J-MICHAEL

LMAO.... Let's just say they probably won't be getting binded to the DX-7 anytime soon.... It was cool in the garage to hover them though. I'am more freaked out of the CPP glitching and coming for my throat, than the lazy stable reliable 500 in the garage....LMAO...

I just ran 2 packs through the CX2 in the garage. That CX2 is so cool... Runs still like a charm. I'am rusty with it a little though. I ran my CPP 3-cell lipos in it, and like always motors are only warm. 45 degrees in the garage right now, so that helped. In Cali it was hard to run my 3-cells in the CX2 as the ambient temp outside was pretty warm so they got a little warmer, so I just reduced my time flying in the heat.


~ Jeff

J-MICHAEL

Glenn ~

Yeah the Jato's have always been good screaming cars ! I've always wanted to get one.... I like the Revo's also, and now they have an electric version. I'll have to shoot some video soon once the rest of the snow melts of my buggy ripping down the road. I need a double lane road to get it up to 70 though...LOL... I'll find something around....

That's what I should do, is fly the 450 around a few times and then grab the 500 and go for its flights... Good idea...


~ Jeff

evdreamer

Glenn,

Yeah it felt nice outside compared to the negative degree temps before.

Yeah it is so much easier flying the 450 inverted compared to the Belt CP. I can't imagine how the 600 will be like.

Yeah I had fun at the Fun Fly.

The motors are outrunners, so I shouldn't have a problem with balancing since the magnets are the ones that are spinning. Once I get used to winding the motors I am going to try and re-wind the Gaui Scorpion motor and try and get some more power out of it.

Jeff,

Cool to hear you are using a 3S battery in the CX2.

Nick

rotarydoc

Jeff,

Some of the vids on Youtube, those guys are nuts, the thing will barely stay under control, even with all wheel drive!

Yeah, I always like to go from a more squirrelly heli to a more stable one, than the other way around...

Nick,

Glad to hear you had fun a the fly...and the weather is better for you, at least for the time being...

The B400 only needs a little more work to compete the rebuild. I spooled it up on the table, with no blades, and all seems well.

It's frustrating on the grip bearing issue, but I'm just going to watch it and see how it goes.

I think the perfectionist in me gets the best of me at times...LOL[X(]

The 600 should be a snap to fly inverted, as long as you have lots and lots of room...LOL

I have seen Rob fly his inverted, and of course, he made it look so easy...

Hope you get some more flying time in this week. I am hoping to test fly the B400 on New Year's day, and I think the club is having a meet on Thursday as well I might go check out...

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Do you have any extra shims between the step washer and the dampners? If so you could take one out from each side and that might help you out.

Yeah I am going to try and fly as much as the weather will allow.

Have fun flying on New Years Day and have fun if you go to that meet.

Nick

rotarydoc

Nick,

Yeah, I do have one extra shim on each side. But, I tried removing it, and going back to the stock 4 shim setup, and it was still notchy, but not as much so. The spare B400 is smooth as butter.

I still am wondering what could be causing it to feel like that.

The reason I'm not too worried about it is that if I pull out really hard on the blade grips, simulating the centrifugal force applied by the spinning blades, the bearings don't seem notchy or bind at all...so it should be OK under real world conditions...

Still bugs me though...LOL[>:]

JPEE

Hey Glenn,


When I rebuilt 402 I had the same problem and had to pull one shim out on each side that was there BEFORE I CRASHED.... go figure? Well I did figure and here is what it was. I had replaced the o-rings as the old ones were flat! I had to use TRex -o-rings because the LHS was out of eflite......so that might be why the head got knotchy. So with the removal of the 2 shims did the trick..........the knotchy was gone!

JPee

J-MICHAEL

Yeah I tried yesterday to download the newer version of G4 to the G4.5 since I saw there were two versions out I thought I would go ahead and try the newest one, but upon opening G4 up it would go into errors.... I tried a few times, but with no success so I just put the G4 .054 ver back and now it works great again.... They need to get on the stick.

I was just flying the Axe CP on G4 and that little heli is kinda fun.... No power, but fun....

J-MICHAEL

Ya ever wonder what Glenn's cat does when he goes to work ?!

evdreamer

Jeff,

Yeah me and Glenn tried the 4.5v before with no luck either. You would think RF would have fixed all the errors by now.

Nick

JPEE

Monday 9:12 a.m

Hey Guys,


Well I found like all of you NO WORKIE on the update some months ago and it crashed my computer system without damage. However, like you all I had to remove it to make my computer work again.

Just got back from the Park and did 4 packs and loved it. Yesterday I went out twice and the wind was just to much to fly and enjoy it so I came back home. But today was my day! ! ! EXCEPT...................does the word Lawn Dart mean anything? Once again I was flying slow and my timer was set for stunt so when the bell rang I thought.....come on..you can do anther minute or two. Well I got the minute and the LVC struck. As she fell from about 25-30 I went into auto rotation mode and struggled trying to get her down. Just before she hit I flipped the HOLD and she came down on her side. As I walked up I expected the worse and guess what? I picked her up and no damage! NO WAY JOS'E could this be possible. So I spun her up and thought the F shaft would at least be toast.... NOPE not at all! I found a nick in the blade the size of a smallscrew head and thats it! Yahooooo did I luck out or what. ? ? ?.......or could it have been my expert pilot skills LMAO we will never know will we. I popped in another pack and checked again for any damage and took off and she still flew like a dream!


That's how it happend and that the facts.

A good day to all................JPEE

Hey Jeff, according to NASA they seem to think you can put pontoons on a heli and fly out over D******** Bay? or is the water to rough?

evdreamer

Jeff,

I was LMAO when I saw your picture.

JPEE,

Cool to hear you got to fly and that was an amazing save.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

JPEE ~

Wow good save huh ?! That's amazing nothing suffered injury, but as Dave would say it all just depends on the angle of the dangle eh ?! There's no way you'll see me dangle over any water with any of my heli's.....LMAO... At least not in this phase of the game, but who knows what the future will hold...LOL...

I would be worried the heli would tip over since the CG would probably be higher. I like Helimax's floats they make, as there nice and light and puffy and seem like they would hold a good balance on the water. Dungeness Bay here in Sequim even though generally calm would still worry me of any wake from the water... There is a lot of other places around close though that would offer calmer waters in the lakes nearby... You know your good if ya make an attempt in a flowing river...

Did ya flip and turn your baseball cap on backwards after that save and scream "Now who's yer daddy ?!".....


Nick ~

Lol... Everytime I see a cat the colors of Glenn's kitty I think of his cat........



Take care guys,

~ Jeff

evdreamer

I got back from some amazing flights. I fixed my tracking and put on the small flybar weights and the Gaui came ALIVE. I was flipping it as much as I could and it flipped much faster and I had more power once the blades were tracking. But I crashed after my 3rd flight with it and the screw pulled out of the MH mixing arms. Then I took the 450 out for 2 flights and I was almost flipping it like the Gaui and I was doing some pretty fast inverted figure 8's. I also tried my CW piro/CCW funnel with the 450, but it is easier on the Gaui. The Gaui seems way underpowered compared to the 450. That just has gobs of power and I am only at 2400RPM's with wooden blades.

Hope everyone has good weather to fly some.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Raining here today, but there is some sun-breaks but still to wet to fly... I did some garage hovers though, 2 in the 450 and 2 in the 500... That's cool Nick ya have been flying the 450 V2 lately. It catches me by surprise that the Gaui seems underpowered more than your V2.


Between the stock Trex 450 SE V2 motor, the Scorpion Motor, and the Medusa motor in a climbout race to see which one is quicker I would have to say I think the Scorpion did the best....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2_IrejWEog&NR=1



~ Jeff

J-MICHAEL

JPEE ~

On my 450 with the CC 45a ESC when my low-voltage-cutoff kicks in I have about 40 seconds to still land as the motor RPM's slowly slows down, but never allows the heli to drop any resulting in a crash. My Kontronik Jazz 40a ESC did the same when I ran it in the 450 also, before I swapped them. I wonder if the 400's ESC has a "soft cut-off" option for the LVC ? Even in one of my last video's with the backflip attempts my LVC kicked in on the Air-Thunder lipo when I was way out over the cliff in Cali and I had enough time to bring it around and land safely...

A member here on RCU which pops in from time to time on the Trex forum here "Skarn" is a regular member on Heli-Freak and I read over there that he flies until his LVC kicks in for the past year and has never had any probs with his lipo's... I don't practice this procedure, as I feel its not healthy but I just wanted to display that info for you to compare on how your heli acted when the LVC kicked in...


Talk with ya later.... Did ya maiden the 500 today ?!....

~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

That was a cool race.

I flew until the LVC twice today. One wasn't on purpose, but the other was. I think my FP battery is starting to show signs of it loosing power. Because my Align battery with a lower C rating seems to have more power.

Nick

JPEE

Hi Jeff
Yea Jeff I have hit LVC many ah time and this was the first one that caught me by surprise. I must explain two things. The first is, my memory is kinda blurry as what exactly happend. I know I went beyond my timer and was flying hard and spikin her up and down doing shoot outs. As I got the end of the battery I hit one more time and thats when I heard the motor whine and slow down but...............that left me a bit out of control. As she started to come down fast and spiked her again and there was just near nothing left so thats when I knew she was coming down hard. I hit the throttle wide open to grab some air with the blades and hit the hold toggle so she would not beat herself on crashing. If I made it sound like she fell 20 feet down and plumited I am sorry, it did not.... but it was a crash. As I try to remember I THINK she hit flat down on my unbreakable skids and then bounced up and over which makes sence for the no damage.
Now I have flown numerous times and hit LVC and the head speed drops like 75% and the tail starts wagging and such making her a hand full to bring in. But perhaps this was so out of the norm because I was flying hard, I just don't know. Like they say; any landing is a good landing when you can walk away!

See you guys later. I have 10,000 white wire ties and no blacks so I had to get to the LHS and get some so they will blend with the 500 chassis. I am going to replace one servo's stake receiver I broke yesterday trying to get it in the rx. I had to buy and servo extension cord and I'll cut solder that on to my servo leads and be good to go.

JPee

Nick,
Sorry the Guai got damaged, but we all learn from our mistakes right? But you were having fun!

J-MICHAEL

JPEE ~

I thought maybe there was more to the story, and good to hear then that everything is normal as it makes more sense now. I just wanted to make sure that your LVC wasn't going into a hard-cutoff for ya like our planes are usually set-up for a nice glide toward a landing... I've done the same a few times also, and made it to a landing with the 450 barely and the rotors were barely turning...LOL... Good thing Air-Thunder says ya can drop there cells to 2.0v's huh ?!...


To all you Trex Heads :


I'am starting to keep track of my flight times with my Trex 500 so I can see how long I'll be able to fly for with these lipo's....

The lipo's I'am using are the Thunder-Power 5s 3300mah 25c running on a 16t pinion... Jason Krause flies the same batts but uses the 15t which I'll try after I fly a bit more with the 16t so I can note differences. I think guys running the 6-cells like JPEE and Glenn and Carl go for the 12t and 13t pinions... I'am pretty certain I should get a bit longer flights when I replace my 16t with a 15t later in time. So far the ESC is barely warm, the BEC a tad warmer, and the motor still warm but warmer than the other 2 components... ( I need a freakin' laser temp gun) Oh... The batts are not hot but also just warm..... So I guess the word of the day is WARM eh ?!...


On my maiden flight November 28th in idle 1 with pack #1 I did a 6 minute flight and stopped to be safe and ended up putting back 1792mah back into the 3300mah lipo.

* I still haven't tried idle 2 in which my throttle curve is 100% straight across...


Today hovering the 500 in my garage which was 43 degrees the 500 remained in normal mode and hovered dead centered in its own rotorwash with almost hardly any stick movements for 6 minutes I put back 1395mah back into the #2 3300mah lipo... Again... Stopped to be safe...

After a few minutes rest, I repeated that but went for a bit longer hover with pack #3 and ended up taking it a bit further to 7 minutes and 43 seconds.... I ended up putting back 1758mah back into the 3300mah lipo...

It seems you can get some pretty good flight times with these 500's, and can't wait to try a hover or flight all the way until the LVC kicks in and see what the time would be for a hover and another for a flight in idle up mode.


~ Jeff

evdreamer

JPEE,

I just finished fixing the Gaui and I am using one stock mixing arm for the mean time, so I can get back out and fly again. Good thing I almost save everything for my helis. Yeah I was having a blast. It is so much more fun flying with the small flybar weights compared to the stock ones. I am thinking about not using the flybar weights sometime in the future. I think I would get better performance with the FRP blades, but I like how crash proof the plastic blades are.

Jeff,

Interesting to hear about your flight times.

Nick

JPEE

I hear ya Nick, spare parts are the ticket. I keep nearly everything. Sometimes I'll pull and power cord off of an old servo. I'll use and old skid rail thats bent or got broke off to make a camera mount or something. I keep old booms too and they are strong and lite and come in handy, and much much more.

WOW Jeff, I still cannot imagin hovering the 500 in the garage! that just blows me away. Perhaps once I fly mine (some day) I'll see that I feel safe doing the same. But then again in California the land of FREE and SUNSHINE I really don't have the need to hover in the garage..............................sorry I was rude with your bad weather....................but I am glad I said it so there! lol

I know I know I feel the earthquake ah coming too. LMAO!

Where that heck is Glenn.................................I got ah hunch he is up to no good, I'll just betcha!

My compodrea Carl.....compodrea means "OLD STICK" in spanish. He must full of Christmas Turkey and sleeping it off.

I heard that Texas fell off the earth this morning on the news so that s why Evan is not been heard from I guess. Dang gone he is flyin little bugger he is. He has flown his 400 much longer than I did before a major crash..............youth.......ya just can't beat it I tell ya.

JPee

J-MICHAEL

JPEE ~

LOL.... The trick is with the garage is to place it in the center and only stay in normal mode. The main door is closed, while a side door that goes outside is left open, and I stand half-in and half out with my finger resting against the throttle hold switch. I'am safe pretty much from the heli in case of mechanical failure, but hovering the thing stays rock solid still, as afterwards I then hovered my 450 and that thing was all over the place until I realized I wasn't hovering the 500 anymore ! I think Glenn warned this yesterday...LMAO..

Like you and Nick I also save everything from a tiny washer to those broken tailboom also ! Hek... The tailbooms make great big straws for some thick milkshakes I bet...

I think Glenn is assembling a TREX 700 Electric conversion/ Flybarless version I heard............ Yeah I kinda miss the sunshine ! I think we get more earthquakes than you it seems in the last few years...


Cheers,

~ Jeff

Carljw

Jeff
I got a nice temp gauge at Harber Freight it is small enought to fit in a shirt pocket or even a watch pocket.
Its a Cen Tech has a few different modes to it I think it was under 10.00.
Not sleeping we have the Grand Daughter for a week so I will be busy intertaining her LOL.
But it will be my pleasure.
Cant wait till Jpee fires his 500 up. It will be a while for me still need more stuff.

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

I'm here...LOL

I wish I was up to something...but nah, just a Monday evening...had to run some errands earlier, and just got back from a thrift store run...I visit those alot, they are pretty fun to look around and see what kinda treasures you can find...I have a couple of great thrift store finds, but they are few and far between...most times it's like tonight, with nothing of interest, really...I was bored...LOL!

Havent' done much more with the final touches on the 400 rebuild...I may just have to try what JPEE said and take out another couple of shims in the head and see how it does...but we'll see. I am in no hurry, sounds like the New Years day weather here will be quite chilly, but I should be able to get a test flight or two in...

Nick,

Sounds like you are having alot of fun with the Gaui minus the flybar weights, I'll bet it really does perk it up a bit! Sorry to hear that you lost a see saw arm, but I think you'll see pretty quickly how much stronger the MH arms are, the Gaui ones are really delicate! I agree totally on the stock main blades, they are some very tough blades!!

Jeff,

I'll bet the sound of the 500 in the garage is pretty awesome! Nice flight times, mine are also very, very reasonable with a 12 tooth pinion, if I'm just playing/hovering, 6 1/2 minutes is no issue at all...I came out real safe at those times, could probably go longer...

JPEE,

Nice save there!! Sounds like you were ready at the throttle hold switch, something I need to learn sometime! I think you have a bit more crashing experience though...which is not a bad thing, really, sounds like you are more prepared for a bad situation than I am!

I do believe that both Carl and Evan are on vacation/break in Florida...if I remember correctly[X(]


Glenn

rotarydoc

Hey Carl,

I thought you were in, or going to FL?

I have the same (I think) infra red thermometer from HF...mine's part number 93983, and it was on sale for $7.99 with a coupon...works very well, and you can't beat the price!



Jeff,

Nice picture of the cat/rubic's cube...LMAO when I saw it...

My cat is pretty smart, but not that smart...LOL...but she will play fetch all day long...[X(]

Heck, I can't even figure out one of those stupid cubes...[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

Yeah, the 450 is a handful after the 500, eh?? LOL!

Glenn