This is my E-Flite Blade 400. On the second flight, the tail servo stripped in mid-air for some reason, and the pitch servo stripped on the resulting crash. I replaced the cyclics with Hitec HS55 servos, and I replace the gyro with a GY401. The overall feel and performance of the helicopter was vastly improved by these upgrades.
Stock ESC and motor
HS55 cyclic servos
GY401 Gyro
Thunder Power 2100 3-cell
JR 290G tail servo
Align tail hub and carbon blades
Thunder Power Carbon main blades
Spektrum DX7 radio with AR6100e receiver
Here she is in flight:
And here's a photo of the new color scheme. I crashed it into a fence one day and had to re-build the whole thing. Instructional videos of how to build it are on Vimeo (search "Blade 400 Rebuild").
Here's the videos - first one is recently, but before the crash. After the videos are my radio settings for the Blade 400 and DX7 radio.
Blade 400 Light 3D from Jasmine2501 on Vimeo.
Radio settings
Aircraft Type: Heli
Model Name: Blade400
Swash Type: 3 Servos 120 degrees
Input Type: AUX2-AUX2 GEAR-GYRO
Thro recovery: INH
Trainer: INH
(Is it possible I actually have 17 hours on this thing?!)
OK then on the flight settings I have this:
OK on the dual rates screen, I have 30% expo on all three channels. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure to switch the dual rate switch for each channel and program the same expo again. You will use the dual rate switches for other things and it's pretty important that you don't end up changing the expo when you do that, so program both options to the same expo and rate (100%) on all three channels.
Timer: 6 minutes - gives me time to land
No programmable mixes are entered.
OK, "Gyro sens" screen: Set it to Auto - then next to the "0:" set your gyro gain rate for normal mode. Then next to the "1:" set the gyro gain you use for idle-up. Mine are 74% and 71%, but I'm using a GY401 and these numbers are never the same for any two people, so you'll have to figure out the numbers for yourself. They may be different from the gain settings on your DX6i, but that's a good starting point. OK, then on the side I set NORM: 0, STNT:1, and HOLD:0.
No revo mix is used - I'm not even sure what it is.
Pitch curves are:
HOLD - 0-25-50-75-100
ST-2 - 0-25-50-75-100
ST-1 - 0-25-50-75-100 (these are all three the same, important for autos)
NORM - 35-INH-50-75-100 (INH lets it calculate the line for you)
Throttle curve for ST-1 and ST-2 are both set to 100% all the way across.
Throttle curve for normal mode is set to 0-50-85-100-100, with "exp" activated which smooths out the line. You may want something different - don't be afraid to experiment. I'm at high altitude, and I find that this setting gets me off the ground nicely and pretty much eliminates any jumping when I switch in and out of idle-up mode.
Thro Hold: -5.0% SW:GEAR (you could adjust this for your personal preference)
Swash mix: AILE:-65% ELEV:+65% PIT.: +85% (again, personal preference, and checked to eliminate binding on my bird - I had to reduce the aile and elev channels. I may change that around though and reduce the pitch channel and increase the others. Just make sure you don't get any binding)
My travel adjustments are all 100% at the moment. I've some CCPM coupling though, so I'll be messing with that eventually.
I have the subtrims set to various numbers - I replaced the servos, so these numbers will be different for you. NO subtrim on the rudder... !
Reversing: THRO:N, AILE:N, ELEV:R, RUDD:R, GEAR:N, PIT.:R, AUX2:N (again, this might be different for you because I use different servos.)
