Saving another MiniProtos

[sp00fman]

Nice idea of the small bearing, but they might be hard to find. perhaps 1,5mm is a bit on the thick side. i have no way to measure the actual gap.. Using the Tarot hub might be a good idea.
Milling a shaft could work. The X3 has a similar stepped tailshaft. Perhaps that would just fit in? It looks really close! Lets ask the guys over in the X3 thread!
Look at this, the grips look a lot like the miniP geometry.
http://www.helidirect.com/gaui-x3-ta...ly-p-33090.hdx
I bet we could just buy the grip set, a set of shafts and bolt it all on the mini and have our thrusted grip design!

By the way, i had to make some more mods to fix my thrusted tail. At maximum outward throw on the tail slider the "ears" or counterweight on the base of the grips hit the bellcrank lever at the top and bottom.. It is slight but problematic, I just filed a little bit of material away from the plastic bellcrank to get the clearance i needed and be able to get a decent pitch range on the blades. Only needed to file/sand away a small amount.
Could have gotten away with just limiting servo throw but feel happier with solving the problem.

To top it off i took a somewhat longer bolt for the tailblade and added an extra nut on the head end and a locknut on the other. Here we go again with the Chinese weight mod . It now takes quite a bit less force to move through the pitch range at target RPM. This should be much easier on the servo and the quite flexible plastic pitchlever.

I might have a window for a test flight tomorrow morning.

[sp00fman]

well, it flies!

It is smooth and did not self destruct. Blade tracking seems spot on. Got to love the digital pitch gauges. The powersystem needs work. was barely getting 2800rpm and the motor quit for a second, so i landed asap. I tink the lipo got too cold and was not holding its voltage. Its an old zippy 30C.

Will put the motor timings on manual again and re-set the gov-store. I feel i need to balance the scorpion motor asap and replace the HK 2500kv sooner than planned,

[maarset]

[pgleesonuk]

"I bet we could just buy the grip set, a set of shafts and bolt it all on the mini and have our thrusted grip design!"

But you need at attach the pulley to the shaft. Probably every brand if different.
Buying a few spare parts might be worth it though to see

[Mikej]

Alternatively you could use a 3x6x2.5 thrust bearing if you can find one ... http://www.ckado.com/EK-003994-thrus..._11719_en.html

[pgleesonuk]

https://www.helifreak.com/showpost.p...87&postcount=9

Think I might of cracked it with stock tail grips, so no geometry issue.

:-)

[sp00fman]

Finished my build by balancing the motor and a bit of Bling here and there.
I wonder how the tail is going to preform.

Sure looks sweet!

[pgleesonuk]

The new Lynx Heli pitch lever is a good upgrade. The stock plastic part flexes under load.

http://www.fast-lad.co.uk/store/prod...ducts_id=27240

[Mikej]

Looking forward to hearing how she flies - bought my Mini Protos a low head in the Christmas sales

Now get out flying and report back

[sp00fman]

Weather is about perfect right now. Lipo's charging..... inserting coffee and lunch to get ready

[sp00fman]

Two short tuning flight and it flies like a dream. Barely noticed the strong wind.

Here is flight 3 on the heli. The field is to small to really tax the tail in extremes, so that has to wait a little. Love the orange tail fin in flight. it's really bright.

Sorry for the narrow vieuw. Next month i will order a Mobius HD flash camera. Should be a good investment.

[ame]http://youtu.be/2gtPybKys5w[/ame]

[pgleesonuk]

What FBL controller are you using?

[Mikej]

Looking good mate - you must be pleased

[Mikej]

Originally Posted by pgleesonuk

What FBL controller are you using?

Originally Posted by sp00fman

Just ordered the metal pulleys and a long motor shaft to upgrade the stock motor with.
Will arrive in a few days so time to get off my ass and install the FBL controller. I will use the Tarot ZYX-s again, so i have two electrical identical heli's,
One stock, and the other with low head, metal pulleys, CNC third bearing support and thrusted tailgrips.
I will be able to directly compare the two and test some more things. I dont really expect a lot of difference, but who knows

[wstuart]

Nice, looks really stable. Are you flying near a gun range?

[sp00fman]

Gun range? no, we can't own guns in the Netherlands....

Got a Tarot ZXY-s firmware 4.02 FBL controller on there.

I like it, but dont have much experience with the other units. I can imagine units that will be smoother or different on the swash, but the tail hold is just very good on the Tarot. It can do backward loops without worry of a tail blowout.

I feel very relaxed and in control flying this miniP and ZXY combination.

[sp00fman]

double

[desertstalker]

Originally Posted by pgleesonuk

The new Lynx Heli pitch lever is a good upgrade. The stock plastic part flexes under load.

http://www.fast-lad.co.uk/store/prod...ducts_id=27240

Do you have any evidence of this?

The mini Protos has been out for years and no one has complained of this that I am aware of.

A lot of these "upgrades" seem to be fixing problems that do not exist.

[pgleesonuk]

A simple bench test proved the flex in the pitch lever

Without main blades I took a firm hold of the heli and set the gyro into normal mode
Then giving full rudder input the pitch slider would not go all the way too one the end. The lever flexed too much.
Put in the upgrade, no flex, and the pitch slider will go to each end. All the way to stalling the tail blades

This is much safer to be done by 2 people. It was by far the clearest demonstration of a worthwhile upgrade I have seen.

I agree upgrades of CNC this and bling that quite often don't really improve the heli performance.
Like a boom clamp. If the stock plastic part is not slipping than a alu CNC one can't slip less.

[sp00fman]

I am reserving my opinion about the metal pitch slider until i get a feeling of the current setup, so i can do a 1:1 comparison when i switch over.
I have to be careful not to add any more weight to the tail. i have my 3s2200 35C slid all the way forward an can barely get the canopy on as it is.
Might have to relocate the full size Rx more forward.... but its so ugly. Its currently strapped to the outside back of the frame.