Mini Protos *essential* upgrades?

[waxman]

Yep the g380 is built to be punished but I'm sure it will hurt the back pocket when I put it in.

[Manyc]

Originally Posted by waxman

Yep the g380 is built to be punished but I'm sure it will hurt the back pocket when I put it in.

Sure will.. mate had his ESC give doing an inverted low smack.. bent head/plate all that great stuff... $140 later...

still he hammers on it, and it takes it.. I fear that unless one of those updates to the power train (which looks like to be happening to the MAX) people will start moving away..

which means cheap parts for me!

[waxman]

I beat on my g380 probably a little to low at times so I'm sure I will find out soon enough. Blades, boom and canopy and your already up to $200 in Australia. Then you start adding all of the little $5 to $20 parts. But at the end of the day it's a 2.5k heli, so if you estimate a crash will cost between 10 to 20% of the total cost of most helis the g380 is always going to be an expensive 450.

[jmtyndall]

Essential? A solid pinion, either warp or lynx, depending on the motor you want to run. I like the Lynx tail box, because it's butter smooth. With that said, my stock one ran fine, I just had to spend some time smoothing things out and fitting parts to get it as smooth as I like. The lynx tail case took no fiddling.

I've had aluminum pulleys and bearing blocks since I bought it, but I don't think essential is the right word for those.

Stretch kit on the other hand...flies SO much better than 325s. I couldn't go back

[distructor]

I only upgrade the Lynx Pinion, 3rd bearing support and the upper bearing block. I've found that if you have a bad crash, the stock plastic bearing blocks can break and in the process crack the CF frames.

[stevebaker]

You could replace the pinion belt tensioner when the stock one eventually melts, like mine just has

http://www.msh-direct.com/products/m...tensioner.html

or you could do it before the stock version fails, saving you a crash

[Jomaba4308]

Originally Posted by stevebaker

You could replace the pinion belt tensioner when the stock one eventually melts, like mine just has

http://www.msh-direct.com/products/m...tensioner.html

or you could do it before the stock version fails, saving you a crash [emoji38]

I lucked out last year, my tensioner melted 15 ft up and I managed to auto it down to safety.

[stevebaker]

Originally Posted by Jomaba4308

I lucked out last year, my tensioner melted 15 ft up and I managed to auto it down to safety.

I tried to auto but landed in a bush! no damage though

I'm now wondering what else is on the verge of failing - wondering whether or not to change the motor pinion holder

[Jomaba4308]

I upgraded that part at the same time I swapped out the tensioner.

[dedados]

What do you mean it melts?

[Jomaba4308]

The plastic melted, it got hot & soft and the belt tension pushed the pulley out sideways.

[Aryemis]

Originally Posted by dedados

What do you mean it melts?

The bearing inside the idler pulley freezes up, so the metal pin spins inside the plastic part melts its way out due to friction.

And you lose all power since you no longer have any belt tension on the motor.

Happened to me once, luckily I managed to auto it down more or less and had no damage apart from that.

[waxman]

I have had 3 dozen flights on the upgraded 16t steel pinion with the stock 6s motor and it has been holding well and hasn't been locked up when checked at the end of flight. Let's see how long it lasts

[jmtyndall]

If it lasts more than one before locking, you're lucky. But it won't let go. It will just stay locked forever

[waxman]

Originally Posted by stevebaker

You could replace the pinion belt tensioner when the stock one eventually melts, like mine just has

http://www.msh-direct.com/products/m...tensioner.html

or you could do it before the stock version fails, saving you a crash

Mine failed today, upgrade time. So the cnc is all that is required to become reliable?

[madeye]

I bet it's because of overheating.

Mine (the last 16T version) was fine for many flights now, but I'm flying at 2100. However, I just checked it again - turns out, last time I flew it locked pretty lightly, I was able to unlock it without much effort.

It locks almost every time I run it at the bench, though - no air cooling is present, the heat builds up.

In case it matters - I'm using Trinity Royal oil on it.

[jmtyndall]

Are you talking pinions? I've owned 3 of the new pinions. The first two I flew at 1900(3s pack on a 6s motor) and it was locked when I landed the first flight.

The other locked at 4000 rpm on a 6s pack. I won't be blowing that kind of money on another one

[madeye]

Originally Posted by jmtyndall

Are you talking pinions?

Yep.

Originally Posted by jmtyndall

I've owned 3 of the new pinions. The first two I flew at 1900(3s pack on a 6s motor) and it was locked when I landed the first flight.

The other locked at 4000 rpm on a 6s pack. I won't be blowing that kind of money on another one

QC inconsistency, I'd say.

Thinking of it for a second, I wonder what kind of QC these particular parts are getting, or if they're even getting any.

If they fail that predictably, then the QC procedure should be extremely simple - make a jig with a spindle the same diameter as the motor, put it on, run it for 4 minutes, make sure it reaches the expected flight temperature, and make damn sure every one of those that are put into plastic bags and delivered to customers are *not* locking up.

Can't be that expensive to do it, can it?

[waxman]

That's OK I just ordered the linx pully and bracket, and got a full set of pinions as well. In all honesty I didn't feel the 16t pinion on the stock 6s motor felt as good as the 15 and it reduced my flight times even at the same headspeed.

It still blows me away how good this heli is, I'm thinking of swapping all of the quality gear in my warp over to this heli as I like flying it more. So swap over to mks ds95/95i and msh brain, and the warp can have the 215s and kbar.

[madeye]

Originally Posted by waxman

It still blows me away how good this heli is, I'm thinking of swapping all of the quality gear in my warp over to this heli as I like flying it more. So swap over to mks ds95/95i and msh brain, and the warp can have the 215s and kbar.

And I'm thinking of retiring the Brain. Not that I don't like flying it, but now that I'm getting into more advanced stuff, I could use some bailout. Last crash (caught sun glare at the far end of inverted rainbow) cost me more than Spirit FBL costs retail.

Still can't decide whether I'll go for Spirit or BD. Anyone's got first hand experience with both? How do they compare?