doing my homework for ATOM 500 FBL setup

[panz]

After seeing the ATOM 500 in person, I've set my heart on this little beast and am ready to hit the buy now button! but I thought I should ask you guys first as I'm still not sure about the right combination for this baby.

I'm after the right FBL combo which requires minimum/zero modification (i.e. drilling new hole into the servo horn :lol:)

As a start, here's the shopping list:



ATOM 500 FBL kit
HW 60A ESC that comes with the kit (is this good enough?)
HW 5A BEC
BeastX (fair cost + quality...is it hard to set up for ATOM? vs vBar)
Align DS510m servos (fair cost + metal gear)
Align DS650 rudder servo
Batteries (need recommendations)
any other? blades/tail blades/crash kit?

will the above combination work without any modification? I'm open to suggestions and don't mind to stretch the budget a bit..and as a hint this will be for a beginner pilot :oops: cheers

[crawl]

After seeing the ATOM 500 in person, I've set my heart on this little beast and am ready to hit the buy now button! but I thought I should ask you guys first as I'm still not sure about the right combination for this baby.

I'm after the right FBL combo which requires minimum/zero modification (i.e. drilling new hole into the servo horn :lol:)

As a start, here's the shopping list:



ATOM 500 FBL kit
HW 60A ESC that comes with the kit (is this good enough?)
HW 5A BEC
BeastX (fair cost + quality...is it hard to set up for ATOM? vs vBar)
Align DS510m servos (fair cost + metal gear)
Align DS650 rudder servo
Batteries (need recommendations)
any other? blades/tail blades/crash kit?

will the above combination work without any modification? I'm open to suggestions and don't mind to stretch the budget a bit..and as a hint this will be for a beginner pilot :oops: cheers

Looks good to me. No custom modifications that I can think of need to be done. BeastX is one of the easiest to set up in my opinion. I have set it up a couple times and it really is very straight forward, just follow the instructions and keep the quick reference guide handy.

I highly DO NOT recommend Edge tail blades, they do not come balanced and some times very much not so. Love their FBL Main blades. Right now I am hooked on SAB tail blades. They have all come perfectly balanced, but they are pricey. Nothing wrong with buying some Align CF tail blades for much cheaper and also pretty good about balance. You have loads of options though, there are many right answers.

Batteries is another one with many right answers. Depends on what you want out of them. Personally I am hooked on 3300mah Voltz 35c packs. The price is lower-mid range for excellent value. So far mine have no puff at all and have fantastic power. I use them in my 500, 5.5 and 6hv.

For parts / crash kit that is completely personal perference. I have a full set (plus) of spares for all of my helis, but that is just to optimize my down time if I crash. I can place an order with Nankin and have my spares in 2 days, but usually I want to be flying again the next day :-D.

[TheBum]

The main upgrade I did to mine was to swap out the stock canopy posts for RC Booya quick-release mounts. They provide a much more secure attachment than relying on the friction of the grommets.

[panz]

Cheers guys. Will add quick-release mounts to the list :)

@Bum: did you finally upgrade to FBL?

I came across a thread discussing about the need to drill a new hole on the servo horn for FBL setup using either beastx/vbar for the unit to work properly?...not sure if it was for ATOM or other model..that's why I was pretty concerned about the electronics combo for my new heli.

[crawl]

Cheers guys. Will add quick-release mounts to the list :)

@Bum: did you finally upgrade to FBL?

I came across a thread discussing about the need to drill a new hole on the servo horn for FBL setup using either beastx/vbar for the unit to work properly?...not sure if it was for ATOM or other model..that's why I was pretty concerned about the electronics combo for my new heli.

Sounds to me like someone was too lazy / cheap to find the right horns for their servos (or had a rare servo with poor arm choices?).

You should not need to do that. Mine was on BeastX and is now on Vbar no drilling.

[TheBum]

@Bum: did you finally upgrade to FBL?

I came across a thread discussing about the need to drill a new hole on the servo horn for FBL setup using either beastx/vbar for the unit to work properly?...not sure if it was for ATOM or other model..that's why I was pretty concerned about the electronics combo for my new heli.
Still working on it.

I took Ah Clem's advice and got some Dubro heavy duty servo arms. The A500 geometry really calls for mounting the balls on the backside of the cyclic servo arms. The Dubro arms provide more space between the arms and the servo case than the Compass arms, not to mention that they provide a multitude of radial spacing distances for the balls.

I forgot about that until you mentioned servo arms.

[panz]

Sounds to me like someone was too lazy / cheap to find the right horns for their servos (or had a rare servo with poor arm choices?).

You should not need to do that. Mine was on BeastX and is now on Vbar no drilling.

what were the cyclic servos used when it was on BeastX? were they using stock horns? cheers



I took Ah Clem's advice and got some Dubro heavy duty servo arms.

are they compatible with DS510s? or just for certain type of JR/Futaba sevos?

[Ah Clem]

"BeastX (fair cost + quality...is it hard to set up for ATOM? vs vBar)?"

I have set up the V-Bar and the Beast X (on the Atom, only the V-Bar, so far).

The V-Bar requires a computer to set up. The version of software that is included with it, 5.0 Express, is quite easy to set up.

The BeastX requires no computer to set up (although I have heard that a computer interface for doing this is on the way-there is a computer interface available now for upgrading software and with additional tuning features for the tail). The BeastX if very easy to set up, using your transmitter and a push-button on the Microbeast unit, itself.

Both are good units!

[Dflyer]

Sounds to me like someone was too lazy / cheap to find the right horns for their servos (or had a rare servo with poor arm choices?).

You should not need to do that. Mine was on BeastX and is now on Vbar no drilling.

Chris, if you use the stock Compass servo arms you DO need to drill the holes at 15mm ONLY if you are using the BeastX. There's no way that the blue led in step J will light up at 6° of cyclic pitch with the balls at 19mm.

Grtz,
Dirk

[Ah Clem]

Just as an FYI, I found it much easier to get the geometry right by mounting the servos from the inside of the side frames. My servos are Futaba 9650's and may have much different dimensions than the ones you are using sir.

[Dflyer]

I don't know about the dimensions of the 9650's, i'm using the DS 510's.

Grtz,
Dirk

[crawl]

Chris, if you use the stock Compass servo arms you DO need to drill the holes at 15mm ONLY if you are using the BeastX. There's no way that the blue led in step J will light up at 6° of cyclic pitch with the balls at 19mm.

Grtz,
Dirk

Personally I would get other arms for my servos, I had to buy Dubro's for the 6hv (I didn't get any arms wiht my kit). I am use to buying arms for my kits, so to be drilling the arms to make them work just seems silly. I have never had a kit come with servo arms though so that is probably why.

[TheBum]

I just changed from 9650s to Savox 1260MGs (same as DS510Ms) and the optimum mounting is the same: from the inside.

[Ah Clem]

Thanks Alan!

[panz]

Thanks guys for the info..keep them coming ;)

So will the Dubro heavy duty servo arms fit into the DS510s? the ones i found they only available for JR/Futaba/Hitec servos. If yes, can someone please direct me to the right web page?

or should I consider getting different servos? cheers

[arcweld]

Hi Panz, I had Dubro horns on my Align 610's which use a Futaba spline. I also use em on my Futaba 9650 servos so I think you should be good to go.

[panz]

Hi Panz, I had Dubro horns on my Align 610's which use a Futaba spline. I also use em on my Futaba 9650 servos so I think you should be good to go.

Hi Jase! was waiting for you to chime in :) ..did you get them locally (aus)?

[arcweld]

Yeah local to me in Werribee but not sure if the shop is on line or not. I will see if I can find where I got em.

The shop I got them is still in the dark ages and don't even know what a PC is but this place has them. https://www.petenplanes.com.au/servosdubro-super-strength-servo-arms-long-futaba-8-cat-670prod_165.html?ccUser=
I have bought from them before and they are pretty good.. I think though that I used the small ones which means you need to buy 2 sets or cut one of the bigger ones down if they have the same hole spacing.
They are a bit exxy though. I think I paid about 8 bucks a set for mine.

Or http://www.rchobbies.com.au/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=23&products_id=37968

[panz]

You're a legend! Thank you sir!

[arcweld]

Aww shucks .No probs mate.:)

[SJohn]

Just as an FYI, I found it much easier to get the geometry right by mounting the servos from the inside of the side frames. My servos are Futaba 9650's and may have much different dimensions than the ones you are using sir.

is this the same method as in Finless' video? I'm about to build mine and still collecting some valuable information :)

[Ah Clem]

My apologies, it has been quite a while since I saw that video, so I don't know if Bob went the same route on the servo mounting.

I built my Atom before the instruction manual was available. I tried/test fitted the servos various ways before settling on mounting them from the inside. This gave me the straightest shot from the servo arm to the swashplate and minimized any tendency for the ball link to bind against the servo case top.

It may be that different servos may work better when mounted from the outside-straight geometry (or as straight as possible) is the desired goal, IMHO

[skunkworx]

I can back Richard up on mounting the servos on the inside. Depending on which servos you use and how you mount the balls, it can help line your link rods up a lot straighter. I do mine on the inside of the arm which would bind on the case if I had the servos mounted on the outside, so I switched to the inside (tried it in both configurations with a few different servos). Keep in mind this is with the stock arms, so if you don't get enough clearance with aftermarket horns, you might have to mount the ball on the outside of the arm in that case, but because it would be shorter overall, it would likely line up well with the swash anyways.

[TheBum]

I can back Richard up on mounting the servos on the inside. Depending on which servos you use and how you mount the balls, it can help line your link rods up a lot straighter. I do mine on the inside of the arm which would bind on the case if I had the servos mounted on the outside, so I switched to the inside (tried it in both configurations with a few different servos). Keep in mind this is with the stock arms, so if you don't get enough clearance with aftermarket horns, you might have to mount the ball on the outside of the arm in that case, but because it would be shorter overall, it would likely line up well with the swash anyways.

The Dubro heavy duty arms provide more clearance than the stock arms for mounting the balls on the backside of the arm.

[kevinator9]

The Dubro heavy duty arms provide more clearance than the stock arms for mounting the balls on the backside of the arm.

I agree, I use these arms on my 6HV and 500 and they work perfectly. They also give some reassurance with the amount of plastic around the ball link.