Originally Posted by itsmillertime

I'm working on the night blades now. I have the leds and wire and just need to find a suitable dc-dc step up converter as well as some of that copper tape. I originally wanted to use about 10 leds. 4 for the main blades, 1 on the tail, 4 on the skids and then 1 "search lamp" on the front but now think I'll just use 5 for the blades and tail. The original plan was uv leds and invisible uv paints but that stuff is expensive and not as luminescent as regular leds would be. Still would be cool though...

Care to share what you plan on using for the LED's?

I looked into the 2.5 mm OD CF Round Tubing from RCFoam, and their website states 1.7 mm ID, which makes the wall thickness about 0.4 mm. I'm guessing 0.4 mm wall thickness might be too weak to be used as a Main Shaft, especially if we have to grind the end into a double-D for the Main Gear.

I'm thinking the wall thickness can be thickened by inserting a 1.8 mm OD CF Tube into the 1.7 mm ID, by first attaching it to a drill and lightly sanding the OD until it just fits the larger's ID.

Also, copper tape (a youtube video said it is available where doll houses are sold), might be an overkill both in what is required electrically and weight wise. The thinnest, lightest conductive material that might work is conductive paint/marker/pen, but it looks like that will run $10-$30 for the smallest size. That's a little too "rich" for me to experiment with for a one time fly-by-night job. I'll probably just go with the thinnest possible wire/thread I can find and carefully glue it.

There are a few different ways to power the LED's. The quickest and easiest would be to use existing LiPO (or Button Cell on top of Rotor Head as farmer suggested) and surface mount resistors. For long term usage, a DC/DC Voltage converter, or a Constant Current Driver would probably be more efficient but would cost more in parts and weight.

I wish I knew which LED's were being used in this Day Glow one:

mcpx night blades 2 (2 min 54 sec)

Fantastic idea on the paper canopy. I have been struggling with visibility, as it is all black! Might print me out some nice bright flouro paper canopies.

Originally Posted by i812

Care to share what you plan on using for the LED's?

I looked into the 2.5 mm OD CF Round Tubing from RCFoam, and their website states 1.7 mm ID, which makes the wall thickness about 0.4 mm. I'm guessing 0.4 mm wall thickness might be too weak to be used as a Main Shaft, especially if we have to grind the end into a double-D for the Main Gear.

I'm thinking the wall thickness can be thickened by inserting a 1.8 mm OD CF Tube into the 1.7 mm ID, by first lightly sanding it to correct diameter so it fits inside.

Also, copper tape (a youtube video said it is available where doll houses are sold), might be an overkill both in what is required electrically and weight wise. The thinnest, lightest conductive material that might work is conductive paint/marker/pen, but it looks like that will run $10-$30 for the smallest size. That's a little too "rich" for me to experiment with for a one time fly-by-night job. I'll probably just go with the thinnest possible wire/thread I can find and carefully glue it.

There are a few different ways to power the LED's. The quickest and easiest would be to use existing LiPO (or Button Cell on top of Rotor Head as farmer suggested) and surface mount resistors. For long term usage, a DC/DC Voltage converter, or a Constant Current Driver would probably be more efficient but would cost more in parts and weight.

I wish I knew which LED's were being used in this Day Glow one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz6s4ISu9Kk

I actually emailed rcfoam to ask about the i.d. of the 2.5mm. I must have missed it. Yeah 1.7 sounds too big, 1mm would be prefect. I plan to use the dc/dc converter to avoid using resistors which waste precious mah as heat and the button cell would work and you wouldn't need to find/ fab a hollow main shaft but I'd rather do it the more complicated way, lol. As for leds, I'm using 1206 smd's.

Originally Posted by nac

... I have been struggling with visibility, as it is all black! Might print me out some nice bright flouro paper canopies.

Someone earlier in the thread posted about the Genius Orange Canopy being easier to see, so I ordered it, received it, installed it, and agree it is much easier to see against a dark background.

My first original Canopy has about 5 cracks, all running from its bottom edge towards the nose. The entire bottom is scotch taped now, and it hasn't gotten worse, but it might be because I'm flying better now?

The new orange Canopy hasn't really been crashed but I saw about 1/4-inch crack started on the bottom edge, so I applied a strip of Scotch Tape all along the bottom edge, hoping it will stop all future cracks from starting.

I've always disliked the original dark Canopy indoors because the wall I face when flying is full off books, many of them dark, so it's been difficult for me to get a good visual on the dark Canopy and kind of have to fly using "past" bearings, but outdoors against the clear blue sky the dark Canopy is very easy to see and get a heading, so I'm glad to have both now.

I haven't tried the Orange Canopy outside, maybe it works well there too?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 54885488
Also the little pot on the board seems to be like my cgy750 were you can either control expo with the board or the radio usually not both . I have the flat of the screw set at 7 oclock which i believe is no expo set in the board and then i set the expo in radio to + 50 percent and it feels the same . If you turn off expo in board you can better fine tune the stick feel in the radio .

FYI: The pot controls gyro gain, not expo.

Sure feels like expo being controled not gain .

Why would they put expo on the board? That makes little sense to me.

I did it, I finally flipped my mini. I crashed a lot but I managed to flip and went inverted for a few seconds at a time. I flew about 10 packs until I lost my 7t pinion off my c05. I just got home and stuck the 9t pinion off my old dead genius motor and made it snow in the house. I bumped the throttle and the heli hit the ceiling and rained stucco everywhere. I didnt think this c05 had the power it has now. WOW , I am impressed. I dont know how long the batteries will last though. I am still using the genius main gear too. I dont need all of this headspeed so I am going to try and get it down by lowering the throttle curve.

I cant believe people need more power then the c05 with a 9t pinion. I hear the hp05 has tons of power but this little co5 is nuts. I am using zippy 350mah 20c too.

Thank god for the toughness of the mini, I crashed so many times at the field, picked it up reset the servo's and off I went. By the last two packs I was flipping without crashing. The inverted though was a problem. I can fly inverted on the sim but not that good. The mini is just as stable inverted as it is upright, that amazed me. I thought the heli would go all crazy upside down but it just sat there.


Itsmillertime, I had a thought. if the tail is blowing out, maybe its because of a power issue. All the power is getting sucked up by the servos on extreme moves and the motor. The tail has the longest wires on the heli, maybe it needs a capacitor. A capacitor just stores energy until something needs it. Maybe when the tail blows out it just needed more power. A capacitor would do that. its worth a shot.

Congratulations on flipping it Mescaline.

Originally Posted by mescalinedream

... I had a thought. if the tail is blowing out, maybe its because of a power issue. All the power is getting sucked up by the servos on extreme moves and the motor. The tail has the longest wires on the heli, maybe it needs a capacitor. A capacitor just stores energy until something needs it. Maybe when the tail blows out it just needed more power. A capacitor would do that. its worth a shot.

That reminds me of a couple Capacitor tutorial videos:

MAKE presents: The Capacitor (8 min 1 sec)

Fun with ultracapacitors!! (6 min 11 sec)

Now I'll probably be rolling a few fat ones!

(I wonder what will be next? Making our own crystals? Then doping them?)

Originally Posted by RawmadeCF

Why would they put expo on the board? That makes little sense to me.

Your looking for sense with walkera ? It seems to me if it was truely a gyro gain adjustment you would not have one in the radio. Im new to this walkera stuff and things are different than the futaba flybarless unit im used to . But for what it is its a great learning tool for 3D since it crashes cheap ! I have learned flips and rolls and inverted hovering now I want to learn to fly circles and figure 8s inverted . Four months ago all i did was sport fly upright and ive been flying weekly since the beginning of 2007 . walkera has been money well spent .

http://www.modelflight.com.au/produc...10459-158.html have a look at those servo links. Do you guys think that will cut down on a stripped servo? It seems it would give a spring or cushion in a crash.

I would post the pic but i am on the wife's iPad and it dont play that way. Spend that much money on a computer that won't paste links to pics and also doesn't know what a zip file is either. One more gripe is it doesn't always want to open some videos. I like the iPad sometimes but not when I am on this board.

Nice find!



Those Servo Links sure do look funky, but it looks like that's why they're shaped that way.

Way to go Blade!

Who's going to "roll" their own Servo Saver Links and try it on the Walkera Servos?

It would be nice if we had a Mechanical Strength of Materials type of person that could calculate the amount of bend the Mini Servo Link needs to still be rigid enough to function but elastic enough to save the Servo.

I suppose if someone else had the right size die, then they could use the trial and error method?

BTW, its sales video looks impressive as well:

Blade 130 X BNF by BLADE (2 min 30 sec)

Those would not stop servos from stripping, not that the linear servos strip anyways. Horizon Hobby uses them on all of their planes/helis for fine adjusting linkages/pushrods mechanically. They're the same as rotating the link on a mini cp to make it longer or shorter except you bend it or stretch it on this.

I couldnt watch the video until now. Very impressive. I am really wondering from all the posts i have read if the minicp is that capable. So many people have said that the minicp is only good for flipping. That funnels are not possible. I wish I could do a funnel but I cant. It also seems that all these people didnt know about the screw on the rx and exactly what it does. instead they just sold their mini's thinking they were just incapable. i keep defending the minicp, but should I? No one has a video with the screws flat part pointing at 6 oclock showing 3d. So I have no idea what to think.

I wouldn't expect any heli to be better than what is shown on the official sales video.

All the other non-official videos are questionable, and may be performance of hop'ed up stuff, that we may never really know what is under the hood?

Here is what the official sales video for the Mini showed:

Walkera 3D fight test ! (0 min 45 sec)