Discussion Trex-500 HANGAR

[Evan D]

The paddles won't have affected the tail so leave them on. You'll probably go back to the 70% anyway to get even more cyclic. The tail blades are what caused the wag and I'm not familiar with them. Play with your gyro gain and see if that fixes it or you may have to go back to the old Align ones. Were you happy with the tail before the change?

[KCinNC]

Originally Posted by jmpwnd

UPDATE: My ESP is almost ready to maiden! Here's a pic of her in almost-final form...I'm heading out to the LHS to get a pre-maiden checkout of everything. Wish me luck!

Cheers,
-->Justin

nice man.....get ready for FUN !!

[RotorJockey]

Originally Posted by simonseize

Hello all of you kind enough to attempt to help me with this.

I am the proud owner of a new-to-me T-rex 500. I have had the heli about a month and have had 10 very successful flights considering this is me first real heli. I quickly got used to the very solid performance of the 500 with the supplied Mavrik G5 CF blades, white align CF paddles and white align CF tail blades.

Soon I was looking for more cyclic out of the setup, so I cranked the Swash mixing to 75% for elev, pitch and aileron. This gave me a bit faster roll rates, but not knowing how I had effected the setup, I decided to inquire at my LHS. Once there, I walked away with new KBDD paddles and tail blades and was told to set me Swash mix back up to the stock 60% for all three levels. Two test flights later I have some tail wag that reducing my gyro gain from 70% to 60% did not cure.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to which direction I should go in to get quicker cyclic out of this setup AND how I can fix the tail wag?

Here are some numbers:
Controller: DX7
Gyro: GY401 DS: on Delay @ 75 Limit @ 80/140
Tail Servo: Futaba S9257
Cyclic servos: Futaba S9650
Motor: Scorpion - 3026-1210
PInion: 16t

Please remember, the heli originally flew PERFECTLY.

Should I go back to the original tail blades AND paddles?

Thank you in advance for any input!

Originally posted @ if you have any thoughts. Didn't know where to post.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1146070

Simon, is it wagging on the ground, at a hover or high speed flight?

Fred

[RotorJockey]

Originally Posted by jmpwnd

UPDATE: My ESP is almost ready to maiden! Here's a pic of her in almost-final form...I'm heading out to the LHS to get a pre-maiden checkout of everything. Wish me luck!

Cheers,
-->Justin

Justin,

How'd she check out?

From what I can tell, all the big parts are in the right places.

Good luck on the maiden!

Oh, remember to do a range check!

Fred

[simonseize]

that would be gyro gain on the gyro OR in the controller? AND yes, I was happy with the tail before the change! Makes you think, but I know guys use these paddles and Gyro combo with success.

[simonseize]

it's wagging in a hover, made me nervous, didn't do any high speed flight, just a little slow forward and slow backward flight. Seemed worse in reverse flight.

[KCinNC]

the 500 works better with a higher headspeed....where are you at with the throttle curves and and pitch ?

[simonseize]

I don't know my head speed, but everything was working well until I changed the tail blades. Just looking for an explanation on what might have happened and how I could fix it.

[jmpwnd]

Originally Posted by RotorJockey

Justin,

How'd she check out?

From what I can tell, all the big parts are in the right places.

Good luck on the maiden!

Oh, remember to do a range check!

Fred

Fred, she checked out alright! The LHG said that the head is setup beautifully and he helped me set up the radio with the pitch/throttle curves. I just finished setting up the ESC and I've got to do a bit more tweaking on the blade pitch, but other than that I think we're good to go! I'm going to finish it off tonight/tomorrow morning and head to the LHS again. My LHG said he'd be more than happy to get her off the ground at the shop and make sure everything is moving correctly and trimmed up...can't wait!

-->Justin

PS I burned the out of myself trying to solder the male deans connector to the ESC wires...not something I ever had to do with nitro birds years ago. After all that I melted the connector anyway, so I've got to go through it all over again tomorrow when I replace it...

[cgetman02]

Originally Posted by jmpwnd

Fred, she checked out alright! The LHG said that the head is setup beautifully and he helped me set up the radio with the pitch/throttle curves. I just finished setting up the ESC and I've got to do a bit more tweaking on the blade pitch, but other than that I think we're good to go! I'm going to finish it off tonight/tomorrow morning and head to the LHS again. My LHG said he'd be more than happy to get her off the ground at the shop and make sure everything is moving correctly and trimmed up...can't wait!

-->Justin

PS I burned the out of myself trying to solder the male deans connector to the ESC wires...not something I ever had to do with nitro birds years ago. After all that I melted the connector anyway, so I've got to go through it all over again tomorrow when I replace it...

Try putting the Deans connectors together, male to female, when soldering them. This will act as a heatsink and help to not melt the plastic Deans housing.

These couplers also make the job much easier! Give them a try.

http://www.atlantahobby.com/Store/pc...-215p13493.htm

Good luck with your heli. Sounds like you are very close to getting her squared away.

Curt

[jmpwnd]

Alright, so I think this is the same question that Dave just had a few days ago about blade pitch. I'm going to go back and re-read what Fred's responses were, but here we go...

I've zeroed out my pitch at half-stick. My pitch swash mix is at 60% right now, which seems to give about +/- 15*. I want to set it so that I get around +/-11* or +/-12*. So, I decided I'd decrease the swash mix to 40 - 50%. When I do that, it appears as it the end points change. At 50%, I get +13/-12 and so on and so forth as I go lower. So my next thought is to use my travel adjust to get the endpoints set correctly. I guess I could also do the same with points 1 and 5 in my pitch curves, but I feel like I'm missing something. I made sure that all my links are set correctly, the head is level and so are the washout and mixer arms to the best of my ability to see. Am I going in the right direction here?

Curt, thanks for the advice on the deans connectors. You know, being an engineer, you'd think I'd have thought of the heatsink concept...

-->Justin

[Evan D]

Originally Posted by simonseize

that would be gyro gain on the gyro OR in the controller? AND yes, I was happy with the tail before the change! Makes you think, but I know guys use these paddles and Gyro combo with success.

The controller so yo ucan manage the wagging differently for the different modes.

[RotorJockey]

Originally Posted by jmpwnd

Alright, so I think this is the same question that Dave just had a few days ago about blade pitch. I'm going to go back and re-read what Fred's responses were, but here we go...

I've zeroed out my pitch at half-stick. My pitch swash mix is at 60% right now, which seems to give about +/- 15*. I want to set it so that I get around +/-11* or +/-12*. So, I decided I'd decrease the swash mix to 40 - 50%. When I do that, it appears as it the end points change. At 50%, I get +13/-12 and so on and so forth as I go lower. So my next thought is to use my travel adjust to get the endpoints set correctly. I guess I could also do the same with points 1 and 5 in my pitch curves, but I feel like I'm missing something. I made sure that all my links are set correctly, the head is level and so are the washout and mixer arms to the best of my ability to see. Am I going in the right direction here?

Curt, thanks for the advice on the deans connectors. You know, being an engineer, you'd think I'd have thought of the heatsink concept...

-->Justin

Justin,

Set your swash mix back to 60% then adjust travel on aile, elev, pitch as I described in an earlier post to achieve desired pitch.

Fred

[Rickn816]

Hi all,

I finally got mine ready to go. Trimmed tail and gain on gyro in the dark last night. It's raining today, so it won't go very far.

My weight is 1738 grams with battery.

What does yours weigh ready to fly?

Thanks.

Rick

[robl45]

wow, its gettinga little thick in here. a 6S pack charging at 3amps is using approximately 9 amps from a powersupply. Charging at 5C would mean approximately 45amps would be needed. People probably running out to buy rediculous sized power supplys that can power a car to charge their batteries at 1C after this post.

Originally Posted by raynet11

Have to make sure your PSU and chargers are up to the task for doing the higher C charge rates with the larger packs.. For example when I balance charge my 6S packs at 1C (3000mah) it's not 3amps going into the pack it's actually 18amps (3amp per cell). So in order to charge a 6S 3000mah pack at 5C your actually need 90amps from your PSU (assuming your charger goes up that high.)

The majority of high end chargers sitting at the 250watt / 20amp range wont handle those kinds of rates even with a 100amp PSU sitting behind it. Technology has improved for us but we have a ways to go before we can quick charge these larger packs up as quick as the smaller ones. I'm doing 5C on my 3S packs but still stuck in the 1-2C range for the larger packs my problem (for now) is my PSU size..