Exi 500

[belcom]

Originally Posted by rcjames

You better mod you're tray and get a new canopy to fit that. LOL

tray dropped and these fit into the cannopy just fine. like it was meant to be. CG is good too despite the fact it is 600 grams. I have a feeling I will get some good flight times out of these. still waiting for motor and esc.

[jauguston]

I am setting up with a Hitec HSG5084MG digital servo on 6v for the tail and HS225BB on cyclic. .05 speed on the 5084 and with the chinese tail mod plenty of torque. Quark gyro. Almost ready to fly.

Jim

[jauguston]

Belcom,

Several including me noticed the alignment pin being too long. Grind it down. Also you will see the belt sprocket is too high. The Align Trex 500 shaft assembly has the sprocket in the correct lower location. I just swapped one into my EXI 500. I tried to press the EXI sprocket down on the shaft and it wouldn't move.

Jim

[jauguston]

CR,

One of the differences between the Trex and the EXI 500's is the linkage rod thread size. Trex rods are 3mm thread and EXI are 2mm. I just went through finding this out as I needed some of the long ones for my EXI. I ordered from Heliproz for Trex and they are 3mm. Rick at Heliproz did some checking and Hirobo has 20mm long 2mm plastic links. He is sending me some of them.

Jim

[anton831]

in my experience i would stay clear of the hs225 servo on a 500 size heli no matter what you here ive seen people who have been on here for years and there wrong. the hs-225 fit barely but are to long for a canopy to fit properly and you take a chance of losing a ball link because of the distance or the canopy catching the linkages causing a swahplate lockup causing a massive crash

[jauguston]

My EXI CF frame 500 must be a lot different than Anton's. I had no issues with installing the HS225's and everything fit just fine.

Jim

[anton831]

im wondering that my self maybe they changed the servo i might have a newer model or a older model and i just ordered these servos from tower.my servo is almost at the end of the canopy mount,<rear servo>

[anton831]

no servo changes servlo rod straight hum

[DWC357]

I've been learning to fly my EXI for about 3 months know.
It's a great buy for the price and performs very well.
I installed a 1600 KV outrunner and fly on a 4400mah 4 cell pack.
I just ordered a second one in Red, will keep it for spare parts, repairs are much cheaper this way.

[Turbojoe]

Originally Posted by DWC357

I've been learning to fly my EXI for about 3 months know.
It's a great buy for the price and performs very well.
I installed a 1600 KV outrunner and fly on a 4400mah 4 cell pack.
I just ordered a second one in Red, will keep it for spare parts, repairs are much cheaper this way.

Sorry to drag up a month and a half old thread but the 4S 4400 setup intrigues me. What pinion are you using? I've got a couple of 4S 2200mah packs that have been in the fridge since new as I don't have anything to use them in. I'll also be using a 1600kv motor in my EXI500 that I just got. I've got a bunch of A123 cells that I plan to try as well. Just looking for basic sport flight with absolutely no 3D.

Joe

[MolokaiBoy]

Well I've built and flown a fair share of helis since I first started flying. This is my first EXI model. I got it in a trade so I have decided to build this heli on a budget to see how it turns out. I have read so many people using these cheaper electronics with great success that I have decided to see for myself.

Out of the box, this EXI 500 plastic version seems pretty decent. I will be tearing it down and loctiting all the parts that need it, is there any areas that are of concern that I should look for? Is there any problematic areas that should be changed right from the start? I have read a little bout the tail, can anyone elaborate please.

I will be installing the following electronics:
HK Typhoon 500 (1800kv)
HK SS Heli Series 70-80A ESC w/ UBEC (disable bec)
Turnigy 5A SBEC
HS225mg's for cyclic
Zippy 3s 2650 40C x 2 in series

I have a GY520 w/8900g I was going to try to put on, because I have it, and a AR7000, till I can get one of those orange ones from HK.

Aloha,
Les

[mark.w]

Just wanted to also say that i went down the non align road, and have to admit have realy enjoyed the hobby.

Overtime and a few crashes i have replaced parts with either align or tarrot or Flasher, and has been good.

my heli has taken about 6 months to realy get finished as i wanted, once i have masterd this bird i will thenspend the extra on a align 700. Learn to fly on a banger and progress to a better spec heli. I am only at basic flight as the weather and the fear still limits me, but this will change with time and more flying, have been doing a lot of sim lately so hopefully when i get back out and fly i might see an inprovement??.

All of my parts have come from HK and have not let me down, the best investment was the futaba 2.4 fasst radio and rx.


mark w

[belcom]

Originally Posted by MolokaiBoy

Well I've built and flown a fair share of helis since I first started flying. This is my first EXI model. I got it in a trade so I have decided to build this heli on a budget to see how it turns out. I have read so many people using these cheaper electronics with great success that I have decided to see for myself.

Out of the box, this EXI 500 plastic version seems pretty decent. I will be tearing it down and loctiting all the parts that need it, is there any areas that are of concern that I should look for? Is there any problematic areas that should be changed right from the start? I have read a little bout the tail, can anyone elaborate please.

this is for CF version though. before you even start flying it or spooling it up I would highly recommend replacing the following parts with Align (bearings could be 3rd party as long as they're the same size and good quality):
- tail rotor shaft (original shaft is so weak it bends on it's own)
- main shaft
- tail pitch slider
- tail rotor shaft bearings
- tail drive gear bearings
- main shaft bearings
- tail grip assembly (actually plastic Align grips works great, they're cheap and don't require the chinese weight mod to perform the same as metal grips).
- if it's a plastic version then probably a good idea to replace the tail case as well for a metal one
- tail grip bolts should be the strongest you can find
- washout control arm and radius arm bearings are pretty bad as well. when you take it apart to locktite and put it back together it will most likely bind so bad it won't be able to move. probably best to replace the arms to avoid binding issues or if you can get away with just replacing bearings then you should be ok.
- Double check main grip thrust bearings as they could be seized. (had some glue on mine)
- main gears (better off with Align gears and one way bearing)
- ball links are of poor quality in my opinion and needed to be replaced with Align parts

Anyway, this is what I had to do to get it flying decently without extreme vibrations that I was chasing down after assembly out of the box. I found the whole experience to be quite dissapointing. And although it allows you to learn to troubleshoot common issues you are spending too much time doing it instead of flying and enjoying. Will never buy EXI products again. Hobbyking 500GT, CopterX and Flasher are all pretty much the same I believe. The only clone worth looking at would be Tarot. I had used some of their parts as replacements and the quality is actually on par with Align (except main and tail rotor shafts). Check out www.ac-rc.com for parts. Good luck.

[DVUSHELI]

I have one. Flies great after upgrading a few things on it. Had to change the boom to an Align carbon and changed the tailbox as well. Stock tailbox kept slipping on the boom from a bad vibe. Didn't help that the boom is slightly too small for the stock alloy tailbox clamp. Changed the main gear/ autorotation drive gear and the tail drive gear to Align as well. Eliminated that pesky vibration instantly. Added some bling with KDE's thrusted bearing blocks. I'm no 3D flyer, yet, but those things made a huge difference from the stock bearings!! All Align MG servos, GP750 gyro, Turnigy 80A ESC and Turnigy Typhoon brushless motor(demon)!! Flying for less than a Trex500 original.
The alloy used on this bird is very soft, as I found out when I stripped the threads in the boom clamp for the horizontal fin, and the tail servo mounts. Next replacement may be the head, as I've found that the grips are very tight around the extra set of Align 3D blades I have.
Overall though, a very nice heli for the price. I can't knock the clones. My HK450 is what helped me to get over my fear of what I thought would be an expensive crash.
Have fun!!