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07-06-2015, 01:40 AM | #1 (permalink) |
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Roban 500 size Bell UH1-N build thread. Warning! pic heavy
I finally maidened my Huey last week on Sunday, and man what an awesome feeling that was.
I am starting this thread and the intention is to post a full, pic heavy, write up here. I have spent a lot of time on the bench with this and now that the heli is maidened I will have more time available, I would like to create a thread which hopefully will be of use to fellow scale builders, and to give credit to the guys who offered advice and tips along the way. So more posts to follow, after I resize all my build pics.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- Last edited by TR450ZS; 07-07-2015 at 01:16 PM.. Reason: added pic heavy warning |
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07-06-2015, 02:59 PM | #2 (permalink) |
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how it all started
Well last year in April I bought a Trrx500 EFL PRO, and was so happy and impressed with I (I still am) that I when I chanced upon a good deal on a used 500PRO I figured to buy it for parts.
A few months later I was at the LHS which specialises in all things Align plus some more goodies, and I saw this Roban Bell UH1-N Huey kit on display, and I remarked that this was probably about a 700 size?. The shop owner quickly corrected me and informed me that this was indeed for a Trex 500 as a donor. Quick as a wink I decided that this was perfect for that spare 500 PRO I had lying on a shelf.....little did I know that the Roban kit was for a Trex 500ESP as a donor....so I was to discover that the frame widths were different and everything between the frames was not suitable. Well anyway I had the kit now, and I set about finding out as much as I could about the kit, it's shortfalls and good points, and what I would need to make it work properly and fly like I imagined it could. I received a lot of sound and sensible advice from fellow freak Andy01 (Colin) in Brisbane , Australia, who had built the RC Aerodyne version of this exact kit. So I set about sourcing a SAVOX 1200Kv motor, and a set of 465mm main and 95 tail asymmetrical scale blades and a few other odds and ends that I figured I would need. I ordered all this kit online from SAVOX and Helidirect in the USA and from HELI-SCALE in France. and right about when I had pulled the trigger on a couple of thousand Rands worth of parts, the South African Post office embarked on a massive strike which effectively crippled our postal system. Six months later I had received some of the parts I ordered, and some had gone missing and thankfully shipping insurance kicked in and I had to re order some parts. So in February this year I was able to get stuck into this build. I had decided on the following parts: 1) SAVOX 1200kv motor, geared to give a head speed of 1700RPM. This was on advice from Colin, and I must say he nailed it. 2) Castle Phoenix Ice2 80 ESC, for its data logging capabilities and governor function 3) Gryphon Quaser BEC, at 6V, with pin flag switch. This may be overkill, as with the ESC, but I figured rather go bigger and safer with built in extra capacity. The BEC is fed directly from the 6s flight pack. 4) Align servos. Initially I was going to fit the used ones from the spare kit I had, but then decided to fit 4 new servos, DS515M on cyclic and DS525 on the tail. 5) Helioption one piece bearing block with thrust bearings. I have these on my 500 and 600 and love the smoothness. Also, with the weight of a scale heli hanging from the main shaft, I figured that it would be better for the radial bearings not to have the lateral force of the additional weight, as they are NOT designed for that, no matter what anyone says to the contrary. 6) Align swash, with Align Trex500 EFL head and blade grips. I fitted the longest main shaft available from Align for the 500 range. I cannot recall the part number ( can find it if some one really needs it) . This I wanted for a more scale looking shaft height. No shorter shaft DFC cr@p on my scale heli. 7) Heli option adjustable turnbuckle swash to grip linkages. I use these on my other helis and really like how they enable you to get the blade pitch exactly correct on each blade. I used longer ones to reach that tall head assembly. 7.1) Helioption anti rotation bracket, to do away with a nasty looking anti rotation guide poking up through the doghouse. They only made this for the ESP frame and it is now discontinued. I bought the last one from Helidirect in August last year. It disappeared in the postal party but I was able to find the last one on this planet from BoomTown Hobbies earlier this year. 8) Loving the Align GPRO on my 500 and 600 (my 250 as well, but that came after this purchase), I decided to use a GPRO on my Huey as well. I picked up a super deal on a brand new in box unit, because there are still some crazy folk who will never forgive or forget the 3GX. I was to discover later on in the mechanics testing stage that the GPRO would not be suitable, as the links were binding on the Roban aileron mechanics and GPRO does not allow the cyclic ring to be reduced. I then bought an MSH Brain, which I am finding is also a brilliant system. The Brain allows better cyclic ring adjusting and I was able to set it up with no binding at all. More about that in a later post. 9) I use a Spektrum DX9, so opted for 2 DSMX sats. 10) Stock Align tail mechanics with the 95mm scale blades. All this, combined with the Roban kit mechanics and parts, and I was good to go.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- Last edited by TR450ZS; 07-06-2015 at 04:03 PM.. Reason: added info |
07-06-2015, 03:49 PM | #3 (permalink) |
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Unboxing and starting the assembly
The un boxed pilots were ecstatic to say the least. This fuse looks so huge, sitting atop my custom built 500 carry case.
The kit parts were all well packed and protected. The very basic (actually poor) instructions include a packing list and all seemed to be in order. The packing list only calls for one long aileron servo push rod, so the packers only packed one. Later I noticed one needs 2 of these, one each side of the frame. I had to make up the second one. The well made, beefy frame halves My first surprise was having to get the wider tail boom mount.....here is the brand new one fitted with the Roban supplied counter gear, which allows the TT to be dropped lower than on a standard Trex frame setup. This pic shows the Align manual, with the standard counter gear.... The inner workings of the 45degree tail gearbox. 2 well made plastic gears with a light coating of grease. The short TT for the angled section of the boom. Not a bad piece of kit. The long one for the main section was however a POS and I tossed it. More on this later.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- Last edited by TR450ZS; 07-06-2015 at 03:57 PM.. Reason: added pics |
07-06-2015, 04:01 PM | #4 (permalink) |
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Very interesting, look forward to more !
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John |
07-06-2015, 04:04 PM | #5 (permalink) |
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Pic sizes OK?
Guys let me know if you are following this thread and find the pic sizes to big please.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-06-2015, 04:23 PM | #6 (permalink) |
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Allan:
The picture sizes look ok but we should move it to the build section that it fits in. Other than that, keep them coming. Don |
07-06-2015, 04:27 PM | #7 (permalink) |
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Thanks Don, yeah I am not sure where it should go, but please feel free to move it if you can.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-06-2015, 04:56 PM | #8 (permalink) |
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Frame goes together
Ok here are a couple of pics of the frame assembly, with the used servos test fitted. Later I realised that it would be more comforting for my nerves to fit new servos to what was becoming a much anticipated scale bird.
Roban were kind enough to respond to my email request and emailed me 4 pics of there dusty old prototype of this model, as the photos in the instructions were so poor as to be meaningless. Once I had these pics I was able to piece together the whole assembly. In this pic you can see the rear mount metal Align gyro mount. Roban had their's mounted on the side so I had to make sure that this would clear under the doghouse. It does so with about 4 to 5mm so all is good. The Roban factory heli... This was my first scale build, and by the time I had gotten this far I stopped fantasising about my sexy neighbour. Now all I wanted to do was fly this baby. Testing the fit of the doghouse with the FBL temporarily mounted to the bracket. The scale blades added to my drool factor.... Ugly little temporary anti rotation guide, while I patiently waited for the first Helioption one that was ever going to arrive. The pure whiteness and pure redness of the fuse had started to look more and more toy like. I therefore started to think about weathering this....
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-06-2015, 05:27 PM | #9 (permalink) |
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ready for maiden with GPRO and stock motor
At this stage, I was blissfully unaware that my SAVOX motor was not going to arrive, and happily went ahead with a test flight on the stock 1600kv motor with Align ESC. I used stock blades....just in case.
I made a plan to mount stock skids and a lipo, but later had to improve on this and add a second lipo, as the COG was way out. The long angled tail was also very flimsy on its own and I was concerned about its safety during any mildly hard tail rudder manoeuvres. I would improve all this temporary setup as I wanted a good number of flights on the mechanics before committing it all into the fuselage. The concept for the skids and lipo was unashamedly copied from a pic on John Salt's website, RCHelicopterfun.com, but the Align servo case spacer is my patent worthy idea. I also heeded his advice on sufficient test flights before fuselage assembly. Seconds from disaster .... At this point I realised quite clearly that the left and right servo pushrods were capable of being overdriven and binding up. I did get the heli into a stable hover and all was good but decided that perhaps by adjusting servo throw in the TX I could prevent this. Big mistake. I had to reduce it so much that the sticks had not enough authority, and on the next flight at lift off the heli wanted to tilt and I was unable to prevent it. I hit TH and was extremely lucky to lose only a set of Align main blades with absolutely no other damage at all. But I now knew that I had to find a FBL controller more suited to scale heli setups, hence the MSH Brain coming aboard.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-07-2015, 04:08 AM | #10 (permalink) |
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Alan
Looking good. One thing that is worth checking is the "roof" of the doghouse that the mechanics mount to. On my RCA 500 sized UH-1N (which may be different), the plywood is pretty thin, and seemed to allow some sideways movement of the mechanics. I beefed mine up by epoxying a another piece of 3mm ply, and it feels a lot better, and seems to fly better (it seemed to have a mind of its own before no matter how much tuning I did on my SK720). Colin
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Vario Long Ranger 700e Seahawk 600 UH-1N 500 Baumann EC-145 800+ (coming soon ) |
07-07-2015, 04:35 AM | #11 (permalink) |
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Hi Colin thanks for that heads up mate. Yeah I remember reading you mentioned that somewhere else on the forum, and you quite right. This made me rethink the entire lipo mounting system and position, and I came up with what I reckon is a pretty nifty plan if I may so so myself. More on that later when I get to that part in this build thread
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-07-2015, 01:56 PM | #12 (permalink) |
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Adding life to the fuselage
Apart from the small mishap with the FBL controller, I had also decided not to do any further test flights with the stock motor, as I just could not get is slow enough to test for proper scale flight. I was aiming for a head speed of 1700rpm and with a Savox 1200kv motor, 12t pinion and 162t main gear (the stock straight cut Align gear on a 500ESP) I would be able to set the desired headspeed in Gov mode on the castle esc.
I contacted SAVOX USA and a very helpful lady named Trinity quickly attended to my lost parcel claim and a replacement was couriered to me. In the meanwhile I decide to turn my attention to the toy look of the fuselage and decided that some panel line and rivet detail would be in order. The fuse is molded with nice clearly defined panel lines and small countersunk "rivet" holes, which although are not true to scale, could be dolled up a little to add some realism to the overall look of the fuse. I used a Tamiya modelling paint for this, which is available in very thinned out flat black paint and in a flat grey color, and is made for just this type of job. I used the grey color on the white painted parts of the fuselage and the matt black on the red parts. One just needs to lightly scribe a thin line in the panel line to take away the shining top coat and give the Tamiya paint something to adhere to. With a thin brush apply the thinned paint and allow it to run along the scribed line. No worries if it spills a little onto the paint work, as once it has dried a gentle wipe with a thinners soaked soft cloth removes any over spill and leaves just a thin black line in the scribed area. The dog house as it come in the kit.... After scribing the panel lines and rivet holes, then adding thinned flat grey paint, and cleaning up when dry. 1st coat and not yet properly cleaned up..... I had not done anything to those top air vents yet, but they sure were bothering me. Lots of detail in the fuselage, begging to be softly highlighted.. After the flat black paint treatment..... The end result on the fuselage and dog house....and my daughter smiling in the background :-)....
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-07-2015, 02:41 PM | #13 (permalink) |
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Doghouse ventholes
At a later stage the vent holes finally got the better of me and I decide what the heck, I am going to open one of them and see what I can see.
I drilled one open and then enlarged it with a routing tip on my Proxxon power tool. It was hollow inside and I realised that painting the inside a matt black would really work well to give these vents some life. This was super easy and I quickly tackled the rest, trimmed the edges with a small fine file and painted them inside.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-07-2015, 03:11 PM | #14 (permalink) |
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nice work Allan!!!
the devil is in the details. just the little bit you have done is making quite a difference that people will notice. I purchased a painted 700 size Bell 429 and am doing the same thing. Adding as much detail as I possibly can and it makes all the difference in the world. Best of luck with your project!
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Roy Mayoral |
07-07-2015, 03:36 PM | #15 (permalink) |
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Thanks Roy, glad you like this. The project is done though, I am posting the build thread after the fact. :-). The heli in my avatar is this one. Yes the details are fun to add....within limits. I feel that one must draw the line somewhere on a heli that is firstly intended to fly and secondly intended to be admired on the pad or shelf though. As long as one enjoys the build, that is what it is all about.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-08-2015, 05:14 AM | #16 (permalink) |
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Allan,
I agree with you 100% that one must draw the line somewhere; I just have a hard time doing it It's just that I really enjoy the building and it's an outlet for me but on the other side of the coin I get frustrated that the project is taking too long. But glad to see you finished the project and are enjoying it!
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Roy Mayoral |
07-09-2015, 04:46 PM | #17 (permalink) |
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Very nice work!
Steve
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07-09-2015, 11:54 PM | #18 (permalink) |
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Thank you Steve, I will continue with the thread tonight.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-10-2015, 02:42 PM | #19 (permalink) |
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my SAVOX and Heli option goodies arrive
Eventually, at the end of March I received my stunning work of art that SAVOX had made. The built in cooling fins and the windings that are visible, it all just adds up and one can see this is a quality piece of kit..
The Helioption "Elevator Arm and Swash Bracket also arrived and I could now go ahead and assemble the mechanics the way I would have them In the fuselage. Helioption no longer manufactur this elevator bracket, as it was made for the now discontinued Trex500ESP frame. I think I bought the last one in the world, from BoomTown Hobbies. If anyone knows where I can get another, pls let me know because I would like one as a spare. So now I had the MSHBrain installed, with the SAVOX motor hooked up to the Castle 80HV ESC, and a temporary Gryphon Polaris BEC (I intended fitting the Gryphon Quaser when the fuselage fitment began, with NAV lights and perhaps an ESC fan if needed, so I wanted the extra capacity) I again modified the lipo mounting arrangement to get a better COG and heavier a weight, closer to what the final setup would weigh. I also went out and bought an additional trex500 boom brace to add extra bracing for the 45degree tail, as I was afraid of damaging this gearbox unit in test flights if it was not properly supported. Temporary position of ESC and BEC for test flights
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
07-10-2015, 02:57 PM | #20 (permalink) |
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2nd Maiden of mechanics
With the MSH Brain all properly setup following the Brain Wizard (real easy to do), I checked and re checked and triple checked the swash and tail gyro corrections and, once happy that all was behaving as it should, I headed off to my local club field to maiden the Brain setup.
The heli lifted off easy as can be, and with 2 parallel connected Gensace 45C 3300mAh lipos on the nose, the COG was perfect. I performed a few flights to get the Brain advanced settings dialed in as best as I could, and even set the self level in bank 3, which works perfectly. Not that one really needs such a feature when doing scale flights, but I reckoned what the heck, I have the feature so I may as well use it. Over the next couple of days I logged just over 2 hrs of flying with this setup, then became bored with it and decided there was not much more to test without a fuselage involved, so thus began the next big step.
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Allan TREX 250 PRO,Talon15, GPRO, Zeal ----TREX 500 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ----2x TREX 450PRO V2, 1xGPRO&1xBRAIN, Talon35, RAIL , Zeal ---- SAVOX powered TREX500 EFL in Roban scale UH1-N ---- TREX 600 EFL PRO, GPRO, RAILS ---- DX9 ---- |
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