Official Gaui X7 Build Thread

[Matt Nasca]

Hey everyone, I wanted to make this build thread to help others planning for the X7 and/or building the X7 to have a resource for information regarding the build.

The build is very straight forward, easy, and shouldn't take more than a day. I got the airframe together in 3 hours (that includes taking the pictures). I'll be doing the electronics as a supplement to this because I made some last minute changes to my electronics and need to think through wiring and such. I took a few more detail pictures than are actually shown, but for some reason my iPhone errored while uploading some to Photobucket so I don't have them. (sorry)

In addition to the Gaui X7 Basic Kit (G-217001), I'm running the following:

Edge 693 SE FBL main blades
Edge 95mm Tail blades (because I'm running over 2300 headspeed)
Mikado Full Size VBar
Scorpion Commander V 130A ESC (VBar governor) (Internal BEC @ 7.4v)
Scorpion 4525-520 LE motor with 11T pinion
JR 8917HV cyclic servos
Futaba BLS 256HV tail servo
Voltz 5100 mAh 65C 6S packs
EC5 connectors

NOTICE: The tolerances are VERY tight on this kit! There were 3 minor things in the build that I found needed some extra attention from Gaui. They have already been reported to Empire.

1. Anti-rotation bracket - When tightening, do not over-tighten or the plastic threads on the bottom will split.

2. The bottom frame plate in the rear, where the boom supports connect, is a little tight when the landing skids are attached. To get by this, start all four screws (two skids & two boom supports) and alternate tightening them down. The holes are drilled about 1/2 mm off and don't line up perfectly.

3. The X7 Heatsinks that go along side the motor are very close to the main gear if only one spacer is needed for the crown gear / torque tube gear mesh. Temporary fix: before tightening the heat sinks down, twist them up slightly to allow for more clearance.

Ok, let the fun begin!

I didn't go through a lot of unboxing because Pinion and Jc already did a very nice video on it. Here



The canopy is very sleek and slender, it should look awesome on a sunny day!




Here is everything out of the box. The kit I got was the basic kit that does not come with electronics.



Gaui letters the bags for reference, which is a nice touch. Also, everything needed for that part of the build is in the bag.



Definitely check everything for threadlock. Most parts had threadlock but some didn't. Also I noticed that on some parts with multiple screws, some had it some didn't on the same part.




Beginning the build is very straight forward. The manual shows in detail the assembly so just following the pictures is really easy!



I really like how Gaui uses shoulders on the part, rather than shoulders on the screws



Gaui has you build half the frame first.


If I had one word to describe this helicopter it would be "BEEFY". Everything is thick, solid and braced!





Gaui uses dampeners on the frame divider supports. I understand that this cuts down on resonance in the frame.


This is a view through the frame from the rear. They chose not to use dampeners in the rear.


The skids are huge! The skid caps fit nice and flush with the pipes so they look one piece, very cool!


Gaui uses a built-it-yourself torque tube. it was really easy to assemble. Be careful not to torque down the lock nuts; firmly tight is all you need. The installation into the tail boom is straight forward. The boom is LONG! There is a gear set that goes into the front of the boom. It is bearing supported and needs to be flush with the boom. If it is not, slide the torque tube back until the gearset is flush with the boom.


Remember when I said Beefy? The main gear is very large! The whole oneway assembly comes put together. I took the gears off and put some locktite in the screw holes.




The Gaui gearing is very beefy. This is a 12t pinion to fit the Gaui mod 1.2 (right) compared with an Align 12t mod 1 pinion (left). Note: a 10t comes in the kit.



Gaui gives you shims to adjust the mesh between the crown gear and torque tube gear. I used only the thick shim. This gave just a slight amount of backlash. The shim goes on the main shaft above the crown gear, between the bearing block.


There is a solid two screw collar that holds the whole assembly secure



The main shaft is 12mm so standard large swash plate levelers will fit.


Main pod on the skids, ready for the tail. I know some of you are thinking the skids are on backwards, well this is how Gaui has them in the manual.


Here are the tail parts. They come in a compartment sealed bag with everything you need for the component in the compartment.


I chose not to take apart the tail grips. Gaui uses a lock nut so no need to check for threadlock. Everything was silky smooth so I'm going to try it the way it is.


The whole tail hub is a work of art! It is very bold and only has three screws holding it together.


Thank you Gaui for allowing us to remove the tail fin without taking the whole tail off! The tail is pinned and the fin has a hole large enough to fit over the screw




My tail has NO SLOP, I mean none at all! The slider was nice and smooth. It will need some wear in time to polish the brass slider and tail shaft.



The pushrod guides have two levels, the lower level worked well for mine. They are nice and secure; three will support the tail control rod well. The tail control rod is not carbon fiber I don't believe. It feels like a metal rod coveren in really hard plastic. It's stiff but flexible. It won't flex in the guides, I already checked. Once the build is done and you know where the rod needs to be, slide the three metal guide supports in place and secure them using CA. Make sure not to over tighten the guides. Enough to stay but if you tighten them fully closed the rod will bind.





Gaui uses the circle around the hole to indicate that the ball goes in that end. Also Gaui writing out.


The swash plate is another beefy part. It comes pre-assembled.



The head in its compartmentalized bag.


The grips have an up and down. The round hole goes up


The grip arm can be changed in the event of a crash. It also has shouldered screws! This is a really cool feature! Also, you'll notice red threadlock...Gaui gives you red not blue threadlock in the kit. This bottle is mine though.


The spindle shaft also comes with shims for adjustment. I used the smallest shims and got zero play in the head and also silky smooth grip action. You want to make sure the spindle screws are threadlocked and tightened well. You may need to use one of the thinner or thicker shims depending on if you have lateral play or not, or your grip action is not smooth.




I opted for red Tri-Flow in the main grip thrust bearings, which are massive by the way!


Top view of the head completed. Also on the head the guides for the pitch rods did not have any thread lock on them. I removed the screws and applied red threadlock to the back of the threads to avoid getting anything on the bearings.


The boom supports are very thick! I sanded about an inch of the end lightly and epoxyed them together. 10 minutes later I installed them.




Tail support clamp is in two halves and easy to install


Here are the pieces for the motor mount and heat sink. The Scorpion LE motor uses all 4 bolts. Once you install the pinion and get it down the shaft far enough, you need to put in the motor and plate to check the gear mesh. There really is no other way to do it besides move-try-move-try until you get the slightest amount of backlash. You'll also notice that the shaft doesn't go down through the pinion support. Apparently for motors of 700 size/power level, it isn't necessary.


I decided to mount the VBar in a different location than this. I put the full size VBar sensor on the bottom frame plate behind the battery divider, in front of the rear landing gear mount. It fits perfectly between the frames with a little space on either side and it's protected. I used 1 layer of 30x30mm Futaba tape.

I mounted the rest of the VBar, USB plug backwards with velcro, inside the rear frame on the right side, servo plugs forward, under the rear gryo mounting plate. It fits there just right and you can't see it from the side. You can also get to the USB plug easily. I ran the rudder servo wires from the back, inside the frame, under the servo, between the gyro mounting plate and the servo and put a little hot glue to keep it secure. (pictures will be at the bottom of this post when I get them up)




Ok, here's a pic of the gear and heatsink clearance. As you can see, after you twist it up just a tad before tightening down the screw, its not issue.


Setup of the head is bone simple! I was very glad to see that everything took little fine adjustment and was super quick to get 100% perfect!


The swash driver/pitch arms are really slick. There is no play and they are very beefy! Now this is important..... The bottom link needs to be threaded all the way in!! If you don't then when the swash is tilted all the way to the side, the open threaded area will grab the washout guides and get stuck. With the link all the way in, it's not factor at all.




VBar setup was quick and easy. The geometry on the X7 is awesome!








Perfect 0 pitch was easily set


I have JR servos and the thick plastic arms that come in the kit are for Futaba splines. I opted to go with the Align metal JR arms on the inside hole and they were perfect for geometry and the red color matched!


I easily got +-14 collective


OK got everything installed!




There is a channel in the frame where you can run wires to the rear. The Scorpion ESC wires are the perfect length to run to the back without any excess wires. BRAVO!!




I am waiting on a short receiver wire then I'll clean up the wiring in the rear here so it's nice and tidy.








Once you get everything all set up and adjusted the way you want, I would recommend pinning the boom. It may not be necessary because it's held by 3 clamps but it's so easy to do I did it anyway. You can take a slightly longer 10mm screw, the same diameter as the short stock one, and thread it into the rear tail box hole on top, where the boom meets the frame. You'll need to screw it in until it gets tight and then back it out a little. Repeat this about 15 times and it will cut down into the boom and pin it. This is handy if you're going to remove the boom a lot, because it's marked and can always be put back into exactly the same place! Thanks to akamullen for this tip from the X5.

[frito169]

I noticed one thing that concerns me about this helicopter and that is the quality of the carbon fiber frames It's hard to tell from the pictures because there's not a close-up of the edge but it looks like it's not a high-quality multi layer carbon fiber frame for Instance the frames on my whiplash are at least 10 layers same with the frames on my 600 ESP which are actually Custom Helle parts frames the originals were two layers filled with crap. Is the picture not clear and it's a multi layer carbon fiber or are they just the exterior layers with plastic filler

[kovar]

Looks awesome Matt!!.... Nice write up!

[jaubertel]

Yeah!
it is very pretty!

[torana74]

very very very very nice Matt. Excellent thread and great info + tips.

Very much looking forward to the rest of the build. Looks sweeeeeeet


Vas

[Matt Nasca]

The frames look like multi-layer to me.

[what-d-heli]

Beautiful build with pic thread. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

That is one handsome beast of a machine .

[Matt Nasca]

Thanks guys, it's a fun build!!! I'm wiring the electronics now so hopefully I'll be able to post more in a day or so.

[Rob Cherry]

Awesome Matt !

[Rob Cherry]

Originally Posted by Matt Nasca

The frames look like multi-layer to me.

Lmao, sure looks multilayer to me too!

[Pinion]

Great job Matt! You Rock! Can't wait to see ya fly it in Vegas!

[Rollin_3z]

Deleted

[Slyster]

Nice work Matt! I love the massive main gear! Nice wiring too. I can't wait to see her fly!

[guyro]

Great Thread Matt !

[Chris Sexton]

Great thread man! I am so jealous.. I want mine now

[AceMigKiller]

Awesome build thread.
Everything on this bird looks way cool!

Vic

[frito169]

Originally Posted by Matt Nasca

The frames look like multi-layer to me.

First of all nice build thread secondly great photo of the frame. They seem to be a midgrade frame I wish they would've used a higher quality material For the frame (for that warm fuzzy feeling) other than that im just tolerating the super slow clock ticking away at the next 6days.

[Rob Cherry]

Originally Posted by Matt Nasca

You'll also notice that the shaft doesn't go down through the pinion support. Apparently for motors of 700 size/power level, it isn't necessary.

Any idea why? I know the shaft on my 4035 is around 40mm, is that not long enough? I would have figured the pinion support would be used at all times considering the power that's being utilized.

[Slyster]

That is odd. Especially with slant gears.. the forces on the bearings would be immense.

[Chris Sexton]

I think you guys are misunderstanding something, or I am. The Motor shaft does go down into the pinion support bearing, it just doesn't pass through the bottom of the support leaving extra shaft hanging below. The motor shaft and pinion is supported.

Here is Matt's Picture showing the motor parts, look at the pinion support, the bearing is open for the tip of the shaft to come through, it's just not hollow so the shaft can pass through the support and hang out the bottom.



Here is the Motor/Pinion Setup from the manual:



The manual calls for some of the shaft to hang below the pinion to rest in the inner race of the bearing.

If I miss understood the question, I apologize.