NEW - Kasama Dune 600 Build

[Mercuriell]

We first saw the world premier of the Dune 600 at the Helifreak FunFly last year. It caused a lot of favourable comment so we have been waiting patiently for the Faifa's little brother ever since. The latest incarnation includes a lot of thought and redesign by Kasama as a result of extensive field trials by pilot Gavin Broadbent. A lot of thought and sweat has gone into the frames evaluating different thicknesses, sources and designs - the latest has a novel two piece design whereby the front piece is isolated by the main frame by bridging CNC/O-ring dampers.

The main gear and pinion is the first for Kasama with an oblique gear cut to quieten down the typical ringing of a linear cut gear of an electric. Although the protoype featured a helical crown gear and tail pinion, robust field testing showed it was not as strong as the original design and this has been adopted - ongoing development of the helical gears continues but this is hampered by a very slow turnaround to the specialist outsourced gear cutter - until Kasama is perfectly happy with the gear profiles and materials he is not happy to release it as a beta test to the consumer!

The canopy has caused some comment - it has already been likened to a submarine conning tower - I think it looks great, especially in the air ! The cowling elegantly covers up the swash and must contribute to aerodynamics.

Why the Dune name you ask ?? This is a tribute to the long-standing support of UAE Heli who helped translate dreams sketched out on a napkin into the reality of Kasama Helicopters


Index to Build Videos

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - What's In The Box? - mp4 - 137MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Frame & Skid Assembly - mp4 - 93MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Frame Bearing Blocks - mp4 - 123MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Mast gears - mp4 - 69MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Rotor Head - mp4 - 101MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Servos & Linkages - mp4 - 183MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Motor Installation - mp4 - 103MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Tail Assembly - mp4 - 138MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Boom Assembly - mp4 - 113MB

Video - Kasasama Dune 600 - Maiden Test FLight - mp4 - 83MB

Video - Kasama Dune 600 - Gear backlash setup - mp4 - 160MB


Index to Build Posts

Bags 1-2 - Undercart

Bag 3 - Front Frame Assembly

Bag 4 & 5 & 6 - Tail Boom Case & Pinion Block

Bags 7 & 8 & 9 - Frame Bearing Blocks

Bag 10 - Main Gear Assembly

Bag 11 - Rotor Head

Bag 13 - Elevator Servo Linkage

Bag 14 - Lateral Cyclic Servo Linkages

Bag 15 - Motor Mount

Bag 16 - Lower Battery Tray

Bag 17 - Tail Assembly

[Mercuriell]

Well with a totally different design to the Faifa (and no manual!) it took a bit of figuring out but the build has started very quickly and straightforward - all bits fit perfectly and nothing missing so far - I'll run through the build in sequence of bags.

Bags 1-1 1-2 2



The skids are precisely punched with the location of the grub screws so that they can be mounted up on the struts without mounting to the frame.



Make sure you put the front strut on first and align the tabs on the struts facing outwards



The front carbon frames are mounted up on the front strut - the piece with the large cutout for the ESC is placed on the left

[DominicD]

Two builds at the same time !! Did the wife kick you out ?

[Mercuriell]

Originally Posted by DominicD

Two builds at the same time !! Did the wife kick you out ?

I thought my wife was on holiday with you

Back in the cage Capi

[DominicD]

I don't think anyone would consider time with me a vacation. Glad to see you doing a build series. Been awhile since I watched one of these things.

[Mercuriell]

Bags 3-1 & 3-2


Front frame and frame joining hardware




Carbon plate for bottom of ESC compartment fixed onto damper joining block and front cross-member




Damped cross-member at the rear, non-damped at the front, with screw holes for ESC CF plate




Same cross members fixed on top for battery plate




Bottom damped cross-member, forward hole takes M3 stud for canopy mount




Battery tray and canopy mounts fixed in position

[gelatmi1]

John,
i'm not able to see the first video (format file unknown !!!!)
I can see your other mp4 videos without problems (Impaction videos).

Could you check if the file is ok ?

Thanks

EDIT:
now the file name is wrong (.mp40) in the link
http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=...sinthebox.mp40

PS: Thanks - all fixed up - faulty render - 0 added to file name to stop wasting people's bandwidth - John

EDIT:

Great…thanks a lot !!!

[Mercuriell]

Front frames joined with battery and ESC tray in situ




Pinion drive for torque tube - make sure pinion flush with drive shaft and tighten up the 4 grub screws evenly and sequentially - red Loctite here not a bad idea.The rear TT coupling is snugged up on the shaft to the rear bearing and secured with a pinch collar. The cam adjusted is lubed with some grease and then located in the block which in turn is mounted in the frames






The tail boom mounting block is mounted in the frames with an M4 bolt and locknut on the bottom and an M4 threaded stud on top - the pointy end of the stud goes to the right and is red Loctited in. The spacer is inserted wider end towards the CF and the gyro sensor plate is mounted on top of the block.

[BenScoobert]

Great thread, thanks John.
Now you have the frame in place, what are the size limitations for the motor and ESC?
Thanks, subscribed.

[Mercuriell]

Originally Posted by BenScoobert

Great thread, thanks John.
Now you have the frame in place, what are the size limitations for the motor and ESC?
Thanks, subscribed.

PAtience Ben - all will be revealed - hard enough to photo - film - edit -- build - post

[Mercuriell]

Motor pinion support block with dampers - mounts in front of frame above motor mount






Top and bottom bearing blocks with enclosed thrust bearings. Both are mounted with open, larger diameter sides facing towards each other. Smaller ID block is lower to accommodate step in mast




Motor and mast bearing blocks in situ




Boom support brace mounting and output lever for tail servo - red Loctite the balls in. Longer ball goes on the end and shorter on next hole in - shown with optional accessory for antenna mounting

[BenScoobert]

Originally Posted by Mercuriell

PAtience Ben - all will be revealed - hard enough to photo - film - edit -- build - post

Patience? Not sure what you mean, must be an Australian thing.

[Sage]

Hi John,

Thanks for sharing your build with us.
It's great as usuall.

As expected it was worth to wait for this heli all this time.

Thanks to Kasama can't wait to put hands on my kit and take few pictures too.


BTW
2 builds at the same time, wow. Lucky you.

[jamin_00]

Nice one Johnny boy

Looking forward to this as it progress's :

[chingie]

Nice very nice build, and quality components too

[Mercuriell]

Originally Posted by Sage

Hi John,

Thanks for sharing your build with us.
It's great as usuall.

As expected it was worth to wait for this heli all this time.

Thanks to Kasama can't wait to put hands on my kit and take few pictures too.


BTW
2 builds at the same time, wow. Lucky you.

Look foprward to your build insights Piotr and great pics

[BenScoobert]

Just talking to a friend about the build so far.
He mentioned he thought the front canopy mounts appear to have no spacer between them.
Now it is hard to see from the pics, and possibly an oversight due to lack of manual.
Can you enlighten us John?

Now I've watched the video I see it goes into the block

[Mercuriell]

Originally Posted by BenScoobert

Just talking to a friend about the build so far.
He mentioned he thought the front canopy mounts appear to have no spacer between them.
Now it is hard to see from the pics, and possibly an oversight due to lack of manual.
Can you enlighten us John?

Front canopy mounts screw into the lower damper block forward hole

[Gavin B]

Hi John,

Looking good! The rear canopy mounts are positioned in the top hole of the tail boom clamp and you should have some purple coloured cnc doublers that are fitted to the elevator arm bearings on the frame KSM 10-50C08. Sorry about the no manual! We are going to email you a manual to help you out :-)

I'm looking forward to Piotr's build pics too!

Regards

Gavin

[jamin_00]

Originally Posted by Gavin B

Hi John,

Looking good! The rear canopy mounts are positioned in the top hole of the tail boom clamp and you should have some purple coloured cnc doublers that are fitted to the elevator arm bearings on the frame KSM 10-50C08. Sorry about the no manual! We are going to email you a manual to help you out :-)

I'm looking forward to Piotr's build pics too!

Regards

Gavin

How long till a manual is available to download Gavin?

I do like to browse