Hello , What do you think of the DS290G Digital Ultra Speed Sub-Micro Gyro Servo by JR for the tail servo on the blade 400 and also the other 3 servo's DS287MG Digital Ultra Speed Sub-Micro MG SX by JR to go with the stock gyro!

bbq,

I have upgraded to the JR DS 285MG servos, and I love them!! They have been great, and survived a couple of nasty crashes with no damage. I would highly recommend them....the DS 287's are the same basic servo, just faster I believe, they call them "ultra high speed" ...

For me, the 285's are fine...I don't do any 3D yet, so I'm probably not going to miss the extra speed.

I can't comment on the DS290G tail servo, since I have never used one....but if it's anywhere near as good as the 285's have been for me, I would say go for it! I have been really impressed with my JR servos.

I chose the Futaba 9257 servo on the tail of my B400, because I wanted to make sure I had enough speed and holding power for later on, if I get more serious with any 3D type stuff. It's a big servo, and heavy, and a bit hard to mount, but it flies really sweet with that and the Futaba GY 401 gyro!

Just keep in mind that when you run 4 digital servos, the stock ESC isn't going to like that at all....they draw more current, and the stock 25 amp Eflite ESC is marginal as it is, especially in hot weather, so you may want to consider upgrading the ESC and/or installing a good BEC at the same time.

The other point worth mentioning is that the DS285/DS287's are a direct drop in installation, no enlarging of the mounting holes required, which is nice....you'll have to use the JR arms, and of course, reverse the servo settings, since they are reverse from the stock Elflite servos.

I don't see how you could go wrong with that combo, I would say go for it!

Good luck with it whatever you choose!

Glenn

Well I don't have a lot of heli experience, but I'll tell you what I did when faced with the decision of whether or not to start upgrading my Blade 400.

I figured you're gonna need new servos including the tail rotor and a new gyro. Then new batteries as well as an ESC capable of handling the new stuff. Then aluminum CNC parts, then a new rotor blades, well you get the idea....

So I sold the Blade 400 after having only replaced the tail rotor servo with the digital version and bought a T-Rex 450SE V2. It comes with all the "bling" and I put the new JR DS287MG's on the swash with the DS3500D servo and G7703D gyro in a combo pack on the tail rotor.. While I may not have gone that high of a gyro on the Blade, I figured it would be available if I went to a 500 size heli. I'm not sure about using the DS290G as it's a bit lacking in the torque area, but Horizon does say it's the performance upgrade for the Blade 400. It would go right in the existing mount where the 3500 requires a different mount on the tailboom as it is a slightly bigger servo. Horizon calls the DS3500G "Perfect for 450- to 500-size helis".

Now all these upgrades are not cheap but I figure for about $100 to $150 extra, I now have a T-Rex 450 with all the trick stuf vs. a Blade 400 with all the trick stuff.

I'd suggest you evaluate where you want to go with the heli stuff as some here have spent all the money on Blade 400 upgrades and seem to be quite happy with them. I just chose to go another way.