EXI 450 Project: Electronics are in!

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I got the electrics in overnight with some adjustments this morning. I wanted to take pics as I went along, but my wife took the camera with her to Atlanta... I just got my hands on it this evening. The electronics look pretty good, but they are crammed in there.  I now wonder what Bob "Finless" White doesn't show us in between steps! I put the ESC under the battery (velcro) and the receiver is in the middle of the lower body (you can see the antenna sticking out. The receiver is up on a block of closed cell foam, the inserts from the blade holder actually, and held in place with velcro. Its difficult to get to the pins... I have to remove the main gear to make any changes, or to rebind the receiver. The satellite antenna is on the back near the tail boom. On this side you can see the butt of the elevator servo.

On this side you can see the gyro aft. I am a bit nervous as I am not sure I can find Finless' video where he describes centering the tail mechanism, and I don't really know how to set up my MKS GY292 gyro even after reading a lot about it.  I had to change the tail servo, moving it to hang from under the tray and adapter, as on top the ball ran into the frame of the heli.  I did get my new ESC programming card and programmed the ESC without any difficulty. I did fry the other card...  You can also see the blue EC5 male connector to the ESC I soldered having removed the red connector.  I have 10 pairs of connectors coming from China soon.

Here's the right side of the fuselage with the gyro in place. You can see the tail servo from here as well.

A close up of the receiver on the right side. the plastic tie is acting as a bulkhead to keep the ESC ferrite ring and the excess wires out of the motor.

I am not entirely sure which plug goes where on the receiver. The easy ones were the aileron, elevator, rudder (the gyro 3 plug), and I used gear for the single wire from the gyro. I plugged the ESC/BEC lead into the throttle, and the bind/battery plug is unconnected. I hope this is right. I initially had the BEC plug in the battery spot, but the motor didn't run and I realized that it was likely supposed to go into the throttle position.

Now I have to complete the swash setup and mixing, the curves, the tail setup with the gyro setup.  I am nervous as this is where my understanding is getting thin. More time with the Finless Bob videos!

I also purchased another heli today, a receiver ready Dynam E-Razor 450 and a Spectrum AR6100E to go in  it. I wanted at least one 450 heli I am sure can fly, and with which I will cry less when I crash it.  This was the 450 heli that first got my attention and made me want to build one. It was on sale at xheli, and now that I have the Dx6i I don't need a transmitter and receiver combo, so could get the less expensive one.

I plan to finish up the EXI 450 build and get a maiden flight this week!  This was a lot of work, and quite the learning experience. Soon I will start on the CopterX 250 build, as I have all the part in hand now.