EXI 450 Maiden Flight... Not so good.

I should have taken pictures... It was a little breezy, but I felt that I should be able to hover the 450 for a shake down flight. I took it and the 250 out to the soccer fileds. I set everything up, and spooled her up to about 30%. Wow, the power already scared me! I let her spin for a lttle while, then took her up to about 70% in Normal mode, and she took off! Her tail wagged something fierce, and I could see where the canopy was worn through by the main gear, it hadn't been touching before. The breeze was more brisk than I had thought, and with my nervousness and my limited flight skills, I wasn't controlling her well, but she landed upright everytime. I was amazed how loud she is! The autorotation gear is clearly out of round, and the tracking is off (I suspect a cut in one of the blade dampers I noticed in construction, but didn't think much of, may be why. I'll be replacing them). I put some tape on the blades to see if I could tell which blade it was, but I couldn't tell... Last spin up, and a ball link broke lose, then the funky chicken danced the blades hard into the dirt in just the few seconds it took me to drop the throttle. Blades are fine, but the rotor head took a beating. The feathering shaft is bent, as is the main rotor shaft, and the main gear is stripped in places, and missing some teeth. I took the rotor head completely apart, well what I could do. My 1.5mm hex drives have rounded out so I am waiting for the arrrival of my MIP Thorp hex driver's to take the grips off and remove the feathering shaft. The flybar is bent, which was my first clue in the field that this ws ending badly. I was suspicious of the main rotor, so removed the entire head to roll the shaft, and yup, its bent too. Replacment parts, some coming in multi packs like the shafts and gears, is about $50... Makes me nervous about the next flight! By the time I was done the winds were really brisk, so I didn't fly the 250.

Well, I am glad I got that out of my system. I am now really just eager to fly again, but got my hands out there for the first big heli flight! I want to get the EC5 connnectors I need and get the ERazor 450 set up and flying.

I am disappointed in my build work, though I recognize I am self taught and it went much better than I could have expected. All the flight surfaces did what they were supposed to do. It didnt run as smoothly as I thought it should, perhaps the main gear had issues. I had decreased the gain on the gyro, but it wasn't quite enough. That will also need some fine tuning. All in all a good outing, but I remain disappointed in myself.

CopterX CX 250SE Project: Final Pics

All that's left is to put the grip links on, set the pitch, and take her for a test flight! Expect the links this week. Excited isn't the word for it!

I repositioned the GY292 today into an upright position this morning. I rechecked the gyro and had to reverse the gyro/rudder servo, but it moved perfectly.

I did a different graphics scheme as I haven't figured out a way to inkjet print a white logo, and I would have wanted to use white on this canopy. I have a Tacon canopy, but I am keeping it in reserve. Lets see how much damage I do before I put a good canopy on this heli!

I like it though. Not a bad solution.

Now to tune up and receiver up the ARF Dynam E-Razor 450!

Oops...

I woke in the middle of the night and it occurred to me that my GY292 is laying down on its back... It's not supposed to, it has to e up on its edge. Darn... will have to redo that this morning. Beautiful morning, but windy.

CX 250 Project: Electrics in

The electrics are in the CopterX 250, and its nearly done! It went much easier after learning so much on the 450 build, especially the swash and CCPM setups. Its a nice clean install, and it looks great.

I have a problem with the Raidentech Exceed RC 30A brushless ESC. I'm not sure its programmable... I can't find this ESC anywhere on the web except on the Raidentech.com website, and I bought it assuming it was programmable. There is actually no information on the website...



Looking at this today I wouldn't have purchased it. I've written their support/sales people telling them I can't program it with my programming card, or with the transmitter.  I figured out its working as it sends power and signal to the servos and motor. Later it occurred to me that I am not sure its even programmable, and I don't now the implications. I've gone ahead and ordered a $14 Hobbywing 30A ESC from Hobbypartz that I know is programmable. I'm asking on helifreak.com about the programmability and if its not if that's a problem...

I had planned on using the GY48V gyro on the 250, but in its case its ginormous. I want to keep it in its case, so I traded the GY292 on the EXI450 out for the GY48V this morning. Everything checked out on the 450, looks good.

All I am waiting for now is the link set so I can replace the fixed length links from the washout see-saw to the grips, and to see if I need to change out the ESC.  I am also waiting on the new batteries (3S 1000mAh) that the heli can carry, and some more EC3 connectors.  I am going to start work on the canopy art. 

Next I will start preflight on the E-Razor 450. Should have all my helis flying by the end of the week. Weather has sucked these past few days, not getting any flying in...

UPDATE: Found the same ESC only in one place, on xheli. My posting on Helifreak learned me a couple of things. Seems Raidentech is Xheli, Exceed is Walkera... and the ESC is a replacement Walkera part which is probably NOT programmable. Doesn't say any of that on the Raidentech website, thought I was buying a decent 30A ESC. Guess I wasted $27... waiting for the $14 Hobbywing ESC to arrive. Wonder who they are under the rebadging... geez. I've written Raidentech via email and RCDiscuss, wonder if they will refund my money given I have changed the connectors.

The 450's

Here are the 450's! 

I did the graphics in decals and with a label printer. They look really good! Hope they fly as well. The Dynam E-Razor 450 arrived yesterday from xheli.com. I programmed the radio today, but need my EC5 connectors to come in so I can put a pack on, program the ESC and then setup the CCPM mixing. Should have this bird flying next week. Scared to take up the EXI 450 since I put so much time into it. Don't want it to shake itself into a thousand pieces, or go to ground on its maiden flight!

Really though, I can't wait to take them up!

Walkera CB180D Flies 3 packs!

I got the CB180D up and its flying great! I enjoy this little heli, its been a good boy since I got him a couple of months ago.   I took it out for a spin on yesterday and enjoyed hovering tail in and out in the small space of my backyard. A couple circuits and that's about all there is room for.

 Today I put the nav lights on. Bummer that the red strobe was not functioning, but all the others are and it looks great!  Some pics and a video from yesterday's hop!

Battery in...

Airborne!

Downwind leg.

Focus...must...stay... away...from...umbrella...

Oh, yeah, lovin' it!

Close up in hover.

Thanks Aidan for taking the pics and the brief test hop video below!

EXI 450 Project: Well... all done but the hanging of crepe...

I finished the 450 build early this evening. Then I took it apart and started over...

I didn't like the pain in the butt position of the receiver. It works well for an experienced builder/pilot. but for me, who expects to change out a few servos before all's said and done, and who will make significant trims in the programming, it was such a pain to access the plugs and nearly impossible to get the bind plug in to rebind.  So I pulled the receiver, and after looking online for alternative positions, decided to put it under the tail servo. The aileron and pitch servo leads barely made it back there. It looks good, is pretty clean, certainly ain't going anywhere and the middle of the heli isn't threatening to end up in the main gear.

Here's a "prototype" photo!  It lacks the grommets as I learned how to shear them in half with fishing line not quite getting how to use it to get the grommets on. I think I have that figured out. And I want to replace one of the ball links that I took from a Blade 400 kit  to allow me to set up the CCPM mixing (its too small by a smidge).

The hardest part of this build, which isn't really over until I fine tune it and hover it for the first time, was the CCPM mixing. It shouldn't have been... but my flybar cage has been sticky since I opened the box. I rebuilt the bearings etc, and it was still sticky. I redid it today as one of my complete start overs (the other being the receiver mod), and its much better. Under spin it won't be a problem. It was frustrating watching Bob's CCPM part 2 and seeing his bubble stay centered, and his flybar not move a hair, while mine tilted with swash movement (better now).   I do think I have the swash set up pretty darn clean though, and am proud of that. I think there is some fine tuning that will need to be done. Right now I have it set up -8 to +8 for pitch in Idle Up. Its -2 to +8 or so in Normal mode.

There as still some things I am still not too sure about. I am not sure the tail setup is spot on.  I have it centered well, but I couldn't figure out how to set the end limits of travel with the gyro, my MKS GY292. Its not one of Bob's gyro vids. So I did the best I could.  I did the tail mod changing to following edge control, and that seems to look good, but we'll see. The DSP75 servos make a lot of noise just sitting there. Its not a buried servo sort of sound, just a hi-pitched buzz, like it jogging in place just waiting to take off. Nothing is moving, and it sounds solid when the servos get input. Its just noisier than I expected.  I'm using metal gear EXI servos on my 250.  I wish I had more confidence in my build, but I know I barely knew what I was doing.

The proof of the heli is in the hover. If I had a good heli builder around here that I knew, I would really like to have them look it over before I fly it, but I am all alone, with you vicarious minions, whose hopes alone I bring with me for that first spin up!  for now, I am scared to plug in the motor leads!

Thanks for your help!  Stay tuned for maiden flight pics/video. I hope it does not end with the hanging of black crepe...

After the new Year I should have my Dynam E-Razor 450 flight ready, and then I will start on my CopterX 250 build.