HDX 450 Build Videos will be here

[united737pilot]

Never mind post previous to this. It's fixed. You nailed it with the throttle pitch curve.

Pitch was actually 60-70-80-90-100%
set it back to 45-55-65-80-100% and it is solid as a rock no more bobbling no matter what I do!!!

Your a genious. Thank you sooo much for the help.

[fox98racing]

Hello all. I just recieved my HDX 450V3 in the mail, and am anxious to get started. I have watched all the build videos by finless, great help. Is there anything learned since these vids were made, that I should worry about?

EDIT: please disregard this post, as I just read the entire thread. Lot of good advice in here.

[ps61785]

I was doing some research on headspeeds and i see that some people are running over 3k for headspeed. Given the stock setup with the gear taht come with this kit, what is the recommended headspeed...should it be more like 2700 or 2800 or more? I plan to be doing some 3D flying with it...and this figure is to set in my idle 2 spot. please help as i am still not sure on what is a recommended headspeed for this heli...

[billyd]

I crashed my HDX450V3B. Bent the blade grips shaft, landing gear, broke a carbon blade. Pretty bad hit.

Question, in carefully checking over the heli, I am noticing that the raised tabs of the swashplate are hitting the wash arms when I apply fully elevator and aileron (any full diagonal of the right stick on the throttle). Is it possible the crash did this? I don't see any damage to the swash plate, or anything else for that matter (besides what I mentioned already). I have the swash settings on my futaba 6exh set at 65% for aileron and elevator (50% for pitch). Should I just lower those until the swash no longer hits or did I damage something else? I think I will have to lower the settings into the 50's% to avoid contact which is a pretty big change from where finless says to put it.

When I assembled the heli I checked for interference, but at that point in the video, the motor still wasn't installed and I don't think I rotated the head while the servos were at extremes. I never noticed it before while flying around during my intial check out. I am a beginner pilot so I don't jam the stick much anyway.

[BobOD]

I see Finless and Barnowl have replaced everything except the frame with something other than HDX parts. Could either of you explain why and with what? Are the HDX parts inferior to comparable Align parts?

[BarnOwl]

I crashed my HDX450V3B. Bent the blade grips shaft, landing gear, broke a carbon blade. Pretty bad hit.

Question, in carefully checking over the heli, I am noticing that the raised tabs of the swashplate are hitting the wash arms when I apply fully elevator and aileron (any full diagonal of the right stick on the throttle). Is it possible the crash did this? I don't see any damage to the swash plate, or anything else for that matter (besides what I mentioned already). I have the swash settings on my futaba 6exh set at 65% for aileron and elevator (50% for pitch). Should I just lower those until the swash no longer hits or did I damage something else? I think I will have to lower the settings into the 50's% to avoid contact which is a pretty big change from where finless says to put it.

When I assembled the heli I checked for interference, but at that point in the video, the motor still wasn't installed and I don't think I rotated the head while the servos were at extremes. I never noticed it before while flying around during my intial check out. I am a beginner pilot so I don't jam the stick much anyway.

Sorry about your crash.Do you have your servo travels at 100% because most radio's go till 150%, just check that out. If this happened after the crash check all your servo arm alignment again. Set them at 0 degrees level and check the rods and linkages for damage.

I see Finless and Barnowl have replaced everything except the frame with something other than HDX parts. Could either of you explain why and with what? Are the HDX parts inferior to comparable Align parts?

Right in the beginning when the first HDX hit the market, the alu cnc (Sonix brand) where just not up to par with their Align counterparts.
So after some experimenting we found out it was worth it to spend a bit more money on Align upgrades then Sonix (HDX) upgrades.
This might have changed though because I do not see much complaints about the HDX parts here lately.

[Finless]

Yea some stuff just wasnt great... It worked but not up to the level I liked and thus slowly over time I replaced stuff. I head the V3 is much better...

Bob

[billyd]

To barnowl.

Yes my endpoints for those servos are at 100%. I reduced my swash settings on aileron and elevator to 53% and now there is no interference. I still am not airborne because I am out of blades, will have them tomorrow.

In the meantime I will go through the whole servo setup again from scratch and see if that fixes it. I have a hunch the interference was there all along and I just missed it in the original build. As I said, at that point in the construction process, when finless says to check for interference with the swash, the motor is not installed and being a newbie, I just didn't manually rotate the head while the servos were at their extremes.

ps regarding parts for the V3 it is a problem because helidirect does not provide any documentation and some of the parts are not different than V2 and some are. So it is a guessing game when ordering replacement parts. For example the original tail gear (of the main set) was warped in my kit and I requested a replacement, and when it came it was about 1/8" too big in diameter. I assume it was a V2 tail gear and thus even helidirect isn't sure what parts go with what heli. Also, you can't buy a v3 head or tail yet (that I know of). So I am thinking about buying another V3 heli barebones to use as spare parts. At the end of the day, the $300 spent will be cheaper than buying them one at a time as needed. And I know they will be the right parts.

[dutch_anykey]

Billyd

Or when something breaks...you can upgrade it with align parts. A few $ more expensive..But it works better and will last a bit longer. 25% of the barebone you wont use anyway..For sure not the Frame. Haven't heard anyone breaking it yet..pretty amazing :D

Maurice

[billyd]

dutch_anykey,

But how do I know which align parts will work? If you read my post the distance between the tail drive gear and the main set is different on the V3 than on the V2 thus the tail gear of the main set is smaller on the V3. I only found that out by accident, and I don't think many even realize it, the difference is so small (but big enough for the standard Trex part not to work). So given that how do I know what else is different? There is no paperwork at all on the V3. It's a great helicopter but the documentation is zero outside of the finless videos which are great, but somewhat dated.

I could just buy parts from align and make them work, and it may come to that. But I am hoping the manufacturer will come up with some documentation for the V3.

[dutch_anykey]

Hi,

Is the distance really different? or do you refer to the difference between the main gear? I got mine with 109 tooth gear...maybe they ship v3 with the 106T gear? in that case your taildrive gear is different.
i bought the 106T later as an replacement...that one is working fine with the tail gear of align.
As for what parts are compatible.... a lot..if you are not sure..drop a line in the forum if you want to replace something :D

Maurice

[billyd]

Its the 106t gear with the V3. Sorry I assumed the distance was different, never considered the gear it was meshing with might be larger to compensate. Assumptions.... woops.

At any rate, I'm sure with time I will catch on to any subtle differences between the V3 and the Trex and the V2, but until them and without any documentation on the V3 I will remain mildly confused. A state of mind I should be pretty comfortable with at this point. :dontknow

[ps61785]

upgraded to a microheli tail today and oh man is it ever responsive...definately a big improvement over the stock tail...

[dutch_anykey]

Yeah that was one of my upgrades as well.
I couldn't believe how much more silent it was during flight. And very good tail response.

b.t.w. just out of curiousity..did they improve the tail unit in V3 as well? Mine was a V2..it came with that long tail shaft.

cheers,
Maurice

[ps61785]

yeah its a little better i think...and your right...much quieter...

[billyd]

I have another question. I replaced the main shaft on my 450SE (it had a very slight bend, all from that same crash) and there is a collar which has two small diameter wires pointing down on either side of the main shaft which orient the links that attach to the flybar cage and the pitch levers. What is the proper radial orientation of that collar? Should I rotate it such that the links to the flybar cage are vertical, or such that the links to the pitch levers are vertical? Or should it be in some other position?

I wish HD had some documentation on this fine heli.

[Jermo]

I think you are referring to the washout. I'll refer you to the CCPM2 video to see how it's setup. I'm not 100% clear on your description. When I replace my main shaft i leave all the linkages on, loosen/remove the head bolt, top collar with 2 grub screws, and remove the bolt from the bottom of the AR gear. Unless the shaft is bent really bad I can generally get it out.

Link to the CCPM2 Video (http://video.helifreak.com/?subpath=finless/trex450&filename=CCPM_Part_2.wmv)
Jermo

[billyd]

At the top of the main shaft there is a hole that interfaces with the top portion of the rotor head (flybar cage and blade grip portion). There is a small screw and nut that connect the two. Right below that screw and nut there is a collar with one very small grub screw. Protruding from beneath that collar are two pin guides that radially orient the washout arms with respect to the flybar cage and blade grips. I will watch the vids, but my question was what was the proper radial position of that collar with respect to the flybar cage and blade grips?

[fox98racing]

Hey billyd, if I understand your question right, the two pin guides, are lined up directly beneath the blade grips. I am not sure if this is what your looking for, but I hope it helps.

[billyd]

Thanks fox98racing, that's exactly what I needed to know.

[veegor]

Hi i just ordered the hdx heli a view hours ago should be reciving tuesday I guess has there been many other changes in the parts revision since last month? I read about different lengths or types of tail shafts in V2 and V3 kits..Is there anything that I should look for in particular ? :)

[dutch_anykey]

Veegor,

My advice to you

Wait till you reveive the kit, start building according to Finless's videos.
When you encounter problems start reading this whole thread. If you still have questions after that, drop a message in this forum and i'll be happy to answer a question if it is within my knowledge

Good luck and have fun :D

Maurice

[veegor]

:D okay thanks for the reply ...i was already reading a few threads before :) Its 415am here . And i'm just trying to gather info :glasses2:

[leapfrog]

Hey BarnOwl!

After over 240 flights, I've worn several things out on my HDX450SE V2... so it was time for an overhaul... I replaced the main bearings, main and tail gear, removed the upper tray and built a custom gyro tray, moved my GY401 from under the boom block up there, moved the ESC from up there to the main tray, added a DS3400G on the tail, and added a AR6100 RX (and moved the model to my DX7)... Looks like this:

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/477981428651d1dcebc8a93609e8741a.jpg

and a closer shot:

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/6a9799c3d6badbc2e590bb17b8a0509d.jpg

Shortly thereafter, I started getting glitching on the cyclic servos (HS-56's)... it was weird... but in building my Hoss x4 framed birdie (also a G10 frame) it was recommended to ground the tail belt rollers... so I decided to ground the boom block and tail belt frame on my HDX... Shown here:

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/513f2435e258bd1de8dbd4b568bb3ce4.jpg

Doing that, the glitches totally went away, and it is once again one of my favorite flying helis... 240+ additional flights, here I come... *big grin*

[BarnOwl]

Looking good Leapfrog!

Interesting layout, gyro up front, do you still get the canopy on with your battery that way forward? I suppose she's not tailheavy anymore......
You have the rx in exactly the same spot as I have it. Man, I do like the Spektrum radio! Glitches are just no more!

I also had a wonderful flying day today. I used the 450 all day because my 600 is waiting for replacement packs to come in. This was the first nice spring day we had here. :D