H3li

Hi Guys,

Looking to make my CX2 more powerful in flight. Currently have ALL the anodised Blue Aluminium hop-up's installed.
Will fitting the Stock180 Xtreme Motors OR a more powerful Li-Po battery cause any short or longterm damage to the 3-in-1 unit, or other electrics?

One of the primary reasons I ask this, recently bought a SkyCam CAM, to strap to my CX2, for some sweet outdoor video action!
To test my new Cam, I celotaped it to the bottom of my CX2 INDOORS... Throttled up... it could barely leave the ground - HOPS say 6 inches into the air then drop like a stone! LOL. [sm=omg_smile.gif] [sm=teeth_smile.gif]

Standard, this thing is quite zippy, but add any " payload " and it just cant take the extra weight !
........and dont tell me to remove all my Aluminium, it actually makes the Heli less "sloppy" and flys with precision.

Cheers in advance,
H3li.

Big Green Machine

It sounds like your cam is just to heavy. The motors won;t make much o a difference in payload lifting I don't think. The lipo probably would but you are at great risk of frying your 3 in 1 especially considering the fact that you are adding extra weight. The 3 in 1 will have a hard enough time disipating the heat without the extra weight. I think you need a smaler cam or a bigger heli. How much does it weigh?

H3li

Hi Big Green Machine,
Appreciate your speedy reply!

Wait for it.... The Cam weighs 37g !!

To be honest, took the Cam out of the packaging and thought " wow - this thing IS light " - it was that light I almost questioned its build quality !
Will also admit that I am very surprised that the CX2 just cant lift this - i really didnt think once (while holding the cam), that it would be THAT heavy for it.

Hmmm, spent a small fortune on this Cam, cos its supposed to be one of the best (for RC onboard video) - Records direct to onboard SD Card.
They use these alot in the RC Planes (on YouTube)!

Back to the drawing board??

evdreamer

People have used the cameras from boomtownhobbies with success. And they are 38g. You could try using the Xtreme blades they helped lift my all aluminum CX better than the stock blades. Or you could try a battery with 15C or more.

BryFlyGuy67

Battery: at LEAST 15C 850+ mAH

Xtreme 180 motors

You 'might experiment with a 3S pack, but that is at your own risk.

TheTruckingGuru

Buy a better RC heli like the Blade 400. Mine CX2 could probably lift it if I removed all the electrical tape holding it together. Funny thing I recently tried a 3 cell 800mah lipo for the CX2 and while it is a little bigger it flies great with more power. So try a 3 cell with same mah as your 2 cell and see if that works. No problems so far.

H3li

Cheers guys for the feedback and advice - Upgrade Motors and Battery will be next on my shopping list!

Will admit Im only getting 5 mins flight time on the current 2 stock E-Flite Batts. that I have - this seems very short considering i was getting a good 10 - 12 mins flight out of them just 1 month ago!! Perhaps my batteries are degraded?

Just recently received my Carbon Fibre Boom kit from Stersman (from the Us to the UK)!!!
GREAT product - really love the look of the CX2 - my Bird feels SO nimble now in flight, perhaps over sensitive!???
Big thanks to Jamie/BoomTownHobbies for the great service.

TheTruckingGuru - Yes, the Blade 400 will definately be my next Heli. But dont think I'll ever get bored of the CX2

eat2muchrice

Only 5 min flight? somethings wrong
Check the voltage on your batteries they should read 8.4v and make also check to see if they are well ballenced.
You also might want to check your blades. Bad blades will cause that kind of power loss.

Warped blade test
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_7PwNTXOWMs

Blade boil fix (boil for 5 minutes)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RmNv8OlG6GQ

H3li

Hi eat2muchrice, thanks for posting.

Yes, flight times are now greatly reduced with these Two stock e-flight batteries that i have.
I bought the second not long after i bought the CX2, so both batteries have been used about the same amount of times.
And interestingly, they BOTH only provide about 5 minutes of flight nowadays.

You mention checking if the batteries are well balanced? Please can you elaborate, how would i check that?

I have tried boiling my blades (sounds painful ) and it just made them very brittle and bendy.
Balancing blades i do, however didnt realise a bad blade could affect flight time that much (ie: they plain/rotate nice and true).

Checking the voltage of a fully charged battery would be an excellent indicator - just need to buy a 'hobby grade' multimeter.

Again your feedback is much appreciated.

H3li

Rice,

That Blade balance test movie is a CLASSIC !!
It all starts off so calm and relaxed.. then suddenly, ahh, we might have found the rotten apple (last Blade).

Out comes the massive hammer - BANG - BANG !!! " TAKE THAT ! [:@] ......... ahhh, thats better.
Think the best day to do that test will be after a bad day at work!

eat2muchrice

give me a few minutes to make some pictures for you.

Alright done.

each cell should read at 4.2v both cells will read at 8.4v

You can see in the picture that this battery is unbalanced where one reads at 4v and the other is at 4.2v. I am useing a cheap charger and will only get about 5-6 minutes of flight out of it, my good battery will get 8-9 mins. My stock batteries have over 200-300+ flights through them. I'm testing a cheap method to rebalance them and will keep you posted.

H3li

Thats very kind of you, cheers [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

eat2muchrice

look up

H3li

Yeah, i see the ceiling ...................... ohhhhhhh, its my CX2 whizzing past
Cheers, just having a read now..........

.........

Thats an excellent Post. Very informative and as they say a picture says a 1000 words!
Also highlighting the pins with the red arrows/circles is very useful. I will get a multimeter at the weekend and check them out! Will be a crucial test.
And so what can you do about it if one of the batteries isnt reading the same voltage as the 2nd? Does it mean your battery is defective/ready for scrapping?

If its not the batteries then it'll be the Motors!? Very much appreciated, thanks for taking the time to compose that info.

Ultimately, i "might" still need a new battery, probably one of the 'DN' range, as my Heli (in its current setup) cant even lift my CAM !?

eat2muchrice

NO! if its not the batteries then next check the blades..Bad blades will cause huge powerloss. I've gone through this before with mine and it turned out to be the blades.

If your batteries arn't balanced then its probably your charger. E-flite chargers are cheap, maybe invest in a better one. I am working on a theory on how to rebalance them but its going to take me a while to test it. I'll keep you posted.

BryFlyGuy67

You're showing your age with that multimeter, Rice!

eat2muchrice

I know, I'm getting old [&o].

BryFlyGuy67

I still prefer the analogs to digitals for a lot of applications... I had a long-term relationship with a Simpson in my "wild youth".

eat2muchrice

How is one going to test the batteries in a digital meter if you can't read the meter with the batteries out? [X(]

BryFlyGuy67

Keep batteries in the meter??? [X(]

eat2muchrice

I just scared myself.

H3li

Right - sorry to drag this back to the top, but I have made further progress......

Yes, my CX2 now sports a couple of Xtreme 180 motors.. also, I've running with a couple of DN POWER 15C 850+ LiPos.. BUT .......

It still cant lift a 37g FlyCamOne video CAM []! I cant believe after all this upgrading, the thing cant lift anything more than its own Skids! LOL.
Its frustrating, as a number of others appear to have no probs lifting such CAMS strapped to their CX2s - vids on YouTube prove it too.

I rebuild it recently and installed a new Outer shaft + gear - as this is the first to hamper performance, with the slightest bend. So no binding issues either.

Anyone got any more tips? Perhaps I should just splash out, and get my 450 size Heli, and strap a forward AND a rear cam on that!

JPEE

H3li

I don't know how much the X grams on your cam are as I don't have gram scale. But for fun and right now 10:53 Cal. time I just took my CX2 and taped another eflite battery to the belly. The first battery lift show red on the ESC and would only get 6" off the floor. However, I took a fresh charged battery and took off again. No problem hitting the ceiling. Again I don't know the gram weight of a stock battery but it has to be more than your cam, I would think? Also my red light came almost immediately and power dropped but I did hit the ceiling and fly the living room "briefly". Hope this might help you. My blades and batteries all to eatstomuchrise's spec too.
JPee

Bijan999

My Feedback: (2)

I know you said “don’t tell me to remove all my aluminum parts” but the answer is fairly obvious. REMOVE ALL THE ALUMINUM PARTS. They are dead weight and do nothing for performance. Especially anything that rotates, rotational mass will KILL your vertical acceleration. I’ve mentioned this before but that lower aluminum blade mount zaps power, use the stock plastic mount. If you have aluminum blade grips, get rid of those. Definitely swap back to a plastic chassis if you still have that and a carbon tail boom (not the Xtreme) will help also. Only aluminum on mine is the swashplate and it’s extremely precise.

Give it a try, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Oh, balance those blades too, that can contribute to a tremendous loss of power. Good luck.

BryFlyGuy67

I can tell you one thing that will give you plenty of power on your CX2, but USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. If you have a newer CX2 with the separate AR6100e Rx, you can try flying a 3S pack in your CX2. You get GOBS of power at the expense of the possibility of frying your 3-in-1 and overheating the motor. I have a FP 3S for my CX2 and she runs ballistic with that pack!

Having said that, it sound unusual that your CX2 can't lift the camera with a fresh pack. I would check for other mechanical problems as well as checking your blades, as has already been mentioned.