evdreamer

Glenn,

I was imagining your shop was smaller like the ones here, but it looks like you have a lot of room to fly the Quark there and your coaxials.

I still don't know how the cyclic response is going to be. I left the settings the same as all my other helicopter beginning settings. I didn't really understand the way they got the pitch readings from the swashplate height, so I did it my way and made sure the swashplate moved the same distance up and down. Then I made sure the pitch was at zero degrees at half stick. I just looked at the screw that went through the blade and made sure it as parallel to the mainshaft. I just hope I don't have too much pitch and bog the motor down. But I guess a 3S setup would take care of that.

Good to hear the engine looks good.

JPEE,

Yeah I will let you, Glenn, and Jeff know how my flight goes. I don't have the skills to fly the Gaui in my basement. I would like the furniture to stay in one piece.

Nick

JPEE

Nick,

If you hit anything doen there tell the wife, honey that damn Racoon got in here again! ! !

JPee

evdreamer

JPEE,

I am not married and still living in my parents' basement while I am going to college.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~

Thanks for the link about the Chinese weight mod.... I bet ya can't wait to take out the Gaui... I know your gonna love that thing ! I wonder if it would fit in my Trex 500 canopy....LMAO... Yeah, I went and got one on Friday... I got the GY401 and Futaba 9254 combo to install in it also. I just need cyclic servo's and a battery for it. Guys like the 9650's for the cyclic but I'am still doing more research... I would prefer some kind of metal gear ones, as I'am still learning. I hear guys using the HS-5245's or something like that for the 500... It still sits all packaged up, as I'll probally put it together next month when I get home so it won't get damaged in my car for the way home since I'll be driving back with a lot of stuff...Lol.. It was cheap ! With tax only $524.00 and came with CF blades, motor, esc, and a bunch of extra stuff... Blade holder, extra parts, etc. etc. It will run off of two 3-cell batts from our 450's or 4-6 cell lipo's... Which the Outrage brand 6-cell 2200 25c batt guys use only is $119.00... Not to bad...

I've been having fun tinkerin' with my 450 for now... Almost getting ready to program the Jazz... I can't wait for ya to film a video.... I'll be checking for that for sure !


Glenn ~

You have an awesome facility to work on things ! You lucky dogg.....[8D]


JPEE ~

Its been storming hard here ! I haven't seen rain here in Cali I think for 6 months and its been coming down hard.... Being on the mountainside here also, brings strong winds with those storms coming in. Reminds me of back home in Washington as that is a familar setting like its been here yesterday and today.... I saw your last video on You-Tube and it was great !

Gotta go eat some pizza here, and do some more on the 450....

Take care guys,


~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

Cool, you got a T-Rex 500!! You are on your way to doing 3D soon with that stable helicopter. I think I heard from Trextuning.com that using two T-Rex 450 packs makes the helicopter tail heavy or something like that. And a 3300mAh balances the helicopter out nicely. It is a very informative site.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~

Yeah thanks.... I love that Trex Tuning site also ! I couldn't understand squat on programming my Jazz esc from the manual as they made it so confusing... A few weeks ago, I went to Trex Tuning, and they made it so simple in just a few words ! I'll probally go with a 5-cell 3300 mah like Jason Krause likes to use in his set-up. I wouldn't want to use two of my 3-cells as I think the weight as you mentioned wouldn't benefit me much...

Talk with ya later,


~ Jeff

evdreamer

I love the Gaui!!!! It is as stable as my T-Rex at least in the garage. I was doing funnels in my two stall garage. But something is wrong with the ESC. Because it shut the power off like the battery was low, but it wasn't. Then my G90 isn't holding the tail very good, so I will probably put the GY240 in. I am thinking about putting my E-Flite 20A ESC on the Gaui, but it is kind of big and heavy for that helicopter. Anyways this is a very fun helicopter. It is too windy to fly outside, so I will have to stay in the garage.

evdreamer

I put the E-Flite ESC and GY240 in and the Gaui flies better now, but I am only getting 3 minute flights with a 7.4V 750mAh battery. Hopefully when I fly outside I will be able to fly longer. Or I might have to go to a 3S setup. I also had to cut part of the canopy to make the ESC fit. It would be nice if the ESC had wires coming out for the motor, so I could put the ESC on the bottom of the helicopter.

I just got done testing the T-Rex with Chineese weight mod and it flew just fine. I still need to see how it does with mild 3D. I almost ran into the side of my garage with the T-Rex when I was doing a backwards circle. I should just leave that for outside.

Oh I also got the message for who to contact when RCU is slow. It is [email protected]

J-MICHAEL

Cool.....! That's what I want to hear....Lol... I definately see the Gaui as my next heli for sure... It might be a few months, but I'am on it ! I can't wait for you to post a video of it outside. I've been tweaking the Trex with some different settings and such since I've now got the Jazz running in it, and WOW Nick that esc doesn't even get warm... It simply amazes me... My Trex has never ran so smooth. I really see why people rave about it so much... Seriously... To bad they didn't make a smaller version for the Gaui... Or maybe they do ? I'am still running my Stock SA motor, but I'll replace that in time hopefully with a Neu motor like I want, or if anything a Medusa as its a little more affordable... It was even hot outside in the sun, and it didn't even phase that Jazz esc... They definately got my vote...Lol..

Just some FYI for ya, if you ever do splurge for one on one of your heli's.... Expensive, but worth every penny........

Alright, I'll be waiting for that video here in the next day or so ! Hopefully the weather has been friendly enough for ya. The weather here today is sunny and hot again...

Talk with ya later ! I new you'd love that Gaui ! Everybody raves about them....


~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

I just got done flying the Gaui in the wind that would push my T-Rex around and it didn't affect it that much. This thing has so much room to fly because of its size. I also got a 6.5 minute flight outside, so that was great compared to my 3 minute flight in the garage. Right now I am running a 100 50 100 throttle curve and seems to have some punch for how heavy it is with the ESC and Gyro and a 10C E-Flite battery. It is still to stable for me outside with the wind, so I will be increasing the swashmix very soon. I still could use a little more throw for the tail pitch slider, but I am not using all of the travel available with the setup I have right now. This helicopter sure suprised me how well it flies when I have heard many bad reviews of other similar sized helicopters. It still seems to fly like a mini T-Rex. I can't imagine how it would fly with a 3S setup when it does pretty good on a 2S setup.

I was reading on Helifreak that someone is using a 15A Kontronik ESC for the Gaui. I think I spelled that ESC name right? If only they made a Neu motor for the Gaui. LOL

Nick

evdreamer

Jeff,

This is the ESC I think they were talking about on Helifreak. It is the same size as the E-Flite ESC I am using on the Gaui right now. And on Kontronik's website it showed this ESC for a 15-20A application, but it says 30A in the picture.
http://www.aeromicro.com/Catalog/kon...sc_3041424.htm

Nick

evdreamer

Glenn,

Do you know how much your Gaui weighs? I just measured mine and it is 286.6g. I didn't know the stock motor can handle a 3S battery, so if I just moved the weight around I can use my CPP batteries.

Nick

evdreamer

I had my first mechanical failure with the T-Rex today. The top part of the pulley for the belt came off in mid flight and I lost control of the tail. But man did the chineese weight mod work great. I had more power and speed from the tail and it held great. I am a little disappointed that an Align product failed. I can't wait until the torque tube comes out for the 450 because I am never using a belt drive system again. It looks like I only broke the blades and servo gears. At least I have an awsome little helicopter to fly in the mean time.

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~

Oh man ! That's a bummer.... I've been there with the crashes.... To date, 1 small one, and 2 major ones... All my fault thank-goodness. I've been lucky (knock on wood) with having parts fail. BUT guess what ! About 3 months ago I had that exact same piece of that pulley you just showed a picture of break also ! Mine was plastic, as I have the SA but now have the metal one. I was spooling up the Trex in my hand, checking tracking and I see this little tiny piece go flying off at mach speed, and I then notice I had no more tail ! It was that little top piece that broke.... I was just getting ready to go out and fly it also ! Good thing it broke when it did... And good thing I was wearing my face shield, as it could have flicked over my way some...Lol..

Thanks for the link about the Kontronik esc's on the smaller ones... I didn't think they made them that small ! I bookmarked it. I doubt I'll ever use anything else except the Kontronik brand esc's... I'am sold on them ! Hey.... I thought I've read about guys using a GY401 for there Gaui 200's ? I bet if the weight didn't effect it to much it would probally work pretty good... But I'am wondering if it would just be overkill though....? Anyway, the Gaui sounds promising... I certainly can't wait to get my paws on one !

Take care,


~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

I feel worse when I crash and it is my fault and not as bad when something goes wrong with the helicopter. I guess the tail failing on the CPP was a foreshadow of what was going to happen to the T-Rex. I thought the metal pully was one piece or at least it should be. And I also thought it had green loctite on it.

I found the thread I was talking about with the Kontronik ESC for the Gaui and it is called the Mini PIX. I think it is around $60-70. There is nothing to program it and doesn't have many of the features your ESC does for the T-REX, but it is very small. I was thinking about using a JETI Spin ESC, but my E-Flite one seems to be doing really good. The GY240 might be overkill, but it works good. I was having some drifting issues, but I moved the ball joint out one hole on the tail servo and lowered the gain and it fixed the problem. The piro rate isn't as fast as it is with the T-Rex and it doesn't climb like the T-Rex does. But it might be the wind and/or the 7.4V battery. I am thinking about putting the G90 back on and trying a 11.1V battery. But the Gaui flies very fast forward and backwards. And it does funnels really good. But I can't do a fast stall turn compared to the T-Rex. I am wondering if I can do a Chineese weight mod to the Gaui. But I don't know what size the screw is. If I remember right the Gaui is lighter than the CPP even with all that aluminum.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

The Jazz I bet is one of the easiest to program I bet.... All you do is turn on your TX, make sure the jumper pin is in the Jazz, plug in your battery, wait for three beeps (initialization), then take out the jumper, then wait for 4 beeps (Heli-mode), then move your throttle stick to max throttle, listen for a few confirmation beeps, & then unplug your batt......All done !...Lol... Takes about a minute... My CC 45amp esc would probally take a century to figure out without the usb adapter to program it...

Cheers,

~ Jeff

rotarydoc

Hey guys!

Wow, I'm WAY behind on the forums...sorry, I've just been catching up on everything (including rest!) from the Subaru project.

Jeff- WOW, a T-Rex 500...that is too cool!! I will definately be considering one of those as my next heli, sometime next year, I would imagine...they fly soooo great on the sim, both the G4 and the Phoenix, I'll bet they are sweet in real life too!
Yeah, I have the shop and all the lifts, stands, etc. at my disposal at work. I don't think I would have bought that car had I not had access to all that stuff to fix it. But, it's coming along fine, I figure it'll take me another couple of weeks, and it should be all good and ready to go!

Nick-Congrats on the first flights with the GAUI!!! I'm glad you like it, I really figured you would...already doing funnels...amazing! That is awesome that you are already that comfortable with it. Sorry to hear about the failure/crash with the T-Rex...that is strange, the pulley failure. Sure seems like you have had more than your fair share of belt problems...I have had great results with belts, both on the B400 and the Gaui.

I just weighed my Gaui, and it's 202 grams, with no battery or canopy. I can't really weigh the canopy because I have the ballast in the nose for CG reasons.

Sorry to hear about the apparent ESC failure, hopefully Helidirect can help? I know some of the HF guys that had bad parts were getting help from Readyheli....

I just got back from flying my Gaui....and it's flying the best it ever has...I cranked up the headspeed last night, forgot to tell you, and I hated it. It got away from me a couple of times, and I had a mild crash. I toned it back down for today, and just took it easy and did stuff I feel comfortble with...and I had a great time with it. It also helped that there was very little wind.

Let me send this...BRB...

Glenn

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Anyways, I am really happy, because I had those 3 beautiful flights with the Gaui, for the first time, I was disappointed when the countdown timer went off, instead of relieved...LOL! I don't know why, but it all seemed to "click" today with me and the Gaui. It felt more like I was flying the B400 than it ever has.

Speaking of the B400, I had sort of a mechnical (electrical, actually) failure with it today. The problem was/is...it seems as though the receiver is dead...I get no light on the RX, so I tried binding it, out there on the field, but no good...maybe some of those great Efite electronics again..I don't know yet...I probably won't have time to look at it before next weekend.

Nick, yeah, the magazine article I read on the Gaui, they loved it, but they said the weak point is the tail. I also noticed that my tail even with the Microheli tail isn't too responsive, but I do have the gyro bumped up pretty high. So the tail might not be as responsive as the T-Rex's.

Nick, I hope you can get the T-Rex up and flying again, but like you said, at least now you have a very cool little heli to fly in the meantime...

Talk to you guys in a little bit...gotta email my buddy about Subaru stuff.

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I don't have any more helicopters to fly now except the CX. Guess what.


Lost the tail in the Gaui too. The lower pinion slid down again and did a piro dart to the ground. Then that bent the tail shaft, busted off the tail slider arm, lost the tail pushrod, broke the crown gear. I think I got 5 flights on it today. Oh did I tell I was using a 3 cell during this. It is hard to explain the sound, but it sounded like a rocket. It was very sweet and fast. Right now I am not liking the double pinion for the shaft drive and might have to go to the belt drive. Today is not my day for helis.

Good to hear you had a great day flying. Hope your receiver starts to work soon.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Glenn ~

Great to see ya able to squeeze in a few flights for this busy weekend it seemed for you... With winter approaching upon us, those opportunities will slowly diminish ! We all got to take advantage any chance we can get now !

Have a good one,


~ Jeff

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~

GEEZ ! Sorry to keep reading about your bad luck today.....[] I guess we all have had our times I suppose.... Dang ! Hopefully you'll get them squared away and flying again soon my friend....

Take care guy,


~ Jeff

rotarydoc

Nick,

Sorry to hear that...I can't picture the lower pinion setup, since mine is belt drive...but it sounds like the pinion is two pieces?

At least the parts you will need don't cost much...unless you are going to do the belt swap instead of replacing the shaft drive parts?

I'll bet it was singing with the 3 cell, I can't imagine it...I guess it would sound like a rocket!

I am wondering if that is maybe a bit too much for the pinion or crown gear to handle?

Sounds like it was flying really well up until that point though...so sorry that had to happen so early!!

Like you said, not your day. I was pretty discouraged last night with mine, but a new day made all the difference.

Let us know what route you go to get it back in the air...

At least you know it's going to be worth it when it's fixed, not so much with the CPP...

Good luck with whichever route you go.

Glenn

rotarydoc

Jeff,

Yeah, it's getting a bit chilly in the mornings here already...LOL

I should be set with TWO simulators this winter..hopefully I'll learn something from them!

Keep us posted on the flying, and the new ESC setup, etc!

I flew the MCX for the guys at work, they loved it....you gotta get one of those too...lots of fun!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Yeah the pinion for mine is two pieces. I think it is kind of stupid they don't have the lower pinion attach directly to the shaft of the motor. Instead the upper pinion has a small sleeve piece that extends from the 15T pinion and the 9T pinion slides over that. So the ID of the lower pinion is bigger than the shaft size of the motor. I should have taken a picture of it. But I put blue loctite over the sleeve like thing from the main pinion and slid the lower pinion over that. Since that is stronger than the green loctite hopefully it holds. If not I will get some red loctite and never worry about it again. I added up the cost to fix the Gaui and it is $14 and the T-Rex is $42 - carbon blades which I already have. The Gaui is always going to be in my fleet with repair costs like that. Right now I am going to try the shaft drive a little more and stay with 2 cells. I like the Hitec servos because the gears survived the crash.

You should try and hook up a 3 cell to the Gaui and add throttle under 0 degrees of pitch, so it doesn't take off. And here the awsome sound it makes. But the canopy didn't clear my 3 cell batteries.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Glenn,

What was that over sized ESC you put on your 400? a 40 amp seems to ring in my head. October must be crash month from what the guys are saying, it sems like we are all darting-in. The last flight in my 402 I heard a weird sound every time I poured on the beans. Like when I crashed trying the loop, you heard it, a sould of lost power. Well now even flying hard I loose rpms and if I back off the revs come up. I have a back up standard 400 ESC but that was 403 so if I need one I will step up to what you did.

Glad you got in some good flying and that the engine job is rolling along too.
I only had time to fly the CX2 in front this morning, sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit did I ever do goof today. I got a little to hot and hit up in a TALL PALM TREE accross the street. I shut down and it stayed up there, very high! ! So I hit the throttle a few times to see if I could break it loose. Welllllllllllllll this is where it gets worse. The main shaft sucked in the palm tree leaves like wrapping string around a stick. Now its is up there and she ain't ah coming down. So I got a 18 foot ladder and my 12 foot prunning pole to se if I could cut her out, nope! no long enough. So I came back home and got a 16 foot painters expandable pole and drilled and screwed that to the pole prunner and I got some height baby. I then could rip off the palm leaf and down came the CX2 to earth, on the grass but still broken up. Lost the entire body, chassis, battery holder. Guess where I am going tomorrow. I am also in the middle of repairing 401 from the loop crash. I have learned to search the ground everytime I crash looking for what might have broken off. Well I just found out I missed the small bell-mix short link that hooks to the blade grip. I just took inventory of my home stock and I have 42 bags of blade 400 parts BUT not that link, go figure.

I am trying to get everthing flyable for next Friday as we are going out to the desert to ride our quads for three days and I am I am taking both 400's and my T-28 plane and if the SRB gets back in time shes going to! I'll take both if not all three battery chargers so I can bring up my batteries as I use them.

More to come.........JPee