Jeff

At the moment I got ZERO flyin machines! I am using the "Guts" from the Belt cp till I can get it repaired(frame,skids, gears, $70). And of course yes it is BEER.

Vic

It is a pretty impressive heli I like how the manufacture opted-out of the fancy carrying box and stuck it in a plain brown box labeled Helicopter. I am putting the servos in but wondered how you attach them to the alum frame mine didn't have any lock nuts or similar for the back of the screws.<br type="_moz"/>

Kyle,
Look through every package...mine were in with the main rotor blades. If you dont have them...find some black plastic make little plastic nuts yourself (3/64" thick will work)...just drill the little squares under sized, your screws will thread the plastic....works great.

Thanks for the idea. I looked everywhere and none to be found so I'll find something to make it work.

Kyle,
Some people get 'em, some people don't.....dunno why. I see you got the metal blade grips on it....nice touch. I put the Copter-X CNC head and tail on....it's great, smooth as glass and it's an improvement over plastic....I love it. I swore I'd never buy "bling"....CNC isn't bling, it's an upgrade.

Jay ~

Yeah that little mount is just 2 pieces of that reciever foam stuff that is duct taped together and velcro attaching it to the frame of the heli. Then there's velcro on the bottom of the foam and the camera rests there also with 2 velcro straps. I thought of the foam because I saw some were getting that wave interference, and also because the Webbie has no image stabilization so I thought it would help soak up some vibrations. It did really good with no vibrations, but I did get that wave effect on the video from some kind of interference. I wonder if a metal plate of some kind would help block out that interference ? Dunno.... I kind of suspected this might happen, because I remember a few times when the camera was on my baseball cap bill and it was filming, and when I would get close to the heli I could hear a noise interference watching the video later.

I have some big fluffy foam packing stuff that I'll try next to move the camera away from the heli some more at a better distance to see. Yeah make sure you do your research before ya buy one... So far, there's a lot of good that I love about this camera and a few things I've found that aren't the greatest is the contrast is poor with not much saturation to make the videos vibrant and rich with color. Some video programs can fix this... No image stabilization, so others were complaining but I thought it did great on the wobbly Logo still missing those 2 washers in the spindle/o-ring area. No vibration at all... I was impressed.

Its also not the greatest in low-light conditions. I also don't like it makes the heli blades warped looking but can live with that. I could return it to Walmart since its within the 30 day return policy, but I like the camera enough that I decided not to.

Its pretty much just good for filming. The pictures come out low quality... My cell phone pics look better in otherwards. LMAO... But the video is great !

Here's a few pics of a guy with the Webbie on one of his gliders. Its on top, and he says he gets up high and then just cuts the power, the prop folds back and he films away... There's also a aerial video that came out not to bad from a guy using a glider I think it is...



http://www.vimeo.com/4726732


Here's a bit of chatter here on RCU of the Webbie below. The program that comes with the Webbie will convert it to a WMV version also if you wish, so then I believe you can still use Windows Movie Maker.


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8800156/tm.htm


Yeah that wave effect that I got looked liked CostaRica's first video on his Blade 400 when he tried. His video is below in the link.


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8839114/tm.htm


Yeah Jay, you know who Rotorydoc is here on RCU and he did a hatcam with his Webbie 12 days ago filming his Blade 400. This was his first try with the camera in getting it set-up.


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8839114/tm.htm



Cheers,

~ Jeff

Kyle ~

I'am like Crash with these heli's and just dig around looking for anything to work. Thinking out loud here, and guessing you may have these you may want to try to see if you have some extra servo arms that are plastic and cutting a portion of the arm to the size you need to use as lugs for those servos. It would actually be stronger than the nuts that you would have probably got anyway...Lol... If you had some small enough ones, you may be able to use one of the holes then for the servo screw to thread into hopefully. Dunno.... Just an idea. Really anything will work, you just need something for those screws to thread into and suck the servo up to the frame.

Cut up your credit card into little pieces and use it....

I found that if take a old Xmod plastic wheel nuts poke the rest of the way thru it and it work perfect for the servos. Yeah got the cnc grips so ill leave the CopterX stuff for the Belt.

Hey Kyle, looks like ya got a good start on that EXI already. I'm think Vic probably feels like a proud papa right now knowing you got one!

Dave- SO you dumped the HBK, you still got the B400 right? What happened on the HBK? Are you still flying the B400 on the stock servos?

Jeff- I'm watching closely how you make out with the webbie, looks like just what I need to put under the B400 and take it out for a ride. The video you posted above from the glider flight has some spectacular quality. Going to check out the others here shortly

JPEE- Heck man, I thought you could fly one handed so you really didn't need that secod arm anyhow! LMAO! Just teasing you, glad to hear you found a way around it but make sure you still follow Dr's orders to keep the healing process on schedule.

Jay- I'm thinking I may get the Decathlon airborne this weekend. It wo't have the smoke system installed, I gave up on the TJM smoke pump, it's just too incosistent. I'll have to get a Sullivan pump once the wifeisn't looking!

Been flying the B400 with the stock motor again and prefer it over the Align 430L . Using 315 pro woodies, there is plenty of headspeed and NO bog. I'm limitting flight times to 5.5 minutes out of the stock 1800 battery in idleup ( only taking 900mah on a recharge) so I'm pretty happy with that. I can probably push my Outrage 2000 to 7 minutes but dont. I did my first Immelman today, but it was by accident! In trying to smooth out my rolls, I decided to add some "up" elevator while inverted in the roll. Well, I added  too much the first time and she looped right back toward me. It was almost as if it was planned but it wasn't! I'll have to do a few more just to prove it can be done on purpose!

Jim

Kyle, the first thing that'll drive you NUTS is the tail drive gear set. The plastic one fails horribly...I've bought 3 plastics...then I had enough and bought the CNC:

http://www.xheli.com/exi-31113.html

Put the CNC one in and forget it. Also....replace the skid struts with Align struts as soon as possible, the stock ones are weak.

Jeff- the last link you posted was supposed to go to rotorydocs video but it went back to Costaricas? Is rotodocs in the "struggling" thread?

Jim

Jim ~

Oooops... Sorry about that... Always rushing it seems. Here it is :


http://www.vimeo.com/5026931


I told him it looks Choppy kinda ? I know JPEE saw this to. He has his cam mounted however on his baseball cap bill, but mounted upright using the predrilled hole used for a tripod. I'am thinking its being bounced around to much and the background is just to noisy with the wind like Glenn suggested. I can't wait to do some tests to see how mine come out when I upload them to Vimeo. I think having mine laid flat on my baseball cap bill reduces the vibration the camera doesn't like to have supposively...

I had always liked JPEE's camera, but I didn't see it at Walmart when I was out impulse shopping... LMAO...

That's a better link.

Yep, it's kind of choppy. A more solid mount might help that. The quality looks good, yet those warped blades just crack me up! I'm assuming that the record framr rate is just too slow for the speed the blades are rotating at, causing that effect. Guess we can't have it all in a lightweight camera. Looking forward to your first try.

Jim

Jeff,
I have lurked the Webbie thread and watched some of the videos. Addressing the choppiness of the videos~ Like Dave said increasing the frame rate will help but I know that Windows Movie Maker (WMM) will make a nice clean video a choppy mess. So a good converting program like Nero has to be used. It will look incredible from the camera to the TV but from the camera, through the computer, and onto the web kills it.

It would be interesting to try to kill the waves by maybe using carbon fiber and make a box of sorts. Metal could magnify the problem but from what I hear from Spetrum users is the carbon fiber does well at blocking the signals. Just a thought. On my aerial vids I use multi layer of different foam to help from the prop vibration. Styro for the mount and soft cousion type foam to the camera, all wrapped with rubber bands. Your velcro is better.

In all I haven't seen a video camera that takes as good of video with the least amount of cost and compact, light weight. This camera is the best for what we want to use it for.

My wife gave me a very dirty look when I told her I wanted to get the Webbie and the Bird of Time, Rick's Glider. She asked me if we'd ever be able to retire[X(] I said, " Ya... when I die you can sell all of my stuff and retire."

Blessings,

Jay

Jim,
I hope all goes well with the Decathlon getting back into the air. I understand the frustrations on the smoke thing. One guy used to have smoke on his big gassers and would talk about the hassle. He had a tank leak into his fuse and I guess it was really bad. Plus he flipped the switch with an electric pump and the plane got a mind of it's own( interference) until it crashed.
Take a vid of it if you can, I'm really looking forward to it.

BTW while I was looking at the Dynafite's Bird of Time on Tower's website I had to go over and look at the Decathlon again

Blessings,

Jay<br type="_moz"/>

Jay ~

I was wondering about carbon fiber. I may try that... Yeah, I needed cam a long time ago even in Cali as you remember, but always so overwhelmed and trying to find that perfect $200.00 or less camera. It never happened finding it, and got discouraged. So When Glenn got his Webbie, although I knew of some of the negatives I still just went for it and good enough for what I want to use it for.


Jim ~

Yeah I really think his cam mount sitting up high like that is more vulnerable to his movements. It really works just perfect laid flat on your baseball cap bill. Hardly noticable is what I love now. I always was embarrased with that other crude contraption I used before.

My wife still says to me as I walk out the door with the helmet cam: "There goes my nerdy husband. If you see anyone we know, tell them I dont know you!"

Jay- If I do get out, I will be sure to be a "nerd" and get the video!

Jim

Jay,
I hope you have a guardian ANGEL, or at least you'd better now sleep with one eye open! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Signed YOURWIFE!

JPEE,
LMAO! She'd miss me
I hope your shoulder's healing up! Like Vic said don't push it to hard!

Jim, my wife wife says pretty much the same thing, but I'm the " DORK"

Blessings,

Jay

Hi All,

Good news on my end today, my shipment from Hobby King has arrived. I guess I'm Blessed by the Best!

The box looked as though it had been sat on by a couple of Sumo wrestlers but upon opening in front of the mail man I found no damage at all.
I was surprised to see that the Zippy H's came with extra female balancing connector so you can make adapters. The balancing connectors on the pack are standard E-flite type not Thunder Power. That works for me as my charger accepts both.

The HK-450 initial inspection is great! The tail box is identical to the SA which is poor but works. I plan on upgrading to CNC eventually. I looked over everything closely and found no defects so far although the main blades that are supplied with the HK-450 are junk and won't be used. They are much heavier than the stock Align 325 woodies. The HK-450 blades weigh 36 grams each compared to the Align's @ 22 grams each. As a pair the blades of the HK-450 are 28 grams heavier, YIKES! To put that into perspective that's 5 nickles and 1 penny of extra weight. I would imagine that this would help for someone just hovering but not for inverted flight and such.

So far, so good![8D]

Blessings,

Jay

Sweet Jay...how many days from order placed to arrival?

Cool Jay ! It seems it came quick ?! Yeah I hated the SA's rear tail case always breaking in a crash. Eh ! I did have to replace it with the Align CNC one to stop that procedure or it would have gotten expensive. Its crazy how cheap that kit is with all that ya get. Hek I need some parts for my tired Trex, and it would be cheaper just to get that kit... LMAO...

just my luck...<div></div><div>two days after I cancel the Turningy brushless motor and have my order shipped, they get them in stock. Now I have to pay shipping again! Thankfully it's only $3</div><div></div><div>anyone else want an HK450? I can add to my order......

now that Dave and Jay got there HK450... hopefully mine will arrive soon!</div>

You've been waiting on the motor for a while. Guess I should have told you that when an item is not in stock....it normally comes back within 2 weeks. The only reason I haven't ordered is because they don't have the Assan 2.4 recievers in stock, so I check daily. When it's back in stock, I'll order the reciever/HK-450/ and 8 of the little blue 9G servos...timing is everything here....LMAO

Vic,
10 days from the time I placed the order. I'd bet that my box and Dave's were on the same ship. They probably hold stuff until they have a big shipment to send over.

Jer,
That stinks! They could have told you but at least it only $3.

Jeff,
I always seem to break the control lever but you can't just get that... you have to buy it with the slider as well.

It's pretty much built. I'm not going to put any gear in it because this is my back-up but I got it ready for electrics. A couple of misses that I found.

CONS

First~ The main gear is warped and rubs on the frame. I'm sure a little heat and twisting could get it closer but I'm not going to worry about that. It's not rubbing terribly. It seems to be round but you really don't know until you put a pinion against it.
Second~ The mount for the battery tray is plastic instead of metal like the SA's. Not a big thing... just different.
Third~ Some of the screws which are the same have a different allen head size. Typical cheaper hardware. Again, not a big deal.
Fourth~ Like I said before the blades are crap.

PROS

First~ expense... can you beat it?
Second~ The tail box is slightly different and the slider control seems to be beefier. The weak control arm is the same though.
Third~ Again the expense, LOL I can't believe how much I paid for my SA

Vic,
Did you find any problems like the main gear on the EXI?

Photos~ #1 side by side #2 T-RexSA tail box #3 HK-450 tail box

Blessings All!

Jay

"Vic,
Did you find any problems like the main gear on the EXI?"

Jay...no I didn't. What I thought was a main gear problem was a problem with the tail drive gear set which is typical for the EXI. Even still, my EXI ended up with the Align pretty blue main gear and a CNC tail drive gear set.