Trex 600L Dominator Review

[RC/DC_5000]

Yea. Except my gears turned white creased in two flights. Just depends on how you fly it. Plastic does that when it's fatigued. And torque fatigues drive train parts.

The offset for the blade pitch is best determined by guessing and checking. Flying it in rate mode... and adjusting either the linkage rod or the rudder center trim in the software until the helicopter will hold a heading just from the tail slider being offset correctly.. .Kind of a PITA.

I used to not bother.. and yes you can get away with not adjusting this step. But if you do really fast consecutive loops backwards... the helicopter will stay on course much better with rate mode setup.

I realize I'm being really critical... I have a 450L that rocks and I love it. I'm just saying that it could be better. And after the servo disaster I experienced, I was in helicopter hell.

[RC/DC_5000]

I did a lot of reading and research into these BL 815 servos. From what I understand from an inside Align dealer source, they have resolved the problem. After I calmed down from the anger and frustration from having so many servos fail in a short period... I came to realize that Align has way more more pros than cons. The kits should be cleared of these bad servos.

They warranty their products like clockwork... tools, batteries, parts, kits. If I ever have a problem, they fix it and I've never paid a dime except to ship to them. Parts are everywhere, price is reasonable and helis look darn good. So call me insane, but I'm going to build another brand new 600L kit with a fresh new start. Round 2.

I read some advice on other forums about the gears being soft. They recommend that you only use governor mode or flat throttle curve with the 750mx high torque output. For instance, if you use a deep V curve, the motor will surely wear out the drivetrain with its beast torque delivery. The motor is rapidly changing throttle positions and the 750mx gets the gears turning with force. This makes sense to me and helped me decide to try again. I did use a V curve the first time. (in my defense, it recommends one in the manual)

[IrvingWashington]

You should always use governor in a >=550 bird. Throtle curves doesnt do the job when you are pirofliping or doing tick-tocks, cos in that kind of situations you need a lot of power but your gas stick is almost in the middle.

Also, when you setup the governor, try to soften the "throtle response" (I dont remember the option name) from the castle governor, thats how fast and sharp the governor puts throtle when it detects falling rpm in the head. Its like having slower servo in a traditional governed nitro heli more or less. You will probably have to try some options until getting confortable with the governor.

Greasing the gears should be a good recommendation too. I never did it until I saw a local pro pilot doing it in every gear and every heli he owns.

[Smoggie]

Originally Posted by IrvingWashington

You should always use governor in a >=550 bird..

+1 The governor is far and away the best way to manage headspeed, far far better than any curve. As noted start with governor gain set 'low'. The Castle governor has very aggressive gain and the higher settings can strip the tail drve gears (ask me how I know!)

[RC/DC_5000]

Sounds logical. I've give that a try and be more careful with the gain. Keep it low and read the flight log to determine if it needs to be turned up.

Do you happen to remember what your governor gain setting was when you tore up the gears?

[RC/DC_5000]

So I got my second 600L kit built. Servos seem to be holding up so far. I really love this helicopter frame.

I learned a work around for the tail control rod and Gpro rate mode hover. Make the rod as short as possible and then place the servo horn one notch forward towards the nose of the helicopter. (away from 90*) This still gives enough travel both ways and offsets the slider almost perfect to hover in rate mode without pegging the rudder center trim. Would still like to see the rod a few mm shorter. How short you ask? The distance of moving the servo horn one notch forward. This allows rate mode hover and the software trim to be nearly centered from the start.

The only thing that gave me a heartache was the servos. They seem to be holding up to my bench testing sessions. Fingers are crossed that these servo problems are resolved. If they stay functional, they really are good servos. You can flick your transmitter stick so it flickers back and forth and the servos will follow their motion. Pretty quick and powerful.

The rest of the kit is and always was a work of art. When Align gets these servos on track.. this kit would be nearly impossible to beat.

Update: Finally got to fly this thing. The new serial number servos are working very well. No problems. Pulled 5000 watts with 117 amps. I'm only using 13 degrees of pitch right now at 2400 rpm. This thing is AWESOME to fly. Governor gain at 9 lol. This motor has torque like a semi truck. It hovers at 1800 rpm like its on strings. Impossibly stable. Yet I can rip it around like a 450L in effortless 3D. Those servos surely have command over this tank of a helicopter. Very impressive. Servos fixed= best helicopter you can buy for the money.