Never take your eyes off your heli.I was having a quick blast round the back garden today when the postman shouted to attract my attention as he couldn't get an answer at the door.I glanced over my shoulder,I swear it was only for a second,but in that time the f-45 had managed to travel two houses down and about 50 feet in the air.I looked up and the sun was in my eyes,I couldn't tell which way round it was.PANIC! I gave it some rudder to see where the tail was,pointed it back to me and shakily brought it back to my garden.Heavy landing on the grass,but no damage.Phew!Lesson learned.

Originally Posted by arrowshooter

Good point. RTF-Heli was/is pushing a direct drive conversion for this very reason. Is there a prop/adapter that will work with the current F45 tail motor?

The only prop adapter I know of is the one with the extreme tail motor.
As I used a brushless motor that came with the prop adapter and only required a little mod to the stock blade to fit, I did not need anything else. With my 2000kv motor running on 2s battery, I almost have too much thrust. I am going to change the gyro to the Assan GA250 I have and see if it works better than the HK401B. If I still have too much thrust, I will change to the 1500kv to slow the prop.

Originally Posted by gordonzo

I have quite a few flights on my Solo Pro 228p. My elevator link is extended for more fff and the canopy is lowered to eliminate flybar strikes, which for me was the main cause of crashes. I fly it with the J6pro.

I fly mostly over grass and rarely break anything except the odd tail shaft gear and landing strut. The 228 has very precise control at low speeds and can fly very fast, but it's high-speed handling characteristics and fragility of certain parts, make this NOT a learning heli.

The F45 is a better novice heli but the 228 flys in a smaller area, which is what I need. But you definitley have to be more careful with it.

regards . . . g

Interestingly, the damage I have had was not expected for the most part. The tweaking of the skid mounts was due to stupid pilot syndrome. Even with a lowered canopy, the flybar punched a hole right through it during tip over landing in the grass (no power to stick). A few days later I noted an odd noise after flying a few minutes. Discovered the missing main gear teeth. The new non-solo pro canopy should eliminate flybar strikes. Maybe I'be been spoiled by the sturdiness of the F45! Regardless, the 228 flies fast as you said and one can land it on a dime. It is fun.

Originally Posted by Scarlet

Never take your eyes off your heli.I was having a quick blast round the back garden today when the postman shouted to attract my attention as he couldn't get an answer at the door.I glanced over my shoulder,I swear it was only for a second,but in that time the f-45 had managed to travel two houses down and about 50 feet in the air.I looked up and the sun was in my eyes,I couldn't tell which way round it was.PANIC! I gave it some rudder to see where the tail was,pointed it back to me and shakily brought it back to my garden.Heavy landing on the grass,but no damage.Phew!Lesson learned.

Isn't that the TRUTH! The only sensation worse than crashing is that feeling you get when the bird is even TEMPORARILY out of view!
(I've lost TWO V911 helis in this fashion!)

KUDOS to the earlier post about stock blade weight... it seemed a bit strange to control, especially with headspeed... thought it was just a big copter thing, as I only have v911's as prior experience. Anyways I weighed the blades... and found a .2 gram difference (12.8 vs 13.0 gm) Pulled the spare blades out, and one was .1 gm light, the other was dead on (13.0 gm)
Also I reshimmed the blade root pivots, now minumal play(and still can find its sweet spot)
I hope to fly in the big lot, just a block away, in the am... I feel it will be more better to trim out (I was getting alot of (looking from the front) right and circular movement in hover) So I will report my resultants
I appoligize for my forgetting the author, I only read 258 pages of this thread in 10 days, so am a wee bit hazy from 'information overload'
Oh yea, the Landlord here is a real RICHARD CRANIUM... looks like I lost my v911 for the time being... Guess I best get real good with the F45 so I can retrieve the wee thing with a trebble hook on a 3-4' length of string (made up like a grappling hook) tied to the bottom of the '45... I am wondering can it be done?

I dont know if anyone thought of this... Them 'automotive accesories' tire-stem flashing LED lights are perfect for heli running lights. They have a flasher circuit built right on a mini circuit board that doubles for the LED mount. I took a 1,000 ohm 1/2 watt and put it in series with the - side, ran the wire to the pcb and soldered the wires direct to the battery bus. These weigh nothing, are super bright, and the drain is in the .001 amp (per light) range. I intend on getting several more (I had 1 that I found) and constructing a harness style setup that sports 4 lights (2 on each side).
FYI the 1k 1/2 watt resistor will easily power several of these
I'd love to adapt the centrifugal switch idea into main rotor lights, use a Li 3.7volt 'button' battery...
e-bay has these: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=valve+stem+lights

Sorry guys, I know this has been covered numerous times, but I just spent 1/2 hour with the search function and haven't got any further than discussions on the topics.

What I'd really appreciate is if someone has pics handy of how they've mounted the above-mentioned items. I can imagine the buzzer will go somewhere on the left side of the heli with either cable ties or velcro (or both?).

The camera seems to my simple mind to be a bit more problematic. If you hang it from the chassis the right way up, doesn't that make the control buttons (on/off, record etc) Hard to get at?... and if it's connected so you can get to the buttons, won't the vids be upside down?

Off to buy some good quality velcro meantime in the hope that when I get back I can start work

Cheers
Fin

I read here that people put Honey Bee FP helicopter's blades to this heli. Also read about Extreme. What is Extreme blades? I search aliexpress.com and banggood and can't find anything. I just want to upgrade to other blades as brushles motor is too expensive and harder to install. I just burned my main motor and wish to order a new one. I saw that people put heat sinks to motor but can't find them either.

Originally Posted by asanovrus

I read here that people put Honey Bee FP helicopter's blades to this heli. Also read about Extreme. What is Extreme blades? I search aliexpress.com and banggood and can't find anything. I just want to upgrade to other blades as brushles motor is too expensive and harder to install. I just burned my main motor and wish to order a new one. I saw that people put heat sinks to motor but can't find them either.

The honey bee extreme blades are for brushless upgrades. They have less lift so the more powerful motor is needed to drive them at higher speeds.

Originally Posted by rexless

The honey bee extreme blades are for brushless upgrades. They have less lift so the more powerful motor is needed to drive them at higher speeds.

then why they would be good mod? If the blade has less lift it's bad isn't it? if you need less lift just pull the joystick less. I thought they have more pitch

Originally Posted by asanovrus

then why they would be good mod? If the blade has less lift it's bad isn't it? if you need less lift just pull the joystick less. I thought they have more pitch

As rexless said, they should only be used if you upgrade to a brushless motor. The less lift allows for the brushless motor to run at a higher RPM to gain the same amount of lift compared to the stock setup. This is good. They also have smoother flight characteristics.

Originally Posted by BobTopofTheWorld

. . . . Oh yea, the Landlord here is a real RICHARD CRANIUM...

==> I had to look that one up.

Originally Posted by asanovrus

I read here that people put Honey Bee FP helicopter's blades to this heli. Also read about Extreme. What is Extreme blades? I search aliexpress.com and banggood and can't find anything. I just want to upgrade to other blades as brushles motor is too expensive and harder to install. I just burned my main motor and wish to order a new one. I saw that people put heat sinks to motor but can't find them either.

==> I had tried the HBFP blades on my stock F45. The increased headpseed and quicker handling made it possible to (briefly) maneuver around my back yard. But it did introduce a rocking motion and the flight time was very short. Not a solution.

IME, unless you want to go brushless, the stock motors are as good as anything, and very inexpensive. These heat sinks can be adapted and should help some. The best way to extend motor life is to reduce flight times and allow those hard-working motors to cool.

regards . . . g

Originally Posted by gordonzo

==> I had to look that one up.



==> I had tried the HBFP blades on my stock F45. The increased headpseed and quicker handling made it possible to (briefly) maneuver around my back yard. But it did introduce a rocking motion and the flight time was very short. Not a solution.

IME, unless you want to go brushless, the stock motors are as good as anything, and very inexpensive. These heat sinks can be adapted and should help some. The best way to extend motor life is to reduce flight times and allow those hard-working motors to cool.

regards . . . g

As g says, stock brushed motors need to be treated nicely. Keep flights to about 7 minutes maximum with about 5 minutes cooling between batteries. The stock motors are as good as any brushed units in general. In hot weather, reduce flight times another minute or two.

Originally Posted by tiggertoo1962

Sorry guys, I know this has been covered numerous times, but I just spent 1/2 hour with the search function and haven't got any further than discussions on the topics.

What I'd really appreciate is if someone has pics handy of how they've mounted the above-mentioned items. I can imagine the buzzer will go somewhere on the left side of the heli with either cable ties or velcro (or both?).

The camera seems to my simple mind to be a bit more problematic. If you hang it from the chassis the right way up, doesn't that make the control buttons (on/off, record etc) Hard to get at?... and if it's connected so you can get to the buttons, won't the vids be upside down?

Off to buy some good quality velcro meantime in the hope that when I get back I can start work

Cheers
Fin

Velcro seems to work fine for the buzzer. Suggest mounting toward the right side of chopper when looking from the rear. Do remember that the motors will usually get hot before the battery reaches critical voltage, especially if you use higher capacity true lipoly batteries. For example, a 1800mah lipoly will give about 10 minutes of flight time but that's too long for the stock motors if you desire the motors to last longer. The camera mounting can be a problem as it's suseptable to vibrations. Camera seems to work better when solidly mounted. Never got mine to produce the quality desired, but it's a cheap one. Others here have had good luck with theirs.

Originally Posted by BobTopofTheWorld

I dont know if anyone thought of this... Them 'automotive accesories' tire-stem flashing LED lights are perfect for heli running lights. They have a flasher circuit built right on a mini circuit board that doubles for the LED mount. I took a 1,000 ohm 1/2 watt and put it in series with the - side, ran the wire to the pcb and soldered the wires direct to the battery bus. These weigh nothing, are super bright, and the drain is in the .001 amp (per light) range. I intend on getting several more (I had 1 that I found) and constructing a harness style setup that sports 4 lights (2 on each side).
FYI the 1k 1/2 watt resistor will easily power several of these
I'd love to adapt the centrifugal switch idea into main rotor lights, use a Li 3.7volt 'button' battery...
e-bay has these: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=valve+stem+lights

That sounds interesting. If I understand, the leds are powered directly by the battery with the resistor between the battery and the led?