Micro MCPX Upgrades / Repairs

[Marc]

I had several bad days of weather and decided I needed a smaller heli to run around the house on those days so I picked up a MCPXv2. I don't have a computerized DSMX radio yet so I bound it to a DX5e I had left over for when I was teaching my son how to fly his slow flyer. Needless to say this little bird is fast and twitchy without being able to modify its pitch/throttle curves and other settings and is hardly flyable indoors at least for me.

Flying and flopping around the office lastnight I managed to shatter the tailboom right at the frame and in the course of looking for replacement parts I found a few sites that offer upgrades such as a metal head parts/swash/CF frame/alum tailboom/brushless upgrades and such. I believe the site was microheli.com. So what I was wondering is if anyone has done any of the upgrades and if so if they thought the are worth it. If you were to get them all the cost gets to around $350. That's what I paid for my 450 size and I still need a computer radio for DSMX so I can customize the settings. My current computer radio is the good old PCM/FM. Just wanted to get some opinions before I took that deep dive.

Also has anyone been able to successfully remove the shattered boom pieces from the frame without damaging the tail motor's leads?

Thanks!

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Tony]

The metal parts are not worth it. These helicopters need to be light, and aluminum is heavier than plastic. I will never put metal anything on my mcpx.

And yes, you can get the cf boom out of the body. I used a small dental pick I use on cars and such. If you can save the wires, great. If you have to cut them, you can solder them back together after you strip the coating. Just make sure to cut them in two separate places so the leads can't touch where the wire is bare. Once you get it out, take the boom out of the rear plastic, and fab up a 2mm CF rod for a new tail boom. Stock length is 5" if I remember correctly, but may be mistaken. I won't ever buy another tail boom. They are just too weak for the havoc I put them through lol.

 

[Marc]

What about the brushless motor upgrade? I guess if you don't upgrade to metal parts you probably don't need the extra power either?

I went ahead and took the plunge for a computer DSMx radio this afternoon. I picked up the DX8 with rx and tel mod, figured I put those into the MiniTitan. Should be here Friday or Monday. I think I have a little bit left in the "fun" fund to pick up the CF rod for a tail boom at the LHS.

I'm excited to see how I can get this little bugger to fly indoors with the new radio!

 

[Lee]

Same here. No metal upgrades. Just tail boom lengthened to give more authority. Mine is dead at the moment till my new motor arrives.

 

[coolgabsi]

Good radio! Brushless is again a choice. No relation between metal
Upgrades and brushless though.

Its a good mod, but only of you get just the right equipment. If not can turn into a nightmare. ESP some of the mods on hobbypartz have a ton of issues. If you order the right things, brushless will actually make a better flying bird. More power ... Meh!! Not really, but no tail blows or consistent power.. Yes!

Then you'll also wanna upgrade the tail to 120 sr's tail for amazing Gail authority and you'll be good to go. Or just upgrade the tail to brushless too, and that's all you'll ever need. Lol.

But again all comes out to 100 bucks of upgrades and if you decide to solder everything yourself, about 10 hours of work getting it all to work perfectly.

Or do what normal people do, (jk!! Lol), save the 100 bucks and buy spared and fly your heart out on stock setup with turnigy batteries.

 

[Tony]

A DX8? Really? Man, your jumping in with both feet huh? lmao. Great Tx, hope you get great use out of it.

 

[Marc]

Same here. No metal upgrades. Just tail boom lengthened to give more authority. Mine is dead at the moment till my new motor arrives.

Lee how much did you lengthen yours? I picked up the carbon rod today and made the replacement boom about 3/4 of an inch longer than the stock one that came off. After the first flight it seems like its better off, but not sure I'm good enough to notice if there is a difference. Are you putting a stock replacement motor in or did you do an upgrade on it?

 

[Marc]

A DX8? Really? Man, your jumping in with both feet huh? lmao. Great Tx, hope you get great use out of it.

Yeah, I saw a really cool video of a guy doing FPV with a plane. It had a complete HUD just like a military aircraft would and I knew I wanted to do that and eventually with the heli... no 3D mind you, actually I think that might make me sick. From what I read it seems you need at least the DX8 or similar tx to send the video/signals back to the bird, unless you use a seperate tx/rx for the telemetry. I hate buying and then needing to upgrade 3-4 months down the road so I figured this would fit the bill now and hopefully when I'm ready to FPV.

 

[Marc]

Good radio! Brushless is again a choice. No relation between metal
Upgrades and brushless though.

Its a good mod, but only of you get just the right equipment. If not can turn into a nightmare. ESP some of the mods on hobbypartz have a ton of issues. If you order the right things, brushless will actually make a better flying bird. More power ... Meh!! Not really, but no tail blows or consistent power.. Yes!

Then you'll also wanna upgrade the tail to 120 sr's tail for amazing Gail authority and you'll be good to go. Or just upgrade the tail to brushless too, and that's all you'll ever need. Lol.

But again all comes out to 100 bucks of upgrades and if you decide to solder everything yourself, about 10 hours of work getting it all to work perfectly.

Or do what normal people do, (jk!! Lol), save the 100 bucks and buy spared and fly your heart out on stock setup with turnigy batteries.

If I decided to go brushless with it what would be the right upgrade parts? I found a complete kit here http://www.wowhobbies.com/thesteveblsinglechannelconverter-3-1-2.aspx for $129, main motor, tail motor, and esc and conversion board all assembled, would that be the "good" one?

 

[coolgabsi]

C05 brushless is a good one. And also the xp 7a I think that it comes with is the standard one that people liked.

Now I donno about the tail but, I know that you can get the main motor esc as pinion combo at clubheli.com for 60. Soldering to be done yourself. This way you'll be able to cut the wires just right and get rid of the extra wires.. Cause there are a lot of wires that come with.

You might be able to find tail stuff there too.

 

[Tony]

IMO, if you are not doign mild 3D with the mcpx, I wouldn't get the brushless kit. Well, unless you just want to say you have brushless. that I would understand

 

[coolgabsi]

The tail is not brushless in that kit.. I was wondering man!!! Those have gotten cheap. The tail is Brush. It's in the heading and the tail looked brushed too. I was so confused. Instead get that one without the tail (until you need to put a new tail on it) , it's 105. And I like this one only because it has "the Steve" signal converter.. Clubheli doesn't .. I have heard that the Steve is good!

All you'll need with that os kbdd main and tail blades. I put that on mine and it rocks!!

 

[Tony]

I have thought about getting those blades when I order my parts. Remember my 500 blades? Yeah, it will have nothing on the brightness of my mcpx lmao.

 

[Lee]

I like the look of the BL upgrade. My MCPX is getting very tired. It can't do much more than hover without the tail or main motor giving up.

 

[Marc]

All I can say is wow! The DX8 came in today and I uploaded the mCPx settings from the Spektrum forums, changed the pitch curve on normal to 50 - 63 - 75 - 87 - 100 and I can actually fly this little bugger! Its like a small version of my MiniTitan now.

I picked up the 2mm CF rod and made a new boom about 3/4 of an inch longer than stock. Not sure if the extra length made a difference or not. Last week I broke the main blades so I picked up a set of the KBDD ones like Gaba was talking about. They are neon green it really helps to tell the orientation of the heli. The LHS didn't have the KBDD tail rotor though.

I did pick up that brushless kit. I may regret it, but I love to tinker and it seemed like a neat mod. I'll probably not install it for awhile - having too much fun now like it is!

 

[Tony]

Sweet deal Marc, glad you like the DX8 and the mcpx now that it's stable. Sure would like to see some video of it flying... hint hint

 

[Lee]

Looking forward to mine arriving on Friday

 

[Marc]

Sweet deal Marc, glad you like the DX8 and the mcpx now that it's stable. Sure would like to see some video of it flying... hint hint

I know, I need to work on getting a hat rig. I don't have anyone around that could run a camera for me most of the time. I'll be back home this weekend and I'll get my son to do some shoots. Anyone have any recommendations on what they use?

 

[Marc]

Looking forward to mine arriving on Friday

Absolutely love love love this radio! Now I just need to quit playing with the mCPx long enough to install the receiver, tel mod, and sensors into the MiniTitan and see how it works on a bigger bird. Oh, I did't read close enough and didn't see that if you got the tx with the tel mod in it, it also comes with a temp sensor and voltage lead for the flight pack. I went down to the lhs and picked up a set of sensors before it arrived. All I needed to get was the RPM sensor for electric.

 

[Lee]

Most of us are using 808 keychain cameras for hat cams. there are thousands of them on ebay.