EXI Squadron - Pulled the trigger

Well my self restraint failed late last night. I have a Squadron wi/packages ordered, another bare airframe for parts, and an EXI tool kit on order. Now I have to try and score a good deal on a DX6i/reciever package. I guess I have some time on that, taking into account the build.

I'll keep y'all up to date.



(Hope my wife doesn't freak out!)

nce ur gonna loveee ur EXI man i got my dx6i at helidirect

Man we're gonna have EXI out the ...well all over the place!!! I do love my 500 too!!!
They really make a very fine heli!!! Yo "C" man.. GA.'s not that far of a ride. You gonna make it up here for the FLY? Dates are AUG.15,16 Hope to see lots of you guys, EXI's and all... I'm shootin to have my 5 built by then,,, big bucks goin in that one..I think..

I know I'm bringing at least 4 helis, 1 plane and my rc car. I'm also looking at building an Aerobatic plane before then too.

cgetman02 wrote:

Well my self restraint failed late last night. I have a Squadron wi/packages ordered, another bare airframe for parts, and an EXI tool kit on order. Now I have to try and score a good deal on a DX6i/reciever package. I guess I have some time on that, taking into account the build.

I'll keep y'all up to date.



(Hope my wife doesn't freak out!)

Congrats. You really will love the EXI. All the benefits of having a T-Rex 450 without the price

Thanks for the invitation to the Fly-in. I'm pretty sure I won't be attending, would love to meet you guys and see your machines though. (I'll probably will have mine rekitted several times by then!)

Just got a shipping confirmation and tracking so it shouldn't be but a few days. Hopefully I'll score a good deal on the DX6i and receiver on Ebay soon also.

Still grounded waiting for the metal flybar for my HBFP so I'm going through withdrawal right now. Good time to get some sim time in.

I have the clearview sim. If someone else has Clearview which heli flies similar to the EXI Squadron?

I'm excited! Curt

I just ordered 2 new EXI 450's too. I got the Squadron and the SE (standard edition), I'll have them by next friday and then I'll have to see about getting up to blazemob's house to tear up the sky with them a bit

You guys are makin me jealous!!! But for the 450 class I think I'm gonna stick with these 480 Screamers for now. These are really sweet out of the box! There is NO upgrades needed except for maybe the 35A ESC's. This is the heli that Thunder power was going to sell but for some reason they decided not to. In fact its still listed on their web site as one of their products and even has a vid clip of Matt somebody at one of the Nat's flying it. you gotta go to the site and have a look at it. They were doin it as a 450 but the ones I've got have been streached. It even still has the Thunderpower lightning bolt logo cut in the Batt. tray!! I got one for 56!! and the other 107... Let me know what ya'll think.

The servo package offered by Xheli for the Squadron is backordered. I have time to wait for the servos to come into stock but, was wondering if there was a better option than the Raiden servos, that you guys have used in the Squadron.

Curt

I think for beginners either will be fine, but I do wanna compare the speed of the EXI digitals to the Raiden Digitals, the raidens are really fast

It sounds like I might wait for the backordered parts. They have worked Ok for you Nuttcaze, or are you trying others because you were not happy with the results of the Raidens?

Curt

I'm trying to others because they're different and to let others know there are more servo options available, Blazemob uses the ESky Digital servos from hie Belt CP for his EXI, they work fine., The Raidens were part of a project I did for xheli, they're really nice but a bit more money then I'd like to spend on servos, especially since I still crash sometimes, but again they are very sweet. But unless you can do intense 3D, you'd never really notice a difference between them and the cheaper ones.

Thanks for the guidance on the servos! I probably wouldn't be able to sense the difference between the different servos at my novice stage. I'll wait for your impressions on the ones you are testing and then, if the backorders aren't shipped, make a decision. I expect that I'll have my hands full with the new copter and it will hit the deck a number of times. I guess durability should be my concern over performance at the point I'm at.

Thanks again for all the help. This board is terrific!

I was looking at the EXI servos as an alternative. I noticed that there is a metal gear version, D213F, of the one you will be evaluating. Metal vs plastic gears, I'm guessing that the metal version would be more durable than the plastic version. I have read on boards about people having to do gear replacement on servos. Is the replacement due to crashes where the plastic gear fails. I'm assuming that they don't wear out.

I'm beginning to understand that this whole heli game is about finding the weakest link. If you strenthen one area it just causes the next weakest area to show up. (I don't know why I'm concerned about the mechanical aspects as my flying skills will be the weakest link at this point.)

cgetman02 wrote:

I'm beginning to understand that this whole heli game is about finding the weakest link. If you strenthen one area it just causes the next weakest area to show up. (I don't know why I'm concerned about the mechanical aspects as my flying skills will be the weakest link at this point.)

Exactly, lol.

I've stripped a few servos in crashes and my feeling on it is even with a nice servo or metal gears, when you crash if the servo is gonna break then its gonna break. So I like to stay on the cheaper side of things for now.

Sounds like a good plan. Let me know what you think of the servos you are testing.

Thanks again for all your advise and experience.

Curt

well I got both kits today and if I had to choose I'd say get which ever is cheaper, they're really about the same thing, the only major difference between the 2 kits is that the SE has an aluminum frame and the Squadron has a Fiberglass frame. I still like the Squadron a bit more because of the yellow canopy and blue main gear

I ordered 4 of the EXI servos you mentioned above, last night. Xheli isn't sure when my Raiden package servos will come in so with the low price of the EXI's I figgured they would make a good backup plan. Going out to pickup some misc. supplies, still waiting for a backordered AR6100 also.

Patience, patience, more time for HBFP practice and Clearview sim time while I'm waiting for parts.

Curt

I haven't started assemblying my helis yet but the EXI's are almost identical to the Raidens so I think they will be a great alternative. As soon as you get all your parts to put your EXI together, start practicing with it. Even if its only spooling up a little, you still need to get used to the throttle response and especially the sound, lol. After you start getting more comfortable with it you can start to practice what you have learned on the HBFP on the EXI.

Lol, well I've been looking over the SE and I just noticed the CNC Head is screwed , its not drilled straight through so basically its worthless, gotta get a new head now. Another reason I prefer the Squadron (it weighs less too)

Will the combination CNC head and tail units for the Blade 400 listed on Xheli work on the EXI's? Seems too good to be true for $100.

i'm not really sure

oh, but for the squadron all you need is the $18 cnc tail box on the spare parts page

http://www.xheli.com/18h-mm0010.html

Yup, I broke down too, Squadron ordered yesterday. Got a used set of HS65mg,s and a HS5083mg on E-bay, throw in a scorp 2221-8. Anybody have a Blade 400/Spectrum DX6i, I'm posting a ? on new thread, any hlp would be appreciated

Well I thought the deciding factor on which servos to use would be which ones showed up first. Of course they show up on the same day. I think I'm going to build the Squadron with the Raidens. I'll keep the EXIs for spares or when I decide to build up my parts Squadron to a flyer I'll use them. (The parts will probably be scavanged off of the backup bird by then.) Mark, did you get a chance to try out the EXI servos?

Curt

Nuttcaze wrote:

Friday I will be installing 2 different types of servos on my new EXI's

One will use these Tower Pro Mini Servo SG-90

$4.95 - http://www.hobbypartz.com/topromisesg9.html



And the other will be using these 9G EXI Digital Servo D113F

$8.80 - http://www.hobbypartz.com/9gexidised1.html

nope, not yet, I've been so busy these last few days its insane, and tonight I'm going to South Carolina to pick up my lil bro from Navy School . Hoping to get back on track Sunday when I get back

Watch out for the other guy! I've received everything except the ESC programming card. I guess I'll attempt to program the ESC with the Transmitter/receiver.

Safe travel and we depend on your safe return!

Curt

Trying to see if in fact the headsets are the same for Blade 400 and EXI Squadron. Parts page for Squadron shows 3 different headsets with different part # and Blade page shows headset with completely a fourth number. Tried calling but on hold for an hour

Our main man posted a video that should answer your questions about upgrading the head and tail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdSu2sYePPQ&feature=related

FWIW, Curt