Atom 500 build log

[stark]

Hi healifreaks,

This is my first post on so I'll introduce myself

I'm 30yrs old and live in Espoo, Finland. I started with a 4-ch fixed pitch heli last year, and now I'm hooked onto helis.

It's time for me to move to a bigger, better and build yourself kind of heli. I did a lot of reading about various brands, sizes, types and finally decided to go with the Atom 500 flybarless.

I'll try to make this thread as a build log and post information, pictures, questions as I go through the build right from the parts selection and ordering. If something is amiss please let me know and i'll update the part list. Questions or doubts in blue.

so here goes...

PART LIST

Kit
* Compass Atom 500 flybarless, stock motor (1080kv), CF blades and 9T pinion
* 8T pinon (for lower RPM during training)

Flybarless controller
* Beastx Microbeast + USB Programmer

Electronic Speed Controller
* Castle Creations Phoenix ICE 100
Q: is 100A overrated? lets say if I ever go to 10T and stick banging 3D?
* Castle Link USB programming adapter.

BEC
Q: ESC has 5A switching BEC, is this enough for the flybarless system?

Servos
* 3 x Align DS510M for cyclic (Mini servo: speed 0.11sec/60deg, torque 4.6kg/cm @ 6V)
NOTE: DS510 has plastic gears and are known to strip in a flybarless setup. DS510M has metal gears and seems more suitable.

* Hyperion HP-DS20XGCD for tail (Standard servo: speed 0.06sec/60deg, torque 4.5kg/cm @ 6V)
* Futaba Servo Arm Set (Hobbyking OR007-01203). Just in case there are fitting issues with supplied servo arms in the kit.

Radio
* Hitec Aurora 9 channel transmitter
* Hitec Optima 7 channel receiver
* Hitec HPP-22 USB programmer

Battery pack
* Turnigy 3000mAh 6S 30C Lipo Pack (Hobbyking T3000.6S.30)
Q: Pack weighs 502g. Will there be CG issues?

Battery charger & Power supply
* Junsi 206B Charger - 20A, 300W
* Junsi P350 DC power supply - 15V, 23A, 350W
* ParaBoard-XH 30A EC5 - for parallel battery charging.

Connectors
* EC5 connectors for Battery to ESC.
* 3.5mm wire Bullet-connectors (Hobbyking 9001-AB) for ESC to Motor.
* EC3 connector for Battery to BEC. Only required if separate BEC is used.

Tools
* Pitch guage
* JR Ball link sizing tool JRP960219
* Ball link and needle nose pliers
* X-acto knife
* hex wrenches & phillips drivers
* Threadlock - loctite 222
* Soldering iron and solder wire

Misc
* zip ties
* heat shrink tubes

How does all this look?

cheers,

[TheBum]

I ran a CC 100A on my Atom 500 with no issues. It's no larger than the 75A physically, so cost is the only issue. The BEC should be plenty for your purposes and the LV ESCs seems to be more reliable than the HV ones.

As for the pack, 502g may be pushing it on the high side. However, it's a good excuse for mounting all your electronics aft of the main shaft if you can.

[kevinator9]

I used the same servos and battery.
The DS510 are a good servo but they strip very easily in FBL. I am happy to change servo gears at this point because of the cost but will be investigating metal gear servos in the future.
The Turnigy 3300mAh 30C packs fit fine. They make the heli a touch nose heavy but not horridly so.
The 5A BEC will be plenty. I have flown a number of times a Gaui X5 (500mm blades, standard servos) FBL with a 5A BEC (built into the Gaui ESC which is a re-branded HW) so the Atom 500 (425mm blades, mini servos) will be fine.

[stark]

Originally Posted by TheBum

I ran a CC 100A on my Atom 500 with no issues. It's no larger than the 75A physically, so cost is the only issue. The BEC should be plenty for your purposes and the LV ESCs seems to be more reliable than the HV ones.

As for the pack, 502g may be pushing it on the high side. However, it's a good excuse for mounting all your electronics aft of the main shaft if you can.

Thanks Bum, I'll stick to the CC 100A ESC.
I'm not sure how things fit onto the frame to adjust CG, so I'll have to wait till I get the kit.
I can get 40g off the battery by either lowering capacity i.e. 2650mAH@30C or lowering the discharge rate i.e. 3000mAH@20C. Which one is a better choice?

Originally Posted by kevinator9

I used the same servos and battery.
The DS510 are a good servo but they strip very easily in FBL. I am happy to change servo gears at this point because of the cost but will be investigating metal gear servos in the future.
The Turnigy 3300mAh 30C packs fit fine. They make the heli a touch nose heavy but not horridly so.
The 5A BEC will be plenty. I have flown a number of times a Gaui X5 (500mm blades, standard servos) FBL with a 5A BEC (built into the Gaui ESC which is a re-branded HW) so the Atom 500 (425mm blades, mini servos) will be fine.

Thanks Andrew for the servo tip. For Metal gear servos I have the following servos in mind which seem to be a good fit from the drawings.
Align DS510M - abundantly available with gear replacements
MKS DS9660 or DS9670 - Can't find them at many places. Any ideas who stocks them?
I might go with the DS510M.

[stark]

Ordered the atom 500 FBL Kit from rc711 on the 4th. I paid for registered air parcel but they upgraded to DHL since they delayed the shipping date by 2 days. They replied to my e-mail queries within 24hrs. So overall, I'm happy with rc711's service.

I wish I had a good LHS here. But things are so expensive at my place that it is cheaper for me to order parts from other continents

I might have a business trip to Dallas coming soon, so I'm planning to buy all my electronics from the US. I would save me a lot on shipping and VAT.

cheers,

[myrseth]

In general I would suggest not to go lower then 30C, I run 30c 3amp batteries with no cg issues and considering upgrading to 3300 because I want to get my bls 251 mounted back there

[bullitt]

I am running 3300 mah turnigy batterys with great results.
9t pinion and I easily get 9.5 minuites fly time.
My next time out I am going to reset the timer to 10 minuites.
I get some nodding in normal flight mode but none in IU.
I prefer the longest flight time possible so the normal mode bobbing isnt an issue.
This is a fantasti heli...you made a great choice!

[sly the dogman]

You do moderate FF and circuits to fly for 9 1/2min.
Do you fly gov mode, or normal.

[stark]

, got my FBL kit today. What to say, I am impressed by the quality of the kit.

Rainy day today, but no worries. Time to open the package.


Was packaged well, with 2 layers of bubble wrap under the paper wrapper.


Fly at your own risk ??? of course i will


inside the box. The pitch guage doesn't come with the kit. I ordered it separately. rc711 stuffed it in


further in


laying out all the stuff




I'm not very happy with the stock tail blades. Look at the image and you'll know why.


The Motor is 1050kV and not 1080kV as mentioned on the box. Not that it matters.
Notice that there is no screw on the plastic thing under the motor. At first I thought that they forgot to include it in the kit, but the screws were actually in one of the plastic bags. Looks like you need to remove that screw to mount the landing gears, that's why it is not installed.


What is this? is it used for swash plate leveling?


The Motor comes with bullet connectors installed. Nice.


Great stuff. I'm eager and excited to build this mean machine. Need to order the rest of the stuff now. Will keep posting.

cheers.

[TheBum]

The earlier Atom 500s shipped with a 1080Kv motor. Mine has that motor. They switched to the 1050 and apparently never updated their packaging.

[stark]

OK. I Finally ordered all of the electronics. I settled on the Phoenix ICE 75 instead of 100. 75Amps seems more than sufficient for this bird.

Also ordered a set of KBDD 70mm tail blades.

cheers,

[sly the dogman]

I have a 75A CC, easy to program, and to date I'm happy with the results.

And there's no screw missing as you will find out, the front end of the landing
gear is fixed there.

The 1050's plenty powerfull, don't let the numbers fool you

[stark]

Received the battery packs and EC5 connectors. The Turnigy pack came pre-installed with 5mm bullet connector. I had to hack it off.


---
EC5 connectors come in pairs. The housing for Battery and Device is marked on the housing as "BATT" and "DEV". I figured out from the web that spring ed bullets go in the device connector and solid bullets go in the battery connector.


---
Unlike shown at some other places, the right way to fix this connector is to first feed the wire through the housing, solder it to the bullet and then push the bullet through the housing. Of course you need to tin the wire before everything, Note the polarity of the wire before feeding it through.






In the above image the bullet is yet not all the way in. You need to apply significant amount of force on the bullet to push it in the housing till you hear it snap. The final assembly is shown below.

[TallPaul]

Glad to hear that maybe RC711 has figured out their freight/email issues - my last order wasn't as smooth.

I also use EC 5, which work very well. While it might not make a difference, I install my bullets just the opposite way - pushing from the base to the tip. Obviously, your install is very clean and neat - so it works very well.

I would suggest the next time you order parts, consider buying some extra Female EC5s, since you will need those every time you buy a new battery.

[sly the dogman]

To solder EC5 bullets I personnally never tin the wires,
I just fill up the bullet and poak in the wire. I heat the bullet
with a hand torch. The whole operation takes under a minute.
A hand torch is the way to go with these bullets. But there are
many other ways to do this, I guess.

[TheBum]

Originally Posted by sly the dogman

To solder EC5 bullets I personnally never tin the wires,
I just fill up the bullet and poak in the wire. I heat the bullet
with a hand torch. The whole operation takes under a minute.
A hand torch is the way to go with these bullets. But there are
many other ways to do this, I guess.

You may not be getting a good solder joint doing that. The solder may not be properly bonding to the copper in the wire, which will result in a resistive connection and may cause the joint to heat up under high current.

[sly the dogman]

Your probably right, but so far so good.

If the cup is full of solder and I soak the wire properly
trimed in it. What would be the difference if the tip was
soldered ?
I know I read your post it explains it perfectely.
I don't dought, I just wonder....
Next connecters will have soldered tips, hey, why not !!!

[TheBum]

Originally Posted by sly the dogman

If the cup is full of solder and I soak the wire properly
trimed in it. What would be the difference if the tip was
soldered ?

The solder in the cup doesn't have any flux in it. If you're using rosin core solder, you get flux when applying solder directly from the spool. The flux cleans oxidation and contaminants from the wire and prevents the wire from re-oxidizing during the soldering process.

I suppose you could dip the wire in flux and then into the cup.

[sly the dogman]

I apply solder directly from the spool.

[TheBum]

Originally Posted by sly the dogman

I apply solder directly from the spool.

But the point is that the flux burns off as it comes off the spool, so there's none left over for the wire. If you tin the wire from the spool first, it's getting the flux too.