Going to buy the MCPX-BL

[5hane]

Hi

Before I take the plunge I just wanted to ask current owners what I should look at buying in addition to the MCPX-BL.
I have the TX, but I wonder if it was worth ordering additional batteries, and if yes: which and how many? I'm also going to assume the included charger isn't going to be ideal, but I have very little knowledge in that area short of the 6 tiny lipos and single cell charger I currently use with the MSRX.
As for spare parts, I think perhaps I should wait until I see what I break first. I bought a whole host of spares for my MSRX and 3 months later I haven't broken anything.

I know this hobby will eventually get expensive, but at the risk of getting sighed at, I would certainly appropriate the cheapest possible options short of buying junk.

Thanks

<Edit> I realise of course that additional batteries are usually a must, but im talking about in the first instance. Perhaps just a couple and stick with the stock charger to start with?

[james_2k]

If the stock charger is ok for you with your current heli then it will be fine for the new one I'm sure. It is nice to charge loads at a time though! If the bl is like the nano then you may want some spare solid booms. As the hollow ones break easily.

[5hane]

If the stock charger is ok for you with your current heli then it will be fine for the new one I'm sure. It is nice to charge loads at a time though! If the bl is like the nano then you may want some spare solid booms. As the hollow ones break easily.

Hi James. The only thing I changed with the MSRX single cell stock charger was to add a plug because it was eating AA batteries. I wasn't fussed about getting multi cell charger for the MSRX because pre-charging 6 lipos one after another took no time at all. That said, any advice on how to go about: multi charging / which lipos / value / would be gratefully received.
Thanks for the boom tip.

[Peteski]

Hi
As for spare parts, I think perhaps I should wait until I see what I break first. I bought a whole host of spares for my MSRX and 3 months later I haven't broken anything.

I never buy spares up front as Blade parts are readily available almost everywhere. So I just buy spares when I actually need them, which so far has been none at all for my mCPX V2.

[5hane]

I never buy spares up front as Blade parts are readily available almost everywhere. So I just buy spares when I actually need them, which so far has been none at all for my mCPX V2.

That fills me with some confidence. Cheers

[kenny d]

The bl is a great choice to follow on from the msrx , the tail boom will split quickly so I would get a solid boom ready for the inevitable other than that buy spare's as you need them , postage from align UK is £1.15 for small items so no need to keep stock

[5hane]

Thanks Kenny d, that's good to hear.
It was a very helpful member here who originally pointed me towards this model.

[myxiplx]

It's a great, great choice. The mCPX BL was the best decision I made when starting this hobby, and I ended up with a pair of them for myself (one for daytime and one for night flying), and also repaired and sold on half a dozen that I picked up cheaply. All the flying skills I have today are largely thanks to the time I spent in my first year practising on the mCPX BL and simulator. Two years in and I'm just having a blast flying 3D and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my mCPX BL

In stock form it will fly absolutely fine, and there are only a few upgrades that it really needs:

- The tail boom is weak, when it breaks pick up a solid carbon boom. The Lynx extended boom and replacement tail motor wire is ideal. I never snapped a tail boom again in over 700 flights.
- Broken skids can be repaired with gentle heat, but a set of AirtimeRC skids are highly recommended. They're wider than stock so great for beginners, and are damn near indestructible. I went through dozens of stock skids, but never ever broke even a single set of Airtime skid.
- The stock swashplate will break after enough crashes (especially inverted ones). When it goes, pick up a RKH metal swash with rear anti-rotation guide. It's stronger than stock, has was less slop, and the rear guide helps remove some of the aileron/elevator interaction caused by the stock layout. Again, buy it once, my RKH swash never broke and survived dozens of crashes.
- The Lynx 42mm tail blades generally perform better than the stock blades (but they're a more fragile if you fly over concrete, over concrete stick with the stock blades).

Then for the batteries:
- The nano-tech 300mAh packs from hobbyking are cheap, fit perfectly, and perform great. They last longer and have more power than the stock batteries.
- Pick up a better charger and parallel charge board. The fused boards are ideal and are a safe way to charge all your packs simultaneously.

The only real weakness in the model is the tail, if you break the motor or short the wires it can sometimes blow the main board which is the most expensive component in the model. There are a few tips that really help prevent that:
- Setup your throttle hold settings on your radio so when you hit TH it sets the blades to zero pitch. That avoids blade strikes when you crash, and will save them destroying your tail boom and shorting the tail wires, and it also helps bleed off airspeed before crashes.
- Use some hot glue or similar on the tail motor where the wires exit the motor, that's a weak spot and re-enforcing it can make the motors last hundreds of flights instead of dozens (mine went 3-400 flights easy)
- The Lynx extended tail boom, plus Lynx tail wires are a great upgrade. Those wires are stronger than stock, and damage is much more visible.

Tool wise, if you can stretch to buying a set of JIS screwdrivers they're a godsend for any small models. These tiny screws aren't a phillips head, a good set of JIS drivers are night and day better than a standard screwdriver. I had to buy mine from eBay and import them (Moody JIS driver set), they took a while to arrive but I've used them on every model since and have been worth every single penny!

And one last piece of advice:
- Learn where your throttle hold switch is, and practice with it. Use throttle hold on the sim every time you're going to crash, you want that switch to be totally instinctive. If you can fly over grass and hit throttle hold on the mCPX BL before crashing it will save tons and tons of damage. With TH and zero pitch on the blades pretty much every crash on grass will end up with no damage, and you can also just pick it up and fly after most crashes on concrete. (mine dropped 30 feet inverted onto a concrete floor, landed with a nasty crack right on the canopy, but had no damage at all).

Give yourself a few months with the mCPX and you'll be able to fly larger models with ease. You can learn a really solid set of basic skills on that model. I taught myself:
- Hovering in all orientations (upright and inverted)
- Flying in all directions (forwards, backwards, sideways, upright and inverted)
- Loops, rolls and flips (there are 16 variations of loop and flip you can learn)
- Piroetting travel
- Piro flips

To begin with I'd recommend you try to learn:
- Hovering in all orientations
- Steady forwards flight
- Figure 8's
- Slow stationary piroettes

Slow piros are the best tip I ever heard, if you work on a really slow spin (about 10 seconds all the way around) it forces you to correct in every direction and gives you really solid orientation skills. Work on them clockwise and counter-clockwise any chance you get. Being able to control them on a mCPX BL just gives you so much confidence when you move to anything bigger because after that everything just seems easy!

Have fun :-D

[tomatwalden]

Regarding charging, this was my first "proper" setup for charging .. An icharger 106B+ and a P350 power supply. Coupled with a 6-way lead, you can parallel charge up to 6 LIPOs at a time This isn't the cheapest setup you could do, but it took me up to my first 6S setups. I only later changed when I started flying a 12S heli.

iCharger 106B+ 250W 6s Balance/Charger [106B+]
Junsi iCharger P350 Power Supply 350W 15V 23A [P350]
6 x Parallel JST-PH Charge Lead for E-flite UMX Series 2S Lipoly [130X6PARALEAD]

[Raptormad2]

Hi the best way to go is get yourself a second hand one they normally come with the upgrades already done and
Spare lipos and spare parts thats what i did, mine came with ten lipos and lots of spares for a lot less than
A new one, the mcpx is a really great little heli it really suprised me how much wind it will handle.look in the for sale section
There is one up for grabs at the moment .good luck.

[5hane]

It's a great, great choice. The mCPX BL was the best decision I made when starting this hobby, and I ended up with a pair of them for myself (one for daytime and one for night flying), and also repaired and sold on half a dozen that I picked up cheaply. All the flying skills I have today are largely thanks to the time I spent in my first year practising on the mCPX BL and simulator. Two years in and I'm just having a blast flying 3D and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my mCPX BL

In stock form it will fly absolutely fine, and there are only a few upgrades that it really needs:

- The tail boom is weak, when it breaks pick up a solid carbon boom. The Lynx extended boom and replacement tail motor wire is ideal. I never snapped a tail boom again in over 700 flights.
- Broken skids can be repaired with gentle heat, but a set of AirtimeRC skids are highly recommended. They're wider than stock so great for beginners, and are damn near indestructible. I went through dozens of stock skids, but never ever broke even a single set of Airtime skid.
- The stock swashplate will break after enough crashes (especially inverted ones). When it goes, pick up a RKH metal swash with rear anti-rotation guide. It's stronger than stock, has was less slop, and the rear guide helps remove some of the aileron/elevator interaction caused by the stock layout. Again, buy it once, my RKH swash never broke and survived dozens of crashes.
- The Lynx 42mm tail blades generally perform better than the stock blades (but they're a more fragile if you fly over concrete, over concrete stick with the stock blades).

Then for the batteries:
- The nano-tech 300mAh packs from hobbyking are cheap, fit perfectly, and perform great. They last longer and have more power than the stock batteries.
- Pick up a better charger and parallel charge board. The fused boards are ideal and are a safe way to charge all your packs simultaneously.

The only real weakness in the model is the tail, if you break the motor or short the wires it can sometimes blow the main board which is the most expensive component in the model. There are a few tips that really help prevent that:
- Setup your throttle hold settings on your radio so when you hit TH it sets the blades to zero pitch. That avoids blade strikes when you crash, and will save them destroying your tail boom and shorting the tail wires, and it also helps bleed off airspeed before crashes.
- Use some hot glue or similar on the tail motor where the wires exit the motor, that's a weak spot and re-enforcing it can make the motors last hundreds of flights instead of dozens (mine went 3-400 flights easy)
- The Lynx extended tail boom, plus Lynx tail wires are a great upgrade. Those wires are stronger than stock, and damage is much more visible.

Tool wise, if you can stretch to buying a set of JIS screwdrivers they're a godsend for any small models. These tiny screws aren't a phillips head, a good set of JIS drivers are night and day better than a standard screwdriver. I had to buy mine from eBay and import them (Moody JIS driver set), they took a while to arrive but I've used them on every model since and have been worth every single penny!

And one last piece of advice:
- Learn where your throttle hold switch is, and practice with it. Use throttle hold on the sim every time you're going to crash, you want that switch to be totally instinctive. If you can fly over grass and hit throttle hold on the mCPX BL before crashing it will save tons and tons of damage. With TH and zero pitch on the blades pretty much every crash on grass will end up with no damage, and you can also just pick it up and fly after most crashes on concrete. (mine dropped 30 feet inverted onto a concrete floor, landed with a nasty crack right on the canopy, but had no damage at all).

Give yourself a few months with the mCPX and you'll be able to fly larger models with ease. You can learn a really solid set of basic skills on that model. I taught myself:
- Hovering in all orientations (upright and inverted)
- Flying in all directions (forwards, backwards, sideways, upright and inverted)
- Loops, rolls and flips (there are 16 variations of loop and flip you can learn)
- Piroetting travel
- Piro flips

To begin with I'd recommend you try to learn:
- Hovering in all orientations
- Steady forwards flight
- Figure 8's
- Slow stationary piroettes

Slow piros are the best tip I ever heard, if you work on a really slow spin (about 10 seconds all the way around) it forces you to correct in every direction and gives you really solid orientation skills. Work on them clockwise and counter-clockwise any chance you get. Being able to control them on a mCPX BL just gives you so much confidence when you move to anything bigger because after that everything just seems easy!

Have fun :-D

Crikey, that's one hell of a reply! I'll certainly be referring back to it from time.
I like the hot glue idea, but ill research alternatives to using a gun. However if a hot gun is a must have item for the hobby, ill try to pick one up later on.
I'll continue practicing my orientation, as I have been with the MSRX.

I'm particularly looking forward to finally finding out how different it feels to be flying my first collective pitch helicopter.
Mann I am so looking forward to getting this thing

Thanks a lot for a very helpful reply.

[tomatwalden]

The biggest and first difference you'll notice is the speed of the rotor blades. Fixed pitch helis have a relatively low RPM. By contrast, collective pitch helis have extremely high RPM - and the mCPX/BL in particular!

The second thing you'll notice is how much more precise control you have over height. Fixed-pitch is sluggish to change altitude as the main rotors much spool up and/or spool down to increase or decease lift. In contrast, collective pitch will respond to left stick input almost immediately

[5hane]

Regarding charging, this was my first "proper" setup for charging .. An icharger 106B+ and a P350 power supply. Coupled with a 6-way lead, you can parallel charge up to 6 LIPOs at a time This isn't the cheapest setup you could do, but it took me up to my first 6S setups. I only later changed when I started flying a 12S heli.

iCharger 106B+ 250W 6s Balance/Charger [106B+]
Junsi iCharger P350 Power Supply 350W 15V 23A [P350]
6 x Parallel JST-PH Charge Lead for E-flite UMX Series 2S Lipoly [130X6PARALEAD]

Perhaps not the cheapest but it certainly looks the business, so thanks for that suggestion.
I will keep a look out on the for sale section in case something like that comes up.

[tomatwalden]

There are much cheaper options out here. Do a search on this site as it has been discussed before. I can't really advise on those other setups though as I've never used them, but I know others have good experiences with some of the chargers from hobbyking and the like.

[5hane]

Hi the best way to go is get yourself a second hand one they normally come with the upgrades already done and
Spare lipos and spare parts thats what i did, mine came with ten lipos and lots of spares for a lot less than
A new one, the mcpx is a really great little heli it really suprised me how much wind it will handle.look in the for sale section
There is one up for grabs at the moment .good luck.

Hi. I have been thinking of going second hand and did already spot that one in the For Sale section. My only real concern is obviously the condition. I have been warned against second hand on eBay and to use this site instead, perhaps because items for sale here are vetted by the keen eyes of the admin.