Review - KBDD 450 Paddles

[GunnyGlow]

Originally Posted by MrRPM

he put a smiley, so maybe pun intended... lol

Ya gotta watch that guy.....he's sneaky like that.

[HugoCraft]

I first tried them out at the Lexington Fun Fly and never went back to the stock ones since. I just had a V2 and put the yellow paddles and yellow tail blades on.

IMO:
The response felt the same'ish but it was crisper to me and not as mushy. FFF was sooooo much easier and was easier to see. The tail felt just as good but 450's usually never have tail issues. I started with the front holes on the paddles and never felt the need to try the back ones.

But I just maidened the new 450 Pro and started with the KBDD goodies. The pro is very different machine than the V2 but I see how it rolls faster than a V2. But I also noticed that the flybar on the Pro is longer than the V2 so that has to make a difference in feel/performance. Right?

[Spork01]

how far in are you guys threading these paddles?

[Finless]

I thread them in until they bottom out. You can tell when you bottom out as you start to see a tiny bulg in the paddle where the end of the FB is bottoming out (it may also start to turn a little white at the bulg). Now back off a turn.

Bob

[Spork01]

thanks for the quick response Bob. I just got them and excited to try them out. I was running with 20% expo on the stock setup. I jack them up to 30% for the first test flight. any comments?

[Finless]

Just be ready! I have now added weights to my flybar as they were just to fast for me. I am not a big stick banger. With weights I like them even better. So again be ready for it to be quick! 30% is a good start.

Bob

[MXRACERX43]

Just put a set on my Furion today.

Set the expo to 30% after the first flight. Second flight I lowered my swash value.
It's a blast to fly it full throws but I am not man enough for it doing any precision stuff.
Gonna setup a ST 3&4 on my 9303 and let those full throw and dial down ST1&2 with DR's.

[nwmtech]

That's pretty much what I've done. Never used to use DR but I do now. Running 30% expo in all modes at 80% DR's normally. DR switch setup to 100% for when I'm feeling a little more confident. I like dabbling with them at full speed sometimes but like being able to turn it down for more precision stuff.

[flybar-les]

i just tested mine today on the 450 PRO and that cyclic response & speed is just insane !!

wow, i never touched my expo, i always fly 15% on the PRO but i did lower my swash mix 5% on the elevator and aileron to make it a little slower.

[Darkkaos]

Just got in my paddles and tail blades today. I can't wait to try these out on my Dragonus II

[Ah Clem]

flybar-les,

"i just tested mine today on the 450 PRO and that cyclic response & speed is just insane !!"

Wait until you try upgrading to the orange KBDD dampers for the PRO-better/quicker still! Very, very positive on the cyclic!


Darkkaos,

I am very interested in hearing how they behave on the Dragonus!

[flybar-les]

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

flybar-les,

"i just tested mine today on the 450 PRO and that cyclic response & speed is just insane !!"

Wait until you try upgrading to the orange KBDD dampers for the PRO-better/quicker still! Very, very positive on the cyclic!

lol i think the heli is fast enough now for me
i'm more a sports flyer, occasional some light 3D but that's it...

but i noticed one thing, with those paddles my nose pitches up, especially under full positive pitch when i want to go to topspeed, i then really had to push the nose down.
i had some slight subtrim on the elevator and i resetted that to "0" and since then it was better, it still wants to pitch up very slightly but now i can FFF without struggling to keep the nose down.

[Darkkaos]

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

Darkkaos,

I am very interested in hearing how they behave on the Dragonus!

I'll let you know
Installed them last night and did a quick hover test in my spare room, and they are really stable thats for sure Looks like the weather's gonna be nicer next week so I hope to get some real testing done then.

[Ah Clem]

flybar-les,

"i had some slight subtrim on the elevator and i resetted that to "0" and since then it was better, it still wants to pitch up very slightly but now i can FFF without struggling to keep the nose down."

There should not be any pitchiness with the KBDD paddles. Sub-Trim should not really cause this.

What radio are you running, just out of curiosity?

Darkkaos,

Looking forward to your flight report!

[flybar-les]

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

flybar-les,

"i had some slight subtrim on the elevator and i resetted that to "0" and since then it was better, it still wants to pitch up very slightly but now i can FFF without struggling to keep the nose down."

There should not be any pitchiness with the KBDD paddles. Sub-Trim should not really cause this.

What radio are you running, just out of curiosity?

Darkkaos,

Looking forward to your flight report!

I use a DX7...

I had some subtrim on the elevator with the stock paddles but when i resetted that subtrim is flew better so i tought that it was because of the crispier paddles that the subtrim had more effect on the heli.(just a guess)

but now i have a new swashplate leveler for the pro, maybe i can redo my swash to get the swash 100% straight over the whole pitch range, maybe that could help ?

[Ah Clem]

"maybe i can redo my swash to get the swash 100% straight over the whole pitch range, maybe that could help ?"

Anything that you do to make your setup more precise is worth doing.


The reason that I asked what type of radio you were using was that, if you were using a Spektrum or JR, if you had Swash Expo activated in the Swash menu.

I have heard a lot of people complain about various machines/paddles, etc. being pitchy, but it seems like most people do not use this option.

I have this option turned on, on all of my CCPM machines. While its real purpose it so eliminate CCPM interactions caused by differential throw as the servos convert rotary motion to linear motion at the pushrod, it does, naturally, induce some expo around center.

I have the KBDD paddles on a Trex 450 Pro, two 450 V1's, a Mini-Titan, an Atom 500, a Calibur 700 (.30 sized electric machine), a Knight 3D, and a Raptor .50 and none of these have any pitchy tendencies (the Raptor is, or course, not a CCPM machine so the Swash Expo does not apply).

There have been reports by very reputable people that Swash Expo causes non-linear servo responses when used with Sub-Trim, but this is minimal compared with the benefits that Swash Expo provides (i.e. it eliminates more CCPM interactions than it creates).

Just a thought/something to try.

If you decide to activate Swash Expo, check your cyclic throws and collective range, as it tends to reduce these somewhat.

[flybar-les]

thanks ! that was very informative info ! i will definatly test this, just switched the expo on in the swash menu, if the weather allows i will go out and test it.

but i have a question, with the stock paddles i did'nt have any strange kind of pitching in flight.
in fact the heli was very stable and only wanted to go FFF in my eyes, then i switched tot the KBDD paddles and for the rest i did'nt do nothing else on the heli or TX and all of the sudden it pitches up ?
strange, but i'll test the expo and let you know what my findings are...

[Ah Clem]

Flybar-les,

I understand. I did not have the pitching up tendencies either with the stock paddles or the KBDD's, so I was trying to see if there was something else going one-possibly as simple as your cyclic being much more sensitive around center than mine.

Let me know if there is any improvement. Make sure that you check your collective and cyclic travel before you fly.

[Darkkaos]

OK so I had a chance to try these out today, only flew two packs since it was about 30 degrees and the wind made my fingers go slightly numb First impressions are very good. Heli is still stable in a hover but they really did speed up the cyclic some. The Dragonus has pretty fast cyclic to begin with and these added to that nicely, I didn't find it overly fast. Did some rolls flips and some inverted flight and I felt pretty much in control the whole time. I will have to get use to them since they do perform different, but so far I like them. Looks like the weather suppose to get almost into the 50's by the week's end, so I'll report further as I get more time with them.

[Darkkaos]

Really flew the hell out of these today. Alot more aggressive flying. Did more stick banging as well I really like their feeling over the stock paddles, quick and smooth. I also didn't notice any real pitching up in FFF. Everything was great until I got a bit too close to the ground doing an inverted fly by, and dumb thumbed the control right into the hard frozen ground oh well back to rebuilding her tonight