Neon Blaze

[fatmantom]

Does anyone know what model of radio is supplied with the Blaze? I want to get a sim-link to go with PhoenixRC.

TIA - Simon

hi simon,

if it looks like a earphone socket, then it will be the JR type lead

if it looks like an aerial socket then i think its the ESky / HoneyBee / Century ELITE 4 / Graupner XRB 4 pin mini gold plated DIN (S-Video) type lead that you will need!

if u still dont know, take a pic of the back of your TX and we should be able to tell you!

cheers,

[oneredpanther]

fatmantom - The blaze Tx has one of those round S-Video style connectors... 4 pins and a black wedge if you know what I mean. I got an esky cable but it didn't work. Have emailed the chaps at Century and they're looking into it apparently. I'll call them again on monday to try and get a definitive sim cable answer for it.

andrewgwood - sorry to hear about your frustrations mate! My blaze is also on the bench awaiting some spares and repairs. With regard to your non-levelling swashplate situation it sounds like one of your servos may be slipping or has failed. Disconnect all three ball linkages and use the transmitter to supply a full range of control inputs and check for travel and response on all three servo arms. If one doesn't respond, replace it.


HELP ANYONE? - I've smashed up my tailrotor protecting fin thing. I would replace the entire assembly but the motor doesn't fit through the boom hole and its soldered in place! Any clues on how to replace it? I think I might just take the entire heli to my model shop and dump it on their desk and say "i'll be back in three days, fix it please!"

[andrewgwood]

Does anyone know what model of radio is supplied with the Blaze? I want to get a sim-link to go with PhoenixRC.

TIA - Simon

Hi Simon

The set is a rebadged walkera tx

http://www.reflex-sim.de/reflex-sim/...qPath=15_35_95

Remarkably simlier, the connection is a PS2 type connector common on most PC keyboards before usb came in,

However I have tried the cable with RTX without sucess so I have having real trouble in getting it going,

I emailed Century and Reflex RTX but without reply after 7 days

I email phoenix and get a reply next day on a sunday!! however they are saying they dont supply a cable to support it, so it may work

[andrewgwood]

HELP ANYONE? - I've smashed up my tailrotor protecting fin thing. I would replace the entire assembly but the motor doesn't fit through the boom hole and its soldered in place! Any clues on how to replace it? I think I might just take the entire heli to my model shop and dump it on their desk and say "i'll be back in three days, fix it please!"

Very easy mate, as I just done mine I would recommend doing the repairs yourself, gets you familier with your heli and how it all works.

The only way I could see to do it is desolder the wires from the motor, as the harness connector on the other end doesent travel inside the boom either.

Couple of pointers so you avoid the mistake i just made

Also if you smashed the tail fin chances are the tail rotor would have caught the ground too, when you dissassemble the rotor check the two plastic pins are still on the rotor blade and not embedded into the gear, otherwise your tail rotor will slip.

Let the motor completly cool down after resoldering it, before testing.

and when mounting the motor next to the plastic gear, gently butt it up to it, as I think mine was too close to the gear and was under pressure which in turn burnt the motor out.

Thanks for the pointer I checked the servos and all is fine, will try again when I have more time.

[ryanvxracing]

hi there newbie here, my in law just bought a neon blaze for himself, and as he has no previous rc experience i couldnt believe it when he told me. so far ive managed to talk him out of flying it, and hopefully he never will. anyway, i dont know much about heli's, but have worked with cars and boats before, i managed to get it trimmed ok, so now it hovers (ish). the problem i have found is that when i push forwards on the right lever (yes you can tell i know what im talking about lol), its rotor tilts forward and right, no matter how much trimming, i cant seem to get it just to tilt forward, i'm presuming this is where the giro comes in? any help much appreciated.

[TheD]

newbie crashes (as to be expected)

Well, I took a trip to my friendly model store yesterday. I was bought a Pico Z heli for xmas and it has rekindled my want for another helicopter.

A few years ago I bought a Twister with fixed pitch. It was an absolute nightmare, could hardly hover and it was repair after repair after repair so it was sold on ebay.

Well, anyway, I spotted a Neon Blaze CP with collective pitch
so after some deliberation I purchased one

I broke it So like everyone, I have a couple of questions...
1. On trying to hop up, it wants to rotate constantly, to combat this as much as possible, i moved the trim over to the right for the tail rotor. I still have to fly with some left held on.

2. Ok, so i'm still trying to hop up and the thing is drifting to the right. Again to try and combat that I have the trim set all the way to the right nearly!

3. Lastly, it's pretty erratic and twitchy, it feels sometimes that if I push the right stick right to combat left slip the thing goes forward! This confuses me a little as to why it would do this. I think that its to do with two knobs and I need to figure out the dip switching to configure.

How do I trim everything up mechanically? The reason for asking is that the manual is pretty vague and I want to get as right as possible before flying again as I think this is going to be the key.

So those questions asked, what broke... Well, unluckily, the main rotor blade struck the tail boom and bent it round so it smashed the carbon horizontal fin as well. Not to worried about replacing as it's going to be a damn site easier than the twister as that was a glued in, carbon boom!

One point of warning with these, don't accidently flip the flight mode switch. Luckily my throttle was all the way down when i did it indoors. Scared the socks off me.

Any pics on these matters would be really helpful. My guide lacks instruction as to switch on sequence and propper installation of the battery so any help on that would be cool.
J.

[oneredpanther]

Hi J, welcome to the Neon Blaze club!
A couple of things to think about...

1. Your Tail Rotor is Rashed: if your tail rotor has struck the ground then its likely that its rashed away a millimetre or two of the blade surface (you won't necessarily notice this on a visual inspection with anything other than a brand new set of blades) and since the extremes of the tail rotor blades do most of the work, you will see a significant lack of authority in yaw after damaging them. This is backed-up by the fact that you need to apply right trim (the rotor faces right) to correct the rotation. Replace the tail rotor blade as a matter of course.

2. Your Tail Rotor is Rashed II: in addition to failing to provide adequate thrust to combat the torque of the main rotor your helicopter is now also suffering an imbalance of lateral thrust. Because a helicopter has a rotor facing sideways on the back, this rotor not only combats the rotational force but also wants to push the helicopter in the opposite direction laterally; a trait 'designed-out' of the rotor setup ideally. If the expected sideways force isn't present because of a shaved tail rotor, the main blades will overcompensate and push the machine sideways to the right. Replace the tail rotor blade as a matter of course!

3. Welcome to Rotary Flight. You're not wrong in what you're seeing! One of the strange principles of gyroscopic precession is that a force applied to its rotating surface will be translated into an equal force exactly ninety-degrees later. Your helicopter's rotor disc is a bit like a gyroscope. In other words, when you tilt it forwards the effects of precession make it want to tilt right. Tilt it backwards and it will want to tilt left. The aerodynamic nature of the blades mean that most of the precessive effects are eliminated but a residual thrust will still be created 90-degrees to your intended input. This is just the nature of a rotating system and something inherent to all helicopters that you learn to deal with I'm afraid.

4. Reattach Paddles for Less Twitch. The blaze is really twitchy out of the box. If you look at the two paddles either side of the main rotor you'll notice that there are two holes for them to attach to the metal flybar. By default they're socketed in the rearmost of the two holes. Changing this to the frontmost hole will reduce the amount of paddle surface area biting the air when you make inputs and thus make the blaze more docile. Use the set of tools supplied in the box. There is also something in the manual about flipping a switch on the rear of the Tx and rotating the knobs in one direction before re-flipping the switch but you'll need to check it out. Also have a quick visual inspection of the paddle alignment BEFORE AND AFTER you do this. It can help to take photographs with your eye level to the flybar or to use a sheet of paper square to the ground to mark the leading and trailing edge of the paddles for correct alignment. If you get it 90% correct by eye then it'll 'spin itself flat' after a couple of seconds anyway.

If there's anything else I can help you with let me know. Happy flying!

Panth

[TheD]

ooops!

i don't think its the tail rotor as it did it straight out of the box. It sounds like the physics you were talking about, it may be just a case of my inexperience and the fact that its still pretty much on the ground.

As far as the sideways drift, the heli is moving to the left. I have gone and messed up the lift now. I did what the manual said, eyeballed the rotors and adjusted the blades so they are horizontal, now the heli gets no lift, even with the knob turned up! Now i don't know where to set them too because I have no point of reference

J.

[oneredpanther]

The main rotor blades will sit horizontal in the blade grips and the Paddles should be level with them. The entire rotor assembly should be exactly level with the ground when all the controls are neutral. Disconnect the motor and power-up the helicopter to check this.

I found that the blaze flies very differently near to the ground (in Ground Effect) than it does above about 3 or 4 feet. I spent nearly a week getting progressively more infuriated at its drifting and rotating and general misbehaviour near to the ground doing hops. As soon as I had the courage to give it a little bit more welly and allow it to fly up to about my waist height it suddenly settled down and the difference in stability was remarkable. Try this before you get the urge to kill someone!

[TheD]

ok

so the blades should sit horizontal to the floor and lie competely flat at standstill? eg. present no face. i guess i need to find a bit more space like a tennis court.

[simonpa]

I found that the blaze flies very differently near to the ground (in Ground Effect) than it does above about 3 or 4 feet. I spent nearly a week getting progressively more infuriated at its drifting and rotating and general misbehaviour near to the ground doing hops. As soon as I had the courage to give it a little bit more welly and allow it to fly up to about my waist height it suddenly settled down and the difference in stability was remarkable. Try this before you get the urge to kill someone!

Ah - that's what I needed to hear. I've been following the "Radd (sp?) School of Flying" process and am at the 'drifting about at 6" off the ground' stage. I am finding it very unpredictable - it will get off the ground quite well, then start drifting. Any correction will then appear very exaggerated and be difficult to control.
I just need to get out my set of enlarged cahunas and get up a bit higher, I suppose

That's after I sort out the latest problem - I had a coming together with the Dyson inthe garage and I've now a vibration problem. The head/blades all look OK (the vibration is still there without the main blades), so I suspect a bent main shaft
Has anyone changed one? I've started to strip it down, but not got very far yet - any tips?

TIA - Simon

[TheD]

cool...

We need to hear how you get on with the flights I repaired mine yesterday and took it out to the back garden. I'd completely ruined the pitch on the blades and have sorted that now. I have learned that the swash plate needs adjusting to correct the side slip and then all is ready to rock. I was trying to fly it but it was to windy really so am going to wait now.

SPACE - oh yeah, more space for me, definitely. I flew it in more open grounds and found that that is a god send, sounds silly now i know! In between gusts it definately settled down.

J.

[TheMightyLad]

Hi PPL... I have just got hold of a Neon Blaze second hand after wanting a decent beginners heli for a while (apparently its only been used a few times!)

Anywho, I'm a complete novice and could do with some advice on setting the thing up, like others who have commented on here, the instruction book is in jinglish and doesn't make much sense! so anyway here are my questions...

1. while the thing is spinning (throttle almost halfway) looking straight edge on at the blades, are they supposed to be level? (i.e. a flat disc) when i look at mine you can clearly see both blades as they spin.. im not sure if thats OK?

2. can anyone explain the PIT and PLT settings better than in the instruction manual i did have a play with it but i think i have buggered it up!

3. can anyone recommend a good heli simulator package that i will be able to connect to the supplied TX.. i think i need to get some practice in!

Sorry about the long post but id like to get into heli flying but im starting at the bottom!

Thanks in advance

[Boggy]

1. the blade tracking is out you should only be able to see one blade.
2. pit & and plt are mixes(trims) for pitch(pit) and throttle(plt) set them to mid position to start. adjusting them gives you more or less pitch or throttle at any stick position!
3.phoenix is definatley the best sim but if it will work with your tx im not sure contact them here with your tx type and they will let you know.(their service is second to none)

[TheMightyLad]

Ahh ok thanks for the reply, I'll give the mid position a shot. my problem is that im not sure if its my poor flying skill (most likely!) or a poorly setup heli.

I'll look into getting hold of a copy of Pheonix and give it a go!

Thanks!