HDX 450 Build Videos will be here

[BarnOwl]

I agree the tailshaft is very fragile. Allthough bending it like that just in flight I have never seen before. I got a good stock of tailshafts for this tail and allthough the design is a lot more complicated then the stoch align alu tail I much prefer the last one. So much actually that I swapped the V2 tail from my nr.1 bird for the Align one. The new, black tailshafts from Align can take a beating and I did not change one of them yet.

[2Dog]

BarnOwl can the whole tail section be replaced with the t-rex verison, or did you just replace the shaft with the T-rex version?

What a bummer Broke again. I'm really sorry to see that problem.

I goy my kit in yesterday and got the wrong Speed control and motor. I'm waiting to here back from Steve at HD on this. If things don't turn out well I may just eat the 15% restock fee and go with the T-rex kit off of rc-hover.com for a few bucks more.
I'm just sitting on the kit till I hear back so I'm in the wait and see mode.

One other ? did any of your kits have the lettering on the box that it was a HDX450SE? Mine only shows that it's a HDX 450.

Thanks for any info,
2Dog

[BarnOwl]

Don't get me wrong here.....the Sonix V2 Pro Tail is a very well designed tailpiece. It has a very good review on the TrexTuning site. For us beginners (Including me) that brake a few tailblades with rough landings now and then the Align SE tail is stronger.

2dog: The whole tailsection can be replaced with the Align (plastic and alu version)tail. But why would you do that if you have not even flown it?

[broke-again]

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback. I think i may have possibly discovered a contributing factor to the failure. The main shaft was obviously weak and suspect SKID is correct in that the shaft may have missed heat treatment as it is very soft, just hope the main shaft didn't miss anything!

Looking at the tail blade grip assembly this morning, i noticed that one side of the blade holder now has about 3mm of play on it. The bolts are both tight, so tight i cant even move them. I suspect that one bolt may have slipped or lost it's thread, which may explain why i had no warning/vibration beforehand. The instant difference in balance may have been too much for the weak shaft.

At the end of the day im no expert so bear that in mind, but what i see now and what i witnessed at the time makes some sense to me and i will be returning the tail unit to Helidirect.

2DOG, the box i received my kit in only says HDX450, i suspect its simply a stock box. Dont let my misfortune put you off either, at the end of the day i dont at this point think its a bad heli. I am reserving judgement. Any product mass produced often has glitches, how many cars has Ford recalled this year for example? Many thousands i believe. True there is no real comparison between a $345.00 helicopter and a $30,000.00 car, but i guess the point im trying to make is that it dosent matter how much you pay for something. If someone on the line that day cuts corners, someone ends up with a problem. Im this case it was me. Chances are you wont have any issues, just play safe and err on the side of caution and do regular pre-flight checks, paying a little more attention the the tail behaviour as you spool up. Im hoping my experience was just a freak one off occurance.

At least Helidirect responded to my email in a timely fashion and have offered to replace the tail rotor. At the end of the day all they have is my word and some pics showing it wasnt crash damage. No arguments, no if's,but's or maybe's, so in all fairness im giving it another chance.

Anyway i want to thank all of you for letting me share my experiences with you and for the support given. :noteworthy

Bill

[2Dog]

BarnOwl and broke-again,

I just wanted to get some idea on what my options are if I run into problems with the tail. This is my first micro heli and I'm just nervous as to parts support and what will work with this bird and what will not. I have flown Raptors for 5 years now and have had few issues with them going thru the version changes but it's a better heli for it. All I can say for me is I love the Raptors they are cost effective for the type of crashing/flying I do. Parts are cheep and a lot of stores carry the hardware. I do understand no heli is perfect, but I don't want to be grounded with a part that only Helidirect sells. I have looked over the kit and it looks like a quality product from what I have seen so far from looking at it.

I'm just waiting on Helidirect to replace the issues I have with the motor and speed controller. I purchased the kit that Steve from HD offered on the 7/17/06 post "8 kits special promotion with Align 430L motor and Align 35A ESC free of charge going with the kit" I have spoke to them on the phone and the staff tells me to e-mail Steve so now I'm waiting for e-mail feedback from Steve. According to the staff Steve's out of town so I'm going to wait. At this point I'm just nervous. :roll:

Thanks for the feedback Guys,
Steve :cool:

[broke-again]

Hi Steve, My understanding is that most t-rex parts are compatible with the HDX450. I personally intend to stock a few spares including flybar, tail booms, main gears, tail & main rotor shafts & blades. Chances are if i do have any mis-haps they are the things most likely to get damaged. The parts are pretty inexpensive from HD and shipping has always been very fast in my experience and im in Ontario Canada.

Im afraid i dont have the experience of other on here, so will have to take a back seat and let Barnowl guide you.

Either way it wouldnt hurt to have a few spares on hand, that way you wont be grounded like me. Thats the hard thing to deal with, all i can do is use the sim until my parts arrive.

Good luck with your HDX and im sure HD will fix things for you.

Helicopters are like women - they tend to break down now n then ! OH and they usually go down when you least expect it.. :lol:

(apologies in advance to all females reading)

Regards to All

Bill

[b0OM]

I got home early this evening and the wind was kikin it up a bit :badair: . Thought I'd try a little hovering in the windy conditions because i am kinda impatient. No problems. Man this heli is ROCK solid! I had to correct a bit to keep her from drifting with the wind but i will say i am SUPER impressed with the authority of the tail on this bird and the stability. I have however learned to "weather vane" it into the wind, but it was holding steady with the GY240 and Hitec HS65 servo :shock:

I am amazed.

[broke-again]

Great stuff Boom. Im jealous :mrgreen:

Oh well, hope HD hurry up and get my parts to me. Your not the only one thats impatient!

[b0OM]

Another great day. I got to see the underside of the dhopper today and in rough winds. I may be getting the hang of this stuff... A couple of rough landings kinda bowed the landing gears, but amazingly bent right back into shape! NO issues at all with the bird. Simply a lack of experience on my part. I hope the wind dies down soon. This tennessee weather is rediculous. Wind ALL THE TIME! :arggg:

Close afterflight inspection revealed nothing but my bent landing gear! WOW!!!

I love this heli more and more each day. :!:

[b0OM]

Ah hah! My first failure with this kit. I failed to use a good allen wrench to tighten the pully onto the countershaft that powers the belt for the tail. I MUST buy some quality tools. Other than that. Flew a couple packs thru her today with no crashes!

My hint that something was wrong came when the tail lost authority. I landed to find a loose pully. :oops:

Repaired in short order with a trip to Sears for some quality allen wrenches!

I still love this Heli so much! It is a wonderful introduction to the rotor world for me.

I got a NEW IN BOX Caliber 30 with OS 32 SHX motor from a co-worker who was selling out of the 30's to get into 50's. The factory seal on the box was still undisturbed! $250.00 (he said good deal)... :?:

I have it all set up and ready to go. Just waiting till i have mastered the HDX first.

Anyway... Gotta charge the TX now! Get ready for tommorrow after work.

C'yaz

[Russ]

Hi all, got my HDX put together today. Appears to be rock solid. I hit a couple of bumps along the way. Twisted my canopy standoff into. The bearings won't fit in the tail gear bearing mounts. Talked to Steve at Helidirect he said he would replace them. Got a set I already had and put in for a quick test flight but it did not seem to have enough power. The motor did not come with the 13t pinion I thought it was supposed to come with and all I had was a 11t pinion to put on it. There was no DVD in the package. OK enough of what was wrong here's the good stuff. There was enough extra screws to build half another ship and it came with the balls for the servo arms plus a few extras. This heli is very nice and I think its going to be very fun to fly once I get a few bugs worked out.

[Caliber1]

The bearings won't fit in the tail gear bearing mounts. Talked to Steve at Helidirect he said he would replace them. Got a set I already had and put in for a quick test flight but it did not seem to have enough power.


Exactly the same situation for me except. I enlarged the bearing hole in the tail rotor mount blocks. For the record, I should have not modified the mount blocks and done a RMA for replacement parts which Steve suggested I do.

Had my first glitch today and nosed it over just after lift off. The MR blades contacted terra firma and bent the MR spindle shaft severly. Bent the flybar shaft slightly also. Found out that the stock spindle is Aluminum! Just ordered replacement spindles (steel) as stock T-Rex are larger in diameter and shorter.

[Caliber1]

I got a NEW IN BOX Caliber 30 with OS 32 SHX motor from a co-worker who was selling out of the 30's to get into 50's. The factory seal on the box was still undisturbed! $250.00 (he said good deal)...


Yes, that is a good deal. The Kyosho Caliber is an excellent machine and you will be impressed with it after a successful build and setup. You may want to tune in to the other site for copious Caliber 30 build threads.

[overhead]

There are no instructions on mounting the canopy and I didn't see it covered in any of the videos.

Have you guys been using rubber grommets in the canopy and then slide these over the standoffs or just the canopy striaght on to the standoffs?

What about attachment at the front? I see that you can hook it over the lip in front of the landing gear. Is that enough? I fly backwards a lot and don't want this thing to pop off in flight.

Thanks for you help,

Dennis

[Russ]

Good question Overhead I hav not mounted mine yet but I was wondering the same thing about the canopy.

[Finless]

The Trex canopy will not fit under the little lip in front of tht landing gear and reach the standoff unless you tilt the littl top try at an angle like Barnowl has done.

I mount mine under the larger lower tray and have not had a problem with the canopy coming off.

Bob

[BarnOwl]

After the last upgrade I did it a little different again, I removed the reciever tray completely and put the battery tray under an angle so you can put just about any size pack under the canopy:

[2Dog]

Hi BarnOwl,
How's the CG with everthing in that location? Your heil looks very good. I do like the lay out. Where did you get the CF landing gear at?

I'm in the process of getting the servio arms on the servos and I take it I have to pull one of them out to get the screw in the arm correct?

Thanks for the help,
Steve

[BarnOwl]

Thanks Steve, my HDX is a bit tail heavy, but that's mostly because of the 9650 on the tail. I experimented a lot with the battery placement in the front to improve the CG, but this is according to me the best compromise.

When I place the servo's the first thing I do is connect the RX to the power with the servo's connected outside the frame. I set up all the arms as straight as possible. If they are all aligned I mount the servo's with arms and balls connected in the frame. If you use the right order you can screw them in one by one. I then build the rest and finally finetune with subtrim on the tx to adjust the travel (If necessary).

This works better IMO then fiddling with screw and arms in the frame......

I got the skidz and canopy from Proheli Germany:

http://www.proheli.de/onlineshop/

[shanea1]

Thanks Bob I'm a newbe might help me :badair:

[helidirect]

Jeroen,

That's a great looking landing gear you have there.

STeve

[2Dog]

Jeroen/Barnowl,

I wanted to check with you and see what you have for rod lenghts from the servo arms to the swash plate? The video says 50mm but if I go center ball link (arm) to center ball link (swash) at 50 mm the rods I have are not long enough. If its end to end of ball link then they will make it.

Thanks for any info,
Steve

[Finless]

2Dog, the 50mm I gave in the vid is the TOTAL link length e.g. end of the links.


Bob

[whosncntrl]

Bob,
Just wanted to say thanks for the great tips and hints in the build videos. I recently recieved my HDX 450 and thanks to your videos, was assembled and flying in no time. I do have 1 request though. How about a gyro setup video. I am using the Futaba GY 401 with the Spektrum DX6 TX. I was finally able to get everything figured out, but was extremely frustrated before the light bulb in my head came on. Anyhow, thanks again for your work in making this hobby a little more understandable and enjoyable.

[Finless]

Use the Gyro setup vid for the Trex that I did..... Same thing!

Bob