Help -Old Bladerunner and I just bought it!

[HoverDown3K]

I ordered a Bladerunner from Sears online, and it just arived today. about two weeks, I was shocked to see I got an first production run.

The tail motor wires are ran outside the boom, and they used shrink tube to keep them in place!!!


What do I have to do to get a Bladerunner that is new with these updates?


With:
Better yaw (rudder) trim on transmitter
Newer battery at 300Ma
tail motor wires molded in the boom
weight reduced by 3 grams on the newer one
Larger Rib stiffeners in the main motor mount
Better landing gear
Improved tail motor
Better production charging circuit
Brass bearing instead of PLASTIC!
Rotor with carbon wheel .. not white plastic

I also get less then 1 minute of flight, if I land and wait, I can get about 50 seconds if I am lucky

I will return mine to sears...

[Velocity-8]

Same version I got from BJ's Wholesale Club. :(

[m_oreilly16]

I got the same model also.

[HoverDown3K]

Yes.. these are the WORST ONES, I can not believe they didn't recall them. Look at all the things thay have changed.

I wouldn't give you $5 for mine, it sucks.

[rickyblaze]

Send it back !!!

[HoverDown3K]

it is already packed! :)

[petter]

The blue and the purple one from QVC are supposed to have much of the changes mentioned by HoverDown3K. According to reports from many other modellers they are mostly very good and have reasonable flight times.

petter

[HoverDown3K]

Petter.. thanks, I am just upset, I just got this thing and it isn't working.. I have not been able to charge the battery.

So I used my lipo charger (Triton) and charged the battery and I only get about 10 seconds of flight and then it slows starts to land, no matter how much throttle I use.

If I wait about 30 seconds I can get another 10 second flight.

[Freakazoid]

I want to buy one and get it to holland, but im quite afraid Ill get screwed over with an old version. How can I make sure I wont get ripped off?

[AirWing]

There are 2 versions I have seen. The blue version and the black one. Which is better?

[Freakazoid]

Ive heard about a green one, too. Quite confusing and hard to know what youre up against when ordering online..

[Tres Wright]

There are two generations of the black one. Neither are desirable, but the second gen is much better than the first (you can tell them apart by the TX, the 1st gen has a ratcheted throttle). The 3rd generation were only being sold by QVC, but are starting to show up in other locations as well. They are easy to tell because they are not black. One is blue w/ white trim and the other purple w/ green trim, the only difference is the frequency. I've had one of the QVC version for a couple of months now. It flies extremely well with a few mod's- cat killer, body removed, rotor spacer, heat sinks. These mods are all free and have resulted in a truly amazing indoor flyer.

==So I used my lipo charger (Triton) and charged the battery and I only get about 10 seconds of flight and then it slows starts to land==

Sounds like you may have the 1st gen. Unfortunately the battery was not up to the task. Reported flight times have ranged from a few seconds to a couple of minutes max, but even the higher flight times quickly diminish as the cell self-destructs. Swaps to 340 Kokam cells have been very successful though, netting 10+ minute flights even on 1st gen models.

[cuong]

You are way better off buying them localy like at radio shack I bought my's for 99.99 brand new and the blades broke i brung it back the next day and they replaced me with a new chopper right away. I got the brand new version it works perfect! I got about 5-7 minuts out of my heli just plain hovering and going around..

[Freakazoid]

Ok, I should avoid the back ones then. Its kinda hard to determine wether the throttle has the ratched thing online though. :D Can you swing me a link of QVC?

Cuong: Lovely, but not all people live in america. :p I have no choice but to order online.

[Tres Wright]

==swing me a link of QVC==

Are you outside of the US? Not sure what their international shipping policy is, but here's the link:

http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp?nest=%2Fasp%2FisItemNumberRedirect.as p&search=SQ&frames=y&referrer=QVC&txtDesc=blade+runner&SearchClass=

[Freakazoid]

Theire telling me everywhere to go to QVC, but everyone keeps forgetting the link. :p Thanks Tres, ill go have a look... and prey they send to holland for a decent shipping price. ;)

[Tres Wright]

LOL! Well that's the place :p QVC is some kind of "home shopping network" deal I think. They broadcast on some channel in the US and sell stuff on TV. Apparently they started selling the BR this way as well! I've never seen it myself, I ordered mine through their web site.

Apparently they're be sold in the UK through these guys:

http://www.musthaveit.com/details_package.aspx?pc=39&p=824&i=38938&pkg=38938&offset=0&scrollTop=624#

The pic shows the old black version though.

[Freakazoid]

QVC isnt selling to europe I guess. :(
And that brittish page doesnt tell me much. No buying option on theire site. :confused:
And indeed, I MUST be sure it is a purple 3rd gen one, or I wont buy it.

Gah, why do the americans and chinese get all the good stuff.. :mad:
Im stuck with UK ripoff and importing from the other side of the planet.. Someone please help me. :(

[Tres Wright]

I posted the question in the big BR thread, there are several guys in Europe posting there, hopefully they have a source. It's post #806:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3053203#post3053203

[Freakazoid]

Thanks. Lets hope I can get my hands on one of these puppys. It would suck to miss out on this fun.

[Stiznef]

I just purchased the blade runner. First flying rc purchase ever. I took off the skin as was recommended in previous posts. I have the black version and it flies for about 2-4 min with rest in between. Question. I've been reading something about a cat something or other that will help with forward and backward movement. What is it and where can I get it. Also, where can I get the battery that will last longer. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Stiz

PS: Happy Holidays.

[Tres Wright]

Stiz, welcome to R/C Groups! The "cat killer" mod is simple, you remove the ring off the tail prop. It increases the prop speed and therefore the control authority for forward and rearward flight. It's also a good idea to do the "spacer mod" at the same time as the rotors will clash due to the increased authority. The spacer mod is also simple, just remove the upper rotor and install a 1/2" spacer (heat shrink works well, but don't shrink it, leave it loose). Note that even with these mod's, forward flight is about normal walking speed. It won't fly any faster than that regardless of what you do. But walking speed is pretty quick for house flying.

Also, move your battery forward if you haven't done so already. When you remove the body, it changes the "center of gravity". Moving the battery forward will get the CG back to where it should be.

[Freakazoid]

And the better battery is the Kokam350 if im correct. What youve got now is a 250 pack thats not upto the current thats being sucked from the motors. Flight times of up to 10 minutes are reported on these new kokam packs. Theire about 10 bucks, so not the most expencive things in the world :p .

[Stiznef]

Thank you Tres and Freakazoid.

Have added the cat killer and the spacer. Working even better
now. I think that I might get things even better by moving
the battery forward as suggested. Question. Would this mean
cutting the front of the casing to allow the battery to slide
forward? As it is now blocked by the surrounding plastic.

Just want to make sure that's what I should do before I ruin things.

Thanks again for your help.

Stiz

[Tres Wright]

Stiz, glad to hear it helped! No need to cut the plastic to move the battery forward. Just untape it and slide it outside of the frame, then as far forward as the wires allow and retape it. I've attached a pic of mine so you can see what I mean.

The CG should be about 2mm ahead of the mainshaft. Best way to check it is by balancing it on a pencil.

EDIT- let me clarify that. Set a pencil on the table and rest the BR on its landing gear across the pencil. The BR won't balance by itself, you'll have to hold it and slide it back and forth until it's "almost" balanced. Check to see where that spot is. Eyeball it from the side, and imagine a line extending from the mainshaft down. The balance point should be about 2mm ahead of the imaginary line.

[Stiznef]

WoW!

Thanks so much Tres. That is really helpful. Made the adjustments
and am charging up right now. Looks like you have your motors
covered with tinfoil or something like it. Is that something to keep
the motors cooler? Anyway, thanks again for all of your help.

By the way. What would you recommend as the next step up
in electric copters?

Stiz

[Tres Wright]

Stiz, glad to help! You are exactly right on the foil, those are motor heat sinks. The motors on the BR get quite hot if you fly more than 3 minutes continuously. I took a strip of foil and a glue stick. I glued the back of the foil, then folded it in the accordian pattern. Then I glued the foil heat sink directly to each motor. The motors run much cooler, and the foil is so light that the tiny weight gain was not noticeable.

I just had to replace the motors on mine. I logged all my flight times and got 318 minutes (just over 5 hours) out of the first set of motors. That worked out to over 50 flights. I didn't add the heat sinks until 180 minutes though, so it's possible the new motors will last longer because I put the sinks on right away. BTW, after adding the heat sinks I no longer limit the flights (used to land to cool the motors), I just fly the battery out. Normal flight times are 8-9 minutes.

Next step up, I definitely recommend the Hirobo XRB SR. I just got one yesterday, but haven't flown it yet. There are lots of posts about it on the multi-rotor heli forum, everyone loves it. It's a very stable counter-rotating prop heli like the BR.

Beyond that you get into deep, dark water with sharks swimming in it ;) Standard helis are a pain to set up, very difficult to fly, and costly to repair after a bad crash. They are inherently unstable, the best analogy I've heard is it's like trying to stand on a piece of wood on top of a ball. Constant course corrections are required just to hover. I've got hundreds of bucks in upgrades on my Piccolo that I've had for years. I flew my BR more in the first week than I've flown my Pic total!

[Stiznef]

Tres,

Thanks for all of your help. My BR flies better than ever now. Forward motion is much better with the battery pulled forward. It can now fly from one end of the room to the other turn around and come back.

I didn't realize that the motors would burn out. I guess I'll be purchasing a mini soldering iron. Never did anything like that before, but there is no time to learn like the present. Wish me luck.

I'll be taking your advise on the upgrade. Although "Swimming with Sharks" was a great movie. It's not something that I want to do. I'll stick with the BR for now and then check out your recommend.

BTW - Any ideas for a remote missle launcher. My neighbors dog has been getting on my last nerve. Kidding. My own dogs are scared of my BR. With the better controls I can chase them around the house now.

Looking forward to many hours of flying. I might even get bold and take it outside on a windless day. Have you?

Happy flying.

Stiz

[MeBluEyz99]

if you e-mail paul@pgoelz.com he has the direct replacement motors for this little bad boy at a very fair price look into it and send him off an email....

[rfisher56]

I too have one of these low flight times BR' (first generation??? who knows, bought @ Longs Drugs $50.00) and think Mr. Fotta needs to address this problem a lot of us have. I've been involved in R/C for some 20 years so I understand the hobby. Don't misunderstand this is a very fun machine but with flight times of less than a minute along with some even shorter flights after that while waiting a few minutes... well I think they fall short of the mark especially with as much care taken with packaging (which was greatly admired). I've ordered an updated battery and hope that will do the trick. Am I just expecting too much out of this machine? Will consider the lightening mods after the batt exchange. But if I knew nothing of the hobby would be pretty discouraged. Mr. Fotta states "the first generation BR's aren't that bad". I and a lot of others beg to differ with that assesment! Bob.

[Tim Wolff]

I too have one of these low flight times BR' (first generation??? who knows, bought @ Longs Drugs $50.00) and think Mr. Fotta needs to address this problem a lot of us have. I've been involved in R/C for some 20 years so I understand the hobby. Don't misunderstand this is a very fun machine but with flight times of less than a minute along with some even shorter flights after that while waiting a few minutes... well I think they fall short of the mark especially with as much care taken with packaging (which was greatly admired). I've ordered an updated battery and hope that will do the trick. Am I just expecting too much out of this machine? Will consider the lightening mods after the batt exchange. But if I knew nothing of the hobby would be pretty discouraged. Mr. Fotta states "the first generation BR's aren't that bad". I and a lot of others beg to differ with that assesment! Bob.

I returned my 1st gen. Blade Runner to Interactive due to the low flight times. The replacement flies great! Even better the the purple QVC model I have. 7 day turn arround with two of those days being Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Something to consider if you haven't started modifying it yet.