Help with build list

[WhirlingBladesOfDeath]

Hi, a few months ago I spent a fair amount of time reading about the 550 and came close to buying, but then decided to give you guinea pigs (err I mean, "early adopters") a chance to test everything out! ;) I'm itching to buy up a size from my 450, but I feel a bit out of the loop now coming back to this forum. Alot of stuff in here to try to digest!

Hoping a few of you could give me a recommended build list on the 550. I currently just have a Trex 450, and do mostly sport flying; circuits, loops, rolls, sloppy tic tocs, inverted hovering. I have 3 2100 batteries, but all of different types (TP Light, TP Extreme, Cellpro), so plan on new batteries too. From the 550, I'm looking for the same, good power but nothing insane, and flight times in the 6-7 minute range

Is the XES Pro or CF version from Redyheli worth it, or should I just get the $249 basic kit with a few upgrades? If so, which upgrades?
Do I need to upgrade the gears? (lot's of talk about this a few months ago)
Do I need to upgrade the tail? (lot's of talk about this a few months ago)
What motor / ESC, will the current stock satisfy my needs?
Servo's
What battery? I'm willing to buy new batteries and charger beyond 4S if necessary.

I just don't want to have to buy twice. I want a good solid Hurricane, with good parts, and no fuss down the road with a stock part failing or under performing that I should have upgraded during the build.

Thanks for the help,
Jason

[concept1]

well good luck on this one.all the questions you asked are still iffy. and now their are so many options compared to 2-3 months ago. I was one of the early guys who got the std kit with 890kv motor and 50 amp esc. I went with the metal head block and grips, metal elv arm, and short boom. RCP 500 carbon blades. it really flies nice, then I went with the RCP h/18 motor, and it really rocks but flight time dropped and 2200mah and lower packs really can't be used, i get 4.5 minutes from 2500 packs.
I would look at the Zpower motors but you will have to search and read to decide which is right for you, the Z20 or Z30 and their are different kv's for both motors, it seems like the Z20 might be inbetween the stock motor and my H/18, and the Z30 is pretty close to the h/18 but possibly more efficient? It sure would be nice for somone to test all the motors.... unfortunatly everyone is using different gearing, batteries etc, so a good comparison is tough. i really have no complaints on my setup, the carbon is sure nice but not needed, the Pro is nice, but I don't care for the power system it comes with I believe it has been proven their are better power systems then that option. each option ready heli sells has it's plusses and minuses over the others. I also have trex 450, which I no longer fly! I also sold my Glo 50's since I got the Hurricane. i am now using the A123 cells because cost and durability is great! so start reading and making lots of notes!!

[Hurriken]

Jason,

Hope you decide to give the 550 a go. It is a great helicopter even if you go with the basic kit. I too fly only sport, and not even close to where you are at yet, loops/rolls/inverted are out of my league yet. I too have a T-Rex 450 SE so can probably give you some comparisons.

For starters here's what I'm running: Stock H550 plastic kit (came with 850Kv mtr/ESC/BEC), Spectrum DX7 w/DS821 servos, GY401/s9254 tail, Z20-980 motor(more on this later), 470mm MS Composite blades, short boom, 2x - TP2100 Pro-Lites, 2x - EVO 25 2170's, 2x - Kong Power 2200's. Running @ 2000 headspeed with 15t gear.

My flight times are in the 6-8 minute range, but more aggressive flying will cut into that quickly. I switched to the short boom to get better balance with the smaller 3S packs, the MS Composite blades are hand me downs from an old ECO 8 I had, but love them on the Hurri, the Z-20 motor change was in an attempt to maintain flight times with the batteries I already had, and to get a cooler running motor. The stock 850 works just fine but runs HOT!!! The built in fan in the Z20 makes a huge difference, and I am very happy with the change. Although if you want the Hurricane to really come to life get the Z30 for the same $, but you will need bigger packs 3300Mah.

Looking at where your coming from, your going to need new batteries for the H550 anyway, just because you will want matched sets of packs. The first thing you will notice on the H550 is that is a lot heavier feeling than your 450, but also a lot smoother. It seems a lot easier to stay on top of than my 450 from a control standpoint. Mine seems a lot milder on the controls than my 450, which is fine for me right now. If you go the Z30/3300Mah route you can really throw this thing around take a look at some of the Justin Chi videos floating around the web. But bear in mind he's only getting 3-4 min of flight time. If you want extreme flight times I've seen someone running 1x 5S pack and getting 15 minutes!

As far as kits go: Stock plastic isn't bad if your on a tight budget because it comes with everything but electronics/batteries. But being a plastic frame there is a lot of flex, There are CF inserts to stiffen it up though. The XES is nice but you need to supply motor/ESC, not a bad way to go because upgrading the head later is ultra expensive! CF kit is sweet! Rigid frame, aluminium head, opens up some more battery options as well. Another option now is there are a couple of other CF upgrade kits coming online for the H550 that are sweet, and give you some real options in the battery arena.

Gears / Tail Rotor problems don't really exist anymore with the newer kits, With Stock power! When you get into the bigger motors and batteries is when people start having issues with these. Common tail issue with high power/high rotor rpm is that the tail won't hold during aggressive 3D, many are switching over to a T-Rex 600 tail with good success. If you have the stock Gaui gears stamped OK they seem to be good until you get to a high power setup, then you need to go to the RevCo machined gears, but usually to get the gear ratio/headspeed right with the bigger motors you need the RevCo gears anyway.

So what does it come down to? Personal preference to suit your flying style, and how much $ you're willing to put into the heli. Like I said earlier my setup suits me fine for my current abilities, but someone that is fairly comfortable throwing around a T-Rex 450 might find the basic plastic kit, and 850 motor a bit sluggish, and lacking the pop that the T-Rex has.

So there you have my $.02

[concept1]

good thoughts Hurriken,

Jason I will also add my TREX has a JGF 450th and I use the Evo 2170's or the TP2200 25c packs in it. performance compared to my Hurricane is, well with the new H/18 motor the Hurricane easily out performs the Trex, with the hurricane and stock motor, it was pretty close, climbouts were faster on the Hurricane, but the Trex rolled and flipped much faster, once I added the Longer Raptor flybar they were pretty close and this is were I quit flying my Trex. but flying it hard the motor did get hot. and you have to run a flat 100% curve on the stock motor (850-890kv) to get any performance. the Hurricane is more more solid then the Trex, it flies more like it is on rails, very smooth and stable yet with the h/18 motor it is still fairly quick, flips and rolls are now probalby equal to my Trex or any Raptor 50, Personaly overall I feel the hurricane performs better then my Raptor 50 or Gohbee . although I had a set of 15g paddles on my last Gohbee 50 and I never saw anything roll like it did, it was scary fast. I would probalby recomend the Z30 motor thought over the h/18 but not sure you can run the 50 amp esc with it though?

[WhirlingBladesOfDeath]

Wow, thanks for the great replies! I'm slowly putting my list together. Pretty excited to get this heli!

[Mikej]

Jason,

I completed my build about 6 weeks ago and have about 25 flights so far (it is dark too early now :( ). The things that you should definitely do are

New motor mount
8mm shaft
CNC elevator lever (I also did pitch and aileron)

Also IMHO I would also recommend
Short boom and belt
Readyheli battery mounts

I am also using Trex 600 landing gear as it is wider and white (which I find easier to see). All kits should now be coming through with the OK gears.

Enjoy,

Mike.

[WhirlingBladesOfDeath]

OK, please comment on my list. I'd like to just stick with one vendor, so was a bit limited on a few of the choices. Do you think Readyheli will give me an extra discount? :)

To Buy:
550 XES Pro Kit (rather than worrying about which individual parts to upgrade, this has it all already!)
H/18 Motor (sounds like similar to Z30, maybe not quite as efficient though?)
(3) S3151 servos for cyclic
GY401 / S9254 combo
CC60 ESC
K10382A 6A External BEC w/ 5.1V Two-way Step-down voltage regulator TREX 600 Align
Series Dean 2-1 adaptor
3.5mm gold billet connectors
(2) FP 25C 2500 3S1P (where is the 3300 that I see mentioned?)

Already Have:
DX7, and AR6100
Pitch gauge, tachometer, and misc tools and stuff for the Trex.

Anything else you can think of I need? Do I need to buy a pinion gear or is it included? What size for "spirited" sport flying? It sounds like I should run in the low 2000 rpm range? Will I get the 6 or so minutes I'm hoping for?

Thanks!
Jason

[exceljay]

Did you see this AD
This is great Deal from Ready Heli.
and maybe you can ask them to change your plastic head set with CNC meter set

[ke6d]

OK, please comment on my list. I'd like to just stick with one vendor, so was a bit limited on a few of the choices. Do you think Readyheli will give me an extra discount? :)

To Buy:
550 XES Pro Kit (rather than worrying about which individual parts to upgrade, this has it all already!)
H/18 Motor (sounds like similar to Z30, maybe not quite as efficient though?)
(3) S3151 servos for cyclic
GY401 / S9254 combo
CC60 ESC
K10382A 6A External BEC w/ 5.1V Two-way Step-down voltage regulator TREX 600 Align
Series Dean 2-1 adaptor
3.5mm gold billet connectors
(2) FP 25C 2500 3S1P (where is the 3300 that I see mentioned?)

Already Have:
DX7, and AR6100
Pitch gauge, tachometer, and misc tools and stuff for the Trex.

Anything else you can think of I need? Do I need to buy a pinion gear or is it included? What size for "spirited" sport flying? It sounds like I should run in the low 2000 rpm range? Will I get the 6 or so minutes I'm hoping for?

Thanks!
Jason

Jason,

The list looks good. I would change the CC-60 to Align 75A ESC to save some money. The H/18 motor (which I have) is capable of sucking > 60A in an instance! I am still breaking in my battery packs right now, but I did a couple loops yesterday to see how current is drawn from my pack. The H/18 motor with a 13 tooth pinion, was drawing very close to 60A. I am planning to give my bird a work out (with the Eagle Tree datalogger attached) in a few days after breaking in all the battery packs.

With the H/18 motor on 13T, I can fly for about 4:00 min (1600mA put back) on a set of TP2200 Extreme V2. I can fly for over 6:00 min with a pair of FP3200 30C.

You may also want to order the 13T pinion. A friend of mine was test flying the H/18 motor with a 14T pinion before, he found out that is was drawing very close to 70A doing loops and rolls.

The AR6100 is a park receiver, you may also want to get the AR6200 to be safe.

Cheers and GL,

Dan, KE6D