HK 500 GT Build

[mark.w]

hi again
yeh the tail assy is identical in every way the one i brought from HK and the belt assy is also identical. there must be a manufacture in hk that produce these things, it would not suprise me that one factory produces all the heli spares. and re bages them accordinly.

mark

[OB1 Kenobi]

I got Tarot mixing arms from AC-RC for my HK500GT. More expensive than the HK equivalent (US16 vs. US20+ I think) but I do not regret it. Good quality and look better than the plain HK anodized. Going through my box, I saw some parts I did not order only to find a little note that says "gift." Not cheap freebies but upgrade parts with an S.

Originally Posted by joeyhatch11

Clown, check out AC-RC.com. You can buy Align parts or Tarot parts for the 500. The Tarot parts, as you'll see, look spot o to the Aligns and perform just as nice but at half the cost.

Mark, when I had to replace my tail assembly, all I ordered was the Tarot tail case. The tail blade grips I was able to reuse from the kit I bought at Valuehobby.com. I took a really nasty spill and bent the orginal aluminum frame all to hell. I've since replaced the frame with the Tarot silver graphite as you can see from the pics. All the thrust bearings, both head/tail, have been great and so has everything else. If anything replace the thrust bearings with the Align's rather than risking another problem by getting cheap replacements.

Here's the tail I bought. http://www.ac-rc.com/product_info.ph...6o99a4ivlrb660

[OB1 Kenobi]

Just a thought for those planning on the 500 off HK. Get the CMT version for US100. They did not have it yet a month or two ago so I got the HK500GT and started ordering the HK metal tail assembly + metal boom holder (to reduce/eliminate ESD) and electronic parts tray as the plastic was way too plastic. I even ordered metal mixing arms from AC-RC. Ended up spending MUCH more than getting the factory-upgraded CMT.

Overall, still happy. I maidened it yesterday and went home smiling from ear to ear.

[phantom1500]

Originally Posted by Bodizapha01

Hey guys, just wanted to add the experience I had today. Built my HK500GT yesterday. Pulled all screws, locktited, and lubed the thrust bearings. I took a chance and decided against my better judgement to fly it with the stock tail . I put 3 packs through it yesterday. Mainly just hovering, and some forward flight. I was having issues with blade tracking so I was dealing with that. I put 2 more packs through it this morning, dealing again with blade tracking, and on the 3rd pack (thank goodness I was checking tracking on the ground) one of the blade grip bolts snapped, and caused distruction of the entire tail case. I heard a Whoop sound and the heli did a 180. Powered down and saw the tail case laying on the ground, snapped in half, and missing one entire blade grip. No other damage to the heli. My local HS didn't have an Align metal tail upgrade so I built the entire tail with the Align plastic parts and hardware. I sure hope the Align stuff holds up better. Now my concern is the head. If the bolts in the tail are soft, whos to say the bolts holding the head blade grips together arn't soft. Has anyone experienced a head failure yet? Oh and by the way my electronics are all Align! 510's on the cyclic, 520 on the tail, 1600kv motor (13t), stock esc, and Sparting gyro. Please, Please, Please replace those tail parts guys! Don't be stupid like me and think it wont happen to you.

Blade tracking issue can be fixed by fitting the metal option arms to the head instead of the plastic ones fitted to the HK500 GT. There is flex in them causing perfect tracked blades to go off.
I fitted the metal tail assy straight up so I cant say what the issuies are.

[phantom1500]

Originally Posted by Digger66

I am waiting on my HK500GT to arrive, and I guess a tail assembly replacement is in order. Is the Metal version from HobbyKing/ CopterX any better, or should I just get the Align one and be done with it?

I got the HK metal tail, no faults doing mild 3D.

[joeyhatch11]

My new belt drive gear should be here today and I can't wait. I haven't flown in like 2 weeks and I'm itching to get to the field. I also got a new canopy, I'll have to post some pics, but wait till you see it. I got it on HeliDirect for $26. Normal price was $40, it was damaged during shipping but you'd laugh to see it. On the bottom of the canopy where it butts up against the frame/skids, there is a crack maybe 3/4in long. LOL Alittle drop of resin at work and she's brand new. But even without it, it was perfectly fine. LOL I hope to find another like it.

[belcom]

Originally Posted by joeyhatch11

Clown, check out AC-RC.com. You can buy Align parts or Tarot parts for the 500. The Tarot parts, as you'll see, look spot o to the Aligns and perform just as nice but at half the cost.

I aggree with Joey on the Tarot parts quality and AC-RC guys are awesome to deal with. I ordered some parts for 450 sport recently and everything was great. The prices are fantastic.

[redgiki]

My HK-500GT died an ignoble death the other day. While I was flying, the anti-rotation pin backed out and I went in hard without any control save the tail. Bent the main frames at 90 degrees, destroyed the skids and landing gear, blades trashed, all the usual suspects in the head, boom bent 90 degrees the opposite way, flybar looks like a really nicely-formed "S" with the paddles forming a serif, many bearings obviously shot and notchy...

Ouch!

I think the tail is perfect, though! Not a scratch, it landed on the opposite side.

Still torn on whether I should bother rebuilding: $100 for the HK-500GMT kit almost makes me want to save up $200 and buy two at some point down the line. I have a new GY-401 available (I picked up a couple of really nice LogicTech gyro/servo combos for a song the other day), so that could eliminate my biggest beef with the bird.

Also trashed my T-Rex 450 the other day. Which leaves me with the question: do I build & equip two 500-sized helicopters, two 450-sized helis, or one of each like before? Decisions, decisions...

[joeyhatch11]

Since my 500's birth I haven't touched the 450. In fact, I'm selling the 450 Pro on here. I'm a one heli kind of guy. Turns out I can't afford 2 helis LOL. So away with the 450 and welcome the 500. I'd say 1 of each is always good. That way there is always something to fly. But having 2, 500's and 1, 450 is also a good idea. What to do, what to do?

[OB1 Kenobi]

Sorry about your birds redgiki. Tough decision on the 1+1 vs. 2 given what you already have (or can salvage) and the available options. That 500CMT is a good deal but for us who got the 500GT early, its a wicked but effective marketing strategy.

Anyway, this newbie's idea is: If you are trying to come up with a show-stopping routine or polishing one, maybe two of the same kind is best. For strictly funflying, can't go wrong with one of each.

And maybe always bring third one, a basher, for final backup. I am saying this because last weekend, I spent all my packs trying to get my 500GT and Flasher450Pro to fly right. Stressful. I crashed both eventually. Even more stressful. Then I brought out my KingII+FP head with twitchy, almost in-existent, tail control. Four packs of stress-free fun. Went home smiling.

[Bullitt5094]

Four 450s I can thrash and crash then repair for next to nothing. One goes down, I still have three to go. Then I also have one Copter X 500 I can fun fly around nice and stable. That's my happy zone.
Well, maybe one more 500 would help a bit...

[redgiki]

Originally Posted by OB1 Kenobi

Sorry about your birds redgiki. Tough decision...
And maybe always bring third one, a basher, for final backup.

Heh, for years my 450 was my basher. Then lately my .50 has been my basher, while my 450 and 200 went unflown, and I flew the 500 a lot because of the great recharge time on the A123s. So it was my .50 and my 500. Fly the 500, while it's recharging fly the 50, by the time I'm done flying the 50 for 12 minutes the 500 is done charging again, could do it all day long as long as I had fuel.

[rotorfan]

Do the A123 need a special charger? Ive seen them but dont know anything about them. Arent they over $100 each! What kind of flight times do you get?

[redgiki]

Originally Posted by rotorfan

Do the A123 need a special charger? Ive seen them but dont know anything about them. Arent they over $100 each! What kind of flight times do you get?

Not in this case. I ran the 6S setup as two 3S packs. I balanced them on the charger every so often, but after around 10-20 cycles, A123 cells charged to 3.85v/cell just don't need balancing anymore. They self-balance due to the slight overcharge. Anyway, I'd fly them in serial (roughly about the same as a 5.5S 2300mAh LiPo pack, but heavier) and charge them in two parallel packs off a 12v car battery.

With head speed nudging 2800-2900 on a fresh pack, they'd fly serious collective-bogging attempts at flips, tick-tocks, inverted punchouts, etc. for around four minutes and fifteen seconds. Then somewhere between 4:15 and 4:30, I'd try a punchout and hear the head speed drop precipitously. It's then time to land within the next 15-20 seconds; I'd flip to Normal mode and bring her in. Another 15 seconds of hovering, and the pack is totally done. I could keep the head spinning just 'cuz I could without damaging the batteries, but playing "neener, neener, neener, you can't do this" with the LiPo guys got old after a while.

Flew with the Turnigy Typhoon 1800Kv and 14-tooth pinion. Flew really well, and the CG was very slightly tail-heavy. However, the amps would REALLY ramp up during hard collective moves. If you have a nice high-wattage charger, a 7S setup with its identical voltage to a 6S LiPo with less voltage sag would really be ideal (just charge it as if it's a 7S lipo, no balancing). Other than removing the front battery tray so the cells can fit, it's a drop-in replacement for your existing 6S 2200mAh LiPo, with similar flight characteristics and slightly longer flight time. You can run the A123 cells to near 0, so flight-time wise a 2300mAh pack -- if you follow the 80% discharge rule -- is the equivalent of a 2875mAh LiPo. But you settle for lower voltage or a weight penalty.

They are easy to build yourself, and vendors on eBay are selling single cells for $5 apiece. So a 6S pack sets you back $30 plus maybe $5 worth of shrink wrap (bought at hobby store, not battery place) and a $1.50 balance connector. But it's the ONLY battery you need to buy for the bird.

If you go with a 6S setup and charge as parallel 3S, you can zip-charge right off your car battery. Google "zip charge A123 3S" for more details. It's not rocket science. On my 16-gauge lamp cord, I'd typically charge between 30-40 amps to start the charge, and it would settle down to about 20-25 amps for most of the charge. Realize you're charging 3S 4600mAh, so even at an average of 20A your recharge time is around 13-14 minutes. I sometimes charged at 50-60A to speed things up (your cars alternator can handle it, it recharges the battery much harder than that!), but above 40A that lamp cord is getting HOT and burned me once when I wasn't careful. Had a bluster for a couple of days when I tried to grab the charging clamp.

It was worth the experiment, and I don't regret it at all. But I crashed so hard that the aluminum frame punctured one of my cells! The cell quickly got very warm and discharged itself to 0 volts. The remaining five cells were unscathed.

Cost of zip-cord charger: maybe $5-8 worth of parts and a $3 multimeter from Harbor Freight. And a car with a decent battery to hook it up, and gas to run your car between charges because even a 10-minute charge at 30 amps is gonna suck your battery dry if you do it too much. Very cool way to power a 500-sized heli on a budget.

But realize with A123, you can have good power, good weight, or good flight time... but you're only allowed to choose two of them. I've seen a bunch of different A123 setups now, and invariably the high-power, long-running ones have a fantastic power to weight and handle superbly, but they're much heavier than the Lipo birds if they do that.

EDIT: I did pick up a Baldwin Controls Charge Terminator (mine says "DB Terminator" on the top, old version) to stop my charge when I hit 3.85v/cell. I think the device was $20 or so, auto-detects up to eight A123 cells for the charge cutoff. It's useful in many ways; one of them, for me, is when hooking up my A123 batteries to a regular LiPo charger, the DB terminator would cut off the charge early so I didn't overcharge them. Eventually I picked up a charger that could handle the cells, but it wasn't a game-changer. Just instead of using a stand-alone balancer I'd use the one built in to the charger.

[alleycat3677]

Did you have to make room for your flybar at all? Mine rubs on the inside of the head and Im to afraid to file it because of strength and integrity. Help please.Thank You

[yakflyer]

Just had another great day flying my HK-500GT. I am very comfortable with FF and having some fun. Begining to get tempted to roll and loop now.

Here's my question. I am now using the HC 3,300 maH 6s 35-70c battery NanoTech packs. I am very attenitive to how much load I am placing on the battery/drain.

My flight was 6 minutes on the NanoTech, about my 10th +/- flight on that particular battery. I put my digital cell volt counter and saw I am roughly around 3.8 per cell after I finish a flight. I put it on the charger and charge it and the charger shows me it only put in 1,100+/- maH to reach 4.2 on each cell.

I thought one should not put to much drain on a battery (below 3.75 per cell) for fear of damaging the cell. But if I am only usng one third of the maH capacity how do I get to enjoy the extra maHs?

Am I being too cautious? I built my bird exactly as ChrisWNY posted here in this thread and loving the way she handles!

I would like to fly longer but I do not want to damage the battery. What should I be thinking about?

Thanks in advance!

[flerpie]

I always bring my little syma 3ch. co-rotator.
If I crash my big one I just fly my little 3ch. around
and feel good again...LOL. Or let the kids fly it.
Get them hooked at a young age and they'll be back

[flerpie]

Originally Posted by redgiki

They are easy to build yourself, and vendors on eBay are selling single cells for $5 apiece. So a 6S pack sets you back $30 plus maybe $5 worth of shrink wrap (bought at hobby store, not battery place) and a $1.50 balance connector. But it's the ONLY battery you need to buy for the bird.

Hi Rediki - I'd really like to roll my own lipos from 1S cells.
When I've cut apart a 3S lipo and have a look it seems like
the lipo tabs are so short that I can't replace a bad cell.
Happen to have any pics or a thread showing the detals?
Thx.

[jeremy cooksey]

can someone tell me good servos for the copterx 500 and motor and esc that wont break me. ive got $200 left on my budget to get the electronics with.i seen on Hirobo website i think, there was a electronics combo for $100 for the cx 500 .wonder if that would be good?

[jeremy cooksey]

can you give me the link to mg930 turnigy servo? or is there a better one to get? im building a copter x 500.Thanks