Copycat 500 build

[JettaManDan]

Originally Posted by Steemo

Thanks jmd

anytime bud

[JettaManDan]

well my suspicions were confirmed..my "rubbed" gyro wire was the issue..have a break in the weather here and got my 500 out for a short check flight at work...and all is good...tail holds and no more jumpy tail servo...some heat shrink and electrical tape insulated the wires and all good now...

my co-worker who saw it for the 1st time was like and his exact words were - "your nuts! that thing scares me!" but he thought it was cool nonetheless..he is sticking to his IR indoor 3 channel co-ax for now

[Ironrotor]

I converted the GT's belt system to a TT with an Align kit that was on "scratch & dent" sale at the LHS; have not flown it yet but ground testing proves to be substantially smoother than the belt and the gyro appears to work with less effort(reduced vibration I guess). The conversion was relatively simple and took about an hour. I hope to test fly soon but work keeps me on the road for the time being.

I also ordered one of the 3000MAh on sale at HK, I hope to get a little better than the 4 min 20 sec from the 2650's.

[Luke Warmwater]

I put a little self tapping screw through the boom block and into the boom on mine. The TT tail kept popping out so that the splines at the end of the TT disengaged (without a belt, you rely on a tight grip to hold it in!!). It was a bit disconcerting inflight, to have the tail just stop on you, on something that size!

[Steemo]

+1
Pinning the boom on a TT tail is essential!

[Ironrotor]

Thanks guys, I will pin the boom. I can see where things could go bad.

[boykintom]

Where is OLP these days? How is the 500 coming along? The 450 is flying very well right now, which probably means I'm going to crash soon.

[Steemo]

Originally Posted by boykintom

Where is OLP these days? How is the 500 coming along?

She's about, I've been PMing her now and then. She seems busy at work and wants to take her time with getting her 500's going. I'm sure it won't be too far into Spring (Autumn for us) before we see some hover vids from her though

Originally Posted by boykintom

The 450 is flying very well right now, which probably means I'm going to crash soon.

I hate that feeling, the thoughts "all good things must come to an end" goes through your head. Just enjoy it while you can.
My 450 is flying AMAZINGLY, got a Scorpion motor on it now DS410Ms on the swash DS520 on the tail and the latest eddition is a set of Mavrikk G5 325mm wide chord FBL blades, they are GREAT! worth every cent.

[Oldladypilot]

Hey guys!

The forum's been pretty quiet here lately. We gotta get things stirred up here pretty soon!

Steemo, your 450 sounds great....need video!

BKT; pinning my boom and tail are a couple of things I want to do too. Setting up my Quark gyro is on the list too.

Very little time to work on hobbies when you get mandated to work another 8 hrs. 16 hours at work sucks, all I can do is look at my 500s hanging on the wall for a bit before I sleep awhile and do it again. The money's nice..but no time to enjoy what I've spent!

Oh well, much better then being unemployed!

[JettaManDan]

Originally Posted by Oldladypilot

Hey guys!

The forum's been pretty quiet here lately. We gotta get things stirred up here pretty soon!

Steemo, your 450 sounds great....need video!

BKT; pinning my boom and tail are a couple of things I want to do too. Setting up my Quark gyro is on the list too.

Very little time to work on hobbies when you get mandated to work another 8 hrs. 16 hours at work sucks, all I can do is look at my 500s hanging on the wall for a bit before I sleep awhile and do it again. The money's nice..but no time to enjoy what I've spent!

Oh well, much better then being unemployed!

FOR SURE! I'm looking forward to some nice weather...i got my Bee out yesterday for some fun as well as my King 2 FP...i'm saving my 500 for really nice days...and looking forward to building my 2nd in a few weeks...think once spring hits full force we'll all be posting away!

[JettaManDan]

Soooo.....brought my 500 with me to fly and show my dad and cousins. I had a teriffic flight goin...steady and perfect figure 8's and some nice climbouts. Literally about 10 seconds before i was going go land and be done something bound up and stopped the head dead. The resultant crash i think destroyed the heli beyond repair. Motor and ESC and Rx all salvageable. Think the rest is in question. Oh well. Time to build my real TRex in a few weeks now! Lol. Still sucks...

[Bugster]

Gutted for you JMD - sounds like a total write off.

Glad you have the TRex to look forward to though

[Luke Warmwater]

Ouch!! What could be strong enough to bind a 500 head up?? That sounds horrible m8. Still, if it is mechanical failure, well, you can't legislate for that I guess....it's the risk we all have to take .

Gutted for you m8.

[boykintom]

Oh man, sorry to hear that! Any idea what stopped the head?

[Oldladypilot]

Damn, that sucks!
Let us now what you find out.

[JettaManDan]

To be honest i have no idea what happened. Motor and mount were still in there tight. Head looked like nothing came out...tail was intact...etc....but the main gear is badly stripped...but i was in idle up when it happened so i was expecting the damage to that. It was flying great...smooth....quiet....not a single indication anything was wrong. Literally it just all of a sudden screetched and head stopped instantly and it dropped. I'm really at a loss. Frame is bent bad...missing tail blade from when it hit..skids snapped off....blades cracked...god knows what else! Electronics are all fine to the really expensive parts made it ok...at least it's something! So...next step is a full tear down...try to figure out what happened and what is salvageable.

Thanks for all the kind words everybody! Means a lot! ..when i get home this week I'll take some pics of the carnage. I'm not as pissed as i thought I'd be.....it was a terrific and perfect final flight...well.....till the end at least! My cousins and my dad were super impressed with how it flew and looked flying. So was proud of it. It's all good! . No worries....I'm gonna build another!

Dan

[Steemo]

Sounds like a one way bearing failure coupled with a motor seizure. Bummer Dan.
Good to see you are so chipper about it though. At the end of the day these things happen, weather by mechanical failure, poor safety precautions or just pilot error... We all crash our best helis from time to time it breaks your heart and dents your wallet but the important thing it's no-one got hurt. Helis are replaceable, ppl aren't.

[JettaManDan]

Originally Posted by Steemo

Sounds like a one way bearing failure coupled with a motor seizure. Bummer Dan.
Good to see you are so chipper about it though. At the end of the day these things happen, weather by mechanical failure, poor safety precautions or just pilot error... We all crash our best helis from time to time it breaks your heart and dents your wallet but the important thing it's no-one got hurt. Helis are replaceable, ppl aren't.

I was actually thinking the one way bearing...the motor kept going when it crashed and the main gear stripped the motor started spinning again till i flipped the idel up switch. So could be the explanation for it all.

Yeah i have a healthy respect for these helis so we were all way back and out of harms way...so all good. Yes I'm bummed it killed itself...but I've been doing R/C long enough to know this stuff happens lol!

[Oldladypilot]

The last time I had this out it flew, I crashed it but it flew.
Now the tail wag is back and I'm really tempted to sell both the 500s and try my luck with planes!

Other then loosing some links, I did have some luck with the MCPX.

Not a very good video. I had one hand on the tx and one on the camera. This was in rate mode, switching it made it worse.

HK 500 tail problem (0 min 57 sec)

[Luke Warmwater]

Looks like the gain is too high. I find on my 500, the gain needs to be really low....around 16% or -16% (I use a DX7 which has zero gain at 0%, unlike the DX6i which is 50% for zero gain). I have also moved my gyro, so that it isn't on top of the boom block, but on the Rx tray underneath....my Rx is on the bottom of the the frame then. I have read reports that on 500s, the top of the boom block can really be prone to addtional vibes which screw up the gyro.

You really can't tell for sure with it on the ground; the friction on the skids makes for a very strange effect, as the gyro kicks in, it doesn't move, so it puts more in, then it moves, over corrects, tries to go back etc etc.... You need to be in the air or on a lazy susan to tell for sure.