My Sexy TREXY 500, finally! (Build Report)

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by rmklaw

As I am ready to start building my 500ESP 3g, your great build up was an eye opener.

Awesome, glad I could help. Logo 600 soon to come ...

Rick

[blueindain1]

Thatt's awesome rick. the flex wire thread is gone. Do you know where to get some good flex wire these days?
Any 700 builds?

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by blueindain1

Thatt's awesome rick. the flex wire thread is gone. Do you know where to get some good flex wire these days?
Any 700 builds?

Ready Heli has a few different sizes:
http://www.readyheli.com/Black-Servo...2-p-31587.html

Flexo CleanCut is here:
http://www.techflex.com/prod_ccp.asp

Rush 750 Build:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=507842

Its 2013 now and I have been flying this TREX500 with zero problems ever since the build. Great heli! The only other upgrade I did was to switch over to 2.4G.

Rick

[rdlohr]

2018 now and I "payed it forward" to one of my plane flying buddies that was looking to get into helicopters. This was a great flying heli that I had zero problems with that was my "go to" heli for a lot of years. It stopped getting flight time when I got my Logo 400 which is similar size but flybarless. It spent a few years hanging on my wall it and was time to pass it on to someone who would enjoy it. Good Luck Lorenzo!

Rick

[smittylube]

I have to agree I've had mine since the release. Went torque tube and FBL early on. Couldn't see myself parting with it for cheap. Worth far more than that with vbar flying.

Stellar build Rick. I like your style.

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by smittylube

I have to agree I've had mine since the release. Went torque tube and FBL early on. Couldn't see myself parting with it for cheap. Worth far more than that with vbar flying.

Stellar build Rick. I like your style.

Thanks Steve! I appreciate that!
Rick

[smittylube]

I ended up copying you and relocated my esc from the side of the frame to the front inside of the frame, and then did the canopy extension mod for more battery clearance with fiberglass and drilled new holes back a bit from stock. Also added a layer to the canopy ‘wings’ for strength. The esc placement helped balance since I stretched mine to run VTX 477’s

Thanks for the inspiration.

[Relisys190]

Originally Posted by smittylube

I ended up copying you and relocated my esc from the side of the frame to the front inside of the frame, and then did the canopy extension mod for more battery clearance with fiberglass and drilled new holes back a bit from stock. Also added a layer to the canopy ‘wings’ for strength. The esc placement helped balance since I stretched mine to run VTX 477’s

Thanks for the inspiration.

I'd love to use the 477's on my Belted model. Can you point me in the direction of what lenth boom and where you obtained one? I can find a belt, but not sure about boom .

Thanks!
-M

[smittylube]

Its been a while so I cant say for sure. The boom I found was a silver something like K&s that I ended up ordering from my local hardware store since any LHS no longer exist near me. I found the info on one of the older stretched my 500 threads.
I would like to do CF, but at this point its probably not worth it. This tube was a bit undersize and I think I shimmed it with one layer of packing tape. I found an arrow shaft and made my TT, added a extra bearing.

Mine was originally the ESP first flybar version that was released. Its crazy I am still flying it. Converted to VBAR and FBL when it was released, as well went TT at the time.

If I didn't have it I would not have done all that. The Logo 480 is a much easier and better bet for something to fly the VTX 477's IMO. And parts are available.

Check out this thread

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by smittylube

I ended up copying you and relocated my esc from the side of the frame to the front inside of the frame, and then did the canopy extension mod for more battery clearance with fiberglass and drilled new holes back a bit from stock. Also added a layer to the canopy ‘wings’ for strength. The esc placement helped balance since I stretched mine to run VTX 477’s

Thanks for the inspiration.

My pleasure. I loved that heli and it was my "goto" for many years. I ended up giving it to my friend but he's a plank/Jet guy and he's been afraid to fly it.

Rick

[ic-racer]

Last spring I rebuilt a Trex500 Flybar from scratch with as many new parts as I could find. I kept the flybar!
This was put in an Align MD500 scale fuselage. So old Trex 500s are still flying. (In case someone does not know, the new Trex-500X does not fit in the scale fuselage).

[rdlohr]

SWEET!

[Felix the cat]

Beautiful build. Congratulations.

Like ALL of it.

Tail servo on boom for easy tuning

Complete / uncut servo horns....I do the same, when they break and if in a hurry to fly..... just flip around and they're already "pre-splined", insert new ball and go. Have even done it at the field on both FB & FBL setups.....(obviously fine tune later at home).

Neat wiring job, ESD prep. ect ect.

Plus, it's a BAR

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by Felix the cat

Beautiful build. Congratulations.

Like ALL of it.

Tail servo on boom for easy tuning

Complete / uncut servo horns....I do the same, when they break and if in a hurry to fly..... just flip around and they're already "pre-splined", insert new ball and go. Have even done it at the field on both FB & FBL setups.....(obviously fine tune later at home).

Neat wiring job, ESD prep. ect ect.

Plus, it's a BAR

Thanks Felix. That was a fun heli that gave me many years of enjoyment!

Rick

[tony#1]

Originally Posted by smittylube

Its been a while so I cant say for sure. The boom I found was a silver something like K&s that I ended up ordering from my local hardware store since any LHS no longer exist near me. I found the info on one of the older stretched my 500 threads.
I would like to do CF, but at this point its probably not worth it. This tube was a bit undersize and I think I shimmed it with one layer of packing tape. I found an arrow shaft and made my TT, added a extra bearing.

Mine was originally the ESP first flybar version that was released. Its crazy I am still flying it. Converted to VBAR and FBL when it was released, as well went TT at the time.

If I didn't have it I would not have done all that. The Logo 480 is a much easier and better bet for something to fly the VTX 477's IMO. And parts are available.

Check out this thread

That's an inspirational stretch write-up. It raises the old ESP TRex 500 to a new level!

[tony#1]

Originally Posted by smittylube

Its been a while so I cant say for sure. The boom I found was a silver something like K&s that I ended up ordering from my local hardware store since any LHS no longer exist near me. I found the info on one of the older stretched my 500 threads.
I would like to do CF, but at this point its probably not worth it. This tube was a bit undersize and I think I shimmed it with one layer of packing tape. I found an arrow shaft and made my TT, added a extra bearing.

Mine was originally the ESP first flybar version that was released. Its crazy I am still flying it. Converted to VBAR and FBL when it was released, as well went TT at the time.

If I didn't have it I would not have done all that. The Logo 480 is a much easier and better bet for something to fly the VTX 477's IMO. And parts are available.

Check out this thread

Here in Australia I have managed to source some tube for an extended boom but only in 300 mm /12" lengths:
https://www.hobbytools.com.au/brass-...-8-x-300mm-12/
I suspect that K&S no longer produce the 36" lengths, unless some one knows better?
Tower Hobbies no longer stock the 36" length.
Looks like I may have to import some THICK walled tube from the UK:
https://www.1stchoicemetals.co.uk/pr...88mm-x-1-22mm/

[tony#1]

Originally Posted by tony#1

Here in Australia I have managed to source some tube for an extended boom but only in 300 mm /12" lengths:
https://www.hobbytools.com.au/brass-...-8-x-300mm-12/
I suspect that K&S no longer produce the 36" lengths, unless some one knows better?
Tower Hobbies no longer stock the 36" length.
Looks like I may have to import some THICK walled tube from the UK:
https://www.1stchoicemetals.co.uk/pr...88mm-x-1-22mm/

1st Choice Metals do not deliver from the UK to Australia and the weight is 150 g per metre so a standard boom length of 460 mm for the thick walled tubing would weigh almost 70 g compared to the stock Align tail boom weight of 26 g.
Two good reasons for trying a different approach.

Hobby Tools Australia stock the K&S #296 Tubing Cutter which made an excellent job of cutting a 100 mm / 4" length of the K&S #8142 19/32" diameter brass tubing:
https://www.hobbytools.com.au/tubing...1-6mm-15-87mm/
https://www.hobbytools.com.au/brass-...32-x-300mm-12/

A Permagrit sanding block was used to carefully reduce the diameter of the K&S tubing until it was a neat fit inside the stock H50040T Align tail boom. I could not source tail booms in Australia but Align UK gave excellent service in quickly supplying a couple of spare booms despite the disruption of international shipping caused by the Covid-19 pandemic:
https://www.align-trex.co.uk/helicop...m-h50040t.html

The K&S tubing cutter trimmed a 90 mm length from one of the booms and with a minimal application of Deluxe Materials Roket Cyano Glue Gel the whole assembly made a neat rigid stretched tail boom shown in the image alongside a stock boom for comparison.

Probably not the cheapest way to make a stretched boom but I enjoyed the process and am satisfied that it is lightweight, strong and safe.
Next step is to make a stretched torque tube.

[tony#1]

Re: Stretched Torque Tube
Again I do not claim that this is the cheapest way to stretch a TRex 500 torque tube but it was a satisfying procedure and I am convinced that the end result is lightweight, strong and safe.
Three torque tubes can be converted to two stretched torque tubes.

I cut the shortest possible length off the end of one torque tube. From a second torque tube I cut and trimmed a longer length to match the extended length of my tail boom when the two pieces were combined.

To join them I intended to use a K&S #83044 3/16" (4.76 mm ) solid aluminium rod but I was concerned that it would bend when stressed. I had in stock a one metre length of 4 mm carbon fibre rod which was a perfect fit inside a 36" length of K&S #1111 3/16" aluminium tube . The combination was flexible when stressed but the outside diameter was too big to fit inside the cut torque tubes.
Using my Permagrit block I carefully reduced the outside diameter of the combination until it just fitted inside the torque tube. It was a tedious task but in these Covid-19 times I was content to spend some time in my back yard enjoying some Spring sunshine here in South West Sydney. After all this is a hobby! The images show the cut pieces of torque tube, an original uncut torque tube and a 180 mm of the aluminium tube/carbon rod combination.
Next step is to use some Deluxe Materials gel to permanently glue up a stretched torque tube and to decide if it will be advisable to use a bearing/torque tube bearing holder combination fixed with CA over the join in the stretched torque tube in addition to a bearing in the position recommended in the manual on the other end of the torque tube. The stretched Torque tube will have the join nearest to the boom mount.
There is enough material left to make up an additional stretched torque tube using the third torque tube and the other end of the second (cut) torque tube.

[tony#1]

Re: Weights of Stretched Boom and TT
The Boom increased form 29 g to 36 g
The TT increased from 16 g to 24 g