Owners Club: thoughts, issues and fixes - OOTB ERRATA

[jamesb72]

Maybe I'm just lazy, but I never oil bearings in motor/main shaft, I have 500+ flights on my 250 with no issues, probably 200+ on my 450pro and 100+ on 550. I believe that apart from scorpion motors, the bearings are greased so should not require re-oiling, but should be checked/replaced when they start to get notchy - oiling won't help.

Some people think putting machine oil into bearings just washes the grease out, so may do more harm than good - exception is scorpion motors, which require oiling every 10 flights - I'm too lazy for that so don't have any of those.

[InFocus]

In the videos, your tweaking pretty hard on the frame to make it shift like that. I don't see during flight that much load occurring. Also, the servo arm is still not touching the motor.

Is it possible that the gear mesh/motor placement was way to tight. This would explain both why the motor was too close to the servo arms to begin with, and then the main gear pressing on the pinion from too tight of a mesh would also tilt the motor even closer to the servo arm, causing it to rub.

[honkytown]

Originally Posted by honkytown

another issue, my main gear is loose, i can hear it slightly klicking while i try to move it up and down....

seems to be normal this way, the screws were tight, it's the play between the main shaft and the main gear holder

@inFusion
if the gear meshing was to tight, why the link wasn't grinded on the first flights? if the servo link wasn't touching the motor bell, how this was filed down? have you noticed that this position is the midstick little above midstick hovering position? If you look at the last pictures in this post you can see the clearance without pushing is around 1mm, i made a couple of shots to rule out the different angles. the link was clearly touching it!

here's another video, with removed main shaft, yadayada the lower bearing gives more stiffness yadayada...you can see how easy the main frame is bendable even my mcpx has more stiffness and the pushing wasn't hard at all

[ame]http://youtu.be/BUSgoXldv9s[/ame]

i guess we have to wait until more and more freakers get their 300 x, more or same issues may come out later. most ppl have only few batteries and mostly no spares yet, so the fly more careful than usual and the total number of flights is raising slowly. time will tell.

should i fly again? i little bit afraid

[jamesb72]

Originally Posted by InFocus

Is it possible that the gear mesh/motor placement was way to tight.

If so that could have worn/damaged the bearings in motor and main shaft bearings, which would overheat and could potentially melt the plastic in the frame around them giving more movement than normal.

I just grabbed the head on my 300X and pulled it pretty hard forward and back and frame doesn't move/flex noticably, certainly nowhere near what your video is showing, so something isn't right on your heli.

[honkytown]

Originally Posted by jamesb72

If so that could have worn/damaged the bearings in motor and main shaft bearings, which would overheat and could potentially melt the plastic in the frame around them giving more movement than normal.

I just grabbed the head on my 300X and pulled it pretty hard forward and back and frame doesn't move/flex noticably, certainly nowhere near what your video is showing, so something isn't right on your heli.

never thought about that, but after every flight i had, i measured the motor and esc temp. iirc the highest temp i measured on the motor was ~54°C (ambient ~29°C) - sounds normal to me.

damn i look into the frame again

[JookSing]

@jamesb72...Does your heli have that strange looking space, slot, hole, or whatever you want to call it, that honkytown posted pictures of? That certainly looks like it would cause some weakness in the frame.

[Epoweredrc]

Originally Posted by honkytown

seems to be normal this way, the screws were tight, it's the play between the main shaft and the main gear holder

@inFusion
if the gear meshing was to tight, why the link wasn't grinded on the first flights? if the servo link wasn't touching the motor bell, how this was filed down? have you noticed that this position is the midstick little above midstick hovering position? If you look at the last pictures in this post you can see the clearance without pushing is around 1mm, i made a couple of shots to rule out the different angles. the link was clearly touching it!

here's another video, with removed main shaft, yadayada the lower bearing gives more stiffness yadayada...you can see how easy the main frame is bendable even my mcpx has more stiffness and the pushing wasn't hard at all

http://youtu.be/BUSgoXldv9s

i guess we have to wait until more and more freakers get their 300 x, more or same issues may come out later. most ppl have only few batteries and mostly no spares yet, so the fly more careful than usual and the total number of flights is raising slowly. time will tell.

should i fly again? i little bit afraid

Holy.... Wow that frame has to be broke somewhere, don't know if its that spot you posted pics of behind the motor or where but its got to be cracked that frame is really moving in that last video.
did you hit the ground hard any? bad landing or anything?


BTW I do not know about the ones who say you never oil anything, i oil my bearings in my motor's and my main shaft bearings and swash ball along with my tail shaft and bearings about every 5-10 flights.
.

[honkytown]

first of all, i really appreciate all your help, thoughts, ideas and explanations
be kind with me and my spelling, it isn't my native language.


@Epoweredrc
sure i oil/grease my bearings on a regular basis, it's a part of normal maintenance
no hard landing, nor crash, no tip-over, nothing that i could blame on me so far, i wish i could, it would be easier for me to dish out some cash for spare parts


where i am now? i can again fly at the suggested TC in manual, flat 75%, that's looks like a progress to me.

what i did?
i closely looked up the frame again, removed main gear + main shaft, checked main shaft bearings and they all were easy to remove but not loose, so i tight up again all bearing blocks(don't forget the two screws behind the elevator servo, it must be removed to get access)

again i tight up all other screws on the frame, it's smart to CA the screws?

checked main blade balance, disassembled tail blade grips again and now(!) the one bearing isn't pushed out anymore, though the uneven play remains! nothing changed in parts or order, wired.

checked mesh of the gearing, still looks fine to me, nevermind loose the mesh gearing to get more clearance between motor bell and servolink, haven't measured it yet, guessing it's something about 2-2.5mm now, will do it tomorrow

after tighten up all screws + bearings blocks, the head got stiffer, with the more clearance between servolink/motor now i can push the head very hard without the servolink is touching the motor bell and min. 1mm clearance at least. some noticeable flexing on the head still remains!

i almost forgot, i flipped the servo link up side down, so i could see if anything is still grinding

i flew 3 batteries, haven't tried TC >75%, the motor was cooler than usual but it was evening and blame on me, i forgot this time my IR thermometer...just fff, pitch pumping, inverted flying, consecutive flips forward/backward, rolls, full cyclic funnels+nose-in, so nothing special or demanding.

guess what happened?
the servolink has clearly a mark on the same spot and shape, small but it's visible!
for a picture proof i need sunlight again tomorrow i will post it.
i don't really wan't to believe that my flying skills have outgrown this kick ass adrenaline 3d machine?

besides this, she is flying like on rails! bx 4tw

[JookSing]

Good to hear you're up and flying again but to bad that some flexing and rubbing still remains. Have you been able to ascertain if that "strange" gap/space/hole on the frame that you posted a picture of is suppose to be like that?

[stevebaker]

Mine has the same space in the frame

[JookSing]

@stevebaker...thanks for that info. Is it possible that it could be the reason for the flexing? What if you CA'd a piece of plastic cut to fit in that spot? Do you think it would stiffen up the frame a bit?

[stevebaker]

My frame has no flex following my stiffener mod that took about 2 mins:



I didn't feel the need to stiffen it up, more precautionary after two others reported flex and a break at that part of the frame.

[JookSing]

Originally Posted by stevebaker

My frame has no flex following my stiffener mod that took about 2 mins:



I didn't feel the need to stiffen it up, more precautionary after two others reported flex and a break at that part of the frame.

Carbon fiber I assume? Did you put that on both sides of the frame? Would you be kind enough to elaborate on how you installed it, please?

[stevebaker]

Yep, a bit of spare carbon fibre was glued using epoxy resin to one side only - the other side is stiffened via the servo/mount.

I've flight tested it and it has no side-effects.

[JookSing]

Great, thanks!

[ducatimoto]

bought a new one yesterday
can't wait for my spares
and a good friend will buy it when rebuilt will be done
with this new one i've had heavy vibrations like you honkytown
did stevebaker's mod and check linkage
there was a lot of tracking
after that, hover was vibration free, even in IU2 (100%flat)
so it's supposed to be hard 3D capable out of the box, it was real for my first one, not exactly the same for the 2nd one
but we must check everything before flying, old flyers told me that...a long time ago and forgot a little bit with eflite products

[jamesb72]

Originally Posted by JookSing

@jamesb72...Does your heli have that strange looking space, slot, hole, or whatever you want to call it, that honkytown posted pictures of? That certainly looks like it would cause some weakness in the frame.

It does look strange, but screw runs through the 'tube' between the frame sides so probable isn't the cause of the flex, which is more just the thickness/type of plastic the side frame is made from. When I pull/push the head this part of the frame doesn't move at all, the flex looks to me to be all in top of mast section and the main shaft.

[ukpaul]

Originally Posted by ducatimoto

hover was vibration free, even in IU2 (100%flat)

Have you changed the main blades, as your not supposed to run the stock ones at 100% flat?

Which ones have you changed to if so?

[ducatimoto]

stock blades
i like risk
only 5 sec hover to check vibrations
i'm looking for carbon blades too! i've seen honey bee cp on ebay, don't know if ordering

[jamesb72]

There are loads of youtube video's of horizon pilots running the stock woodies at 100% flat, so I am guessing the issue is either production tolerances, or liability concerns.

I've ordered a couple of sets of 245mm/246mm carbon type honey bee blades on ebay to try out, but I suspect they may be junk, I suspect they are foam cores with carbon (or glass fibre with carbon effect) laminate.

Bizarrely my 300X flew fine out of the box with no vibrations noticable, when I microbalanced the blades they were 0.6g different, I balanced them to within 0.02g, and then got huge vibration, so I've realised the head itself is unbalanced, and they have added tape to blades to correct this - so either they are flight testing each heli, or balancing the whole head with blades on.

Not sure what I do next, as without a flybar balancing the head is impossible, I might just strip it down and microbalance the grips, as I can only imagine they are different weights which is the cause of this.

Or I may end up just selling the 300X without the AR7200BX and getting a 250 DFC Pro, I'm 50/50, the 300X flies nicely, but is slightly too large/noisy for the green outside my house, also I'm not enamoured with the plastic fantastic, and suspect it will not cope as well with wear and tear/crashing as a Trex.