HeliDirect Upgrade Parts for T-REX 500!!!

[whaleboy]

Oh, and just realized the tail came assembled inside out. The raised edges where the shaft goes should be facing out. This pic is assembled wrong (from their site)...

http://www.helidirect.com/images/hel...0/HDU-TS-1.jpg

And, looking at this pic of the prototype (assembled correctly) gives a clue to the belt issue...

https://www.helifreak.com/attachment...5&d=1200407854

The tail doesn't come with a tail shaft/pulley, you are supposed to use the stock one. The plastic pulley in the pic (of a prototype I assume) is smaller than the stock metal pulley, so the belt on the one in the pic wouldn't have fit as tight as it does with the stock pulley on the HD tail.

At least thats what it looks like...

-David

[mk1spitfire]

are these private or align made?

[skeppley]

DOH!!!!
I will let you know how mine is later this afternoon.

[Rototerrier]

You guys should just know better than to buy CNC parts from HD. I scrapped my HDX500 because of HD's quality control of their parts. Total junk. If you want an inferior product just go buy a hdx500, but for goodness sake, don't go disrespecting your nice TRex by putting those crap parts on it. Just blows my mind that you would take a perfectly good heli and try to make it into an HDX. I saw those parts online, and other than where it attaches to the boom, virtually identical to the ones I have. My first tail that came in the HDX kit was warped and bent. They had to send me a replacement before I could complete the build. Do not buy that junk. Stay way way way far away from it. I am sure someone will get a good one, but it sucks to be the guy who gets the bad one. Not worth it. I value my HDX so much that I scavenged the bearings out of it to tight up my trex tail yesterday, and I felt a little ashamed actually. I had to appologize to the TRex as I was installing them...I think it's feelings were hurt.

You want details, here they are:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=61857

I was in a bit of a mood. Tired of getting jerked around with crap parts.

[th3tick]

Well, if mine requires grinding down the boom , I'll likely send it back. Not sure when mine will arrive, but I'll let y'all know the results.

Given the smaller pulley, and the boom length issues, is this from some other heli, and just adapted to here? That pulley they show clearly came from somewhere...

John

[skeppley]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's gonna be one of the good ones.
Generally I agree with you about the quality, but for $90 bucks you would think it wouldnt be sub par
We'll see when it's on.

[whaleboy]

I'm going to try my best to make it work. It'll be kinda tough for me to try to return it... With all this static talk, the first thing I did was sand the anodizing off on all the contact points for the different parts. I wasn't getting a very good conductivity reading even after that so I said screw it and filed a little area out at the bearing and boom contact point and ran a wire. Only after did I realize that since the sides came assembled inside out that I have the anodizing sanded off the outside now... I should have done a test assembly before doing that...



On the bright side, I just did a test fitting and the rest of the tail fits and works on the align plastic tail, which means as a last resort I can get the align metal tail and use the rest of the HD parts and still have an all CNC tail... More expensive than I'd like, but as far as I can tell, the rest of the tail is very nice... quality parts, fit, looks...

It would be nice if HD would offer the parts separately.

-David

[skeppley]

Yup, had to shorten the boom here too!
I took 2mm off the front of the boom, and made the slot on the side of the boom 2mm longer. Now it has plenty of slack to get it fitting properly.
I was also thinking of using the HD grips and slider along with the align tailbox if it doesnt work to well.
Now that the boom is shortened, it looks like the rest should work ok.

The HD Tailgrips use a larger Thrust bearing than the align tailgrips, so that could be a good thing. I wish they would sell the tail assembly seperate too. All I really wanted were the grips and hub, and had to buy an entire tail to get it.

Mine will be finished tonight and flying Saturday, so I'll keep everyone posted

[skeppley]

Got it all together. Besides taking 2mm off the front of the boom, the only other snag was the ball on the bellcrank at the rear of the tail that hooks to the sevo rod sits a tiny bit too low, so I replaced with a threaded ball from the 500 spares, and it comes up enough to be acceptable......
NOW, after seeing this problems and almost calling helidirect to return it, I decided to give it a try.

AWESOME, is all I can say. All the buzz and small twitching that was inherit with the stock tail is gone. IT IS ROCK SOLID! I moved my gain from 52 to 75 and didnt get a wag, just a more solid tail. The icy rain started to fall, so I stopped at one test pack, but Saturday will get about 10 flights to confirm this.
I am very excited, as several people, including finless were not very impressed with the align tail. This one got rid of the buzz and the small wag......


Thumbs up until tomorrow!!

[whaleboy]

Originally Posted by skeppley

AWESOME, is all I can say. All the buzz and small twitching that was inherit with the stock tail is gone. IT IS ROCK SOLID! I moved my gain from 52 to 75 and didnt get a wag, just a more solid tail. The icy rain started to fall, so I stopped at one test pack, but Saturday will get about 10 flights to confirm this.
I am very excited, as several people, including finless were not very impressed with the align tail. This one got rid of the buzz and the small wag......
Thumbs up until tomorrow!!

I'll try tomorrow and see if the little tail twitches I'm getting here and there go away. The fact that this tail (and the align metal tail) are wide open around pulley has to make a difference in the buildup of static compared to the plastic tail which is essentially enclosed.

-David

[whaleboy]

Well... its together and ready to fly tomorrow.

Aside from shortening the boom by a few mm, Once it was all together, I couldn't get the thing to move smoothly. Everything seemed to be smooth when moved by itself, but when assembled, something was binding up. Turned out to be the little bearings on the control arms (if thats the right term... the little arms coming right off the blade grips). Don't know if they were just bad quality, or just bad, but after swapping the stock plastic slider and arms (with the bushings), everything freed up again.

Also, one of the main shaft bearings was bad, but chances are I damaged it by taking it in and out several times while I sanded the inside of the socket and messed with putting a wire in there (trying to do all the proper grounding). I just swiped one from the plastic case and all is good there.

The screws holding the sides on are too long, protruding into the case. Two actually rubbed the belt, so I put a couple mini washers on these 4 screws to keep them from entering the case as far and hitting the belt. I'll likely grind them down a bit later and loose the washers.

And... There were 3 screws... the blade screws and the one holding the lower rocker arm on that were threaded along the entire shaft, when they really should have solid shafts with threads only on the end (sorry, can't think of the proper term for those right now). The ones that came with the heli were this way, and I'd rather have the tailblades supported by the solid smooth part of the screw rather than riding on threads. I used the Align ones, but needed to widen the hole on the grips a hair to get it through.

So tomorrow I fly with my hybrid tail system. I'll see if it was worth it, but it was sure a lot more work than I wanted. Thats what I get for ordering it the day its released

I sure hope HD takes note and makes some changes to future tail assemblies.

-David

[skeppley]

To get this thing up and running:

1. Completely remove boom and dremel 2mm off the front of the boom where it goes into the boom block. Also make the slot on the boom 2mm deeper so it can slide in farther.

2. Use a flat head screwdriver and pry open the slot in the CNC tailbox that slides over the boom. It fits EXTREMELY tight and takes a good push to get it all the way on.

3. Remove the longer ball from the tail bellcrank and put on a shorter threaded ball from the 500 spares.

4.For the screws holding on the side plates, I used the nice align 500 frame washers on them. Got them to the perfect length without hitting the belt. I also used them on the screws going into the tail fin.

5. Disassemble grips and grease thrust bearings and apply locktite before reassembly.


A lot of work for a bolt on, but if your watching it snow like me, it was something interesting to do besides watching TV. I hope HD takes notes on this and does some changes. It is definitely NOT plug and play.

whaleboy, if I put the tail slider arms on the trailing edge of the tail grips, I can get the binding that you are talking about. Putting them on the leading edge, all worked well.

[whaleboy]

Originally Posted by skeppley

To get this thing up and running:

1. Completely remove boom and dremel 2mm off the front of the boom where it goes into the boom block. Also make the slot on the boom 2mm deeper so it can slide in farther.

I just did the rear of the boom... no need to mess with the notch. I took about 4mm off.

Originally Posted by skeppley

2. Use a flat head screwdriver and pry open the slot in the CNC tailbox that slides over the boom. It fits EXTREMELY tight and takes a good push to get it all the way on.

I found the same on the original boom, but it slipped right on the spare boom I cut (even before I cut it). I also noticed that the ring guides (for the control rod) fit less snug than they did on the original boom, so the spares I have definitely have an ever so slightly smaller diameter.

Originally Posted by skeppley

3. Remove the longer ball from the tail bellcrank and put on a shorter threaded ball from the 500 spares.

Mine seems ok... not an issue here.

Originally Posted by skeppley

4.For the screws holding on the side plates, I used the nice align 500 frame washers on them. Got them to the perfect length without hitting the belt. I also used them on the screws going into the tail fin.

5. Disassemble grips and grease thrust bearings and apply locktite before reassembly.


A lot of work for a bolt on, but if your watching it snow like me, it was something interesting to do besides watching TV. I hope HD takes notes on this and does some changes. It is definitely NOT plug and play.

Yup...

Originally Posted by skeppley

whaleboy, if I put the tail slider arms on the trailing edge of the tail grips, I can get the binding that you are talking about. Putting them on the leading edge, all worked well.

Hmm... I have it leading edge now with the Align slider, but I can't remember how it was setup with the other one. I'll try it later.

Off to the field...

-David

[raptorheli2]

how many bearings in total are in one of these grips? i.e is it 2 radial bearings and a thrust bearing?

cheers

[skeppley]

The same as the stock grips, one radial and one thrust.
The difference is the thrust bearing is bigger in this unit.

[rcxm]

http://www.cnchelicopter.com/servlet...eli/Categories
looks fromal version is out .

[raylepper]

Originally Posted by rcxm

http://www.cnchelicopter.com/servlet...eli/Categories
looks fromal version is out .

Spot me on this....
The photo on this link looks to be reversed. If you installed the tail case with the bell crank down, the tail rotor would be on the left side of the heli. Huh?

[LoveMyTrex]

yes that photo must be mirrored or the bellcrank is on the wrong side.

[helidirect]

yes the old version was assembled wrong. This is the new version

http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...oducts_id=6344

check out the pic we tested on trex 500, all issues are fixed. nice tail system.

[rcxm]

Originally Posted by raylepper

Spot me on this....
The photo on this link looks to be reversed. If you installed the tail case with the bell crank down, the tail rotor would be on the left side of the heli. Huh?

pic is updated , got attached