chopperdudes

I'm really on the edge of getting a trex. i've been flying my blade cp for like 4 monthes and am currently doing loops and rolls, no inverted flight just yet. (not until i get a bl motor at the very least). I'm really leaning toward the SE. I have a futaba 7c and some S3103 servos, (will get some hs 65 if those are not good enough) so here is my question, why do people get the SE version? What's the difference between the XL (eccpm) version? do they just want it blinged? any flight characteristic differences? i mean, do they put like 300 bux more to just get it all blinged up? will any slop develop with the XL? i've also heard that with the SE, you're more likely to strip servo gears. will the S3103 be enough for a trex?

thx in advance

Nankin Hobby

The resoning is this. Say the basic eCCPM T-Rex runs you 200 or so for the kit and another 110 for the motor and esc. The extra 200 is a savings in the long run over all the upgrades added up. The extra 200 dollars is also to avoid the hassle of having to sit down and work all the bugs out of the plastic linkages. Sometimes a mold comes out funny and 9 times out of 10 there is a good amout of binding/tight fits in the plastic. If you dont mind working all that out, it will save you some money. With the "blinged" out SE you dont have to free anything up. The machinework is the same everytime and matched with the bearing smoothness....there is no sitting down and freeing parts up. Many people like that in todays world. Plastic does fatigue so yes slop can occur. If you plan on getting into/progressing your flying to the next level and so on.....get the SE and be done with it. If you arent looking to go into mini helis more than just sunday flying...the SA would be perfect for you. But if you then decide to get into it, plan spending more than 200 in upgrades to make urs and SE. Any more questions...just ask.

Scrap those futaba servos. Go with the HS-65HB. (wether you go with the SE or detuned SA version)

Remyrw

If you're doing that level of flight with the Blade you definitely want either an SE or an SA. The only real benefit of the XL is it's less likely to strip your servos in blade strike. Everything mentioned above applies, and given the price difference I really can't see a good reason to go XL anymore for anyone with significant heli experience. The small price difference gets you a lot of upgrades on the SA and easier setup and fewer potential issues as described above.

The SE is worth is if you plan to ugprade over time anyway and can afford the money now. It's a definite cost savings and a superior machine. This issue has been hashed over a lot lately, and until the SA came out I was a proponent of the XL for anyone not ready for 3d or just willing to spend a bundle on bling. The SA's price point and selective bling changed that. You don't really miss out short term with the SA over the SE, but it's still cheaper long term to start with the SE.

chopperdudes

ya, you guys convinced me pretty well to go with the SE, but i want to ask, and i know taht alot of people is using HS 65, but i see that the S3103 is faster than the HS 65, and i've also heard that the metal gears in teh HS 65 will develop slop over time.

don_87

All servos will get sloppy over time (they all have gears that will wear out or break).
The s3103 has a torque rating of 17, the 65mg has a torque rating of 25, which means the 65 is a more powerful servo.


Hope this helps,
Don

chopperdudes

thx, how's the SA compared to the SE? i'm not the kind of sunday flyers, even though i'm only 14 and has homework to do after school, i fly whenever i can out of the blade cp, even in really strong winds, maybe 10~15mph. so i'd definitely gonna fly whenever i get the chance to.

FLYMIKE

It doesnt matter which one you get, SA-SE-CDE-HDE in my opinion they are all great. its the electronics that you put into it and settup that counts. and dont let the plastic ones discourage you because it is one tough heli. after flying trex you will never go back to the blade! Mike

chopperdudes

one question about trex'es, when your in fff, do you have tail power to swing your tail around? caus with the blade, i can't turn the tail around in fff, and when i pull up alittle, it'll swing around so fast, that it'll do a piroette.

Nankin Hobby

Yes you do get full controll of the tail. It will do what you tell it to no matter how fast the flight. Now this is only true if you have a PROPERLY setup tail (not just a setup tail).


As for the comment earlier. The HS-65HB servos are the way to go. The metal gear version is stronger in the beginning but in the long run, i am finding the carbonite servos to be superior in wear resistance. (less prone to generate any slop, as Hitec is advertising)

vic20owner

That blade cp tail problem is solved with dual tail motors. You can hack this for 8 bucks if you just solder the 2nd motor on top of the 1st motor.

chopperdudes

so the metal gear ones will stand up to crashes better, but the carbon ones will wear out slower? and i've made my own dual tail mount from counter top samples from home depot. all i need is 2 new tail motors. and how are the slops in the e-flight 75 servos compared to a worn out metal 65?

thx

Nankin Hobby

The E-Flite 75 servos come with some of the most slop i have ever seen in a micro servo. They are going to have more than the worn 65. I have a current set of HS 65HB servos in a heli with 24 hrs 15 min of flight time on them and you couldnt pick them out of a batch of new ones. They do last. Save yourself 30 dollars and get teh 65HB over the 65MG and get a set of blades (carbon fiber if you are doing and 3D, two sets of wood blades if you are just basic flying)

Remyrw

As a recent graduate from a blade to a Trex XL I can definitely attest to the difference. We're talking a whole different level of heli. The T-rex is a beast compared to the Blade. Most of the Blade's issues boil down to it being a light weight heli with relatively little horsepower. It has enough for its weight, but things acting on it from the outside, such as wind or wind resistance (in the case of not being able to swing the tail during ff...) really beat it up due to the low weight. The T-rex weighs a lot more and has a LOT more power behind it and basically ignores mild wind. The belt driven tail means you always have plenty of power to it if you've got enough rpm's to be airborne anyway. In fact, you'll have to remember to control the tail in forward flight because if you set it up properly it will stay right where you put it and not turn as you turn the heli with cyclic. I've nearly crashed a few times because I went to turn and forgot that the tail was NOT going to follow on its own. Of course, hovers are alot easier too. It's more stable, more locked in feeling once you set it up, and that's not as tricky as the Blade.

I've spent significantly less time per flight fiddling once I got the basic setup in place post build. Even that took only one full battery and amounted to minor adjustments of linkages. I'm not knocking the Blade, which is a great machine, but it's comparing apples to oranges. The T-rex costs a lot more even in the cheapest versions (when you include the cost of electronics) and you get what you pay for.

A quick comment about the plastic used in the various parts. It's high quality industrial plastic, not cheap stuff. It's more similar to CF than what we usually consider plastic. If you're familiar with high end RC cars it's like the plastic used in frames for many of the higher end models that don't use CF, such as many of the Associated cars. You can basically treat it as CF for purposes of drilling or filing or cutting.

As you can tell, I'm very happy with my T-rex and don't regret for a minute that I got an XL. If I was doing it again I'd get an SA but that wasn't an option at the time and I don't feel that I'm missing out particularly, over time I'll probably wind up with something upgraded along those lines anyway just like I planned originally. The XL flies wondrefully and if you can get a particularly good deal on one from a shop you won't be going wrong if you are trying to save money (put it into better electronics, always a good choice).

rcboosted

Are you saying you've had some HS-65MG long enough that they actually started to develop slop due to wear? Just reading back what Hitec is advertising is not the same. If you've had some HS-65HB for a long time without slop, it does not mean the MG will.

I for one am glad I chose the MG version. It survived a 30 feet 110 degee (yes, it was past 90 degrees when it hit) dive at terminal velocity straight to the round. No slop, no chatter and no stripped gears. (Broke the AR6000, main blades, blade grip, main shaft, fly bar rod, servo cage, stripped main gear and broke my stock battery tray.)

duaneh1

I have a blade CP and later got the Trex SE, I still fly the blade as much as the T-rex. The Blade is more comfortable to fly in tight areas, The SE is much more powerful but its scary to fly in my parking lot at work.

chopperdudes

let me clear some things up, MG is the metal gear version and the HD is the carbon version right? i've had my blade for a while now (bout 4 month) and gone through like 4~5 servos, i've always noticed that even new eflight S75 will have like 1/8 an inch of slop, so that's why i thought that all micro servos will be about the same... so the plastic on the trex is different that those on the blade? i've noticed that i have a totally sloppy head, you can turn the paddles so much and your blades will not move, and same with the main gear too. i'll be going to brushless and dual tail motor very soon and probably a hh gyro so i can go through basic 3D on my blade before doing it on the trex if i do get one. right now, i've found that the little ff speed will make doing a loop with the blade very ugly, and elevator flips are next to impossible, ailerons are better. with elevator flips, it'll most likely go about 90 or 120 degrees, then the tail will slide back, the crappy gyro won't hold and the tail swings around, like that of an uncontrolled stall turn. and backward flight with the stock gyro is next to impossible as well...

my mom is presuading me to get a 2nd raptor 50SE at my lhs for 750CAD (without tx and rx (i have those)). but i know that i'd not try anything new with the raptor since one crash can result in a loss of couple hundred bucks. so i'm presuading my mom to let me get a trex. after all, i'm only 14

Remyrw

The T-Rex, in any version, is nothing like the Blade in flight. It's a lot more stable but powerful and agile. It doesn't misbehave like the Blade tries to, and assuming a decent gyro like the 401 and a proper setup by you it'll fly in any direction you want and do just about any maneuver. Elevator or aileron rolls are no problem (once you take off the flybar weights and make sure you have full throws set, you CAN make a T-rex fly gently). My advice is to have them open a T-Rex kit for you or show you one already assembled. You'll understand the differences immediately. If you have access to it, try out G3 and fly the MX400 from the first expansion pack. If they don't have that, the dominion is closer to the T-Rex than the T-rex is to the Blade. I guess the best way to describe it is this. If you set up the gyro properly, and don't have the label on your tail fin (just the open frame CF) you could get into a pretty high speed forward flight then turn it 150 degrees and let it keep going in the same direction. You'd have to fly it, the aerodynamics would have changed enough it would take some skill on the controls to keep it flying straight and level, but the tail would hold and it wouldn't try to go crazy on you.

Watch some of the T-Rex videos, there are ones by folks flying normal versions as well as the insane stuff.

chopperdudes

hey guys, i wanna ask one more question, do you have to keep holding in forward cyclic to continue fff? because my blade will pitch up if i return my cyclic stick to center in fff. i've read that a well setup quality heli will almost be able to do fff handsoff if the fff is 'setup' properly, however, i've also read that the pitching up is natural physics. so will a trex in fff pitch up when you return your cyclic to neutral?

Remyrw

mine does, but not a hard change, it's not really slow but it isn't like I pulled back on the stick either. Basically the rotors are slowly returning to center and if they're moving forward when they do the result is more lift in front, which then lifts the heli's nose. I just hold a tiny bit of forward stick to keep it happy once it's cruising.

chopperdudes

so it's a gradual change? not as dramatic as the blade right? i've watch many trex vids and yes, i can say that some ppl really fly the heck out of it. but you should see Nick Maxwell flying an upgraded blade cp pro. it basically flys more or less like a mx400 if not a trex, http://media.putfile.com/Hyper-BCP-Pro-10906, but i guess the mx400 or trex would to those moves more easily?

Remyrw

video didn't work. I know my blade tilted back faster than my T-rex does but I usually don't even think about it, I move the sticks as needed and rarely pay attention to center versus non center unless I'm trimming things.

chopperdudes

http://media.putfile.com/Hyper-BCP-Pro-10906 this should do it, srry, dunno wat went wrong.

chopperdudes

how do ya like that?