BeastX and static

[steviemac500]

Quick question, do, need i to be worried about static from my belt on my Trex 500 interfering with the BeastX.

Think I want to convert to TT and am looking for an excuse to buy the unit.

[adirobdack46r]

I'm certainly not an authority on the subject but spent a bunch of time yesterday searching the internet on this very thing. There are people that are absolutely adamant that the tail shaft/boom/motor plate all need to be grounded together on any belt driven tail or the possibility for static buildup is there and once it arcs it will wig out electronics.

[Dr. M]

That's no reason to convert to TT. The problems you'll create far outweigh the remote possibility of increased static from a belt drive. Particularly considering that the tail blades are the main source of static on any heli.

[Nihilistic]

I don't see any advantage to torque tube tails over belt driven tails. The belts on mine seem to last forever, until they get eaten in a crash. The tails hold great on both my belt driven 450's. And, they're so cheap to repair. I get a pair of Tarot tail booms for $2.90 (sometimes those can be straightened and reused by driving a dowel rod through them), a pair of tail rotor shafts with metal gear for $2, and a new tail belt for $1, and that's usually about all I have to replace on the tail. Orient your tail servo so it hangs down below the boom, and that prevents the rotors hitting the tail servo case in a crash. I've yet to ruin the horizontal or vertical fins. I broke a boom brace carbon rod once, which was cheap to fix. Way cheaper than buying a new TT and plastic TT gears and trying to get them all meshed right again.

[steviemac500]

Dr M, what problems would I create with the TT? What's the best way to ground the tail then if its the blades that cause the problem with the static?

[Dr. M]

There are about 1000 threads in the Main forum on the TT vs Belt debate, I'm not about to start another. As you can probably tell, I'm in the belt camp on this issue.

To ground the tail, you must create a path for electricity from the tail shaft to the motor mount. One way to do this is run a wire from the port side tail shaft bearing to the tail boom (provided it's conductive), and another from the other end of the boom to the motor mount. If your heli frame is made of Alu an CF, you don't even need wires, just some carefully planned scraping of anodized coating on Alu and clear coating on CF parts. Use a multimeter to verify you have electrical continuity from the tail shaft to motor.