General Ion-X stuff and things.

[Russ McC]

I just put 55 tooth gears in both my Ions today; the head speed now is down to about 1940 instead of 2010 with the 52 tooth gear. I’m glad the head speed is still up pretty high, I like that. The motor is able to hang in there better now when doing high power maneuvers. I have been flying with no canopy because they performed better with out the extra weight, and drag when going backwards. Now there pulling very well through big high speed backwards outside loops with the canopies installed. The motor use too run at 150F with the canopy and 120 to125 with out the canopy, today with the canopy it ran at 122F so it looks like the heat is down a bit with the 55 tooth gear.

I am having a blast with these things, John and I went to Brooks yesterday for a friends moving away flying BBQ party. I cycled through my pair of Ions four times, total of eight flights, using about 2/3ds of a gallon of gas through the Honda generator. 82 flights on one and 15 on the other one, total of 97 flights in the past six weeks!

I sent the fried motor and speed control back to Hacker/Aero Model last week but I took another look at the motor before I sent it back. We had thought it was a speed control problem that caused the motor failure, well when I looked it over again I saw that there is a small groove on the side of each magnet and these grooves line up but some of the grooves had shifted. So I think some of the magnets moved on the shaft causing the motor to get hot and fail, hope it will be isolated to only a few motors but if your motor starts running hot stop flying it and if the motor stops in flight hit hold as soon as you can during your auto to prevent the controller from going up in flames. A Venem temp monitor helps to keep an eye on the temp :D

[vitek]

Glad to hear that gear is working out for you, and that you are flying with the canopy again. Watching you fly without the lid was making my brain melt.

Looks like I'm going to have to try the 60T when they start shipping. 1940 RPM is still a little high for my liking...

Travis

[KillerBob]

Wow - looking forward to mine !!

A short question: Does the kit come with 52 AND 55T gear ?

/Lars

[vitek]

Nope. Unless MA has changed something in the last two weeks, you only get 124-52, the 52 tooth gear.

Travis

[Helirob]

Glad to hear the 55 tooth gear is working well for you Russ. I will order up a couple of 60 tooth gears this week. We should have them by this Friday. I think a head speed of 1850 would be excellent.

Rob

[JonMann]

Russ,

When I had the 52t gear in mine I was getting 1950, just switched to the 55t and getting 1850, wonder why I am getting 100rpm less? (checked with a MA and ModelaAvionics tachs). My performance does seem a little more sluggish at 1850. Temp are just about the same with both gears as well (140 to 150 degrees F, with canopy)? Still real happy with this heli and overall performance, just kinda curious the difference we are seeing, and I would rather see 1950 with the 55t than 1850.

-jon

[Russ McC]

Hi John,

I think there can be some difference in are models. Blades? Or a difference in the way we are taking the measurement, there is definitely differences in the tacks I have used. My 9Z always said 1980 on the ground at mid stick 85 to 90% throttle, make sure your tail blades are centered. My friend’s optical tack read 2010 in the same conditions. Now with the 55 tooth the 9Z reads 1940. I have more grunt power to yank the model around now with the 55 tooth gear.

Use BBT 700 blades for your biggest option. Or use 680 SABs. Both are great, not sure I can see a clear difference between them. The stock, provided tail blades also work very well. Keep the pitch to 10 and 10, not more. Too much pitch will make any model feel like it is down on power because you can’t use the full range of the collective stick. Not saying you have to much pitch, just something for any one who might read this to think on :)

[JonMann]

Russ,

Yeah, I hadn't thought about blades, I am running 690 Vblades, they are a little heavier and have a little more drag. Plus I am tach'ing them in flight, not on the ground.

I am only running 9 and -9 pitch, so that is not the problem.

I have a set of 680 NHP's I may try them out tomorrow.

Are you running your chargers right off the 12v from the generator? Or do you have a 12v battery in between? How many chargers are you running at once on the generator?

[Russ McC]

No offence to V-Blade users but they are probably to much for this chopper, try your NHP 680s or some of the ones I mentioned.

No I am not using the 12v out put on the generator at all, it is for charging car batteries directly only and even if I used a car battery hooked to it for charging it would not begin to keep up as it only puts out 8 amps. I am using the 110 side of the generator with a 12v regulated power supply. We can run the required power supplies to power four Astro 109s, charging four 5S 4Ps at six amps and not much more. If I am charging alone I can charge at seven plus amps no trouble :)

[EricLarson]

V-Blades generally weigh the same as other blades (between 170-190 grams) with an average of about 180g. I have run a lot of different blades in testing and I can assure you 690 V's work very well on the ION.

You guys are sure getting a lot lower temps than I see. I always see 180-185F on the motor and 130-135F on the packs. Frankly as long as we do not exceed the max temps, there is nothing to wear out and should not be any problems.

Eric

[cdrking]

How much of an OAT (outside air temperature) difference is there between Oregon and Atlanta? I haven't heard anyone mention OAT. Does this make a big difference in the temp readings?

Jeff

[Russ McC]

Yes it does make a difference. The other day it was 63F and the motor temp was 120-125, today it is 73F and the motor is 140-150 :)