Zooka's 550 Build

[Manzooka]

Hey gang,

My wife and I are taking a trip to a friend's house in the Outer Banks for the long weekend and in between beaching and relaxing I'm planning on finally get some work done on my 550/BeastX build. Woot!

I spent the early part of the evening soldering my stock ESC, CC BEC Pro and 2x Turnigy bats to EC5's, and the latter half of the evening trying to make sure I have all the tools and equipment I need packed and ready to go. Hopefully I won't forget something essential. I'm also going to bring my Blade 450X with me so hopefully I can find a quiet place to fly and get some good beach flight video.

My wife was a little disappointed when she saw me packing up all my heli gear. She thinks I'm obsessed but I think she's overreacting. I mean she was gracious enough to take this picture but at least I didn't ask her to wear it to bed... .



I'll post some update pics as I progress and no doubt I'll end up needing some help so thanks in advance. Glad to be part of the crew.

~Zooka

[jchen]

Hey can't blame her ya. Women would expect men to shower them with more
attention especially when your on a holiday. Btw your a lucky man. Just look
at her physic, the 550 is nowhere near in comparison.

[johnahamelv]

I would be interested to learn of a nice quiet place to fly in the Outer Banks. I would not go this weekend with the Northern Virginia and the Norfolk traffic, but later in the summer would be nice.

[Lunar Wolf]

Did she get glass fibres in her face?

[diggyduo]

sweet landing gear.

[Manzooka]

Originally Posted by Lunar Wolf

Did she get glass fibres in her face?

lol, she did indeed. She's a trooper though and just laughed about it.

Originally Posted by diggyduo

sweet landing gear.

So far so good on the build. I've made good use of the last two mornings while the wife was still in bed sleeping. Smooth sailing thus far but I forgot to bring some CA so I'll have to go back over the tail to CA the TT bearing. I also neglected to bring my calipers and any mounting tape so I'll probably hold off on bothering with links or installing the remaining electronics until I get back home to the work bench. Good times!

[Manzooka]

All right then, most everything is assembled and/or accounted for but I have these suckers left over. I'm not concerned about the shaft spacer or the ball or link attachment but the screws and those two little washers worry me a little. :confused I went through the manual twice to confirm my setup so maybe they're just extra??



Can't wait to get to the electronics, but I think that'll have to wait until tomorrow evening when I get back home.

Beautiful weather today at the OBX btw!

[johnahamelv]

The build looks good. Just be carful with your kitty chewing on your wires. Ask me how I know.

[Manzooka]

Originally Posted by johnahamelv

The build looks good. Just be carful with your kitty chewing on your wires. Ask me how I know.

lol, no kidding. Our kittens are about 14 weeks old and they're getting into everything. I'm still glad we brought them on our vacation though. They're a riot to watch together, and with our chocolate lab. Here's a pic of all the kids.



Btw, no news on places to fly in OBX as I haven't had an opportunity to fly my 450X. I overestimated the amount of personal time I'd have. Our friend's place (where we're staying) is in Corolla less than a mile from where the 4-wheel drive area begins. My original plan was to drive North and find an open spot on the beach but that'll have to wait.

[taoY]

Originally Posted by Manzooka

First time to see someone uses "CAT" scan system on a RC heli build.
Let us know how it goes.

Good luck

Cheater

[Manzooka]

Originally Posted by johnahamelv

The build looks good. Just be carful with your kitty chewing on your wires. Ask me how I know.

lol, no kidding. Our kittens are about 14 weeks old and they're getting into everything. I'm still glad we brought them on our vacation though. They're a riot to watch together, and with our chocolate lab. Here's a pic of the kids...



Btw, no news on places to fly in OBX as I haven't had an opportunity to fly my 450X. I overestimated the amount of personal time I'd have. Our friend's place (where we're staying) is in Corolla less than a mile from where the 4-wheel drive area begins. My original plan was to drive North and find an open spot on the beach but that'll have to wait.

[diggyduo]

The big washer is either a mainshaft spacer or the washer that goes inside of the thrust bearing in the feathering shaft.

The little ones kinda look like boom support washers and screws. Either that or check that the skid screws all have washers on.

Originally Posted by Manzooka

All right then, most everything is assembled and/or accounted for but I have these suckers left over. I'm not concerned about the shaft spacer or the ball or link attachment but the screws and those two little washers worry me a little. :confused I went through the manual twice to confirm my setup so maybe they're just extra??



Can't wait to get to the electronics, but I think that'll have to wait until tomorrow evening when I get back home.

Beautiful weather today at the OBX btw!

[Manzooka]

Originally Posted by diggyduo

The big washer is either a mainshaft spacer or the washer that goes inside of the thrust bearing in the feathering shaft.

The little ones kinda look like boom support washers and screws. Either that or check that the skid screws all have washers on.

Thanks for the feedback. The large washer is definitely a main shaft spacer. I think two different size spacers were included, as one fit and the other did not. The little washers are even smaller than the ones you mentioned. They're about the same size as the ones used in the head and in the tail but those are accounted for.

[Manzooka]

Hey guys,

So far so good. I've installed all of the electronics, have my wiring laid out, and started my BeastX setup.

During setup I noticed that I had to adjust the link lengths between the swash and blades pretty significantly compared to what's suggested in the manual in order to get 0 pitch at mid stick (pitch curve is setup as linear 0-100). The manual suggests 76mm from center link to center link and I'm measuring just a hair over 70mm to get 0 pitch.

Is this okay or is this indicative of another problem I've missed?

[diggyduo]

mine measure 71 from centre to centre, and 76 from the outside of each of the plastic ball links, so sounds pretty similar to yours. I've had a few hundred flights without any probs.

[Hoosiermo1]

The align kits come with a few extras, in a separate bag. Were these in that separate pack? If so that's perfectly normal. I have the same pieces leftover. Minus the big link, I over sized one of those and was luck to have the extra.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Raptorg2zman]

Your very lucky ! Mine thinks I'm also obsessed, but does not have a sense of humor about it Enjoy !!

[JRAY]

Originally Posted by Hoosiermo1

The align kits come with a few extras, in a separate bag. Were these in that separate pack? If so that's perfectly normal.

x2

[Manzooka]

Originally Posted by Raptorg2zman

Your very lucky ! Mine thinks I'm also obsessed, but does not have a sense of humor about it Enjoy !!

Indeed I am, thanks And thanks to Hoosiermo1 and JRAY for advice about extra parts, and diggyduo for the link length comment.


I went through the beastx setup carefully again this afternoon, only this time without any beer! Good thing too as I realized that I set up the cyclic swashplate limits improperly, and once adjusted I no longer had the blue light No light in fact.

Think I should try adjusting link lengths or should I go straight to servo horn adjustment?

[Hoosiermo1]

I am blue on the limit setting, but I had to remove some material from my anti rotation bracket. To keep from binging at full pitch/ full cyclic.

Also did you go with the shorter inner swash balls from the 600 or 700 to increase cyclic resolution, and obtain blue at 6 degrees on step j?