Why spend the money on a BL motor & BL ESC, you CAN replace the stock 380 3 pole motor with a better one, Trinity makes a good 380 sized brushed motor with adjustable timing & ball-bearings, there's a few more companies that make performance 380 motors as well. The BEST part is that they are inexpensive, most are less than $30 bucks, and don't require replacing the ESC.
I'm still running the stock 380 motor, if you lubricate it before every flight (upper & lower bronze bushings), and open up the heat-sink so that air will flow thru the motor, you should see lasting performance & battery life. I added a sheild behind the motor to keep debris & flinging oil off the RX (made from a piece of a damaged canopy). I have had no issues with this set-up even with the Belt-driven tail assembly. Keep it cool & lubed, and you'll keep it happy!

Rick

The news

Xmas was very good to me this year. On the acquired list:
G3.5 flight sim (cheaper than G4)
Gy240 (a steal off eBay)
Futaba 7chp (have TP7uaf, but it doesnt have heli programing)
Blue CNC stabilizer control hub (swash and center hub on order)
3 pk HS-55 servos
Pair ceramic 10 x 6mm main shaft bearings
Superskids landing system
Heliko Bell-Hiller head system (Helimax to soon release BH head mod)
BladeCP flybar paddles
3 pk Mega Power 3s 11.1v 1350mah 15c LiPos
Dubro spin Balancer. Makes blade and head balancing a breeze.... no more vibrations
Spare AxeCP (also eBay steal) older version.

I found out that I could not interchange the 7c and the stock radio, so I put away the stocker in the old box and proceeded to program the the new 7c, with the help of several of the posts I found here. Thank you all very much. Impatience set in before all the programing was set and I had a little , lets just say, "incident". Fortunately I had not applied any of the upgrades from my acquisition except the radio programing.
Damage assessment:
2 blade grips ( of course)
Tail rotor blade
Stock boom "Z" bend (was going to replace anyway with Boyle needle)
Cracked / broken main frame
Flybar "Z" bend
1 stock Flybar paddle (exploded on impact)

Damage could have been alot worse. This gave me the opportunity to upgrade and mod literally from the ground up. The transformation was night and day. I can finally control this little bundle of joy. The radio, with EXPO D/R, makes the stick input more docile and the BH head gives me quick response when I need it. Kinda like having a turbo under the hood. I really like the idea of fine tuning this heli for my flying style, and the ability to alter the settings as my style changes and progresses.

The biggest drawback I have is my flying field, or lack there of. I have a 4 foot by 5 foot, roughly, space to practice. On my left, The back of the couch. On my right the dining table with blade eating legs(shhh, dont tell my wife). In front is a protruding stub wall. Pilot position is partway down the hallway. Obsticles also include a plant stand and ceramic vase, also a blade eaters. Outside is a little over one foot of snow, not very good on the electronics so I'm stuck indoors.

Even with all the upgrades and bling and spare parts, I have to admit this addiction is alot cheaper than my previous hobby, and alot less dangerous. The fact is I have not spent half the amount on RCHeli total then in one season of auto racing. I guess I can go for more, bigger, better, aghh aghh aghh. I can see a CopterX 450 in my future, but one step at a time.

Edit to flying field. The gym I was using got temporarily taken away for "other activities".

The weather was great today. I was able to fly my AXE. My brother had his out too. I flew one 1250 lipo was all over the place. It was the first flight, so I can chalk it up to first flight gitters. I landed and my brother took off. He has a total of 5 flights on his AXE. He was doing pretty good with is. I waited for the second battery to charge.

I do like my Tritton II and Equinox balancer. I flew for the second battery. This time I was a lot more calm. I started to trim it. I found I need 5 clicks of back cyclic, 2 clicks left cyclic. I also found that at the start of the battery I had left trim on the rudder and as the pack came down I started to have right trim. I have read that on other threads too.

After about 5 minutes on the second flight I had it trimmed so it just sort of sat there. It was pretty nice. It did get blow around a little in the wind. It was gusty, blowing up to about 10 MPH. I think I need to increase the gain a little. When I give it throttle the tail comes around before the tail RPM increases. I will try kicking up the gain tomorrow and see if that helps.

All in all, for $140.00 and flying right out of the box, with just a few clicks of trim, I am happy about getting the AXE. I am going to have some serious fun with it.

I have started a fund for the GY-240 gyro and ESC. I think it will fly better with the HH gyro on it.

Shadow99. Thanks for the tip about the motor. I will look for a 380 with bearings and I will add a drop of oil now and again.


Dru.

P.S. One happy camper

Alright, I've made up my mind: My Axe hasn't been modded enough and I want something that affords me some bragging rights. I'm going BL, and all I need at the moment is a motor (already have an ESC). What are some good ones? I'm eyeing my hobby shop's very complete lines of E-flite and Electrifly motors, but they also have some others. Basically, all I need are Kv ratings, in/out-runner, pinion sizes, etc. I'll hopefully be picking it up today, so quick help would be apperciated.

P.S., I'm flying either a 910mAh 3S 16C li-po or a 1200mah 3S 14C, whichever I happen to have on hand, so power isn't really a factor.

Here is me hovering my heli the one without the lipo, it is an original I have crashed many times.

[link=http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=7623359290711807874]Vid 1[/link]

[link=http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-5053711972190010520]Vid 2[/link]

I can't get either video to play.

Well they are all on Google video so your pc must have some sort of issue? no java installed?

Well, seems to be working today!

I got my Axe CP several weeks ago, I have about 27 flights on it so far, Still just in hovering and the basic flight stuff.. I am very impressed with it, Now I have the MX450 on its way... Can't wait!

just dusted off my Axe.

I kinda sound like a guitarist coming out of retirement when I say that huh, anyway I recently picked up real flight G4 and have been using it every moment I can, now flying my axe is a much more enjoyable experience. I hope this doesn't sound like a paid advert but I just wanted to shout from the roof-tops what a difference a simulator makes. I think that it has already paid for itself in how many parts i would have bought if I just kept "plugging along". It is an expensive purchase but the simple enjoyemnt of trying out several different types of flying machines gives a good variety and saves the fuel of driving to your LHS every time you screw up.

I have the simulator I bought it after my 3rd crash
But in all honesty I have only used it about 4 times and have flown my axe cp about 20 times with about 2 good crashes and 3 minors.
I find with the axe cp that if you put those plastic blades on non-symmetrical they are very touchy and responsive compared to the wood symmetrical that I am used to, since I put the plastic ones on I have been accident prone and have clipped my tail boom/blade grips/Flybar Carrier with the blade coming down back end first a little too fast but suprisingly enough the blades even though are damaged still work the same, but they are just so much more responsive then the wood ones that came with it.
However I do fly my axe cp almost every day so the plastic ones are a way cheaper, and would probably help me learn faster being more responsive they sure do hover better then the wood symmetrical blades.

How common is it for the E-board in the CP to go out. I've had mine for about two weeks, and have been doing fairly well. Broke couple blades, tail motor mounts and such, but today I finished some flying and landed. Pulled the canopy off later and looks like the eboard is smoked. Is this something I should contact the manufacturer about, or is this a normal issue? Everything on my heli is stock.

Thanks,
MK

I would check your tail motor wire and make sure you never short circuited it.
I did that to mine by using a screw just a little longer than required, it shouldn't just fry unless it was short circuited.
If you bought it from you LHS take it there and they should be able to send it in for warranty, mine did
or contact heli max contact support.

So I got the E-borad situation resolved, but now I have another question. Does anyone know the dimensions of the blade grip bearings? I measured and it would appear they are 3x6x2.5 can anyone verify this?

Thanks,
MK

mkrieger

I can verify that 3x6x2.5mm bearing works in the blade grips. 3 per grip or 2 with the spacer.

HTH

what would be a target head speed for the Axe CP? Say the stock head speed?

weird stuff happening here. I hadn't flown for a couple of months, mostly weather. When I got the axe out and put my mega power 1250 in it, with the cannopy on it flies somewhat erratically. When I fly naked, it flies better. There was a slight gusty wiind, would that have done it?

Thanks, Harebear

Yup, the canopy is to blame. When you fly in wind, you can either ditch the canopy fly in idle-up. The canopy gives the wind a much larger area to push against than just the frame, elecs and batt, which causes the heli to be less controllable. In idle-up, the blades spin much faster, increasing their gyroscopic force's effect on the heli and making it more resistant to wind.

Well, no BL motor yet. I couldn't find one that would the Axe's mount[]

Also, for the poor pilots who still fly the [:@]stock batt[:@], I found that Kyosho Caliber M24 blades allow a much lower head speed, which saves batt life. Also, you can say that your heli is a CP/FP hybrid Of course, it becomes very unstable and jumpy, and aerobatics are basically impossible.

Hello All:

I broke both blade grips and replace them but here is my problem. The heli works but the blade grips are 180 degrees off in that the bottom where the nut goes is on top and I have to enter the screw from the bottom. The links does not work otherwise but it flies I just don't understand. I know the screw should enter from on top goes through the main rotor blade and is secured by the nut at the under side of the blade grip. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong when I replace both blade grips and how to fix it? Thanks - Busha

It's an honest mistake caused by a manufacturing defect. The blade grips should go on with the bolt head in the hex shaped hole and the nut in the round hole in the bottom. When finished, the ball links of the blade grips should be toward the trailing edge of the blade.

Hello all

I know that someone asked this before, but try as I might I cannot find any responses yet. I'm looking to put my Axe on an eclipse 7 by hitec. I'm quite new to heli's but I understand that this will give far superior performance to the radio that it comes with.

Unfortunately I have 0 experience with programing for heli's, and while the manual gives a general idea, I would appreciate any help anyone could give me to set this nice little bird up on it. Thanks in advance!

I've attached a sheet that has the setup for the Esky HBK2 and Belt CP. Your Axe will be *similar*. The instructions should get you going. The hardest part (with this TX) for most people is getting the servos working in the right direction for cyclic AND throttle pitch.
You can click on the picture thumbnail, click the "full size" icon, then right click on the picture and select to print it.
The Note about setting the Normal/Reverse swith for the servos is what helps most people. Once you get going on it, it's pretty simple. I use similar settings for my Blade CP and HoneyBee CP2.

Thank you so much! It's a great starting point. I can't wait to get into it and get it on this radio.

Hi,

I'm inching up the learning curve with helis. Recently I went to the CNC head with my Axe CP. Some of the ball joints on the blade grips etc seem a little stiff.
There was a remark in the latest Fly RC about loosening ball joints (in a heli review). Any advice on this? Sometimes my Axe seems to jump vertically and I wonder if that's cause the cyclic pitch is a bit sticky.

Great to be in contact with so many like minded addicts

Tony

Mine jumps all over. It is getting hit with radio interference. I have rerouted the antenna to see if I can stop it. Check the head for any binding. Pop off the links fro the servos and move all of the parts around. I had a little spot on the main shaft that the swash plate would not slide freely over. I rubbed some 600 grit paper over it and a tiny drop of oil and not that is gone.

I am waiting for better weather to fly both of mine. I have a 401 in one and the other is bone stock. Winds are 40 plus right now. The AXE would look like a tumble weed in that wind.

Dru.