micro rc electric helicoptor rocks

[voicecoils]

I've had a few days now to play with my FP100. It's amazing for the price and I haven't killed it yet after a few dozen flights.

In the process I've crashed it in to walls, ceiling, floor repeatedly and smashed a water glass in 2 pieces when the flybar weights struck it.

A few things I learned are that controllability goes out the window when the swashplate separates (which happens easily) and also my tail motor became loose from the housing and would spin around taking things in a downward spiral.

I also took it to a park with a bit of a downwind and the heli could fly, but couldn't maintain position against the wind. It was fun getting it higher into the air though so various mistakes could be made and corrected before hitting the ground!

I wired in a connector for the 240mAh packs I bought but the heli could barely lift off with them, I guess my desire for more watt-hours in everything doesn't work so well for flying machines!

So, now I'm looking at my options for a flybarless collective pitch heli. I think I'll stick with a micro size for the moment because I can continue to practice inside.
All the options are way way more expensive then the FP100 but what the hell.

The Nine Eagles Solo Pro 100 or 180 would be under $200 shipped and have a 6 ch transmitter.

The Blade MCPx is another option that looks nice.

Lastly, the Walkera Mini CP seems highly reviewed and has various transmitter options available, including some that show telemetry data live from the heli like battery voltage which seems pretty cool to me.

Ah, decisions...

[mud2005]

I'm learning to fly the solo pro 100 and I freakin love it. It takes a nano-tech 300mah http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... _100_.html
and I found cheap connectors for the charger end here http://www.rc-connectors.com/index.php? ... et2o28l674
which makes it easy to charge a bunch of those little batteries at once and then head to the park for some fun.
If you get the solo pro 100 I recommend buying a bunch of extra parts with the chopper, you're going to need them if you're learning (I did)
definitely some swashplates as the little plastic balls break off rather easily. they're usually out of stock at HK so I get from helipal.com
also the landing skids are way too fragile so get a few if you plan on practising indoors w/ hard floors like I did. grass is probably better, but I haven't tried outside flying much yet.
also I've broken the canopy, some teeth off the big gear, and the tail.
right now it's held together with a bunch of tape and it still flies fine.
It may be fragile, but it's cheap to fix and fun to fly.
I didn't believe it when I read it takes about 20 battery charges to learn to hover. now I believe it.
I didn't even realise it was on sale when I bought it, but it was $80 and now it's $142
I've never flown an mcpx, but I hear they're good too.
good luck choosing a chopper

[voicecoils]

Thanks for the info mud. I can imagine flybarless collective pitch being a challenge to hover.

Is it setting it up properly that takes time or learning to make constant adjustments to try to hold it in position in the hover? I played around with my FP100's trim settings on the transmitter and really didn't see much change in flight characteristics although I could see what they should be doing in principle.


One other thing I don't understand is why the transmitters have to be so damn big and ugly

The more expensive and more channels they have the larger and crazier they look.

Has anyone made a gizmo that you can plug into a laptop and transmit from there?

[Drunkskunk]

none from laptops, but plenty from Iphones and Ipads.

The only problems with the HK copters, and the ones from Helipal, are (a) they are brittle, and (b) there's no memory on the trim settings on some of those funky controllers.

The Eflite Helies are twice the price, but twice as survivable, twice the quality of parts, and have better controlers with trim memory (or bind N fly to a real radio and program your own mixes )
They only fly a little better, though.

The Walkera fly even better than the Eflite, but don't crash them. they don't survive at all.

[E-racer]

I agree with drunkskunk. To learn to fly collective pitch the cheapest most robust way is a blade mcpx. It may be a little expensive up front but they will take some serious abuse. Walkera and Align are awesome choppers you just dont want to crash them. I find myself rarley pushing my 3D abilities on my nice heli anymore. I do all the 3D stuff I want on my mcpx

[mud2005]

Is it setting it up properly that takes time or learning to make constant adjustments to try to hold it in position in the hover? I played around with my FP100's trim settings on the transmitter and really didn't see much change in flight characteristics although I could see what they should be doing in principle.

it's making the constant adjstments to hover.

from what I've read w/ the flybarless they have an "electronic flybar" which makes setting the trim unnecessary. I find the default radio settings to work very well. I haven't found the need to adjust the trim at all.

[E-racer]

The trim does not have the same effect on a flybarless as a real flybar. On a flybarless heli the trim on the tail rotor will still be useful for fine adjustment. The trim on the pitch is also useful for moving the neutral point. I sometimes even slide my trim up as the lipo sags for finger comfort and muscle memory positions. I absolutely hate digital/momentary switch trims. Real controllers have sliders! The trim on the X and Z axis, longitudinal and lateral, will probably auto trim out pretty well. You should start with those trims neutral.

In summary, if you fly flybarless in mode 2 I find the trims on the left stick useful and the trims on the right stick only marginally useful.

[mud2005]

OMG, temp warmed up to 66 degrees and the ground was dry so I got to fly out side today.

MUCH more forgiving than flying in a small room w/ hard walls and floors. I put a small 2x2 piece of wood on the ground for a takeoff point and... awesome

this chopper will definittley last longer flying outdoors than in.

damn I'm glad it's springtime

I have an echopper grin similar to my ebike grin

[grindz145]

Think that thing could support the weight of my gopro

[mud2005]

got the replacement skids from helipal and they are way way beefier than the stock skids. should last alot longer

[fechter]

I wanted to try hanging the guts from a laser pointer on mine. I'm not sure how much they weigh, but the diode/lens is pretty small.

[voicecoils]

I picked up the Blade MCP x (version 2) RTF with the stock transmitter a couple of days ago.

Since it was raining, I attempted the first few flights inside and found it really needs to get a bit above the ground before any controllability can be obtained (at least with me at the control). If you pop it up half a meter or so into the air, it's much easier to start flying from there.

It's only a tiny bit bigger then my FP100 but has far more power and I managed to crash it hard into to tables and chairs which cracked the swashplate so it no longer can hold the bearing in place. A new one is ordered, along with an extra set of blades since I already cracked the weight out of one of the 2 weighted blades when it struck something. They called them 'fast forward' blades and that's what they did - into a wall.

So the Blade is sitting waiting for new parts. Once it's fixed I think I'll try to continue practicing on a grass field with low wind till I can control it better.

In the mean time I realised the death spiral my FP100 had developed was due to the tail motor shaft spinning without taking the prop with it. The prop is just pressed on and the fit isn't great. I'll have to try to super glue it in place.

Cheers!

photo (2).JPG (137.41 KiB) Viewed 772 times

[E-racer]

I love my mcpx I probably fly it almost every day! I've probably crashed mine 500 times mainly trying to throw a 3d trick when the batt is getting low. They are relentlessly durable. I dont reccomend the weighted blades for any flying at all. From hovering all the way to my messy attempts at tic tocs I find the normal blades to be better. When your stock mini tail motor begins to wear out (will do so quickly) go for the 120sr tail motor setup. You will have to cut down the 120sr tail rotor just a little bit.

[voicecoils]

I love my mcpx I probably fly it almost every day! I've probably crashed mine 500 times mainly trying to throw a 3d trick when the batt is getting low. They are relentlessly durable. I dont reccomend the weighted blades for any flying at all. From hovering all the way to my messy attempts at tic tocs I find the normal blades to be better. When your stock mini tail motor begins to wear out (will do so quickly) go for the 120sr tail motor setup. You will have to cut down the 120sr tail rotor just a little bit.

Thanks for the info.

I did get the MCP x based on it's reviews as being durable, but the first thing I did was break the swash plate in 2 pieces!

Before it cracked, I was finding if I crashed lightly, the bearing would pull out of the swash plate. Is that normal?

I'll ditch the weighted blades. I'll need to learn to fly it in 'stunt mode' where the throttle runs continuously. As I understand it, that's the heart of collective pitch - controlling lift by blade pitch instead of blade motor RPM.

[E-racer]

I have had mine for abt a year and never broken a swash or had the bearing come out... i recently got an aluminum swash but my original stock one was still perfectly fine. I think yours failing was just a fluke. Usually they just break or loose conecting links. If you get the micro heli aluminum head piece you will never loose a link again. I always use stunt mode and reccomend you do the same. Not being in stuntmode all thethe time is so annoying when you start to learn 3d stuff. You pull the pitch back and instead of negative pitch it chops the throttle.

[Nehmo]

Many jobs can be accomplished more effectively by using teams of automated small helicopters rather than one big. Eventually, when automated methods of control and cooperation are advanced, small 'copters doing regular work will become common.

[parajared]

I have flown a multitude of rc helis and mcpx is my favorite so far. I own a mcpx; it's certainly not a good heli to start out with; best to master a msr or FP100 first. If you want the "better" clone of the mcpx, turnigy fbl 100 is the way to go. It has a bigger tail and main motor thus removing the tail blowout problems the mcpx has.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... de_2_.html