Neil Walker
Senior Heliman
Location: Victoria, BC - Canada
| So I was doing a little accounting yesterday and adding up how much I've spent on R/C in the last year. Bad idea. Seriously, don't do it unless you have a sufficient quantity of beer around to dull the shock. But I also did some comparison shopping on the cost of gear for the different sized eHelis, which I thought might prove interesting to some people since there are a lot of people who fly the Rex 450 currently drooling over the 600. They might be in for a bit of a shock
The helis I chose to compare were a Rex 450, the new Hirobo Lepton, a Logo 10, a Rex 550 (or stretched Logo 10, if the Rex 550 doesn't come out) and a Rex 600. They basically increase in size in that order.
Now of course you can go cheap or expensive and someone may claim that they could do heli X for much cheaper than I have shown, but that's not the point. The point is to compare the relative costs, so with that in mind I tried to choose the same brand and level of components for each heli, and give them comparable power. I generally set them up to be very nice machines:
Neu motors
CC ESCs
Digital servos for all but the Rex 450
PCM Rxs
Separate BECs
Futaba gyros + tai lservo combos
2 sets of TP ProLite packs
Decent carbon blades
So here is the comparsion. Prices taken from the same sites as much as possible (HeliHobby, Esprit). Obviously the prices don't include the basic kit either.
Trex 450 ("400" size)
Neu 1107 $120.00
CC35 $90.00
Futaba R146iP $75.00
Park BEC $20.00
3 x Hitec HS-56 $75.00
Futaba S9650 $60.00
GY401 $135.00
SAB 320 $50.00
2 x 3s TP 2100 PL $160.00
$785.00
Hirobo Lepton ("400-.30" size)
Neu 1907 $185.00
CC60 $120.00
Futaba R146iP $75.00
UBEC $30.00
3 x Hitec 5245MG $135.00
Futaba S9650 $60.00
GY401 $135.00
MAH 442 $70.00
2 x 4s2p TP 4200 PL $410.00
$1,220.00
Logo 10 (".30" size)
Neu 1907 $185.00
CC85HV $180.00
Futaba R138DP $100.00
UBEC $30.00
3 x Hitec 5245MG $135.00
Futaba S9253 $110.00
GY401 $135.00
MAH 500 $80.00
2 x 6s2p TP 4200 PL $610.00
$1,565.00
Trex 550 (".30-.50" size)
Neu 1910 $195.00
CC85HV $180.00
Futaba R138DP $100.00
UBEC $30.00
3 x Hitec 6965MG $255.00
Futaba S9253 $110.00
GY401 $135.00
RotorTech 550 $90.00
2 x 8s2p TP 4200 PL $820.00
$1,915.00
Trex 600 (".50" size)
Neu 1912 $210.00
CC85HV $180.00
Futaba R138DP $100.00
UBEC HV $40.00
3 x Hitec 6965MG $255.00
Futaba S9253 $110.00
GY401 $135.00
RotorTech 600 $100.00
2 x 10s2p TP 4200 PL $980.00
$2,110.00
So there you go. From $785 for a nice Rex 450 up to $2110 for a nice Rex 600 that would have comparable performance. And don't forget that this doesn't include the price of the basic kits - it's just the gear. Also, for the 550 and 600 sized machines you could probably step up to a 500 or 600-series Futaba gyro instead of the 401.
As a ratio of the price of the gear for a Rex 450, you're looking at:
Lepton: 1.6x
Logo: 2.0x
550: 2.4x
600: 2.7x
.. so if you'd pick much cheaper gear or don't want top-end performance you can still get a ballpark for the relative costs of the gear for the machines.
All of a sudden whether the 600 kit is $389 or $429 or whatever doesn't really seem that much of a big deal anymore does it?  |
Its the only logical step up from a 450.
