DoubleCH's flight log

[litehawkdown]

should of got a 250!

[stevebaker]

I thought everybody changes the 250 esc because it isn't up to the job?

Same difference

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by litehawkdown

should of got a 250!

No, before I bought the 300X I knew there would be a good chance I needed to fiddle with it like I did my 130X. As you know, my 130X has been flying great, solid, and cheap to maintain for over 1300 flights now. I bought the 300X mostly for the AR7200BX, which will eventually go into my 450 Pro DFC and the 300X gets the 3GX. Regardless of 300X or 250 I'll change the ESC anyways. I like the fact that 300X parts are readily available and HH product support has been great on this one. I've got replacement motor, cyclic servo, main gears twice (not twin pack but twin pack twice, 2nd time because of crash damage), mainshaft twice, feathering shaft twice, head dampers, tail case, tail shaft, tail rotors, blades. Try that with Align product support.

[litehawkdown]

Originally Posted by DoubleCH

No, before I bought the 300X I knew there would be a good chance I needed to fiddle with it like I did my 130X. As you know, my 130X has been flying great, solid, and cheap to maintain for over 1300 flights now. I bought the 300X mostly for the AR7200BX, which will eventually go into my 450 Pro DFC and the 300X gets the 3GX. Regardless of 300X or 250 I'll change the ESC anyways. I like the fact that 300X parts are readily available and HH product support has been great on this one. I've got replacement motor, cyclic servo, main gears twice (not twin pack but twin pack twice, 2nd time because of crash damage), mainshaft twice, feathering shaft twice, head dampers, tail case, tail shaft, tail rotors, blades. Try that with Align product support.

Good to hear your still pleased. Also nice to hear HH has got your back. I thought they were hating on us Canadians. Did they ask you to send it in? Real PITA when they go there. I was asked to do that with my DX7s.

I know what you are saying about Align support. But to tell the truth I never needed it even if it was there. Most issues are builder error. A bad part in a kit should be dealt with by the the seller. He can deal with getting a replacement from the dealer. Guess I am also lucky because my LHS seems to stock a boat load of 250 and other Align spares.

I can never see you flying anything that is trouble free though. You would get board to death.

Happy modding!

[wadders248]

Just to let you know I had a successful, trouble free couple of hours flying the 450x with the new ESC yesterday. I tried a few flat out fast runs and also holding tic-tocs for as long as my skills allow me. Both would have been long enough to have caused any over-heating problems.

In fact the ESC, motor and battery came down cool and the usual four minute run-time didn't take as much out of the batteries as before. Seriously thinking about swapping to 6s, for slightly longer flight times, but it's flying so well as it is.

[Nytro97]

Thanks for sharing all this great information guys.

Tom

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by wadders248

Just to let you know I had a successful, trouble free couple of hours flying the 450x with the new ESC yesterday. I tried a few flat out fast runs and also holding tic-tocs for as long as my skills allow me. Both would have been long enough to have caused any over-heating problems.

In fact the ESC, motor and battery came down cool and the usual four minute run-time didn't take as much out of the batteries as before. Seriously thinking about swapping to 6s, for slightly longer flight times, but it's flying so well as it is.

Excellent! Make me want to flash my spare AE 45A and get it ready for my 450 Pro DFC.

[wadders248]

Originally Posted by DoubleCH

Excellent! Make me want to flash my spare AE 45A and get it ready for my 450 Pro DFC.

[DoubleCH]

Haha! Just had my first flying day of my 450 Pro DFC. I think flat 100% throttle flies OK so maybe it doesn't need govenor. Not sure if the 45A can yield more power though for the 450MX motor. Flies pretty good so far with 3GX v3.0. My buddies say it flies (and seems to fly) much better than with v2.1 although we all agree BeastX flies better. That's why my plan is to have both birds dialed in good and then swap FBL controllers. I thought I had my 300X vibes pretty much dialed out until I flew my 450. Absolutely smooth as silk. Even the $6.52 CF blades from HobbyKing fly nice.

My 450 Pro DFC First Flying Day (4 min 19 sec)

Back on topic. I was supposed to test the 300X today but after watching how smooth my 450 is I think I need to work harder to dial out more vibes on the 300X before testing it. I know the tail rotor assembly is not as balanced as it can be (even after dynamic balancing). I'm waiting for my Tarot 450 Pro thrust-bearing tail hub/grips before I'll try dial out more vibes.

[litehawkdown]

Once you crash less big heli=better Heli Nice flying DoubleCH

[DoubleCH]

Yeah, I know.

Flight #59-61 yesterday (18th). Wasn't expecting to fly the 300X yesterday since I said I was going to wait for Tarot 450 Pro Thrust bearing tail hub/grips but I flew it anyways, not without paranoia. No cut-out it seems, 1st time with 6V OK, I lied about my confidence or maybe just paranoia, I keep my external 3A SBEC on running 6V and I made a music-wire landing gear (I have it on all my smaller helis because they are cheap to make, absorb crash damage better, indestructible, and lighter than stock) so that I don't crash the nice-looking stock one. Haha! With the BX mounted on boom mount top with 3M gel tape even with the little vibration (small enough not seen on tail-fin but a tiny bit blur on my music-wire landing gear) BX doesn't freak out. Of the 3 flights I did I was so paranoid on anything the bird is doing exactly what I expect my input to do. Radio reception is definitely not a problem with the relocated BX (and thu antennae). Range check showed that I could walk all the way up the hill like 50-60 paces and I still didn't lose signal with low power mode. Only did I hide TX behind a car 50-60 paces up the hill with low power did I lose signal.

Since the little vibes I found recently I thought it came from the tail but I realized whenever I spool down on the last 3 seconds or so free-spinning (with one-way bearing) the head button would shake sideways a tiny bit. That suggests something is not perfectly balanced on the main rotor. I spun up at different HSes but couldn't find any hint of out-of-balance or out-of-track. Then I took a really close look at everything and noticed one of the CF blades tip trailing edge has been chipped very little like less than 1/8 x1/8" little, most likely from the loss control crash I had earlier that I didn't check close enough. I re-checked blade balance and it's only 0.03g lighter but I re-balanced them anyways with clear tape and swapped blades in their grips and it surely makes a difference! No more spin-down head button shake!

[DoubleCH]

Flight #62 to 65. More testing of the 6V BEC setup and BX relocation. Definitely no sign of possibility of loss of cyclic/throttle control. I want to shake that paranoia away ASAP. It's just not right that I feel more nervous flying my 300X than my 450 Pro DFC.

My Blade 300X Flight #63 with 6V SBEC and 5V Tail Servo Testing (3 min 21 sec)

[DoubleCH]

Flight #66 and 67. Wind has been pounding the whole day and will be tomorrow and that means clouds are moving fast and wet/dry condition changes fast. Managed to fly a pack before the rain comes to further break in my new Turnigy 30C 1300 packs. I'm much more confident today that the BX won't freak out today. Probably just a few more flights and I'll be able to totally shake off my paranoia. Since I still have a 2nd Turnigy pack to break in I thought why not having some goofing fun over the picnic tables under the shelter.
Running at 2344rpm HS, the bird is extremely tame like a co-axial heli. Before you wonder, running motor this slow doesn't overheat anything because power required to hover is not enough to overheat despite low motor speed. If I run this HS and fly with high collective and/or cyclic that may overheat the motor. After goofing around for 3 minutes (too bad my phone memory runs out after 2 minutes) I still have 3.9V per cell so I fly another 3 minutes to bring down to around 3.76V.

No harm has been done to heli, property, animals, videography, etc. when filming this flight.

My Blade 300X Flight #67 Goofing Around in Close Space [Stabilized] (2 min 0 sec)

[Gotham55]

Do that inverted and I will be impressed!

[DoubleCH]

I almost wanted to do it with my 130X today. Haha!

Flight #68-73. While waiting for my Tarot thrust bearing tail hub/grips I can't miss the nice flying weather so I put in all new tail parts hoping to remove vibration from the previous crash damage due to ESC failure. All the time I thought the tail shaft was bent but it's actually the tail hub. Since I have all new tail parts except hub I can't remove tail vibes entirely. I tried as best as I could and re-balanced the tail as best as I could. After flying 4 packs with my 450 Pro, I want to rewind the motor on the 300X even more. Hopefully, it's just the tail vibes that's robbing power. Or maybe it's just an illusion after flying my Align 450MX motor on the 450 Pro which is twice as powerful. Can't wait for the Tarot hub/grips to come. Well, one positive thing is my paranoia of BX freaking out has pretty much gone.

My Blade 300X Flight #70 with New Tail Parts and Re-Balance (4 min 13 sec)

[SHYguy]

CH, you should try the 450X! It's 15% lighter that the T-Rex, very much noticeable!

Not the same parts quality as Align, but boy does it move! And really feels more light and nimble! With Lynx slant gears it will be a killer!

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by SHYguy

CH, you should try the 450X! It's 15% lighter that the T-Rex, very much noticeable!

Not the same parts quality as Align, but boy does it move! And really feels more light and nimble! With Lynx slant gears it will be a killer!

I'm happy with my 450 Pro DFC with 450MX motor (doubles the P2632 motor I'm running in my 300X and more than double stock 300X motor). Running it 100% TC right now and cyclic and collective are both very sensitive I really need to run it in governor mode to tame it down. That's why I said the 300X feels much slower.

My Trex 450 Pro DFC with Tail Shaft Dremel Mod (4 min 17 sec)

[Krea]

Off topic - any other comparisons on maintenance between 300 and 450 dfc. I'm thinking of using BX on second 300 for a 450 dfc. People say 450 is pain to work on so I'm torn. Shouldn't have sold my 450X.

[DoubleCH]

I have had my 450 Pro DFC for just a couple weeks and less than 2 handfuls of flights. Luckily I haven't had the need to work on its mechanicals yet [knock on wood] so I don't have an answer for you. The new Align (and Tarot) 450 bearing block design swings out the pitch/aileron servos for easier access. The thing I like 450 Pro is that they are so common (Align and Tarot) that parts are cheap and you can get them almost everywhere. I love TT. I know they aren't as forgiving as belt-drive on crashes, thus my sig line. The DFC head gives insanely direct feel. And it probably gets me insane crash damage, too, and thus my sig line again. Both cyclic and collective are so direct it's like flying the sim! Power of the stock 450MX is good. Good enough for me anyways. The 3GX with v3.0 is actually not bad at all. You can get them pretty cheap these days. I originally plan to swap the 3GX with the BX from the 300X but seeing how good it flies in my 450 Pro DFC I'll try fiddle with the parameters (there are tons with v3.0 accessible with USB thru' PC) with it and see how they work out before doing the swap (if I ever will). I may put in my spare Turnigy AE 45A ESC flashed with BLHeli to replace the stock Align ESC but that will be after I try governor mode with the Align first which I think BLHeli governor will work better.

[mike4884]

Originally Posted by DoubleCH

I'm happy with my 450 Pro DFC with 450MX motor (doubles the P2632 motor I'm running in my 300X and more than double stock 300X motor). Running it 100% TC right now and cyclic and collective are both very sensitive I really need to run it in governor mode to tame it down. That's why I said the 300X feels much slower.
My Trex 450 Pro DFC with Tail Shaft Dremel Mod - YouTube

Aaah I want one! This thing looks like it has power. Very nice!