I, as most are, am using the reinforcement stickers that you would use to reinforce the hole in binder paper. I put one on top and one on the bottom. Some are using the plastic ones, but I prefer the paper as they last longer.

Personally I'd skip the heatsink and do the EH200 brushless motor, ESC and 2000mah 2s battery conversion. Ok, definitely nowhere near equal in time and money but it's such a smooth upgrade I would recommended it to anyone.

I use the plastic binder hole reinforcements. I have to use a few on each side and I keep mine on the bottom of the blade. They seem to work great, they're cheap and easy to find. I tried to find some nylon washers but had no luck.

Originally Posted by Eric.Jr.Sax

Well had my F45 up in the air for the first time today when I got home from school. Not as bad as I thought. No higher than 6 feet or so, tail in and side hovers mostly. A little walking around with it too. I like it,... I think it's gonna be a whole lot more fun the coax stuff I'm used to. You gotta pay more attention, that's one thing for sure.

Still putting the 450 together. Going out to get 8 more AA's and then gonna come back and re-watch those assembly and set up youtube tutorials some more tonight. I think this weekend I'll be ready to put battery to it to finish up the set up process. Hopefully by then I'll understand it better. But the F45 is looking like it's gonna be a lot of fun and not as hard to fly as I thought it was gonna be.

I'm scanning this thread now to find out about shimming the blades. Another member told me to read up on it. Do I really need to get heat sinks for the motors right away? Can I wait a little bit on that since it's winter? I'd like to spend the balance of my budget on stuff like batteries and 'things that makes us go' (Star Trek).

Edit: Oh,... anybody using Eneloop re-chargables in their Tx's? I know you're not supposed to use them in some cameras and stuff. Just wondering if that's the case here. Thinking about going to Amazon and ordering a bunch of them, but if we can't use them,....

As noted, shimming with the hole re-enforcement rings works well. I also have two rings on each blade to remove the slop while allowing the blades to move easily (but not falling really quick). Installed heat sinks on both motors but I'm not sure they will increase the motor life that much even though they do provide a greater cooling surface. Just keep the flights to about 7-8 minutes and let the motors cool until you can't feel heat. If you decide to purchase actual Li-po (lithium polymer) batteries, the best so far seems to be the nanotech 2000mah from Hobby King (has the correct connectors too). They are longer than stock, so the battery tray will need modifications to hold the battery. Not a big job at all. I caution against getting a battery much longer than the 2000mah as they become a pain to mount and the connectors must be changed. There is a true li-po rated at 2200mah that is the same size as the stock battery, but I had bad luck with it getting super hot (unable to touch it) after only 4 minutes of flying. Maybe it was a dud. Regardless, the supplier (techntoys.com) stood behind the product and gave a refund. I just buy Ray O Vac alkalines for the Tx by the case! I think some use 2300-2500mah rechargeable AAs without a problem. Happy flyin'!

My guess is that the 2200mah battery was a much lower C rating than needed. I might be wrong but I found that whenever I switch to a battery with a higher C rating than stock the battery tends to stay cooler while maintaining better performance. YMMV.

Originally Posted by Eric.Jr.Sax

I'm scanning this thread now to find out about shimming the blades. Another member told me to read up on it. Do I really need to get heat sinks for the motors right away? Can I wait a little bit on that since it's winter? I'd like to spend the balance of my budget on stuff like batteries and 'things that makes us go' (Star Trek).

Edit: Oh,... anybody using Eneloop re-chargables in their Tx's? I know you're not supposed to use them in some cameras and stuff. Just wondering if that's the case here. Thinking about going to Amazon and ordering a bunch of them, but if we can't use them,....

This is the best battery choice for the TX, but you can use any rechargable. Ordinary rechargables are only 1.2 volts so they show lower on your TX, but they work fine.
I put my shims on the top because the blade pivot foes not contact the bottom mount because of the stop on the bottom mount so the shim registers and stays centered. With after market blades, it does not matter as the shims are far thicker.

Originally Posted by rexless

My guess is that the 2200mah battery was a much lower C rating than needed. I might be wrong but I found that whenever I switch to a battery with a higher C rating than stock the battery tends to stay cooler while maintaining better performance. YMMV.

My conclusion also as the 20C or greater batteries barely get warm while the 2200mah repeated the super hot scenario three times, after which I "retired" it.

Originally Posted by hawaiichopper

As noted, shimming with the hole re-enforcement rings works well. I also have two rings on each blade to remove the slop while allowing the blades to move easily (but not falling really quick). Installed heat sinks on both motors but I'm not sure they will increase the motor life that much even though they do provide a greater cooling surface. Just keep the flights to about 7-8 minutes and let the motors cool until you can't feel heat. If you decide to purchase actual Li-po (lithium polymer) batteries, the best so far seems to be the nanotech 2000mah from Hobby King (has the correct connectors too). They are longer than stock, so the battery tray will need modifications to hold the battery. Not a big job at all. I caution against getting a battery much longer than the 2000mah as they become a pain to mount and the connectors must be changed. There is a true li-po rated at 2200mah that is the same size as the stock battery, but I had bad luck with it getting super hot (unable to touch it) after only 4 minutes of flying. Maybe it was a dud. Regardless, the supplier (techntoys.com) stood behind the product and gave a refund. I just buy Ray O Vac alkalines for the Tx by the case! I think some use 2300-2500mah rechargeable AAs without a problem. Happy flyin'!

Hi everyone,... might these be better? Don't think I'll need them for the 450. Those blades are pretty snug, no slop at all. But the description says they're available for the 250 and 400 blades so I'm thinking they'll work with our F45s. If nothing else, they should be easier on the fingers and we could save a little on what we hand over to Mr. Jack Daniels! LOL!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Curtis-Young...item564fccaff1

I'll give it one more try. Does anybody here know of any difference between the old and new version transmitters. I've seen that the PCB is a little different and the graphics on the radio were changed. Was it done to correct a problem with the old transmitter? I'm buying a F45 and both versions are still for sale.

Originally Posted by Raycamaro

I'll give it one more try. Does anybody here know of any difference between the old and new version transmitters. I've seen that the PCB is a little different and the graphics on the radio were changed. Was it done to correct a problem with the old transmitter? I'm buying a F45 and both versions are still for sale.

I have both but have not done any sort of comparison testing. The original tx works just fine - never had any issues with it at all. I haven't used the new one more than a few short flights and didn't notice any problems with it. Not much help but that's all I have for now.

Originally Posted by Eric.Jr.Sax

Hi everyone,... might these be better? Don't think I'll need them for the 450. Those blades are pretty snug, no slop at all. But the description says they're available for the 250 and 400 blades so I'm thinking they'll work with our F45s. If nothing else, they should be easier on the fingers and we could save a little on what we hand over to Mr. Jack Daniels! LOL!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Curtis-Young...item564fccaff1

Those look like they might work fine - hard to know until you try them. For the price I'll stick to the little plastic notebook paper reinforcements since they seem to do the job.

@rexless,
Have read on a couple of seller sites that old transmitter will only bind with old PCB style (vertical gyro?). New transmitter only binds with new PCB style (horizontal gyro?). Nobody says anything about Tx changes if any. Will you have had a chance to test? Thanks.

Eric, part of this hobby is making your own things and feeling a sense of pride, if you plan to progress, then buying ready made is great if you have a bunch of money and servants. But really, it cant be that hard to get a Coke or beer can, a pair of sissors and a hole maker, a sharpie to trace out the end of the blade and make your own. I understand that your young, but understand that the satisfaction of buiding your own is worth more than the bought items. Imagination is what stimulates the mind.

Originally Posted by hawaiichopper

@rexless,
Have read on a couple of seller sites that old transmitter will only bind with old PCB style (vertical gyro?). New transmitter only binds with new PCB style (horizontal gyro?). Nobody says anything about Tx changes if any. Will you have had a chance to test? Thanks.

It will probably be awhile before I can test. The newer one is boxed up, the weather has been too windy for flying and now it's snowing and I don't have a suitable indoor testing spot ATM. That said, I did manage a few minutes in the snow today. The snow has picked up since - nothing sticking to the ground yet so it's more like fluffy rain.

Flying through the Snow (2 min 55 sec)

Originally Posted by rexless

It will probably be awhile before I can test. The newer one is boxed up, the weather has been too windy for flying and now it's snowing and I don't have a suitable indoor testing spot ATM. That said, I did manage a few minutes in the snow today. The snow has picked up since - nothing sticking to the ground yet so it's more like fluffy rain.

Cool footage rexless. Where are you standing that you can see your heli through all those trees, or do you have some of these "live feed" goggle thingies?

Originally Posted by rexless

It will probably be awhile before I can test. The newer one is boxed up, the weather has been too windy for flying and now it's snowing and I don't have a suitable indoor testing spot ATM. That said, I did manage a few minutes in the snow today. The snow has picked up since - nothing sticking to the ground yet so it's more like fluffy rain.

At least you can fly. I have a foot of snow on the ground and out high to day is -10C with 10km wind chill.
With my new setup using the 401B gyro, I can't go out below freezing as the Gyro goes crazy as it cools of. It seems the better the gyro or controller, the more susceptible to temperature extremes they are.
I'm going to move near you. What part of Mexico do you live in.

This is just line-of-sight (LOS) flying so if I fly behind the trees I have to be careful to remember what's around the back so I don't hit another. In fact I did that a couple of months ago... I flew past one of the trees at a nice clip thinking I was being cool then crunch. I forgot there were 2 more trees hidden behind the first one!

I'm hoping I'll get to try first person view (FPV) flying by late spring. I really would like to do some longer circuit fast forward flights (FFF) and see what kind of footage I can get that way. I find it harder to do long FFF flights flying LOS. Sometimes I think I'm getting close to an obstacle and later on video I see I'm nowhere near it. Then other times I think I have tons of space and suddenly I'm right on top of it.

Mexico - Hahaha! It's a balmy 0 here in the southern interior of BC right now. So far the only heli I can fly below 0 is the F45. The V911 is not too bad, the V929's get strange and unstable and the DH9116 doesn't seem to want to fly more than a few seconds even if it's 10 degrees above 0. For whatever reason, the F45 seems to be fine even at 10 below so long as it's not windy. My only issue then is that things get very brittle. At least the motors are cool as can be.