EXI 450 Project: 3S Batteries arrive, Mods needed

My trick of ordering a US based 3S battery to get my China ordered batteries to arrive worked... The Turnigy 3S 20C batteries arrived from Hobby King, about 3 weeks in transit. They came with a Hobby King connector called an XT60, which looks like a cross between a Dean's connector and and EC3 connector. My ESC had those ginormous red EC like connectors, of which I have none, don't know what they are called, and didn't feel like struggling to find, so I thought I would use EC3 connectors. I drove over to my LHS and bought up a bunch of them. Got home, and since I will be using these same batteries on my 600, decided to go with the larger EC5s I had purchased earlier (need to find a bulk order place...).

The wires were too large for my Burnzomatic butane soldering iron to heat, but I managed to avoid cold soldering the wires, and used the torch to liquify the solder in the pin cups. They went together very nicely, and when I accidently pushed the neg wire into the positive side of the plastic adapter (after carefully checking to make sure I wouldn't), I stress tested the joint trying to pull it apart and the littler mother held tight... Did manage to part the two and put them back where they belonged by forcing a pair of needle nose pliers back up the connector (took very little force, actually).

I also had to change the Sky Charger adapter from the big red ginormous one to EC5 so I can charge the batteries. Charged the first battery with the new connectors and it went fine. The second one was taking too long (about the same as the first, I was just too tired to wait), so I stopped it early to continue later so I could head to bed... I also changed the ginormous red connector in the ESC to the male EC3 (after a quick question on Helifreak was answered promptly), putting the female connector on the batteries as my HF buddies suggested. I found a small comment on a HorizonRC/Atlanta Hobby video that mentioned putting the pins in the male connector from the ESC and the tubes in the female battery connectors.

Once I had a charged battery, I set up the ESC prgramming card that I think is fried, and I think it's fried... Card connected to BEC reciever lead then battery to ESC, and the blue light came on steady, the beeping continued steady after the inital 3 notes, and the lights lit up normal on some lines, a couple on others where only one should be lit, and that beeping went on and on, the blue light never went out, and the card started to get warm. So I disconnected it, tried again, same thing. Its toast, so I tossed it, and will have to wait for the one I think I ordered from HobbyPartz to arrive. I say think because my PayPal went through, but I never got an order confirmation; waiting from an email response from sales.

It was tedious, but its done.

When I get the new programming card I can program the ESC. I took the motor pinion out, too difficult to get to the motor wires. Tomorrow the servo setup and install! I am off next week, so I hope to finish the build and get in my maiden flight then!

EXI 450 Project: ESC Placement

This was a tougher job than I thought because things never quite fit the way they should, but overall it wasnt that hard to do.

In dry running the placement I found that the ESC is a hair too wide for the frame, so its squished in between the plates.The shrink wrap around the ESC frayed a bit, frustrating only my OCD.  Getting nervous with the tight fit and fraying, I looked for other places it might go, to no avail. It was going to have to go there if I wanted it clean, and inside the frame.  I had to squish them motor wire pins a little to get them to fit into the ESC leads, but they are still lock tight. In pulling the black one off, the pin came off the ESC wire; it was cold soldered... I had to re-solder that and re-shrink wrap it. It then took some time to come up with a way to fold the wires back, keeping the ESC motor wires off the motor pinion as Finless Bob warns, and then getting the wires to fold back on themselves to fit inside the frame. The plastic tie I used to hold the Velcro'd ESC and the ESC wires in place could not go alongside the tight fitting ESC, so I had to slant that down a bit. In the end its a pretty clean install.

In this first pic you can see the battery tray as if hinged forward. The blue ESC motor leads come out of the ESC, and fold over it. The plastic tie can be seen, with a piece of unheated shrink wrap around it to protect the wires underneath from vibration letting the tie cut through them. The motor leads (the red, black and yellow ones) lead back into the frame towards the motor.  The BEC wire to the receiver is the white, red and black one, also going back into the frame.

In this pic looking down through the frame at the motor pinion, you can see the flatehead regular 4M screws I had to use for the motor, which shipped with the wrong screws. You can also see same 3 blue ESC wires folding back into the frame, with the battery tray "hinged" back into place and bolted in. The blue wires are well clear of the pinion, even when the motor gets adjusted for backlash against the main gear later in the build.

Finally, in this pic you can see the ESC below the Velcro on the battery tray, with some clear plastic tape I placed to protect the sides of the ESC, and a bit of the plastic tie holding the ESC in place. You can also see a little blue wire in the front inside of the frame, where they connect to the motor wires that come up as the red, black and yellow wires held together away from the outrunner motor with a yellow plastic tie. the receiver wire is the red, black and white wire that is temporarily spewing out from under the motor.

You can't tell from the pics, but the sides of the frame just below the battery tray (the Velcro) bulge ever so slightly. This is the best place for the ESC, where it is in the Align manual, and where Finless put his. It looks pretty good. I just did not want it hanging off the sides, and there was really no way to situate it so the wires at either end could go where they needed to.

Next I will install the servos. I am still waiting on the batteries from Hobby King in China that I ordered on 11/26. Last night, not wanting to delay the servo set up and the ESC programming any further and having no idea when the batteries would arrive, I ordered a battery from Hobbypartz knowing that in doing so I guaranteed they would arrive the next day. Of course, today an international registered mail package came to the post office, which I suspect has the batteries in it, but it will have ot wait until I can pick it up...

I also ordered another Hobbywing/Volcano ESC programming card from Hobbypartz because I may have fried the one I already have when playing with it (I was bored). I attached a 7.4V battery to it and it got hot at the connection and the lights came on like they were supposed to, but were pretty bright (what is it with me and batteries?).  I thought it would be fine, but I should have remembered that the BEC down regulates the voltage from the 7.4V battery to 5V... so I was not surprised to turn the page of the card's manual to read, "Do not connect to a battery of greater than 5V". So, when I did connect it to a 3.4V battery, only the middle three lights lit up. I then watched a vid on programming the ESC, and the host commented on not connecting a higher voltage battery because  "It might fry it...".  Pretty sure I have fried it and not wanting to delay myself further, as before, I ordered one with the battery.

Oh, the lessons we learn that constitute experience.

EXI 450 Project: Tail Servo Fit Problem Solved

As discussed on a previous post, I had a problem with my HSG 5084MG 22gm servo being too small for the tail servo tray. I ordered the Align 18gm carbon fiber servo adapter kit. I had to Dremel out the sides a bit to fit the 22 gm servo, but lengthwise it was fine.

The two screw holes in the plate did not line up with anything on the adapter. I used the plastic "nut" tab seen in the background, which came with the kit, on either end and they stabilized the servo quite well.

To be safe, I Dremel'd out the adapter to allow one screw at opposite sides on each end to prevent the servo from twisting in the tray.  You can see the small silver screws  in opposite corners. I ran out of metal washers, so made a Home Depot run. The only washers I could find that would work actually turned out to be perfect: I found #2 black fiber washers which can be seen in the pics.

All in all, it came out just right.  You can see the "nut" tabs holding the screws under the tray at either end of the servo.

Me and my CB100 #2

Flying the #2 a lot in the apartment here in Meridian. Getting a lot of hover time, small circles. The seizures are rare now days. I'm pretty sure its just a bad ESC and will replace it at some point. Last night my friend Bob came over, and despite having flown great all afternoon, it would not behave! Somehow the servo settings were wrong on the transmitter... not sure how that happened. Didn't figure it out until after Bob left. Curious as I didn't notice in preflight.

Flew a lot today, ran into a table, broke a tail blade off, glad I brought a spare.

Flybar failure...

Up in Meridian, flew the CB100 in the large apartment. I brought up the one with seizures, and it started out fritzy. I worked the reciever, plugs and the ESC, and its flying good again. I hope it behaves.

The CB180 lifted off, hovered a bit twitchy, i took it out, started a turn, and it kpet turning, flying quickly to the ground. Broke a blade, snapped off a skid. On post mortem I saw something that made me wonder if I will ever learn to properly and completely preflight... The bearings on the flybar were sheared off. Did this exist before the crash, or after? If before it wld make sense. If it would fly at all, it would do fair in hover, and if the disk was tilted for a turn, it would become unbalanced. Did that cause a crash? Or did it result from the crash? I went outside to see if I could find the bearings, nothing there... not sure what that means.

Ordered parts, no more CB180D until I get back to Biloxi. I wonder if I can find less brittle skids, this is the second set...

I'm such a moron... Shorted LiPo

Did you know that when you cut a bad JST balance plug off a battery you should cut the wires individually, 'cause when you cut them all at once it shorts the battery in your hand, which smokes and burns your hand for just a moment, and your wife thinks you've lost it when you come briskly down the stairs and toss the Lipo Safe Bag with the shorted battery onto the back lawn (not the front, 'cause that's where the kids and neighbors are, who already wonder about you)?

I didn't want to risk a Lipo fire in the house... (like the one in this video):



I don't recall if a shorted battery can catch fire, but me fool once, not fool twice!

I'm such a moron... I KNOW BETTER, but brain farted.

Thankfully it was only a $5 2S from FMT (no name brand from China) that I think was already shorted. They clearly had tested the battery's voltage before sending it, but the guy who did it broke off a male plug in one of the sockets, so I couldn't plug it in to my charger. I realized I needed to change out the balance plug, and that's when, well you know the rest of the story.

EXI 450 Project Update

Last night I took apart the rotor head to check for grease and Locktite, very scary. The exploded diagrams in the Trex 450 manual were very helpful. I was so worried I would screw it up, but it went okay! Got white lithium grease all over everything... Kinda pathetic, really, like a Kindergartner with finger paint. One of the screws securing the feathering shaft was Locktited so well it was never going to come off. I finished much less afraid of the rotor head. Today I did the same for the tail rotor, less scary, quicker to finish.

At a downtime because I need the AR6200 receiver and the batteries to set up the servos before I can mount them, Finless Bob style. So I was checking out my Exceed Alpha 400 motor, when to my chagrin I found that both the mounting screws that came with the motor and the ones that came with my kit (they are the same screws) are too small for the motor on the pinion side that I will use (they were too large for the other end). What's up with that? The screws don't fit either end of the motor, most concernedly the pinion end I need to use.

I wrote to support at xheli, and Andy (yadac123) on rcdiscuss to see if they can send me what I think are supposed to be M3 screws. Am I missing something?

Too windy to fly today... Postman missed me with a package I have to sign for... Wonder what that could be?