Originally Posted by 2Doggs

Since my better half has just ordered herself a fancy Japanese sewing machine, though, which will be my Xmas present to her, I feel able to go for something bigger than a 450 which will be her present to me.... I'm torn between 500 and 550 size.

Originally Posted by Dejavu*Xion

Im in the same boat. For x-mas i will be getting a new dx8..Only im torn on the model that will come along with it. The KDS 550 or the new Devil 480. : (Devil swings 360mm blades on 6s, That would be awsome ) Would love it even more if align would put out a 480 size. At this time I can only pick one says my wife and x-mas bonus check So I'm leaning KDS 550 at this time. But not by much. ha

My xmas present might be a little late this year, but I'm getting our first child.. hahaha. This is my wife present to me.... or is that from me to my wife

Originally Posted by evltoy

My xmas present might be a little late this year, but I'm getting our first child.. hahaha. This is my wife present to me.... or is that from me to my wife

Congratulations! Make the most of your free time while you can!

It's the give that just keeps on taking lol! Congratulations!

Originally Posted by Atomic Skull

The Turnigy 2x3cell 25c packs I used to run on my 450's come down hot on my 500, and I'm only running 2500-2400RPM with a 70-85-100 throttle curve and the SK3 helidrive motor (14T pinion). What am I doing wrong?

It's your throttle curve. The gearing for the 500 is such with it's large blades to not want to go under 80-85% anything under puts the system under incredible stress because the blades don't have the power or time to increase speed and at the same time your increasing your pitch, loading it up even more. You can test this by flying around. Start up high and start slowly coming down, now start to level out. If you find you need a lot of collective to stop the descent and you get a bounce at the end your pitch and throttle curves are off.

Another thing to do is put the 13t back on. That HK motor is only efficient at 90% just like the 500mx. The older 500 motors were happy back down around 75 and 80% Just need to find the sweet spot.

I'm hoping for a couple of recommendations please - I've just got my (mainly Tarot) 500 flying again and converted it to FBL, now I want to get it flying a little "hotter" ...

It was previously set up with a torque tube tail, but when I started using it again I had a couple of problems with the tail, the whole boom was pushing out disengaging the TT and spinning out of control, so I pinned the boom block to the boom and the Tarot tail case twisted on the boom and dis-engaged. The tail case has a funny little bung thing that goes through the tail case and locates in the boom - except mine doesn't fit - it doesn't go through far enough to locate in the hole , this is different to the stabiliser mount to the belt tail. Which TT tail cases are people using and do they locate properly into the boom.

Secondly, what pitch are people using - I would like a little more lift - I think I'm on +/- 11.

Third, which is the preferred (low cost) motor now - preferably from Hobby King

Cheers,
Mike,

Originally Posted by 2Doggs

Congratulations! Make the most of your free time while you can!

Originally Posted by mhills51

It's the give that just keeps on taking lol! Congratulations!

Thanks boys

Originally Posted by mhills51

It's your throttle curve. The gearing for the 500 is such with it's large blades to not want to go under 80-85% anything under puts the system under incredible stress because the blades don't have the power or time to increase speed and at the same time your increasing your pitch, loading it up even more. You can test this by flying around. Start up high and start slowly coming down, now start to level out. If you find you need a lot of collective to stop the descent and you get a bounce at the end your pitch and throttle curves are off.

Another thing to do is put the 13t back on. That HK motor is only efficient at 90% just like the 500mx. The older 500 motors were happy back down around 75 and 80% Just need to find the sweet spot.

Won't there be very little room for the governor to adjust the headspeed at 90% though?

Originally Posted by Atomic Skull

Won't there be very little room for the governor to adjust the headspeed at 90% though?

With my governed setups, I never try to set the HS much more than about 70% of the theoretical speed at 3.7v per cell, otherwise the HS will drop towards the end of the battery, under load. So on a 500 on 6s with a 1600kv motor and a 13t pinion the max governed HS would only be about 2000, which is on the low side. Using 14t would up that to about HS2200, which is still fairly mild on a 500.

I've got some slant gears that are, main 132t and 12t pinion. I'll be running a 1600kv motor. I have not done the calcutations yet, but i'm hopeing to get around 2600 - 2400 rpm.

Sorry I don't use governor, but I thought with a governor your expose to keep a flat curve? like 85,85,85 that's what we use to set a few years ago. You listed 70,85,100 I would think this would really screw up the gov.

Kdean you will get around 2700 at 85% 3200 at 100% and about 3-4 minutes on a 2600. That's what the 500pro runs, but with a reduced tail speed.

Thanks for caculations. I'm going with 3000mah 40c packs, and keeping the stock esp tail gearing. I hope the tail rpm is not too fast, throwing the tail blades... Is this possible?

Saw that Saturday lol! Flew right passed me. Not mine, but a raptor. I don't think it was speed. I do wonder if that is why they slowed it down on the pro.

I did put the 11t on mine because the gear ratio is way to high for a 1600 motor. You can't even use a governor with it. Just read all the post in Helifreak. A lot of guys there put the old gears on and run a 16-17 just so they can use the governor, but I don't think it makes a difference. Over geared is over geared.

Most guys run theirs at 100% I get away without to much bobbing with the 11t and run 95,98,100. I do have idle 2 set up 100% and must say coming alive is a understatement

Originally Posted by kdean

Thanks for caculations. I'm going with 3000mah 40c packs, and keeping the stock esp tail gearing. I hope the tail rpm is not too fast, throwing the tail blades... Is this possible?

I don't think you'd see more than about HS3000, since under load, there will be about 3.8v per cell - but it's still pretty hot gearing.

Bear in mind that Align warn against any more than HS2650 for the regular 500, and maybe it's the tail rotor that's the limiting factor. HS3000 would represent an overload of approximately 30%.

Where can i get an 11t slant pinion for the 500?

I tried the revco 11t with the esp stock gears and it ate away two of my main gears... I'm running the 12t now reg esp gears, throttle flat at 90% and the typhoon 500 is still bogging on heavy pitch pumps and tic tocks. Thats also with +/- 11° pitch.