What difference does the swash plate center ball really make to the hovering stability of micro helis? I'm learning on my Jabo 2 & it's certainly challenging! It always seems much more stable when you get it above chest height but it still wanders around a lot. I haven't installed the swash plate center ball yet, but I'm considering it. Helihobby has zero stock of everything so where can I get one? I want the whole assembly as I don't have access to any tools & I don't want to drill anything. There's a lot of flex in the plastic components, I wish I could replace the parts with CNC parts but it's so expensive!

One more thing (sorry), my Jabo 2 seems to have a shaft collar already on it from the factory?? It's the new type with the
OOO
OOOO shaped battery (3 on top - 4 on the bottom, not hexagonal shaped). Anybody else got the same chopper? Where can I get some upgrade parts? I use www.XMseller.com for the standard parts. We had an earthquake last night but luckily, the training gear saved it from sliding off the shelf!! 2 uses in 1!

Thanks guys.

I'm not exactly sure what your asking here. I'm guessing your terminology is wrong. What exactly is it your asking about installing, describe it in detail. For reference, ALL swash plates have a center ball... It's the basis of how they work.. The "center ball" is literally the ball in the center of the swashplate that works as a "bearing" of sorts... The ball has a hole through the center that the main shaft goes through... The swashplate has the ball "captured" within it, but still lose enough to move... This allows the swashplate to tilt in any direction while still being "attached" to the main shaft...

This will always happen. What you are experiecing is called ground effect. Basically what happens is when you are close to the ground, the air moving through the disc is hitting the ground and curling back up into the blades as turbulent air. This in combination with the fact that the heli really isn't generating as much lift as is needed to counter-act the weight of the heli. This is why close to the ground there is actually a "linear" relationship between the throttle/collective stick and the height above the ground. Your actually "riding" on a cushion of air. Once you get above this height, things are much smoother. That's what your experiencing.

As far as it "wandering around". It could be a combination of things. First and foremost the micros are not very stable. My T-rex is stable enough to fly through the lving room, kitchen, etc, with out to much difficulty... My hummingbird I can manage in the kitchen, but it's very hairy... My Raptor (30 size) is stable enough I could fly ANYWHERE in the house, if I had scuba gear so the fumes didn't kill me.. In other words, your always going to have more instability with the micro. However, SOME of it can also be attributed to lash and slop in the head. Watch the head and swash closely as you move the cyclic around... Does the swashplate always re-center in exactly the same position after applying cyclic inputs? Probably not... This leads to it's "wandering" about.. Sometimes better servos will improve it, better servo linkages can improve it, getting rid of plastic ball links and replacing with metal can improve it, eliminating sticky spots can improve it, etc... Lots of ways, but in general, your ALWAYS going to have some...

The shaft collar is another part that is standard on any of them. Basically it's what holds the whole main shaft in place... Without it as soon as you started to spool up, instead of the heli lifting, the head and shaft would just lift right up out of the heli... What you MAY be refering to is the fact that you can buy "upgrade" shaft collars... Usually these are much thinner than the ones that come with the micro... This allows more room for the swashplate to tilt giving you move cyclic control, and more negative pitch (on a CP machien).

In general, how high does the heli need to be to get out of Ground Effect? Let's say for a Hummingbird if the type of Heli makes a difference.

well, between the ground and 1/2 the rotor diameter is where it is most pronounced... The effects can still be felt at a height equal to the rotor diameter, but to a much lesser extent... For micros though, it doesn't take "much of an extent" to play hell with it though.. In general, I'd say about 1 1/2 times the rotor diameter will put you out of it clear and free... So if your hummingbird has a 7" blade (14" diameter), it should be barely noticable at 14" but completely eliminated at 21".

lots of stock micro FP helis don't actually have any ball of any sort, they just have a hole with lots of free play. Adding a ball-in-swash mod for those helis makes a BIG difference.


finally, don't get it from helihobby, theirs is just a ripoff product anyway. get it from the source from pierre at
http://www.helinut.com/all_products.html#ball

Thanks guys, as for the swash plate I should've been clearer. The upgrade part I have now bought has a brass ball in the center to make inputs smoother (BTW I got it from Like90) as mine doesn't have one.

The arms are so bendy on the stock swash plate! Has anyone out there put one of these brass balled swash plates on a FP Jabo2?

On another note, many people say that the stock tail motors are not so reliable. I'm interested in putting a direct drive tail motor on the back & getting rid of the gear assembly as theres long grass around here & it gets caught sometimes . Has anyone done this & did it create a COG issue?

Sorry for the questions - newbies eh?

No kidding? I stand corrected... Good grief that must make a horrible flying bird!!!

Weird!
I have one of these and there IS a ball (copper) bearing in the swashplate!
A tip - try using a (tiny!) amount of lithium grease on all the links, did it on mine and it made quite a difference.
I've also found that a lot of Hummingbird parts are a direct fit!