My first ever RC, BLADE CP!
12-17-2005, 07:35 PM
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Sacramento,
CA
Posts: 62
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My first ever RC, BLADE CP!
I was recently looking around in R/C Country here in Sacramento. I wasn't shopping for a helicopter as such, but a store clerk was demonstrating (playing with) a HIROBO XRB. This attracted my attention, since I've always liked helicopters. But, I just couldn't get over the fact that a toy helicopter would cost $339. Anyway, it got me over to the helicopter section of the store where the BLADE CP caught my attention. More of a real helicopter and for only $219! Over the next few days I did some internet research and made up my mind to go with the BLADE CP. So, I bought my first ever RC anything. But it didn't end there, I ended up buying a couple of Li-Po's and a charger and some carbon fiber main blades and all sorts of crash replacement parts. Some tools, RC magazines, a helicopter book, replacement motors, heat sinks, CA glue, etc. All this has added up over $550! Maybe the HIROBO XRB wasn't such a bad deal after all...
I'm a do-it-yourselfer. I learned to drive a car without the aid or assistance of another adult or driving instructor. Yes, I was in the car all by myself. And that very same day I went on to successfully negotiate rush hour traffic on the busy freeways of Los Angeles! I even once delivered a baby without assistance! My daughter was born on the couch of our studio apartment. So, please nobody tell me how inexperience will lead to crashes. If I crash, so what. It comes with the territory. But I did buy the training gear as a precaution. No simulation software for me! I'll figure it out. I don't need "no stinking badges"
I wouldn't say that my chopper was truly RTF. I started out indoors on the living room carpet, lots of head vibration. Followed the instruction manual for main blades tracking adjustment. I placed heavy weights on the skids so the bird would not fly and then pushed the throttle, balls to the walls. I was able to get the tracking down real good, but the whole damn thing still vibrated like a washing machine. So I decided to disassemble my BCP to see what was wrong. I discovered that the main blade grips were not very close up against the center hub. Slop was a millimeter or more. The little rubber "O" rings were just fine. I could have shimmed things up, but it seemed more logical to just shorten the length of the spindle. I chucked the spindle into my electric drill and used a file on the end of the spindle shaft while turning it in the drill, then smoothed it with some 600 wet-or-dry. Do it yourself lathe. I only took a little bit off at a time, then reassembled to check fit. It took multiple tries to get it just right. Yes, I got all the step washers oriented correctly against the blade grip bearings. The main shaft with drive gear was very hard to remove, the small hole for the retaining pin was puckered. I had to carefully file the main shaft until it could slip through the main shaft bearings.
The main frame flexes considerably right where the main motor is attached! The motor mounting slot on the main frame is kind of sloppy and the motor screw heads are not large enough to do a good job of gripping the plastic. I replaced the motor screw washers with some larger ones. This really made a considerable difference! The main motor pinion now meshes smoothly with the main drive gear without any back and forth wobble or slop due to frame flexing.
I disassembled the flybar assembly, paddles etc. I rolled the bare metal flybar rod on a flat surface. You could see where it was slightly bent and curved. I replaced it with one of the new extras that I had previously bought. In the future I would like to replace the stock factory flybar with a nice piece of stainless steel rod. I bought a couple of pieces of one sixteenth diameter stainlesss rod for $1.39, but now I have to find a die so I can cut screw threads on the ends of the rod.
I purchased some new clear fuel line tubing to replace all the little irregular pieces they start you with. I cut nice new pieces neatly all to the same length.
Now, I have to do something with that ugly dangling receiver wire. Yes, wrapping it all up around a skid works, but it looks kind of tacky. Maybe bdavison could post up his wire wrapping configuration for the Blade CP.
I'm a do-it-yourselfer. I learned to drive a car without the aid or assistance of another adult or driving instructor. Yes, I was in the car all by myself. And that very same day I went on to successfully negotiate rush hour traffic on the busy freeways of Los Angeles! I even once delivered a baby without assistance! My daughter was born on the couch of our studio apartment. So, please nobody tell me how inexperience will lead to crashes. If I crash, so what. It comes with the territory. But I did buy the training gear as a precaution. No simulation software for me! I'll figure it out. I don't need "no stinking badges"
I wouldn't say that my chopper was truly RTF. I started out indoors on the living room carpet, lots of head vibration. Followed the instruction manual for main blades tracking adjustment. I placed heavy weights on the skids so the bird would not fly and then pushed the throttle, balls to the walls. I was able to get the tracking down real good, but the whole damn thing still vibrated like a washing machine. So I decided to disassemble my BCP to see what was wrong. I discovered that the main blade grips were not very close up against the center hub. Slop was a millimeter or more. The little rubber "O" rings were just fine. I could have shimmed things up, but it seemed more logical to just shorten the length of the spindle. I chucked the spindle into my electric drill and used a file on the end of the spindle shaft while turning it in the drill, then smoothed it with some 600 wet-or-dry. Do it yourself lathe. I only took a little bit off at a time, then reassembled to check fit. It took multiple tries to get it just right. Yes, I got all the step washers oriented correctly against the blade grip bearings. The main shaft with drive gear was very hard to remove, the small hole for the retaining pin was puckered. I had to carefully file the main shaft until it could slip through the main shaft bearings.
The main frame flexes considerably right where the main motor is attached! The motor mounting slot on the main frame is kind of sloppy and the motor screw heads are not large enough to do a good job of gripping the plastic. I replaced the motor screw washers with some larger ones. This really made a considerable difference! The main motor pinion now meshes smoothly with the main drive gear without any back and forth wobble or slop due to frame flexing.
I disassembled the flybar assembly, paddles etc. I rolled the bare metal flybar rod on a flat surface. You could see where it was slightly bent and curved. I replaced it with one of the new extras that I had previously bought. In the future I would like to replace the stock factory flybar with a nice piece of stainless steel rod. I bought a couple of pieces of one sixteenth diameter stainlesss rod for $1.39, but now I have to find a die so I can cut screw threads on the ends of the rod.
I purchased some new clear fuel line tubing to replace all the little irregular pieces they start you with. I cut nice new pieces neatly all to the same length.
Now, I have to do something with that ugly dangling receiver wire. Yes, wrapping it all up around a skid works, but it looks kind of tacky. Maybe bdavison could post up his wire wrapping configuration for the Blade CP.
