Micro Rookie Needs Help With Blade 250 Cfx

[cdronridesagain]

Had nothing but issues since new. At first every time I would try to lift off the heli would roll left or right and crash. Finally took to hobby shop and they noticed the swash was responding to pitch but not roll. Contacted Horizon, to their credit they sent me a new receiver that corrected that . Had only a few good flights then crashed and every time since when I throttle up the heli barely lifts off the ground. Been trying to learn on my own without anyone's help but am at my wits end. I replaced the motor and speed control thinking I may have damaged it in the crash but still get same result. I've checked when the tx is in throttle hold and in stunt 2 that at half throttle I have zero degrees pitch as I purchased a digital pitch gauge and double,triple checked my tx settings but still won't barely get off the ground. Anything else that I'm not thinking about I can check before I throw this $300 piece of **** in the can? I've spent an incredible amount of time trying to learn about setup and in & outs of the heli world but getting so frustrated right now and would like to get to the bottom of the problem but not sure what next steps are..
Thanks

 

[RandyDSok]

First... flying an RC helicopter is much like trying to control a spinning marble on a tilting glass tabletop. It's the most challenging RC hobby out there and trying to learn without someone to help teach you is tough to say the least. You recognize that your a newby but you also need to remember that at your experience level, you are also not qualified to say if all of the problems are the fault of the aircraft, in fact it's unlikely with a product such as the Blade copters. The aren't the highest quality, but they are still decent and well thought out for the level that they are in. If they were just crap, then Horizon Hobby wouldn't be able to support them the way they do.

If you are going to continue by yourself, start by getting a good quality simulator to train on... training on the heli is for later after you've learned to walk first. Realflight and Phoenix are the two most popular but Phoenix isn't being sold any longer, so I'd recommend getting Realflight. There are some free ones out there, but they don't compare in quality and realism to the two I mentioned. Speaking of realism, even those two are only sort of real like... they don't perfectly simulate flight but they will let you learn the muscle memory that you will need once you've gotten the hang of flying on them.

 

[Tony]

You had mentioned you checked pitch at mid stick, but I didn't read anywhere that you checked your overall positive and negative pitch. Did you check those as well? If so, what were their values. Make sure to have a linear pitch curve in your throttle hold menu when doing these tests. Also, what is your throttle curve set to?

 

[murankar]

A Linear pitch curves 0 25 50 75 100, just in case you don't know. Not trying to be mean or anything.

That kit; depending on head speed, should be around 11 to 13 degrees of pitch at full stick and the same at 0 stick. Of course this is in idle up 1 or 2.

Next you replaced the esc and motor. I am going to presume you went and calibrated the throttle in the esc.

On the 250 they use a gyro and rx all in one, correct? If so when you installed it did you go through and set up the gyro for your kit? Generally speaking most fbl units come with either dummy values or no values at all.

Let us know what the status is on these issues. What ever you do please stay calm, we will get you flying again. At some point we may need video to help. For get frustrated all you need to do is get a short video, post it to YouTube and then link it here. I know its sounds like a lot but we don't have the servers to host videos.

Fingers crossed we get you flying.

 

[cdronridesagain]

Just got home from work, thanks gentlemen for your replies!
I have been flying r/c planes for a long time and only recently started trying to fly the heli. I do have Realflight and practice on it regularly. My first purchase was the Blade 230S V2 and I still fly that little gem as often as I can. I can hover very close to me very comfortably with that model and have put it through the ringer and it still flies like a champ. So my next purchase was the Blade 250 CFX as both models share many of the same parts and I thought it might be my next adventure but has only given me grief. I did check the max blade pitch and I have about 10.5 positive and -7 negative. This model uses the spektrum AS3X receiver that has the gyro built in. I am using a DX9 radio and all the settings in the radio are set to the default values given in the owner's manual and I did confirm that it is a linear pitch curve for throttle up 1 & 2. I believe that if I understand correctly that many of the receivers that Blade uses are locked and they don't share the info for making any modifications if I understand correctly. The ESC is from Eflight and if you are able to calibrate it I don't have a clue how you would do that and I don't remember anything in the manual that gave information about that. The thing I don't understand is that I haven't changed anything in the radio and replacing the motor and ESC I thought would have been a brainless thing so not sure what is causing the problem. I may have to send it back to Horizon if they are the only ones that can make changes to the receiver and have them check it out. Whataya think guys?

 

[RandyDSok]

Calibrating is something you should do on most ESC's... most also use the following steps.

First, take off the blades just in case, the motor shouldn't spin up but play it safe...

Turn on the radio first, move the throttle stick to the top. Now plug in the battery on the model, then lower the throttle all the way to the bottom. That should be it. I can't recall what ( if any ) beep codes that Eflight ESC's use, so I didn't mention them ( which also makes the steps a little more universal with other ESC's ). Now your top and bottom end points should be set to min/max.

 

[murankar]

As randy (rdsok) said most esc's need to be calibrated when they are brand new or being used on a new TX. This allows the ESC and the throttle stick to be sink.

Your negative pitch needs to match your positive pitch. You want 10.5 on both +/-. You maybe able to bush 11 if you wanted to.

Just an FYI, the settings in the manual are starting points for you. The numbers do not really mean a whole lot. If the heli doesn't feel like you want it to, just change the values until it flies the way you like it.


@rdsok eflight uses castle now. so its all going to be based on castle. that is unless they have changed since 2016. that was the last time I dealt with eflight.

 

[cdronridesagain]

Ok thanks for that info. I am not real savy on electric and didn't know that info so I'll try the calibration process and I assume that since I can't change any values in the receiver that I would manually adjust the arms to give the same pitch? Can you also shed light on the process for leveling the swash, I believe that the model needs to be powered on, can it be in any of the modes or needs to be in idle up also when leveling or does it matter at all. Lots to try to learn about these little beasts. I am having a blast with the other one , so don't get me wrong I am enjoying it as long as I can get it to fly and if I crash due to my ability, I accept that but don't want to crash because things are set up right.

Thanks again

 

[RandyDSok]

I think you may have mis-spoke in a sense.... you said you can't adjust any values in the receiver when I think you mean the gyro portion. Even if it's an all-in-one, think of it separately as a receiver and a gyro. Receivers are never adjusted directly but their amounts of travel, the speed etc is controlled on the transmitter side in the settings there. The gyro on the otherhand, you should be able to make some basic adjustments I'd think but I'd have to leave that to those here that may have used that specific all-in-one.

 

[murankar]

That heli doesn't use a beastx if I am not mistaken. I believe its one that is made by horizon hobbies? Anyhow the gyro is what's being configured with basic values. Not sure how its done on that particular unit though. I have a 180CFX that I got fed up with and left it in pieces. I never a chance to muck around with the settings.