Mini-Review La Heli Ricco Review:

[Kai_Shiden]

Originally Posted by chichisport

Sorry what exactly is the problem with the servo tabs , talking about 3154´s??

Yup, they are a little thin, so the front servos in the Ricco frame layout flex making cyclic a little bit spongy (it's a combination of the thin servo tabs, and the servos swimming in the frame holes, either one fixed would resolve the "issue").

-Kai

[chichisport]

I can imagine the problem now ,something to check .....

[Kai_Shiden]

Keep in mind, that the S3154's in my Ricco SE are pretty old (from when the S3154 first came out), I noticed that the problem is more pronounced with the older servos that have been through many crashes.

My base Ricco has S3154's that haven't been through as much abuse, the problem isn't nearly as pronounced on it.

-Kai

[Kai_Shiden]

Originally Posted by raynet11

This why I purchase some motors direct from the LHS rather then online, they do look at me funny when I open every box to feel the cog , It's like feeling for ripe fruit in the produce section of the grocery store..

None of the stores local to me have the motors out (they are all inside cases), I could ask favors I suppose (know many shop employees and a few shop owners), but I usually figure that I'll always find something else to use even a "sub par" motor in (great part about Riccos/MaxiRs, is that their gearing KV range works out fine for using the same motors in 3D planes and pushers as well ).

-Kai

[pwkpete]

More YGE 18's arrived today (with the latest firmware), they are on the site.

Lee should have them in a couple days.

-P

[Kai_Shiden]

Damn Youtube, I uploaded a video from last night's indoor 3hrs ago, and it's still processing .

I had a breakthrough last night and am finally able to do piroflips in the hangar, and of course I wanted to brag with a video (this is also my first "Ricco" video ).

Here's the link to it, this is my 4s Ricco SE:
http://www.nwheli.com/Videos/HeliVid...ls_11-4-09.wmv (4m21s, 50MB 720p resolution)

I unfortunately forgot to reset my camera to high bitrate mode (was in low bitrate for the build videos since the build vids don't have panning motion), so it's not as clear as I would like.

-Kai

[Kai_Shiden]

The youtube version finally reached standard def phase (not to HD yet Edit: just reached HD level):

RiccoSE 4s @ BarnOwls_11-4-09.wmv (4 min 22 sec)

-Kai

[raynet11]

Wow, great job keeping it in tight and off the floor / ceiling .. I really admire your smooth flying style, no stick banging here..

[Kai_Shiden]

Thanks Ray,

You'll laugh though, I was doing all the same stuff with my Blade400 in there (and flying lower), not because it flies better (it doesn't ), but because I just don't care so much if it crashes (that's what I have it for ). One of the guys commented that he couldn't believe how close I let the blades get to the floor (was doing tight turns with the blades about 2 to 3 inches off the floor , it has cheap align woodies, so who cares, LOL)

I also have some video I took of Weylin (Mini-Dub) flying the red MaxiR SE I sold him from last night that I'll be posting to the MaxiR thread when I get it edited (I was so excited about finally getting vid of my 4s Ricco SE, that I edited it right when I got home, Weylin's can wait till my free time, LOL)

-Kai

P.S. I would estimate that I'm only running about 2500 to 2600 headspeed on my 4s SE, I'm letting the YGE governor do all the work (so as far as my helis go, it's a tame pussycat around center sticks, but when you apply more it keeps giving more... linearly... it's so easy to fly it any way you want it's rediculous ).

[pwkpete]

Sweet flying there!

[DarkHorse]

Pretty . Congrats on the piroflips .
Not much space to recover in there.

> only running about 2500 to 2600 headspeed on my 4s SE
Yes I quickly filtered the audio stream and calculated ~2520rpm
(best case was 44100Hz/1060samples * 60secs = for 2570 dropping to worst case 2490).
The tail seemed fine in the TicTocs, a bit curious about the wiggle at 2mins 10secs into the download version, looked like there was a collective on/off during the arc.

Stock Ricco head damping? The Ricco SE cyclic in general does seem to give a pleasant response, sometimes mine's a bit bouncy with jabbing thumbs but I'm not that smooth on the sticks.

[Kai_Shiden]

Yup, I was jabbing between slightly positive and full negative pitch during that rainbow (ie, more torque change than can go unnoticed by the tail ). I do that quite often, there are a couple other spots where I was doing that, but I forgot to do it parallel to the flightline, so the only cues on video are the audio and the tail wiggle (in person you can see the heli pause then re-accelerate through the rainbow). It's just a showoff move , I don't know what else to call it other than a "stuttering rainbow".

All my LAheli micros have fuel tubeing dampers in them (6mm of 1/8" fuel tubeing per side, compressed), Weylin's, Yarden's, and Matt's MaxiRs have them as well (Matt recently converted to it, Weylin's and Yarden's MaxiR's used to be mine, LOL, so they haven't known the stock O-rings).

Here's a vid of Weylin's MaxiR SE taken last night as well:

Weylin's MaxiR-SE @ BarnOwls Indoor 11-4-09 (3 min 54 sec)

Downloadable version: http://www.nwheli.com/Videos/HeliVid...ls_11-4-09.wmv (640x480, 3m53s, 39MB)

-Kai

P.S. Both of us cut our flight short, on my 4s setup I fly with a 7min timer currently (only pulling about 60% out of the 4s850 pack if I go till it beeps), and Weylin is flying on a 6m30s timer (and pulling out about 600mah if he goes all the way to the end of the timer).

[Kai_Shiden]

One of these days when I finish the Ricco build video editing, the making of the fuel tubing dampers will be pretty easy to follow.

I'm still working on the build videos but keep getting slowed down by the editing process (I keep losing video quality through the stages of editing, so I'm having to change from my normal video edit processes )

-Kai

[Kai_Shiden]

I forgot to say thanks to you Darkhorse, both for the compliments on the flying, and for the headspeed analysis.

I haven't gotten an opportunity to tach it, but 2500 was my gut feeling , I put it as 2500 to 2600 estimated, simply because I thought that some people might not believe that kind of flying at 2500rpm .

It's very quiet in hover, very similar to when I was running the Suppo (it also handles similar in hover), but keep pushing on the sticks and it becomes like my previous high RPM 4s setup was (it should, since it's still geared the same, WOT is still WOT, no matter if it's the governor giving it or fixed throttle).

Oh, and on the fuel tubing dampers, Matt had this to say last night "I don't understand why I didn't do this a year ago, it's just so locked in", he actually freaked us out towards the end of the night by screaming out cheer at the end of a MaxiR flight (we're so used to screams only coming after crashes, we all turned and looked, LOL). He was elated that he had one of the best flights he's ever had (skill wise, fun factor, and the heli).

-Kai

[Jaguar_5]

Originally Posted by Kai_Shiden

Oh, and on the fuel tubing dampers, Matt had this to say last night "I don't understand why I didn't do this a year ago, it's just so locked in", he actually freaked us out towards the end of the night by screaming out cheer at the end of a MaxiR flight (we're so used to screams only coming after crashes, we all turned and looked, LOL). He was elated that he had one of the best flights he's ever had (skill wise, fun factor, and the heli).

-Kai

Hehe that was funny

I love that feeling, had a flight like that last sunday at cascade, first time I had my Atom up in the air in months and It just did everything I imagined, not even sure if I was using the sticks, it just flew itself it was so beautiful

You think I have a chance at getting my MaxiR close to that locked in on 3s? Wonder if the yge esc will be the way to go, I probably won't know until I ditch the 401...