mini RC helicopters

[Helios]

Sorry for the double post but I wanted to let everyone interested in an S107 know something. The ones on ebay are fakes. I bought one for $20 shipped from in the US and it isnt made by Syma but otherwise is nearly identical. This is quite funny since the Syma S107 is a copy of a Trex model.

So I have a $20 copy of a $30 copy of an expensive Trex Heli....who would have thunk it. I emailed the seller about fraudulent ebay sales so maybe I will get a partial refund or something since he clearly listed it as a syma. The good news is that it actually flies great so at least a good fake. I would even recommend it for $20 but just know that they are not Syma.

 

[elite ares]

The Syma co-axial helis are fun and a good appetite whetter, but they get boring in a relatively short time since they are fairly slow and totally unable to fly outdoors. I must say I've had a lot of fun with mine. When the time comes to graduate to a real RC heli, you'll never go back to the toy Symas because the rudder control is on the wrong stick. It quickly becomes confusing and I'd rather not mess myself up by going back to a "lesser capable" bird. If all you ever want to do with it is fly around the house, the Symas are fine. If you're like me, you'll soon be wanting to fly outside. That's where the Blade mCP X shines. I would definately NOT reccommend it as a first or maybe even second heli though. After the Syma, I think a four channel co-axial or fixed pitch like the Blade mCX2 or mSR would be good stepping stones to a collective pitch heli like the mCP X. Good luck on your journey and let us know how you're doing!

 

[Helios]

The Syma co-axial helis are fun and a good appetite whetter, but they get boring in a relatively short time since they are fairly slow and totally unable to fly outdoors. I must say I've had a lot of fun with mine. When the time comes to graduate to a real RC heli, you'll never go back to the toy Symas because the rudder control is on the wrong stick. It quickly becomes confusing and I'd rather not mess myself up by going back to a "lesser capable" bird. If all you ever want to do with it is fly around the house, the Symas are fine. If you're like me, you'll soon be wanting to fly outside. That's where the Blade mCP X shines. I would definately NOT reccommend it as a first or maybe even second heli though. After the Syma, I think a four channel co-axial or fixed pitch like the Blade mCX2 or mSR would be good stepping stones to a collective pitch heli like the mCP X. Good luck on your journey and let us know how you're doing!

I have a 4 channel fixed pitch heli in transit haha so I am well on my way.

 

[Zephyr]

Hey elite how long have you been flying RC helis?

 

[elite ares]

Hey elite how long have you been flying RC helis?

Long answer:
I started with a Syma S107 the middle of March, 2011. Soon after came a Syma S032 and S022. Then I got a Blade 120 SR fixed pitch from my local hobby shop. The Blade mSR came next. I had a Walkera V200DQ01 for a short time. Phoenix v3 Sim is pretty good for practicing and trying out birds before buying although it's a lot harder to fly the real thing than it is on the simulator. I actually have more fun flying the fixed wing planes on the sim, lol. My best friend had a gas powered heli 25 years ago and never really flew it and then sold it. I got him back into the hobby with a S107. He's the one who got me to try the Blade mCP X. Now he's all the way up to the Blade 450! By the way, a decent programmable transmitter is a must. We are using the Spektrum DX6i.

Short answer:
About four months.

WARNING: RC helicopters are as addicting as lasers! :drool:

 

[Zephyr]

Not 100% sure but does this qualify for the disucussion of mini and copter?

I like how you have your speed controllers set up, apparently heat shrunk and zipped to the arms. Is that a MK control board you're using?

 

[Zephyr]

Long answer:
I started with a Syma S107 the middle of March, 2011. Soon after came a Syma S032 and S022. Then I got a Blade 120 SR fixed pitch from my local hobby shop. The Blade mSR came next. I had a Walkera V200DQ01 for a short time. Phoenix v3 Sim is pretty good for practicing and trying out birds before buying although it's a lot harder to fly the real thing than it is on the simulator. I actually have more fun flying the fixed wing planes on the sim, lol. My best friend had a gas powered heli 25 years ago and never really flew it and then sold it. I got him back into the hobby with a S107. He's the one who got me to try the Blade mCP X. Now he's all the way up to the Blade 450! By the way, a decent programmable transmitter is a must. We are using the Spektrum DX6i.

Short answer:
About four months.

WARNING: RC helicopters are as addicting as lasers! :drool:

Lol, man I am definitely addictive to helicopters. Love flying them! For RCs started out with .30 and .60 nitros back in '91. Love the new electrics of today .... lot less messy, less stuff needed and easier to transport, and they've finally matched the power of the nitros. And yeah I agree with you completely on the Blade mCP X being a great little CP heli, and Flybarless to boot! LOVE that thing! The 120 and mCP X are the main ones I like flying around inside the house. I also really like some of the new stuff Walkera is comin out with. How did you like your V200D? I did Phoenix a while back but since have been using RealFlight G4.5. Although I only do helis the Harrier jump jet rocks. Hey if you like you can check out my YT channel at CrazyHeliDude's Channel
Nice to see someone else here also into this hobby/sport!

 

[Kmor2004]

Nope, the landing gear/motors/esc's/LVD/ 5V reg/ Rx + tx are all hobbyking, the aluminum + fiberglass body is Mikrocopter 500mm, and the control board is my own custom layout using a STM8S105 8-bit micro, xbee transceiver, sparkfun dual pitch roll 300deg/s gyro, sparkfun (discontinued) 6-DOF main board that only has a 300deg/s yaw rate gyro and a lys345 3g 3 axis accelerometer, I'm giving up on using the STM8S board due to complications with the PID control loop, variable code space, and the fact that I need to re-install the IDE for the programming software and it's a PITA, so I'm working on a new red-design of the aeroquad v1.9 board with battery monitor and GPS funtionality all running off a atmega 328-pu aka arduino uno.

 

[elite ares]

Lol, man I am definitely addictive to helicopters. Love flying them! For RCs started out with .30 and .60 nitros back in '91. Love the new electrics of today .... lot less messy, less stuff needed and easier to transport, and they've finally matched the power of the nitros. And yeah I agree with you completely on the Blade mCP X being a great little CP heli, and Flybarless to boot! LOVE that thing! The 120 and mCP X are the main ones I like flying around inside the house. I also really like some of the new stuff Walkera is comin out with. How did you like your V200D? I did Phoenix a while back but since have been using RealFlight G4.5. Although I only do helis the Harrier jump jet rocks. Hey if you like you can check out my YT channel at CrazyHeliDude's Channel
Nice to see someone else here also into this hobby/sport!

The Walkera V200DQ01 is much more fragile than the Blades. My flying ability wasn't as good as it should have been for that full fuselage model and a mistake messing with the transmitter settings caused a hard crash that burned up either the mail motor or receiver so I ended up selling it. The OEM lights were truly awesome though! I really wanted to be able to fly outside and it being fixed pitch would have relegated me to flying it there only on dead calm days. I'm delighted that I can fly outdoors with the mCP X in winds up to about 20 mph.

I subscribed to your YouTube channel back when I had the 120 SR and watched all your videos covering it. Nicely done I must say.

 

[Zephyr]

Nope, the landing gear/motors/esc's/LVD/ 5V reg/ Rx + tx are all hobbyking, the aluminum + fiberglass body is Mikrocopter 500mm, and the control board is my own custom layout using a STM8S105 8-bit micro, xbee transceiver, sparkfun dual pitch roll 300deg/s gyro, sparkfun (discontinued) 6-DOF main board that only has a 300deg/s yaw rate gyro and a lys345 3g 3 axis accelerometer, I'm giving up on using the STM8S board due to complications with the PID control loop, variable code space, and the fact that I need to re-install the IDE for the programming software and it's a PITA, so I'm working on a new red-design of the aeroquad v1.9 board with battery monitor and GPS funtionality all running off a atmega 328-pu aka arduino uno.

Nice build, I'm impressed. Really nice modular layout. Do you have any flight vids? I did a + configuration build last year using a MK ME control board (ATMEGA644). Custom aluminum (square) frame, Turnigy 2213/22 motors, Turnigy 25A BSCs (larger heat sinks), Futaba R617FS FASST Rx, I2C PDB, APC1047 props. - MFC Params as I remember: EPP1045, 310mm, KDA 2022L, 920 grams, Gyro-P 100, Gyro-I 120, Gyro-D 5, Dynamic Stability 50, Acc/Gyro Compensation 32, Main I 16, Hoover Excellent, Wind/Descent Poor. These we pretty much the stock parms of the MFC which I didn't vary too much from. Also did a more recent Gaui330Xs build with terminator frame and cam mounts, Futaba FASST Rx, 900MHz 500mW FVP Tx, RMRC-480 FPV cam, GoPRO HD recording cam, (replaced the stock Gaui props with APC as the Gauis kept fragmenting after a short while). Regarding your quad, I can't tell too well from the pic, how were you terminating your Rx antennas?

 

[Zephyr]

The Walkera V200DQ01 is much more fragile than the Blades. My flying ability wasn't as good as it should have been for that full fuselage model and a mistake messing with the transmitter settings caused a hard crash that burned up either the mail motor or receiver so I ended up selling it. The OEM lights were truly awesome though! I really wanted to be able to fly outside and it being fixed pitch would have relegated me to flying it there only on dead calm days. I'm delighted that I can fly outdoors with the mCP X in winds up to about 20 mph.

I subscribed to your YouTube channel back when I had the 120 SR and watched all your videos covering it. Nicely done I must say.

I was looking into the V200D at one time mainly because it was FBL, it's looks like a great stable little FP heli, only problem is it's always windy here in FL and I like to fly outdoors. So I've pretty much moved away from FPs except for indoor flying. Have you looked into the 4F200? It's CP and 3-bladed. I've heard a little bad but mostly good about it so thought it might be worth a shot. Walkera has come a long way with their helis since just a couple years ago, much better builds IMHO. If you step up in size you might want to consider the V450D FBL as well. I got one a few months ago. It's an awesome heli for the price. And thank you for the channel comment and sub :yh:

 

[Kmor2004]

Nope, no real vids with flight since I couldn't quite get all the program into the STM8S chip, the best I could get was liftoff and crash with some data loging from a windows app I spent way to much time working on to help me work on the project, but Now I'm just messing around with the idea of making it into a custom AeroQuad, since I already know the Arduino UNO can fly one of these but so far the most I've done is work on board design since its free, and I don't have to worry about crashing, but if you curious the list of things I WOULD NEED to still do:

Finish PCB design
Order PCBS
Populate PCBs
Test my multiplexed UART system (GPS and Xbee communications)
add new code to the Aeroquad to support my sensors
Build a test rig
Test fly the quad on the rig
Adjust PID loops
Figure out best way to mount batterys
and some other things, such as adding FPV

 

[ReNNo]

I have few 3.5ch helicopters and they have become boring to me and now I'm looking for something bigger, more realistic and more difficult to fly.

What do you people think about Trex clones?
They are several Trex 450 clones and they are not extremely expensive as real TREX.
Titan is the cheapest clone I think. You can get 450 from $150 (with included shipping)
Doesn't it sound like good deal?
Do anyone have experience with these clones?

btw...here is link..
Titan 6CH RC Radio Control Helicopter Heli Trex 450 RTF - eBay (item 220796957155 end time Aug-08-11 07:06:08 PDT)

 

[elite ares]

I have few 3.5ch helicopters and they have become boring to me and now I'm looking for something bigger, more realistic and more difficult to fly.

What do you people think about Trex clones?
They are several Trex 450 clones and they are not extremely expensive as real TREX.
Titan is the cheapest clone I think. You can get 450 from $150 (with included shipping)
Doesn't it sound like good deal?
Do anyone have experience with these clones?

btw...here is link..
Titan 6CH RC Radio Control Helicopter Heli Trex 450 RTF - eBay (item 220796957155 end time Aug-08-11 07:06:08 PDT)

I would definately look at spare parts availability before purchasing and probably go with a fixed pitch 4 channel before jumping into a collective pitch heli.

 

[ReNNo]

Even 4ch helicopters are not cheap and I'm afraid that they can become boring quickly.

Yes, I'm worried about jumping from 3.5ch helicopters to collective pitch helicopter. But I plan to use simulator to prepare for my first flight. I'm aware of the risk. But I cannot afford 4ch helicopter just to prepare myself for 6ch.

I'm watching youtube videos of these TREX 450 clones and must say that they do pretty good job for its price

 

[ped]

Copter is here...check back later for pics & review :san: