Xieda 9958

Great Wall Toys introduced a 4 channel, hobby grade RC helicopter that fits right at the price point of the popular Syma S107g toy helis. Oversea’s sites like BangGoodMyRCMart, Miracle-Mart, and Helipal are good places to purchase them from. While in the States Nitroplanes have it for $31. Best of all, replacement parts can be found as low as a dollar or cheaper from sites such as BangGood and FocalPrice. The follow are my impression of it.

Picture of Xidea 9958
The black canopy Xieda 9958 three-quarter and straight on view

At first glance, the Xieda 9958 looks similar to the popular E-Flite Blade mSR. Upon closer inspection, anybody who are familiar with other micro helis in the market will notice that the 9958 is comprised of a mixture of design between the Blade mCX and Blade mSR helicopter. That said, Great Wall’s did make some design changes. For example, using a weighted flybar instead of the paddled flybar as seen in the mSR. All the control balls are slightly larger than those found on the Blade helis.

Xieda 9958 Weighted Flybar

The blade design of the 9958 is similar to the lower blades of the mCX and mCX2 coaxial helicopters.

Comparision to the lower mCX2 blade

The plastic used is stiffer on the 9958 than on the E-Flite lineup. Where the blade pivot goes into the rotor head is more narrow than on the 9958. So to fit the Blade coaxial heli’s blade on the 9958, you need to either purchase the E-Flite mCX/mCX2/Force RC lower rotor head. Alternatively, if you have some spare 9958 linkages, you can cut the ends off of one link to yield spacers. With these spacers, you can fit the E-Flite blades onto the 9958’s rotor head. All slop that was there before will be eliminated.

Top down view of 9958 Blades

Regarding the stock 9958 blades, I found that the blades’ linkage balls are prone to breaking off during crashes and whenever you need to remove the linkages. I suggest you take great care and have a bunch of replacement blades on hand. To help mitigate broken balls due to removal of the linkages, simply don’t ever remove the linkage from the blade end. Remove them from the flybar end whenever you need to take off the head. The balls on the flybars are much more resilient. Below is a photo of the blade linkage ball I am referring to. A popular upgrade to increase durability is to replace the 9958 blades with the lower blades from the mCX, mCX2 and Force RC coaxial helicopter. At $2.99, it’s worth it for the enhance durability. especially if you have just broken your last pair of stock blades and can’t wait the two weeks it would take to order spare parts from an overseas vendor.

View of the blade link ball prone to breakage

Here’s a look at the swashplate and head design. The swashplate only has one flybar ball link location. On the mSR and Solo Pro, they come with two locations. A shorter set of balls for novice pilots. And a longer ball link location, for more advance pilots. The 9958 swashplate design appears to be similar to the older E-Flite coaxial, the mCX.

Xieda 9958 Swashplate

For quicker cyclic response, I recommend finding a way to lengthen the balls. Here’s a Solo Pro upper swashplate drilled out to fit over the 9958’s upper swashplate. Just like the mSR “cusker” mod. With the Solo Pro upper swashplate, it will now allow for two linkage positions. At 16.5mm and 20mm, they are much longer than the stock 9958 12.40mm. All measured with my digital calipers.

Xieda 9958 swashplate with Solo Pro upper swashplate glued on

The implementation of these design changes, as well as differences in the 5-in-1 board’s servo mixes and remote controller’s sensitivity, results in a totally different overall flight characteristics when compared with the Blade mSR. Here’s a frontal view of the 9958’s 5-in-1 controller board. I suggest you inspect and resolder the antenna wire through the board. Many reports of the antenna wire falling off and the heli flying away as a result. So that’s one of the first thing I would double check on a new 9958. The glue you see there is too flexible and doesn’t adhere properly to the antenna wire. Update: The newer RX boards has the antenna properly soldered through the PCB board. It makes the chances of losing the antenna much less likely. But please visually inspect for antenna if you are going to fly it outside. Because the 9958 does not have automatic cut off in the event of signal lost.

5-in-1 board of the 9958
9958’s servos and gears

Here’s a look at the 9958 tail. The boom is square like the Solo Pro and both are 1.7mm square carbon fiber tube. The length of the carbon fiber boom itself is shorter than the Solo Pro, but together with the plastic motor holder, they both are very similar in length. The tail fin simply clips on and I find that it likes to come off during crashes. So when flying outdoors and retrieving your heli after a crash, make a note to check that the tail fin hasn’t fallen off. I actually prefer to fly without my tail fin, to change the balance of the heli a bit. Something to note that is a departure from how mSR and Solo Pro is the use of insulated multi-stranded thin gauge wires instead of enamel coated motor wires. Sometimes during severe tail impacts, the motor holder can move forward and the exposed graphite can nick the wire’s insulation. The exposed copper wire can cause a short that resets the 5-in-1. I have seen talks of the 9958 tail motor being weaker than the Solo Pro or mSR. With the mSR being the strongest of the three. I haven’t quantified this myself, but I do notice that the 9958’s tail motor is shorter than the Solo Pro (15.05mm) and the mSR (15.10mm). Tail hold seems fine regardless of this fact so I don’t think a stronger motor is necessary. (Update 04/29/2012: I have noticed some 9958 where on throttle punches, or giving full throttle from the ground results in the tail not being able to hold it’s head. I don’t know the cause of it as some 9958 doesn’t have this problem.)All companies previously mentioned uses tail motor of the same diameter, so it’s easy to interchange between them with little or no modding to the tail motor holder so if you feel the need to experiment. I do want to commend GW Toys on the neat wire routing as shown in the photo below. There’s a groove that routes the wires neatly. The motor holder has a tab at the end to prevent the motor cap from popping off in the event of a hard hit to the motor shaft. This was a big issue with the mSR early on and still is to a certain extend on the later model mSR. The new Blade mSR X finally did something about the problem by building a cage around the motor like the Solo Pro and Bravo SX. The latest revision of the Xieda 9958 has a tail motor holder that holds the motor in place even better.

Xieda 9958 tail set.

The battery skids looks similar to the mCX and the plug ends are the same style Parkzone/E-Flite ultra micro connectors. The Xieda 9958 comes with one 150mAh battery with the cutoff charging circuit built into the battery. It includes and uses the USB charging cable to charge the battery. Because the charging circuit is built into each battery instead of the charging cable, the 150mAh battery is larger and heavier than other 160mAh 1s LiPo out there on the market. This also makes the charging cable dangerous to be used on any after market 1S LiPo batteries without the charging circuit built in. So if you are going to be buying and using aftermarket 1s Lipo cells, make sure you have a charger capable of charging those 1s cells safely. Do not use the USB charging cable included with the 9958.

Battery skids weigh .88g

I find the battery skid’s durability to be ok. They weigh .88g and are very slightly heavier than the mSR’s skids, which weighs in at .63g. The 9958 battery skids likes to come off after crashes. But it’s easy to put it back into place so it’s not a big deal. You can remedy this with a dab of glue, let dry before friction fitting it back into place. Flight wise, I find the 9958 is quick and nimble. But it likes to slide or drift during bank turns. You can help cancel out this tendency by pulling back on the elevator as you begin to turn. It tightens up the turn quite a bit. This sliding tendency makes it harder to fly fast indoors. Outside, it’s ability to point the nose down allow for some wind fighting ability and fast forward flight. With the open space, it is a blast to fly. Turns and flight are very smooth. However, like all micro helis of this size, any wind or breeze will put your ability to control the heli to the test. This definitely adds an extra dimension of fun. In open space, the range is quite nice with the stock transmitter. Keep in mind that the stock TX does not have an antenna wire running through the plastic stub. So I advise caution when using it around residential areas where there may be heavy sources of signals that may diminish the range of the Xieda 9958 considerably. There has been more than one report of 9958 flying up up and away. Some people joke, saying it flew back home to China.

Xieda 9958 flying outdoor

The Xieda 9958 is definitely a worth while fixed pitch mico heli for the price. It’s at the price point of most coaxial toy heli but performs more like hobby grade micro helis before it. I definitely think it’s worth giving the 9958 a try if you are curious about this class of helis. For those that are definitely want an upgrade path to larger, full size helis, then the mSR with it’s DSM2 compatible technology may be the wiser investment. (Update 04/28/2012: Horizon Hobby has discontinued the mSR so finding one might be difficult.) Also, don’t count the Solo Pro out either, as it has a very unique flying characteristics that many heli pilot enjoy. Put 9958 into the search bar above and you will find all the upgrades, mods and updated info since this article was written. Have fun and let me know what you guys think in the comment section below.

Blue and Red mSR, Xieda 9958, Solo Pro with blue Soar canopy

Comments

81 responses to “Xieda 9958”

  1. John Coppinger Avatar
    John Coppinger

    Thanks for the great tips – I found the antenna did need re-soldering.  Also the cylindrical unit on the back of the controller board (capacitor?) had a dry solder joint.  Once that was fixed the transmitter got a signal across!  This is an excellent trainer for 4 channel beginners – – –

    1. hacksmods Avatar
      hacksmods

      It gets better. We learn that the Turnigy 9x radio can be bound to the 9958. Suddenly, the 9958 becomes a beautiful flier. Plus, the range problem becomes a thing of the past. The later model 9958 has the antenna soldered through the PCB board and the glue they used is more effective.

  2. […] Per quelli che non hanno voglia di leggersi tutto il thread, ma desiderano avere info sul nostro 9958, segnalo questa recensione che ne illustra le caratteristiche dando anche qualche suggerimento per migliorare le prestazioni e attenuare i difetti: Xieda 9958 | Hacks and Mods […]

  3. ✔ Verified Fan Avatar

    Do you have twitter or any other form of contact bro? Just bought one of these mean machines and a fair few parts and was wondering if you minded being my emergency contact? Definately going to have to mod it!

    Cheers
    Oz Lad @flintoast:twitter 

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      No problem, I’d be happy to help. Just continue posting over at RC Groups or here and I’ll answer as soon as I can. :) I check that forum more than any other means of contact.

  4.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Regarding the pivot ball on the rotors breaking off: I came up with a 5-minute fix that’s actually a strength upgrade. Find a sewing pin with a same-sized (or slightly smaller) ball-head as the pivot ball (The ones in dept store dressing rooms are often just right). Heat the pointed end of the pin with a lighter and push it through the blade exactly where the old ball broke off (I did this without even taking the blade off the copter), then immediately pull the pin back out. Use a razor knife to smooth the outer and inner faces where the pin entered/exited the plastic. Trim the pin to length with needlenose/cutters so that the end will just reach all the way through the plastic when fully inserted. Do a test insert to confirm a good fit and placement, then put a drop of superglue on the pin shaft and reinsert for good. If the ball is slightly loose you can also put a bit of c/a glue on the pin head to build it up a bit.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Love it! Thanks for the reply and bringing this mod to our attention. :)

  5. Balliver Avatar
    Balliver

    Awesome article, I was checking out this helicopter and watched some videos online, I was wondering what the dimensions of the battery holder are I was thinking about getting this and maybe some extra batteries with more mAh and wanted to make sure they would fit.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Not sure what the exact dimensions are. But I found all 1s 3.7v LiPo fits. So I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

  6. krunkage Avatar
    krunkage

    flew mine about 6 times before the left hand servo died, didnt even crash except for carpet :(. hard to get replacement parts in uk 

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Sorry about your servo. It happens on all the micro heli sometimes. I think you should just order replacement part from MyRCMart. They ship to the UK just fine. Another place I have ordered replacement RX from is FocalPrice.

  7. Jriquelmy Avatar
    Jriquelmy

    I lost my landing skid and is proving impossible to find! Thia sucks!

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      You can buy them from focalprice.com. It’s pretty cheap and shipping is free. Add 3 or more for even more discount.

  8. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Great page. I have teh 9958 and love it so far. I have noticed that after may flights with it it has started to act wierd when trying to hover in the house.. With the nose staying pointed in the same direction it will lean back a bit and move left, then backward, then right, then forward, like a big wobble circle.. No amount of trimming seems to fix it.. Is this something that happens over time? is there a fix for that?

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Kevin, I think you are describing TBE (Toilet Bowl Effect).

      Some people mentioned changing out with new blades helping to resolve the issue. Often time, it’s cause by binding somewhere. Either by debris, dirt or other stuff. Check out this page for a very good write up on the issue. http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/toilet-bowl-effect.html

      Sometimes it helps to disassemble the head and reassemble it to fix mysterious issues like that. Good luck.

      1. Kev Avatar
        Kev

        Well, I polished all of the ball joints on the rotor head as described but still have TBE.  This is not a coaxial heli either… is it still a flybar issue?  Would a flybarless micro heli be immune, or mostly immune to TBE?  

        1.  Avatar
          Anonymous

          Hmmm…I wonder what it is. Because mine doesn’t have TBE. Have you tried different blades yet? A flybarless should be virtually immune to TBE. However, some people with the mSR X has issues where rudder command will have the heli darting off uncontrolled. I think they are still getting to the bottom of that “bug.”

          If you need new blades, give the mCX/mCX2/ForceRC lower blades a try. I like them over the stock blades. $2.99. Grab the mCX/mCX2/ForceRC lower rotor head too. $2.99. Quite a few people said switching out to that setup cured their TBE. I simply like how they fly.

  9. Jcl750 Avatar
    Jcl750

    Need help with my 9958. It is suddenly spinning clockwise to no end, and now amount of rotor trim can get it to stop. The rear tail motor seems to be stuck on high. Would this be a sign of a short? The rotor trim on the stock TX does not have the long beep to indicate center like the other trims do, so I am at a loss. Thanks for the help.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

       The rotor does not have a center point like the other trims. If it’s stuck running on high, the transistor that controls power to the tail is likely bad. You can order a new one and solder it in if you are good with a soldering iron. The transistor is labeled A2sSH. Here is the exact replacement: http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/1502017-mosfet-n-ch-30v-4-0a-sot23-ao3402.html

    2. Jcl750 Avatar
      Jcl750

      Thanks, I have been playing with this for two days now. Does not seem like the rudder motor is stuck on high since I have gotten close to stopping the spin with a bit of left and very slow TX adjustments. Here is where I am stuck though. When the battery is fully charged it spins and I cannot stop it. It Isn’t until the.
      power starts to drop that I can gain control. By then I have 30 seconds or so of flight and it is only a foot off the ground at most.

      1.  Avatar
        Anonymous

        Hmmm… If you give it full left, the tail rotor should stop. If you give it full right, it should spin at it’s fastest speed. Make sure the heli is on a still surface. If you hold it in your hand, your hand shaking will activate the gyro to compensate for the shakes.

        So if you get the heli in the air. You can’t trim out the spinning? Your latest comment sounds like the situation is improving.

        1. Jcl750 Avatar
          Jcl750

          Full charge copter on the ground… I give it throttle … spins clockwise.. copter rises while spinning. Trim left and push left on the stick (slowly letting the electronics work)… hear the rear motor doing something. Copter starts to settle as battery drains… get it to stop spinning, but copter has zero elevation.. battery dies. That is the best I can describe things without you seeing it first hand.
          I may try trimming it in hand and getting the tail motor to stop with full left…. maybe trim is so far off now I need to start from a definitive point… thoughts??

          1.  Avatar
            Anonymous

             Did trimming in your hand work? Sorry for the late response. I was out of town.

            If the motor is still responding to the trim or stick movement. That suggest the tail motor transistor is still working.

            Try going to the RCGroups 9958 thread and see what the rest of the guys there have to say about the problem. It’s an active and nice bunch there.

  10. Jcl750 Avatar
    Jcl750

    One other thing I forgot to ask… Do I need to mechanically level out the swashplate, when the Tx is centered? Mine seems to be way off. As compared to the one in the photo above. Thanks!

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

       Make sure your TX trim is centered. You want to trim mechanically by lengthening or shortening the servo links. I wrote a little guide here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1542968

  11. Dimitri Avatar
    Dimitri

    Thanks a lot for very good review. I have a problem you actually described: blade ball got snapped off. Now the ball remains inside the linkage and I can not take it out. How can I do it safely without damaging linkage and other small parts? Thank you in advance.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      I usually have nail clippers at my work bench. They are handy to clip any excess flashing or plastic left over from the molding process. I put the nail clipper resting along it’s side. Then place the link on it so the broken plastic balls rest in between and the link braced by the nail clipper. Then use an thumbtack, push pin, iphone sim card remover, etc to easily push the ball out. See the photo below to get the idea.

      1. Dimitri Avatar
        Dimitri

        Thanks a lot for advice and for making photo! I managed to take the ball out but only after lubricating it with teflon spray. Changing the blades can be good idea indeed.

  12. Gumtree Avatar
    Gumtree

    Hi,

    I got this heli about two weeks ago based on this great review – thanks for this review ;).  I’m a beginner and quite like this li’l thing.When I got it new I had to compensate to get it hovering, but that’s fine.  However the ball point on one of the blades snapped off and I replaced the blade with one of the extra ones that came with it.  Ever since then I get the spinning effect (counterclockwise) as described below, meaning the more I push the throttle the faster the heli spins – however it goes straight up.  A controlled flight is impossible now.  Counteractive trimming via the TX is pretty pointless as I would need to trim procedurally (the spinning increases direct proportional with the throttle).  I think I have nailed it down to the back motor, that – with no compensation aka just pushing throttle up and down – increases turning speed invoking faster ccw spin.  If I counteract this manually (whilst the heli is on the ground) by pushing the yaw control to the right I can keep the nose straight – so keep it from yawing – BUT it starts banking to the left quite heavily.

    I am not sure if I stuffed things up when exchanging the blade, but I couldn’t imagine how.

    Do you have any idea what this could be by any chance?

    thanks a lot for your help

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Hi Gumtree. Thanks for the comment.

      It sounds like you have two issues. First, the replacement blades are introducing the dreaded Toilet Bowl Effect. Or TBE for short. Since it occurs right after fitting on new blades, the solution is likely there are well. If you didn’t, ensure you replace the blades as a pair. Just to try and resolve the issue. Some blades have A marked on them, near the center. Others have B. Not sure what’s the difference, but it’s good to know there is an A and B set.

      If you want durability, I would invest the $2-$3 for the Blade MCX or Blade mCX2 lower blades. Grab the lower rotor hub too so you don’t have to do any mods to fit those blades onto the 9958. I find they are much more durable to ball breakage. And being lighter, I find they fly better. Quicker to spool the head up. However, this is arguable since many newbies can’t detect the difference.

      The second issue you have is a lost of tail authority. I never had this issue before, until my last two stock 9958 I just got. I’ll have to look into where the source of the problem is and share a fix for it.

      1. Yamaha4759 Avatar
        Yamaha4759

        sounds like i got the same problem as the guy about the main blade. then i thought of replacing both blades and it solved the problem, but then i noticed that the tail props got hair tangled so i pull them out and since then it wont fly properly, i was thinking that maybe the motor got halfway burned due to the hair.. bec it keeps spinning.

        1.  Avatar
          Anonymous

          Yeah, it happens on all these micro heli with a tail motor. Hair or pet hair can get tangled in the tail motor shaft. If it’s left on, it causes resistance to the motor and can make it run hot, pull too much amps and either the motor goes bad or the FET transistor on the board gets overloaded and burn. 

          Surprisingly, all the components are pretty resilient and this doesn’t occur more often. Definitely become quicker on cutting throttle before the crash. In your case, if a replacement of the tail motor doesn’t fix the problem…then chances are, you’ll need to replace the FET on the RX board.

  13. D Avatar

    Hi all, Have a few helli’s MCX,MSR,CX2,Walkera 4, and now a GW9958 or what’s left of it,  Got it from F/Price  for $45.
    Gave it a qiuck check out of the box,chagred the battery and all seamed OK to fly.  I have heard of the problems these have and intended to Mod it after a test fly. Totaly out of trim and could have never been test flown as they say in HK, so trimed her up (adjusted the ball links as it was way out of trim).  I hovered it for about 15 seconds to get the feal of the conrtols (Not as good as my MSR so far) after another 30 seconds of test flying the TX packed up just as I stared to it fly backwards, Helli went into full power backwards flite into the wall shorted out the tail rotor wire’s, buy the time I picked it up (10 seconds Max) the RX had got smoked, blades were smashed, and plenty of smoke as it was still at full power until I riped of the battery, Aerial had broke off and dangled on a but of silicon glue. TX is none repairable as it got a PCB problem and needs to be replaced buy FP( I hope).
     As for the damage to the helli, I have had to fixed my self as they would neve beleve it was not my fault,  Shortend the tail boom 20mm to remove the crispy burnted section, Replaced the wires on the tail motor up to the RX, used the spare blades the came with it, As I have had Helli’s before and severial of my mate’s are Very good at smashing them up for me, I have lots of parts including MOSFET’s for all of the helli’s I have, The ones for the MRS/MCX are P Channel MOSFET’s but look the same, (No Good then) the one’s you need for the 9958 are N Channel, So it now has a Blade CX2 MOSFET (totaly the wrong Pin set up,has 8 pins on it but will still work if you know how to fit it).

    So the helli is now working again and fly’s OK even with the short bail boom, ( managed to loan a Turnigy 9 TX to test it), Still needs some  Mods as it got some flying querks to it. So if FPrice sort the Dud TX out for me it may get modded and thrashed, if not it will probley get put in the spare’s bin.
    Just one thing about the Aerial wire that is used it’s micro Coax ?, NOT just a bit of wire,  may be why some people have range problems if they use normal wire, (not sure but mat be) some pics of the enforced mods He! He!.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Thanks for the write up and insight.

      The tail motor holder sliding up and nicking the motor wires is definitely a problem. I posted on what I personally do to remedy this problem here: http://www.hacksmods.com/2012/01/xieda-9958-tail-motor-holder-mod/

      The 9958 definitely needs a longer swashplate balls. And many people have been doing the shorten swashplate arm mod. Just like those that modded their mSR swashplate arms shorter. Same concept.

      As for the Turnigy 9x binded to the 9958. You have to increase the endpoints of the stock firmware. If you don’t, the 9958 flys in low rate mode…so it’s even slower than the stock controller.

      Because you are a mSR flyer, and used to it’s speed and agility. The last mod I would do after the swashplate mods mentioned above, is to add on a mSR flybar to the 9958.

  14. bgnpilot Avatar
    bgnpilot

    Hi, I would like to know how to fix the USB charging cable included with the 9958 I´ve just acquired. It doesn´t work. So I´m not able to recharge the battery. It seems that one of the pins of the USB charging male connector is broken. That´s why it doesn´t charge the battery.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      I think if you need to ask, it’s not worth fixing. The 9958’s charging cable isn’t the best. Where are you located at? If in the US, I’ll give you one of my extra charge cable.

      1.  Avatar
        Anonymous

        with regards to using another type of battery, is itpossible to use e flite kind if i reverse the polarity of the connector? i bought several e flite batteries but it almost burned my circuit board…i figured they weren’t the same polarity as of negative and positive 

        1.  Avatar
          Anonymous

          I have used e-flite batteries with out any issue. The polarity is compatible. In fact, if you look at my battery discharge post, I recommend the new E-Flite 150mAh 25C battery at $3.99. Best performing cells for the price and weight. Just don’t use the USB charging cable that comes with the 9958 to charge the E-Flite batteries. Because the 9958 USB charging cable does not have built in circuits to stop charging 1S LiPo once they have reached 4.2V.

          1.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            i have tried to hook it up on my xieda and it almost burned my circuit board.. lucky i pulled the battery fast enough to not burned the board totally, now i am afraid to use it… although i have spare circuit board sent by xheli for free.. just to make sure, how do we test the polarity of batteries against the polarity of the board? any suggestions?

          2.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            I wonder if the battery leads on your RX board is incorrectly wired. Red (positive) should be on the bottom. Black (negative) should be on top at the back of the RX.

            You need to use the multimeter to test if the LiPo wasn’t incorrectly wired. Looking at your lipo with the connector towards you, the negative is on the left. Positive is on the right.

          3.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            can you post a photo of how it should (default) look like, because i checked my spare RX and it appears that the red wire is on the upper part and the black is underneath.. i checked the heli itself and it shows the same… if i change the polarity of the RX then the battery for E-flite will work but not the stock battery. 

          4. HacksMods Avatar

            The EFlite and stock 9958 battery should be wired the same. It is on all my stock battery. So I think your one stock battery is the one with the problem. Incorrectly wired at the factory. Like I wrote above: “You need to use the multimeter to test if the LiPo wasn’t incorrectly wired. Looking at your lipo with the connector towards you, the negative is on the left. Positive is on the right.”

            Sorry for the tardiness of this reply. I only just saw it right now. :( Hopefully you figured it out by now.

          5. yamaha4759 Avatar
            yamaha4759

            the stock battery charge good on the charger, so if the battery is not correct, then it would not charge.. and also i tried charging the battery (stock) on eflite battery charger and it wont light up the led light, but when i use the eflite batteries, the led light turn on..

          6. HacksMods Avatar

            Makes sense. But your experiment confirms there is a polarity difference between the way your stock battery is wired. Which is weird because from my experience with all the stock 9958 battery, they are all wired up like the eFlite. And I use the eFlite charger to charge all of them. Maybe you have a unique 9958?

          7.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            the way i see on your photo is that the “Red (positive) is on the left bottom. Black (negative) on right top at the back of the RX.” 
            what appears on the back of my RX is totally different – red wire on the right and black wire on the lower left..
            if i change the polarity of the RX then would the stock battery work properly?, i am sure that the E-flite batteries will…

    2. Yamaha4759 Avatar
      Yamaha4759

      that happened to me but xheli replaced my charger, i just have to wait another week for it.. 

  15. Keithsmalls00 Avatar
    Keithsmalls00

    Hey,
    I just recently purchased this helo and for some reason I can not adjust the left turn, right turn fine tuning anymore on the stock controller. My helo flies in circles uncontrollably. Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem?

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      I have a couple of question to try and understand what you are saying. Did the helo have this problem out of the box?

      It sounds to me that the tail motor may be bad. Can you check at the back where the tail motor wires enters the carbon fiber boom? Often times, after a bad crash…the motor mount would move forward, cutting the insulation of the motor wires. This short causes either your RX board to reset. Or burn out the tail motor. Or causes it not to behave properly. Or possibly burn out the Mosfet transistor that controls the tail motor. If this is burnt, then you won’t be able to regulate power to the tail.

      1. Keithsmalls00 Avatar
        Keithsmalls00

        As of right now i have the basic transmitter that came in the box. When I attempt to adjust the fine tuning I hear different tones indicating adjustment. I hear the fluctuation in tones with all the other fine tuning buttons except the ones that control left and right

        1.  Avatar
          Anonymous

          The digital trim buttons that you use to fine tune has a center for the elevator and aileron. Those are the controls on the right stick. So when you hear a long beep. That means you are in the center.

          The trim for rudder, which turn the helo’s head left and right is on the left stick. This acts differently has no center. Therefore you won’t hear any different tones or a long beep in the center either. You simply press that button until the helo’s head isn’t turning anymore.

          So, your transmitter is working properly. That is not the cause of the problem you are having with your helo.
          Hope that makes sense. Make sure to take a look and answer the other questions I have for you. It’s important if you ask for help to actually reply back to each question I ask. Thanks.

          1.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            i was having the same problem and now it make sense that it doesn’t sound the same as the elevati will try this again and hope it will trim my rudder… thank youor trim and the aileron trim.. 

  16. Kix662003 Avatar
    Kix662003

    Got my new Xieda 9958 today. Came with a new style controller with LCD display, and a single battery compartment that holds all 6 batteries. It has a nicer look and feel with USB on right lower grip. Haven’t seen another on YouTube or elsewhere.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Sweet. Thanks for sharing. I think you’re the first person that said they got the newer units with the LCD transmitter. I have seen it for sale on MyRCMart for a while now, but haven’t heard of anybody that confirm getting one. :)

    2. Jay Avatar
      Jay

      Where did you get your 9958 with the new LCD controller from?  I wish they were here in the US already so I didn’t have to wait so long for shipping from China.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    Have flow for a while, many crashes.  Heli flies fine for 20 seconds or so, then I lose tail control & it starts spinning wildly, sometimes control comes back in and out, but mostly I will set down or crash because of control loss.  Tail motor seems fine, no extra friction in system.  Have no idea what is wrong.  Considering replacing! Any suggestions?

    1. Felix Avatar
      Felix

       Sounds like the tail motor is giving out.  The bushings are heating up after a bit of flying and then it doesn’t spin like it should.

    2.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      The direction it spins can help determine if it’s the tail motor that’s failing or the FET on the RX board. It’s possible the problem is as Felix describe below.

      But the number one source of the problem is if the tail motor wires’ insulation are slightly cut and causes intermittent shorting of the tail motor. Visually inspect the area where the tail motor wires enters the carbon fiber tail boom. During crashes, the tail motor mount likes to slide forward, making the tail motor wires taunt and sometimes cutting into the insulation.

      1.  Avatar
        Anonymous

        what  is FET btw.. it seems that the trim for the tail isn’t giving the same sount as the other trim buttons on the remote.. it only creates on sound not like the other buttons that when u press it, create a pitch sound from low to high tone n vise versa… seem like there isn’t any difference when i trim the tail motor.. any suggestion? i have a spare circuit boad…

        1.  Avatar
          Anonymous

          The FET is the transistor on the RX board. It has three legs and can be found near where the motor wires connect. There’s one for the main motor and one for the tail motor. It controls how much current gets delivered to the motors.

          The trim button for the rudder is special in that there isn’t a “center”. Therefore, there is no increasing pitch sound like the aileron and elevator trims. So yours is working properly.

          You did not confirm whether or not your tail motor wires is nicked or cut. I assume you checked and did not see any. If possible, replace the tail motor and see if the problem is still present. If it is, then you can test by swapping out with the spare RX.

          It is nice that all the parts for this heli is cheap. On my mSR, the RX board is $50 alone. And the tail motor is sold with the boom and mount and cost $15.

          Good luck.

          1.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            my tail motor is fine and the wires are not nicked or cut, yes this heli is really worth the money…  

          2.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            MSR has better quality parts to their name

          3.  Avatar
            Anonymous

            You’d think…until you own one. :) Each heli has it’s own set of flaws. On the mSR, it’s less forgivable due to the cost.

          4. Yamaha4759 Avatar
            Yamaha4759

            i can only agree to you my friend..

    3.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      i am starting to have the same problem now, after 20 seconds in the air, i will lose control and come back just like that, i have to fly outside with no wind, on a grassy area to save my heli from crashes… now i am trying to get some strength and fly it again, i may replace the circuit board, and reverse the polarity so i can use my e flite batteries, it is frustrating when u can only fly for one battery, when i have more than 6 3.7 e flite batteries, that i heard gives more flight time and power than the stock one..

      1.  Avatar
        Anonymous

        If the heli is spinning to the left when you lose control, then it’s the tail motor or the FETS for the tail motor that is the culprit. Or anything related to the tail such as nicked tail wires or the tail rotor being damaged or rubbing against the motor’s housing.

        As for the eFlite batteries. They connect right in on all my 9958. No modifications necessary. Hopefully your main battery wires are not soldered on incorrectly. They should go into the 9958 RX with the red on the bottom and the black wired soldered right above it.

  18.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    I have the 9958 and need some help.  The pins on the battery connector (on the bird) are broken / bent.  I cannot find the battery connector as a part.  Any suggestions?

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      the only possible way you can replace that connector is to get a new cable charger and cut the part where u plug the battery and splice it to your helicopter, and you get a working connector… the cable charger is very cheap.. you can order them at xheli… that’s one modification i know .. or just order a new circuit board… u can use the old circuit board if you want to build a mini plane… 

      1.  Avatar
        Anonymous

         Thanks for the suggestion.  Those connectors are so fragile that I KNEW someone else had to have had problems with them.  I better order a few of the cable chargers!  Thanks again for the advice!

        1. HacksMods Avatar

          The sell cables and connectors. You can search ebay for “micro JST”
          http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180957475868#ht_1896wt_1163

          Or purchase the extension cables from Hobby King: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=9727&aff=376417

  19.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Your mod suggestions are great, I have bravo sx tail & motor, msr flybar, and mcx lower head and blades on my 9958.  One thing I did differently is use tiny heat shrink tubing on the blade head to reinforce the blade pin holes and the linkage guides.  I also put tiny plastic washers on the bladepins to take out the slack.  I made washers by slicing a common plastic ink pen tube.  I also replaced a broke off blade pin with a short piece of tennis racket string, drilled the hole by turning the drillbit with my fingers and glued the pin in with CA.  That blade is on my 9958 now and works fine.  Thanks again for the great pictures and tips.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      You’re welcome and thanks for the suggestion. Good ideas.

  20.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Hello!

    I just got a Xieda 9958, and it is still in it’s stock configuration.  I can fly it so far, but it has a weird problem.  When I first got it, it liked to shoot to the right, and with full trim to the left, it didn’t do that as much.  The swashplate looked like it was crooked, so I adjusted the servo arms until they looked right, which rendered the heli unflyable.

    I readjusted the servo arms until they were back where they were (or at least close).  It now runs about straight without any left or right banking at center trim, but when I move it forward or backward, it will bank right pretty hard.  I can compensate with the sticks, but this seems like an adjustment problem of some sort.  This is my first single blade copter, but I have a few coaxial copters.  After I returned the adjustments where they were, the swashplate looks like it is cocked to the left a lot.  Any thoughts??

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      For step by step tutorial how to trim my xieda (not with tx), go to RC Groups, type GW Xieda 9958 into the search box, check the thread button, find the GW Xeida 9958 thread, then find post number 1381 by Helipad.  Good instructions on mechanical trimming the 9958.

      Center the trim buttons on your Tx. You could center the trim of 3 out of 4
      sets of trim button; in other words, all but the rudder trim. There is no center
      for rudder. You just click on the trim buttons until you hear a long beep.
      That’s your center. Do that with Throttle, Aileron, and Elevator.
      Hover your 9958 and trim your rudder using the Tx, because there is no servo
      arm for that function.
      Likewise, there is really no servo for the throttle, so there is nothing you
      could mechanically trim there. If hover is not at 50% stick, then you’ll have to
      trim it using the Tx.
      Next trim the Aileron. If your heli is drifting left, meaning you have to
      add right aileron, you do that by lengthen the Left servo arm (looking at the
      heli from behind). So, you detach the servo arm from the swash, and give it a
      turn counter clockwise. Reattach and check. Repeat the process if needed.
      Similarly, if the heli is drifting right, you’d want to shorten the Left
      servo arm by turn it clockwise.
      Next trim the Elevator the same way, except you’re working with the Right
      servo arm. Drifting forward? Lengthen the arm. Drifting backward? Shorten the
      arm. Repeat until you have a stable hover.
      Note that in some model
      you have to make one complete turn (360) each time. Otherwise, the links won’t
      fit right. However, on the 9958, you could make half turns (180); therefore, you
      could fine tune your trim. Do your mechanical trim with the canopy on. Because
      leaving it off could throw the weight distribution and aerodynamics off.

    2.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      The swashplate will be at an angle on these fixed pitch heli. They won’t be level like on the flybarless or CP heli. The amount of angle of the swashplate for “hands free” hover depends on the center of gravity of your heli. If your battery sits more back or forward, after you perfectly mechnically trim for it, the angle will be different from another person’s 9958’s swashplate position if they use different batteries.

      First of all, do as siriusflier mentioned below. Mechanical trimming is the first thing you have to do. That means you set the elevator and aileron trims on the transmitter back to the neutral position first. You can tell when it emits a long beep. Only those cyclic trim has a center, long beep. The rudder does not need that.
      As to your problem of the heli darting off the wrong way even though you put the link lengths back to how it was, check that your swashplate pin did not jump the swash guides in the back. That’s usually the cause of the darting off problem.
      I like to trim by getting the heli out of its ground wash quickly. One way is to simply launch from my hands instead of the ground. Or quickly give more on the throttle stick to lift off and get the heli into the middle flight height, away from the ground. Near the ground, you heli can be flying in various direction do to hit’s blades creating ground wash.

      Let us know how it goes.

  21.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    I have had the Solo Pro swashplate for a couple of weeks now, and finally I decided to try it.  Did it a little differenly.  Removed the upper parts from both swashes, used a piece of spring as a spacer to slightly raise the SP upper and installed it directly into the 9958 lower swash piece.  I had to lengthen the servo arms several turns, but I did manage to get it mechanically trimmed fairly well.  I put the links to the flybar on the shorter SP swash balls, and think I might need longer links to go to the longer SP swash balls.  Only got to fly it inside as its windy out, and managed to break the tennis string blade pin on the first test, but I think it is going to work! 

  22. J Avatar
    J

    I have this issue with one of mine too. Was told it might be the Rx board.
    Anybody have any better ideas or fixes for this issue?

    1. HacksMods Avatar

      We’ve learn that binding problems may be a result of the crystal going bad. Usually due to crash damage. On later models, the cylindrical crystal is glued down with silicone caulking. Even so, if you crash hard enough, it can still go bad. Inability to bind is generally one symptom of the issue.

      I made a post on the issue here. http://www.hacksmods.com/2012/06/repair-non-connecting-v911-5-in-1-rx/

  23. HacksMods Avatar

    Hi Rich, I am sorry your question went unanswered. I just saw it right now when I got notified of the recent comment by J below. See the reply I gave him. Hopefully you’ve figured out your issue by now. If not, it’s worth a shot.

    http://www.hacksmods.com/2012/06/repair-non-connecting-v911-5-in-1-rx/

  24. ekPhoenix Avatar
    ekPhoenix

    Nine Eagles Bravo SX fuselage mod to fit a Xieda 9958
    http://thefibonacciphoenix.wordpress.com/

    1. HacksMods Avatar

      Thanks for sharing. Good job. :)

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