Posts Tagged ‘e-flight’

E-Flite Blade 120 SR Pictures
Friday, August 27th, 2010
Pictures of my Blade 120 SR. Click on the image for full size.




Tags: blade 120 sr, e-flight, e-flite, pictures
Posted in Blade 120 SR, Pictures | No Comments »

Blade mSR Hits the Water
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
It was always in the back of my mind, what if it crashed into the cat water bowl? Well, I picked the wrong day to try the throttle hold. I stumbled and hit the wrong switch to turn it off and it kept going. It was fast into the corner and dropped right down in the water dish. It’s a big bowl and it fell upright in 2 inches of water. The light stayed on but all I cared about was the LiPo battery because I’ve heard of the horror stories. I slowly yanked it out of the water and disconnected the battery. The circuit board had water about 3mm from the bottom up and water drops all over it. But the light stayed on? The hairdryer dried it off and it was like nothing happened. Wow.

Tags: blade msr, crash, e-flight, water
Posted in Blade mSR, Crash Report, News | No Comments »

RC Helicopter LiPo Batteries
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
RC Helicopter Lithium Polymer (LiPo) Batteries

Let’s talk batteries. As we advance in technology electric flying has become more feasible in terms of flying time. Lithum Polymer (LiPo) batteries are able to maintain high current neccessary for high performance aerobatics while still remaining light. An average flight time can vary from 4-12 minutes depending on your flying style.

Rechargeable LiPo batteries can have a dramatic impact on the performance of your model. If you’re not educated in their usage you may damage or reduce thelife of the battery cells before they’re even used for the first time.

The Basics

A battery pack is constructed from a number of individual batteries, called cells, that have been connected together to work as a single pack. The most common cell connection for battery packs in RC Helicopters is called “Series”. This is where the positive terminal of one of the cells is wired to the negative terminal of another cell. You can incrase the output voltage with this method. When wired in series, you take the individual voltage and multiply that by the number of cells in the pack to get the total nominal voltage.

The Science

Lithium Polymer (LiPo) cells are the latest in technology to hit the market. LiPo batteries are known to have a more consistant average voltage over the discarge curve when compared to NiCd or NiMH cells. It also has a a higher nominal voltage of a single LiPo cell (3.7v verses 1.2v for a typical NiCd or NiMH cell. This makes a smaller and lighter battery for the equivelant power or even higher total nominal voltage. The size from NiCD or NiMH to LiPo is often half.

Safety

A LiPo cell needs to be carefully monitored during charging as overcharging a cell to beyound 4.2V, or the cha charging of a physically damanged or overdischarged call (<3.0v) can be a potential fire hazard. Taking neccessary safetly precautions when working with LiPo batteris will keep you safe and likely increase the life of the battery.

Charging

Use a charged that can correctly charge using a constant current and voltage. Note that LiPo cells can not be “Peak Charged”. Discharging the battery is just as important as charging in regards to safety and the life of the battery. You should never over-discharge a LiPo battery pack to below 3.0v per cell under load. You can use an ESC programmed to provide the proper low voltage cutoff for you pack. For example, a 9v cutoff for a 3 series LiPo battery pack. Keep in mind you should never dead short a LiPo battery pack. The large amount of energy stored in the small package can catch fire quickly as a result of a dead short.

Tags: batteries, e-flight, e-flite, lipo, rc helicopter
Posted in Batteries, Blade CX2, Blade SR, Blade mSR, News | No Comments »

Blade CX2 Crash – Full Speed Fail
Sunday, June 13th, 2010


I spoke too soon! Here’s a great example of how durable the E-Flight Blade CX2 is. Mind the sensitive mic at points.

I had been flying all day without any problems, basically taking way to many risks with the Blade CX2 RC helicopter around a baseball park. I’ve got a Logitech 9000 stapped to my hat with a USB extension cord. Make sure you’re watching this in HD! This was clearly a pilot error, but I would hardly call myself a pilot . My mistake was freaking out and dropping the throttle slightly and I lost lift.

End result, full speed nose dive into the grass with a few summersaults.

Tags: Blade CX2, crash, e-flight, full speed, outside
Posted in Blade CX2, Crash Report | No Comments »

E-Flite Blade CX2
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010


I walked into my local hobby store and walked out with a Blade CX2. The salesmen sold me a beginner model that works out of the box, for the most part. It came complete with transmitter, Li Po battery and charger, small parts for maintenance with tool, 4 AA’s for the transmitter, and manual with DVD. You can also charge using a 12v car battery with the aligator clips included. I bought replacement blades and skid plate for the inevitable, a training kit, and an extra battery.

I was ready to go. Since I’m a beginner I figured the trainer gear was necessary, good call. Here’s a video on how to install the training gear. manual had a great section on how to get them on. I charged the battery as instructed and put it in the helicopter. The front body was finicky to remove but it needed to make sure the servos were working. Everything was fine so I put it on the ground and gave it throttle. I made my first mistake by not turning the throttle trim down before turning the transmitter on. Good thing the controller knows the transmitter isn’t producing any throttle and shuts down the motors if they are. I hit myself and went back to the manual. I’m a video gamer, sure, I skipped sections and I’m not proud of it, okay?

Update:
I wouldn’t call myself a beginner flyer anymore and the Blade CX2 has proved worthy. If I need more power and the micro isn’t cutting it, I’ll bring out the CX2.

The Details
The E-Flite Blade CX2 is a coaxial LiPo battery electric powered RC Helicopter. It’s not a micro RC helicopter so you’ll get a little more size and power, quite a bit compared to a micro. This CX2 was designed to introduce new flyers into the hobby. It’s easy to fly but you won’t get away with crashing it if you own a Blade mSR. It will break and expect repairs when the inevitable happens.

Out of the box:
- 5-channel transmitter with built-in Spektrum™ 2.4GHz DSM technology
- 2-cell 7.4V 800mAh LiPo battery pack
- 2–3 Cell DC LiPo Balancing Charger and AC Adapter
- Blade Cx2 Helicopter model
- Manual with a Instructional Video
- 4 AA Batteries for transmitter
- Bind Plug, Micro screwdriver, Velcro material and Double sided tape

Specifications:
- Main Rotor Diameter: 13.6 in (345mm)
- Gross Weight: 8.0 oz (227 g with battery)
- Length: 16.42 (417mm)
- Motor Size: 180 (2 installed)
- Control System: 2.4GHz DSM 5-channel, 4-in-1 receiver/mixer/ESC/gyro, S60 Super Sub-Micro

This was my first RC helicopter and I’ve had several flights on it since. It only took less then one week to get comfortable flying it. It’s a great coaxial helicopter but it will struggle in slight wind. It’s meant for indoors but you can get away with it outside as long as it’s completely calm. This model also makes a perfect gift because everything is packed in the box, ready to fly.