justinep

Hey everyone, My cx2 flew awesome right out of the box and when I decided to "upgrade" and "modify" she became unflyable. I upgraded the blades to the Extreme collapsable blades and linkages, a carbon boom, and upgraded landing gear. Since that day the heli bounces all over the sky and is deemed uncontrollable. I haven't touched her since that day (past summer) but, last night I decided to try and put her back to stock and fly her but I can't find the upper blade linkages etc. Does anyone have any ideas? I have adjusted the gain pots on the 3-1, balanced the blades, check the shafts etc.

I am not a newb to heli's and I bought this CX2 for in the house/office fun (and when friends ask the ol' questions of let me fly it... thats where I hand them the sticks to a cx2 and not anything else)

Thanks guys!
Justin

06sportster

My Feedback: (7)

I the only thing I can think of is something might be un-balanced. I have noticed with mine, the slightest thing off makes it fly different. Go over it all again and double/triple check everything, especially the new blades/mounts and heads.

Good luck and keep us posted.

justinep

Thanks 06sportster! I will do so. The blades are the racing blades on the collapsable platform and I have heard and seen on a few forums about some etreme blades being worthless and recalled. I can't even remember where I got them from so... there goes asking the online store! I was thinking of putting her back to stock and going from there and now that I can't find the upper linkages.... there goes that as well! I sort of remember having issues with the bottom link that screws into the shaft (not sure if it locks in the inner shaft or not) but, if thats off it could definetly cause a wicked vibration and make her uncontrollable. My nomal helis (non coaxial) are easier to troubleshoot for me. I just had the urge to get her going again (winter is here) and since I spent $100 in "upgrades" I havent flown her!

I will go over everything again and report back. Maybe I ill take picture on stuff I am not sure about.

soloboss

Justinep - I've been down that road myself. Something wrong and I just couldn't seem to nail it down. So as I learned more I took notes so I could answer questions from the newbies. Of course by that time I was not a newbie myself, but no one can remember everything - so I started to use my own notes and the process worked really well. Then an online friend (Drunk Yoda) asked for a copy of my paper so he could publish it on the web, and here is the result; [link=http://www.heli-wiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/HOWTO_Wiki_Overall_CX_and_CX2_Setup]CX /2 setup[/link]

I just opened the site and it's up and running fine. Start at the beginning and systematically check each step. You'll find it. Guaranteed.

Soloboss

justinep

SoloBoss, This is great (and super smart). I was just going through the chopper now. Everything is straight... except maybe the 3-1 pots which I must have screwed with everywhich way hoping it would help. Now I am going to zero them out and try again. The chopper "seems" perfect. Nothing is broken and everything is straight. I am going spend some time with your set-up and see if anything jumps at me. Because this is a great 1st helicopter at a great price... the "newbs" can be a great help for some of the old timer r/c guys since they spend alot of time with these choppers modding and what not.

Thanks.. I will let you all know!

- J

justinep

OK so, I just took her for a quick flight after checking out the balancing and blah blah blah. She definetley flys better than I last put her down. On a half charged 950mah batt she was fast in speed and reaction (due to the extreme racing blades probably). I was able to control her flight in a small roo BUT, the the only issue is a small TBE.

Solo, I looked at your guide and all the ball links moved freely as well as the flybar being nick free. It didn't seem to be an awful TBE but just enough to make me mad (haha). Do you think the 3-1 controller can help solve this. I also may be a little confused to some of the troubleshooting on the TBE page.

Suggestions please.... I feel like I am close to getting it fixed.

- J

simmo8

TBE bent flybar? un even weighting on the flybar? flybar hanging out of the head one side more than the other ? or just cheep bent blades?
lol thats just all ive always been told to check when you get TBE hope i have helped
good luck mate

simmo

justinep

the fly bar "seems" even on both sides as well as str8. Looks like its been str8nd a few times but, definetly ok. The blades are tracking ok as well. They are the Extreme "racing" blades (not cheap).

I will keep at her till I figure it out.

simmo8

lol ok
good luck

justinep

ok well I have the tail keeping still and a little less TBE now. What I DO REALISE IS... bad vibration!!!!!! More Blade tracking? only thing I can think of....

justinep

FIXED FIXED FIXED!

I zero'd out my 3-1 controller and straightened all shafts etc with a minimal difference. So, I tried to get the upper blades more on track since the vibration was real bad (enough to lose the tail boom) and figured it had to do with the TBE. In this process I broke the upper blade. Then I remembered I didn't put the racing blades on... I used the ones that came with the stock collapsable link/blade kit. After comparing the 2 I noticed that the ones on the heli were warped down and completly off from eachother. So I replaced the uppers with the "racing" blades (kept the bottom alone) and fired her up...... PERFECT! Now she hovered in place w/ no violent vibration. It was definetly the uppers (as I expected but, couldn't figure out why it would be this bad). AHHHHH.

In my normal r/c helis.. if the baldes are off track I would get a vibration and live with it unless is was really disruptive but, wouldn't get these awful flight charactoristics (TBE etc). Either way.. THANKS FOR EVERYONES HELP!

MTboy

Good to hear you got it flying.
Wondering where to find the collapsable links? Is this a good thing on the CX2?

justinep

Well now that I can actually fly it with them... YES! Its been a while since I flown a stock cx2 but, I will say this.... the cx2 stock a perfectly balanced aircraft. When modding it you need to do your research in these forums (like you are now) and ask peole that have done things. Alot of "mods" make the bird look cooler but, ruin its graceful charactoristics! These bladea re reat since you wont need to keep 4 spares on hand everytime you go and fly. They will collapse instead of breaking. Mine are from Xtreme. After all the crap I went through I would prolly just leave it alone but, most havent gone through what i just did!

best of luck

willowarune

My Feedback: (2)

"Now I am going to zero them out and try again"

Please interpret this. Do you move the screws back to the final place? Clockwise or counterclockwise?

Novice...

soloboss

If there is any one thing that will ground a helicopter, it's vibration. In the coaxial helicopters, the fly bar HAS to run in a true circle with the shaft showing no wobble at all. When the inner shaft wobbles, the fly bar may look straight when it's stopped, but at speed it is running in a double circle (flybar is spinning and the center shaft is also moving in a circle) and that actually bends the flybar at flight rpm. I took a stop action photo of mine once and that's how I found it. The darned flybar was bent about 1/4 inch from straight - but when I stopped it the flybar looked perfect. The only indication was vibration.

When you eventually move to a single rotor helicopter with a tail gyro, vibration will defeat that gadget. Get used to finding and fixing vibration. Perfection isn't required, but the better it is, the better it is. Ya know?

Happy Thanksgiving!
Soloboss

justinep

Yes its true... vibration is the death of these coaxial's. It turned out to be a stripped plastic threaded hole for the collapsable blade linkages. So I rethreathed with a tad bit lager screw. The blade wasn't seated properly. Which I discovered when I broke the blade and finaly replaced it. It doesn't take much to ground these!

Willow.. yes, I realied I was adjusting the gain and prop to try and calm her flying properties and had no idea what stock was so I had to start over again. Took a little work but, well worth it! Now I can have the kids fly her into the turkey!

Happy Turkey Day

cadman22

Hey everyone,
I had an interesting one that started Wednesday night and finally figured out on Saturday. I went to put some flight time on my CX2, and all of a sudden it started TBE-ing like the Tindy Bowl man. [sm=spinnyeyes.gif] I couldn't fiigure out what was going on because the last time I flew it handled fine. And I double checked all the usual stuff, no bent flybar, no bent anything else, servo's were zero-ed, and so on. Then after looking at all that, I realized I overlook the tiny little screws that hold the rotor blades together. One of the screws snapped off inside the blade, allowing the blade to move out when the blade was turning but not actually flying of the head. It was just enough to throw the whole thing out of balance. All I had to do was replace the blade and hardware and she was flying straight as an arrow again. Just thought I'd post my findings so no one else goes nuts and waistes a whole bunch of time checking everything else over to find out it was something that minor that you jst don't think to check.