Cyan1d3Pwns

I'm looking to purchase the E-Flight Blade 400 and was just wondering what people would recommend to purchase in addition to the kit.
I wanted to build a kit to get a better understanding of how it works (and to start with better parts) but as this will be my first non-fixed pitch helicopter I'm a bit worried about getting it configured right so its easy-er(ish) to learn and I've seen it recommended to start with plastic parts as they are more forgiving. So I've reliquished that idea and going with a RTF kit knowing that I'll learn more about the mechanics during rebuilds and repairs. I'm not too worried about the jump to a more complex bird, just looking for suggestions, of course sorted by importance, (toolkits, cnc parts, better gyro, # of extra battery packs, ....) on how to make the most of my experiences during this nice season.

What I'm specifically looking for are recommendations split into two categories:
1) Essential upgrades (Things I should order with or soon after the kit)
2) Recommended Upgrades (as replacements for when things break)

3) I'd also be very interested in recommendations for a bunch of essential parts to order as replacements to keep on hand so I don't waste the nice weather. (blades, gears, etc) Whatever
4) And cause Ilike to think about the future, any cool part recommendations excite me to no end. (Agusta 109A body kit and light kits)

This is the kit I plan to order.
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1400!1002
But I'm also open to suggestions here too as theres a big part of me that wants more radio chanels for things like a winch and retractable landing.


Thanks for all the suggestions and for all the reading material in the forums to keep me busy while I saved money!

matty_p80

Blueman

1) the only essential upgrade you need to get for the B400 is a decent gyro and a digital tail servo (i currently have a Futaba 401 clone - the HK 401B from Hobby King and the Futaba 3154 Sx)

2) when the servo gears go on the cyclic Sx's , recommend replacing with Hitec 55HB's or MG's! i haven't had any of the head break on me (obviously not crashing with enough vigour) but have upgraded everything on the head except the blade grips with the E-Flite ally bits! the tail really doesn't need upgrading and it just adds cost and bling!

3) as for parts: feather shafts/spindles, main shafts, tail booms, blades - main (lots) & tail (a few sets), tail drive spindle/shaft (the rear one, it gets bent), main gear w/bearing (unless you have a bearing removal tool but price difference isn't much), tail main drive gear, the B400 spares screwbag and replacement servo gears if you're not going to upgrade the servos (make sure you get the 75H gears and not the ordinary 75's!!)

4) as for body shells, i personally don't know of any that fit directly onto the B400 but you should be able to 'fit' any 450 shell with a bit of jiggery pokery! i asked the Horizon Hobby UK rep at the w/e if there were any plans for any in the future and the response was probably not!! that's a good price for it and don't worry, the DX6i is a very capable Tx and you could quite easily sell it on and get something with more channels (they're bringing out the DX8 soon!!)!

essential tool : pitch gauge

not necessary but nice to have : some instrument style hex drivers, small pliers of various styles (the ones with smooth jaws are especially useful), ball-link pliers, swash levelling tool, pair of flush cutting side cutters (small for electrical work and for flush cutting the zip ties)

you can never have enough LiPo's! ha ha ha!

hope this helps

Matty )

TakeshiSkunk

I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that the gyro upgrade isn't quite as necessary as everyone makes it out to be. It's definitely a weak point of the heli but for whatever reason the more I fly mine the better it seems to hold. It's still something that should be upgraded but I think I'm going to upgrade my servos before I drop cash on a gyro.

Servos are definitely weak, they're not very fast and they strip very easily. If you plan to be crashing you're going to be changing a lot of servo gears on the stock set.

But yeah, I'm getting pretty comfortable with my B400 (even though it's been dismantled on a table for a week or two now :

Cyan1d3Pwns

Ok so here's my plan:

To Order with the Helicopter:

feather shaft
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1421!1002

main shafts
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1447!1002

tail booms (x2)
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1457!1002

Tail Boom Supports
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1461!1002

Tail Linkage
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1459!1002

blades - main (x3)
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1415A!1002

blades - tail (x2)
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1471!1002

main gear w/bearing
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1452!1002

tail main drive gear
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1453!1002

the B400 spares screwbag
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1473!1002

Pitch guide
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1000!1002

Swashplate Leveler
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=HR1010!1179

Flybar (x3)
https://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=EFLH1425!1002

Caliper
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...alipers_100mm_

Total $129 of spare parts


hk401B gyro
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10113

Futaba S3154
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNCW1

Total $49 for stable flight

Totals=====
$129 (Parts) + $49 (stability) + $349 (helicopter) = $527 +shipping


Its quite a bit more than what I wanted to put into this build!!
Any suggestions on what to remove or should I just wait and save enough to purchase it all?
Also, I'm afriad to ask, is there anything I'm missing?

TakeshiSkunk

Honestly if you don't want to drop the money right away you don't NEED the gyro. Drift ranges from minimal to nonexistant for me, it is a crappy gyro but it does serve its purpose. The heli is quite flyable.

matty_p80

Taki man is right you don't have to do the gyro and servo, that will save some wonga!

take the main blades down to 1 pair (you can always get more!); although nice, the calipers aren't essential either (there are some cheaper digital ones too); this [link=http://www.advantagehobby.com/product.php?productid=42069&cat=650]blade balancer[/link] might be something more useful although you could just use a bolt and nut and two glasses of the same height!!

the other place you'll want to visit is Home Depot (or similar) and purchase enough 1/4-3/8 " dowel to make two legs of about 2' in length each and 4 x whiffle balls to create your very own traning gear! oh! and zip ties!!!

Matty )

Flying Fiz

Cyan,

I agree with all of the above recommendations to leave the Gyro for another month. If this is your first CP heli I would strongly recommend the suggested training gear.

BUTthe BESTadvise I can give you is to tame down the heli via the DX6i Tx - Horizon Hobbies have posted some beginner settings but better than those are the ones set out by John Salt at rchelicopterfun.com in his $9.00 ebook on how to set up your 400 size heli. Your blade 400 is set for 3D and is very very twitchy for a CP beginner. I couldn't believe how much easier this made the 400 to fly, and once you get the hang of it you can slowly increase everything.

I think you can cut back a fair bit on all the spares and just concentrate on all of the mechanics around the head. You can guarantee that even a small crash is going to require a replacement of the feathering shaft, (buy a few of these) flybar and blade grips and perhaps main blades.

Enjoy!

Cyan1d3Pwns

Hey All
Thanks for helping me get these priorities in order.

So if I understand this correctly the feathering shaft will break first, then the flybar, then the blade grips, and then the main blades?

I figured the main blades would be the first to break! How often do the blade grips break?

TakeshiSkunk

You want to have spare blades on hand. When mine went down, the blades didn't break or even crack, but a bit of the covering was stripped off the tip of one. You don't want to fly with any damage to the covering at all, I'm sure someone can provide a video demonstrating why.

I don't think blade grips will break a TON unless you're really slamming it in hard on a paved surface. The feathering shaft takes most of the force when a blade hits, and the way the blade grip is made and attached to the head assembly makes it less likely to snap at any point.

The most needed replacement parts will be feathering shafts, main shafts (I was actually pretty surprised that my crash managed to bend my main shaft. Makes me believe that this part is just going to need replaced any time anything bad happens), and main blades. I guess it's pretty common for people to hit their tail on the ground a lot learning too, so maybe some tail assembly stuff? I've actually never had a tail strike so I don't really know how those usually play out. It seems like those blades would be less likely to break since they're usually somewhat loose in the grips and don't have much mass.

Cyan1d3Pwns

What is the point to the whiffle balls on the end? Do they have to be big balls or can I use something ligher/smaller like a ping-pong ball?

Any good guides on how to build the best training gear or should Ijust strap it on there however I can?

Solman

ORIGINAL: Cyan1d3Pwns

This is my take after owning a Blade 400 and crashing a few times or more.

To Order with the Helicopter:

feather shaft (Must have spares, 2 to 4 on hand)

Main shaft(Must have spares, 2 to 4 on hand)tail booms(not quite a necessity, but can come in handy)

Tail Boom Supports(not quite a necessity, but can come in handy)

Tail Linkage ( not necessary, never broke one)

blades - main (order from ebay, you can get 5 sets of fiberglass blades for $20 shipped or 2 sets of carbon fiber for $20 if you look around)

blades - tail (Not quite necessary, only broken one set)

main gear w/bearing (nice to have a spare, main gear strips easy)

tail main drive gear (not necessary, haven't replaced one yet)

the B400 spares screws (can come in handy if you lose a nut or something)

Pitch guide (not quite necessary, already set up from the factory and you can get that down the road)

Swashplate Leveler(not quite necessary, already set up from the factory and you can get that down the road. I haven't even bought one or needed one yet)

Flybar (x3) (can usually bend back straight if minor, but nice to have spares for the those hard hits)

Caliper(not quite a necessity, but can come in handy)

hk401B gyro (Don't go cheap on electronics, it can bite you in the butt. I went with the Futaba GY520 and WOW, what a difference.I switched to the GY520 because when flying back towards me to land, the tail would wash out on me and I lost faith in the stock gyro. It sucks royally! If you are just doing hovering only, wait on the gyro but you will notice the problems when you get into forward flight and bringing it back in for landings)

Futaba S3154 (I went with the futaba 9257 and love it. Stock servo doesn't have that much torque, but you won't notice it until later)

Someone mentioned using HS55's. WRONG! HS65 HB or MG is the correct ones. HB is the karbonite gears which work fine and MG is the metal gears. Only replace when you need to do so. Also a must buy! Buy a blade balancer, you will definitely want to make sure that your blades are balanced. You can get them really cheap on Ebay. It doesn't need to be a fancy one, but quite the necessity. BTW, buy blue loctite, if it goes into metal, add a touch of loctite. I've had a few crashes because I didn't like my tail blade grips coming off and my main blade grips coming off and watching a blade go flying off.

Other must have necessities include:

1.5 mm hex
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dynamite-Hex-Dri...#ht_2728wt_961

2 mm hex
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dynamite-Hex-Dri...#ht_2728wt_961

matty_p80

Solman has some good advice, although i would tend to think that if you have a CP heli then the pitch gauge is essential! i was always taught that nothing is completely RTF and you should always re-check everything!! as was proven with my own B400; it was close but still needed adjustment!

the Fut. 3154 is ideal for this application as it's lightweight, has plenty of torque and does not reguire a voltage regulator to optimise functionality! the B400 is a very good introduction model, even for 3D but it really isn't the heli for mega-stick banging and therefore you don't need to go overboard with hop-ups!

other than that, just what Solly said!!

Matty )

Solman

How far off was it? I am sure that it was close enough that you probably wouldn't have known a difference unless you are an experienced pilot. I had mine for about 4 months before I felt the need to use a pitch gauge and adjust it. The only reason because I am doing more 3D and wanted to see where they adjusted it at. For 3D, the stock adjustments sucked and were way off. For sport flying and hovering, they were just fine and worked great. When adjusting the pitch, you have to do it mechanically on the heli and program it in the remote. If you are going to attempt it for the first time, it is much better to have someone who has done it before to show you. You can screw it up pretty easily if you don't know what you are doing or know what parameters you are looking for. So from my experience, out of the box was just fine for the beginning stages. One other thing that I have learned is that throttle and pitch curve isn't an exact science. Part of it is making it feel good to the individual and I know that there are basic parameters you want to follow, but it won't be exactly the same for every individual.

http://www.trextuning.com/futaba3154.php

It would seem that this website disagrees with your take on the 3154 and they tested it on a 450. The 9257 may be a tad bigger, but I know that I won't have any issues with torque or otherwise as I progress.

matty_p80

not wanting to get into an argy bargy with you Solman but the link title said it "trextuning"! they are testing it on a T-Rex!!

the Blade is not a T-Rex!

Solman

A Trex 450 is the same size as a Blade 400. It uses the same blades and has almost the dimensions. If it were a 600, then yes it wouldn't be the same. The two heli's are in the same category and not to start something, but I am using some Trex 450 parts on my Blade 400.

Drumheller Dave

A few on this forum will probably disagree with me, but I made training gear out of 2 36" long 1/4 inch wood dowels.....I Used four 3 " wiffle balls drilled and glued to the rods....zip tied to the frame works on both the 400 and the SR.......seems to do the trick for me............