Raptor E550

[stevehonn]

I've not seen many posts on these and I was told they were pretty hard to sell in the UK but I thought I'd buy one anyway :) The build wasn't bad, its my second Raptor (Raptor 50) so no big changes apart from the CCPM control system. The build was completed in a day, radio gear fitted the next, I've used JR DS811's on the swash and a 401/9254 combo on the tail. With the power system there doesn't seem much advice as to suitable motors, especially in the UK (thank god for forums!) and TT still haven't got their motors or speed controllers available yet but I managed to find out that the specs for the TT motor are the same as the Z-Power Z30A-1100 which is also the same as the Century 600 Plus outrunner which is available in the UK so I ordered one from Century UK, together with an Electron 80A ESC. I decided that I wanted to upgrade the stock plastic head as I fully intend to run over 2000rpm so ordered a Kasama head from Z-RC. This arrived within a week and is a fine piece of kit, plus it looks good too and with the current exchange rate cheap! I also fitted the Quick UK tail with thrust races I'd bought for the Trex 600.

I found that the FP 4900 6S packs I have for my Trex 600 don't fit the E550 :roll: and that FP sell a 4900 6S especially for the E550, the down side being that it won't fit in the Trex 600! Because of this I chose a TP 5000 6S pack which fits both. I was a little disappointed when I started charging the 5000 pack using my Astro 109 and V Balancer because it was balancing 5 cells down, I checked cell voltages and 5 cells were at 3.82V and one was 3.79V. It took over 2hrs of slow charging the pack through the balancer to get it balanced, every FP pack I've bought (and I have too many :) ) was balanced or very close out of the packet.

I've fitted an 11T pinion from my Swift stock as the 10T was a little low on headspeed and set up the pitch curve as -9 0 +9 and the idle up 2 throttle curve as 100-80-100, this gave around 2300 at 0 degrees pitch, this either means the motor is around 95% or the KV is a little pessimistic. Tracking needed a turn of adjustment and a little cyclic trim and it was hovering almost hands off, the climb rate is pretty good, about the same as my Swift on a 6S setup with 540mm blades. It flies - like a Raptor! no big shock but even frst flight a loop or two plus some rolls and a little inverted flight was very easy, no pitch pumping yet as I need a few gentle cycles on the pack first. The first flight was 4 minutes, the motor was barely warm, same for the esc and lipo, used 2280mAh, the second flight of 5 minutes was about 3120mAh, I'm expecting power consumption to increase!

First impressions are that I'm surprised its as lively as it is on a 6S setup, it should be heavier than the Trex 600 and does feel slightly more weighty, but the battery is flat in my scales so I can't check. The motor seems well up to the job and its all nice and smooth, once I've got a few flights on the pack I'll stick the Eagletree on and see what the figures are like.

[litespeed]

Great write up.

So what are your thoughts towards recommending this heli? I have a Swift running 550 blades, Nue 1910-1.5Y, 10 tooth pinion and 10s a123s. I'm looking to get a bigger heli and think I want the 550 and stretch it or just go for the 620. There are lower frame kits made to run the a123's. Your thoughts?

You also said, "It flies - like a Raptor!" since I have never flown one is it OK to assume that this is a good thing?

Tom

[stevehonn]

Compared to the Swift the E550 is a fair bit heavier which makes it more solid in the air plus there is very little frame flex, unlike the stock Swift. Raptors fly very well, thats one of the reasons why TT have sold so many, I do find the head on the Trex 600 to be better, you can have stability in the hover with excellent 3D ability too, its a little harder to achieve both with a Raptor. I'm still setting up the controls to get them how I like them, increasing cyclic thows and using the 25g white paddles so I'm expecting improvement once the battery has a few cycles on it. It is the most solid heli I've flown inverted and I put this down to the battery mounting system, it gives a wide range for placement so you can get the C of G spot on, plus the batteries are as well protected as they can be inside the frames. This versatility, plus the A123 frames from TP Packs should make it a good candidate for a123 cells, although I've only ever used lipos myself. I bought the E550 because it is suitable for 6S setups as I have quite a few packs of this size and 10S is possibly for the future but it would be easily stretched, I could use the tail boom and belt from my Raptor 60 to use 600mm blades without adding much weight at all.

The E550 gets a plastic swash instead of the E620 plus the E620 gets a metal head block, this is a problem if you intend to run 600mm blades at 2000rpm as the headblock is a known failure point on Raptor 50's, I went for the full Kasama head so 2000+ headspeeds are no problem. The only other significant different is the sideframes, alloy for the E550 and carbon for the E620, not a problem if you intend to use a123 cells and the alloy is plenty good enough.

The only major reservation I have is that spares are around double the cost of the Trex 600 although with the upcoming Trex 600 nitro I would guess that TT will have to address this, I've already heard a rumor that Raptor kit prices may be dropping in the UK soon and the Mini Titan is very competitive with the Trex 450 on price and spares costs plus it flys very well too.

[litespeed]

Thanks for the info.

It appears I have just bought a e620 with the pletty orbit 30-12, rotor tech 610 blades and extra canopy. I got it all cheaper than a 550 with the 50 boom and blades so I think I did good. I just don't know much about the orbit motors other than they aren't cheap either, little more than the Neu motors or maybe similar since I'm not familiar with this size vs the Neu ones.

I'll order Gary's frames and be in the air in no time!

Tom

[stevehonn]

I got a full flight on the E550 yesterday and had another couple this morning. Unfortunately it went into full PCM lockout and went in very hard. The skids were destroyed, the aluminium side frame went through the front of the canopy, the usual main shaft and feathering shaft plus flybar and paddles (one snapped in half) plus the tail boom folded on impact due to shock as it hit nose down. The bottom frame has broken plus the skid adapters and the heli looked somewhat banana shaped from the front. I've take the aluminium side frames off and they were slightly bent on the front mount, easily straightened and they protected the TP 5000 pack well (phew!). Unfortunately the canopy mount broke off the main frame which would be an easy fix but the main frame is also broken just in front of the main gear, which is also stripped!

When I was building it I was intending to use a JR R900 PCM receiver but had a mishap with it and bought a JR RS77S synthesised 7 chanel mini receiver, meant to be full range but I normally only use full size receivers in my large helis, I shouldn't have broken my own rules :( The heli was travelling away from me and was a fair way down the field at the time so probably a worse case senario.

I'm using JR DS811 servos on the swash plate and they really aren't enough, the torque is too low as is the speed and it really needs better servos only I've now got the repair costs to find.

I took my Mini Titan to fly instead and it would barely lift off the ground at full stick headspeed was fine so I looked at the pitch. The whole pitch range had shifted down so I had loads of negative but hardly any posititve. After a good look over the head block has cracked vertically, both sides, from the bottom, through the bolt hole to the underside of the top part where the shaft goes through :shock: I did have a crash last week due to the top jesus bolt shearing so I would gusee the damage started then. What a fun weekend.

[eyeflyhelis]

that sucks sorry to hear it Steve

[litespeed]

Hey Steve,

Sorry for your loss. I have always used the R770S recievers and I'm NOT familiar with your RS77S. I hope the lock out reason is found. With this crash does this make you want to try a Spektrum DX7 out? Not nearly as many features as my 9303H but I don't use most of the "things" on it anyway. Good luck to you.

Tom

[stevehonn]

Hey Steve,

Sorry for your loss. I have always used the R770S recievers and I'm NOT familiar with your RS77S. I hope the lock out reason is found. With this crash does this make you want to try a Spektrum DX7 out? Not nearly as many features as my 9303H but I don't use most of the "things" on it anyway. Good luck to you.

Tom

The RS77S is the synthesised version of the R770S, I have a couple in use, one in my Mini Titan and one in an electric plank. I have had the MT go into momentary lockout but it was very short, the E550 was farther away going in the same direction :dontknow On the Mini Titan the motor & speed controller are at the front and the receiver is between the side frames at the rear with a Quick UK base loaded whip aerial fixed to the rear skid pointing backwards, its always difficult with mini helis to get much separtation between the noisy RF components and the receiver and this has proved the best. With the E550 the motor is behind the main shaft with the esc (Electron 80A) on the side frame below the main shaft. I'm using a seperate 5V bec which is near the esc, both the esc lead and bec lead have ferrite rings fitted. The receiver is on the front radio tray and I'm using a QUick UK whip aerial fixed to the top of the front skid, pointing forwards, again seperating the components as much as possible. I've ordered a JR full size 8 channel PCM receiver this time, I've used the R700 a few times in electric planes which is the non-pcm brother of the R770S and the interference rejection circuitry is poor at best and definately not a match for its bigger brothers, maybe something has to go when you reduce the size of receivers?

I'm very seriously looking at a 2.4Ghz system but I also have a PCM 9X (9303) and am reluctant to 'downgrade' to a DX7, I'm looking forward to the launch of XPS's plug in modules or maybe Spektrum will go this way for the 9303.

The repair bill is around £100 ($200) excluding blades, not too bad and I notice that the parts which are specifically for the E550/620 seem to be cheaper than the 30/50/Titan parts, hopefully these will also come down in the near future as the Trex 600 Nitro could be very serious competition and parts are around 50% of Raptor spares.

[stevehonn]

Well, after repairing the heli and fitting a new JR 8 channel PCM receiver I ground range checked it and found problems with the 5V BEC I was using. I swapped to a 6V BEC and it got worse :( , finally I tried a seperate receiver pack and range was fine. I bought the Align regulator for the Trex 600 and used a 1350 2S lipo and again range checks were perfect. First flight after the rebuild and I had a momentary lockout after around 3 minutes so brought it in for a landing and lost it again hovering 10ft in front of me :shock: Luckily I got it down okay and switched off, being throughly disheartened at this stage. I range checked it with and without the motor running (pinion disengaged) and range was perfect, we couldn't simulate the lockouts no matter how we tried, even moving the heli into the worst position for the aerial layout.

I finally bit the bullit and bought a DX7, this has totally solved all radio problems and it has been real fun to fly, using Maniac 550 blades climb performance is very good, it certainly holds up well with my Trex 600 and it's a very smooth flyer with the Kasama head and red super-light paddles, it was a blast in the calm winds the last two days. I'm up to just over 4000mAhr in 6 minutes running the 11T pinion, probably running 100% with the 10T pinion would reduce performance a little but duration would be better.

The E550 will do nicely for the use I bought it for, to fit in a fuselage, I've just got to pick which one. For 3D the Trex 600 is still a better bet, the head makes it more agile and better suited.

[henrik04]

Just my 2c worth..
It is best to place any shorten antenna (QUick UK whip) not horizontally but accordingly to your flying style. I mean if you fly with your transmitter's antenna vertically, then you have a vertical polarization. Your Rx Antenna normally should then be placed vertically as well. Same apply for the reverse.
As it's not always possible, a 45 degrees angle gives generally the best results. To convince yourself, just range check with the Tx antenna half extended and test both horizontal, 45 degrees and vertical. You'll see then my point. :)

Of course it is best to have the Rx antenna as far away as possible from the ESC and switching BEC if present.
It is even better to 'opto isolate' the Rx from the heavy duty servos (digital or not).
This isolation helps to insure galvanic isolation and isolate noise on the ground return.

I know that it looks like a lot but when observing the trouble Steve went through, these basic electronic rules could have saved his bird in the first place.

Hope this will help some.. :mrgreen:

[stevehonn]

I accept what you are saying, having both transmitter and receiver aerials horizontal is a worst case scenario for the radio system but its worked perfectly on my Trex 600, Trex 450SE, Raptor 50, hence my shock at having problems.

I've switched the whole fleet thats flying at the moment over to 2.4ghz using a DX7 and radio problems are nil. I have noticed that every time I fly the trim is a little different which I feel could be down to the quality of the gimbals and pots on the DX7, I never had this with my PCM9X (9303). I'm waiting for a module for this and this should show where the drift occurs.

[stevehonn]

I accept what you are saying, having both transmitter and receiver aerials horizontal is a worst case scenario for the radio system but its worked perfectly on my Trex 600, Trex 450SE, Raptor 50, hence my shock at having problems.

I've switched the whole fleet thats flying at the moment over to 2.4ghz using a DX7 and radio problems are nil. I have noticed that every time I fly the trim is a little different which I feel could be down to the quality of the gimbals and pots on the DX7, I never had this with my PCM9X (9303). I'm waiting for a module for this and this should show where the drift occurs.