Blade 450x or 450 T. rex

[biker]

Hi all
well I am thinking of getting a blade 450x or tree 450 I have a 130x flying it ok still in the learning curve but I am looking I am not really looking to fly 3d not at the moment anyway so look for advice lads
cheers roger

[gazmk2]

I found myself at this exact crossroads just under a year ago! I went with a Trex 450 but in hindsight I really wish I'd gone with the 450x! I crashed a few times and the extra expense of repairing a carbon fibre trex was a lot more than repairing a plastic 450x! Also the 450x comes with the awsome ar7200 beastx fbl controller.

[biker]

Ok
thanks for the reply I am just so unsure I just want to make the right choice just want to make sure I can get all the parts
when it does come down heavy lol what are you like for getting parts for both ??
roger

[maddog7]

Both great helis but the 450x got my money. Its a crazy little bird but light and crashes well, agile, parts really are buttons.
You'll not care your flying it.
Have you seen the video of Bert K flying a stock one?
E-Flite Blade 450X Flight by Bert Kammerer - YouTube
I'm not in any way against Align, I have a 500DFC, 600EFL and 700DFC, I just think for what it is the 450x is a better choice.

Parts are from the usual suspects, Fast Lad/Midland/Kingslynn etc

It's not without its faults though, do a bit of a search, servos fail (badly soldered wires to the control board) Motor bearings fail (need loctited to the shaft) and more rarely the ESC's fail (Swap out for a YEP from HK for about 15 quid)

Cheers
D

[james_2k]

Which trex 450?

[biker]

Hi thanks
for reply 450 pro but the more I read the more I tend to go for the blade 450 but it just nice to find out what you lads with experience say.
i know I am at some stage going to bin just need to see where the spares are I was looking to build one but I don't think blade do a 450 x kit.
i have spent a week building a130x that I bought of ebay flys well now no tail wag ok cheers all I woner if anyone has a second hand 1 ???
roger

[biker]

Hi thanks
for reply 450 pro but the more I read the more I tend to go for the blade 450 but it just nice to find out what you lads with experience say.
i know I am at some stage going to bin just need to see where the spares are I was looking to build one but I don't think blade do a 450 x kit.
i have spent a week building a130x that I bought of ebay flys well now no tail wag ok cheers all I woner if anyone has a second hand 1 ???
roger

[james_2k]

Well they are both made to price points. The 450x will be lower quality overall. I went align and have a blade micro as during my research it was apparent that while aligns larger helis are generally considered superior blade micros have the edge

[tomatwalden]

...

It's not without its faults though, do a bit of a search, servos fail (badly soldered wires to the control board) Motor bearings fail (need loctited to the shaft) and more rarely the ESC's fail (Swap out for a YEP from HK for about 15 quid)

Cheers
D

The new 450x has replaced the DS76 servos with new metal gear servos. Also, they've made a modification to the main motor shaft which apparently fixes the historic issues too. They've also given it a helical main gear to reduce noise ..

Blade: 450 X RTF: Overview

[maddog7]

The new 450x has replaced the DS76 servos with new metal gear servos. Also, they've made a modification to the main motor shaft which apparently fixes the historic issues too. They've also given it a helical main gear to reduce noise ..

Blade: 450 X RTF: Overview

....but they still coudn't bring themselves to put a nice canopy on it, haha!

I hope that the servos are more reliable in the newer version, the metal gears will add weight and if the same factory make them, could have the same issue with poor soldering. We weighed a friends after he did a load of mods, not just the servos mind and it was 120g or so heavier than mine.
Part of the appeal for me is that it's ultra lightness makes it super agile.
I suspect my 6HV has a similar feel for the same reason.

If/when the 450 CFX debuts, I highly doubt I'll buy one, It'll likely be heavier, more expensive to fix and no more fit for purpose than the plastic one. Mikado employ a similar philosophy in the logo, the only difference is the much greater parts cost.
IIRC, the new one is about 100 bucks more than the old one and as new stock comes in the old ones may drop in price.

Cheers
D

[tomatwalden]

For the most part, I agree with you. I would say though that I've never had a problem with Spektrum (rather than eflite) branded servos. I know they are both Horizon Hobby brands/sub-companies, but I think they are effectively seperate business units. Certainly I have Spektrum metal gear servos on my 700, 550 and on the tail of my G630 and find them high quality.

But otherwise, I agree - given the choice I'd get a cheaper old 450X rather than this new one. FWIW, I never had a problem with the DS76 servos either. They stripped in a crash, but then even MG servos don't necessarily prevent that. As for the 450CFX - I'm not really in the market for a 450 anymore (happier with my 300CFX), but I suppose it depends what it turns out to be. The refresh of the plastic 450x may mean that they're releasing a kit-version (ie. make it part of their "Pro series" line) - maybe with 360 mains / 6S setup? dunno.

[maddog7]

For the most part, I agree with you. I would say though that I've never had a problem with Spektrum (rather than eflite) branded servos. I know they are both Horizon Hobby brands/sub-companies, but I think they are effectively seperate business units. Certainly I have Spektrum metal gear servos on my 700, 550 and on the tail of my G630 and find them high quality.

But otherwise, I agree - given the choice I'd get a cheaper old 450X rather than this new one. FWIW, I never had a problem with the DS76 servos either. They stripped in a crash, but then even MG servos don't necessarily prevent that. As for the 450CFX - I'm not really in the market for a 450 anymore (happier with my 300CFX), but I suppose it depends what it turns out to be. The refresh of the plastic 450x may mean that they're releasing a kit-version (ie. make it part of their "Pro series" line) - maybe with 360 mains / 6S setup? dunno.

Ahhhh,
My bad Tom.
It was a few days ago I looked at the Horizon page and missed the fact that the servos were Spektrum rather than eflite. I completely agree they're probably totally different products and I've not heard anything bad about Spektrum servos either. They look good quality to me.
I think the plastic gears make an excellent weak point though. Because the swash on the plastic version has a composite lower, I could see either a swash lower arm or a blade grip arm snapping next.
Myself and two of my clubmates have seen 5 eflite servo failures between us with birds bought quite some time apart. I had one on the head and one tail, luckily (and spookily) fail between flights, my friends were not so lucky and HH for all their good service would only replace the servo not the rest of the wreckage claiming there were "No problems that we know of" and that "for all we know it could be pilot error" BS, it's all over the web.

Sorry, rant mode [OFF]

It's cool that they've eventually done something about the issues and I think the extra 100 bucks is probably worth spending considering what you get.
A better colour scheme would not have gone amiss though eh! How boring! The old 450 3d canopy was miles better.

How do you find your CFX compared to a STD 300x?
The CFX looks like a cool tool!

Cheers
D

[Microbrain]

Hi Roger
I would like to add my thoughts on this,
I have both a Trex 450se and a Blade 450x
I converted the trex to flybarless using a cheap copterx head and put some very cheap servos H-king hk15178b At £2.48 they really are cheap.
The Idea was a Crash copter to learn on.

I wanted to push myself and learn some 3d.
The reason I’m telling you this is I have had 4 very hard crashes.
The parts I have had to renew are:
4 feathering shafts.
3 sets of main blades
3 main shafts
3 servo horns.
2 link rod ends.
1 tail boom
1 landing skid set.


The carbon frame is still ok and Im pretty sure if I had crashed the blade 450x I would have been replacing the main frame.



What surprised me was the servo's are still in good working order, I bought six one was very noisy and I put it to one side to look at later.


There is also one you should have a look at on the Hobby King site, Assault 450 dfc Bind and fly for £145 parts are cheap and at that price not sure how you can go wrong.



Link to site


Radio Control Planes, Helicopters, Cars, Boats, FPV and Quadcopters - Hobbyking 


Good luck in whatever you decide.

[maddog7]

Some good points there MB,
The Assault is supercheap and as long as it's even slightly better made than the HK's it should be ok.
In a hard hit the 450x frame will decimate, I had this happen when my esc gave up. Its a bit of a pain to rebuild it but considering how bad it was and the fact that the canopy was shagg'd it was only 39 quid including postage to fix.

All good options though and don't think you can go far wrong with any of them.
Cheers
D

[tomatwalden]

...

How do you find your CFX compared to a STD 300x?
The CFX looks like a cool tool!

Cheers
D

I'm loving the 300CFX. Mine did suffer the same eflite motor problem as many, but I've just sent it (the motor) off to HH. Hoping/expecting to see a new one any day now. I've taken the CF blades off and replaced with plastic Fusuno ones. Basically because I want it to be a larger/reliable 130X replacement

And in that, it's great. It's had two crashes so far. One was full chat against a fairly hard playing field. It bounced a good few feet and ejected the LIPO! The main frame is A BRICK! - not a scratch on it! So not only does it not flex like the original - it can take a crash too! Plastic blades survived also!

My second crash was much lighter and I was flying above fairly long grass. It just flopped into the grass, I picked it up and went flying again!

It does have the DS76 servos though, but like I say, I've never had a problem with them TBH.

There's actually three of them now at our club - and everyone seems pleased with them. We took a vid of Ross flying Rich's the other day ... you can see the evidence here..

http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/videos...0cfx-whfc.html