Originally Posted by arrowshooter

Just As I get my video skills right, this happens. Cheap aileron servo goes out and CRASH. Bent brand new main shaft to boot. No more until I get the metal ones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykmy7...ature=youtu.be

Oops. Good thing Align parts are cheap. Yes, cheap servos are not so cheap, especially on flybarless.
I used cheap servos on my 250 and 10 outings and they were done. I replaced them with more cheap servos and they are just about done as well.
I went for 20.00 digital metal gear servos to replace when I convert it to flybarless.
It did look very stable though when you first took off. Looking good.

Looking good.

I agree, that was awesome!

Sorry about the servo. That's gotta stink.

Originally Posted by War Horse

AtTheCross, who is a top notch guy and knows these FC's better than anyone.

+1000
ATC is definitely top notch. One of the nicest and most helpful guys you will ever talk to online. And absolutely yes, he is the man when it comes to the funcopter.

Originally Posted by arrowshooter

Just As I get my video skills right, this happens. Cheap aileron servo goes out and CRASH. Bent brand new main shaft to boot. No more until I get the metal ones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykmy7...ature=youtu.be

Bird was looking good arrow, bummer the servo give out. Nothing I can say will help the situation, but I re-loaded a old video of mine to show I know what it feels like. On the third flight, I dumb thumb this puppy right into the ground…urrr. Plus being a FP450 with the Funcopter blades and 255kv direct drive motor this video should fit this thread nicely.

DD 450 FIRST CRASH (4 min 1 sec)

Awesome vid!

I think I recently posted my plans to marry a FC rotor head to a 500 frame, like it was something new. After seeing your threads as well as ATC's, I seem to have been mistaken. You guys should go ahead and plan to see PMs from me! LOL.

I noticed you have a somewhat larger front drive pulley, much like the Esky versions. I assume that makes up for the slower head speed driving a semi-standard tail rotor?

Awesome work! I love the way these FC rotors fly.

Originally Posted by hankster1225

Bird was looking good arrow, bummer the servo give out. Nothing I can say will help the situation, but I re-loaded a old video of mine to show I know what it feels like. On the third flight, I dumb thumb this puppy right into the ground…urrr. Plus being a FP450 with the Funcopter blades and 255kv direct drive motor this video should fit this thread nicely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt5ga...ature=youtu.be

I have always been impressed at how you fly that thing so fast is such a small area. So how thick is that main shaft anyway? The Align shaft will bend if you tip over just right (wrong).

Originally Posted by arrowshooter

I have always been impressed at how you fly that thing so fast is such a small area. So how thick is that main shaft anyway? The Align shaft will bend if you tip over just right (wrong).

My pet peeve!
The align shaft in the Align CP450 will bend if you even look at it wrong - blades hit grass (only): bent shaft. Blades hit my LEG once: bent shaft - and only a minor bruise to my leg. Why on earth a 5mm shaft? - Kudos to MJX for the 6mm!
Oh well, answer is just don't hit anything . At least doesn't seem to bend in the f45/450.

I have even bought one of the "high carbon" numbers and it bend just as easy, so I just ordered 3 of the plain old ones.

Originally Posted by kpinnc

Awesome vid!

I think I recently posted my plans to marry a FC rotor head to a 500 frame, like it was something new. After seeing your threads as well as ATC's, I seem to have been mistaken. You guys should go ahead and plan to see PMs from me! LOL.

When it comes to a 500 size fixed pitch helicopter, johnnycat and ATC are the go to guys. I’ve never built anything larger than a 450…my front yard is way too small for that big of a bird. If I remember right, johnnycat turned down the top section of the 500 8mm shaft to 4mm so the funcopter rotor hub was a direct fit. But again, it was a while ago, so can’t be sure. I know he did a build thread on it, if you want I’ll try to find it.

Originally Posted by kpinnc

I noticed you have a somewhat larger front drive pulley, much like the Esky versions. I assume that makes up for the slower head speed driving a semi-standard tail rotor?

Awesome work! I love the way these FC rotors fly.

Yes it’s a 50T pulley. When Johnnycat was designing the 450 frame to incorporate the funcopter direct drive motor, we added the largest pulley we could found at the time. On my FP DD450, I measure the max headspeed on 3s at 2190rpm. The 50T pulley give a tail ratio of 4.55 to 1, so tail rpm was around 9965. This was still a little low for a 450, so to compensate for this we used larger tail blades.

Originally Posted by arrowshooter

I have always been impressed at how you fly that thing so fast is such a small area. So how thick is that main shaft anyway? The Align shaft will bend if you tip over just right (wrong).

I’ve only flown at a big field a couple times. For the most part, I only fly in my front yard. Believe me…I have hit everything there is to hit in my yard. lol! Trees, flag pole, powerlines, cars and yes even the house. Luckily when I was learning how to fly, it was on a small 300 size fixed pitch and never cause too much damage to anything other than the helicopter itself.

Using a standard 450 5mm shaft in this bird. Been luckily I guess… can’t recall bending many shafts. I think this is mainly due to the design of the funcopter blade grips, as they fold up most of the time during blade strikes.

Check out the impact at 2:40 in this video. Believe it or not, the main shaft did not get bent. I still watch it and can’t believe it. lol!

FP450 FBL CRASH (6 min 14 sec)

I watched that in slow mo on the other site and saw that branch reaching out. Have to give it to the funcopter head, it's tough. How many of those blue servos did you go through? I have bought 8 and am down to 2. 1 went to the elevator and the rest to the aileron.

Yes it’s a 50T pulley. When Johnnycat was designing the 450 frame to incorporate the funcopter direct drive motor, we added the largest pulley we could found at the time. On my FP DD450, I measure the max headspeed on 3s at 2190rpm. The 50T pulley give a tail ratio of 4.55 to 1, so tail rpm was around 9965. This was still a little low for a 450, so to compensate for this we used larger tail blades.

Thanks Hankster! Great to know stuff!

Originally Posted by arrowshooter

I watched that in slow mo on the other site and saw that branch reaching out. Have to give it to the funcopter head, it's tough. How many of those blue servos did you go through? I have bought 8 and am down to 2. 1 went to the elevator and the rest to the aileron.

Over the past few years, I would say I’ve gone through at least a few dozen HXT900 servos. They’ve been good to me in the air, but can’t take a crash for S#!T. Which is okay with me, for three/four dollar a pop, I think of them as disposable. Once I crash, I replace all of them, even if one still seems good. This way I limit the chance of an in-flight failure caused by a servo I thought was still good.

Originally Posted by hankster1225

Over the past few years, I would say I’ve gone through at least a few dozen HXT900 servos. They’ve been good to me in the air, but can’t take a crash for S#!T. Which is okay with me, for three/four dollar a pop, I think of them as disposable. Once I crash, I replace all of them, even if one still seems good. This way I limit the chance of an in-flight failure caused by a servo I thought was still good.

I am going to try a couple of the $8 metal servos just because, but have a number of the blue jods on order just because they ARE cheap.

Just so you can get an idea of the major difference between the Hobbymate and the Align DFC Heads, which is the arm off the blade grip for the control linkage. The Hobbymate arm bends and I don't see that happening to the Align.