Discussion The ExceedRC/EXI 450 Class Owners Thread (Blueray, Genesis ,Vertex,Legend,SEF,etc)

[frac]

it was only a matter of time b4 i showed up here....

Once again the sweet smell of low priced crap wafting in from (DEL***disreputable***DEL ,they are AOK in my book) california hobby dealers has induced frac to irresponsibly hit the buy button.

http://www.xheli.com/24ghzbl45elr.html

450 class RTF 2.4 Ghz fully loaded with CNC aluminum head,HH gyro, stainless steel tail ( is that unusual? ) including lipo battery, brushless motor,Volcano ESC and carbon blades all for $303.shipping inc. no battery charger however

unfortunately that included a 10% discount that ended yesterday, but it still seems nice and low.

it will be here monday.

I have searched here and no one seems to have this bird and as I am new to this class and would like to review it, tell me what you would like to know about it, bearing in mind that there will be no flight vids from me

if by chance anyone does have this heli i'd like to hear your comments
warnings quirks etc.

the only comments on the net i was able to find were over at runryder
and they seemed to think that it was stable and a good lo cost beginner or practice machine, flying better than the esky belt cp and kingv2 with
lo cost parts. it's not clear to me how parts compatible it is with the Trex

looking at it, right off the bat i'm not too happy about that battery holder so i will probably try to reinforce the front of it with some struts
to the frame.edit battery holder is fine...nice and strong...no mod needed.


frac

[henryd123]

it does'nt look bad does it ? . I bought a pigeon 450 trex clone cause I like a bargain too !, well pleased with it ,nicely made and flys great. hope yours turns out well
henry

[Gino CP]

Generally Trex 450 clones fly well. Differences will be on build precision and finish. The real surprise with any rtf will be its electronics. It's a wait and see thing if they are up to task or not.

[frac]

Gino, henry, that's very encouraging news. i'll be back when the bird arrives with more info.

from what i see on runryder, this radio might have some sort of weird subtrim/zeroing thing in addition to standard trim...but the description of how it's used seems to show a lack of convenience, as in opening the back to set it....got any info on that henry or did you get the arf?

i realize that only dense pilots like me resist getting a real radio

actually, when it comes to developing complex stick skills i believe a crappy radio is better because the hand/mind has to do what the computer does, making it admittedly much harder, but developing manipulative skills that are more wide ranging.

( yeah take that gyro off too.... )

next order of business....body armor


frac

[frac]

...

[henryd123]

Originally Posted by frac

Gino, henry, that's very encouraging news. i'll be back when the bird arrives with more info.

from what i see on runryder, this radio might have some sort of weird subtrim/zeroing thing in addition to standard trim...but the description of how it's used seems to show a lack of convenience, as in opening the back to set it....got any info on that henry or did you get the arf?


i realize that only dense pilots like me resist getting a real radio

actually, when it comes to developing complex stick skills i believe a crappy radio is better because the hand/mind has to do what the computer does, making it admittedly much harder, but developing manipulative skills that are more wide ranging.

( yeah take that gyro off too.... )

next order of business....body armor


frac

mine came with a wfly radio that was ok (better than esky) but I found it awkward to adjust settings so went with futaba 6exp which I use on all my cp heli's, the rest of the electronics were and still are working fine,it has tower pro servo's and I have stripped one in a crash but the rest are fine so far

henry

[Roto Rob]

Originally Posted by frac

next order of business....body armor


frac

With a Volcano ESC I can see why.

[frac]

Originally Posted by Roto Rob

With a Volcano ESC I can see why.

tell me what you know Roto Rob, i've not heard of it b4


frac

[Roto Rob]

I have never seen one, just the name Volcano might not have been well chosen. When I think of a volcano I think of smoke, and flames. Hope it works good.

[frac]

Originally Posted by Roto Rob

I have never seen one, just the name Volcano might not have been well chosen. When I think of a volcano I think of smoke, and flames. Hope it works good.

whew!

thought i was in for a known problem before i even got the thing

i think(hope) it will be alright, no one on runryder said bad things about the elctronics


frac

[Realmkaos]

Actually a Friend at work bought the Exceed G2 and his volcano speed controller did burst into flames, or atleast lots of smoke. Not sure if it was a defect or a known problem but all he did was plug in the battery and try and spool up the heli

[frac]

Originally Posted by Realmkaos

Actually a Friend at work bought the Exceed G2 and his volcano speed controller did burst into flames, or atleast lots of smoke. Not sure if it was a defect or a known problem but all he did was plug in the battery and try and spool up the heli

right. 1 set body armor.....1 nomex suit....2 fire extinguishers.

i think i'm ready.


frac

[frac]

frac has a really big smile on his face that just won't go away.....


frac

[eaterofdog]

Originally Posted by frac

Once again the sweet smell of low priced crap wafting in from disreputable california hobby dealers has induced frac to irresponsibly hit the buy button.

LOL.

I go one further and buy sketchy stuff directly from random Hong Kong dealers. It always works out though.

[frac]

Originally Posted by eaterofdog

LOL.

I go one further and buy sketchy stuff directly from random Hong Kong dealers. It always works out though.

and it has this time too for me. xheli seems ok? purchase went smoothly. i got support from their chat thing...but forget about phones.
we'll see how the email goes.Xheli has a reasonable amount of parts in stock...except bearings. almost all types are OOS.

however i have crashed. twice in fact.

first time came down from 6 ft into the grass (at 4am ),bent the feathering shaft somewhat seriously.nothing else broke.this was my fault for letting a binding in the grip blade fly, so i filed the root down until it moved right in the grip.

so i ordered up a parts complement (turns out i guessed right---see below) and proceeded to manually straighten the 4mm shaft...with pliers no less........did a little deburring and smoothing.....pliers are very unsubtle.... . i discovered it has thrust bearings...all intact.

can't believe it worked. charged the battery and....

gust of wind took it up,i used the wrong stick tail went down, no lift, dropped like a stone onto the tail from about 20 ft.. only the tail blades broke, main blades and a servo. NOTHING ELSE.battery didn't even come off it's perch. i will look at it very closely but from what i can see...it's intact and strong.

the head is solid.... no slop and it's nice and smooth.
the canopy is not great quality,needs trimming to get it on right, but it will do. bought a spare. think i'll see what i can do in the way of some fractal designs on it (frac=fractoid, my real handle----fractals ARE existence!!!!)

EDIT: the tx is fully configurable via a pc/notebook/pocketpc running windows see messages below

the tx is king2 style,but no nor/rev switches.there is idle-up,throttle hold,pitch adjust knob and gyro gain..but there might be more....altho it's weird. it comes with a driver for an included usb link to the tranmitter, and a utility called txconfig. there is no documentation on this thing and i'm not sure if it's for driving a sim or setting complex pitch curves in the Tx for flying. any paramters u could set on a computer radio this thing has. altho i thought the subtrim thing was ridiculous in this context. you can use it for 4 different stored setups, but if there is a way to switch amongst them with the trans i don't know what it is.
the radio works well and the sticks sensitivity is just right(for me anyway) however i cannot get the transmitter to connect with either fms of clearview or windows xp so again the purpose of this thing is still mysterious. emails have been sent off to maker and seller.

needs a bigger battery, but that's easy---2.4Ah 15C from Dx $22.

yeah i'm really going to enjoy the 450 class.it is stable flying and easy--hovering is almost trivial.

Gino....you are right. honeybees should be ILLEGAL

the setup out of the box was actually very good, only minor blade pitch adjustments. necessary.

i will not comment on the gyro, which is exceedrc brand HH because i didn't take the appropriate time to set it up but it works reasonably well. however i have learned that with the gyro and tail, setup is everything.

the ESC is **very** well documented so there is no guesswork in setting it up with the Tx. i didn't have to change anything....they did it right. there is also a programming card available.

i'm gaga that EVERY lhs in this sewer(nj) that i called doesn't carry trex parts.i guess i'm going to have to trek up to bphobbies, which is a big ride.

as usual, this is not a tyro's bird unless you have help.but it's not that hard either. score one for the rtf concept.

i happen to already have some carbon 325's, lots of HTX900 servos, and belt cp tail blades...i expect to be in the air again tomorrow.

this bird is economical, strong and very easy to fly...yes, actually right out of the box.

I'm really happy with it. IT IS MOST DEFINITELY NOT CRAP.



frac