micro rc electric helicoptor rocks

[mud2005]

Hi all, got a new toy today I just have to mention.
http://www.rc-fever.com/syma-s107g-3ch- ... 13356.html
SYMA S107 g. I cannot believe this thing was $21. metal frame, 3channels, flies freakin great.
comes w/ a usb cord for charging or you can charge from the controller batts.
check it out on youtube there are speed mods and other such fun.
its so easy to fly, I can already hover an inch above the floor, and land it anywhere, you can easily fly it in a 10 x 10 room.
shipping was more than the coptor, but it arrived from hong kong in 2 days
good times, I wish these were available when I was 10

[E-racer]

That type of heli is alot of fun! When you get bored with it try out an mcpx from blade. It'll be the best $150 bucks you've ever spent once you learn to hover and start to maintain control of a collective pitch bird.

[Spicerack]

I've had a few of those. They're good...but.... try the 2.4Ghz ones from Hobbyking. You can fly them outdoors, and come in co-ax (easy to fly for beginners) or fixed pitch blades. I have a fixed pitch and trust me, this thing motors! It can go so high it's almost out of sight!

Mine is the Hobbyking HK190 (similar to the Blade). There's a few on the site to choose from. Boys and their toys...

[mud2005]

awesome, I'm already dreaming of better choppers this is my first one so I'm just amazed by it. I do live across the street from a park though and would love to have an outdoor friendly model next for sure.
good to hear what models are worth purchasing, there are a lot to choose from.

[mud2005]

just ordered one of these http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... ouse_.html
nine eagles solo pro 100 6CH $80

[E-racer]

Awesome choice! Im out flying helis right now actually. remember a cp flybarless is going to a have a serious learning curve. Take you time, learn to hover with the tailrotor pointed to you and the front of the heli forward. I ran about 20 batts just learning to hover. If you cant keep it perfectly still you cant control it with any speed. Youll know when its time to try to control a full controlled circle, then move to a figure 8 once you mastered a good circle.

[mud2005]

thanks for the good advice E-racer, I do plan on going through many charges just learning to get off the ground and not crash. too bad HK didn't have any extra batteries in stock or I would have bought a pile of them. the nano-techs that size are really cheap, but of course on backorder.
luckily I've spent many many hours flying a helicopter in grand theft auto 4 so I should be good to go

[mud2005]

the 300 mah nano-techs are now in stock at HK and they're < $2 so I ordered a dozen.

now I'm wondering where to get a connector for my icharger so I can charge these. they say 2 pin molex in the description, but I couldn't find any for sale at HK.

does anyone know where to get connectors for these bad boys

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[mud2005]

got the solo pro 100 in the mail today. very nice little machine, but I don't have much to compare it to as it's only my second and the first was 3CH.

anyway, it's way more challenging to fly than the 3CH. I've flown it twice now, and I can get it to fly a bit, but nothing close to a good hover yet. I found a good free flight sim and it actually helped. http://www.flightgear.org/ it took me about 20 tries in the sim to just get the copter in the air.

my review on this helicopter is: holy crap, I can't believe this thing was only 80 bucks! it's so freakin cool.

[Philistine]

does anyone know where to get connectors for these bad boys

With most chargers comes a set of charge leads which are banna plugs on one end for the charger, and on the other end are a pair of alligator clips. I use those to charge lipo packs with random connectors I have no adaptor for and it works a treat (ie you just clamp the aligator clips on to the relevant + and - terminal of the plug in question).

[voicecoils]

All this heli chatter prompted me to buy something to try, the HK F100 suggested previously. If I can figure out how to get the fixed pitch off the ground, I'll try to step up to something proper.

One of my first thoughts was... 'i'll strap some bigger lipo to it!' but then I realised the whole 'copter with a 1S 120mAh pack weighs 31g and most of the 1S packs I looked at weighed more then the whole damn thing! I grabbed a couple 240mah 9g 1S Zippy packs anyways and I'll see if they can still be lifted of the ground.

While I wait for delivery, I'll check out that simulator and start dreaming about FPV and gopro ariel filming. Thanks for the prodding guys

[mud2005]

With most chargers comes a set of charge leads which are banna plugs on one end for the charger, and on the other end are a pair of alligator clips. I use those to charge lipo packs with random connectors I have no adaptor for and it works a treat (ie you just clamp the aligator clips on to the relevant + and - terminal of the plug in question).

that would work, but I wanted to make a harness w/ 12 plugs so I could charge a dozen batts at once

All this heli chatter prompted me to buy something to try, the HK F100 suggested previously. If I can figure out how to get the fixed pitch off the ground, I'll try to step up to something proper.

One of my first thoughts was... 'i'll strap some bigger lipo to it!' but then I realised the whole 'copter with a 1S 120mAh pack weighs 31g and most of the 1S packs I looked at weighed more then the whole damn thing! I grabbed a couple 240mah 9g 1S Zippy packs anyways and I'll see if they can still be lifted of the ground.

While I wait for delivery, I'll check out that simulator and start dreaming about FPV and gopro ariel filming. Thanks for the prodding guys

awesome! check out the nano-tech for that model http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... _100_.html
only $1.17 each!

I've crashed 2x so far and had to put things back together, but no major damage and I almost got it to hover last time

edit: just hit the wall again and it broke one of the little pieces on the swashplate, this thing is pretty fragile, oh well parts are cheap.

[Drunkskunk]

I've got a Blade MCP X, which yours is a clone of. Nice Coptor, but they are hard as hell to controll, coming from a coaxial like you had. I've got the MCP (non X) which is the fly bar version of the blade, and it flys much smoother, and is far more forgiving.

I've also flown that FP 100, and the S-Pro PF II. Both Damn good designs, even easier to fly than the MCP. We fly them up at my office around the cubicles

If you're new to Flybars, Flying a Flybar Heli is like trying to balance the Heli while it's hanging from a long string from the celing. It wants to center and hover. Flying a FLybarless heli is like trying to balance one on the top of a long pole. it wants to fall over and you have to make it center and hover. Of course the FLybarless is more manuverable, but harder to control.

[fechter]

I have a Nine Eagles Solo Pro. It's a lot of fun. There was a pretty steep learning curve as a beginner, but in the hundreds of crashes I put it through, it never broke. Finally the tail motor burned out and fried the controller. Luckily parts are cheap. If I ever get another one, I think it will be Blade collective pitch.

[svt/r&d]

$20 bucks nice anti drone system

[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