Beam E4 build Vids

[Nazar78]

im waiting for da tail setup, my tail has a little bit of freeplay wic u can twist da tail blade...

[devious17]

All beam has that freeplay but wont influence flight/manouvers.

[Finless]

I will be doing the tail and other stuff tomorrow!

Bob

[huskynox]

Well my build finally started last night and then came to an abrupt stop about 5 minutes in.... I'm missing the 3 small carbon frame pieces (radio tray, upper gyro mount, and lower gyro mount)!

AWESOME! Way to go BEAM!!!! Thanks so much!

Edit: I called Advantage Hobbies and talked to Amanda. She was very apologetic and said she'd ship the pieces out today. It still sucks! I wanted to build the frames this weekend. I guess I'll start on the head. BTW - I triple checked every square inch of the box and packaging - the pieces are missing!

Anyway, good support from Advantage, but BEAM should be paying a little closer attention to their QC and packaging. It's tough out there and when you have a company like Align to compete with, you better stay on top of things! I've built 8 Align Helis, and not one was missing any parts!

[helibird]

Man that sucks, they should be in the bag with the fins. I had to search a little as well.

Oh and FYI my kit and my friends did not come with the screws to mount the servos. I had to go down and buy 6- 2mm x 8mm bolts and 2- 2mm nuts. No biggie just kind of a pain.

Another thing I found was one of my washout arms was bound up and notchy when I mounted it. I first thought "crap got some locktite in the bearing" but I switched bearings to the other arm and the same arm bound up while the other one was free. I think the tolerances in that arm were just a little off and the bearings are too far apart. I found a small washer (very small) and put it between the two bearings, worked like a charm. I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem so this is probably an isolated incident just thought I'd mention it in case some one else ran into it.

[gftazz]

Helibird you and I must have gotten ours from the same batch as I had the exact same problems as you. I ended up buying a screw and caphead washer set so I could have the 6 needed silver capheads and 2x8mm screws to mount the servos. I also got their carbon pushrod set (comes with 2 in the package) for a couple of my other brand helis but I had to get some ball links as it doesn't come with any which was strange as you get the 2 carbon rods and the metal ends with threads but no plastic ball links?? The mixing arm I fennagled some to get it smooth by ever so slightly backing off a tiny ammount on the screw after I applied the threadlock then let id dry overnight and was pretty smooth just ever so slightly notchy on the one arm as yours.

Tom

[Finless]

FYI so you know I was missing the screws and cap washers for mounting thr servos. No biggy though. There are enough screws in the extra screw bag to do the job and ya don;t need the fancy cap washers anyway.

Bob

[boltz]

Has anyone noticed how short the three screws in the swashplate are? They lack at least 3 threads of having full engagement. They only protrude from the balls about 3 threads.

[Stricker22]

I will also add that I was missing the servo screws in my kit as well!

My tail slider was very notchy when I put together, I called Advantage Hobby and got Len on the phone. He told me that there have never been manufacturing defects in a Beam heli ever. I just need to sand down the tail better..... So after several minutes and another phone call, he finally agreed to send me another tail pitch slider. I have two friends that have had this exact issue. I offered to send the defective part back and he declined.

The new part fixed the notchy issue immediately. I also ordered some extra parts for crash protection and the packaging was in a manila mail envelope and my boom supports were sticking through the packaging! Luckily no ship damage but could be better...

Other than that, great build. I am sure Advantage and Beam will improve QC soon.
Dealing with Advantage support could be better.

[avatar71]

a few pics to see...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5768.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5767.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5766.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5765.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5763.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5761.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5760.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5756.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/avatar71/IMG_5755.jpg

[LITHIUMSTATIC]

Maybe you could make those pics about 900x700 or something like that.

[ROne21]

Them are some big pictures right there :shock:

[avatar71]

oops, too big... resized !!

[huskynox]

Bob, note on the mixing arms and washout arms...

The manual shows applying red loc-tite to the outside race of bearings. In your video you just drop them in, so nothing retains the outer race. I actually applied a very, very lite coat of green loc-tite to hold them in place. This will retain the outer races. The inner bearing races will be captive from the boss on the washout block for the inside bearing, and the screw head on outside bearing......

Another thing I noticed is on the plastic washout link arms, the orientation seems to be correct in the manual and in your video, BUT the holes in the mixing links seem to be backwards. The larger OD seems to be on the wrong side (outside), instead of the inside, so the mixing links won't pop on the swashplate balls properly. Did you notice this?

[boltz]

The mixing arms on mine were the same way as yours.

[avatar71]

I had the same issues with the radius arms. They appear to be molded backwards. I did get them to pop on. I guess that they will be less likely to pop off inflight (eventhough that has never happened to me).

As a side note, I do like the align links a bit better. They seem more resilient.

What is everyones take on the tail servo mount? I think its kindo of cheap. For all the metal they put into this thing, they could hav considered a metal mount. I put an align mount on it.

Also, has anyone tried an Align boom on it? I'd like to get rid of the AL boom for a CF one...

Also again, who is liking the GF blades?

[Jetleaf]

I agree Avatar, the tail servo mounts weren't doing it for me either. I used the ones that come on the Diablo. One of Beams' claims is "no upgrades needed" I beg to differ when it comes to the tail servo mounts. Why they opted for plastic instead of aluminum is beyond me. It's not as bad as some though, just look at all the plastic parts on the T-rex 500 especially in the head. Don't get me wrong I love the T-rex 500. I just waited for the metal upgrade parts before I got mine. As for the blades on the Beam they are great, just don't try to find any. If you think T-rex 500 blades are hard to find take a gander at tracking down the Beam blades. Beam and Advantage don't even list them as spare parts! They are made by SWE in Korea. Their website show blades that look a lot like the ones for the Beam but the shortest ones they offer are 530 mm. Evidently they make and sell the blades for the Beam heli for Beam exclusively. I still don't understand why you can't buy any from Beam or Advantage.

[Finless]

Bob, note on the mixing arms and washout arms...

The manual shows applying red loc-tite to the outside race of bearings. In your video you just drop them in, so nothing retains the outer race. I actually applied a very, very lite coat of green loc-tite to hold them in place. This will retain the outer races. The inner bearing races will be captive from the boss on the washout block for the inside bearing, and the screw head on outside bearing......

Another thing I noticed is on the plastic washout link arms, the orientation seems to be correct in the manual and in your video, BUT the holes in the mixing links seem to be backwards. The larger OD seems to be on the wrong side (outside), instead of the inside, so the mixing links won't pop on the swash plate balls properly. Did you notice this?

OK lets get down to brass tacks here... The reason to secure outer races or inner for that matter are when the bearing will be doing high RPM uses... Common guys! Lets not make this a convo about how bearings are used! The bearing in the mixer arms FIRST never make a full rotation, and 2... are not high speed! Thus this locktite of the outer and inner races is TOTALLY not necessary! Go ahead and lock tite them in place but ENJOY the fun when you go to replace them.... You may never get them out!

So when you see a bearing on a heli... LOOK what it is used for and understand HOW they are applied... Use green locktite for those bearing that spin fast and make full revo's.... Otherwise your making a big deal about nothing!

Bob

[huskynox]

OK lets get down to brass tacks here... The reason to secure outer races or inner for that matter are when the bearing will be doing high RPM uses... Common guys! Lets not make this a convo about how bearings are used! The bearing in the mixer arms FIRST never make a full rotation, and 2... are not high speed! Thus this locktite of the outer and inner races is TOTALLY not necessary! Go ahead and lock tite them in place but ENJOY the fun when you go to replace them.... You may never get them out!

So when you see a bearing on a heli... LOOK what it is used for and understand HOW they are applied... Use green locktite for those bearing that spin fast and make full revo's.... Otherwise your making a big deal about nothing!

Bob

Bob, dude, chill, I wasn't critiquing your video..... Your point is completely valid, I guess I wasn't really thinking of the movement these things are going thru, I was just thinking "bearings" in general. I will probably still retain them very lightly.

What about the plastic washout arms. I think BEAM made these dang things backwards....?

[Finless]

Funny... Unless you guys are getting them on back-wards or maybe the manufacturer is putting them on back-wards? The elbow arms on my kit are NOT back-wards and go on the balls properly.... Realize if you have the arm assembled reversed on the washout then the elbow links could be backwards... BUT it you have made sure they are right then maybe they are reversing the elbows as part of "pre-built" and of so PLEASE let me know. ALL users must know thew proper way regardless if they are be pre-assembled back-wards?

Bob

[boltz]

My links are assembled correctly and the larger side of the ball link hole is definitely on the wrong side. It's hard to assemble them wrong when they are laid out exactly as shown in the video and instruction manual.
The bottom line seems to be that the plastic arms are molded backward.
This same issue was present when the Lepton hit the street.

[huskynox]

My links are assembled correctly and the larger side of the ball link hole is definitely on the wrong side. It's hard to assemble them wrong when they are laid out exactly as shown in the video and instruction manual.
The bottom line seems to be that the plastic arms are molded backward.
This same issue was present when the Lepton hit the street.


X2!!! Here's the evidence.......

Note: The other arm is not attached because it's exactly the same. The parts are identical, not symmetrical.......

[Finless]

GUYS I completely apologize!!!!! I am ashamed and bow to you users :noteworthy

I am so sorry....... but because I did not put the full head together I did not notice.... YOU ARE RIGHT! :noteworthy

My elbow arms are backwards on mine too...

Man this it the biggest mistake I have ever made and I ask forgiveness to those that use my videos....

Please forgive me...

When I do head setup I WILL show how to put the head together and show how the Beam goes together....

So you know I have had 2 calls with Beam-Hei tonight about this and whatever the outcome I will give instruction on the way it should be done! Stay tuned...

BTW... THANK You all for pointing this out... THANK you for keeping me honest... You all are good friends and keep me honest to the hobby... :)

Bob

[avatar71]

oops, late post...

[ROne21]

Glad to know that the my elbow arms are backwards like everyone else's. I was going nuts trying to figure out what I did wrong. The way I installed them was I unscrewed the ball link, attached the elbow arm from the 'inside out' then screw the ball link back on. I thought I was a genious for doing it this way but found out the bind was so great, they required quite a force to get them moving. I still haven't figured out how to loosen them so they can move freely.