rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Almost forgot, I picked up my package from Hobby City this morning...haven't opened it yet to check all my goodies..LOL

Man, the post office is really cutting back, like everything else...my post office cut it's hours, and only had 2 people working at 10:30 this morning...took me 25 minutes in line...when I left, the line was out the door...[>:]

And, they removed one of my favorite mailboxes from a shopping center around the corner! [>:][>:]

Oh well...my stuff made it safely from Hong Kong in record time, I guess I shouldn't be knocking the USPS too bad...lol

Glenn

rotarydoc

Jeff,

That 40 amp Eflite ESC is a PIG! 62 GRAMS!!

Man, this is going to be one weighted down B400 with the electronics...I'll have to compare it to my stock one when I get done, weigh them in...

It would be cool to get used to the pig, and then fly the stocker after a while, I'll bet it'll feel like a feather!! LOL

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I have heard the step down is a Diode and you will still have a Voltage drop across it on a 5V supply around .7-.8 or around there depending on the temp and the manufacturing tolerance.

Cool to hear you picked up your parts from Hobby City. I am lucky because I never have to worry about a line at the Post Office, but I go when everyone is at work.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

What the hek ! That is heavy huh ? Are you sure your batteries are good in the scale though ?

My Align 35 amp esc is 33 grams... My Castle 45 amp esc is 37 grams... My Jazz which is known to be a heavy esc with the ferrite ring is 43 grams... Weird huh ?

But here is what is really going to confuse ya... And that is HeliDirect lists the Trex 500's Align 60 amp esc at 55 grams ! Yikes... But when I weigh it with the connectors and everything it came in at 64 grams.

Its cool you post weights of stuff, always interesting for me to see what the weights are with stuff especially with the components or items I don't have....Cool....


~ Jeff

rotarydoc

Nick,

Thanks for the info, since it's a diode, it will prob drop voltage from the starting voltage...makes sense. I will measure the voltage once I have the ESC installed, and then go from there...the instructions say it's a 5v BEC output, if so, that will be sweet, I'll just go with that then...

Jeff,

I didn't weigh it on the scale yet, but I will when I get home...I was going by the specs on this page;

http://www.robotmarketplace.com/prod...-EFLA1040.html

It says 62g...and I believe it...it's HUGE, and has a big aluminum heat sink, definitely HEAVY DUTY...LOL

I got to thinking about two things...both about accessing stuff once installed...

If I mounted the GY401 in the frame, I would not be able to get to the pots or switches, to adjust them..I"d have to pull it out each time...

And, if I got the PC programming cable/software, I'd (I assume??) have to unplug the throttle lead from the RX to program the ESC...and the RX on the B400 is a BIG PITA to get to once it's all together...I think it would be alot easier to just program it wth the TX instead...

Thanks guys!

Glenn

J-MICHAEL

Yeah I here ya there... I'am not sure what the 400 looks like anyway towards the front for mounting and accessing the 401. But with the Trex 450 I still can access it for adjustments on the 401... But I have never had to... Once set up, there's nothing more to touch ever at least its been that way for me. The digital switch/limit/delay all are not needed for me to mess with again.

I have my RX's for both Trex's toward the back on the tray on a small piece of velcro so that I can just pop it off really quick, pull it out a tad and unplug any of the terminals, or having access to plug in my USB adapter for the Castle link. Just some ideas...

Yeah I see that the 40 amper is heavy huh ? I didn't realize also there was a big ol' switch hanging off either. I thought the switch you always talked about was just a little thing on the side of the esc or something. You may be able to lose a tad if you did disable it like you were saying. It does look heavy duty though ! That's the weird thing is that my Jazz and Castle esc don't have any heatsinks and they operate pretty good, the Jazz being the best and staying cold. But it also can handle a 6-cell so my 3-cells probably don't even phase it in the 450 I'am guessing. And then the Castle esc just gets to that barely warm kinda thing. But my Align esc with the heat sink gets VERY warm to almost hot ?! But I heard the heatsink doesn't even attach directly to the board or whatever, and I've heard of the mod to make it do that to keep it running more effecient. I gave it to a guy anyway for free for his HBK2 (Broggyr) over on the Struggling thread... Never really been a fan of the Align esc's anyway from my readings...Lol.. But I'am satisfied with the 500's esc and thought they did a good job it seems for what ya get... Can't complain to much there...

Let us know what the final weight is on the upgraded B-400 though later in time. Very curious on that. I can't lose even another gram on my 450 and stripped it of all my servo braiding and everything down to a unneccesary washer to decrease some of the weight. RTF without the battery its 598 grams just recently in the last few weeks. With my 1800 mah lipo its 734 grams then and then my 2100 mah TP's its 744 g's and then the 2200 mah AT and CS packs it boosts it to 798 grams and better for the wind as ya saw in my last video. I'am not losing my CNC though ! But I did notice since I made it lighter, it gets pushed around in the wind a bit more though... But I think I found my happy medium so to speak.


Cheers,

~ Jeff

rotarydoc

Jeff,

Yeah, good point on the gyro adjustments, now that I think about it, I've never had to mess with the 401's adjustments on the 500 once I got them set...so I'll deff keep that location in mind depending on the weight distribution situation...

Also a good point about the stability in the wind...and just probably more stable and less twitchy all around being a tad heavier...I'm not going to be doing any radical 3D anytime soon, so it should be fine with a bit of weight on it...

That is interesting, I have noticed that the Castle ESC's are very small, and don't use heatsinks at all...whereas the Eflite "Pro" like this one uses a HUGE aluminum body/heatsink setup...must be that they use different circuits or technology to acheive the end result...maybe Nick knows...LOL

I just know that my little crappy stock B400 25 amp ESC gets WAY HOT in the summer time, even on a stock B400...never mind any digital servos...I remember checking it last summer, and getting crazy readings like 140+.....too hot to keep your finger on it...[X(]

Now, the 40 amp "Pro" never got much past warm to the touch, even on hot days...so they must be doing something right with that one...

What gauge wires do your Castle/Jazz ESC's have...this Eflite 40 amp has 13 gauge wires...pretty Heavy Duty...but I'll bet yours have just as large for the battery and motor leads?

The guy at the LHS I bought this (well, the original) Eflite ESC from tried to sell me a Castle...but it seemed so lame looking...LOL..so small, and no heat sinks...

Little did I know, it was probably a better ESC in the long run!! At least a lot lighter! But, another factor for me was the plug-n-play...the Eflite comes with EC3's, and the bullet connectors that fit the stock motor, etc... and it was also a bit cheaper, by about $10 I think...

Anyways, lots to do...I'll get back on it tonight...

Glenn

J-MICHAEL

Glenn ~

If you do happen to mount the 401 up front just also be advised from my readings of guys doing that had said that during a hard nose plant into the ground the tray had cracked there and the frame breaking wiping out there 401... Its been noted that the best place for the 450 is under the boom block... Just a little FYI... Remember, I'am a risk taker...Lol...! But I've also heard of many having there 401's up front for a few years and with there crashes it has been fine. I've had 5 crashes now in the 450 and I've been lucky so far. With the 500 I feel safer, just because the CNC bottom plate shouldn't break there to take it out, but I'am also not sure how much longer I'am keeping that installed as sometime here in the future I'll be gutting that bird down in weight also like I did with the 450, so we'll see...

Not sure on the gauge wire on both... I just looked and grabbed a piece of my Novak 12g wire and put it next to it in comparison, and it looks the same, but It also looks like it might just be a sliver smaller... So 13 gauge then I'am guessing ? Your E-Flite diode thingies or whatever hanging off the back of your esc are frickin' huge compared to what my esc's offer... So that's some good gear there for ya also it seems ! I've noticed that before looking at your esc and thought they were pretty good quality seeing that, but know nothing of what they are...Lol...


Talk with ya later ! [8D]

~ Jeff

rotarydoc

Jeff,

Yeah, I'll keep that in mind too...I try not to think about crash damage too much...LOL...but as we all know, it happens sooner or later...

Yeah, those capacitors are very large, it seems that the Castle ones don't use any that large, so I don't know what the difference is...I think the caps are there to store some extra juice for sudden bursts of power...or maybe to just smooth out the power flow...not sure which...

It does seem like a very high quality unit...I still don't know for sure if there was a problem with my last one or not...I had a tail wagging issue, and when I switched it out to the stock 25 amp unit, it seemed to go away...but that could have been from some other reason...so I sent it to Horizon to check, and they sent me a brand new one!

Gotta go, looks like I can get out of here (work) early, we are dead today...

Glenn

HeliStyle

My Feedback: (2)

glenn

does you lhs have any of the cp pro 2 props in stock?

rotarydoc

Hey Heli,

My LHS does not have ANY CPP2 parts in stock, except what they have left over from the CP Pro...my LHS sucks when it comes to RC parts, except cars, they stock lots of car stuff...

I'm lucky if I can find replacement parts for the B400 or the CPP/CPP2 whenever I go up there....their inventory is pretty lame...

How about you guys? Still stockin' up the CPP2 stuff?

Glenn

rotarydoc

Guys,

I just got done with the maiden flight of CPP2, #2...finally...

It flies as good, if not better than the first one...but it was kinda hard to do much, wind is picking up, rain is on the way...

I'll have to open my stuff from Hobby City, and try out the wind meter!!

Glenn

Evan T.

Now we have a wind advisory for 20-30 mph winds and 40 mph gusts and people driving vans rvs and travel trailers should be cautious lol so no heli flying

JPEE

Mr Jeff.

Heres Plumb baby. Dead nuts level!

HeliStyle

My Feedback: (2)

i bought the rest of the props from work, and now horizon wont be getting any untill late april

rotarydoc

Heli,

Sounds familiar...reminds me of the parts shortages for the B400...first it was feathering shafts, nearly impossible to find...and then mainshafts..and then tailbooms...

The tail booms weren't all that long ago...I can't see any excuse for that one...they were very hard to find there for a while...

I am not surprised by the shortages of the CPP2 parts, especially considering the demand from people who are doing upgrades to their CPP's, by buying the CPP2 parts...

I also wonder if they'll ever offer the CPP2 as a BNF...?? I'm sure it would do well...I hated paying for the radio when I knew I wasn't going to use it...

Glenn

HeliStyle

My Feedback: (2)

yeah, that would be nice, eventually I'll pick up a cp pro 2, I luv the fact that I can repair it with my eyes closed, since it is so similar to the cp pro. I actually broke a prop today, so I have only 2 left, and I am getting scared I won't be able to fly if I break the rest of them. I actually tightened down the prop adapter to much and when I spooled it up, it just shattered lol

rotarydoc

Heli,

I was reading where one guy is just using the good ol' GWS tail rotors, and just pressing them on with a pair of channelocks...

I personally HATE those blades, but in a pinch, I would use them..I still have a whole bunch of those things in my spare parts box..

Glenn

HeliStyle

My Feedback: (2)

yeah, I really like the new adapter though, simple and easy, hopefully I won't break the rest of them in the time there isn't any around

rotarydoc

Heli,

Yeah, me too...it's kinda one of the reasons I got a second CPP2...who knows when Eflite/Horizon is going to run out of parts next, and which ones?[>:]

A month from now, it might be tail motor mounts or something...

Glenn

evdreamer

Guys,

This is my final programming for a 3S battery. I still have work to do on the other cell counts, but I wanted to get a working product ASAP.

rotarydoc

Nick,

WOW, that turned out awesome!

I love the two color display, it looks sharp!

Can it do any other colors?

I like the individual cell readings, and the high and low cells too...very cool!

LOOKS GREAT!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Yeah it can show White, Green, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta also. Then I can choose for it to have a White background and use Black lettering if I wanted, but the color White uses more current than any of the other colors. Since it is powered by the battery I am trying to avoid excess current. I could probably have each cell Voltage be a different color if I wanted, but I like the way it is now.

Can you guys think of anything else that would be cool for this battery monitor to display, since I ran out of ideas? The main things I wanted to see was each cell Voltage and the total Voltage.

Nick

rotarydoc

Nick,

I guess IM is the difference between the highest and the lowest cells?

How about an average cell reading? I don't know what significance it would have, but it's an idea for a new project?

Or how about green for the highest cell, and red or another color for the lowest?

I dunno, just throwing stuff out there, I think it's very cool just like it is...


Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Yeah I stole the idea of IM from the TP 610C charger. It is short for imbalance. If you watch it start up it will display the IM: or something like that and that is the difference between the highest and lowest cell Voltage.

Doing an average cell Voltage wouldn't be that hard to do.

I can change the colors really quick, and see how that goes.

Nick