What did you do with your PRÔTOS today?

[alexf1852]

Originally Posted by OnTheSnap

I'm about to build up the legendary p500 as well :-). The max is looking for a smaller sibling.

Probably going with a carbon kit, Xpert M1 servos, and thinking about what monster motor I can put in it. :-). Any thoughts on the best Xnova option?

Both the Xnova 3215-930kv 10P - TAREQ EDITION and the KDE KDE500XF-925-G3 have a wider mounting surface than the width of Protos motor mount. You would need a shim of maybe 4mm to push the motor down some to avoid having to cut some of the frame. Patrick at KDE said he could make a shim for the motor if I was interested but I passed on it. So if you try that route, you will need to cut away some of the frame. Same situation goes for the Scorpion HK-3226-900KV. This one is the monster motor, but is a bit heavier than the stock Scorpion 890kv and needs part of the frame cut away.

There's also the $17 cheap Turnigy motors. But those have bearings that are too small and require more frequent replacements.

In the end, I just stuck with the stock.

[Mikej]

Originally Posted by dr dremel

And joining Protoholics Anonymous? It is tempting

What are the entry qualifications???

2 x Protos 500 and 2 x Mini-Protos

[dr dremel]

Originally Posted by Mikej

What are the entry qualifications???

2 x Protos 500 and 2 x Mini-Protos

Yeah I´m probably a Protoholic member already. But I vote for HarryR as the president!

Regarding the motors: Aren´t the Goblin 380 motors a little too small? The Scorp HK-3020-1000KV is 50g less than the stock Protos motor. My guess is the torque would be abysmal.

Scorpion did make a 14P 3026 at one point. This was THE motor for the motor builders (wind your own). Sadly discontinued.

And IIRC I ordered the Scorp bearing kit for the Turing motor. They should be the same.

[DoubleCH]

There has been some discussion whether the KDE motor for the Goblin 380 is good enough for the Protos. I don't believe so but if there's one person to try it out I'd very much like to see OTS do it and prove me wrong.

[DoubleCH]

I fly my Protos today (OK yesterday) for the... maybe 2500 flights which I lost count, like I always do. What I haven't lost count is the cycles I put in my Nanotech 6S 25C 3000 packs that I've been doing long-term test/review with. They have gone past the 300-flight milestone each pack! I love my stretched Protos' super light disc-loading so much even if I fly my packs hard they still last. I know from IR reading and charger graphs that these packs are starting to show their age but they still perform at least as good as my Roaring Top test packs that are 200 flights younger.

And here's how it flies. The flying may be repetitive because I tried 2350 HS and then repeat with 2400 HS.

My Stretched Protos Long-Term Test Nanotech 25C 3000 F304 (4 min 11 sec)

[renaudrenaud]

Nice fly DoubleCH
This P500 is so fun , i will keep mine for ever . Love it ..
For the pinion 13 or 14 in steel is it possible to buy one somewhere ?

[HarryR]

Originally Posted by dr dremel

Yeah I´m probably a Protoholic member already. But I vote for HarryR as the president!

Regarding the motors: Aren´t the Goblin 380 motors a little too small? The Scorp HK-3020-1000KV is 50g less than the stock Protos motor. My guess is the torque would be abysmal.

Scorpion did make a 14P 3026 at one point. This was THE motor for the motor builders (wind your own). Sadly discontinued.

And IIRC I ordered the Scorp bearing kit for the Turing motor. They should be the same.

Thanks Dr Dremel.

[HarryR]

Originally Posted by HarryR

Thanks Dr Dremel.

BTW.. I am in the process of setting one of them up with the BRAIN FBL unit. It will be fun. Then, I also have a Micro IKON ready and waiting to be put in one of my Blade 180 CFX.. when I have some time :-)

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by renaudrenaud

For the pinion 13 or 14 in steel is it possible to buy one somewhere ?

Unfortunately no. I made my own.
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=638975

[ben_beyer]

Can't say I've done anything on my Protos yet. But I did order a Carbon 500 on Saturday.

[DoubleCH]

Swapped out my stock YGE60A ESC for a YEP100A LV for just $22 on HobbyKing's 50%-off sale. This one runs the newer firmware that supports the gov-off-x3 feature. Runs much better with the vbar governor now. And no more worry of overtemp warning.

I was hoping the internal BEC would be good enough so I could take out the CC BEC. No luck. With my full-size Savox 1290MG tail servo plus power-hungry TGY-S306G cyclic servos I still manage to brown out on bench testing even though vbar log says no more than 0.2V drop from 5.5V. I'm keeping the CC BEC.

[banditpowdercoat]

Re maiden in the rain. 1 pack. No time to do trim flight or set tail. Had a slow wag. Figure just needs a rate mode setup

[cycled]

Currently in the process of installing a YGE90 I got a good deal on in the Protos. It's a lot bigger than the YGE60 and has a lot stronger BEC plus RPM out for external governor.

I'm also breaking in some Nanotech 6s 2650 45C batteries (£17 per pack from the UK warehouse!). Just flew the first in my Chase with 360 blades and surprised just how well it performed (though a bit of a pain to mount). ~425g per pack and fits the Protos perfectly; all three look good. Slightly worried they're going to be too small after the performance on the Chase, but I think 450g is about the most the Protos will take anyway.

[DoubleCH]

Good stuff. I had my eyes on the YEP 90A because of the beefier BEC and rpm sensor output but the BEC doesn't have 6.0V option which is perfect to not overwhelm my Savox 1290MG while any lower my FBL will bronwout. And then HK had the YEP100A on sale for 50% off so it's a no brainer for me. I just keep using my CC BEC and HW rpm sensor no big deal. Someday I might route my YEP internal BEC to drive the 1290MG and the rest including my HV servos driven by the CC BEC which I'll set to 7.4V or higher. The big plus going from YGE60A to YEP100A at this point is that the YEP has the new firmware that's external-governor friendly. I'm playing with the vbar governor parameters but even with my first try with the YEP100 it's already much better than the settings to match the YGE60.

Nanotech is good if you spec' it right for the model. My experience with the nanotech is that although 35C and 45C series can provide more power than 25C series they don't last as long as the 25C. My tips with nanotech is to pick a bigger 25C instead of the 35C or 45C counterpart. I fly nanotech 25C 3000 which is 427g which is lighter than 45C 2650 but the extra capacity makes up for the lower C compare to the 35/45C series. I know the math doesn't sound right when you multiple 3000 with 25 to compare 2650 with 45 but in reality the 35/45C series don't provide proportionally higher power while a bigger capacity pack does provide proportionally higher power. And there are many more advantages of running a higher capacity flight pack if it has the same weight of the higher C pack. I'm at 317 flights with each of my nanotech 25C 3000 packs and they're still running strong.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...8#post33855018

The only exception to not choosing bigger capacity pack is the new HobbyKing Graphene series. They are so much more powerful and durable that I don't have to spec my battery to run at least 4 min flight time any more (12C continuous discharge). I can spec 3 min flight time (16C continuous discharge) and it still provides more power than typical lipo of similar weight.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=975

Once their stock reaches US warehouse (soon), I should hopefully be getting some 3S 2200 x 2 for test and review on my Protos to illustrate my point.

[cycled]

I was actually planning on getting some 3000 25Cs following your earlier praise of them (on the Protos), but these were half-price which tempted me. I'll see how they go.

As I said before about the Graphenes, I've got enough 360 batteries and am more interested in 4min+ on larger helis. They look pretty good though (you were one of the guys with early samples right?).

[DoubleCH]

Oh yeah, the recent 50%-off deal with certain lipos at HK. Really hard to resist.

I almost went for the nanotech 35C 2650 at half price so tempting but I remember I still have a pair of reglar Turnigy 2650 and a pair of brand new nanotech 25C 3000 I bought last spring, the same time I bought the ones I have 316 flights each now. I was planning to use all at once and cycle between them but I figured it's a much better strategy to charge the heck out of 2 packs until they die and then buy another 2. Since I already bought 4 nanotech, I left 2 of them in the fridge for the year. I'll put them in service in the spring and start charging the heck out of them like I do my current 2. Perhaps by that time my current 2 nanotech will need to be retired or my Thunder Power 70C or my Wild Scorpion 45C. My TP and WS are at least 2.5 years old although not as many flights as my nanoatech 25C 3000s they are weaker than my nanotech because of time age.

I think the reason of 35C/45C nanotech on big sale is due to their new Graphene line lipos. They are really the real deal. Real high-C discharge performance, long-life, low IR, low voltage sag thru'out entire charge. Downside is price and weight which my tests show the extra power more than overcome it. This leaves us with good deal to be had for the nanotech.

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by DoubleCH

Swapped out my stock YGE60A ESC for a YEP100A LV for just $22 on HobbyKing's 50%-off sale. This one runs the newer firmware that supports the gov-off-x3 feature. Runs much better with the vbar governor now. And no more worry of overtemp warning.

I was hoping the internal BEC would be good enough so I could take out the CC BEC. No luck. With my full-size Savox 1290MG tail servo plus power-hungry TGY-S306G cyclic servos I still manage to brown out on bench testing even though vbar log says no more than 0.2V drop from 5.5V. I'm keeping the CC BEC.

Have had the YEP100A on for more than a week now but no flight video until yesterday. It was a sunny day so I got to make a good excuse to take some flight video.

Again it's not much about the 100A but the new firmware that supports gov-off-x3 feature that makes this ESC better for the vbar governor.

This flight is with one of my 320-flight old Nanotech 25C 3000s (all still going strong).

My Stretched Protos with YEP100A ESC (4 min 14 sec)

[DoubleCH]

Did more tweaking with the vbar governor to take advantage of the YEP100A ESC that supports gov-off-x3. In essence I used to run low vbar governor gain and couple with high values for the preload parameters. With the new firmware for fast governor response I'm running high gain and low preloads. It makes for some overspeed fun. Remember I'm running solid pinion with no OWB so overspeed means not just for the rotor but with the motor as well. That's no easy feat.

Also, my pair of Nanotech 25C 3000s have gone past the 325-flight milestone. That's 325 flights out of EACH pack. This is flight #326 of one pack. The most pronounced overspeed move is at 02:09.

My Stretched Protos Long-Term Test Nanotech F326 (4 min 9 sec)

[gstoneberg]

I'm having a little problem with the tail getting loose on tail first flight. I always seem to be riding the edge of fast tail wag or loose tail and this flight has the loose tail. I think it has to do with wind. If the wind is down I can raise the tail gain a little and lock the tail, but if it gets a little windy that much gain will start a fast wag. I wish I'd thought to raise it a couple points as it was pretty calm. 2 senior moments in the flight, but luckily didn't play with the dirt.

p500 flight w-auto (3 min 19 sec)

[DoubleCH]

Originally Posted by gstoneberg

I'm having a little problem with the tail getting loose on tail first flight. I always seem to be riding the edge of fast tail wag or loose tail and this flight has the loose tail. I think it has to do with wind. If the wind is down I can raise the tail gain a little and lock the tail, but if it gets a little windy that much gain will start a fast wag. I wish I'd thought to raise it a couple points as it was pretty calm.

No need to dial tail base on wind. Your symptom is classic situation of too much slop/binding on the tail pitch control mechanism. With this heli, the most common cause is due to the stock tail pitch lever arm bearing sleeve design. They should've come with split stepped sleeves instead of the single sleeve which allows the arms on the tail case to touch both the inner and outer races of the bearings and induce binding. To solve that binding problem common practice is to run the pivot bolt loose which leads to too much slop. In the end you get either too much slop or too much binding and result in sloppy tail performance in backward flights and tail wag.