Protos maintenance

[rcnorth]

[quote=ryguy76;6079574]

Originally Posted by rcnorth

Are you in Victoria, RCNorth? Moving to Kelowna a welcomed move?

Lol, Victoria would be nice. I'm north....waaay north. Prince Rupert.

At least in Kelowna I'll have other people to fly heli's with & won't have to chase the dog walkers off the field lol.

[banditpowdercoat]

Prince Rupert huh. How's flyin in the rain? Lol.


Sent from my iPhone while my Heli plays with the gophers

[rcnorth]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

Prince Rupert huh. How's flyin in the rain? Lol.


Sent from my iPhone while my Heli plays with the gophers

I get between 50-100 flights per month, been a great summer here. Lots of flying in the winter also in between storms its nice, not to cold & little snow. When you guys are in the freezing weather it's sunny & mild here.

[banditpowdercoat]

Lol. But I like the freezing white weather too. Rain, I detest


Sent from my iPhone while my Heli plays with the gophers

[rcnorth]

Gotta have some rainy days to appreciate the sunny ones

But when it rains for a week or more..... it's a bit much that's for sure.

Shouldn't have to worry about that in Kelowna, just have to start spraying my belts with sylicone.

[qntt]

In my experience if you find rubber residue from the belt, the belt is way to tight.
If you want to help your belt live longer, and your pinion and your OWB run your belt as loose as possible.
Also a little talcum powder does wonders stopping static discharges and helping the belt last longer.

[ryguy76]

Originally Posted by qntt

In my experience if you find rubber residue from the belt, the belt is way to tight.
If you want to help your belt live longer, and your pinion and your OWB run your belt as loose as possible.
Also a little talcum powder does wonders stopping static discharges and helping the belt last longer.

I just made my belt tighter because I was trying to eliminate possible reasons as to why the rpms seemed to be ever changing even in straight forward flight. When I tried piro'ing when moving forward, the rpms definitely changed audibly too. I tightened the belt and the problems are gone.


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[qntt]

Originally Posted by ryguy76

I just made my belt tighter because I was trying to eliminate possible reasons as to why the rpms seemed to be ever changing even in straight forward flight. When I tried piro'ing when moving forward, the rpms definitely changed audibly too. I tightened the belt and the problems are gone.


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I suspect the problems are gone because you caused more friction and your RPM dropped to a level where it can't oscillate. I would continue to investigate the problem because I think you just managed to hide it. Bad ESC or bad soldering point or maybe a warped main gear...

[ryguy76]

Hmmm. Interesting. I actually think the belt was too loose and was skipping. It then caused the rpm to change as there was brief moments of less load. The problem was exacerbated during piros be because the tail was really working to hold. I'll keep an eye on it and will run an rpm test to see if I'm getting what i used to.


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[qntt]

Originally Posted by ryguy76

Hmmm. Interesting. I actually think the belt was too loose and was skipping. It then caused the rpm to change as there was brief moments of less load. The problem was exacerbated during piros be because the tail was really working to hold. I'll keep an eye on it and will run an rpm test to see if I'm getting what i used to.


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Usually when the belt skips it does so just a little and it won't cause a significant RPM change. If it skips a lot your belt will show obvious signs of wear and it makes an nasty sound. Thinking more about your problem I would think your rudder gyro gain is to high.

[qntt]

I was able to land like this without the belt skipping at all so I don't think tension is your problem.

[kavic5150]

Originally Posted by qntt

In my experience if you find rubber residue from the belt, the belt is way to tight.
If you want to help your belt live longer, and your pinion and your OWB run your belt as loose as possible.
Also a little talcum powder does wonders stopping static discharges and helping the belt last longer.

I run my belt very loose and I've noticed this actually wears out the pinion. It might be easier on other components like bearings and the OWB, but it chews the aluminum pinion as the teeth of the belt push on the far side of the pinion teeth even more.



This is the second pinion ever on my Protos. It wore out faster than the first one when I went to lower head speeds and loosened the belt a bit.

[qntt]

Originally Posted by kavic5150

I run my belt very loose and I've noticed this actually wears out the pinion. It might be easier on other components like bearings and the OWB, but it chews the aluminum pinion as the teeth of the belt push on the far side of the pinion teeth even more.



This is the second pinion ever on my Protos. It wore out faster than the first one when I went to lower head speeds and loosened the belt a bit.

That's bizarre... I noticed I have almost no rubber residue near my pinion after loosening the belt. If your observation is correct and mine also it means that a lose belt saves the belt but kills the pinion. That seems to be a contradiction.

[alexf1852]

It also depends on how hard you fly. Fly hard 3D day in and day out, your belt and pinion will wear out faster. The belt dust, wear on the belt and pinion comes from the belt slipping on the pinion teeth and tail pulley teeth. If you fly hard 3D, keep your belt a little tighter. Otherwise, your belt will wear out fast in well under a 100 flights. But a tight belt will wear your pinion teeth down from the tight pressure of the belt. Then the belt will slip and wear down as well. So eventually you will have to replace both belt and pinion. I usually get 3 belts per 1 pinion and about 130 to 150 flights per belt.

The design of the Protos 1 belt drive system is cool and sounds great. But it does have its down sides. More maintenance.

[DoubleCH]

For me, tight tension always wears out pinion faster. I fly relatively hard with my stretch (with 13T which accelerates pinion wear much much faster than 15T without stretch) and varying size flight packs. The strongest one is 45C 3500 that can make my stretch REALLY go. If loose tension wears pinion out faster, that's probably because you're slipping the pinion. Stock 13T aluminum won't last 200 flights for me. When the teeth get saw-toothed too much it starts wearing out the belt.

After my steel pinion mod and double-idler mod, no need to worry about pinion/belt wear any more, even running 13T and much harder maneuvers like high speed full elevator/aileron/rudder mobius transition. Bye bye 3rd bearing support.

[ryguy76]

What's the best indication of pinion failure? What should I be watching for?


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[DoubleCH]

Pinion doesn't fail but wears out. You can easily see the teeth get worn into saw-tooth shape. A less common pinion failure happens when the OWBs slip.

[qntt]

The smaller the pinion the more efficient the motor runs but sadly also the faster the pinion wears out. With a 12 teeth the OWB won't last long at all.

[BHChieftain]

Originally Posted by HarryR

This is all I do, basically the major bearings in main and tail shaft. Here in the California Bay area we have on average 70 % humidity so we do not seem to have a static problem.

I thought so too.... but my stretch bird starting arching here in San Jose... had to run a grounding wire. Never had a static problem on my 2 stock protos but for some reason static showed up on the stretch.

Chief