Intermission: SP270 flybar mod

Ok, so this is the part that was clear to me after my good experiences with the paddle mod on the SP260 CF flybar ... the V911 with the SP270 rotor assembly would have a modded paddle flybar like the SP260 paddle version.

So I had ordered a pair of SP270 flybars (and some other parts) from www.myrcmart.com (ie AMP Models) which had come in a few days ago. To get the paddles on the SP270 flybar, I first clipped off the weights. (I had thought about using a dremel tool to get a nice even cut, but at the end I decided to just clip them (easy enough, and with just a bit of filing the cut is not as bad as I had feared)
Then, I weighted the paddles vs. the SP270 stock weights and lo and behold, they are (almost) identical ... the difference being about 0.1g!!! (and THAT is practially negligible ...)
Next step was to enlarge the hole in the paddles slightly to allow for the thicker (than the 1.5mm CF on the XTREME flybars) stock SP270 flybar to fit through (or better 'in' ...). I took a #50 drill bit (0.07inch or 1.7mm) and that worked fine (on one paddle, on the other I had to sand the flybar rod a little to make it fit ...)

Tightening the little screws on the paddles and the flybar mod is done!!

The flybar after the mod is quite a bit shorter than the stock (weighted) flybar, but it weighs practically the same ... so there will naturally be an increase in agility/loss of stability.

What else to say?? Dont really have an idea, so here are some pics:

V911 SP2.7 - Day 2:

One shouldnt think or expect that, but Day2 was actually more tyring/annoying/challenging etc. than Day1 ... but in the end it was also more rewarding

I should not have had to go over two days to begin with, but thanks to the fact that I NEVER ever have everything I am going to need this day when I leave my apartment ... yeah, SOMETHING ALWAYS misses ... ... I was also forced to have a go at the V911/SP270 hybrid in "increments" ... ...

So, yesterday I finished the basic rotor assembly, today I was going to finish the project!!
So I brought blades from home and all the parts I did not have yesterday!

First step was to exchange the shafts ... from stock metal to SP260 CF (even though ... or better despite ... the shaft was already showing a hairline crack (and in the end it turned out, for my inside flying it really doesnt make too much of a difference!)
And already I "ran into the first wall" ... ... of course MY V911 had to be one of those with the glued landing skids ... and how do you change a shaft without taking off the skids ??? - and the answer is: WITH A LOT OF PROBLEMS!!
But it worked in the end, unscrewing the gear, pulling the shaft out to the top while holding the gear and then pushing the new CF shaft down ... one of the biggest PITA was finding the hole in the CF shaft where the gear mounting screw has to go!!!
But after a few minutes this was done and the project could go on ....

Next was the set collar. I opted for plastic (even though I like the aluminum look better, and the weight difference is really small here [then again, many small differences will add up big time in the end ...]) and I had the same type of problem her: it took a little while, but it worked out in the end.

Then I put on the head and took the first picture ... and suddenly I realized I was missing the swash.
So OFF goes the head again, and the swash is installed. (Just as a side note, I took the bearing out of the stock lower half and installed the SP270 bearing, as this has more bearing balls [which should increase smooth "running" ...]). For the upper half I had installed the SP270 center ball swash hub. (which weighs double the weight of the stock plastic upper ... quite a bit of weight to pay for the benefit of having a center ball)

After this, I installed the rotor head again ... and then wanted to install my modded flybar.
SNAP!!! The flybar can ONLY be installed BEFORE the head is mounted, because it has to be slipped over the head from below. So OFF went the head AGAIN.
I installed the flybar and when I made the "bounce test", I had to realize that it wouldnt ... bounce! It took me a moment to figure out that the "bind" came from the flybar pivoting pin being kind of trapped inside the rotor head. ....
(You see, I had to re-install the rotor head again, to make the bounce test, right?? ...)
So, OFF went the rotor head again ... arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!! .... and I enlarged the hole for the flybar pivoting pin just a tiny bit ...
Re-installed the head ... NOW the flybar WOULD bounce ...

I wanted to snap on the links ... and dont you know it, something isnt right!!!

Well, so OFF goes the head again ... and I started to try figuring out, how I would put all these pieces together so that everything would finally be where it was supposed to be!
And as embarrassing as it may be to admit that, it took me almost half an hour until I finally had the flybar on and WAS actually able to snap on the links.

So I installed the rotor head AGAIN... one FINAL time!!!

Did the usual pre-flight tests -and now I can tell you, the FLYING DID repay me for all the drama I had to go through to get to this point!!!

Unfortunately I can also already tell, I WILL have to wait for XTREME now to release the SP270 CF flybar (which I was promised in an email would be by the end of April .... ...) as the "wet noodle" stock plastic of the flybar now is predestined for flybar strikes again, thanks to the substantially lower location of the flybar (in comparison to the stock V911/SP260 standard flybar)



EDIT:
Well, after another 2min hover I have another reason to call loudly for an XTREME CF flybar for the SP270 (and hope they will have a design idea for this ...): within this amount of time the pin that is supposed to stay stuck inside the "flybar frame" (I cant remember how they call this part at the HBFP, but I will look it up ...) was almost completely pulled out by gravitational force ... ie, one minute more, and the heli would have come down because of a "dissolving flybar" ... ...)
So, what to do?? well - again - I was able to kinda solve my problem, but now, after inserting "pivoting screws", the heli shows some type of a wobble that it did NOT exhibit before. Its not bad enough to spoil the flying though, so I am going to just ignore it and hope the bird will "stay healthy" anyway ...

And one more thing that might be interesting for someone: I always cut off the little balls and the "bottom fins" on my skids and flyb with DIY skid nuts (fuel tubing) ...

The videos
Well folks, today the gods of youtube were kind to me and I could actually upload video DESPITE the crappy network we got here ...

So without a lot of words: ...

V911 SP2.7 Details.AVI (1 min 14 sec)

V911 SP2.7 demo flight ....AVI (1 min 52 sec)

E2

Strangely enough, with my (pretty successful, if I may say so) attempt to use the SP270 rotor assembly on the V911, I somehow totally got into the whole "extreme weight saving" attitude (which I usually really DONT like ...)

So embarrassingly enough, my mind keeps on circling around ideas on how to cut another 0.05g all the time I do something with the V911.

So I'd like to take a look at what are the "main drivers" in the heavier weight of the V911 compared to the Solos in particular ...

• Well, one of them surely is the PCB - and here in particular the servos! As much as I like the fact that the V911 is basically the ONLY super micro FP (ie in the 30g and less weight category) the has "real" servos like his larger "relatives". ALL the OTHER ones have the (I guess not only cheaper, but also) lighter OPEN linear servos.
  This "is good for 1g! of additional weight for the V911 compared to a SP260 or SP270!
  
  
• Another - and of course by now we ALL KNOW that, is the main shaft! The STOCK main shaft of the V911 weights between 1.1g and 1.3g!!! (why different weight stats? Because I actually got this much of a range when I weighted my stock main shafts ... WITHOUT the gears (which, btw, are practically equally heavy [about 0.5g]). The "STOCK" main shaft of the SP260 is a carbon fiber (CF) shaft that weights only about 0.35g! and the stock main shaft on the SP270 is an aluminum main shaft that weights about 0.45g! ... So there is almost another gram of weight to be saved just by picking "the right" main shaft!!
  
  
• Moving on to the "less well known" weight factors, I'd like to start with the blades.
  Not only have the SP270 blades a "nicer" (ie sleeker, more "high tech"/modern) design, they also weigh quite a bit less than the STOCK V911 blades!! PLUS, the heli seems to run significantly smoother and more quiet with the SP270 blades (maybe other members can attest to this fact ??)
  However, exchanging the blades is not such an "easy" mod to do ... not really because it is actually THAT difficult, but MORE SO because using the SP270 blades forces you to change the rotor head - either to an SP260 head (but then from XTREME, because the pivoting pin ... ie feathering shaft has to be changed as well, due to the clearly smaller diameter of the SP270 feathering shaft!
  I would claim I can safely say I did extensive "research" on the "subject" and the last "idea" is to actually even change the feathering shaft from steel to CF ... (again, this is only possible with a rotor head where the feathering shaft can be changed ... as opposed to the STOCK V911 head, which is definitely the lightest one, but also injection mold and therefore "un-manipulabale" ...)
  At the "end of the day" however, I would claim all this effort is worth it if one wants to seriously save weight on the V911, as this modification/change makes for about another 0.5g in weight loss ...
  
  
• It is also possible to loose some weight by changing the STOCK V911 flybar to the Xtreme CF flybar ... with paddles instead of weights (which greatly affects the flight characteristics in a positive way!!! ...) and also by shorting the "unused" part of the CF OFF (however, this is NOT as much weight savings as some might expect - therefore not really considering it "worth it" from the point of view of saving weight, but doing it anyway due to the positive effect on the flight characteristics!!!
  
  
• Significant, but maybe not THAT well known is that it is possible to save almost another 0.5g by switching the canopy from the V911 canopy to the SP260 canopy (which weights 1.95g [SP260] as opposed to the 2.46g of the V911 canopy ...
  (also looks like the lighter SP260 canopy also has an advantage over the V911 canopy when doing a SP270 rotor assembly mod, as it is a little lower than the V911 canopy and therefore "better" against flybar strikes of the lower SP270 flybar as opposed to the V911 flybar that is located ABOVE the rotor head)
  
  
• One of the most noticeable modifications that I did not do yet (remember, I am the "NO-solder-guy" ......)MAY be to do Daryoons battery mod [ie switch from the proprietary STOCK V911 batteries to the E-Flite style batteries ... namely the NEW E-Flite 150mAh 25C battery ...], [b]with a SP260 landing skid)
  According to the E-Flite website, the new 150mAh battery is the same size as the STOCK 120mAh (?10C) battery, while only adding about 0.2g of weight (which means this battery is [i]lighter than the STOCK V911 130mAh battery with more "punch" ... , NOT EVEN CONSIDERING THE WEIGHT OF THE PROPRIETARY V911 BATTERY PLUG!!!
  
  
• Unfortunately, the SWASH is a part where weight savings are [feasibly] impossible (if you are excluding the positive effect on the flight characteristics by the heavier SP270 plastic swash with center ball or the REALLY heavy CNC aluminum swash with center ball.
  
  
• And then, there is this really totally crazy idea about trying to save weight by using ceramic bearings (of course, these bearings - which actually exist in the required sizes - are soo expensive that it can rightfully be called braindead to install them if your name is NOT Bill Gates or Warren Buffet (and mine isnt, but I am VERY tempted nonetheless ... just for the heck of it ... if it can be confirmed that such small bearings actually show a significant weight difference)
  
  

These are probably the "places" in which there is potential for significant weight savings on the V911 - it MAY even be possible to get the weight DOWN below that of a STOCK SP260 ...

Intermission Part2: The second SP270 flybar for the V911

Unfortunately this one is ALSO STILL based on the SP270 STOCK flybar (a.k.a "the wet noodle" ...) so it is STILL WAY more flexible than can be desired. (I just hope XTREME will come out with a SP270 carbon fiber flybar soon (as promised for late April ... wonder where it is ??? .)

Anyway, I could always trace the canopy strikes back to a certain point on the first version - and now, by shortening another CAREFUL 4mm each end, I hope to get closer (or in the best case REACH) to the point where the "wet noodle" will NOT hit the canopy anymore.

As I hinted at in the thoughts about getting a lighter V911, the SP260 canopy has a second advantage over the stock V911 canopy besides being lighter - it is also a little lower (ie the wet noodle has to bend more to hit it) So with the 4mm shorter "flybar rods" I hope to get to the point where it is further from the canopy than bending allows. Looks like this version is however slightly heavier than the stock flybar ... but then again, in this case that is not all bad because of the decreased flybar length.

BTW, the 2nd version SP270/V911 flybar is 92mm as opposed to the 128mm STOCK (or a considerable 28% shorter). This goes clearly beyond the 15% trial and error limit of NOT really noticing a specific change in flight characteristics, so it SHOULD be more agile ...,

OK, so here is my first "official finding" in the process of trying to build the lightest possible indoor V911 (without loosing any of the "good stuff" that the STOCK V911 offers and which got improved and improved here on RCGroups ...)

The ultimate head for the ULTRALIGHT V911 will be a modified ("enlightened" ...) SP270 rotor head assembly.
Todays 270 rotor head assembly weights 5.05g RTF WITH all the links and screws, flybar and rotor blades INSTALLED!!! ...

Feels good looking at the project and knowing, one part of it is "finished" ...

I have to admit, this is one XTREME tuning part I am starting to really like for the V911 - the XTREME Solo Pro (260) rotor head! ...

... and the reason is its xtreme (pun intended, ...) versatility!

(In about two weeks I am going to proof that yet again with another project that falls into my "sucker for bling" ... problem ...!

I just received an XTREME aluminum head for Solo Pro (260 - but that is usually not mentioned in the title) V2.
Why V2?? Obviously Xtreme already changed the design of this part due to certain unfavorable characteristics, like in particular its high weight. (As a comparison, the aluminum head from the "El Cheapo" Chinese aluminum parts is about 1.6g - and it makes sense to assume the V1 Xtreme aluminum head did the same!)

So now with the V2, the weight of the head must have been reduced, the new version "only" weighs about 1.3g - still gargantuan compared to the 0.35g of the stock head, but already much better. (And through a VERY minor modification this weight can be reduced by another roughly 0.2g!) Pair that with lighter than stock V911 blades and you actually start to get somewhere ...

Anyway, I really like the XTREME Solo Pro 260 head design, because it leaves so many different "ways to play" !!!
(My next project is going to be installing a folding blade aluminum grip on the V911, possible only thanks to the design of the Xtreme SoloPro 260 head)

Just a few pics ...

Originally Posted by erdnuckel2

So now with the V2, the weight of the head must have been reduced, the new version "only" weighs about 1.3g - still gargantuan compared to the 0.35g of the stock head, but already much better. (And through a VERY minor modification this weight can be reduced by another roughly 0.2g!) Pair that with lighter than stock V911 blades and you actually start to get somewhere .....

Nice blog. Maybe use a CF Rod feathering shaft to reduce weight? If possible also replace the linkage guide pins with CF Rod?

Originally Posted by Brosol

Nice blog. Maybe use a CF Rod feathering shaft to reduce weight? If possible also replace the linkage guide pins with CF Rod?

Thank you sir! That is exactly what I did - use a CF feathering shaft! I could hardly believe how incredibly "heavy" those steel feathering shafts actually are.
However, I did not think of the guide pins - but of course, that is another possible 0.1-0.2g less ...
One day, there will be a superlight V911 (including ceramic bearings - even though that is actually crazy ... to spend several times the price of the heli on a single bearing ... but I started saving for it ...)

Congrats by the way to your engineering efforts. You are a worthy follower in EQMOD's footsteps! Your torque tube tail for the V911 is definitely impressive - very admirable!
Unfortunately me, I have to stick with mods that can be reproduced by any average Joe, as I am by far not the advanced engineer you proof to be.

One thought to the flybar design - it is not so much about me giving up ... I just think that if a company is going to make a fortune on an idea, then the one who actually HAD the idea should be allowed to participate a little (a few cents per flybar would be adequate I'd say ... you may have seen this with EQMOD's (I think it was some type of a swash supplement) design - which he introduced here on RCG and then a company went and "incorporated" it into their next helicopter model ... and he never even got a thank you or any type of acknowledgement for it - let alone the money he would have deserved for being the TRUE inventor of the design ...

But - I am absolutely convinced it would work ... well, wait until someone brings it up ... then I will post a picture from the drawing I made today so that you can see I said that/envisioned exactly that ...

Anyway, my next project is going to put folding blades on the V911 - just to show that it is possible ...

So thanks again for your kind words and interest - hope to see you around

E2

Part1:

Well, I already mentioned this this morning in the "official" thread - I did a folding blade conversion on the V911 ... mainly to proof that it is possible (noboby is crazy enough to spend this kind of money on this kind of experiment except me ... ...) but despite the fact that it looks (by now) that I havent been really too successful I am glad I tried it - could well have been different!!

So what did I actually do??

Folding blade conversion for the V911:
Ingredients:

• XTREME Delrin rotor head for SP260 (slightly modified guide pins)
• Walkera CB100 aluminum blade holder
• SoloPro 270 stock mixing arms
• Walkera "High Performance" (.) blades
• STOCK V911 flybar

Apart from that, I basically used the parts from the V911 I have been flying for a while now, so it has a hybrid aluminum/stock swash, aluminum set collar ... and all the rest was stock before.

Now, with the folding blade conversion, I also changed the heavy stock main shaft for a much lighter aluminum main shaft from one of the CNC aluminum parts kits.

First thing I did is just build the complete head to see how everything fits together. Doing this, it became clear that the mixing arms are going to be a major problem. I cant use the stock ones, I cant use the Walkera ones because THOSE are TOO long ... so I have to use the SP270 mixing arms - and those kind of "refuse" to work correctly with the SP260 head ... at least they always have for me.

Anyway, to be able to mount the Walkera blade holder to the SP260 head, I had to make some DIY O-rings and a feathering shaft (out of a paper clip! .) and that was pretty much kind of a PITA! But it got done and so I could fit the blade holder to the head.
Then, I mounted the head and all the other parts for the complete rotor assembly to the aluminum main shaft from the CNC kit and put everything in the heli.
The pictures are a proof that all this talk about heavy aluminum is pretty much blah blah, as the folding blade conversion, which has WAY MORE aluminum than the almost stock heli had before, is actually LIGHTER!!!!

... WHO would have thunk ???

EDIT:
oh, and before I forget, I actually had to inverse one of the mixer arms to allow for some movement of the swash at all ...

oh, and I got the pics to proof it ...

Part 2:

Ok, so this is part 2, the moment when I admit to myself that, after trying to testfly this experimental bird, it looks better than it flies.
This could have various roots, be it my lack in engineering skills to come up with a REALLY flyable version or the plain fact that I used "unsuitable" parts ...

... who knows??

Anyway, looking at the video, it should become clear that this bird was fairly uncontrollable and that the experiment has to be "filed under FAILED!"
However, maybe my experiment can prompt someone with better engineering skills or just better ideas to follow in my footsteps and finish what I started ... or at least tried to start ...

So if anyone does, "may the force be with you ..."

V911 folding blade conversion testflight (hover).AVI (0 min 53 sec)

OK, I had a very dis-satisfying day until now ... for several reasons (despite the gorgeous weather and the fact that it is Sunday and it is blissfully quiet most of the time ... ...)

Anyway, yesterday ... actually already on Friday evening ... my replacement SP270 arrived. And YES!!! I said "replacement", because I got to the conclusion that I might as well get a BNF right away after the crash that tore out the battery wire from the PCB.
As I am (still) a NO solder guy and I would need someone to do this PCB soldering for me AND I also had "scavenged" my "original" SP270 as a parts donor for my various experiments with the V911I figured (in particular after already once ordering SP270 spare parts and seeing how expensive this had gotten ... for a couple sets of blades, mixing arms, flybars ...) I might as well just get a new BNF to finally try to bind the SP270 to the J6Pro that came with the 80$ SP100 from HobbyKing a few weeks ago.

So I ordered a 45$ BNF SP270 from www.myrcmart.com - and despite the fact that they have a rather positive rep and the fact that I had ordered there before with a rather satisfactory result, I am deeply disappointed with this order!!!

And this is really not because of WHAT I got (or that it did not work, as I did not even get to this point yet, I havent done anything but taken a few pictures with my new SP270 so far) ...
... I am (again) really disappointed because of HOW I got it!!!
I really wonder if these chinese guys will EVER get a sense for how to send delicate stuff halfway round the world (in particular after seeing a certain video on HOW the chinese postal service "unloads" their delivery trucks ... ...) - but I guess there is no hope for this.
If they would send all the stuff free shipping (like many ... or maybe MOST AliExpress vendors do) it would be more easy to grasp. But myrcmart charges for shipping ... and quite a bit for that matter. Nonetheless whoever packed my heli did not even bother to wrap it in bubble wrap, NO - it was rolled in two layers of SILK PAPER and then put in a rather thin cardboard box!!!

It is almost like a miracle that the only obvious damage on a "visual inspection" was a badly bent main blade ... easy to fix! (but who knows how many hits and kicks this package had to suffer during the trip around half the globe and how the electronics [or stuff I CANT obviously see] was able to "stomach" this ... ...)

Anyway, its here now and I am glad it is, but I am really unhappy on how it came!!
Now lets hope at least it flies!!

And then, to add insult to injury, I had typed this post almost completely already once this morning ... and all of a sudden there is some kind of "blue flash" and then everything I typed in the previous 20mins is GONE!!!
(But that was not going to be the end of annoying (little???) things to happen, it happily kept on going - more about that in the micro CP heli thread ...

Well, this might (in the future) constitute another big sub-section of this blog, all MY (very personal ... ie YMMV) 2cents on anything Walkera (sub)micro FP related.

So, let me start with some (very) general thoughts on Walkera as of today - or better, their micro/sub-micro FP helis as of today.

The reason why I went to include all the Walkera stuff into the blog NOW is that I have been kinda "itching" to hit the buy-it-now button on the (still relatively [brand] new) Walkera Supermini FP ...
( http://www.rc711.com/shop/4ch-heli-b...2_292_301.html )

However, apart from the fact that I cant really afford this at the moment if I am honest to myself, there are several reasons that keep on "preventing" me from actually doing it:

• The general course ... or "path" that Walkera "set out to embark on" about one or one-and-a-half years ago (actually, this might as well even be a good two years by now, I have to admit I lost track of the time frame a little bit since I mostly stopped dedicating time to the new Walkera models).
  That was the time when Walkera - after several years of brushing up on their rep and throwing fairly good, overall attractively low priced new models at the market every couple of weeks/few months (albeit to the dismay of many users who just couldnt keep track with all the different versions and the occasionally really irritating naming ...) - started to THINK(???.) that it might be a really great idea to "morph" into a high-end-company (as far as I can judge that by what I read/hear about them, it looks however that it lost them a lot of "followers" ...
  (... which is NO wonder - looking at things like a general, almost 70% price increase across the board on the German market)
  Just today I happened to browse the pages of www.helidirect.com, and I was "blown away" (but not in a good sense) by the prices I saw for the Walkera helis, some of which I even own myself.
  
  
• Of course, the fact that I had a cabinet full of "useless" transmitters (that came with all the various Walkera models I bought over time before trying to make is a principle to buy BNF whenever that was even remotely possible) and ALL OF A SUDDEN Walkera decides to change their TX protocol (Sure, I am not stupid, its to force people to buy the same stuff they already have all over again to keep the money flowing ... not because anything of it is really BETTER than with its pre-decessor ...) definitely did not really HELP either ... (5-22 edit)
  
  
• The fact that there is a "Supermini FP" (blue ... looks .) on the one hand and then there is the "Genius FP" on the other hand (see here: http://www.xheli.com/walkeraheli-fp-2402d-rtf-24g.html ), and I am really rather confused on WHAT except the canopy color is the difference
  
• There are NO videos on youtube (at least I could not find any through the search) about this heli that have NOT been created as a PROMOTIONAL vid by some Walkera VENDOR ...
  
• People can only dedicate their time to so many things, and I wouldnt be able to make space for that heli right now (again, if I am honest enough to admit that to myself ... ...)
  
  

I also have to admit I am kinda sad that this is how it is, as the Walkera helis are actually what really got me (deep) into this hobby (if one looks for a technical cause) and I have quite a variety of the "older" Walkera micro/sub-micro FP's, starting with the famous infamous 4#3 in its ORIGINAL form/version, which was actually my FIRST hobbygrade heli (I know, how anybody can do THAT to himself is a mystery, but its easily explained by saying "I did not have a clue of what I WAS doing whatsoever ... ...)

(some stuff that I already wrote about my 4#3's can be found here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1285919 )

As the title says, and despite the fact that I just sold the last one I had from my first "corter buying spree", when the price came down to 21.59$ at banggood I just couldnt resist! I bought another red/white "ex-corter" to use for the ultralight project.
So far so good ... unfortunately this sentence ends "so WHAT??? "

First of all, had I just waited another week, banggood would have lowered "my" price down to 19.98$ (... but that one was like with buying computers: if you wait and wait for the bottom, you'll NEVER buy one despite the fact that it keeps getting cheaper ...)

But MORE importantly, I cannot understand WHY, IF one thing about a purchase turns out to be actually good, that there ALWAYS HAS to be at least ONE OTHER (in this case actually several) thing(s) to make up for it and spoil the enjoyment ???

This time, I was really happy with how the "ex-corter" was packed ... However, this joy vanished with lightning speed, when I started to take a closer look at the heli inside.

• If I bought the red/white version, then I can expect ... acutally I deserve that it has the RIGHT tail rotor ... not just a black one (even if I only pay 21 bux and change!!!
• If I get a new heli, the antenna should NOT just "hang" inside the PCB, it should be properly soldered (AGAIN!!! - even if I ONLY paid 21 bux and change!!!)
• In general, the soldering on this particular PCB was from the lesser quality (no as bad as if I had done it, but whoever did it gets PAID for doing it!!! - so have the decency to do a respectable job!)
• The tail motor was placed ... let's call it "unfortunate" - probably even WITH trying to protect the wires with hotglue (which is a really crappy thing to do when trying to set up an ULTRALIGHT V911) they WILL most likely rip on the first mentionable impact, considering how tight they were soldered
• But the most stupidest thing of all those little annoyances is the fact that they took the NEW landing skid (that which is SUPPOSEDLY mounted with TWO little screws into the frame) and GLUED the front pin in ANYWAY and only used a screw on the back one!!! This way, they might as well just have skipped that step completely, considering that I will STILL have to use debonder and HOPE that the pin will come out (which it most likely WONT anyway).
  The screw-on skids were one of the reasons why I even bothered to get another BNF for the ultralight project .. Could have WELL saved this money for something better !!!

Otherwise the bird looks kinda alright, but it will still stay a PITA having to go through all this crap in the first place ...

On another note:
THIS particular STOCK version had a weight of 27.79g without the battery. (Is that what other peoples stock versions are weighing in at, too ???



Well, at least it FLEW decently ...

Pictures:

So, finally I did it. I "married" the SP270 and the J6Pro.

And it actually was a total piece of cake!!! - I couldnt find my J6Pro Manual this morning and didnt remember which one of the many knobs and levers was the one supposed to function as the "bind button" (as it clearly does NOT have a specific bind button ANYWHERE!) ... and I also mentioned this on the CP thread ...
but in the end it was one of the easiest binding I ever did:

• Put the battery in the heli, wait for the red LED blinking, indicating it is in binding mode
• Switch on the J6Pro with the Trainer switch pulled (the J6Pro will display S-H ... which seems to indicate IT is in binding mode (too) ...
• Wait a few seconds ...

... DONE!!!

The much harder part is going to "emerge" now ... OPTIMIZING the(se) settings for the SP270 (and preferably in a way that they will also be "perfect" (dont worry, I know its impossible, but a guy can dream, right ??? ...) for the SP328, which I intend to control with this J6 as well (in the - hopefully NOT so distant) future!)

First flight:
... NO, sorry - I did NOT take a video of it (maybe I should have, though) ...

The settings which I still have on there (which are the ones still "left over" from the crashed SP100) seem to be not really ideal for the SP270. First of all, the TX needs to go back on high rates (which is a totally different story once you try to fly the SP100)!!!
After that and a rather "hasty" lift-off the SP270 was "bucking around" like some stand in rodeo bronco ...
It took a little while to get used to, but soon the J6 showed its superior qualities (compared to the J4 or those other darn toy transmitters anyway ... ...). The SP270 flew better and better, and I am convinced, this is a much better solution (at the end of the day) than the stock set-up ... (with the TOY TX).

There is just ONE liiiiiittle thingy that kinda spoils the fun a bit now:
Since I am dedicating so much time to trying to learn CP helis with the mCPX (and the SP100 ... as long as it flew) the whole SP270 flying get a bit boring rather quickly (at least right now anyway, as the CP excitement is still fresh ...)

Very slowly, I am starting to understand why people get into the whole "UN-real" 3D-flying/heli aerobatics "thing" ... people just need a constant challenge, and (first getting to) CP helis and trying to do all this "physics defying" stuff is the only way to keep the CONSTANT challenge alive ... ...

Out of all the FP micros I have ... (even NOW, that the SP270 - which is often called the 2ndbest micro FP heli [that unfortunately costs a little too much] - is bound to the J6Pro, which is clearly a MUCH better TX than all the crappy toy tx stuff those helis are usually sold with ...)
... the V911 STILL is (and will probably stay until the end of time) THE most bestest micro FP I have ... hands down ...!!! ...

(The TNT300 batteries are already on the charger again ... so pretty soon it will be "... and OFF we go to practice some more clockwise circles with the mCPX ..." which slowly starts to evolve into my new favorite heli ... (too bad it is 1 mCPX for 9 V911 ... or I would already have one or two more ... ... ...)

E2