also can i run a brushless tail motor with the eflit 2 in 1 mixer? BTW, just installed the new eflite bell hiller head. All i can say is wow!! By far the best upgrade available, i would reccomend it to every blade owner out there. Response to cyclic input is incredible, this thing loops and rolls with the best of them now.

Hey guys,

I've been reading through this thread (I'm only on Pg.9, long way to go) but I figured I'd post some comments and questions.

I have a blade cx that I'v run about 10 packs through. Its pretty fun but i'm growing tired of it and want to upgrade.

My question is: Do you guys think I am ready for a cp yet or should I get more stick time? Again I'm really good with the cx but its just getting a little borring. Also is there another helo in this same class that is more advanced and will hold me over skill wise for a longer amount of time ie a more advanced mini helocopter. Thanks.

I never flew helis before and I started with the Blade CP. So, if you are asking, and you are bored with the CX, then you are probably ready for the CP. But don't expect the CP to be anything like the CX. It's a totally different animal in the air.

There are more advanced helis, but I doubt there are any that cost as little to repair as the CP.

Doug

Like Doug said, the CX and CP are completely different beasts. My son has the CX and I have (had) a CP. The CX can pretty much fly hands off. You hold the stick full forward, and it merely flys forward at a slow speed, and you can steer it around with just the tail rotor control. Not so with the CP, it takes very little stick movement to equate to an out-of-control situation.

I don't want it to sound like I am trying to convince you NOT to buy a CP, just want you to know that it is a totally different animal. You might well be ready for a CP, but don't expect to fly it indoors, it is more of an outdoor machine (calm winds).

I said I "had" a CP, I crashed mine while performing rolls (boom strike, fell from a high altitude) and I decided to get the barebones HoneyBee CP2 instead of rebuilding the CP. I think the HB is the better buy. It comes with a lipo battery and charger instead of NiMh, and has the symmetrical blades stock. The HB head give much better control. And it costs less than the CP. To get the equivalent with the BCP, you would have to buy the aerobatic enhancement kit, a lipo battery and charger, and a bell-hiller head upgrade.

[link=http://www.helidirect.com/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=595]HoneyBee CP2 from Helidirect[/link]

Just my 2CW.

Well, my wifey got me a plane for valentine's day.. and while I was at the LHS getting some stuff for it, I glanced over and saw that they had the Bell-Hiller heads in stock! Ive got it sitting on the desk, I will put it on today and let you guys know how it goes!

I agree totally. I just got my BCP. I need it for testing that I'm doing, but the HB2 is a better deal at $164 delivered on eBay and $188 in online stores. To upgrade the BCP to a HB2 would cost over $90, and that's assuming the aerobatic upgrade comes with an 8T pinion. I am a sucker for yellow helis, but the BCP canopy will fit the HB2 if you add a 2 1/2" CF rod for the bottom mounting holes.
So, out of my 4 helis (5 if you count the BladeRunner) the Esky Lama2 is the easiest to fly, of course. And, it's a great trainer for doing pirouettes, figure eights and stuff. For the $105 I paid for it, it's better than a flight sim.
My DF36 needed a different gyro, so $100 later and a new Futaba GL240, and another $100 for a brushless Align 420LF and 25A ESC plus $50 for a good LiPo, and it flies very well and hovers easily. But, it was a bear to set up so it would fly that way.
My Walkera DF4 was hard to learn to hover, but it finally happened suddenly one day. It's fast and cheap to repair. I can tear it down and rebuild it completely in 1/2 hour. It takes that long to change the main shaft in my 36. It's fussy about blades. Even balancing them and setting the tracking doesn't always work because the plastic blades for these things are not made to close tolerances. I have to buy 3 or 4 pairs and mix and match them on the heli to finally get a pair that performs well while left loose and won't wobble. But, once that's done, I can set it in a hover for as long as 10 seconds with no input and it will stay within a 4' x 4' area. I can fly slow circles in my office with no trouble because it's so stable.
My Blade CP gives the impression of being more of a precision heli than the DF4. It's a lot quieter as far as gear noise, and feels smooth. It's also a lot easier to set the altitude and hold it. The DF4 often wants to go up or down, but the BCP stays. I'm not sure it this is because of the CP, or if it's the electronics, but I've ordered an Esky 4-in1 (same as the BCP uses) to try on my DF4 (with a different Tx) and I'll find out. So, you'd think that the BCP would be my heli of choice for office flying (aside from the Lama), but it's not. It's just not stable or subtle enough. I can fly patterns in my office, but it's not a relaxing experience like it is with the DF4. It's a better helicopter for forward flight and zipping around outside, but for slow, controlled movements I find the DF4 better.
If I was going to recommend a trainer to someone (besides a coaxial heli like the Lama or BCX), I'd recommend the HoneyBee FP. It's almost the same as the DF4, but with much better electronics.

Thanks for all the replies on the batteries now I know what to do. The CP is my first heli ever and I must say I love it! It has got me hooked into the hobby and I am now researching on a T-Rex I would like to get next. I've gone through about 10 flights so far and I can hover this little chopper rock solid no prob! I'm still learning nose in and sideways, but I feel natural at this

Guess my poor MonsterGT is going to collect even more dust

I just went Lipo..... I picked up a TP 3 cell 1320mah Lipo and a TP charger. I already had the Aerobatic Upgrade kit and was just waiting for the right time to upgrade. Wednesday became the right time. I drove it into the ground pretty hard while practicing nose-in hovers in the backyard. I was on my 2nd 650mah stock battery when I lost my concentration briefly and reacted in the wrong direction. Broke the blades, bent the spindle, and bent the rotor shaft. [&:] Despite the crash, I'm progressing along nicely. That was my first crash in 15 consecutive days of flying. Sim time is really helping.

Am I correct in assuming that I'll have higher head speed with this setup(9 tooth pinion)? Will this make it a little more stable stable in flight, or more responsive, or both? I'm having a blast with this thing. Ever since I put the CNC aluminum swashplate in, it's flown like a dream. I can't wait for the new Lipo to finish charging so I can test it out in the basement. A little too windy right now for outdoor flight.

BTW... The LHS had the E-Flite pitch guage, so I picked one up. I'm going to set up the blades and was wondering what anyone's opinion is of this guage. It looks decent for the price.

Later.......

Doug

Bell Mixer has made a huge diiference in responsiveness. I am curious to hear from experienced pilots that fly 3D? The sensitivity must rival high-end helis...Well, it's saturday night and time for a drink and runnin a lipo through this fun little heli.

Well, I got the BH head on today, and it is sweeeeeeeet! easy upgrade, took me about 15 minutes to get it on and another 5 to get the blades tracking right afterwards. I have noticed an increase in stability in hovering, and the cyclic response seems to be greatly increased. The weather is in the toilet here, so it will be a while untill I get to fly outside.. but doing some quick right stick manuvers inside seem to indicate a great improvement!

Can't wait to see the video whitenuckle.

Just got my new cp today! never flown a heli before in my life. So watch out! i was able to get it off the ground a few inches then back down several times and was starting to adjust the tail rotor when it caught. all i broke was one of the servo arm rods to the( collective?) it hooked the flybar in the canopy ( no big deal). so i need the servo arm rod and new canopy! A heli buddy of mine was watching and said i was doing very well, but im used to nitro buggy racing and i need to not snatch and grab at the controls so fast. This thing is great!

So has anybody done away with the stock 4-in-1 and put in a receiver, esc, gyro and made it work? I have a JR XP9303 and was wondering if the tail motor can be mixed with the radio or do I need to just buy another 4-in-1?

What parts does it include that you already had for the old head? The shaft and bearings, maybe?
I'm just wondering if there's a way to save a couple bucks by getting the parts separately.
Here's the entire kit for $24.95


Here's the grips separately for $9.99


and here's the mixer arm and pushrods for $4.99


Would these 2 upgrades work with the other stock parts?

I flew my first charge on the Lipos and the symmetrical blades. Wow! I spent some serious time setting up the head and rotors. Then spent some time getting the tail rotor mixing and the gyro set. I can hover for about 10 seconds without any stick input. I really like the E-flite pitch guage too. I flipped the idle up switch and was checking out the positive and negative pitch. Realy cool! Can't wait to get it outside now. This is the best this bird has flown since I got it.

Doug

Gary & Toprudder,

Doesn't the HB2 also have a harder/better main shaft. I think I read this someplace.

Are the electronics the same if you get the RTF HB2..

GTX,

I wonder any differences with the feather pin/O rings in the upgrade kit with the stock one.

The electronics look identical except for the badges (nameplates and decals). I would be very surprised if they're different. As far as I know, Esky is a trading company so they're not actually making their own stuff. So it has to be made OEM for them somewhere and probably the same place that E-flite has theirs made.
I don't know if the main shaft is stronger in the HB2. It's a separate gear and shaft where the BCP is one piece. I have them both ways for my DF4 (which is also the same piece used in the HB2 and BCP) and the separate gear isn't always better. The set screw keeps loosening just a little and puts some play in the rotor. And, even though these pieces may be made in the same mold, they could be different plastics. The BCP has much less gear noise than my DF4.
I also think E-flite is protecting their dealers better. I noticed that the prices for online parts are always very close, and so are the prices in my LHS (which are usually quite high). It could be that E-flite requests dealers to agree to a minimum price. This entices your LHS to carry E-flite instead of Esky because they know the online stores won't undercut them on price. If this is true, it's excellent marketing. It also gives the impression of higher quality when you don't see bargain prices for their parts in some stores.

For 24 bucks I would just get the whole thing. It comes with 3bb blade grips, spindle, stepped washers, regular washers and 4 of the head dampening shims.. The upgrade is super easy.. you unsnap the paddle control frames, remove the blades, take one of the screws out of the spindle and slide the whole thing out.

Then just reverse the steps and put the hiller head on. If you have ever replaced a blade grip this is almost an identical procedure, very easy.. just pay attention to what order the parts come off in, and put them back in the same order. I would reccomend putting all of the dampening shims in, since serious cyclic is the point of this upgrade, you might as well stiffen the entire head up while you are at it.

If you did want to upgrade without buying the 25 dollar head you would need the grips and the mixer arms, and those would go on your existing spindle shaft.

Well, the shaft is better, IMHO, in the HB CP2 since you do not have to pull the shaft out of the bottom to replace it. On the BCP, the shaft HAS to come out of the bottom, and you may have to straighten the shaft some BEFORE you can pull it out, since the bent part has to go through the frame.

I won't say it is a harder material, because I have bent mine [&o] but it was much easier to deal with since I could pull the shaft out of the top. I did not even disconnect any linkages, I dropped the shaft far enough to remove the head from the shaft, pushed to head to the side slightly, then pushed the shaft up out of the frame and swashplate. I was able to straighten it enough to reuse it, reinstalled it, and was back flying in about 30 minutes.

I don't know about the electronics, since I have only seen the E-Flite electronics.

The only complaint that I have about the HB CP2 is a slight amount of play in the paddle control frame pushrods. It still is more responsive than the BCP, though.

If you are going to switch to JR radio, gyro, esc depending on the gyro it can be easy or a little tougher. If your gyro draws a low enough amount of power you can use a JR receiver with a 2-in-1 controller and fly away. If you are using something like a Futaba 401 the 2-in-1 cannot power it as well as the flight electronics. That leaves you with two options use a separate receiver battery or use a combination of the 2-in-1 and another esc like the pixi 20. The setup would be as follows:

You need a Y harness to connect the throttle connection side of both the 2-in-1 and the main esc this will plug into the throttle channel on the receiver. You then need to connect the battery inputs for both esc either by Y harness or just solder them.

You then connect the pixi esc to the main motor and you connect the tail motor to the 2-in-1 leaving the main motor output on the 2-in-1 open.

The gyro connects to the rudder channel on the receiver and to the rudder input on the 2-in-1.

This setup will also allow a brushless main motor by substituting a brushless esc in place of the pixi esc.

I just finally got a chance to test my little onboard 2.4Ghz wireless camera I got for the Blade. I just taped it in place for the test, hence the tilted image (like the old Batman TV series). There's a lot of interference in the house, and the lighting was a little dark. My walk around test outside yielded much better image and sound quality. I'm also getting some noise from the heli electronics. I'll have to do some fine tuning, but here is a video:

http://www.dougsuniverse.net/images/..._VideoTest.wmv

Seems encouraging....

Doug

Doug,

I tried the same thing but my video was not as clear as yours. What camera are you using and did you use a separate 9v. batt or heli battery?
Thanks

Catfight,

I got the camera for $75 from here:

http://www.raidentech.com/24ghzmiwicoc.html

I used a 9V battery, but I have the camera right under the 4 in 1.... I'm going to move things around a bit, make a mount, and get a higher gain antenna for the receiver, then it should work better. I just went oustide and shot a quick video, and I'm not all that pleased with the results. But I should be able to make it work with some tweeking.....


Here is the outdoor test... Mostly a view of my Observatory

http://www.dougsuniverse.net/images/BCP_Outdoor.wmv

Doug

Here is one we did with a 30 dollar ebay cam.

http://whiteknuckleairlines.com/inde...=1&key=1&hit=1


wasn't on a chopper... but- yanno..