been a bit quiet here

[anthony1]

its been a bit quiet here lately so I thought I would give everyone something to read. ive been having a few issues with my x2 lately, it all started when my stock esc went bad and halfway into a flight it would just shut off, resulting in three crashes before I managed to get that little problem sorted. once I figured that out , I totally screwed up 3 owb , well the first one was due to the 3 crashes, the second and third were my fault, I had a stock of main gears with owb that I had fitted when they had gone bad and thought I was good to go, so first flight after the 3 rebuilds, about 2 minutes in the tail let go , I did hit th and managed to get the heli down just cracking a skid, I did get it in the air again but it was underpowered and again after 2 minutes same thing only this time I was nearer the ground so no more damage. that was it for the day, so I took it home fixed the skid and checked the owb which was slipping. changed it and took her out the next day for a very low level test, again after 2 minutes the tail spun and the owb was dead, or so I thought,
when I got home, after a thorough check ,I noticed that the main gear was a little bent after closer inspection the owb was ok but the gear had melted, that's when the light bulb went on, when I put the owb in I had put it flush with the base and this was obviously(doh) rubbing on the bottom bearing holder and melted, so with that sorted I thought everything would be ok. but the next day when I took her up the tail fin was buzzing . again I thought it was the bearings but they seemed ok , my next thought was the new gaui blades. I checked the weight of them and after a little tape they balanced within .01 of a gram , the buzzing was still there, so next I checked the cg of the blades and found that they were almost 2mm different, so again I adjusted the cg and then the weight until they are in perfect balance, took it out quickly at lunch and am completely amazed again at how good this little heli really is when setup correctly. so the moral of the story , I guess, is to double check everything , even if you think its right.
hope everyone has a happy holiday season.
best wishes
Anthony

[Murph_d]

Wow, that's a lot of benchwork. I'm glad you stuck with it and got it right. Mine's been awesome since it's maiden flight, my favorite heli.

[anthony1]

the reason I stuck with it is because I know how awesome it is when its right, and now its awesome again. one good thing that came out of it is I have been running the skookum governor and feeling that my batteries were getting tired, but now with the castle gov they seem fine, it could have been a combination of a esc going bad and/or bad sensor as the sk gov on my other heli's are great, so i'm happy again
Anthony

[scott s]

JB weld that one way into the main gear!! If your one way was in to far then the top bearing in the main gear would have been sticking out and that is supposed to be flush. Put the top bearing in first. There is a lip in the hole in the main to stop you from putting the top bearing in to far. It will sit flush. Then flip the main over and on a suitable block etc so when you push the one way in the top bearing can't go anywhere as it is being retained by the suitable block.

[anthony1]

not a lot going on here again, so this week I decided to take a look at my tail. I stripped it completely and everything was good I changed the tail shaft bearings just because and put it all back together, I guess i'm just a bit bored , I need a new heli .
Anthony

[Murph_d]

Do you loctite the bearings into the tail case? If so, do you have any trouble getting them out to work on the tail?

I've had a little bit of movement in the rotor head ever since I installed the Lynx dampers. At first I thought that the head was moving just little on the main shaft, so I swapped it with my back-up head which fits a little more snugly on the shaft. I also swapped the lynx dampers out with the spares they give you. I still have a tiny bit of movement, almost as if the inside diameter of the dampers is just large enough to allow the feathering shaft to jiggle a little. I guess I could try going back to the stock dampers just to see, but it flies so great I'll probably just leave it.

[anthony1]

yes I use green loktite to hold the bearings in, it seems that when its time to look at the tail the loktite is either already not holding or it just needs a little tap to get the shaft out.
as far as the head goes I thought the exact same thing but as you say it flies just fine so i'm not worrying about it.
it also surprises me that this little heli isn't more popular, it blows the trex 250 out of the water, its almost as if blade invented small heli's that's all the talk is about. oh well . means more spares for me, haha
Anthony

[anthony1]

this is how bored I am , I decided to change the bearings in my motor. I took it apart and the bearings seem fine even though I don't oil them like i'm supposed to with a scorpion, I decided to change them anyway as they are only a couple of dollars and then that's another thing off my list, what I did find though was my pinion was worn , all the teeth were pointy, so I ordered another ,
I am amazed that plastic can do this to metal. oh well, I know it probably won't make a lot of difference but this heli is slowly getting renewed
Anthony

[anthony1]

quick follow up, I've been having a quite severe vibration at certain rpm's, that's my reason for all the maintenance over the past couple of months, I changed all the bearings most of which felt good and some worn shafts too, but the vibration was still there, mostly in the boom supports.
I thought I would take a look at the motor bearings again just in case I got some green Loctite in them when I put the new ones in, and once again they were fine, however the seat on the inner bearing looked a little funky so I had a closer look, it appears that at some point something had gotten in to the motor and worn the windings away near the hub and also the bearing must have been running loose in the race and worn it too, i'm actually surprised that the motor ran as well as it did, so I managed to get a scorpion motor HKII-2208-24 which on paper was identical for $45 from innova8tive designs, when it arrived the main shaft was thicker and longer but the one in the old motor was still good so I swapped it out , fairly easy to do , and put it in the heli, all the vibrations have gone and my batteries seem to have more power and last longer........ woohoo...
well that's enough rambling, back to flying in the back garden
Anthony

[anthony1]

flew it again today and its awesome(again)bags of power and quieter than its been in a while
Anthony

[Murph_d]

When you order that motor from innov8tive, you can specify that you want the stepped down shaft and they'll ship it with that, saves you the trouble of swapping shafts, but there is something satisfying about working on a motor and having it go well. Also their bearing kit fits the stock Gaui motor, not that that would've helped your windings.

I'm glad you're posting, this forum is sooo quiet. Mine hasn't offered any surprises for awhile, still amazes me how well it flies. I finally found a stock FES canopy (red,black, white) from another HF forum member (thanks BillG). I had been waiting many months, out of stock everywhere.

[BillG]

Glad I could help you out Murph_d.
As much as I enjoyed the X2 ( I owned for 2~3 yrs), I recently sold it, and my spare parts stash off.

I just wasn't flying it like I used to. My friends and I have been frequenting a large field that is just fantastic for large (600~700) birds. The X2 just disappeared in that large a field!

Anthony, I'm fortunate to have Innov8tive Solutions local to me; Lucien also was able to fix a circlip & bearing issue on my Gaui/Scorpion motor while I waited! Great service from those guys.

[anthony1]

that's good to know , maybe for the future, I did get the bearing kit and it does fit but the windings were the problem so as you say it didn't do any good anyway
Anthony

[anthony1]

with the new motor the heli is back to its best, I couldn't run 4200 - 4400 before as I thought my batteries were shot( turned out to be the motor, see above) but now I can 4200 is amazing and once again I can do everything with the x2 that I can with my bigger heli's only much much closer,
Anthony

[anthony1]

I have developed a small vibration , upon checking the belt there are a few teeth missing, would that be enough to cause vibration?
Anthony

[Beckler]

Good opportunity to find out since you need a new belt anyway! I haven't noticed it myself from missing teeth. Main cause for me is tail bearing problems. Any play in the tail shaft?

[anthony1]

no , all the bearings are good , I just changed the belt so I will find out as soon as my battery charges.
Anthony

[anthony1]

well that didn't do it , I will have to dig deeper
Anthony

[anthony1]

changed the main shaft and that seems to have cured it, must have got bent in the car I haven't crashed it so don't really know how it got bent, when I roll it on glass I can't see the bend it must be very slight but enough to cause a problem , anyway back to flying as usual, I love this heli
Anthony

[anthony1]

I have still been trying to track down a small vibration . I don't know what I finally did but its gone , I think it was the new tail shaft there was a very slight bend in it , really not noticeable but enough I guess to start the tail fin buzzing, any way I redid the tail , new bearings etc and it seems to have done the trick. I just test flew it again and on the third flight I noticed that there was a small vibration again, I had a very close look at the tail but it all seemed good I checked over the rest of the heli and found that the bolt holding the mainblades on (feathering shaft bolt) had backed out and was hanging on by about 3 threads, again I took it apart cleaned it and reassembled and 2 test flights later its flying perfectly , going to keep an eye on that bolt it could have ended badly for the x2, i'm still really pleased with this little heli and I am amazed its not more popular . I guess there was bad press in the beginning and it never really recovered . I wasn't there for that .
still quite here guess no one has any problems with their x2's
Anthony