evdreamer

John,

Sorry about the problems with the 600.

I was frustrated yesterday trying to assemble some EC5 connectors. One hole wasn't even drilled out. I ended up stabing my thumb trying to insert the bullet connector in the plastic housing. Luckily I didn't do anything more than draw blood. Now I am going to go to Anderson Powerpoles. I used them in my RC car days and enjoyed them a lot. I placed the order this morning, so hopefully they will come later this week. My 600 will be down in the mean time.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

Wow, sounds like you had a super fun time over the weekend, glad you got the opportunity to meet and fly with Jeff, that must have been cool, especially to have him compliment your flying as well...

That is cool that your club rented the lights and generator, I've never heard of that before at any clubs near here, sounds like it went well...I have always been tempted to fly at places at night that are well lit, but never tried it....always wanted to go to the field I used to fly at an turn the lights on and fly...lol...all you need is a long pole with a hook, the switches are on the poles....

That is cool that you got the 450 gyro set up better, and more HS too... I have used that method quite a bit for gyro setup, basically temporarily take the gyro out of play, get the tail neutral, then go back to HH mode...works pretty well....

I got my gears for the MCPX today, so I'll start putting that back together now...

Glad you had a fun filled weekend!

JPEE,

Wow, that is a bummer on all the 600 headaches....I have not heard of the step downs being wired backwards before...something to keep in mind. Mine have all been good so far, no problems...

Hope you can get everything squared away...

Good luck on the spool up, hope all goes well...


Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

JPEE,

Sorry for your 600 issues...what step down are you using with the wiring problems...very strange indeed? Any luck finding a belt or do you plan to keep with the TT?

Wish you luck with your spool-up of 600-2...both fingers crossed.

Nick,

Looks like you had a few issues to deal with also...hope the conversion to the powerpoles isn't too bad...I know I looked at them a while back and they do look nice. Too bad a crappy EC5 had to force you to make the move.

On the plus side...your fun fly and Huckfest sounded like a blast! I had the priviledge of seeing an inverted auto at the heli blow out last year and it is quite spectacular to see in person...glad you got to see one up close. What a honor getting a compliment from Jeff...bet you were smiling all the way home.

Glenn,

Congrats on getting your article published...kinda cool seeing your name at the head of the article.

I bet your going to be doing some gear repair later today to get your mcpx back in the air...that seemed like quite a while to wait.

Looks like my mcpx finally started to lose the tail yesterday...I noticed during 3 flights the tail was barely holding under any maneuvers, even forward flight. So will have to go to the LHS tomorrow and pick up a new boom/tail motor assembly.

Also, I installed my new pitch slider for the 550 but noticed the tail isn't holding very well on any punch outs so will have to recheck to make sure everything is sliding smoothly...I did grease it but maybe missed something.

Is this the week for tail issues??

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is cool you got your gears for the mCPx.

I ended up redoing the head on my Velocity yesterday to improve the geometry and fix my drifting. I found my three outer swash pushrods were all different lengths. I don't know how I missed that before.

Mark,

Did you get a lot of flights out of the tail motor on your mCPx?

Nick

JPEE

Hey Guys,

I flew my 600 over the house late yesterday but I am loaded for bear and meeting Bob in 15 min at the filed for a real fly, result will come later today.

Another interesting thing is, to make my thottle hold work in my DX6 or 7 I needed to take the throttle in HOLD to -5 in order to keep the motor off and dead when I hit the switch. I got a suprise yesterday and when I had the heli sitting there and flipped the switch the motor started at very low rpms and stated there. I ran into this one time on a CX2 as well. So I had to take the throttle hold to -12 in order for the motor not to move at all. Everyother heli is at the -5 and that has worked. I will have to look into this more for "I wanna know why" reasons. It could be the used ESC? I'd bet off the top of my head. When this happened on my buddies plane we had to take his surface trim switch and pull the back several clicks on the throttle slider before the plane would not start when he connected the battery.

OK I am off see you guys later and good day to all!

John

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,

I got my mcpx back in the middle of April so I'm figuring the tail motor had over 50 flights on it. Guess I can't complain since a new one was only $14.

I know that on my 550 my swash to servo links ended up being different lengths to get the swash level, maybe the Velocity's geometry was the same? But then again if you were getting drifting issues maybe not.

JPEE,

Flight report!! Hope you had a great time today and everything flew as it should.

I have my DX7 set to -5 for throttle hold and at times when I'm finishing a flight I have to switch off TH (along with flipping back to normal mode and stick at low position) to get the motor to stop spinning...sometimes it continues to run very slowly. I just chaulked it up to electrically charged gremlins left over in the ESC.

Glenn,

How's the gear replacement going? I took a quick look last night at the servo and that doesn't look like a fun job.

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,

You might try as I explained and take your TH hold back to -12 and see if that stops your gremlin's too.


Today was a red letter day for me! We arrived at the field at 7:00 a.m. in the cool of the morning air. The bugs were "horrible" but a dash of DEETS and we were good. I took a stroll with a 500 first to limber up the old

thumbs as they say. Once that was done I then pulled out 600-1. My first flight was a bit cautious (not that I don't trust my own work mind you lol) with a half pack just feeling out the servos and tail stability, then I let her

out on the rest of the pack. The second flight was flown in normal for half of the pack and then on into idle-up 1 to complete that pack. The third and final flight was flown all idle-up 1 with a throttle curve of with a flat line of 90%.

I must admit she felt great and I forgotten how nice and quite that NUE motor is compared to the antique 600L in the 600-2 is. Upon landing I checked the pack flown at 90% for 5.5 min the motor was just a bit over the outside

temp, the ESC was cool and the battery was just warm.


I must admit I am a bit tickled that I never used a swash leveler and got the swash perfectly level and she had no drift or needed any trimming after I lifted off. I did have to pre set the elevator with some sub trim add a few degrees

in the radio yesterday on set up but that's all for the whole heli.


To be honest guys, even having the room to leave my tables a tools up I was getting a bit depressed seeing the helis there, the tools scattered and having "that work and completion" laying ahead of me..... So now I just want

to fly "carefully" for a while and work on my AV sling.


My daughter's asked me last night what I wanted for Father's Day? My reply was a new SDHC 16 GIG/30MB/Class 10 flash card for the GOPRO. I have been reading up on the GOPRO Forums and they say that card will allow itself to be

written on faster than the Class 4 card I am presently using. That should make the video clearer and stabilize it too. We shall see............


I hope your Tuesday was as good as mine..
John

evdreamer

John,

That is good you enjoyed flying today.

On my DX7 I always set the throttle hold to -20 for my electric helis. The motor stays off every time I flip the switch.

Mark,

In the Velocity manual they want the outer pushrods to all be the same length. I know why my elevator pushrod was a different length, but I forgot I changed it. The elevator arm was never at 90 degrees when I attached it to the flat part of the elevator shaft, so it was always angled up. I then flipped the shaft over so it is on the curved part. It still works good and I can get a perfect 90 degrees. Then I just need to turn the aileron pushrod out one turn.

Nick

evdreamer

Guys,

I did a quick test hover with the Velocity and it is flying much better. My temp gauge is working much better now that I have used RTV to attach it to the cylinder head. I noticed the temp was 10-20 degrees off from my IR temp gauge. I will just add 20 degrees to my reading to get the real temp. It is nice not having to flip the heli over to read the engine temp. My transmitter also records the min and max temp/Voltage, so that will be nice to check out after a flight.

JPEE

Hi Nick,

What wonderful news to hear that both the Velocity is flying better and that your temp sensor is working better too. That's very cool that you know the degree of the separation spread and can calculate the difference off the top of your head.
Well done!

John

evdreamer

Guys,

The weather was perfect today, so I ended up going to my field with the Velocity and 450. My Velocity was flying like a dream. I worked on my full piro flips and rolling circles. I was starting to get good at both of them. I went through a gallon and two flights with the 450. I also did some autos with a 180 degree spin at the bottom. I never did those before, so that was cool. My tail wasn't blowing out like before with my 450, but it started to loose control at higher backwards speed. I still have some more work with that.

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Glad to hear 600-1 is doing well, and you are taking it pretty easy for awhile, I can appreciate that for sure....

Sounds like it's doing real well, nice and smooth and cool running is always good!

Have fun with the sling, and the new SD card (hopefully) for dad's day...

Nick,

Glad to hear that the Velocity is flying really well for you, and that your telemetry is setup now, so you can better monitor temps and voltages.

I guess you're really loving the new radio as well....sure looks and seems nice. Glad you got the temp sensor to stick with the RTV...that stuff is pretty amazing, I have used it for many things...a lot of people overlook it's adhesive qualities, if you get it applied correctly, it's very strong.

Mark,

I finally was able to get to the MCPX servo gears and frame replacement, basically a mini overhaul...

I picked up a tip on HF about the servo potentiometers getting dirty, so I cleaned mine up while I had it apart....you think the servos themselves look kinda ugly to work on, wait until you take one apart ...[X(]

The screws are microscopic... you basically take the servo apart and clean the PC board contacts with some rubbing alcohol, and very gently clean the wiper for the pots as well... one of mine was quite dirty, the other two, not so much...

There is definitely something to it, I think...my MCPX now hovers rock solid....not sure how much of it was that, or the servo gear, or both, but the difference is amazing, it just hovers there motionless....

I got in about 3 flights...all went pretty well. I'm still stuck on flying inverted, flying upright no longer feels natural...it's crazy!!! I'm going to just keep on practicing inverted, I'll have to learn upright flying all over again later on...

Hope everyone is having a good week. Mine is getting better all the time, the closer it gets to the weekend, the better...lol....

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Yeah, I really like my new transmitter. About the only thing I can complain about is the position of the idle up and throttle hold switches. The switches right behind them are really close and it is hard to get my finger behind the switches to flip them. The gimbals are nice and smooth and I haven't noticed any glitches in the signal.

That is good your mCPx is flying better.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Guys,

June-Gloom here this morning and plenty of drizzle, a no fly day. My buddy Bob had his second HK 600 arrive yesterday so has been working like a fiend to get her air worthy. Myself I made a mod to my sling and

placed my GOPRO in front as I have been doing and then my Panasonic on the backside for a rear view. The idea worked well but my Panasonic only has a Class 2 card in it right now so the quality was sad, but the

idea worked. I only flew over the house for a few minutes in the WIND, what a fool I was to do that but when I get an idea it's tough to stop me, LMAO. Otherwise just hanging out, more bad weather for the rest of the week.


Glenn,

So there are nano screws hey, man that is your specialty and we all know it too, you love that stuff. Really cool for sure that you were able to clean up the potentiometers, that just had to help.


Nick,

Glad you like the radio and it's smoothness but on the switch locations..... I'll bet given some time you'll get used to them and all will be well.


Mark........... where are you yong man?

John

evdreamer

John,

Sorry the weather isn't the best for flying. My weather is supposed to be good tomorrow, so I plan on going out and flying.

My powerpoles came today along with my crimper. I should have went straight to these. They are fast and easy to assemble and are easy to connect and disconnect. I finished up my 450 and I am about half way done with the 600.

I also worked on my Velocity. I am trying the recommended distance on the tail servo horn by Futaba. I put the GY520 on my Velocity and cleaned up the wiring. I also put the metal weight under the gyro to see if that helps on the Nitro.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Nick,
You have been busy there mister. I'll bet your new power poles will have some awsome amps! I have the prescribed metal plate under both of my 611. They say it makes a difference, don't know casue I never flew without them.

Good luck flying this weekend, we have heavy drizzle for tomorrow again.

John

evdreamer

John,

It was supposed to be sunny today, but it turned out to be cloudy. I am just going to skip flying today because it is hard for me to tell orientations when it is cloudy.

I worked the 3rd shift all week and I had a hard time falling asleep, so I installed my Spartan gyro on the 600. I did a quick test flight with the 600 and Velocity. So far I am liking the Futaba GY520 gyro more than the Spartan. It seems the tail moves right when I give stick input and there seems to be a little delay with the Spartan. Both seem to hold the tail just fine though. I can't wait to do 3D with them and see if I like the way they fly. The GY520 is easier to program too.

My power pole connectors seem to be working great in the 450 and 600. I am not getting any sparks with the 600 now that I added spark suppressors.

Nick

JPEE

Hi Nick,

3rd shift ICKY POO, me no like those hours.

Good new on testing both gyros, that will give you a good yardstick as which way to go for the long run. I just locked up the 520 and is that all there is, the small head and the little black box? Does the servo plug

in the little black box?

I can imagin that with 50 vts your getting quite a blue spark on connection. Good deal on the spark suppressor.



I think the East Coast fell of the map! Glenn and Mark are days into darkenss[X(]

John

evdreamer

John,

There is not much to the GY520. That little black box has a circuit board in it with servo pins. Two wires plug into it for the rudder channel and the gyro gain. Then the tail servo plugs into it on the other side.

Yeah, they have been quiet.

Nick

JPEE

Nick,

As you know my buddy Bob and I are running 611s on all four of our 600s here. They are great gyros but the that moster box where the servo plugs in takes up a lot of room. But we have been buying the 611s for 70.00 bucks and I see the 520s are like 128.00. So I guess it is worth (for my style of flying) giving up some room for the brain box at the price difference.

A guy has to wonder what they are up to......... hummmmmmm

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Okay guys, one of the East Coast natives coming out of the darkness.

First off, want to wish those dad's out there a Happy Father's Day...hope you get a nice steak dinner and a bloomin onion to boot...doesn't the Outback sound nice?

Nothing new to report, been flying the mcpx in the front yard but with summer in full swing down here we get scorching temps followed by crazy pop-up storms in the late afternoon, so any flying is done before 10am.

JPEE and Nick...looks like you two have been keeping the thread alive for the past few days plus its nice to know that some are having some enjoyable days during these dog-days of summer. I still can't believe its only mid June.

Nick,

Sounds like your getting some serious time on your new Aurora...are you getting used to the idle up and TH switches? I'm sure with a bit of time it'll feel perfectly normal. I hope you get a chance to fly your 600 and Velocity and put the Spartan through some paces. You must be having some very nice weather to get so many flights in!

Nice to hear the powerpoles are working for you...if I ever go to a larger heli in the future I may seriously consider them since no soldering is needed. Do they connect/disconnect easily? From my reading on them the most crucial point is the crimping stage, if it's not properly done it wont fit into the connector - did you have to redo any of them in the beginning?

Sorry that you got stuck with 3rd's again...just for 1 week?

JPEE,

Is it still drizzling out there in Cali-land?

Did you get your 'special card' for Father's Day (and I aint' talking a Hallmark card )??? Hope things work out with the camera and your new rig. Now you just need some nice weather and off to the field you'll be going!

Glenn,

I am really dreading the servo overhaul you just did...I have been eyeing the servo/circuit plate unit and it just looks ugly. I guess the pots are behind the servo on the board? This is something on my 'to-do' list but I may wait until we have some bad weather before I take things apart...I'm just enjoying things again now that I have a working tail motor again. One thing I did have to do was to put some electrical tape on the swash balls to remove some slop that had developed in the links (yep, the MH swash)...I think the links just develop the slop naturally. I tried the canopy grommets but there is just so little room so saw some suggestions on HF to use electrical tape instead. Seems to work well, but I'm wondering how much may be caused by dirty servo's.

Other than that not a whole lotta going on.

Mark

evdreamer

Mark,

I think I am going to Outback tonight.

That is good you are still flying the mCPx.

At first I thought you were talking about the Avant Aurora. I wish I had that heli. Yeah, I am still getting used to the switches. I wouldn't call my weather nice temp wise, but I am trying to fly as much as I can before school starts.

The power poles connect and disconnect much easier than Deans and EC3 connectors. I didn't have to redo any of my crimps. I just took my time and twisted the strands of wires. Then I put them in the right contact for that size wire. The crimper did a great job. Then I just pushed the wire into the case until it snapped into place. The big wires (10gauge) were easy to push in. The 12 gauge was a little harder to get in because the wire kept bending under pressure. I just used some needle nose pliars to get the wire started and then it was easy to install. There is a tool to insert and remove the contacts, but I didn't get that.

I enjoy the 3rd shifts, but it is hard to go back to my 2nd shifts. It was just for one week. I was covering for the main guy who does it since he was on vacation. I just normally do the 3rd shift on the weekend once a month.

Nick

JPEE

Mark,

Thank you for the fellow "Father's Day" tidings and back atcha!

1. Grey cold and drizzly here. Dry at the moment but ya never know for sure what will happen. However, the wife came and said the morning News said it will be 80's and 90's by Tuesday and Wednesday EEK!


2. We can walk to the Outback! as it is at the end of our street then around the corner to gain access to the strip mall where it is. However, ME is going to my daughters house where my other daughter and grand

children will join in and we will have a feast. My daughter has a recipe for the meat that is KILLER so Dad's most wanted homemade burgers will be the main plate with some corn, bbq beans, and tater salad YAHOO!


Bob on his way over to re-maiden his 600-2. He had to remove his dirt cheap servos that were both to slow and would not fit under the canopy. He upgraded the servos to the same inexpensive ones he flys now his his 600-1.

We will get everything back on track and that should be it.


You guys have some fun today,

John

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Not much new, I didn't really get around to flying much this weekend....so hopefully this week after work I'll get some time to practice more on the MCPX.

Nick,

Glad your new radio and connectors are working well....I used to use those same connectors on RC cars back in the day....they were called "Sermos" connectors back then, I guess Anderson bought them out....they are great, only problem we had was that after many uses, they tended to lose a bit of their holding tension. They may have improved since then....we ended up just hard wiring battery packs in the cars later on...gets rid of the connector alltogether...had a nice 900 degree soldering station ready with a huge tip, and we could hard wire the packs in about 20 seconds...it eliminated a lot of problems, like connectors coming undone in crashes, burned up connectors, etc...not really practical in the heli world though...

I found this link about the name difference....

http://www.slkelectronics.com/battery/APP.htm

Mark,

I was dreading the servo overhaul as well...I ended up using my smallest JIS phillips driver, and magnetized it for each screw, so they stuck real well to the driver...but still, it's quite a challenge to get those nano screws in and out!

Yeah, once you get the mechanical part of the servo off of the PC board, you'll see exactly what's going on....a small, very delicate wiper arm, that slides on two strips on the PC board to give the feedback on servo position....I just cleaned those strips with a small piece of old T-shirt (Q-tips can leave small cotton strands) soaked in regular rubbing alcohol...worked pretty well....but be careful on the wiper arm, it's super delicate, I just barely swiped mine off...the board contacts are the main culprit...

JPEE,

Glad you had a happy Father's day, and the feast at the daughter's sounds like quite a treat!

Hope your weather gets better from the cold drizzly stuff you've been having....where's that California sunshine??

Hope everyone has a great week...


Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is an interesting article.

I had a good day flying yesterday, but an airplane pilot from my club didn't. He went to go remove the glow starter and reached a little to far and the prop cut the tips of two fingers off. They had to call an ambulance and take him to the hospital. It made me realize how dangerous our aircraft can be and to be safe around them.

On a better note my Spartan and GY520 performed great. They both held great with what I did with them and there was no wag at high speeds like my JR 770's did. The bugs were in full force. They were crawling all over me and biting me.

Nick