rotarydoc

Hi all,

Had a minor "incident" with my CPP, my first tailboom strike...was trying out some new rotor blades, had a kinda hard (not too hard?) landing, and whack! Anyways, I stripped the gears in the stock CPP servo. This servo is an RS75 servo, and I have a gear kit for my B400 servos, which are DS75 servos...anyone know if the gearset is the same? The servos look very similar in size, dimensions, etc. And looking through the translucent case, the geartrain looks very similar...

If not, does anyone know what the correct gearset is?

Thanks a million!

Glenn

theradioflyer

I would guess that you don't know until you try

evdreamer

It looks like only one gear is different than the other set. It looks like the Upper right on the CPP picture and the upper left on the B400 picture. The rest look the same to me.

B400 http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/De...odID=EFLRDS751

CPP http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/De...rodID=EFLRS751

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

Now, why didn't I think of that? I didn't realize they listed servo gear kits on the Eflite site...thanks! I am having a bad day...I just realized that I have an extra brand new servo...I got it with that crash kit that was a freebie from Rikybob last week!! DUH !! I still want to get the gear set, so I can have a spare. I have to get some other parts tomorrow at the LHS, so I'll see if anyone has them.

Thanks again!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Sorry for your day. My Belt CP parts came yesterday, but they held them at the post office since I wasn't at home. So I got them today, but had to work from the morning to the afternoon. I have about half of it assembled now. Pretty much everything but the head assembly. I was at the LHS yesterday and found many goodies for my helicopters. They got the tail motors in so I grabbed the last one, but I already ordered two from online. Then I was really disliking the phillips head screws on my tail assembly on the Belt CP so by a fluke of luck they had the allen head screws in stock that I was thinking about getting online. I keep finding new stuff there that I didn't need to get online. It is just that every thing I need is usually hidden behind something. Hope you have a better day tommorow/today.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

Hope you get the belt CP all together today, sounds like you are well on your way. I am going to the LHS (s) to round up my parts as soon as they open...I want to get back in time to watch the Indy 500...I am a motorsports fan, especially Formula One, and they also have their biggest race today at Monaco...so I am going to have my hands full, working on the helis, and watching racing in between!

The idea of trying to talk my LHS down on their CP Pro price briefly entered my mind (they are still asking $249)...figuring a whole new heli, battery, charger, etc for $189 wounldn't be too bad...but then I thought better, might as well wait a few weeks for the CPP 2.... so I'll patch mine up for the time being. I am just wondering how well the CPP 2 is going to fly, with the DD tail, G110 gyro, and new radio? Especially since it's all set up from the factory... Then, on the other hand, it might still be a handfull, and I look at what I have done to detune my CPP to get it as stable as it is (flybar weights, flat bottom blades, gyro, DX6i, considering hiller mixing, etc)....so I have to think about it... I am still a long, long way from any aerobatic stuff, and I just enjoy a nice, stable heli for the time being.

You mentioned the phillips screws driving you crazy...I recently found out, and maybe you already knew this, but most of the phillips screws on our helis are not normal, US sizes, and most phillips screwdrivers don't fit them correctly. The screws used on most RC helis are what's called a JIS standard (Japanese Industrial Standard) and are a bit shallower than most small standard phillips #0 and #00 drivers that are commonly found in the US. If you are curious, do a google search of "JIS phillps screwdriver" for more info. No doubt, the best way is to get away from the phillps if you can, as you did, with socket head cap screws where ever possible... just though you might want to know, or maybe this will help someone else. I still have not ordered any JIS drivers, I think Heliproz has them for about $20. Hope this helps you or someone else...

It looks like it's still windy outside here, darn it. It seems this time of year is not good for heli flight at least around here. The only time the wind dies down is late in the evening, I can usually get a half hour or so time in later on in the day. I really don't like flying in the wind at my pilot level/experience, makes me more nervous than I already am!

On another note, I went on a shopping trip yesterday, and got a full face sheild, after reading about the guy who lost his eye while tracking blades on his heli. That is terrible, it's too high a price to pay for a simple investment in the shield I bought. I have set the tracking on the CPP a few times with no protection, I figured it's time to shell out $15 for some protection. I have never tried to track the B400 blades up close, that's SCARY! I also picked up a small scale that reads in grams, ounces and pounds. Figured it would come in handy, for example, the new blades for the CPP I like so much are 15 grams, compared to the Eflite flats, which are 8 grams each.

Well, hope you have a great day, and get your belt back in the air!

Talk to ya soon,

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I should be able to finish the Belt CP today, but it is windy here too and it is supposed to rain all week. I like Indy races too and any type of race on a road course. I usually miss any type of race because of when I am scheduled to work.

It looks like the new CPP2 has a more powerfull main motor. I wonder how much the performance compares to the stock motor.

Thanks for the info on the screws. I new they were different, but I never ran into them before. I just filed down the tip of an old phillips head screwdriver and it seems to work, but I prefer the allen head. I had to use one of those JIS phillips head screws, because my cap screw was getting hit by the pitch slider arm.

I have never heard of a person loosing an eye to this hobby before. I lay on the ground with my feet pointing the helicopter. Then I have about a foot or two between the helicopter and my feet. So my head is probably seven to eight feet from the helicopter. I tried finding a scale that could read grams and pounds, but I just can't find one.

Hope you get your CPP up and flying soon and can get outside and fly when the weather gets better.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

Well, just got back from the LHS, and got my parts that I needed. I counldn't find the correct gear set for the R75 servo, but I have the spare anyway. I may try the gear kit I have to rebuild it, instead of using the spare servo. It's always good to have backup stuff on hand. You are welcome on the screw info, hope it helped.

I found my scale at a place called Harbor Freight tools, they have them in stock at my store, they also do mail order as well. It was on sale for $19.99, couldn't turn that down! I also got a magnifying glass that has LED lights built in, for those really small pieces. It already came in handy, to look at the servo numbers, they are in tiny writing.

I just learned recently of the guy that lost his eye, along with a lot of other pictures of serious injuries from helis. If you go to Helifreak.com, look under the topic "Helicopter Safety" ....very informative, and kinda scary, actually. I guess it's good to see that stuff, to remind one that it can be dangerous if things go wrong. But, if we use common sense, and pay attention, I don't see any real danger...

That is bad news about your weather, it's quite a bit better here, I should be able to get out tonight when the wind dies down and do a little flying, I hope!

Have a great weekend,

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I have a Harbor freight tools here too. I just never looked real close at their stuff before.

Have fun flying.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Nick,

Most of the LHS carry the small gram scales. Most of theirs are these little tiny things that fit in your pocket but I wanted something large enough I could set the whole Heli on as well as the small parts and blades. I have the room so I bought my larger one at Harbor Freight. I took the $19.99 one on the top right as it starts at grams and goes to 11 pounds! As you look at the ads the little ones are so small they can be carried in your pocket.

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpis...cale&Submit=Go

Smiles JPee

rotarydoc

Hey JPee,

That is the exact scale I just picked up at Harbor Freight yesterday! I like it, it seems to work very well, and the price is right, for sure!

Glenn

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

Well, all was going well with the CPP rebuild, although I couldn't find the servo gears at either LHS, guess I'll have to order them. I just used the new servo from the crash kit.

I had just started to set the blade tracking, and then the 3 in 1 was not responding like normal. Then I looked at the receiver, and it wasn't doing it's thing either. So, figuring the new servo somehow unbound the RX, I did a rebind on the radio. No dice. It would go into bind mode, with the light blinking really fast, but then it would not finish. I have the AR6200 that has the auxillary receiver separate from the main unit....it seems the little LED in it was really dim. I unplugged everything, rebound about 5 times, and nothing. It did work after the crash, and I had spun the blades up a couple of times earlier to check things out.

Well, I couldn't think of anything else to try, so it's back up to the LHS, and bought a new receiver. I got the 6100 this time, without the redundant receiver. I put it in, and all is good....now, get THIS...I put the old receiver back in, to double check it, and it worked! So I figured I'd give it another chance, and mounted it again (had it off for testing). As soon as I mounted it, it quit working, AGAIN! Well, that was all I needed to see, I put the new one in and left it there.

I am going to call Horizon, I hope I can find my receipt. Apparently the thing has some sort of an intermittent problem. I hope they let me send it back. I can always use it for a future heli some day, or as a backup.

I went flying, despite the wind, dammit! It was kinda scary, I was flying the B400 from left to right, and then back again...it would get a lot of lift going into the wind, and it was getting pushed down going with the wind, but I kept flying it despite the wind, if I keep waiting for perfect conditions all the time, I'll never get any better!

I test flew the CPP for it's after repair flight...as best I could in the wind. It struggled to fly into the wind, but it seems all good. I'll stick to flying it in the shop or on no-wind days!

What a day!

Take care,

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

The winds got up to 70MPH here and it seemed just as strong yesterday, but I couldn't find out how fast it was. There were a ton of branches down every where. Is your remote receiver plugged in tight against the main receiver? When you put the AR6200 back in was it in the same spot as last time? How close is the remote receiver to the main receiver?

Good to hear you didn't crash because of the wind.

I almost finished the Belt CP, but I wanted to double check the tightness of the ball joints on my inner swashplate. Then I tightened it a little bit and it snapped off. Then I tried the rest of them and two more popped off. It seems like the tensile strength isn't very high.

JPEE,

My LHS doesn't have any scales. It is not big into stuff like that and helicopters. It mostly carries playing cards and toys for kids. I might go to a bigger LHS about 10 miles from me or go to Harbor Freight Tools. Thanks for the info.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

Wow! 70 MPH!! That is crazy wind! We are just having some breezy conditions here, although last week we did get some gusts into the 30's range. I originally located the remote receiver as far away as I could get it, per the instructions, which is mounted on the right side rear servo...it has worked fine there since I installed it back in March...

Now that you mention it, I didn't check the plug for the remote receiver, in fact, I didn't even know it unplugged. I assumed that it was permanently installed. I just checked it, and it seemed to be tightly connected, so I don't think that was it. Maybe I'll play with it some more, but I don't know if I trust it now. It would not be cool to have it malfunction in mid flight! Yes, when I remounted the receiver, I put it back in the exact same location. Kinda strange issue...I don't know what to think. I'll probably fly with the new receiver, and then put the 6200 back in and see what happens.

That is terrible on the ball joints...do you think they got stressed in the recent crashes? I was just thinking about that earlier while driving to the LHS...some damage that occurs from a crash might not be noticable at first, like maybe a slighly damaged servo gear that might jam up later on...or like in your case, maybe something got weakened by the impact...there are many things like that which make me think sometimes. I don't know for sure if the impact of the tailboom strike didn't damage the receiver...it's possible, I suppose? It didn't hit the receiver of course, but the shock could have done something...

I was determined to fly, wind or not...it really wasn't that bad, but any wind to me is a challenge! It was what they call "variable winds" with sudden little bursts of wind on an otherwise calm night.

I had a scary thing happen, though, and I will not do it again....I have a usual routine for starting up the B400, which has been working fine. I decided to try something that I thought would be safer, but turned out to be a bad idea. My normal routine is to turn on the radio...and then plug the battery in, and then apply the throttle hold switch, and then wait for the ESC beep....this has been working fine.

The new method I tried is as follows; turn the radio on...apply throttle hold, plug battery in, wait for ESC beep...then stepped back as usual. I took the throttle hold switch off, and the heli started spooling up...slowly at first, but it was speeding up with no input on the throttle! I reapplied the throttle hold, no dice, so I ran up to it and grabbed the rotor head and stopped it, and yanked the battery lead off !!! It was still trying to power up, although very slowly...I'm pretty sure if I had not grabbed it, it would have continued to spool up...

Once I collected myself, I checked everything over, and tried again, very cautiously my OLD way...and everything was fine, and OK for the next two packs...

The Eflite manual specifically says to apply the throttle hold AFTER connecting the battery, so that is how I have been doing it. I figured it would be even safer to apply the throttle hold before hooking up the battery...but I won't do that again !!

I hope you can get the ball joints fixed and get her up in the air soon! Are you going to be able to extract the broken pieces from the swashplate?

Have a great weekend,

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

The weather here has been weird lately. Oh well, it gives me a chance to clean up my mess around my work bench and do other projects I have been putting off when I want to go fly. I think Horizon would help you out better than me about the receiver.

I am going to have to get a new $30 swashplate since E-Sky doesn't sell the ball joints. Then in my first crash one ball joint on the blade grip snapped off in the crash. When you talked about not knowing of all the damage that happens in a crash, is why I have been taking my helicopter apart all the way to check for everything. On the CX and CPP it is much easier to see stuff since there is less parts than the 400+ sized helicopters.

When I get tired of waiting for the wind to go down I usually fly when I shouldn't. Luckily the helicopter always comes back in one piece.

I have heard of another person having problems with the throttle hold switch. I never use the throttle hold. I turn on my transmitter and put it in a position that I can't bump the throttle. Then I plug my battery in. Then I pick my transmitter up and walk away from the helicopter and throttle up after I check my servos.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

That sucks about the swashplate...sorry to hear that. I didn't have any luck finding the gearset for the CPP at either LHS, I guess I'm going to have to order them online. I really liked Helidirect's service on the blades, I will probably use them again. I just hate to pay shipping for a set of servo gears! I'm gonna have to have a look see on their site, I am sure I can find some goodies to go along with it. I still have the refund from Helihobby in my Paypal account, so I won't even miss it!

It's still windy here, I guess I'll wait until later ontonight to fly some. I should get the backup B400 in the air again for a little while, just to make sure all is good with it. I am still somewhat hesitant to fly it, with the stock servos, but what the heck, might as well, right?

I used to not use the throttle hold, I almost never do with the CPP, but I figured it's a good habit to form...esp if I ever get back into nitro helis sometime in the distant future.

I have been weighing stuff since I got that scale from HF tools, pretty neat. I weighed both B400's...the stock one is 495 grams, the original one with the JR servos weighs 521 grams...the servos add up! Then again, 26 grams is not quite one ounce, so that's not much, really. The CPP, with the heavy blades weighs 249 grams...

I should be doing something constructive, like balancing blades, I need to do all the spare CPP ones, they were pretty ugly balance wise, at least the first set I checked. I have not balanced the blades on the new B400 yet, or the replacement blades from my stupid tip over a while back. I really like that K&S blade balancer, it makes balancing almost fun! I still don't know if it makes too much difference, especially on the smaller helis, but it sure makes it SEEM like it flies better, ya know? Just llike some people swear their cars run better after an oil change...LOL I just like my helis to fly smoothly...at least until I make toothpicks out of the blades!

Hmmm I should go up and see if the shop is open at work, I think sales dept is open for the holiday, but I doubt anyone's in the shop...I don't like to turn the lights on just to fly, the electric bill is outrageous as it is! Probably pass on that.

Hope you get some calm weather, and some belt CP parts soon!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I can always find something on Helidirect that I want. When I go on there for a part I need I usually end up getting four of five more things I didn't plan on.

It's windy here too, but not bad as last night. I got the CX out today and that helped the addiction to flying. I was thinking about getting my carbon fiber frame flight ready, but I don't know if I want to spend another couple of hundred bucks to have two Belt CP's.

My plastic blades were out of balanced pretty bad. I had to add a lot of tape.

I would like to fly the CX some more today, but I have to go to work soon.[&o] After this week I should have a lot more time to fly.

I think my swashplate comes on the 3rd to helidirect then it will take about 3 more days to get it shipped here.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

It was too windy here...instead of the wind dying down in the evening, it picked up...I think a storm is coming. Oh well, I'll have to get some time on the sim later tonight. I think I should put some wind into the sim to practice for the wind in real life.
I cranked it up to 50 MPH one time, that was a laugh!! I was flying full speed into the wind, and the heli was just sitting there!!

I did my shopping spree online earlier...I found the servo gear kits at Heli Direct, and I could not resist the JIS screwdrivers that I was telling you about at Heliproz...so I got them too. But Heliproz was out of the servo gears and the servos themselves, so I got 4 sets from Helidirect. Bummer, because I had to pay shipping from both...oh well, it was only like $3.50 for the servo gear shipping...

I need to get my CX2 and the Hirobo out tonight too, I really hate not having any stick time at all in...

Is the Helidirect website always that SLOOOWWW?? It was taking forever to go from one page to another....just wondering?

Yesterday, I got the video cable out for my TV, so I can do the sim on the TV...pretty neat, G4 sim on a 42" LCD ! It's sort of a pain, the cable lays across the living room floor, but it's cool nonetheless...

At least I will get to check out the CPP after work tomorrow, and see how it does fly after the rebuild.

Take care, and hope you can at least fly the CPP?

I emailed Horizon about the receiver, and they sent me an email saying they would get back to me soon. I found my receipt, so I should be good with that.

Glenn
















Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

When I was flying my Super CUB when it was windy out it was just hovering in one spot like your helicopter on the SIM.

I have been in the same situation many times where one company has one thing I need, but not the other part.

Helidirect's website is slow some times, but most of the time it is pretty fast for me.

Does your tv make the helicopters seem more realistic?

Have fun with the CPP. I am waiting to get some bearings so I can put the Bell Hiller set up back on before I fly the CPP again. I don't think the weather will be good enough anytime soon to fly the CPP outside, so I guess I will be flying my CX some more.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

That must have been pretty funny, the plane sitting there in the wind! lol!

It's all good with the different companies, just a little more cost for shipping, no biggie. I will see how Heliproz service is, so far, so good, I got a tracking number from them already, and the same from Helidirect. Both seem like good companies to deal with, and I like them a whole lot better than Helihobby, that's for sure! Maybe Helidirect's website was really busy, cause it was pretty slow...no big deal, just wondering if it was always that way....I'll have to log on to it really late one weekend night and see how it is.

Having the G4 on the TV is very cool, I actually (mostly by necessity of the short USB cable on the Interlink Elite controller) was sitting pretty close to the TV, about 4 feet away, and it completely engulfs you, everything else is like blocked out, and I think I could actually concentrate better, it was more like really being there, to me. I don't know if it helps my training , but it sure is neat! It's just a little bit of a pain to set up...if I'm going to practice for a long time, it's well worth it to get the cable out, hook it up, move the coffee table, pull the chair up, etc....

So, you are going back to the Bell-Hiller, huh? I guess I should keep mine on then, I was considering removing it, and going back to hiller, but I'll take your word for it! It was still kinda windy here too, I didn't fly the B400 today. But, I did test fly the CPP earlier...let me tell ya, this thing is flying better than it ever has after the rebuild, I think the spindle might have been bent for some time, and I just didn't realize it. Once I got it all trimmed out, it was flying better than ever, but the head speed seemed higher to me for some reason....so I dialed in some more pitch on the radio...went from 0,25, 50, 75, 100 ...to... 0, 35, 60, 85, 100... and it slowed the head down a good bit, and with it came newfound stability like this thing has never had! Nick, this CPP was hovering no hands for 5 seconds at a time! It would, of course eventually drift slowly off, but it looked almost a stable as the B400 at times! I was flying it around the shop, and it was flying like one of the scale helis on the sim...just crusing along, kinda loafing....floating along so smoothly it looked unreal... What an improvement! I don't want to touch it, or change a thing!

I did have some little mishaps, including one pretty hard landing, before I got it all dialed in...but no tailboom strike this time. Maybe the last one was some sort of a fluke or something, I don't know...all I know is I wanna fly it again soon!

I think I have hit on a pretty good combination for my type of flying...it would be horrible for any aerobatic/3D stuff, but who cares for now? I just want it to be stable, with a nice hover, and some forward flight capability...

I may play with the throttle curve a bit tomorrow, see if I can fine tune that a bit as well...I ran out of time/batteries today...

Take care, and hopefully you'll be up in the air soon!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

It was cool when the CUB was floating, but that was the same day I landed it in a tree. It seems trees don't like helicopters or airplanes.

Thanks for commenting on Heliproz. I like to hear of more companies that are reputable.

The setup I have isn't bad for a beginner that might get frustrated with the CPP. But I just don't like the slow cyclic response. Good to hear that your CPP is flying so good.

I just got done putting my plastic parts back on the Belt CP. I was looking at the swashplates online and it looks like they list the wrong swashplate with the same part number that I need. It seems that E-Sky uses the same part numbers for the upgraded parts for the Honey Bee King V2 and the Belt CP. I already had that happen to me with the blade grips. And there is a small difference between the Belt CP and the Honey Bee King V2 aluminum swashplates. Maybe I will get longer flight times with the plastic parts.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

I like Heliproz so far, I will keep you updated when I actually get the JIS drivers.

Hopefully the plastic parts work out well for you...like you say, maybe longer run times?

I will be flying the CPP again tonight, see if I can improve on it some more, but not much room left for improvement!

It still has a nasty tendancy for the tail to just do it's own thing from time to time, very annoying, but not leading to loss of control or anything, just detracts from an otherwise very sweet flying machine. I don't know what makes it do that, the tail will just sometimes kick out to the right, with no rhyme or reason...has always done that, with or without the G110 gyro....maybe something in the 3 in 1 ?? I don't know, but if I could just get that ironed out....

Oh well, it's still flying really well for a CPP, better than ever!

Someone when I first started out posted that their heli flies better and better after each rebuild...I'm starting to believe it now!

Take care,

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

It looks like the wind is some what calm so I will probably get the CPP and Belt CP out soon.

I flew the first couple of flights with the plastic parts. I couldn't tell how well they worked out since I was still learning to fly.

My tail sometimes moves too with out an input. But I can get it under control and enjoy the rest of the flight.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey Nick,

Sounds good, hope you can get some flights in now that the wind died down. Enjoy.

I flew the B400 tonight, and had a great session overall. I have an issue with one of my battery packs, I think. It kept resetting the ESC after I plugged it in...like a bad connection. I will have to check into that very carefully. I don't need a mid-flight power loss!

Keep in touch,

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I got one flight in on the CPP and the Belt CP.

I don't notice any difference between the aluminum and plastic parts. I think the only time I would notice a difference is if I was doing 3D. It is really weird flying with the stock wooden blades since I used to fly with the black carbons and my CPP has black blades on it. It was weird when I checked the pitch on the blades, one was off by two degrees, but the tracking looked fine on the ground. Then it looked off in the air. So I am just going to trust my pitch gauge.

I think my tail motor is starting to go out after 5 flights because the helicopter is now rotating to the left at a hover. So now I am going to have to adjust the proportional potentiometer to get it back to normal. I am anxiously waiting for those DD tail motors from E-Flite.

Be carefull with the battery problem on the B400.

Have fun with the helicopters.

Nick