Anybody out there?

[d2tw4all]

Anyone still flying their shogun/zoom?

[huntxtrm]

Building a v1 now! My first 3d chopper! Got it cheap, so why not?

[d2tw4all]

LOL awesome I think it's just us! I just completed the installation of a belt drive conversion for my V1 as I upgraded it to brushless last week and it pretty much instantly chewed the crown gear up the first flight. Haven't tried it yet, had some pinion gear issues but literally struck gold at my favorite hobby shop who happened to have a variety of shogun pinion gears in stock and I was able to find a 2mm inner diameter 9T gear that should hopefully work. Probably will test tomorrow, if all goes well I'll get a spektrum RX and get rid of this old JR radio so I have everything on my DX6i. You are definitely going to want to install the belt driven tail kit, good news is that you can get them cheap from hobby people, bad news is that there is NO information that I can find on installation so you have to use the force to figure it out. Fortunately for me it wasn't too bad and only took a couple hours. You literally need to replace the entire frame assembly. Everything looks good though so my hope is tomorrow I will maiden this baby with brushless motor and belt drive!

Looking at a blade 400 at another hobby store nearby, they are trying to liquidate it as it's the floor model, it's RTF and they want 300 for it, I'm trying to get just the heli for 200 since I already have a dx6i, then I can just bind and fly. If I get that, the shogun will probably not see a ton of use unless I'm waiting for parts... We'll have to see. Already it's jealous of my mCPX...

Tom

[Skidrow]

I still have a shogun 400. Bl w/cf blades.

Thanks for the heads up on hobbypeople. I didn't think I could
get parts for this old bird anymore!

[d2tw4all]

Awesome to see we aren't alone! My LHS owner is making fun of me for putting anything into this bird. I just installed a spektrum rx went brushless, and added the belt tail. Problem I'm having now is the tail is wagging really bad no matter what I do with the gyro gain. Not sure what the story is but boy I could use some help, it's completely unflyable in the state it is in. Started happening when I installed the brushless motor, originally figured it was because the crown gear for the tail shaft was getting eaten but clearly there is something more to it. Any advice is appreciated, I'm off to do some searches right now...

Tom

[d2tw4all]

Ok I got it flying. I tried changing over to a CF tail rotor pushrod and lubing the tail as well as loosening the ball links on the tail control arms, but it had no apparent impact. I then figured it must be too high a head speed for this bird so I changed my throttle curve to max out at 60% and just set a straight curve starting at 0 and the wag is almost gone even with the gain dialed back up. I need to trim it and do a bit more work to it but I'm happy to have at least hovered it in a small room which tells me I'm close, and this bird will soon be in the air! I'll have to figure out where I can top out on the throttle without inducing the wag but at least I'm not dealing with an unflyable helicopter!

Tom

[d2tw4all]

Ok got it trimmed out nice, flies pretty well at least in hovering. Definitely need to look into a heading hold gyro but we'll have to see how it does outside before I go that far. At least it's working well! If you go brushless, MAKE SURE you keep the head speed down or the tail will be a mess!

Tom

[huntxtrm]

Ive got a whole mess of parts on the way for mine. Belt conversion, metal head and tail, cabon blades, brushless motor etc.... pretty much building mine from the ground up. I'll try and post pics as i go, if it all works. I will keep it posted all the way to the scene of the crash! LOL I hope the last part doesnt happen, but this is my very first heli. That's why I say if it all works.

[huntxtrm]

Throw some pics up of that bad boy! I wanna see what a finished one looks like. Really i kinday need to know what a finished one looks like?

[huntxtrm]

And also, since I am a newbie, any good tips would be appreciated. Thanks

[d2tw4all]

Do you have a sim? Definitely get one. What radio setup are you planning to use with this, make sure you understand how to configure pitch and throttle curves at a minimum.

Honestly I wouldn't start out with this bird. Get a Blade MCPX if you can, the V1's are going really cheap right now and it's an extremely hardy little chopper, I have one of them and I fly it more than anything!

I'll see what I can do about pics etc. I'm going to try to put it up outside tomorrow if it's not too windy or raining, we'll see.

Tom

[huntxtrm]

What is a SIM? A lot of people have told me not to start out with a 6 channel. I'm hard headed they say. LOL. I am considering this chopper a throw away. And i plan on taking it real slow. it might take me 6 months to actually get it off the ground. Probably will be sliding it around on training wheels for a while. And if I crash it, I'll just build another! that's half the fun.

[huntxtrm]

You Mean a Simulator! Ive been told they are useless? Are they really a good training aid?

[huntxtrm]

From Xheli.com
1.FS-TH9X 2.4GHz 9CH Transmitter - RC Helicopters/ Airplanes Transmitter Receiver
2.Dynam 450 brushless motor+40A ESC+4PCS 9g servos+GY48V gyro for Trex/EXI 450
3.Thunder AC6 Smart LiPo charger
4.288 Exceed-RC G2 Carbon Rotor blades 299mm
5.Gens ace 1550mah 3S1P 11.1V 25C Lipo battery
From CNC Helicopter
6. Trex shogun zoom walkera 3dx450 400 real carbon fiber tail blade
7. T-REX 3dx 450 Shogun zoom 3DX400 fiber Horz. upright wing
8. trex 3dx 450 shogun 3dx 400 carbon fiber paddle A
9.zoom shogun 3dx 400 belt rc helicopter CNC Tail combo
10. zoom zap shogun 400 CNC 7075 machined elevator crank + spacer ( combo1)
11. 3dx300 HDX300 shogun 3dx400 cnc servo mount - V2 sersion
12. 1 (AAAB) zoom shogun 3dx 400 belt rc helicopter CNC head combo
13. Zoom shogun 3DX400 trex 450 brushless motor pinion - 2.3mm 10T 11T
14. 3dx 400 zoom shogun CNC heli tail boom clamp A
15. zoom shogun 3dx 400 longer steel main shaft
16. zoom zap shogun 3dx 400 CNC 7075 PUSH / pull precision arm
From Hobby People
17.EF Belt Drive Conversion Kit - Shogun


This is a list of the parts I ordered. They are not really high end parts, but I figure they would be good for a beginner. I hope it all goes together. Which SIM do you recommend?

[huntxtrm]

Also, What is a UBEC? Do i need one? To hook up the reciever?

[huntxtrm]

This is what the specs for the esc say. 40 A ESC (3A BEC)

[d2tw4all]

Yes Simulator, and whoever told you they are useless has absolutely no clue, you should spend a lot of time on a sim before you even try to fly the real thing. As long as it's a good sim it will teach you a LOT and save a lot of time/money. I suggest Phoenix but realflight is fine too.

Your ESC should have a built in BEC. You are dumping a lot of money into an old heli frame, though you may not consider the parts you are buying high end, it's still a considerable amount. I bet you could have gotten a fully built Blade 400 for what you have ordered for the Zoom.

Get the Blade MCPX. Clearly you don't mind spending money, get the mcpx or even the msrx that just came out, those are flybarless, very stable, and so small you can teach yourself heli flying in your living room whenever you have time. I fly my mcpx in a lab room here at work, you don't need much space at all and it really gives you the ability to learn on the real thing quickly. Not only that, but they are very durable little helis and the parts are extremely inexpensive, plus they are SO small they are just sweet to have in your collection! I have the mcpx with an upgraded aluminum swash and head, LOVE that bird! I'm also looking at getting an MSRx even though it's fixed pitch it's TINY and you can fly it just about anywhere.

Tom

[huntxtrm]

I will get a SIM. Thanks for the advice. You are right I don't mind spending money on learning about things that interest me. I am not a rich guy though! I just figure it was worth the money for the learning experience and the fun of building it. I'm not much of a buy and fly it guy. I'd rather build it myself, then i feel like I have accomplished something. I will take your advice, I don't want to wreck it on the first flight. I do appreciate all of your advice, like I say, i am a newbie. Trying to learn. Thanks And i will be posting my build for your advice will be valuable thanks.

[d2tw4all]

I completely understand about the building part, but this is not an inexpensive hobby because helicopters are typically very complex, unstable, and have a lot of moving parts. It is especially frustrating for beginners because you will crash a LOT at first no matter how careful you are. Also, these machines are extremely dangerous, you will understand the first time you try to spool up the helicopter, and if you don't have someone handy who can set it all up for you and make sure it's right, it may very well do very unpredictable things costing you a lot of money and time.

Sim is definitely where you want to start. With it you will start to develop the muscle memory required to fly the real thing. These are NOT easy to fly and there are many aspects of flying that you need to learn. First is tail in hover, then nose in hover, then forward flight and then finally 3d flight starting with inverted hover and then tick tocks, piro flips, funnels, etc. The learning/building is really a small part of the challenge of this hobby, by far the biggest challenge is learning to fly them!

I strongly suggest you get a blade MCPX as well. You never told me what radio gear you are using, but if it's spektrum you can get the bind and fly for pretty cheap for the version 1, and after you get a couple hours on the sim you should be able to try hovering the mcpx. Advantage of mcpx is it is very stable because of the flybarless system it uses, and you can FLY IT INSIDE which means at night, in bad weather, etc. you can be practicing. You will NOT be flying the shogun inside unless you have a huge space. Check out videos of the blade mcpx, there are many on youtube and horizon's site. Though it's prebuilt out of the box, the benefit of the mcpx is that it has very simple control systems because there is no flybar, the overall design is extremely straightforward and the parts are really cheap and easy to replace so you get in the air again very quickly. When you crash the shogun it's probably going to cost you $50-$100 in parts every time, and a lot of time getting it back to the point where it flies. MCPX in many cases when you crash it you don't do ANY permanent damage at all. Do what you like, but since the mcpx is a full 6 channel heli and will do all the same 3d tricks that the big boys do, it's a great little heli to have!

Tom

[huntxtrm]

I'm convinced. I'm looking for one. I have a blade cp pro, is it similar? Or smaller? I like the idea of being able to fly it indoors. That's cool. Thanks.