Rebuilding From Scratch

[olemil]

I always set my tracking in IU (100% WFO) at mid-stick (make sure have zero pitch) on the ground and it seems to work well. But I also have a stanchion that I made to slide between the frame and skids that doesn't tie the heli down but it keeps it from flying away if I bump the throttle. If I tried to check it hovering 5' in front of me, I would end up eating the SR before I was done..lol.

[DKS_ONE]

If you have a way to hold it down the awesome! Tracking them at zero pitch with no real load on them though isn't the "best" way to do it. If it's working, then do it, often it'll be the same. But sometimes (and this if physics stuff I don't understand) the tracking will not be the same with no load because of a slight difference in the CG of the blade or the overall weight of the blade or even a slight difference in the length of the blade. Granted those things are not OFTEN seen with these helis (or even in general) but it happens. I've always gotten into a hover and once I have it steady take a couple quick glances at the blades. Really gotta make sure the background is darker for it to work, but if you have a way to hold it down, that's the bomb, even easier Don't need to have FULL pitch to confirm anything but to have a little lift against the blades IMHO is best.

[olemil]

Originally Posted by DKS_ONE

If you have a way to hold it down the awesome! Tracking them at zero pitch with no real load on them though isn't the "best" way to do it. If it's working, then do it, often it'll be the same. But sometimes (and this if physics stuff I don't understand) the tracking will not be the same with no load because of a slight difference in the CG of the blade or the overall weight of the blade or even a slight difference in the length of the blade. Granted those things are not OFTEN seen with these helis (or even in general) but it happens. I've always gotten into a hover and once I have it steady take a couple quick glances at the blades. Really gotta make sure the background is darker for it to work, but if you have a way to hold it down, that's the bomb, even easier Don't need to have FULL pitch to confirm anything but to have a little lift against the blades IMHO is best.

I should have mentioned that I always load the head just enough to get it light on the skids or a hair more while checking tracking in my stanchion. It works great on my SR and my Beam E4, sure would be embarrassed to have the wife come home and see one of them sticking in the garage trusses...LOL.

[DKS_ONE]

I need to make something like that. I work at an auto repair shop so transmission jacks look perfect for the job (but overkill really), pretty much adjustable in every way. Apparently (and this is completely something I've only HEARD and not TRIED) if you fix the skids on a heli to something that's a solid sheet that's wider than the spinning blades, even if it's lighter and easily carried, the heli can't lift off?? IE: A large piece of cardboard Urban myth? Job for Myth-busters? lol

[olemil]

Yes it was easy to make as you can see by the scrap materials I used. I guess the longest part of building it was getting the measurements correct for the holes in the 4"x4" blocks so the conduit didn't sit on the skids or touch the bottom of the frame. I've pitched my Beam pretty good with this rig and never had it try to lift it off the ground, a 700 would carry it away...lol.

[GSPI]

Originally Posted by olemil

I always set my tracking in IU (100% WFO) at mid-stick (make sure have zero pitch) on the ground and it seems to work well. But I also have a stanchion that I made to slide between the frame and skids that doesn't tie the heli down but it keeps it from flying away if I bump the throttle. If I tried to check it hovering 5' in front of me, I would end up eating the SR before I was done..lol.

Well... I ended up getting the flu or something like that so I have not been able to respond for a few days (or feels like it). For reference, I've been tracking it in I/U but when I had problems before I did the conversion it would have been showing up in lower RPMs too. So I'll still be working on this again soon when I'm up to it.

Neat rigs you have there for testing but I know that ground effect is different than out of ground effect. I tend to make my tracking measurements out of ground effect. I guess it doesn't really matter as the tracking should become evident pretty quickly regardless.

Thanks for the inputs gents!

[GSPI]

FINALLY!!? I got the blades to track correctly! Finally I got the swash to level...finally it seems to be wanting to run correctly! Sorry for the drama but I finally got that breakthrough we all look for and it went together during testing with everything seemingly holding. Ready for a maiden flight tomorrow!

[dcarboni]

Looks goodhope she flies as good as she looks!!!

[GSPI]

Well... two packs of testing and we have success!! I spent 1+ packs trying to figure out the tail wag that I got and was simply changing the gyro from digital to analog to slow down the sampling rate and got it to hover IN WIND without the fight I used to have with the tail!! I think I now can say, "Experiment has proven to be successful!" It is hovering the way I thought it should straight out of the box and it controls the tail the way I thought it should and to be perfectly honest, I'm glad I did this conversion now. For a short while I had some doubts after fighting the tracking issues (of course the simple stuff gets you).

To note, I was solo so I could not take a photo of the bird in the air with what I had with me but I put one with the SR in I/U just before lift off during my gyro adjusting phase.... I now feel vindicated! Thanks to all your guy's input! Now go get yourself a cold one, we all deserve it!

[dcarboni]

Awsome!! nice job i think i'll have 2

[DKS_ONE]

Hey!! Right on!!! Glad it's finally in good order, but now you certainly have to find another body to do some of the filming for us so we can see a FLIGHT!! Hahahaha, and if you suffer any other tail issues I already know what's wrong... servo is on the wrong side of the boom. Your SR thinks it's supposed to be in the UK, tail is driving from the wrong side! Lol, JK, hope you find yourself some good flying time and get that sucker opened up a bit. Will be interested to find out if you have any power issues or if the motor holds up not too bad. Well done, good fight and well deserved victory! I'm clinking glasses with you!

[GSPI]

Well... I set this project aside when I had flight success and got into a T-Rex 450 Sport build and bought a 130X which got a powdered drive gear for it's tail in about five flights and was reading HF and I got some inspiration from the following post from estarter while waiting for HH support parts to arrive:

https://www.helifreak.com/showpost.p...&postcount=721

So it begins again, the belted tail SR project that now will become "SR-X"...

I thought it was the neatest thing to try and make this heli Flybarless and saw someone actually do it here at HF and decided, why not?

I had some crashed parts that fit the bill and thought that was a great starting point.

I cut down the snapped head and attached the top cap and screw for it to finish it up and make it look nice. Laid out the parts for the grips and looks like we might have a winner here! Off the the LHS tomorrow to get the B400 link balls and some aluminum tube for structural support on the grips. This is getting to be fun to make this thing even better than before!.... (I know, I know, I was going to stop once I got it to fly)

[dcarboni]

And still it goes on very cool i saw the same post. I to have just finished building a trex 500 neat heli went to hs today to by spare battery ad ended up coming home with a 130x also. I hid it in the garage waiting for just the right time to show the boss. I really had to do the dishes for the 500 wish me luck. Keep us posted on the resurrected sr-x

[GSPI]

Mounted the ball links to the grips today... and flew the SR, found out I didn't have the weight far enough forward and adjusted that and it flew pretty well today.

[mrmarc]

I just knew I should have saved those broken head pieces from the previous crash. I saw the FBL SR thread yesterday, too, and it does have me interested. How's yours coming along?

[dcarboni]

haven't seen this post in awhile, so success on fbl, which fbl controler did you use?

[GSPI]

Originally Posted by dcarboni

haven't seen this post in awhile, so success on fbl, which fbl controler did you use?

Well with all of the fiddling with the 130X and the failure reconstruction of my 300X I've been busy and simply worked on having the SR fly better as a FB unit. However, I was looking at the CopterX controller with the current electronics. I am also experiencing a little issue now electronically and I think the ESC is on it's way out and I have a replacement one for a 300X that I'm attaching and seeing if I can get a larger capacity battery to work on it.

That's the status for now.

[dcarboni]

cool i was wandering what fbl reciever you would use. I have the7200bx on 5 helis now 300x, trex 250 with dfc head 450x trex 450 with dfc head trex 500 with dfc head. I just fit a dfc head to my last 450 3d and put a G3X fbl controller on it figured i would try something else. just preorderd a nano also