450sv

[BaconWrap]

Hello,
In case it will help others, I also purchased a KDS 450sv about 2 months ago and I really like the helicopter. All metal and carbon parts and a carrying case as a bonus for under $400.
Like others my RTF = Ready To Fix.
There were many loose screws, swash was not level, tail servo was binding, blade pitch needed tweaking, my receiver was not set correctly on the double sided tape and fell off to dangle by the side of the helicopter on first spool. Tail rotor was set incorrectly and had to be corrected. But none of this has taken away from my enjoyment thus far. There is what I would consider a design flaw with the helicopter and that is if you are not careful when you plug in your battery the esc wires can push inward and rub against the motor which will melt the wires. I've since covered the wires with shrink and make certain they are not touching when I attempt flying. Did this when I changed out the esc connectors to xt60s.
One bonus in purchasing a ready to fix helicopter is this: I’ve developed a habit of checking the entire helicopter over after every test flight to see what came loose this time. It is like a game of hide and seek.

The supplied charger worked for me, but it does take forever to charge. First charge took about 4-5 hours. I purchased an imax b6ac clone and the ave. charge times have gone from 2 hours plus/minus to 30-40 min. Changed out those connectors as well of course. 2200mah 11.1 3s 20c turnigy bats work fine and I use the supplied KDS bat for testing now. I also went ahead and bought the transmitter battery and use the 8aa setup as a backup.
Things that might be useful -
main blade is grip 4.7 mm x 325. tail blade is grip 2.5 x 62mm in case you wanted to purchase cheaper replacements.
I bought a 450v2 kit from HK and 90% of those parts fit as replacement, so for less than the KDS brand rotor assembly you can get an almost entire heli replacement parts kit. Many of the copterx parts work as well so that is a cheaper alt for KDS part replacement.

There is a lot of great advice on this forum and others that speaks on what to do when setting up and owning a 450 sized helicopter.
So I will add some personal examples of what not to do -
Always unplug your motor when testing settings on the work bench.
Never click the idle switch on the work bench. Ever! Especially don’t do this a second time just to be certain that it was that switch that caused the first event. Ever!
Do not wear baggy shirts when working on the helicopter on the work bench as sleeves may get caught on the rotor blades and cause the helicopter to fall off the work bench.
Always unplug your motor when testing pitch settings on the work bench.
When landing make certain there are no rocks where your tail rotor will be spinning.
When hovering for the first time, don’t freak out when the wind starts blowing and cut throttle completely. The 450v2 landing gear doesn’t fit incidentally - part of that 10% that becomes neat plastic in your parts kit.
When setting up your flight sim change the transmitter to another model as the flight sim might like to write to the transmitter and you could loose all your flight settings. It does teach you how to program the transmitter however. A real crash course.
Always unplug your motor when testing the gyro HH mode settings as you might accidentally push up on the throttle when flicking the rudder when on the work bench.

I’ve since installed a flymentor on the helicopter and thanks to all the folks in the flight stabilization section have it working. Which leads me to my last little bit of advice:
When testing the flymentor make certain that the training gear connector disk is not covering the ccd camera.

Enjoy, Dave

[BaconWrap]

Well, I've changed out the original tail boom for a black carbon fiber one. I really like the looks and I also switched out the shiny servo holder for the brushed metal. This also allowed me to tweak the tail a bit more which I needed to do but was being lazy. Moved the receiver as well to help balance a bit better and reset the swash just a few hairs for a better feel in hover. I need to find a nice wire management system other than electrical tape, but for now zip ties are keeping things out of the way.
Test flew new tail setup yesterday and after a few false starts got a good launch for it - flew at low speeds and practiced turning almost nose in. Also practiced throttle hold and auto landings - so much easier than bringing the throttle down and trying to keep it level when touching down. Watching the tail kick is hairy at first - but compensating for that has gotten a lot easier.
I am going to try and put up a couple pre and post photos of my SV up later today. Need to boost a page from a friends business site.
If anyone actually reads this - I am thinking of removing the training gear and fitting 500 or 550 landing skids to the helicopter to keep a wide base but get rid of the uneven weight the training gear causes. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Thanks, Dave.

[BaconWrap]

OK hopefully these are able to be viewed. I have some also posted at happyactivedog.com/heli but they may be a bit small. Dog wanted to be on the internet so he jumped into the last photo.

Dave

[Ivor Hill]

A lot of people fit 500 skids to there 450 heli's including me. Looks fine and yes a bigger base for landing.

[eddie currents]

Looks good. Anybody know if a 'standard' 450 canopy will easily fit the KDs450sv?
Mines looking a bit battered and i want something brighter than the standard black KDS canopy.

[BaconWrap]

Unfortunately no, the generic 450 canopy won't fit. See pics - sorry they are so blurry.
I also wanted a change from the standard black and red. So far I've found 3 additional canopies that will fit the 450sv, original black/red, mostly yellow, mostly blue and lastly a mostly red one that seems perpetually out of stock with the two primary rc shops I use here. Ave cost is $7.00 U.S. per canopy. There is some great advice on making your own here on the forum. I also found some ok looking canopy advice online using plastic bottles and the like. I intend to purchase another yellow one and try my hand at painting at some point when I get better at actually flying this thing.
I've ordered 500 skids and expect them this weekend. Thanks for the advice Ivor Hill.

Dave

[Rotary Lad]

Originally Posted by eddie currents

Looks good. Anybody know if a 'standard' 450 canopy will easily fit the KDs450sv?
Mines looking a bit battered and i want something brighter than the standard black KDS canopy.

Looks Very good

I would also like something a bit brighter than the standard black/red canopy.
The few that Century UK have on their site are never in stock & I can`t sum up the courage to try the China/Ebay route.

[eddie currents]

Originally Posted by BaconWrap

There is some great advice on making your own here on the forum. I also found some ok looking canopy advice online using plastic bottles and the like. I intend to purchase another yellow one and try my hand at painting at some point when I get better at actually flying this thing.
I've ordered 500 skids and expect them this weekend. Thanks for the advice Ivor Hill.

Dave

I sense some experimentation with plastic bottles this weekend!
On another note i broke the training legs at the plastic holder on my KDS after a slightly heavy landing in -5c temps. Obviously the plastic didn't like the low temp. It's amazing how much better the bird flies without them. I'm currently hovering with the Flymentor off - just need to summon up the courage to switch it on..

[BaconWrap]

Well my tail servo went out in flight. Heli spun without stick input so I landed it quickly and went over to see what happened. Servo was non-responsive. This servo has always been a buzzer, but I figured it was just noisy as it wasn't binding. Anyway I took it apart to see how it was supposed to work, plugged it back into the heli and the little motor spun like crazy. Put it back together, but it still won't accept any input. I have another on order but now I'm grounded until Mon or Tues. Meh... I really hope it is the servo that is wacked and not something more expensive.
I can post some pics if anyone is interested in what the N590 innards look like. Thing was packed with white grease.

Curious to see how your bottle canopy experience works eddie. One of the vids I watched the guy was using windex bottles and markers to make his own.

On a side note, any heli folks in the southern MD area?

- Looking at the clear skies, Dave

[Ghostflyer1]

I went over kill on my tail servo... I put a 9257 on my 450c

[Toystoretom]

I have a KDS 450 S that I like to crash on a regular basis, and my tail servo is buzzy also, but it works fine and doesn't seem to get hot. It may be the gyro and the FlyMentor keeping it buzzy.

My 450S did the same thing yours did, it started to spin uncontrollably and no amount of input would bring it around. On mine, it turns out that one of the ultra cheapo belt pulleys locked up and the tail rotor started to spin at a much slower speed that it should because the belt would drag on the pulley. I could take off, but once I got some rpm's going and that pulley got hot it would lock up and my 450S appeared to be demon possessed. It took me awhile to figure it out. The belt was stretched and loose and there were rubber particles from the belt rubbing in the pulley on top of the Flymentor camera. The brass bushing in the one pulley was locked up and the belt had worn a flat spot in the pulley. I ordered a new pulley block, took the pulleys off and ran a drill bit through them to loosen them up a bit, and lubed them up with some wheel bearing grease. Works fine now.

I've seen vids on YouTube of 450S's and SV's flying along nicely and suddenly start to spin for no apparent reason and wondered if their pulleys were locking up also.

It sounds like the problem with yours is the servo, however, and I hope you get it sorted out.

Tomo

[BaconWrap]

Yeah, it was the servo that was fried. I was thinking about using gun oil on the various parts that must slide smooth. Not sure if anyone has used that before or not.
I will keep an eye on the belt and pulley system Tomo, thanks for the heads up.

How do you like your 450c Ghostflyer1?

Take a look at the photo #1 and see what I only noticed a few days ago. The second picture is the same part correctly installed, you can see the scarring from it being backwards and rubbing against one of the flybar screws. (You would think that I would have seen this earlier, but . . . meh.) Anyway, at least the ball joints were locktited when I had to change them. I have the scars to prove it! Freakin screwdriver went right into my finger, gerrrrrr. I'll have to add that to my what not to do list.

I realize that RTF is not ready to fly, but I never expected the head to be built wrong. Little upsetting. That typed, there is a positive, I did learn how to rebuild the head and am in the final stages of readjusting the pitch. Pain since I had to undo all the flymentor setup and now redo. Funny that a full 450 head from HK is only 19.99 and assembled 100% and yet a head from KDS that would cost approx $55 - $60 U.S. and there is no knowing how it would be built.

Anyway, in case anyone is wondering, I am not unhappy with my purchase, just letting any new owners or potential owners know what to look for when they unbox. I still think the KDS helicopters are worth buying. I really like the Innova series, particularly the 600 sized. Perhaps when I'm no longer an expert at crashing my 450 I'll jump up to the 600 sized.

- Dave

[Ghostflyer1]

I still fly it quite a bit even though i have much bigger birds these days.
Its in the hanger at the moment it spit a tail blade and jumped 50 up with a piro before landing on its head LOL

The 600 will be a whole lot more stable... I built a gaui 425 and stretched it to a 550 and boy what a difference that was. Lifted off and just hung there.... not like the 450's. So much more stable

[renemay24]

Hi, i am new and a biginner i just received my kds 450sv w/flymentor.I dont think the setting are right on the flymentor heliball or the tx can someone please help me with this. thanks

[renemay24]

Hi, i just received my kds 450sv w/flymentor i am a bigginer and i dont think the settings on the flymentor heliball or the Tx are right can someone help me with this setting. thanks

[Ghostflyer1]

I am sorry I do not know anything about the flymentor so I would not have a clue as how to help you

[BaconWrap]

Well, quick note in case anyone is interested. Heli flies very well, almost stationary in hover with a minimal amount of right drift at take off, otherwise straight up.
Played with the throttle curve and now have mid stick set at 75% throttle. Very interesting to watch the flymentor switch over modes at heights over/about 15 - 18 feet (my sense of height is not the best, but I think it is about that far up) I was not ready for the switch the first time.
I still get some occasional tail wag with gyro set at 32, but I think that has more to do with my build than electronics. Hope I don't jinks myself.
Currently using fiber glass cheapo blades from HK and after destroying another set of plastic tail blades hitting yet another rock on landing, I've changed those over to some carbon fiber tail blades. Picture is the original blades after hitting some big dumb bug while hovering. Stupid thing flew right into the helicopter - loud ping and the heli was wagging all over, landed and that was the result.
I really like the timer on the 7XII for battery count down. That is a great feature in my opinion, but it should give a different chime sound when it hits zero count.

Overall, I really like this helicopter and have enjoyed working on it.

[chingie]

[QUOTE=BaconWrap;3654207]OK hopefully these are able to be viewed. I have some also posted at happyactivedog.com/heli but they may be a bit small. Dog wanted to be on the internet so he jumped into the last photo.

Dave[/QUOTE

Love the tail boom hello and greetings from the south pacific. Would you share the specs for the boom ie whats it off? I was contemplating that one on my SV. cheers

[new flyer 56]

Hello BaconWrap ... I am in Ocean City Md..... I just bought a KDS 450s used..... I have flown it 3 times and crashed it 3 times and of course done damage... needless to say I am gonna get proficient at replacing parts...... however I do have a flight sim.. I bought real flight 5.5...... so I am investing a lot of time on the basics . I hope when I order my new parts and get things back together I am gonna be able to get things reasonably adjusted so I can actually get some flight time.... I am enjoying the process of learning about all the intricacies of set up and adjustment of this little bird...... I will say the few times I have spooled it up before crashing I see the potential for serious damage to person as well as machine.... it is intimidating to say the least......

[madbones]

Im new to this forum and after some advice on FM. I have read through the previous posts and still confused.
So im in my 50s and have been fling small helicopters with my young son for some time. Mostly smaller ones with simple controllers.
Just recently we picked up a KDS450sv with FM and came RTF. I understand the RTF doesnt always mean RTF. My sons skills are quite good and he can get it to hover although its a constant left , right , fwd , back and was unsure on how to know if FM is actually operating. When he has it in the air there is a red led on constantly.
It is his first 7ch helicopter and although he has some understanding of rates , idle up and throttle hold im not sure that we have the switches set right including the channel switch. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers jason , Australia.