STAGE 2 MODS: (Battery choices, gears and, range extension)
1.)Batteries are somewhat of a hit and miss...You will find many claims of Mah and C ratings which in all honesty, most are a bunch of bull crap with false claims and slick looking wrappers as a marketing strategy....One popular name such as Turnigy follows this route quite often so, i wont personally use them...If they work for you and you like them then thats great but, they arent for me ...I did a few years back on helis and i wasnt the least bit impressed.
One battery i do have on order is a Venom Drone 600mah 30c which uses only grade A cells...has a lifetime replacement policy and will offer more than enough power at 18 amps and 2.22wh to feed our x5...stock batteries supply maybe 10 amps and 1.85wh.
So why not a bigger 750 mah or even a 1000 mah battery?...Well, you can choose that if you want but remember with more capacity comes more weight and more stress on the motors....To take advantage of the weight loss we worked so hard to get why would we want to add it back with a huge battery?...A 600mah will supply the camera with more than enough power and still gain a respectable amount of added flight time based on the weight we already removed...I do expect a slight increase in weight over the stock 500mah but it shouldnt be an extreme amount like a 750, 800 850,950 or, even a 1000 mah battery...Ill report back with any weight differences between the batteries ive chosen...I do expect to see a solid 8 minutes of flight time while recording from the stock camera using the venom battery.
Another thing to consider with larger batteries is longer flight time...this also unfortunately equals more heat generated into the motors, which is not a good thing...After 6 to 8 minutes of flight, most all these toy quad motors need a rest to cool off....If you want close to 10 minutes or more of flight time then by all means go with a much larger battery but, you didnt get the recommendation from me...Be sure to buy alot of spare motors.
Since the stock camera also uses the flight battery to power itself, we are losing flight time...So that stock 500 mah battery may now only end up giving us 350 to 375mah of flight time with the stock battery...A 600 mah battery will compensate that use of battery power by the camera and give us closer to 500 mah to use in actual flight time without excess weight or over extended flight times.
Ill be post the difference in flight times and performance between 3 batteries i will be testing...One is the stock 500mah 20c...i have three brand X 500mah 25c batteries (just to have at $1.83 each and test) coming and the mentioned Venom 600mah 30c battery ($8.99 shipped) which is on its way to me...I know it seems expensive but i would rather have one good battery than 10 garbage batteries.
2.) Motor pinion gears: I see quite a few going with these metal "upgrade" gears to find out the quad becomes much noisier, not to mention is wearing down your main gear at a much faster rate than the stock hard plastic gears and is more weight in general for the motors to have to turn. (rotational mass)...Do yourself a favor and avoid those metal gears..they are not an upgrade and should be considered more of a downgrade...I almost forgot to mention the reports of the metal gears flying off the motor shafts because they dont offer enough tightness on the shaft to keep them on.
So what other choice do we have?..MicroMotorWarehouse offers Delrin gears to replace the hard plastic gears and will offer a much better alternative..Delrin is a softer but a more durable material...Delrin is also a more "slick" material which will help reduce friction between the gears...Its only a cost of $1.00 for 10 gears but it does cost $5.00 for standard shipping to the USA areas...I bought 5 packages for a total of 50 gears to make the shipping cost worth it....The syma uses the 9 tooth pinion.
3.) RANGE MOD: I havent done this yet but one can expect double the range to at least 80m if done properly to the stock transmitter.
Since i have plans of increasing range even further in stage 3, i dont find it beneficial to myself performing this range mod with the syma controller but ,i will provide a link to the proper method of doing this range mod if you care to do this mod...There is also some added bonus mods to this link some may wish to follow and enjoy.
http://rcnerd.net/syma-x5c-transmitter-hack/
Or ,you can take yet another possible option to adding range....It is CONFIRMED the SYMA X8C TX will bind to only 2 versions of the syma x5 variations of boards..The V3 and the V6 board...No other version of the x5 board will bind and work properly with the X8C TX
...To clear up a rumor ,there is no X8C TX differences or versions..They have all been the same since introduced so ANY X8C tx you order will be the same and bind to the same versions of the X5 boards....I cant verify range but the X8C has been known to give over 300m of range with the X8C quad and even more with the same type 5dbi antenna mod as the x5 transmitter..some reports and video showing as far as 1500ft and longer....The X8C TX does have 2 antennas of which one is just a separate ground wire so, this may be playing a part in range and im not sure how much more range you will get with the x5 model but i will try to get some range numbers once the weather clears up...Lots of rain and wind..sigh..
If you do decide to do a range mod on the X8 TX, DO NOT REMOVE THE SEPARATE GROUND WIRE!!!!!!..leave it alone.
If you have performed the changes in both stages 1 and 2 then you have just made the syma x5 about as good as its going to get unless moving on to stage 3 which i will reveal sometime soon.
I would like to note again that stage 3 will include a range mod as well..so, if would like to wait and see what the differences are before performing any previous range mods, you might find it beneficial to wait and see which method will suit your needs or wants best.
Cost to perform stage 2 mods:
1.) 2.4g 5dbi antenna kit for X5 transmitter. $6.00
2.) MMW pinions (minimum of $6.00)
3.) Venom Drone 600mah 30C Battery $8.99
4.) SYMA X8C Transmitter..ive found them for less than $10.00 then if you take away cost of the 2.4g antenna you wont need for the x5 tx its costing maybe $4.00 more ????..A no brainer here..hahaha.
On a side note...I dont really see why you would want to do the range mod on the X8C TX using it with the x5...Im sure range will exceed well over 100m in stock form and its just too small of a quad to warrant more range for LOS flying, unless you will be using a very reliable fpv signal to take advantage of the distance..In my opinion it would be a waste of money without an fpv kit to take advantage of the added distance.
Total cost for me personally to do stage 2 mods? $15.00...your price will vary depending on what battery and what tx used.
