New Flybarless System

[lesodell]

how about a video on mod's for the head ? and does anyone think a Vbar head kit would work on a trex500?
http://www.espritmodel.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=6244

[Finless]

Yes I will be showing that as well using Kevin's head conversion.
He plans on selling them for the Trex500 and possibly one for the L500 he is building.... Kevin?

Bob

[LITHIUMSTATIC]

Yes I will be showing that as well using Kevin's head conversion.
He plans on selling them for the Trex500 and possibly one for the L500 he is building.... Kevin?

Bob

That's good because the Logo 500 conversion will nearly be identical to the Logo 600..... You reading this Kevin?:)

[fireup]

Yes, I'm making the spacers for the blade grips and swash driver for the T500 now.

For the logo, you can buy just the spacer and ball from Logo already. I'll make just the swash driver.

[alvinchai]

Yes, I'm making the spacers for the blade grips and swash driver for the T500 now.

For the logo, you can buy just the spacer and ball from Logo already. I'll make just the swash driver.

hey Kevin, you planning to make them for the 450 size too? ;)

[Skaross]

Well mine would have arrived and been fitted by now, but for rip-off Britain. Sadly the postal mechanism used by Skookum attracted UK Custom's inspection and now my cheap flybar-less system is looking comparably priced to buying a Gyrobot in the Eu!

$330 plus postage has ended up being nearly $500 delivered by the time I've paid International postage, VAT, duty and of all things, a handling fee to the courier for the privelege of them collecting the VAT/duty on everything (including the fee they've already been paid to deliver it!!!)

Ah well, at least the flybar-less head is already fitted to the Logo 500 and I might get my package tomorrow if someone in Parcel Farce pulls their finger out. I rang them today to settle the payment and was told the amount I owed etc, but until I receive a letter from them in the post detailing the amount, I can't make that payment... how backwards! Clearly they don't want my money.

As you can possibly tell, I'm a little pissed off :( The sooner I leave this stinking, over-taxed country the better. We're far too busy taxing the people who generate real income to support job-dodgers.

Kev

[SpeedVision]

hey Kevin, you planning to make them for the 450 size too? ;)

+1

Also, I think a conversation relative to head geometry is warranted. The easiest and cleanest setup is swash directly to blade grip, but Alvin has indicated that reduction arms are necessary (Titan and Trex) to get more "servo resoloution" and less servo loading.

At the same time, I see Fireup's setups and they had a direct swash to grip configuration. Granted, he uses spacers to allow the the link to be parallel to the main shaft, but what about "swash resoloution" in those setups?

How important is swash resoloution when extreme 3D is NOT required?

All these conversatoins primarily revolve around using heads not specifically engineered to be flybarless. I assume the aftermarket will simply lengthen the ball link arms (move farther away from hub) on the blade grips to presumably increase leverage and increase needed servo throw to increase swash movement to achieve proper servo throw.resoloution...?? (Phew...)

Bottom line: I'd like the "cleanest" setup possible, while keeping mechanically correct, until we have some choices from the aftermarket.

Let's discuss!!!:hug:

[Skaross]

For the logo, you can buy just the spacer and ball from Logo already. I'll make just the swash driver.

Mikado already make a swash driver (its a clamping washout block style); it's part number 4018. This is a redesign over the original VBar item which used fingers to hold the pushrods as per your T500 design. Not sure of the reasoning behind going from one to the other.

The main expense of the Mikado VBar head is the replacement head block and damper holders. The stock head is a plastic block, but the flybarless conversion is an alloy block, with a 2nd CNC'ed housing that slips over it to hold the dampers.

UK price for the conversion kit is £80 (about $160) but this requires you reuse your existing blade grips, feather shaft and bearings. For £20 more, they sell the whole head which comes with all of these other bits... in my eyes its a cheap way of stockpiling some spares since feather shafts and blade grips are common crash damage.

Kev

[Skaross]

Well mine would have arrived and been fitted by now, but for rip-off Britain. Sadly the postal mechanism used by Skookum attracted UK Custom's inspection...

Quoting myself seems a little odd I guess, but I read back what I wrote and realised some of it might appear a little bitter, or read as if something was done wrong when posting.

I would like to clarify that Skookum did nothing wrong and I knew I could get done for duty when I ordered the item. My whole post was meant as a bit of a rant at the UK's taxation rather than finger pointing elsewhere.

Apologises to anyone who may have interpreted it in any other way. Even with duty charges, I've got a great product at considerably less than any of its competitors. I hope to be one of the first to get it flying and give a bit of a field report.

Kev

[Deron Douglas]

Well I just bought one for my "scorpion project" :-) I had purchased (but not installed) a Helitonix mixer and 2 small/cheap gyros. I'm using the 5 blade HAC head and 3 blade TR. What I like about this is it's small and include the gyros.

So I'll be back with questions I'm sure.

Also, now that I have an unused (hasn't arrived yet)... Helitronix mixer and 2 gyros for Sale? Anyone interested? Or maybe I'll just use it on my Hughes Project?

Good work! I hope RC-Tech comes out with some Heads and Tails... I think this is JUST what the market needed!

[MrMel]

I installed the sk360 in my T-rex 450 today, being a VBar veteran, I got it going fairly easy.

Took it out for a spin, hovered it, went perfectly, but I had some tail issues, landed, fixed the tail, took off, hovered it 10 seconds then WAM, it went full elevator back on it self.

Seems to work fine after a reboot.

Think I will sit back on this for a while, I dont trust it much right now.

[Finless]

Full back elevator? Sounds like the 1.0 DX RX issue? Were you running a DX Reciever?

Bob

[Deron Douglas]

Well that was fast! I order it about 30 minutes ago and just received an email from PayPal that it shipped!

[MrMel]

Full back elevator? Sounds like the 1.0 DX RX issue? Were you running a DX Reciever?

12FG with 617FS receiver.

Im working with the skookumrobotics guys to nail it down, heli passed all checks after the crash, (no loose wires, no damaged wires, BEC can handle load, testing the system on the bench looks 100% ok).

[WhirlingBladesOfDeath]

What is the frame rate for a Futaba S9650, 100 or 120? All I can find is that it's a "fast" frame rate.

I'll set it to 100 for now assuming it's better to err low than high?

(so far the setup on my Hurricane 550 is going pretty easily!)

[n2wizard]

Take a peek of these screen shots and see if you can see what's wrong. I modified the swash and rods on my Trex 450 as per Skookums illustration on the web page. Changed type to single servo,Set up as per instructions, all controls seem to be O.K, but every time I spool up, heli just lays over on it's side as though gyros are reversed. Any ideas?
Herman

[MrMel]

you have forgot "Rotate 90 degrees", as I take it you mounted it inside the frame with the diales pointing back?

"Set up as per instructions, all controls seem to be O.K"
Cant be passing pre-flight check (gyro check)??

[carl0s]

Quoting myself seems a little odd I guess, but I read back what I wrote and realised some of it might appear a little bitter, or read as if something was done wrong when posting.

I would like to clarify that Skookum did nothing wrong and I knew I could get done for duty when I ordered the item. My whole post was meant as a bit of a rant at the UK's taxation rather than finger pointing elsewhere.

Apologises to anyone who may have interpreted it in any other way. Even with duty charges, I've got a great product at considerably less than any of its competitors. I hope to be one of the first to get it flying and give a bit of a field report.

Kev

I took it just fine :)

I too think there is too much taxation and not enough return for the cost. I'm unhappy about motor tax (both via fuel and the new road tax), corporation tax, PAYE tax, and more than anything about the lack of control over the terrorist youth.

So my idea is simple.. (I know nothing of politics though.): Vote for the party who isn't Labour who might actually win, so I say vote Conservative, just to kick out the current government.

Sorry for the off topic post ;)

Anyway, you have highlighted something that hadn't crossed my mind.. with a name like Skookum I was expecting it was coming from Europe, but as it's not there'll be a 30% VAT&Duty fee on top for us Brits :(

Still gonna buy one though.

[carl0s]

What is the frame rate for a Futaba S9650, 100 or 120? All I can find is that it's a "fast" frame rate.

I'll set it to 100 for now assuming it's better to err low than high?

(so far the setup on my Hurricane 550 is going pretty easily!)

According to the GY401 manual, Futaba's DS (digital servo) mode drives the servo at 270Hz. Not sure if that's related, but it sounds like a frame-rate to me.

[WhirlingBladesOfDeath]

Take a peek of these screen shots and see if you can see what's wrong. I modified the swash and rods on my Trex 450 as per Skookums illustration on the web page. Changed type to single servo,Set up as per instructions, all controls seem to be O.K, but every time I spool up, heli just lays over on it's side as though gyros are reversed. Any ideas?
HermanDid you do the preflight as outlined in the instructions? Does the heli respond correctly when you tilt it forward/aft, and left/right?

[Eyon]

I took it just fine :)

I too think there is too much taxation and not enough return for the cost. I'm unhappy about motor tax (both via fuel and the new road tax), corporation tax, PAYE tax, and more than anything about the lack of control over the terrorist youth.

So my idea is simple.. (I know nothing of politics though.): Vote for the party who isn't Labour who might actually win, so I say vote Conservative, just to kick out the current government.

Sorry for the off topic post ;)

Anyway, you have highlighted something that hadn't crossed my mind.. with a name like Skookum I was expecting it was coming from Europe, but as it's not there'll be a 30% VAT&Duty fee on top for us Brits :(

Still gonna buy one though.

Yup, rip-off biritain. the only thing i dont 100% agree with is the terrorist youth, that sort of attitude pisses me right off, we arnt all that bad, its a minority who brands us with that tag.

[Skaross]

Well mine was delivered this morning by Parcel Farce... excess payment was £44.24 (about $100) so not the end of the world, and still a great product for the price.

I've attached photos showing the Logo 500 flybarless head and the SK360 nestled in the back of the frames. Sorry the photos are a little blurred... my PDA's camera isn't the best.

The software is great and it took me less than 2 hours to do the electronics conversion and set up all the throws as per recommendation.

No flight report today since its 30MPH winds here :(

Kev

[MrMel]

My issue is solved.

It was a temperature sensitive component in some of the gyros. (we have around 40F here)
they was amazing fast on the support, I tell you.

He has hold all shipments of gyro's now and will fix this asap.

Ive been told my will be replaced asap with a new tested one.

- Fredrik

[Wenlock]

For those of use who haven't got our hands on one of these yet: I'm seeing pics of the SK360 mounted 'flat'. Can it also be mounted vertically, like the Rx in Kev's installation? Is that what the "Rotate 90 degrees" option is for?

[WhirlingBladesOfDeath]

For those of use who haven't got our hands on one of these yet: I'm seeing pics of the SK360 mounted 'flat'. Can it also be mounted vertically, like the Rx in Kev's installation? Is that what the "Rotate 90 degrees" option is for?No, the base must be at a right angle to the main shaft (though you can rotate it 90 degree increments), and must be level.