bdavison

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Well, I finally got around to getting all my pics lined up in a row, so here they are. Ill try to give as detailed info as I can.

Here are a few pics of the full kit all layed out and of the heli itself. Note that the mock engine and canopy is highly detailed.

bdavison

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The first thing to do is install the "skid braces". Its as simple as screwing them onto the heli. Just remove the screws at on top of the heli, mount the braces, and put the screws back in. Piece o' cake.

bdavison

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While your doing the above, charge the battery. Just plug it in. Red light = still charging, and we all know Green means GO!!!!

Be safe, and dont charge it on the carpet, but it in a fireproof container. The carpet pic is just to show what it looks like.

xxh0lywarsxx

Heys Looks sweet, im considering it as my first heli. Whats the best plae to buy it and how much is it

bdavison

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Well, there are quite a few different places to get one. You may have to wait, This heli is VERY popular right now. So most places have a backorder. I got mine from Tony Stillman at Radio South. Price is about $309+tax. The extra boxes of blades are about 10 bucks a box, but there are 4 sets of blades in each box.

Ok, back to the heli.
Once you have the battery charged up, its time to install it.
Pics show installation of the battery. Note that you must route the cable behind the front skid, or the canopy will not be able to slide on.

bdavison

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Now you can slide the canopy back on. This is the most difficult of tasks with the XRB. It can be a pain to get it back on. But not too bad. Slide two slots in the canopy over the front skid cross brace. Then pinch the top clamp together and slide the top of the canopy over the clamp.

bdavison

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Once youve accomplished the above...YOUR READY TO FLY!!!!. First set the heli on the ground. Turn on your transmitter, and then flip the small switch located on the heli. The gyro will initialize. Then press the button which is right below the on/off switch. This engages the ESC to allow power to get to the motor. The throttle stick must be all the way off, before pushing the button.
Now fly it man...FLY IT I SAY....FLY THE THING TILL THE BATTERY DIES.

bdavison

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Now on to the advanced stuff. Once you've got some flight time under your belt, and feel comfortable flying it. I mean really comfortable flying it. The stuff below is going to get into making the heli MUCH more responsive, and capable of far more aerobatics.

First things first. Remove all the blades from the helicopter. Chances are you already know how because youve probably replaced a set after you ran it into the kitchen table. Take out the blade balencer that came in the kit. Attach the each set of blades and balance them out. Remember, the more effort and time you take in getting this perfect, the better it will fly.

Next, remove those heavy brass training flybar weights as per the manual. The heavy ones are the ones in my hand. Then attach the lighter "EXPERT ONLY" paddles to the flybar. All of these parts come with the kit.

Next, remove the cover from the on-board gyro, and leave it off for now.

bdavison

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Rev up the heli just to hovering speed, while holding it down firmly. Check the tracking of the blades per the manual. If it looks like a fork...bad, you need to adjust the tracking. This is done by simply removing one end of the ball link on the rotor that is not tracking right. Then turn the link out or in, until it tracks perfectly. Remember, the more precise you are, the better it will fly.

Once you have the blades balanced, and tracking correctly, its time to tweak the gyro.
Go fly the heli. Ill wait.

Ok by now you've realized just how much has changed. The heli is much more responsive, and requires less throttle to maintain hover. But we are not done yet. Pull the heli into a hover, get it as stable as you can. Now let go of the sticks. Remember which way it went. Now pull out that small black screwdriver from your supplied toolkit, its time for you to tweak the gyro. Open your manual, and adjust the corresponding pot on the gyro a little according to the instructions. Once you've done this, then pull it back up into a hover...WHOA man, set it back down. Ok you tweaked a little too much didnt you. Adjust them properly. Do this for just the elevator and aileron...DO NOT ADJUST THE RUDDER ON THE GYRO. The rudder adjustment does not adjust trim. It adjusts how fast the rudder turns. You will adjust the rudder trim by changing the pitch on the top rotor. Follow the instructions in the manual for this. It would take far to long to describe here, but is by no means difficult.

Ok by now you should have the heli trimmed out to the max. It should be able to hover hands free for 5-10 seconds. Your probably enjoying it alot now, as it flys 100 times better.

Flyfalcons

Excellent mini-review. This micro looks like a real blast!

bdavison

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The heli is in my opinion the finest micro heli out there. Bear in mind those pictures of me hovering in my kitchen, are after only 4 days of flying helicopters. Not 4 days after flying this heli, but Ive only been flying heli's for 4 days. Never flew one before I got this heli. I know people that have been practicing for months that still have to work to get a heli to hover.

The Hirobo XRB is the ultimate training helicopter. It will save a beginner so much time and frustration learning how to fly because it is such a stable forgiving heli. The quality as you can probably tell by the pics is top notch. Its flawless.

The XRB is perfectly capable of any maneuver that any other fixed pitch micro is capable of, and then some.

Ive also been flying 3D foam planes indoors, and to be quite honest, I have more fun with this little heli than I've had with some of my other planes. Its a blast to fly. Because of its easy nature, it makes flying enjoyable because you can concentrate on just flying, not "not crashing".

I highly recommend this heli to anyone. You cant go wrong by getting one.

A huge thanks goes out to Tony Stillman at Radio South for hooking me up with this fine heli, and a big thanks goes out to Steve Rojecki for letting me see it fly before I purchased one.

So take my advice, and go plop down your cash for one. You wont be disappointed.

Oh yeah, I plan on getting some carbon fiber blades for mine. Ill post again once I have them and let ya'll know how they work out.

bdavison

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One more thing...if anyone wants to use these pictures, feel free. I have no problem with it. Sorry for the poor quality of the skid brace mounting pics.

All pictures were shot digitally on a Fuji s7000 digital camera at 6MP using a Tiffen UV filter.

If anyone has questions or has a pic request, please let me know.

rickyblaze

I have a fix for canopy removal hassle. It's a connector that attaches to the heli and hangs out the side of the canopy,then all you have to do is connect to it instead of remove canopy.

Here they are http://geocities.com/rickyblaze_rc/

Rick

bdavison

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Ricky,

Id like to get one of those cables from you, but I dont have a paypal acct. Is there another way I could order one.

Also, Id like to know more about those heatsinks when you get them finished. The rear motor gets blistering hot after a full battery flight. The front motor doesnt get very hot though because its got more air flow going over it. I was thinking about putting a scoop in the back so that prop wash would blow into the tail to keep it cool, but I dont know if this is going to work or not.

Also do you know of any place that makes fuselage kits for the Lama. You know to make it look like something else. It would be so awesome if Hirobo would make one of these that looks like a Hughes 500 or a Bell 222. Dont get me wrong, I like the Lama's looks, but a nice fuselage kit would look awesome.

turboBB

Not exactly commercial quality but some creative fellow has been making his own out of paper. Supposedly he has the plans available for download.

Here's that thread:
http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t135149p1/

bdavison

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I couldnt find the plans. Those look awesome though.

I wonder if you could make a wooden mold and then put depron foam over it and toss it in the oven to make a fuselage.

I gotta try this.

bdavison

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Ricky,

I did your laminated blade tip. It works great. Nice stiff blades. The tips dont flex as much, which makes throttle responses much more efficient. Im curious to see what happens when they hit something But not that curious.

I also clipped the rear trailing edge as you suggested. It does give it far more travel in reverse.

I havent tryed the swashplate mod you have.

One thing I did try just out of curiosity was attempting to fly it without the top blades attached. It doesnt work. It just begins to spin rapidly. Probably because of lack of tail rotor.

Im also working on molding a new depron fuselage. Ill post pics if it works. Im thinking bell 222 body. Just shaping the mold now.

rickyblaze

The laminated blades will take a strike alot better than stock I can tell you that for sure ,I hope you never have to find out lol.

I do accept moneyorders for the extensions ,just email me and I'll send you my address


The swash mod does give it a little more forward flight speed at the cost of stability. Moving the control arm up makes the controls a little more sensitive


Rick

Bernardmarx

I am avery close to buying one of these things for myself although I have not been able to determine whether the Hirobo XRB comes with a mode 2 TX or a mode 1. Is there even an option? I cant find one locally where I can inspect the packaging myself, and I am hesitant to purchase from somewhere online when I dont know for sure that I would get mode2 TX.


So which is it mode 1 or 2?

prowler1k

The hobby shop I purchased it @ only sold them in the Mode 2 config.

Instructions show both are offered.

Bernardmarx

Thank you...I imagine that as long as I buy online from a US hobby shop I will be okay. Mode 1 sounds horrible[:@]

bdavison

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Yeah, I dont know how those guys fly anything on mode 1. The XRB comes in both mode 1 and mode 2 kits. You can tell which one the kit is by looking on the left side of the box. It will say "XRB silver-mode 2" or something similar. There is also a sticker on the front of the transmitter that will tell you. You can probably see the sticker through the "window" in the front of the box.

I might have to try that swashplate mod. If you give full forward collective on the XRB even with the advanced settings, and flybar weights etc. It will jump right into forward flight, but once the speed reaches a certain point, That top rotor will kick in, and slow it down. Which is a good thing for beginners, but Im ready to rock its little world.

If you havent tried it yet...fly it over a puddle or some water.... the rotor wash looks awesome. The other thing that looks cool is smoke from a smoke bomb, it looks really cool. Its got these double vortices on the blade tips.

rc_lurker

Yeah, if you buy from a US shop, you'll get the right one. I got mine from fxaeromodels.com for $299.00 (I think it was $299.00 anyway). These things are a real dream to fly. They ROCK! The quality is excellent, there are safety features built in, the only thing it lacks is a heading hold gyro, although mine has relatively little problem with tail drift (depending on how hot the motors are).

After about 5 minutes of flight in continuous hover, the rear motor can get so hot it slows slightly causing the heli to begin rotating. When this happens I just land it slowly and let it cool off for a few minutes and it is ready to fly again... Flying this XRB (and to a lesser degree, my son's Bladerunner) has caused me to begin coveting an LMH Corona. I am going to order one next week, probably either from one of my LHS or from Helihobby.com...

bdavison

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Im beginning to hate the foam blades. I have got to get the carbon fiber ones. After about 10 15min flights or so, the foam gets a little flexed right at the mounting bracket. Then pop....it comes off. Its not really a big deal, as you just slap on another set of blades, but it is a little annoying. I guess I cant complain to much, as Im really putting the heli through the paces. And if you manage to get enough flights in without busting the blades, wearing them out is kinda cool.

I would suggest to anyone planning on getting this heli, buy two boxes of B blades and at least one box of A blades. For some reason the B blades tend to pop first. Im assuming this is because of stresses from cyclic commands.


Well....I got one set of B blades left. Time to go fly....I need to go get another box.

Bear in mind, Ive been flying approx 5-6 15 min long flights per day for over a week now. Ive only "crashed" it three times. Nothing broke but the foam blades. It just shrugs it off, and keeps on rockin'. Lately, Ive been practicing tail rotating circles in my living room.

Tail whipping around real fast while its moving in a circle around the room. Ive also got the "Huey" landing/takeoff thing down now.

Im working on a aerobatics routine with it now.

"Huey" takeoff
Maximum vertical with max piroette all the way to the ceiling.
Into forward flight left hand circle
As it comes back around tail in, max piroette 360, than a slow tail rotation opposite direction.
Backwards figure 8 with a max piroette 360 in the middle.
then slow piroettes down to about 2ft altitude
left cyclic circle into an tail down/nose up tight circle getting tighter, until it ends in a high speed piroette ending nose in.(hoping to add a piroetting circle in here after I figure it all out)
Nose in hover, then forward flight back towards me, with a 180 pirette into backwards flight.
Then a spot on landing on a mini helipad I made.

prowler1k

I'm feeling ya on the foam blades flexing, even with the tape on, they wear out.

Where can I get the CF blades for it?