I really enjoy my 360 - 380 size helis with an X360, 0xy 4 stretch and stretched tarot 450 - 360 builds. Been eyeing the protos 380 but wasn't sure what was happening with MSH - XL power so I decided to go with the ALZRC X380 kit as a xmas present to myself. I've had a good run out of an X360 unit with lots of flying.

Kit took some time to arrive and initial assembly was straight forward but a number of details and parts assemblies had me concerned regarding loose fitment and poor tolerances. Cutting to the chase the kit provided to me has multiple major machining and quality issues:

1/ All shafts; main, feathering and tail rotor are all machined under size and are sloppy loose in the bearings !

2/ Bearing mounts and related are loose as for bearing placements, even gap filling loctite retaining compound struggles to set.

3/ the bearings are extremely poor quality with excess vibration levels and 4 bearings actually failed within 10 minutes of initial bench running during setup, Bearing where both tail bearings, motor pinion support bearings, these are all 5 / 10 / 4 size, and the lower main shaft bearing 6/12/4 size. The motor pinion support bearing fell apart - disintegrated !

4/ tail rotor 'tee ‘ stubs are machined under size and the bearings are sloppy loose, the tail rotor blade grips are machined over size and the bearing are loose, its impossible to get the slop out of the tail assembly. Even resorting to glueing the bearings in won't yield a...Continue Reading

Attached are a series of screen shots of my setup for the Eachine E200 UH-64 Blackhawk scale heli. I’m using a dsmx satellite plugged into the sat port on the helis main board. I’m using a DX8 but the general setup is pretty well universal across all spectrum DX and NX radios. Later model radios newer than my gen 1 DX8 will have more options for switch assignments

Only switch assignments you may wish to customise is ch5 so you can use the 6G as a rescue bail out for the 3D flight mode and how you wish to assign the dual rates (or in this case triple rates which I have assigned to the AIL switch for ail / elevator and rudder). Otherwise basic model setup is totally as per a normal helicopter file setup in spektrum.

Use the pitch and throttle values straight out of the manual as a start point. Values shown in my screen shots are my slight modifications to soften the pitch change around hover and get a more scale like flight envelope

Same for the dual rates which are lower than the factory defaults.

Gyro settings for ch5.
50% selects stabilised 6G mode and can be used as an auto level rescue function
-50% selects 3D agility mode

I have a three position switch with 3D in the middle and stabilised 6G either side so a quick flick and your in self level mode if things get tricky in 3D mode.

I have softened the pitch curve slightly and have a slight positive pitch setting at mid stick, this gives a smoother transition into hover at initial...Continue Reading

Team

been along build on the Ken Luo Designs 230S - SA315B "lama" scale heli, but I can firmly state it's a totally gorgeous flier. I'm running the latest 3 blade head unit from Microheli with there narrower chord width CF main blades, with a more powerful main motor this has turned out to be a velvety smooth flier, down right lovely. I'm going to try the narrower chord blades on some of my other three blade units now, not quite as much pop and bite but a very precise feel at hover and landing etc, more "subtle" springs to mind. The increased head speed with the uprated main motor gives it strong performance.

Allot of scale details added, and still to finish up the LED lighting. Lets face scale helis are never truely finished...... but this gorgeous heli is now flight line ready and will be seeing twilight flying over this winter for sure.

Finally got an evening with no wind so out for a decent two battery twilight fly. Well it flew like an absolute gem, the narrower chord CF Microheli blades have a very nice feel for scale flying, and make a unique blade noise to boot. I'm running around 3000 rpm and it flies really nice. Exceptionally smooth. This one is a running a turnigy 2627 3800 KV and geared bout 10% higher than stock and has lots of torque, but is a fraction harder on the battery than the aliexpress silver can 2627 motors. Battery is down to storage levels in 5 1/2 - 6 minutes of sporty flying. It can take full pitch pumps...Continue Reading

Bell Huey UH-1N, Ken Lou’s latest fuselage design for the OMP M2 joining his other awesome kits for the M2 , 230S and k130 helis.

High quality SLA 3D printed resin shells and parts. Kits come with welded SS landing skids, tail frame sub assembly and awesome clear plastic screens and all fasteners and related and a decent amount of surface detailing. Ken is running these with the trex 250 - 205mm cf main blades.

Look up ken.Lou.906 on f a c e b o o k You will not be disappointed

Also see the bell B427

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...7-fuselage-kit

And the OH-58. Bell B206 jet ranger

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...Ken-Luo-design...Continue Reading

Recently assembled the Microheli semi scale S300C kit with a three blade head and had a great morning flying it along with the Ken Luo Bell 47G and the heavy cruiser UH-1 Huey gun ship.

I typically run upgraded main motors, more recently the very good aliepxress silver can 2627 motors in both 3600 and 4200Kv. the 4200 really give these guys some serious legs. The Bell is running the slower speed 3600 and that actually suits it quite nicely also.

Huey has a ZTW unit, great torque and spins the modded 300X rotor head and 245mm CF blades with ease.

the sportier of the bunch is the 4200kv powered s300c with triple blade head, very spritely performance and quite agile.

I often run my own twin esc as these are more reliable than the 230 V1 units, the V2 esc is a big improvement and can be tuned with BLheli software which is a big bonus. Boththe Bell and the S300C will get replacement twin esc, the bells tail is not happy and the stock 250cfx escs are not a nice match to this heli. Just waiting for the 25 amp hobby wing esc to arrive and will use a 20a little bee pro on the tail.

On they bench is another Ken luo kit - the SA316B Lama which will get a three blade head, and an align 250 MD500 unit. the align fibreglass shell is heavier and I'm considering using one of my upgraded 250 CFX units to power that. Still deciding what rotor head to run on the MD500, no one has a readily available 5 blade unit so will probably settle for a three blade on that as well.

anyways, some park fly and tuning videos.

Ken Luo bell 47G kit

Kiwi Craig - Ken Luo 230S - B47G (8 min 20 sec)

Huey battle cruiser

Kiwi Craig RC 230S Huey Gunship (9 min 14 sec)

little demon flier - Microheli S300C

Kiwi Craig RC MicroHeli S300C (9 min 7 sec)

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Kiwi_Craig RC is setting up a blade 450 with both the new Micro Heli "pro" tail assembly and the new 3 blade DFC main rotor head. The Microheli team have been testing the heck out of these for the last few months fine tuning the geometric setups for the Pro tail and the 3 blade DFC head units. The parts have been provided to me to cary out a technical evaluation and independent test flying and I thank the Microheli team for this opportunity.

Checkout the new 3 blade head on the Microheli web page.

https://www.microheli.com/helicopter...330x-330s.html

Personally I really like 3 bladed head units and have done a number of custom builds on micros ; K120, blade 130S, WL V950, blade 200 srx with both RKH short blade and Microheli 3 blade with my own long blade setup and upgrade motors as well as the factory Oxy 3 cubed and actively flying the 230S three blade unit on my upgraded AS355 scale bird also with 300x power. I also have Gaui X3 that's scheduled for the X3L - 3 blade conversion and tail stretch and 3 blade setup to go into my Tarot 450. So when Microheli advised they had a 3 blade DFC setup coming for the 450/330 this was a must have addition for me.

Microheli have provided me with a unit for technical evaluation and test flying and I thank them for the opportunity to review this product. I'll document the assembly (all very straight forward) and any FBL tuning - changes needed on the AR7200 beastX unit followed by flight test and reporting on my findings.

Enjoy the product photos whilst I get the unit assembled and then get the FBL settings checked over.

Microheli also have a full complement of spare parts available in support of this product with details now up on the Microheli website.

After initial unpacking and inspection I can advise the fit and finish on this product is totally stunning, the machining precision and finishing is superb ! I'm working through the various engineering details and will be reporting further on the design aspect of the assembly.

Micro Heli Pro Tail assembly for the Blade 450 X / 330 X / 330 S / 270 CFX / Fusion 270

Kiwi_Craig RC is setting up a blade 450 with both the new Micro Heli "pro" tail assembly and the new 3 blade DFC main rotor head. The Microheli team have been testing the heck out of these for the last few months fine tuning the geometric setups for the Pro tail and the 3 blade DFC head units. The parts have been provided to me to cary out a technical evaluation and independent test flying and I thank the Microheli team for this opportunity.

Starting off with the new "PRO" tail assembly, all I can can say is WOW, WOW and WOW, is a truely superbly made piece of gear, totally new design that does away with the forked clevis - bell crank and circular pitch slider "wheel" which is quite prone to wear and then results in mechanical slop. Similarly the blades plastic tail grips are prone to stretching and become floppy with laterally movement occurring. Combine the two and you get a standard tail assembly that is hard to keep working well as the flight hours roll up.

These clevis - bell crank type tails can be made to work exceptionally well, just look at the Gaui X3 and Oxy 2/3/4 helis. Microheli also does an upgrade for the various plastic parts in the standard assembly as well.

In designing the ultimate tail unit Microheli have adopted a sliding block unit with a double jointed pivoting arm, this gets rid of the sliding clevis pins and pitch slider...Continue Reading

Trex 250's. Have to say i really enjoy flying these littles guys, no they not as good as the OMP M2 in terms of outright performance and agility etc, but I really enjoy how these helis fly, they have a nice fluid motion where as the M2 feels somewhat robotic, yes very precise. Guessing I also have allot of time and effort expended in the setup and tuning and therefore I guess take delight in the end result more so than a buy it and it's sweet just fly it machine ! bizarre I know !

I'm using the Align GRS "yellow box" FBL, again dead easy to setup, and the vast majority of it is "preset" for the various Trex heli models.

I have found the Corona 919 servos work perfectly as options to the $$$ align serovs. One of the "issues" with the GRS FBL unti is you cant reverse the servo travel on the main servos and trex - align servos rotate opposite to the vast majority on the market it seems, so either internal rewire to reverse travel or find a servo with the same travel orientation = Corona 919 MG

on the tail you can reverse the servo travel - go figure............... I have a stack of old 300X/CFX/450X tail servos, the DS76T, these work great are are half the weight to the crappy trex Ds425 servos............. my tail servo on the 250 pro was a dude out of the box...............

Bird #1 was a gen 250 pro BNF with DFC head and torque tube tail.
Bird #2 was a spare parts pile based on a copterX belt drive with follower arm FBL head.

Main...Continue Reading

Things have been going slowly for a variety of reasons, works has been super busy, and spare parts supply delivery have been slow on the new 2627 motors I want to run in this.

When fitting the CF bracing I'm strongly suggest starting at the rear and working forward, far less tendency to walk the structure off line that way. Gel CA is a must to get these in place.

I added brass tubes over the CF horizontal landing legs and have fixed the outer landing gear legs with small screws, drilled the CF rod so it doesn't split, that way everything can be dissembled if need be.

Its allot easier to panting with the boom off the main chassis. I used colour match shrink wrap, in my case white, to match the main boom colour and it all ties in cosmetically allot nicer. I do wish I had run some lighting wires in there though......... might have to be some small dia white wires.

This is a "new" build, basically a new 230S V2 FBL etc etc. so did a full setup, servo level, swash level, CoG level and 3 grim flights to get it down perfect, all dialled up nicely.

currently running the stock V1 main blades, whilst painting main blades seemed like a good idea getting the weights close and balanced is new impossible ! white it is for now.

Tail is running my own folding two blade setup, have to be careful with these as they can load the motor hard. with the longer boom length (about plus 2" over stock) the tail is making light work of things so far.

...Continue Reading

originally came with a scorpion 221-10, overall it s rather gutless frankly and swapped out for an ALZRC 450 2225 - 3800 kv motor. lots more power but head speed is on the high side on 4S - 3200 + range which the TT tail is not happy with it seems

Lookin at the turnigy SK3 - 2700kv motor and the three blade rotor head, I just really like the way 3 blade birds fly. and also back the head speed down into the 2800 rpm range where everything seems allot happier, and then try the 5 blade head with the semi scale copterX main blades - just to see what its like !

Team, Ken's Bell 47G kit has arrived, along with the SA315 lama (there will be a sperate build log for that one).

Build on the Bell 47G will be first. The quality of the parts is stunning, Len uses a special 3D printing process, the quality is simply STUNNING. the clear canopy is brilliant, and "BIG" !

Actually the Bell is allot bigger than I though it would be, this is going to really detail out very nicely indeed. I'm taking my time on this one, there will be allot of painting and detailing as we go !

Enjoy the initial pictures.

Blade 230sV1 power up. Trying several different main motors to give the bird a bit more punch.
First up was an Xtreme production X400. First up was an upgrade 2627 4200 KV motor for the old esky honeybee- King2 cp heli. Rated for 20amps - 240 watts. Not quite as powerfull as the 250CFX/300X/300CFX main motor. nice motor and the cooling fan works well. I went with the stock pinion = 10% plus gain on head speed.

Power was pretty impressive but it overloaded the esc under hard power. Esc would go into a reduced power limp home mode and had to unplug - replug the battery to reset. tail hold was struggling. Clearly to much motor.

Decided to drill out a 13t pinion and went with a trex 250 motor 200watts / 17 amps. Testing it,it could still trigger the esc brown out.

Out with the stock esc and in with a trusty turnigy plus 25amp esc for the main and a dys opto 20amp on the tail. This is the 6th blade dual esc setup (200srx, 130s, 230x3 , 250cfx). I have had 5 units fail on stock birds- I think the stock stuff is pretty marginal frankly.

Beautifull smooth spool up now and the pulsing tail is significantly improved.

I mount everything on the under side of the chassis, the more powerful motors are taller than stock and the esc wiring needs to route clear.

Follow along in the photos....Continue Reading

This is a review of the Microheli V950 billet swash, rotor head and blade grips with their HD feathering shaft and stiff head dampers.

Firstly the packaging, instructions and finish on the parts are all first class. Everything went together smoothly and without any issues what so ever.

A close review of the parts, as you maybe aware these are all based on the Master CP heli rotor head, there are some significant benefits in using the Master CP rotor head geometry, there are a number of subtle differences and when all added together cures one of the biggest bug bears on teh V950 and that the pitch jump just off mid stick. I've compared the stock V950 pitch changes and the master CP pitch change and we know the MCP setup cures the dreaded pitch "bunny hop" or yo yo effect that plagues the V950. See the comparision table from my testing

The Master CP geometry gets rid of the bump in pitch just off mid stick. The swash ball position from the servos is narrower meaning more travel across the swash. The blade grip ball position is also narrower meaning more total travel across the grips. Means a faster responding rotor head. it's all subtle but my good it works.

Others have asked what i use for the double end servo to swash links, I just use the swash to grip links, buy a couple of sets. lower arms use Blade 4mm ball ends, easy to find from various blade models - can get a pack for the 450X is straight forward enough

Even though the rotor head sits...Continue Reading

Team

For some time now i have developed alternative tail blades for the 200SRX / 230S / 250CFX, initially to get around the weak unit on the 200 that broke anytime you touched grass and then to get more thrust onto the tail of the 230 and especially the 250 to combat the weak tail - screaming tail motor deal.

Inital setups used 3" quad props in 3045 and 3053 pitch, both worked well on the 200 and 230 but still stuggled with the 250.

I had tried a 4025 2 blade prop on the 230 based huey and found it worked well but the prop itself was rather flexible and i was apparent that more pitch would be good. I tried a 3 blade 4045 bullnose quad prop but these where to heavy and the motors overheated so that set the upper limit.

I then spotted some very nice folding 4" 2 bladed quad props from microhel in 4045 pitch, these needed a simple adapter and worked perfect on the huey scale bird and the 250 CFX. It pretty well cured the wild tail yaw on the 250.

I relayed details to microheli on the 2 blade setup. They in response came up with a 3 blade cf setup with a span in between the stock unit and the 4" two blader prototype I developed. The MH team have sent me there new CF folding 3 blade unit to test.

Intention is to bench thrust tests each setup on a stock 230s tail and compare max thrust levels.

Lets look at the various setups.

Have to say the build quality of the Microheli folding 3 blade Carbon Fibre unit is stunning, these is a very nicely made high quality part.
check them out here:

https://www.microheli.com/helicopter...ail-blade.html

with the 30% off sale this unit is a total bargain !

Like many others first flight of the stock 130S was a bit lack lustre, the machine bogged down easily in higher G moves and generally felt heavy and under powered. Nice flier but needed more pep.

Seems that going for the longer 180 CFX blades didn't really suit the machine either at 150 - 153 - 155mm lengths didn't work.

By chance I also fly an XK K130 this has really nice stiff CF blades at 143mm long that fir perfectly into the 130S. The blades are noticeably stiffer and the handling is noticeably improved. and it suits the stock tail boom length. I upped the tail I setting by 20 in the Tx - Rx

The machine picked up allot more speed and way better performance all round. seems this is the magic length and the stiffer CF suits the heli perfectly.

Stiffer CF blades for 1/2 the price of the stock plastic flexi blades.

I added white film wrap to the black CF blades and red tip stripes, visibility is as good as stock.

Batteries: the new GNB 450 batteries suit this guy down to the ground, sold 5 1/2 minutes fly time and good power delivery solid as up to around 5 1/4 minutes then you can feel it was back a fraction. Did push them to 6minutes but that resulted in 3.6V in the cells.

having fun with the new battery and CF main blades

CF tail boom next !

Blade 130S park fly (9 min 12 sec)

Like many of you, I found the blade 230s/250 cfx tail / tail blade to be pretty hopeless; poor hold and screams like hell when worked hard.

I really like the 250 cfx but the weak tail was quite frustrating - 45 degree tail blow outs are common

Blade just transferred the 200 srx tail blade, which was marginal even on that smaller bird, into the 230 /250. In the 230 when up you update the main motor, and the 250 even stock, tail blow outs are common.

The stock prop has a flat pitch and relied on lots of rpm to generate thrust. Problem is the bigger rotors on the 230 and especially the 250 need more holding power than what the stock prop can deliver hence the screaming tail syndrome. Dia is oddball as well at 3 1/4 “

On the 200srx I had great results using 3” DIA three bladed 3045 quad props and these also worked well on stock 230s but was working hard on the 250cfx. Even the 3056 wavy profile blade was working hard, so time for a revision !

I have been looking at 4” props but the majority are too bulky and the typical bull nose end profiles are to aggressive and overheated the tail motor. round end 4045 2 blade units are hard to find

I spotted some great looking folding 4045 twin blades props and with a bit of simple adaption these work great on the 250. !

These are also going onto the Huey and as355 scale birds

Further more being a folding design, busted tail blades are a thing of the past. The blades are stiff and generate...Continue Reading

Okay there are allot of complaints that the XK k120 min board has electrical reliability problems, and yes at times there are burn outs of tail motor plugs and the like. In my opinion most of the problems stem from fact the main board and the esc are hard linked, and the the main board cantilevers out past the the main chassis plate, any nose in "landing" results in direct impact to the main board and leveraging of the rigid links to the esc, this results in cracking of the board tracks and a dead board. Most off the time the factory sponge foam, whilst stuck to the chassis still has the protective paper in place on the board side so the board isn't actually fixed, it is solely flexing away on the two mounting screws.

the fix is simple, remove the board and esc unit, cut the hard esc links between the main board and the esc with side cutters

remove the black spacer blocks and further trim the links down close to each board.

Solder on flexible wires, I used plugs in between mine for ease of installation.

Mount the main board on double sided sponge foam and position just above mounting screws, do not use the screws, all they do is transfer vibration into the board.

use double side sponge foam tape and fix the ESC to the under side of the main chassis plate

connect your new wires - plugs

You will now have a way more reliable set-up.

On mine I extended the main chassis plate so it is longer than the main board, any nose on impact is now absorbed by the chassis rather than the main board.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...anggood/page78

been reliable and lots of flights and crashes without issue. Also seems that there is better power flow with cooler running servos and reduced motor temps are well. Winning all round and no down side.

Spektrum radio user - DX8 gen 1.

If you find the stock gimball sticks - springs overally stiff and have experienced the issue with the springs dropping off if you loosen the adjusters to far (with a pita that is) then here is the cure !

fit 4 by taranis springs, you need to order four of the below (even though it shows 4 springs in the picture the price is per spring.......)

https://www.banggood.com/Frsky-Taran...474558201403EJ

springs is a fraction shorter so doesn't drop off the mounts at the loosest tension setting, and the spring is softer, feel is noticeable lighter and smoother, and now closer to my Devo 10 stick in feel = NICE

pictures to follow

really nicely made billet alloy cruiser, excellent detailing and great build quality

flies superbly once dialled in

auto return to home and auto land function when it detects low battery power is pretty awesome, worked perfectly.

looks fantastic cruising around the field thats for sure.

HobbyWOW JC300C #2 (4 min 32 sec)

HobbyWOW JC300C (7 min 31 sec)

...Continue Reading

Okay guys, walk around video and detail photos

this is a very nicely made heli, enjoy !

First look HobbyWOW JC300C Heli (6 min 2 sec)

...Continue Reading