Power systems that work - READ first post

[Synister]

Just finished reading through over 100 pages of posts on three different sites about this helicopter and this is the one I was really looking for. I have a 450sa currently and its fantastic, does everything I want and more. I just am looking for a bigger heli and like most, the cost of a 600 is oppressive to say the least. My charger can handle 4s and 4amps and im not interested in a new charger which is why im looking at this heli. My questions are these.
1. The z30-1100 seems to be the most potent practical motor option but i have seen a few people running the z20-1470 and getting better than stock performance without sacrificing run times. I know i can expect about 7 min or so from a 3200mah 20c 3sx2 configuration but with this motor, is it really an improvement over the stock 850kv or even the 1100kv motor?

2. at what battery weight does the heli seem to balance the best? I am looking at 522grams for the 2x 3200mah batts and wanted to know if this was on the heavy side, just right, or i need to look into a shorter boom configuration.

With align taking their sweet time with the rex500 this heli seems to be the way to go for an affordable bigger bird, now i just need to figure out where Im gonna get the $$$....

[ukgroucho]

Well this seems to work pretty well. Until I get more cycles on the packs it's hard to tell but I've now got a set of packs up to 8 cycles so I hit them a bit harder today. Eagletree graph attached.

Z-power Z30 800Kv with Revco 18t pinion
Revco 61T primary, 68t main - Gaui AR pinion.
Kontronik Jazz 55-16-32 in heli mode (governor)
Throttle curve (DX7) is at 65%
Two Hextronik 5S 2300MaH 20C-30C packs in series (10S)
Hyperion TiCool SBEC... running 5v right now. Will swap to 6v when voltage reg arrives for the 9254 Futaba running the tail.
RCP 500mm CF blades

Headspeed is just shy of 2400RPM.

General sports flying for 5 minutes seems to consume 1100 - 1250MaH. I did a bunch of loops, flips, rolls, very hard circuits and some punch outs today and 5 mins is showing 1426MaH on the Eagletree. I seem to put a little more back in than the Eagletree says was consumed but I'm guessing that the difference is losses in the balancers.

Based on that, 6 minutes of tearing around is OK.
I may try dropping HS to 2200-2300 or play with pinions a bit more to see if I can improve efficiency more.

Maximum amps so far (full pitch climb out for a couple of seconds) was just under 51 amps. Max power just shy of 1700 watts.

EDIT 2nd October. Max amps seen is now around 60 with 1950 watts peak :shock:

[interference]

What do the experts think about running a Mega 22-30-2 or 22-30-3 in the hurricane? Specs seem to be within the range of the motors used here. I have both of these laying in my parts box.

[Sonn113]

Hi, here are my settings and results :

Motor: Z20-1470KV
Pinion and gear: 13T/61T - 19T/61T
ESC: Align 75A (medium timing, quick throttle response speed)
Throttle curves: 0 50 67 - 85
HEAD SPEED: ~1800
Pack size: 2 x 3S Zippy H 3300
Blade size: Woodies 500
Flight times, and style of flying: 13min30s (3000mA consumed), mainly hovering. :thumbup:
Performance: I keep HS low because I am a beginner. (at 90% I get HS 2100)

Notice : I did not find any good ESC settings to have the Governor mode works.
I think Align ESC is simply not good for it ! :thumbdown:

[Wazzer]

Sonn113

you should be carefull taking out 3000mah of the packs as that is beyond the 80% rule.

You should be aiming for more like 2640mah as you will probably shorten the life of those cells doing that on a regular basis.

[michael88997]

as you will probably shorten the life of those cells doing that on a regular basis.


either that or cause them to puff... i know most of the time its from overcharing but it can happen

[bradh1963]

;)Pic to show chassis mod made to my Hurricane to allow use of 2x 3S3300 packs. Grey plastic plate is some scrap plastic I had... velcro fixes the pack in place.

Kev

[Luciora]

Hey guys, just a quick question on motors.

I'm looking at the Z20 but not sure which to go for 1470 / 980 ?
I bought my Hurri 2nd hand and the previous owner had installed an ESky motor but it seriously lacks any power. Headspeed is way way down even running at 100%!

Also on batteries, I'm trying to find some 3300 3cells but there is simply no stock anywhere. Is the 2200 / 2600 worth it?

Lastly my speed controller had a run in with the dog (don't ask, stupid puppy just don't understand which toys are mine and which are hers), is 50A good to stick with?

Many thanks.

[skigolfmike]

Most folks here are going to recomend the 980kV since it will be a little easier to gear. FlightPower has 3200 30C 3S that will work. ThunderPower makes a 3300 25C 3S that will work too. They are pricey at $125 ($250 total) ReadyHeli has 3200 KongPower for $10/pack less which saves $20. A 50A ESC with that setup should be fine.

[michael88997]

anybody that needs power here is my setup that rocks

z30 1110 kv motor
align 75amp esc
zippy 3300s
15t pinon 50 main 20owb
100% tc gave me 2470 headspeed(which is what i flew it at)
rcp 500 carbons

i also have the align 600 tail grips and didnt have any trouble with tail kicks... the 7703d held rock solid :)... im going on vacation this weekend for a week so hopefully once i get back i can get a video of me flying to show some people the power it had...

i was getting 6 min of hard flight and everything was just getting warm in 90 degree weather, i could do all orientation tic tocs easy

[c00lhands]

So after messing around with the HBK2 for a few weeks, I decided to pick up the bare bones 550 kit. I have a spectrum 6 channel receiver and was wondering what power system the experts would recommend to maximize flight times on 2200 3s lipos. I’m a n00b so I’m not going to be doing any 3D flying for a while. It looks like most of the setups recommended here are geared towards performance upgrades and will probably chew through 2200 3s lipos pretty fast. Right now I’m just concerned with stretching the flight times as much as possible doing basic easy going stuff.

Is the stock (850kv) motor any good/ efficient and where exactly do I find it? I looked in a bunch of places but no luck. I’m in process of stocking the electronics a little bit at a time. Any help would be appreciated.

[mysticmead]

get the Z20a-980 it's easy on the lipos and works good with the 2200mah setup. I went with that motor a 14T pinion 20T OWB 50T primary gear and the stock main gear. that should keep head speed down to 1800-1900 RPM which is good for learning and sport flying.

the stock Gaui motors while they do work, are not as efficient as the Z20 and Z30

[Mikej]

get the Z20a-980 it's easy on the lipos and works good with the 2200mah setup. I went with that motor a 14T pinion 20T OWB 50T primary gear and the stock main gear. that should keep head speed down to 1800-1900 RPM which is good for learning and sport flying.

the stock Gaui motors while they do work, are not as efficient as the Z20 and Z30

Agree with everything that MM said - I have 2 550's one with a Gaui 850, one with a Z20A 980, I'm not good enough to tell any difference in performance - both give about 7.5 mins (max) on 2 x 2200 (make sure 25C). Z20A is defo cooler running

[michael88997]

anybody that needs power here is my setup that rocks

z30 1110 kv motor
align 75amp esc
zippy 3300s
15t pinon 50 main 20owb
100% tc gave me 2470 headspeed(which is what i flew it at)
rcp 500 carbons

i also have the align 600 tail grips and didnt have any trouble with tail kicks... the 7703d held rock solid :)... im going on vacation this weekend for a week so hopefully once i get back i can get a video of me flying to show some people the power it had...



just though id do a follow up on my power system... everything is awesome, the plastic frames are holding up, gears all good, batteries excellent... i highly recommend this setup for anybody that is power hungry like me :

[xodarap1]

I'm running a similar setup 13T, 14T and 15T with a 42T and 20T OWB. It is plenty of power.. overkill with the 15T for most things really lol.

The only thing I don't have is 3300 batteries but I imagine that even if my kongs were 3300's it would only be a matter of time until they were in this same shape. My kong 2200's were fine for a few months of hard flying but they are starting to really sag and drop off after 2 minutes of hard pushing now.

One of my friends I fly with has some outrage 30C's coming in and we are going to test those buggers out to see how well they stand up to long term hurri abuse.

[skigolfmike]

After all the blown motors and stripped gears, I think I'm finally getting dialed in on a setup that works consistently. My setup is the Scorpion HK3026-1400, Phoenix 85HV ESC with 15/61/20/61 gearing on 500mm RCP II CF blades. My current throttle curves are Normal: 0-60-80-90-100, Idle 1: 100-80-100, and Idle 2: 100-90-100. I had been running the 16T pinion, put I think the 15T is better. I may try a 14T with a 100-100-100 throttle curve just to see how that works. On Idle 2 a 4:30 flight of aero and mild 3D uses 2400mAh.

With the TRex 600 tail I have the gain on my 770 down to 62%. I did up the throttle curve yesterday and I started to get a little wag in the tail, so I backed it off a little. I should get 2300+ with the 14T and 100% flat throttle. I'd kind of like to try that to see just how it works. I have a Medusa Data Logger coming, so I can put up some data when I get it. I can always try 14/60 instead of 14/61 to get a little more (~50) rpm.

[rotorhead58d]

i'd like to use my thunder tiger ripper motor and esc from my E550. anyone try this combo yet?

[mysticmead]

as long as the Gaui pinions will fit the shaft and teh motor will bolt in, I don't see why it shouldn't work... then again I'm no expert :D

[rotorhead58d]

do i need to put a better servo in my 550? i'm using ds821's. sport flying and newb 3d only.

[mysticmead]

do i need to put a better servo in my 550? i'm using ds821's. sport flying and newb 3d only.
DS821's work fine on cyclic...

[bobbybe]

One thing you can do with your 821s (you may have already done this) is get a bec and switch the voltage to 6v instead of 4.8. I just did this at the hobby shop on their software and it's supposed to boost up the speed and torque for the cyclic servos. however, if you do this, you must get a stepdown regulator for your tail servo or you could fry it.

A quick power question- for some reason, my kit didn't include a motor pinion. I have the gaui 1100 motor, 75a esc, and i'll be running it with the stock gears. any opinion as to what type of pinion to get? on the calculator, a 14 tooth pinion with this setup would give me 2175 hs, and a 15 tooth would give 2330. do i really need a 2330 hs?
any suggestions for a new hurri owner?? :shock:

[rotorhead58d]

your kit should have included a 14T pinion. hmmm

[xodarap1]

I'd go with a 14T. A 15T on there is quite a bit and would be harder on your batts..

[bobbybe]

cool thanks for the advice guys! I'm ordering a 14t now :lol:

[skigolfmike]

We're talking sustained tictocs, power loops outa' sight without hitting full throttle, unbelievable autos. Absolutely amazing power and acceleration.

Gaui 1100kV/1500W Motor (A Z30 1100kV is a good choice too).
Phoenix 80 in fixed heli mode, normal timing and normal PWM. 100% flat throttle curve.
2 Outrage XP25 3700 3S batteries in series.
RotorTech 550 Angle Tip blades.
Gear for 2200-2250 headspeed. 21/68/20/61 or 15/50/20/61

Use the lightweight paddles and move the mixing arm linkage to the seesaw to the inner hole on the seesaw to speed up the head. I'm going to put in a longer flybar from a T600 to speed up the head a little more.

A 4:15-4:30 flight of aero and mild 3d will take ~2700mAh to recharge.

I think the extra 100mm of disk really makes a huge difference in the way this heli flies. It flies a lot lighter now and just has amazing power. For this heli I think this is as good as it gets.