurance reasons. I would have to take 17-18 Credit hours to finish the whole program in 4 years. That is good you can increase your flight times. It is good to practice the basics. It makes everything easier over time. John, Are those paintball guns? Nick
Posted on: 9/16/2012 8:35 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11230612

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, That looks like a great place to fly. That is good you are enjoying the 550 and doing some autos. I experimented with some aerobatic auto's last week at the airshow. They weren't high like the pro's do. I did a little piro flip starting inverted and going in to hold during the flip. I like my current job. I am working with my boss to try and get Tuesday's and Thursday's off, so I can catch up on HW. When work is slow I can watch TV and work on HW, so I have it pretty good. I am just taking the minimum credit hours, so it will take me four more years to finish my bachelors degree. So far I am keeping up with my HW and my grades are pretty good. Nick
Posted on: 9/14/2012 12:23 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11225101

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, That is great you had a successful maiden. Glenn, There has been some nice days/mornings here recently. It has been in the 60's-70's in the morning then jumps up to the 90's by the afternoon. Hopefully some of this cool weather will make it your way in a few days. Sorry you lost your dirt track. Nick
Posted on: 9/7/2012 8:51 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11220694

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, I will have to work more soon too. The 3rd shift guy got another job and he will be leaving at the middle of the month. Our only full time evening guy will be replacing him, so another co-worker and I will have to pick up the extra hours. When I flew with a BeastX the recommended settings worked out pretty good on the maiden. I only had to adjust the tail gain and I didn't touch any of the advanced settings. I am sure you will have a trouble free maiden. That is good you didn't have any floods in your area. I went to a dirt track race on Sunday. There were sprint cars, IMCA modifieds?, sport compacts, some go-karts in a mini track inside the big track, and some old monte carlo type cars. John, Sorry to hear about your landing gear issues. It was cool seeing the main street by your house in the video. Quads are definitely the best platform for aerial photography. I just found out Align came out with an 800 a few days ago. Is it 3D capable or for photography only? I know MiniCopter has an 800 and they say that size can't do 3D, but Kyle Dahl does 3D with his Mikado Xtreme. Nick
Posted on: 9/5/2012 12:36 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11218507

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
I hope everyone had a good labor day. I went to the races on Sunday. I haven't seen one in a few years. I enjoyed hearing the exhaust tones and feeling the vibrations through my body. I flew in the airshow today. The crowd seemed to enjoy my first flight. I kind of tuned the crowd out, but that is what people told me. Then I did a tandem flight with another heli pilot flying a Trex 700e. We kind of did our own thing at the beginning, but I talked him into doing a loop around me while I was doing a chaos. The crowd really enjoyed that. I really liked doing a tandem flight. It would be nice if he lived closer, so we could do it more often. It rained for about a hour and the only other member from my club let me put my gear in his trailer and sit under his sun shade to wait out the rain.
Posted on: 9/3/2012 7:16 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11216344

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, Yeah, I got your email. I am just trying to survive this week at school and work. The homework is starting to come in now that the first week of school is over. I was invited to fly in a local club's air show on Monday to help support the Make A Wish foundation. There are going to be some sponsored airplane pilots doing some demos also. I don't know if any of them are pros or not. It is mostly a plane crowd and there will only be a couple other heli demos. I flew in the air show last year and I am hoping to step up my game this year. I have been working on two new technical moves this year. One is a piro globe. I basically do four pirouetting loops and change the angle at the bottom so it ends up looking like a sphere or a globe. Then I have been working on traveling tic tocs to form a vertical square. I am also going to throw in a cool wall of death transition. Then I will just mix up the other moves I have been doing for years. I have also been working on a four point tic toc, but that still needs a lot of practice. I want to do some flipping horizontal circles, but I still have a hard time making those look good. This year I got the day off from work, so I will get to see the airplane pilots do their demos this year. Nick
Posted on: 8/30/2012 12:55 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11211764

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, There is a major problem using a Zener diode to do what you want. I don't know how much current an 800 size quad would draw. Lets say 50A min for an example. The power dissipated through the Zener would be 12Vx50A=600W. First off that is a lot of power. I think your Hyperion charger is around 1000W, so imagine cutting the heatsink in that by half and putting that on your quad. Second I am not aware of a Zener diode capable of that power. I think they are normally around 500mW to 1W. So you would have to put 600 diodes in parallel at a minimum. Third would be cost. I think a 1W Zener would be around $.5 a piece. So 600*$.5=$300. Your best bet if you want to run a 6S pack is to find a low KV motor to use. I am not familiar with the electronics on the quads, but you would need ESC's capable of 6S then you would probably need some sort of BEC or a receiver batter/regulator setup. Since the 800's are designed to run of 12V I think it would probably be easier/cheaper to stick with a 3S battery. In my programming class we are using a different brand microcontroller than I am used to and some software that can program it at a high level language. I could program in the same language with my current microcontrollers, but the manufacturer is charging $300+ for it while the one for school is free. I like the high level language, but I miss knowing what exactly is happening within the code and it is harder to access some of the hardware. I am going to try and redesign my balancer for this microcontroller. I have come up with a smaller hardware design for my balancer that can do the same thing. So maybe this summer I can build a new one. Nick
Posted on: 8/28/2012 1:22 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11209345

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Guys, I survived the first 3 days of school so far. My electronics classes seem like a lot of fun so far. My environmental class seems interesting, but I have to write a 400 word essay twice a week.[&o] I can't wait for my last math class to be over. I can't use calculators on quizes or exams, so I hope it isn't too hard to do by hand. I already have my first math quiz in about a hour.
Posted on: 8/22/2012 8:49 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11202108

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, I have two 12V power supplies that I connect in series. They sit in the top portion of the tackle box. Then I drilled a hole, so the wires from the charges in the bottom part can go up to the power supplies. I plug the power supplies into the outlets at my field. I use both of my chargers for what ever batteries I bring along. If I want a fast charge for my Whiplash then I will hook up one battery per charger. The weather was perfect today, so I went out flying again. I took the receiver out of my 450 last night and installed it in my Cub. I flew my Whiplash a few times and flew the cub 3 times. I really enjoyed the flight times. I flew for 15min and could fly for 19min on a 2S 1900mAh battery. I flew it like a glider up high with very little throttle. I helped a guy setup a Blade 450X with the BeastX/Spektrum recevier combo. It took awhile to figure out how to program it, but it was pretty easy. He really likes that the tail holds compared to his motor driven tails. It was pretty stable and I did some 3D with it. He also had a quad and I flew that around. It was pretty fun and I did some funnels with it.[:D] Nick
Posted on: 8/17/2012 7:56 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11197434

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, Those are pretty impressive pictures and flight times. I converted an old tackle box that I carried heli tools in to carry both of my chargers and both of my power supplies. Now I won't have to make as many trips to the car and won't take as long to setup. Now I just need a small tool box to carry my tools. Nick
Posted on: 8/14/2012 8:39 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11193904

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Guys, I brought the Furion 6 and Whiplash out last Friday and had a lot of fun. The temps finally got in the mid 80's and there was hardly any wind. It was perfect for flying. The Furion 6 was a lot of fun, but the Whiplash is still more fun. I was able to stay in the air longer switching between the Furion and Whiplash batteries. I ordered my school books today. I wanted to see what the cost of books were online, so I did some searching around. I was surprised to find that the cost of new books at Amazon were cheaper than used books at the cheapest bookstore in town. I saved $108 on Amazon compared to the cost of new books in town. I ordered one eBook. My back is going to appreciate that. It is cool you can highlight and add sticky notes to the eBook. I wish I bought all my previous school books at Amazon. Glenn, In my recent engineering magazine there is a new TV technology going to probably come out soon. I don't know if you have heard of quantum dots or not. They can replace the LED backlights in current LCD TVs and it is supposed to improve the picture quality. They can also stand alone and give OLED screens a run for their money. The article said quantum dots should be cheaper to manufacture than OLED and have similar picture qualities. Nick
Posted on: 8/12/2012 5:27 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11190844

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, Sorry to hear you lost a good friend. The self righting properties reminds me a lot of a CX. The sound of the blades reminded me a lot of my old CPP DD tail motor. Well I was on a Jury from the 6th till today. I am glad it was a short trial and didn't interfere with work too much and was before school started. My dad was summoned for Jury Duty at the same, but on a different case. He wasn't picked to be on a Jury, so he is still on call for a couple of weeks. I haven't tested out the Whiplash yet because I was worn out from the long days in court. Nick
Posted on: 8/8/2012 12:13 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11185805

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, I haven't tested the new parts on the Whiplash yet. I probably won't until the weekend. Nick
Posted on: 8/3/2012 11:46 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11179798

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, That is cool you got a grill. I enjoy the food when my dad brings out his grill. Yeah, I would have only electrics if I sold the Velocity. My 3 MA helis and a destroyed Gaui 200 would be all that's left. I enjoy having a Nitro heli, but it got too expensive for me. Now that I have high powered chargers and power supplies the down time isn't that bad between charges. Also my Whiplash is a lot more fun than the Velocity. I was trying to come from forward flight into a slide on the runway. Then I would do a piro on the ground. I just came down a little too fast and hard. The piro at the end was kind of out of control too. Your 500 is looking good. An elementary school friend had a similar table for a Thomas the Train set and that was pretty fun when I was young. Your son should have a blast with it. I got my tail blades and the smaller pinion for the Whiplash today. I installed those tonight and can't wait to try them out. Hopefully the plastic tail blades will be more forgiving with tail strikes than my CF blades. Nick
Posted on: 8/1/2012 10:15 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11178058

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, Happy birthday. I sold my Trex 450 today! Now I am down to 5 helis. I am thinking about selling my Velocity now. There is a guy at my club that was interested in buying it last month. I might see if he wants to buy it. Nick
Posted on: 7/31/2012 4:40 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11176440

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Guys, It was a good day for flying on Saturday. There was a helicopter fun fly that I went too. There was only a few pilots that flew, but I enjoyed it. I saw a Goblin and a Synergy N5 or N9. Those were cool helicopters up and close. I was surprised how quiet the Goblin was compared to my Whiplash. The belt drive probably helps out a lot. There was also an old Hirobo Shuttle that was a .30 size. Someone had it in a box and they built it a few days ago. They were trying to maiden it at the fun fly, but the engine was giving them some troubles. There was also a big full size helicopter event at the Strategic Air and Space museum. I wish I could have gone to that, but it was at the same time as the fun fly. I got three flights in at the fun fly. I was a little careless with one of my ground moves and ruined the tips on the tail blades. I am surprised the crown gears are fine. The pitch slider popped out of its holder and nothing else was damaged. I just reattached the pitch slider and was up and flying again. Even though the tail blades still work it doesn't sound very good. So I ended up ordering some KBDD tail blades for the Whiplash and a lower tooth pinion. Hopefully both of those work ok. I stopped by my field on the way home from the fun fly and got a flight in. There was supposed to be a plane pattern contest today, but no one was at the field. I wonder if they canceled it due to the strong winds. Mark, How is the 500 coming along? John, Have you maidened your quad yet? Nick
Posted on: 7/28/2012 11:56 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11172970

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, That looks like a fun new heli. Are you going to do the same thing in the Align video that you posted where they had like 5 helis in the air and let go of the transmitters? That is cool that you are doing autos at a higher altitude. Nick
Posted on: 7/19/2012 6:46 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11161842

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, It has been near or in the triple digits the past few days, so I haven't been out flying. My batteries wouldn't like it and neither would I. That is good the 500 build is going smoothly. Nick
Posted on: 7/15/2012 2:37 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11156324

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Glenn, That is good you have power again. Hopefully you don't have anymore intense storms there for awhile. Nick
Posted on: 7/14/2012 2:55 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11155269

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
It is good to hear from you again Jeff. I don't plan on leaving any time soon. Nick
Posted on: 7/12/2012 12:59 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11152232

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, I was flying in my backyard and it is kind of hard to do anything but hovering with a 700 sized heli. John, You want to skip over Fall.[:D] I know at least one person not looking forward to winter.[:D] Nick
Posted on: 7/11/2012 7:46 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11152054

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, I had a good 4th. Hope you are making good progress on the 500. I got the motivation to take out my one way bearing/motor assembly. It was kind of hard getting at two of the screws that attached the motor mount to the middle bearing block. The bearing was kind of dry. I shoved as much bearing grease in it as I could. I did a long hovering flight and the motor spun for part of the spool down. So maybe a few more flights the bearing will get back to normal. Nick
Posted on: 7/8/2012 5:49 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11147982

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Happy 4th. Mark, Have fun with the build. Nick
Posted on: 7/4/2012 4:48 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11142328

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, I am going to grease the bearing. I have some Align grease from my old 600. I probably won't do that until the temps come down. I do remember you talking about your greaser. People have good results using red tri-flow grease and Align grease on the Whiplash bearing on Helifreak. Nick
Posted on: 7/2/2012 6:58 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11139699

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, I don't think there are any alternatives to my one way bearing. It is one of a kind and not like normal one way bearings. The guys on helifreak don't blame the bearing for locking up, but the tri-flow and the bearing cup. That is cool you will be getting a 500 soon. I haven't unloaded a truck for a little over 2 years when I quit that job. Now I work at a computer all day in the AC.[:D] I will be working in the morning on the 4th too. I will also be eating some grilled food in the evening at my sister's house. Nick
Posted on: 7/2/2012 6:08 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11139650

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, The video is $4.09. They have some other auto videos, but I haven't seen them. http://www.smacktalkrc.com/archives/568 That backtrack feature of your GPS sounds like a cool feature. Glenn, Sorry you got my heat. I am glad that I don't have to unload trucks anymore at my previous job. There was no air conditioning and I would be drenched with sweat at the end of my shift in the summer. Hopefully it isn't too hot at your work. I couldn't remember if you had AC there. Nick
Posted on: 6/29/2012 3:06 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11136993

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
John, That is cool you did your first auto. Smacktalk has a pretty good video on how to learn to do autos. It helped me out a lot. I am afraid to do an auto with my Whiplash. My one way is locked up. It has been a problem with Whiplashes. It is a massive one way bearing. People have recommended using bearing grease over the stock tri-flow from the factory. I am not in a big hurry to fix it. I haven't been in the mood to fly for awhile. That looks like a fun toy. Do you ever get lost out there? I know I would. That is cool you are bringing the heli lower while inverted. Mark, It sounds like Debby was mild in your area compared to some parts of Florida. I saw some of the flooding on TV. I haven't been keeping up with the latest SpaceX news. However, what they have done has been fascinating. Nick
Posted on: 6/27/2012 1:55 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11134172

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Mark, Some auto engineers for electric vehicles have designed balancers that can remove the charge out of one battery and put it into a lower charge battery. I saw one schematic on the internet and it looked pretty complex. I assembled my two other boards. I am liking the results of the new design/part change compared to my first one. The error is only .15%-.2% The balance current is pretty close to my Hyperion balancers. I have been working on the balancer code for the past few days. It is a big improvement over my past versions. I am one resistor short of finishing off my third balancer. When I powered it on one of my protection circuits kicked in, so that was cool to see that work. My circuit boards are made my expressPCB. I downloaded their free software. Then when I am done designing the circuit board I send them the files to create the circuit board. There was an average heli pilot doing a demo with a 90 sized Nitro heli. I don't know if there was any other heli demos, since I only went to one of the four days of the event. I didn't fly during the event. It has been pretty hot here too. Nick
Posted on: 6/21/2012 7:11 AM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11126429

RE: are these blades any good for cp pro?
Glenn, Thanks. I ordered parts to finish off my other two boards. Some of my parts on my current board are becoming obsolete, so I am going to try out some newer parts. I want to try out some different chips that are half the cost and shouldn't affect the accuracy. I also want to retrofit a new design into the board. If it works it will be a little cheaper than my current design. So far the only problem I have found is it takes a long time to balance when there is a big Voltage difference. So I will be trying out some lower resistance power resistors to see if that helps. Once I get those boards put together I want to work on a Lithium version. I want that one to be daisy chained, so it can have multiple batteries being balanced at once kind of like my Hyperion charger can charge a 28cell LiPo battery with a network cable. I enjoyed watching the giant planes fly at Huckfest. There was a nice demo by a pro airplane pilot, but it wasn't as energetic as a helicopter demo usually is.[:D] They turned the live camera off after Sunday when the Huckfest ended. Maybe that is why the link doesn't work anymore. Sorry you had a large loss with the SDX sale. Nick
Posted on: 6/15/2012 1:16 PM by Author "evdreamer" in the forum "E-Flite Helicopters"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11119448