Gaui X5 - Flight 10 - Time to push my limits - 11-05-12 (7 min 7 sec)

Another nice flight

Gaui X5 - 3D Flight #14 - Tick Tocks and Piros - 11-10-12 (7 min 4 sec)

Reinstall of New TM1000 Telemetry Module

Okay. I went ahead and bought a new TM1000 while i wait and deal with Horizon on getting the old one replaced (hopefully). I have to say this is pretty damn cool. I now have the following telemetry features working and directly displayed on the TX, with customizable warning alarms as well.

RX Voltage sensor

Pack Voltage sensor

Main rotor RPM/Head speed (Calculated by motor rpm sensor & DX8 conversion)

ESC Temperature sensor

I have not flown the heli yet with the new equipment. But everything appears to be working nicely. To setup the DX8 rpm display to show you the head speed instead of the motor speed. You simply need to tell the DX8 in the Telemetry/rpm menu how many poles your motor has, for the X5 scorpion motor. There are 8 poles. Also change the ratio to the proper amount. For my setup on the X5 it turns out to be 8:1 even. You can figure your ratio out by dividing your main gear tooth count by your pinion tooth count. I did not use the Spektrum RPM sensor. So i will be curious how accurate this Hobbywing one is. It was only $3 plus $4 for the JST micro plug. Not too bad i guess.

Flight Video Update 12-02-12

Gaui X5 - 3D Flight 49 - Showing off 3D & FFF - 12-02-12 (6 min 29 sec)

Gaui X5 - 3D Flight 50 - Tick tocks & Some inverted - 12-02-12 (6 min 31 sec)

Gaui X5 - 3D Flight 51 - New Pack - 12-02-12 (3 min 42 sec)

TM1000 Warranty request update

Horizon Hobbies officially is AWESOME! If you live in the USA anyway. They sent me a brand new TM1000! This is so much farther above and beyond anything i ever expected from Walkera. Yes it took forever but they replaced a $60 unit with no questions asked, basically.

Okay, so if anyone has been following my Gaui X5 build log. They know i fried my tm1000 module when installing the thing. I probably hooked it up wrong. In fact i know i did, .... now. But i sent it in to Horizon under warranty anyway. They determined that it was damaged due to a external short that caused the telemetry module to burn out. Now i will agree that the TM1000 it's self was not the cause. It was no defect with the unit it's self. But if anything my original blame would have been on the soft and easily compromised silicone shielding on the very thin battery leads. Not for nothing, but the new TM1000 i bought shortly after had PVC shielding on all of the wires and sensors. I have not opened the box on the brand new one yet to see what kind of shielding it has on the wires. It could just be circumstantial on what ever wire was in use at the factory at the time too. Who knows, right?

Originally Posted by IntegrityHndywrk

TM1000 Warranty request update

Horizon Hobbies officially is AWESOME! If you live in the USA anyway.

Don't pour salt on the wound. Please. For the record, I live in Europe.

Anyway, nice you have it sorted

Originally Posted by sbstnp

Don't pour salt on the wound. Please. For the record, I live in Europe.

Anyway, nice you have it sorted

I really feel for you guys. I don't really understand why support is not given outside the US. It seems like if the customer is willing to pay the return shipping, it might be worth it in some cases. But i think shipping is the major issue with all this.

Gaui X5 - Replacing First bevel torque tube gear.

Gaui X5 - 3D Flight 200 - Tail Slap, Grind the TT gear (6 min 27 sec)

So after a perfectly good flight i managed to slap the tail really hard coming in for a landing. These gears have taken a few hits on the foam pad and even a few roll overs during AR practice. But this time it stripped out pretty bad.

The swap out was pretty simple, but it did require something i was not fond of. Loosening the tail boom and sliding the boom back to access the first gear in the line. This is the most likely gear to strip it seems. The bottom section of this gear has a metal gear pressed against the AR gear. So this one is most likely to absorb all the damage, in my opinion.




The images below have notes on what i did. Don't forget. If you have trouble removing the bolts. Apply some heat with a soldering iron to break the thread lock.

Flight Video Update 02-23-2013

Gaui X5 - Flight 208 (5 min 33 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 209 (5 min 30 sec)

Flight video Update 03-30-13



I have to say. These three videos here are probably some of the best flights i have on film so far. I lengthened my cyclic stick on my TX and it just fits better in my hand now. So i have a better control over the heli, which gives me added comfort.

Gaui X5 - Flight 368 - Longer Cyclic stick has good results for me (5 min 36 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 369 - Harder Tick tocking, finally getting it (5 min 23 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 370 - One of my best flights ever (5 min 45 sec)

My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/IntegrityRC

Gaui X5 FES Tail Wag Issues

Okay, in this section i wanted to talk about something that seems to be a common issue with the Gaui X5. It's not a big problem and it's more annoying than it is dangerous. But it seems at some point everyone ends up fighting a slight tail wag on this heli. I just wanted to point out here the few basic things i did to keep my tail from wagging. There are basically only 3 things i attribute to my tail not wagging anymore after over 370 flights @ 5-6 minutes each.

Gaui X5 - BeastX Stability, No Wag (0 min 0 sec)

First of all I want to mention that i didn't have any tail wagging till around 200 flights or so. Then it begin to have a slight wag when hovering or if i flipped very hard the tail might wag a little around the flip. It was never a heading lock issue or anything. Just a slight wag that didn't seem to have any relation to the gyro gain at all. I checked all of the mechanics repeatedly and nothing seemed out of place. In other words nothing seemed to be binding or have any slop in it. Well, eventually i got around to checking out all of my ball linkages on my main rotor and that gave me the brilliant idea to check the rudder linkages... DOH! The rear plastic linkage was so worn out i could practically pop it off with no pressure at all.

So first thing to check if your getting tail wagging after many flights would be your rudder linkages. With that out of the way. I thought i was in the clear! the wag seemed to go away for the most part. But it started to show up again every now and then. It was a slightly different wag.....So on to the second thing..

#2.. Clean your tail shaft and slider and keep them dry lubed if possible. I use Tri-Flow "Superior Dry" on my tail shaft & slider. It goes on wet and dried into a dry film of P.T.F.E. Or Teflon. It's very important not to get this into your bearings because it could make them gritty. The white carrier solution seems to work well at getting the lubricant inside the slider on the shaft and removing some of the dirt. Turning the white solution black. You swab away the gunk and repeat till it seems to not get so black any more. Again, keep this stuff out of the bearings. Both on the slider and on the tail box. Once you have the black gunk and cleaning part out of the way. Apply a small drop of the solution and work it in till it dries. Wipe away any gunk that forms and bring some swabs with you when you go flying to clean the shaft and slider preflight if they look dirty or gunky.


#3. I don't honestly know if this third one actually had anything to do with fixing my tail wag issue. I'm fairly certain the above two things took care of 90% of it. But reducing the cord width on the tail blades could calm the gyro a little too. I don't know. But i installed the KDBB tail blades and ever since i haven't noticed the tail wag start back up again. I also am keeping up on lubricating the tail bearings and shaft now though. So the stock blades are not the "problem", I'm sure. But at higher head speeds, the narrow blades might be best. It's pure speculation on my part.

Scorpion Backup Guard


Since the stock X5 ESC's BEC seems to fluctuate voltage to the RX during flight. I thought about installing a separate BEC. But first i wanted to try the lazy way of fixing it and adding some security to the X5. So far, it doesn't keep the voltage above 5V because it receives drain from the servos etc. So it was registering at a minimum voltage on my DX8 at 4.6v or 4.7v. This is much better than the 3.6-4.1v that it was typically dropping down to. I might add the voltage drops seem to be random and not exactly in relation to my stick movements. I have a feeling the Telemetry system has something to do with this issue. Because it is drawing power to transmit also. Just a guess.

Previous to the Scorpion Backup Guard. I had installed some capacitors in the RX line. This seemed to help keep the voltage up above 4.1v most of the time. Lots of times it would stay around 4.5. But it still did drop down to 3.8 or so every now and then. I've only flown 4 flights with the backup in place and so far the lowest reading has been 4.6v. I'm very sure these are very short voltage drops but 3.6 or 3.8v is scary as hell. So I find the backup guard to be doing it's job quite well so far. Possibly one of the best solutions for redundant rx power on your heli.


Update 04-14-13:

Okay this thing is working out nicely. When i have my DX8 data logging turned on the RX voltage spikes down as low as 3.6v and it does it much more often when data logging is on. But it still happens occasionally when it is not on also. So here is two graphs. The first one is with the backup guard turned off. The second one is with it turned on. You can definitely see the difference.

Flight Video Update 04-22-13

04/20/2013:

Gaui X5 - Flight 435 - Back at the Epic Theaters again (5 min 25 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 442 - Fast flight (4 min 44 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 445 (4 min 47 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 446 - More piro flip practice (4 min 50 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 448 (5 min 44 sec)

04/21/2013:

Gaui X5 - Flight 449 (5 min 9 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 450 - Some forward & side tick tocks (5 min 49 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 453 - Still training for piro flips (5 min 1 sec)

Gaui X5 - Flight 454 - Prio flip practice paying off? (5 min 1 sec)

X5 Action shots


Here are some photos i clipped out of a few of my videos. The X5 in Action. I just wish i had a better camera