New T-Trex 100x Owner

[Palmore]

I picked up a Super Combo about 2 weeks ago from http://www.aligntrexstore.com/ and must admit, I'm still a beginner at flying =)

Within the first 5 minutes I had flown it up into my table and snapped a rotor blade.

A Week later while adjusting the trim and working on getting it level I busted the tail boom. Sadly I cannot find anywhere with the 100x Boom in stock, so I ordered up a 100s for now just to get flying again. I plan on trying out the Solo Pro II and MSR Booms that others have tried, but I'm also going to try and make my own.

I found some 2mm and 3mm Carbon Fiber tubing, that I plan on making a custom boom with.

https://www.bmkdesigns.net/2mm-carbon-fiber-tube.html

Since they come in 1meter rods I may try and make a boom and brace, and possibly down the road a new landing skid assembly.

Also, with my most recent order, I decided to grab the metal refitting parts,

http://www.aligntrexstore.com/100-Me...25A_p_813.html

and will post pictures and updates once I get everything together.

Lastly, I've come across some upgrade 3rd party batteries I thought I'd share. I hope to order a couple as well as the aluminum swash plate (and hopefully carbon flybar).

Needless to say, my down time has given me plenty of practice with the sticks and included flight simulator. It may not be the best, but its helping alot for now.

[Palmore]

Well the Carbon Tubes came today, 1mx3mm and 1mx2mm tubes. As soon as I unboxed them, I cut up the 3mm tube, taking out a 122mm section for my boom.

Yes these tubes are hallow, but sadly the shrink wrap on the wires was too thick to fit thru, I plan on tweaking a new motor set and running fresh wires through-out to clean everything up.

I do have a new main frame coming from AlignTrexStore, metal refitting parts, and new full 100s boom kit. I doubt I'll actually use the boom from the 100s kit (since I broke my original 100x boom), and will most likely build a fresh carbon boom; slap it onto the new main frame, attach the metal refitting parts and move everything over to the new chopper =)

Now that I've made the carbon boom, I'm looking at possibly making a carbon landing skid, I'm just torn between using epoxy or finding plastic linkages to connect everything together... Lastly I'm debating making a boom support with some of the extra 2mm carbon tubing.

I have done a few test flights with the new booms I'm making for it and I'll admit, it's pretty stable, though it has been difficult to get them to fit correctly. Being the hole is 2.2mmx2.9mm from the old boom, I've been trimming the round tubes down abit on each side by rubbing them against a sanding block...

Needless to say, getting not only 1 end square between trimming both sides of the tube, but getting the rear and front sections of the boom square so when you hook it all up the rear rotor is level and 90degrees has been a pain!..
I've made 2 so far, the first was pretty far off square, the second has gotten ALOT closer, now to true it up with a 3rd and final boom.

And again, once I figure out how to link/secure all the sections together, I'll be making a carbon landing skid and boom support...

Lastly, this looks close, but anyone try it? the Blade mSR Aluminum Main Frame

http://www.microheli.com/store/produ...roducts_id/128




And a couple pics of the boom I've made, excuse the wires, this is just a first run test... once I iron out the kinks I'll be hiding them inside the boom itself.

[Palmore]

I made boom #3, this one is a bit more trued up, cept now my trim settings are all out'a whack lol. This is just all in good fun until I can get the replacement 100x boom. Unless I get one of these rock solid...

I gotta admit, they are strong lil puppies.

This time I ran the wires inside the boom, with my own wiring.

[Palmore]

Well, several crashes and a few tossed together parts and I can finally say I know how to fly this thing =)

My new Main Frame (spare) and metal refitting parts came today, but since my landing skid is cracked I'm going to wait to toss everything together until its all stable.

I will admit when I first started using this heli, I had buyers remorse... But this is coming from a 2ch $10 Coa-Ax "novelty" gift from Christmas to a 4ch Fixed Pitched and busting it within the first 5 minutes...=)

After having a couple weeks of down time, while waiting on parts, I was able to practice with the included flight sim. Now that I've finally got a grasp on the mechanics and control I'll say I love flying this heli. With some of my hodge podge parts, I have the trim way out. This is mainly due to the home made tail boom not being completely square.. But for now it flies.

I also picked up a 100s tail boom to replace my home brew boom until the 100x comes back in stock. I plan on using the 100x tail blades and seeing how well it handles comapired to the 100x boom and the home brew boom.

Lastly I stopped by my LHS and found some mCPX boom/rotor motor combos, so I grabbed 2, I'm currently using said tail rotor motor in my home brew carbon boom and 100x tail blades.

I think my next big order will be the aluminum swash plate, 2 190mah 20c batts and I'm going to try the fit of a msr/mcp/mcpx carbon tail fin.

[Palmore]

Well, new parts came in, so I stripped her down part by part and started to rebuild with my new items. Here's what I got

New Landing Skid
New Main Frame
New 100s Tailboom/Motor (100x booms are not in stock yet)
New 100x Tail Blade
New Main Blades
Metal Refitting Parts
New Canopy

Here's my results...

I had everything swapped over, and ready for my first test flight when I noticed the linkages were binding and not flowing smooth, so I pulled apart the whole thing again and sanded down some rough edges and added alittle bit of lubricant. Nothing was binding anymore so I was ready for flight (or so I thought).

It seems the Metal Refitting head / set screw, doesn't work well with the 100x Flybar...
The button screw head hits the flybar and severely limits the flybar travel in one direction...I wrestled with this for an hour or so, and decided, forget it... I'll put the stock Rotor head back on and worry about the Aluminum one later..

Now the Stock Rotor Head is back on, swash plate is pretty darn level, items are not binding smoothed up and lubed.

But now it flies like a turd... Toilet Bowl Effect, Chasing Trim Settings, Horrible Tail Rotation/Drift... Its completely sucked the fun out of flying it again. It went from being able to fly fairly well, doing figure 8s, circles, decent speed and decently controllable. To now I've spent 8 batteries fighting trim settings to get it to hover, adjusting servo links every 2 flights to compensate for trim settings.. Even the throttle response seems slow and sluggish, hitting the throttle has a huge lag before the chopper actually starts to respond and lift.

Now I'm lost what to do, go back to my hodge podge tossed together tailboom, mCPX tail motor, bent up skids and other busted/bent parts that I just replaced.... It would atleast fly right... Or do I keep fighting the new parts?

I'm debating swapping the tail boom again and motor... away from that darn Align motor and short boom. That seemed to be the next logical step and a known issue.



I couldn't be more let down.. 2-3 weeks Dorkin with it, making custom parts and breaking it for it to fly right for about a week... then maybe a week of good fly time (with busted and homebrew parts)
New parts installed, back to flying like crap...

[Palmore]

Well, I fixed my issue... I was still using the metal linkages from the metal refitting kit with the stock head, I swapped those back out with the plastic stock ones, checked for slop and binding... And I'm back flying again... Sadly with the 100s boom and motor.

I flew thru 2 batteries and became fed up with the stock 100s Boom and glitched acting Align tail motor =(
I pulled out the mCPX boom and motor I still had sitting around and tosesd together another boom. This time its made of 2mm carbon tubing, stock mCPX tail motor mount and motor. I had to turn the gain down on my remote ALOT to reduce tail wobble while hovering, yet I still get a slight bit here and there, the setup needs more tweaking.
Since I have 2 mCPX boom kits, I've already made a backup boom,this one utilizing the Align aluminum motor mount and currently the Align 100x tail fin. (I haven't fabricated / found one yet for my current boom... this may also reduce my wobble alil)

Needless to say, I'm flying and somewhat happy again. My last issue seems to be a failing or fouled main motor, on all 3 batteries I get maybe 2-3minutes of flight time, and another 3 minutes of flight time at 2-3inches off the ground... if I land the heli for 10 seconds and lift of I get maybe another 30 seconds of decent altitude flight time, also overall throttle response seems very very sluggish.

I've been sure to allow my batteries 10-15minutes of cool down time after flights before charging, and after charging before flights. So my assumption is I may have damaged it while I was swapping main frames?
I've checked my bearings, main shaft, main gear and swash, everything is turning smooth.

For giggles, I went ahead and ordered a new main motor, main shaft, main gear, bearings and 2 new stock batteries. (Yes I do eventually plan on picking up the aftermarket 190mah 20c batteries, possibly next week).
If i can suggest a place to pick up Align parts, www.aligntrexstore.com has the most AMAZING costumer service I have found! Sadly they don't carry any of the Xtreme upgrades (batteries, swash and flybar).

The more parts I order, the more I tinker read and learn, the more I'm thinking I may just build a second one with all the spares I have, leave the one I have now as is (once I fix the sluggish throttle) and one I build with the upgrade parts and mod out more, thus i can compare the 2 and not take a chance on ruining my flight experience with my (almost) tuned T-Rex 100x.

[slykyfox]

I'm curious as to how it flew with the stock 100X tail boom. If I am reading your posts right, you can't find a replacement 100X boom in stock anywhere? I am on the fence about getting one of these because of all the tail issues with the 100S.

[krauley]

i also went to the trouble of buying and installing the metal refit kit just to find out it only works on the 100s or at least thats what i guessing, guy at lhs told me the 100x flybar is different from 100s. i couldnt get the thing to fly with it so i went back to original parts. one thing that i did find out, i had sporadic toilet bowel sydrome on mine until i binded to my flysky 9x and now its gone. i thought i had loose wires or a short or even a bad tail rotor motor and sometimes it would spin without me being able to stop it but then it would fly like a dream. i would wiggle wires, tap the motor and mostly just get mad and cuss at it and put it away feeling like ive wasted my money. then a few days ago i decided to bind it to my flysky. the only reason i didnt do it sooner was because of the built in mix for take off, you know the ailiron to the right thingy. so anyway, after i started flying with the 9x it just became fun again. it flys smoother and more stable and none of the spining unless i wont it to. plus i can set up my tx for even more control where the A5 wont let you. im thinking that the contacts in the removable stick housings dont make the connection sometimes causing the heli to just go wild.
anyhow good luck with yours

[jorgenr]

Originally Posted by Palmore

...
Needless to say, I'm flying and somewhat happy again. My last issue seems to be a failing or fouled main motor, on all 3 batteries I get maybe 2-3minutes of flight time, and another 3 minutes of flight time at 2-3inches off the ground... if I land the heli for 10 seconds and lift of I get maybe another 30 seconds of decent altitude flight time, also overall throttle response seems very very sluggish.
...

Squeezing the last juice out of the batteries this way will probably shorten the lifetime a lot. My suggestion is to swap battery once the voltage drops and the heli does not lift properly. Also if the batteries get more than lukewarm. Remember that you cannot notice a slightly puffed battery inside the plastic case. The motor also needs some cooling time between flights if it is hot. The HK batteries are fine, and also lighter - which will improve flight time and behaviour, but expect a sour one every now and then..

[Palmore]

@slykyfox

I'm curious as to how it flew with the stock 100X tail boom. If I am reading your posts right, you can't find a replacement 100X boom in stock anywhere? I am on the fence about getting one of these because of all the tail issues with the 100S.

In all honesty, this is my first fp heli, I broke the tail boom on battery #2, battery #1 was a broken main blade. Sadly I can't comment on how well it flew with the stock 100x boom and motor. My stick skills were lacking WAY to much to get a good feel on it.
My assumption is it would have been fine, but i made some mistakes out of the gate.

Flying it with out even trying the sim, thus I panicked and threw the sticks all around..
I used the outside holes on the servo horns, this was the default setting and made it more agile but less stable.
I used the longer ball joints on the swash plate, for more cyclic throw.

Mixture of all of these caused me to bust my heli up pretty bad, fairly quick.

@krauley

guy at lhs told me the 100x flybar is different from 100s. i couldnt get the thing to fly with it so i went back to original parts.

That is correct, the 100x flybar is thicker, more support, more stability. But sadly this extra thickness catches on the main shaft screw (button head) and causes the flybars travel to be limited on one side =/ I'm just going to wait till I get the carbon flybar kit and then toss it all together, but again most likely on a second heli so I don't screw up my currently fine heli.

@jorgenr

Squeezing the last juice out of the batteries this way will probably shorten the lifetime a lot. My suggestion is to swap battery once the voltage drops and the heli does not lift properly. Also if the batteries get more than lukewarm. Remember that you cannot notice a slightly puffed battery inside the plastic case. The motor also needs some cooling time between flights if it is hot. The HK batteries are fine, and also lighter - which will improve flight time and behaviour, but expect a sour one every now and then..

Great info! Again, all this is pretty new to me, I used to be into R/C cars, but that wa when NiMH batteries were in use. I'm new to the lipo scene, I was following the old cadence of full discharge, full charge, cool downs between charge and use. I'll start taking them off sooner and also giving the heli a few minutes cool down between flights. This may be a good use of the second frankenheli I'm building

When it's all said and done, I should have 5 stock batts and 2+ after market batteries to test and cycle thru.

I'll post some pics later today of the new booms I have.


Thank you everyone!

[Palmore]

As promised, here are a couple of pics...

First, the metal refitting kit, with the 100x flybar, its hard to see, but this is where the button head screw and flybar hit, limiting its travel.




Next is my version 3 of my home made tail booms. Built from a mCPX boom, and a part of my 100x broken boom, using an mCPX tail motor.





Another shot of the custom boom, I cut a small section of my broken 100x boom, glued the carbon rod in place, and shimmed it. I may end up making a boom support with 2 more 2mm carbon rods, to help reduce vibration and increase stability.




And lastly, 3 booms side by side... Starting from the top going down...

Custom boom #2, 3mm Carbon rod ( alil tooo heavy)

Stock 100s tailboom

Custom boom #4, 2mm Carbon rod, aluminum motor mount and stock 100x tail fin. (also an mCPX motor too)




I gotta admit, its a LONG boom, currently running about the same length in custom boom #3 and I only get a slight wobble (not sure yet if its due to length/rigidity, gain settings, or other cause) more to come here...

[slykyfox]

It's great to see a new pilot doing whatever it takes to keep flying. Keep up the good work. Just curious, are you planning on replacing the tail boom with the stock 100X boom when they come back in stock? I just received a WL V911 heli, it's a combined clone of the solo pro, and the trex 100. I've only put about 6 flights on it so far, but it seems to handle really well considering it was only 45 shipped. I think once they start getting all the parts for the 100X in stock, I will buy one. Keep us updated on your progress, it seems your the only one flying one right now.

[Palmore]

From what I understand www.aligntrexstore.com is getting the 100x booms delivered sometime mid next week they are hoping. They've got the 100x flybar, canopy, main shaft and screw parts kit in stock, they are just waiting on the booms and rear fin. (oh and they have the iPhone transmitter)

I'll most likely order 1-2 of the stock 100x booms and eventually test it out again now that I know how to fly. =) Though I'll admit I'm still up in the air about the performance and consistency of the Align tail motor =/

I wish I had another heli to compare it to and let you know how it flies, but since this is my first entry into the hobby, all I can say is (aside from my initial learning curve and abuse of it) I've had a blast and its flying pretty darn good right now.

I'd like to get my main (current) heli back to stock as close as I can (including the boom) yet keeping it a red/white/blue color scheme, so stock head, 100x boom, 100s canopy, 100s tail fin
And the second heli, I'm going for more of a mod heli, metal rotor head, different main motor (TBD), custom carbon tail boom, metal swash, carbon flybar etc.

More to come, I'm just working abit on the servo links now to get the stick trim closer to zero, that and enjoying the flight while I can. Next week I'll have my new main motor, gear and batteries to see if I can get it 100% again.

[Palmore]

Well my new main motor and batteries came in this weekend, I've replaced the main motor and that seems to have fixed my flight times. So I'm not back and flying perfect. =)

I will say, as long as my boom is, it's taken alot of the authority out of the tail and calmed it WAY down, sadly my piro's are slow, but it's helped make it easier to fly in my living room.

I'm glad to see it was the motor rather than 4 batteries (cheaper lol), and I'm glad my flight times are back up to 5-6 minutes. Now back to tweaking, upgrading and flying!

[slykyfox]

Keep at it. It sounds like you have just about got it all lined out.

[Palmore]

Several batteries later, I'm still having fun. Even though I've made a new custom boom for my next Trex, I think I'm going to redo it. After flying a few batts thru my current almost stock 100x, I realize more and more the boom is way to long. That and I want to try and utilize the portion of the 100s stock boom that has the "Align" logo on it in my next custom boom.

I noticed aligntrexstore has the 100x booms in stock now and I hope to order one soon to try out with my stock 100x since I'm now able to fly with out smacking a wall =) I'm even going to keep the Align tail motor in place to see how well it handles, though I'm still alittle against the wall on the consistency of the tail motor performance from what I've seen and have been reading.

As for the mod Trex I'm parting together, I think I may end up ordering a stock 100s bare kit, $50 some rather than getting just the circuit board for $40.

So far it'll have

Align Metal Refitting kit (rotor head/tail motor mount)
Xtreme Aluminum Swash Plate
Xtreme Aluminum / Carbon Flybar
Blade MSR EFLH3003 Coreless Main Motor
Custom 2mm aluminum / carbon tail boom
Carbon Tail Fin
mCPX tail motor

I'm shopping around for a carbon body I can mod, or may peal the covering off a trex canopy and leave it white or paint it black.

Replacement/custom skids are on the work bench as well and a possible boom support brace.

Lastly, I've been eye-balling some after market batteries and plan to get 2 190mah 20c, and 3 160mah25-40c batteries.

They'll be fun to test against the stock batts, and to drop in the mod heli once its done and see what it can do!

[Daktari]

Bought Align 100 X Yesterday. I bought the heli without the transmitter. I guess its not the Super Combo. I was planning on using my I Phone as a transmitter. Very easy to assemble head now as the Jesus Bolt goes through the main shaft so there is no guessing as to where to place bolt and how tight to fasten it. Now it just goes through and you dont have to tighten it too much. Just applied CA on tail blade so it doesnt slip when the motor gets hot and also at the bottom of the main shaft so the main gear does not slip off. Setup of I Phone control easy. The only difficult part was trying to fly it with my Phone and I found it difficult to control as it was hard to use the screen interface which stand in for sticks. I also tried using the tilt function on my phone and it was also hard. I decided to try and bind it with one of my regular radios from my regular old Align 100 and it worked. The only down is that I cannot adjust the Gyro with the old radio.
The Heli flies excellent. Hovers hands off. The flybar is much larger and thicker and I am sure its one of the reasons the heli is stable and also quite responsive. Today I was also flying outside and it is quite good too when it is calm and there is a lot of space. The canopy also is made of a little more thicker plastic which I am sure makes it more durable.
I bought the Heli for $80 @ Ultimate Hobbies in So Cal I think it was worth it. I had burned out the board of my old 100 and replacing it with a new heli made a lot of sense as the little replacement boards are expensive. I would suggest if you are having probs with the original 100 just to buy the 100X and just bind it to your old radio. I feel like Align have done some work to fix some of the problems with the original design.

[Palmore]

I finaly have a stock replacement 100x boom in my hands, and will be removing my custom boom this week to get my 100x back to complete stock. Since I now have enough parts to build a 2nd Trex100, I figured I'll enjoy my stock 100x while tinkering with and modding another 100x/hybrid.

My friends at aligntrexstore.com sent my order of a spare 100s canopy (going with red/white/blue on my stock heli) 100x boom and logic board for my mod flyer.

Last things to do with the mod heli;

Frankenstein some skids, possibly some carbon mSR skids with the Align battery mount married up.

Order the Xtreme metal swash and flybar.

Test the Eflite motor I have on the way with the Align electronics.

Craft a replacement boom, since I wanna touch up the current one I've made.

This list goes on, but I'll post as I go.

[Palmore]

Mail came today! So I started tossing together my other parts...

And not to toot the horn of aligntrexstore.com too much, but I ordered non-align parts from another online store on a Monday.
The parts came the next Tuesday (a hair over a full week, and the place is ALOT closer than Cali to my home)
I placed an order with AlignTRexStore.com on Thursday night, and I had the parts in hand Monday afternoon, with twice the distance to travel to my doorstep. I swear by these guys, and will order ALL my align stuff from the, including a 250 come this spring =)

Now onto the fun...

I finally installed my 100x tail boom, and a 100s fin (since I'm going for red/white/blue look), I also finally put together the rotor head and blades on my mod Heli, and installed (not tested) a Blade EFLH3003 main motor. This motor surprisingly married right up to my align main gear. Same 9tooth pinion, same size etc. Knowing me, my luck will end when I try and power it up!

A few pics =)

Below is the Align main motor (left) vs the Blade EFLH3003 main motor (right)



My "stock" 100x (with some S parts lol)



My Mod 100x



And on the left, the Mod heli, and the stock heli. The Mod heli still needs the Xtreme Swash and Flybar, as well as some new mod skids.. and I've been wondering if I can slam an mCPX Phantom Bat Style Carbon Canopy on it =)
So kicks, I also picked up a carbon training set and will be getting a carbon tail fin as well.

Lastly I've ordered 4 Tunigy 25c 160mah batteries and 2 Xtreme 20c 190mah, I should be getting these sometime this week i hope, so i can test the power/flight times against a stock battery.

I should be able to order up the swash/flybar and hopefully skids next week and get the second heli up and flying as well =)

Odd question, will I be able to bind both to my TX and alternate flying them as one cools down?

[Palmore]

Well, 3 Batteries in on my new Stock 100x boom and tail motor... And I gotta say.. I'm not super super happy, but its what I expected I guess?

First off, my Heli leans abit to the right in air it seems. when hovering, its not level thats for sure. May be because I have a small strip of tape on that side inside my canopy. But then again, after all the parts I've replaced and put on new or crafted new etc, I've noticed this thing never really has sat level while hovering.

So after putting on my new boom and motor, its back to the trim settings and adjusting the servo links, burning almost 2 batteries getting this right. leaving a battery and a half for flight testing for now.

Of course, after dorking with a non-level heli, trim and links, and a heli that wants to slip and slide rather than hover, once I got it as best as i could I was challenged with relearning this things flight personality.

Well, the tail wont hold well while giving more or less juice, it will either pivot 5degrees right or left, of course worsening when i really goose the juice.
The tail does seem to lock abit better with the shorter boom, but I'm finding the tail locks when I'm not wanting it to... this may be my own flight habbits I've developed while learning with a super extended boom. More flying will tell.

My left turns are cleaner now, no sputtering from the tail motor, though I find myself working harder to get a clean left turn. Right turns come easy as always, this time I feel alittle tooooo easy, with just a hair of right rudder, the heli wants to do giant loops around the living room. I've also noticed more Pendulum and rocking in mid air while coming to a stop or wanting to hover. And needless to say its alot less predictable when coming to a stop, attempting to hover, or take off.

I've toyed with the gain settings for the tail motor, but haven't found a magic spot that will keep the tail from shifting when the power shifts. Its not as stable as the home made boom, and I do fear I'll have to learn abit more based on its new flying characteristics.

I'm going to fly a few more batteries today and tomorrow and keep y'all updated on what I find. Needless to say, I may end up going back to a custom boom/mCPX tail motor.
Heck, if theres a demand, i may end up making and selling TRex 100 boom kits. And possibly more down the road =)