Calling all MSH Protos 500 users with SK-720

[boltor]

MSH Protos 500 users with SK-720
(with all credit to Castel for the idea...)

Boltor
- Protos CF
- SK-720, v 3.0
- ICE Lite 75A, governor enabled (not using SK-720 function ... yet)
- Scorpion HK3026-880KV v2
- Futaba S9650 Cyclics, Futaba S9257 Tail
- Rx: Futaba R6203SB, sbus to SK720
- Tx: Futaba 8FG

mkovalcson
- Protos 500 carbon frame
- Sk720 mounted on baseplate using new 90 deg baseplate
- 1 DSMX satellite
- 6s 2600mah 35C Hyperion
- Stock Scorpion motor 15tooth
- Stock YGE 60A ESC
- Futaba 9650x3
- Futaba BLS251
- JR 11X

Thunder Fighter
- Stretch carbon frame
- Sk720 on base plate with shim (haven't fitted the new 90 deg baseplate yet)
- CC 100A lite ICE, CC gov set RPM 2200/2300/2450
- 6s 3000mah 40C turnigy packs
- Lipotech motor 14 tooth
- DS510 x 3
- BLS980

[boltor]

I decided to start this thread as I have just converted my Protos to FBL and SK-720 (of course!). Keen to get other Protos / SK-720 owner inputs on what works well, common tuning ideas, etc.

Can you please post your setups as above.

I will keep updating the post (or ask Georgi to do this when we can no longer edit).

Georgi has also offered (he just doesn't know it yet) to buy beer for the person that posts the data log with the lowest amount of vibration ... and reveals the secrets!

[zeeflyboy]

I'll post some details after the weekend...

Just wanted to mention - take a look at the new FBL bottom plate - gives you a nice perpendicular mount below the main shaft. Perfect!

[boltor]

Originally Posted by zeeflyboy

I'll post some details after the weekend...

Just wanted to mention - take a look at the new FBL bottom plate - gives you a nice perpendicular mount below the main shaft. Perfect!

yes, looks great! I have the SK720 mounted on the plate over the tail boom, but have thought it may be better to get this new plate. My Protos is a few years old, so has none of the mods / new parts.

[georgi UK]

Originally Posted by boltor

Georgi has also offered (he just doesn't know it yet) to buy beer for the person that posts the data log with the lowest amount of vibration ... and reveals the secrets!

=] haha, Georgi will ship a free copy of this to the finalist, =



sort it between yourselves and send me the details of the winner!

[boltor]

wow! what a difference FBL makes to the Protos.

Some great flights over the last few days. will post my settings soon. the 6HV experience in setting up the SK720 was certainly valuable.

Only issue is the level of vibration. fore/aft at tail rpm. attached is the vibration file. will pull the tail and head down, and start to isolate the cause. For reference, my head speed RPM is 2500.

[zeeflyboy]

Tail is notorious for vibes...

Make sure you take the tail hub off and balance it as a whole unit... Far more effective than trying to balance just the blades.

[Thunder Fighter]

Also make sure you don't over tighten the tail box on the boom. Tighten till the two sides are just touching then a half turn more. This can have a bog effect on reducing vibes.

My setup:

Stretch carbon frame
Sk720 on base plate with shim (haven't fitted the new 90 deg baseplate yet)
CC 100A lite ICE, CC gov set RPM 2200/2300/2450
6s 3000mah 40C turnigy packs
Lipotech motor 14 tooth
DS510 x 3
BLS980

//Dennis.

[mkovalcson]

Protos 500 carbon frame
Sk720 mounted on baseplate using new 90 deg baseplate
1 DSMX satellite
6s 2600mah 35C Hyperion
Stock Scorpion motor 15tooth
Stock YGE 60A ESC
Futaba 9650x3
Futaba BLS251
JR 11X

So far it seems pretty peppy

Started with stock 3D settings and so far have just been adding tail gain.

I'm still increasing tail gain. Right now I'm at 45% and it's still breaking free with hard collective changes, maybe as much as 30 degrees of rotation before it catches.

I still have some vibrations in the tail. I'm going to look at balancing the tail.

I still can't believe the whole tail comes apart in about 3 minutes. THIS IS SOOOOO much easier to work on than my TREX550E. so so so much easier. No looking back now!!!!

[fusionsx00]

Wow this looks like a good combo with the sk720

I was going to get a gaui x4, but they failed to beef up the owb.

So much for "the next level of helicopters"

I already have a mini protos planned, hmmm

[boltor]

Originally Posted by fusionsx00

I already have a mini protos planned, hmmm

when I moved up from my mini titan to the protos, I remember being overawed by the size / stability / power of the protos. again, when I moved from the protos to the 6HV (FB at that stage), I was again overawed by the size / power / stability of the 6HV. Had a similar revolution when the protos went from FB to FBL (SK720) a few months ago.

point is, I'm not sure I could go back to a 300/400 size heli. will be interested to hear your experiences.

and the far bigger issue ... in the last few weeks I have found myself being drawn to the 7HV thread. and the worst issue ... this morning I commenced a spreadhseet that started with "7HV base kit", and went to "Servos - cyclic", "Servo - tail"... we all know where this is going...

still brilliant to fly the protos with a SK720. so stable.

[boltor]

Originally Posted by mkovalcson

I still have some vibrations in the tail. I'm going to look at balancing the tail.

same, although my vibration are now less than 10 (previously was >25 )

will be interested to hear about how you go, and best ways to balance

have tried the tips above already so will keep trying

[fusionsx00]

Originally Posted by boltor

I'm not sure I could go back to a 300/400 size heli. will be interested to hear your experiences.

My first "real" cp heli was a gaui 200 fly bar, great little heli for learning cp , well for me it was. Really like the small size because I can fly it almost anywhere, I can walk to a small feild near by in less than a minute,

Then I got a gaui 255 fbl, gaui fbl unit, horrible experience really, ejected blades left and right. Got shelved for a while.

After that I got a gaui carbon frame 425, and went straight for a sk720 with a X5 fes head.
It was really intimidating, but really loved the way it flew, and sl , I couldn't go one day without flying.

Right then I knew fbl was the way to go, I got a 2nd sk720 for my 200, and that went good too.

Shortly after that I got a 3rd sk720 for my 255, after I saw gaui made a new head and grips , that's my daily flyer now.

The 425 was lost in a bad crash due to the weak owb, so instead of rebuilding I got a X5

Its funny cuz I also go into the 7hv forum as well.

I do want a 700 size for sure, I'm just not sure which one. I like the gaui design but there have been a lot of problems, with parts and customer service.

So that's why I'm getting a mini protos, and the gaui 200 is getting retired, the 255 fills that spot.

I miss the 425 size though, so I've been looking at the protos too. I think I will get more flying time out of it than a 700, I would have to drive far to fly it.

I rather be able to fly more, than get a 700 that will sit all week untill the weekend.

[mkovalcson]

Sorry to say that I haven't balanced my tail yet.

First I just did my best to cover up the vibrations

1. I added the anti-vibration kit ( had little effect )
2. I experimented wtih tail belt tension ( had little effect )
3. I have lots of spare parts so I replaced the tail bearings and when I put it back together the vibrations actually went up!
4. Then I spent a lot of time making sure that the servo wires were not tight. ( Bingo!!!! )

I had already soldered a longer wire to the elevator servo so it could reach around.
I moved the SK-720 as far back as I could to losen the servo wires. That had a huge impact.

I think if I extended the other wires it would have the most noticable impact of anything I could do.

I finally got down to 2.6 G.
Now I'll see about balancing the tail. The KBDD blades balance out perfectly, but I haven't checked out everything else.

BTW I noticed that although my initial G's were really high that they seemed to smooth out after it broke in 4 flights later. It dropped down to 10G's pretty quickly.

[mkovalcson]

FYI, in flight it is coming down without a red flashing light and the auto-leveling is now working.

However when looking at the Flight Log I can see there are a few Vibration warnings where it pops up around 7G for an instance. It is sitting around 3G most of the time.

This thing is insane with a 3000rpm head speed!!!

I think I need to put the FBL Edge 423mm blades on and take off the SAB FB blades. That may help with the insane collective speed. I dropped it back to 20-80% straight line in the pitch set up. It is very impressive in flight!

I think I'm going to back the speed down and try the FBL blades next. That should calm it down a bit while I start trying basic 3D manuvers with it. I think I've been accidentally resetting the ESC so that it thinks I want 100% rather than 80% throttle.

[fusionsx00]

stop it

im gona go insane dreaming of all these awesome helicopters, the more i read about the protos the more i want one

[boltor]

Originally Posted by fusionsx00

im gona go insane dreaming of all these awesome helicopters,

time to live the dream fusions...

(and join me getting a 7HV...)

[mkovalcson]

I recently got some feedback from a guy with a Protos 500 who had some issues with vibrations in the tail and upgraded to an infinity alloy tail.

I read up on it and there is sometimes a binding issue in the tail. I know that when I spin the blades by hand for a while I can get it to catch periodically. This may be the same issue.

That could be the cause of the tail vibrations we are seeing.

This same person also recommended the alloy main bearing holders and alloy servo holders. His comment was that the plastic servo holders were too weak in a crash and his servos were destroyed as a result.

I only have a couple days of flying in, I haven't crashed it yet, so I'm not sure about much of this.

I do know that almost everyone has told me that I will want to upgrade my 9650 gears to MKS metal gears for $20 each since the plastic gearset will not last long.

[mkovalcson]

I've heard that some of the vibrations will probably work themselves out as the belt breaks in.

I went ahead and ordered the lower main allow bearing housing and an Infinity rear tail block just to see.

I've been told that the binding that I'm seeing is all in the tail block and that it "should" work it's way out.

It will be interesting to see if my vibrations drop to a normal level before the new tail block gets here, because I'm going to keep flying it


BTW it appears that the happy tail gain number for me is 50% At 55% and it starts to wag.

I've actually reduced the pitch at my transmitter by 20% each way for a little while. At full +/- 12% pitch it was a bit more responsive than I want right now. I'll add it back 5% at a time until I can harness it all is a constructive way.

[snowball75]

When I had my protos, I too had a tail issue. I mistakenly overtightened the tail pulley. I ended up ordering the aluminum pulley set which corrected the problem. It's a nice cheap upgrade and in may case made a big improvement. Btw, I also invested in a couple pairs of different tail blades; kdbb being the better of the ones I tried.

Btw, triple check for notchy bearings. Ive read that they wear rather quickly so an investment in ceramic bearings may be worth it. I sold my protos before I got ceramics and had I kept it, that was going to be my next upgrade.

Protos helis rock and I only sold it because I got a killer deal on a compass 6hv.

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