v911

Just stuck a brushless motor into the v911 pro frame.

Flights felt underpowered. I think it will need a larger pinion. I didn’t play with it too much so I can’t tell if we can get the v911 to actually fly better. Additionally, you’ll need to reinforce the main frame after cutting away the vertical struts to make room for the brushless motor.

I have always thought the night blades of the larger R/C helicopters were cool. But they aren’t available for the micro helis that I fly. Coming up with a way for getting the micro blades lit up without adding too much weight to the head took me awhile to think of. But here’s a sneak peek at the result.

My friend’s y911 (what some of us call the v911 clone). I nicknamed it ‘Spook.’

I have a 0603 LED on top and one below the blade. (I now like the brightness of the 0805 even more) I don’t know what color is the best for this. I chose white because it’s hard to go wrong with that. Initially I had a UV LED on the bottom, but it was so dim…it didn’t work out very well at all.

Copper foil tape, cut into 1mm width strips.

The copper traces and both LED added a mere 0.05g to the blade. I put tape on the other blade to balance it out. However, I think it’ll look even better if both blades has the LED. :)

Here’s a video:

And here’s a shocker that surprised me…with night blades and the rotor disc plane being so visible…orientation is actually easier at night than in the day. The feedback is that great. Because at the size of these micro, even in full sun…you can easily lose the orientation. This is even more enhanced on the new version I have where I got red LED on the bottom, and white one on the top.

Let me know what you guys think.

And here’s the RCGroups discussion thread on this topic:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1748394

Update: 01/30/2013
Check out what Nine Eagles and Helimax RC is bringing. The Axe 100SSL (Nine Eagles 126a) with build in LED lights in the main blade that draws power from the main battery. Nice. I am curious how it’s done. No details at the moment.

Do you need a new canopy for your new Nano CP X without having to pay the $12.49 Horizon Hobby charges for a replacement? Well, you’re in luck because the Solo Pro and V911 canopies fit perfectly on the Blade nCPX. You can find these replacement canopies for as low $0.99 at oversea retailer. Or check eBay for dealers in the states.

The top mounting position fits perfectly. Then you can leave at is and punch a new hole for the lower mount, or trim the lines for a custom look.

This mods pros and cons list:

Pros:

• The v911’s canopy is much, much, much more durable over the stock nCPX. Weighs ~2.25g. The Solo Pro canopy weighs ~1.85g. (Depending on how you trim.)
• very affordable. MyRCMart carries them from $0.99. Or order from Banggood.com
• alternate look, lines to your nCPX.
• Easy, simple mod!
• No leftover holes that says, look…I re-purposed a canopy from another model.
• Paint scheme and words removable with nail polish remover so you can repaint as you like.
• Bonus: A good way to hide your new purchase from the significant other. Disguised as a cheap $20 chinese FP heli.

Cons:

• Heavier than stock (1.58g)
• No Blade/nano CPX branding on the heli.

Here’s a red v911 canopy as it is.

Very easy, moderate trimming and you can reshape the canopy to your liking. Here’s one variation. I didn’t punch the hole yet. You can angle the canopy up or down before you punch that second hole. It fits over the battery tray perfectly, and you can still insert the battery all the way forward.

An alternate view.

Here’s what it looks like with yellow Nine Eagles Solo Pro styling. It’s very vibrant and actually matches the nCPX yellow tail better than the nCPX’ own canopy does.

The Solo Pro’s canopy material is similar to the nCPX’ stock canopy. The v911 canopy however, is a very durable plastic. That’s the one to get for durability. Or get them all. It’s cheap!!!

Here’s the Solo Pro in blue. Also known as the Soars in some parts of the world.

The blue v911 canopy looks like this:

The v911 also comes in it’s default Black and Orange pattern that reminds me of Trex RC helicopters.

There’s also the yellow and white version of the clone v911 heli, which doesn’t have the intake scoop at the top.

Anyways, hope those are good leads to finding cheap canopies that fits your new Blade Nano CP X. They take a much better beating than the stock nCPX canopy. Important if you’re going to be doing 3D. :)

Additional Resources:
Link to discussion thread on HeliFreak.

In almost all aspect of life, having the right tool makes the job much easier. When flying micro helicopters and quads, everything has to be micro sized in order to avoid adding unneeded weight that may robs the motor of it’s performance.

For wires, magnet wires, also known as enamel wires, are a must have in your tool kit. The bigger brand names such as Horizon Hobby with their Blade lineup of heli, uses magnet wires for their antennas and for the tail motor. Nine Eagles is another manufacturer that uses magnet wires to extend to the tail motor.

I find that a good gauge for these wires are about 30-32 AWG, measuring about 0.0085in or 0.02mm. You can find magnet wires if you search for them online. Locally, my Fry’s Electronics and Radio Shack have them in spools that will last you a long time.

Alternatively, you can find the right gauge magnet wire in small motors often used in toys. Also, fans used in computers is often another source, though I find they can sometimes be thinner than 32ga.

Perfect 32ga magnet wire for these small motors

Simply take apart the motor and unravel the wire. Taking care not to rub against the rough armature and accidentally nick the enamel coating of the wire. One motor yields a lot of wire. After taking them off, you’ll see they are wavy and kinked.

A trick I use is to simply hold a section of the wire between each hand and running them back and forth against the edge of a a cutting mat, metal rod, or any edge that will not nick the wires and will not get damage if the wire start to cut into it. This trick will quickly straighten out the wire with a couple of passes. See the photos below…

Rubbing the wires back and forth along the edge of a table, metal rod or cutting mat will straighten out the kinks of the wire

To solder these magnet wires, you have to remove the enamel that coats the copper of the wire. The enamel is to prevent the wires from shorting out while wound up in the motor. Some people may scrape the thin enamel coating off. The trick I learned is that the enamel coating can be quickly burned off and the wire tinned at the same time using solder.

I put a blob of solder on the tip of my iron and touch the end of the magnet wire to it.

Touch the end of the magnet wire to a solder blob for a second to strip the enamel and tin it at the same time

It takes but a second and you get a perfectly tinned tip, ready to be solder. Easy peasy. :)

Perfectly tinned magnet wire without any hassle

Another tip for you. If you want to lower the overall resistance and thicken up the gauge of the wires, you can twist a few strands of the magnet wires together. I do this by putting one end into the power drill and hold the opposite end. The hand held power drill will make a perfect twisted bundle of magnet wire.

Put a few strands or more of magnet wire to a power drill and it will create a perfect twist

Here, you can see that three 32ga magnet wire twisted together has more copper than the original stock wires that feeds through the v929 boom. Because each wire has the enamel coating, despite having more overall copper, the twisted bundle is equal to the thickness of the original wires with it’s insulation. Which means you can still feed a positive and negative pair through the carbon fiber boom.

Three strands of 32ga magnet wire to replace original stock v929 boom wire

I like to use the magnet wire because it’s cheap, lightweight and it’s coating looks like anodized metal.

One final trick, for aesthetics, I will use the same color for positive and negative. To keep track of the polarity, I simply mark the each ends of the negative wire with a black sharpie so I properly solder it to the negative terminal. Twisted togther, they looks like an performance “upgrade.” :D The cooler looking it is…the faster it goes. ;)

That’s all there is to it.  Hopefully this post helps you guys. Happy modding!!!

I am pretty certain I am not the first to take a sharpie to the surface of a motor, but I’ll share this technique anyways. My wife gave me a bag of Sharpies last night and this was the first idea that came to mind.

I find that the large, wedge shaped Sharpie, stroking in one direction gives a nice even coverage. Here’s a comparison of the larger, wedge shaped Sharpie versus the standard conical shaped Sharpie on the right.

Wedge shaped/chisel Sharpie on right versus standard medium tipped Sharpie

Using the larger Sharpie, I find going in one continuous direction gives a nice even coverage.

It dries to the touch and can be handled without bleeding onto your hands once it’s dried. Unlike paint, the Sharpie allow the lustre of the metal to come through and simulates that anodized aluminum look. And because it’s such a thin layer of dye, it still allow the motor to cool off properly.

However, the drawback is that the faux anodized finish can easily be scratched or scrapped off. Luckily, it’s easy to retouch the scratched up parts. I think the results speaks for itself. It looks pretty nice when all is said and done. Very little effort and zero cost versus the bling, bling anodized CNC parts we hobbyist are always drooling over.

Here’s my v911 EEPE file that you can upload to your transmitter running the er9x firmware. It’s a good aid so you can learn and program your own. For instance, I tied the “dual rate” to the knobs. To allow for fine tuning of your rates.

Therefore, for full 100% rate, make sure your AUX.1 knob and AUX.2 knob is turn to the max 100% position.

The F.MODE switch at ID0 has a linear throttle curve. In the other modes, ID1 or ID2, it has a more aggressive throttle curve and a more sensitive expo settings: -20 for elevator and aileron.

Download the EEPE file by clicking on the button below. Obviously, this will only work with your Turnigy 9x, FlySky TH9x radio that has already been flashed to the er9x firmware. Use the EEPE program to write this v911 model template to your transmitter.

Every now and then, I see a flurry of post about v911 RX that refuses to reconnect or rebind to the transmitter. Often times, this occurs following a crash. The symptom is upon plugging in the battery, the RX LED immediately turns solid without blinking, or sometimes, it does a series of rapid blink and then turns solid much quicker than normal.

A number of us learn that the cylindrical crystal that is responsible for the timing of the circuit has gone bad. Replacing it usually fixes the issue. I’ve had this happen on three RX already, and solding on a new one have fixed the issue all three times. So it’s worth a shot instead of throwing the RX away.

For the repair, you need a working 16mhz crystal. You can purchase some on eBay or DigiKey. Or grab one from a non repairable, broken RX board.

The ones I got from Ebay is actually smaller than the original. Whether it’s more dedicate and prone to getting damage as a result, I can’t say yet. Time will tell.

Here’s the two side by side. The original on the left and the Ebay version on the right.

Comparision of the stock v911 16MHz crystal versus the replacement one.

It was easy for me to solder on the new crystal from EBay. And it works like a charm. Here it is soldered to the same location on the v911 RX. It doesn’t dangle past the RX edge like the original one. Just need to glue it down to secure it in place.

Replacement 16MHz cylindrical crystal soldered in the proper location on the v911 RX.

I purchased 50 of them, so let me know if you need one in a pinch.