Step forward, but not as big as I was hoping it would be. Then again, at least there was no crash.
I received the replacement parts from xheli.com (gears, stabilizer bar, and training gear) and replaced the main gear, and installed the training landing gear and also while at it realigned the swash plate and re leveled it using a trick I saw online that uses a credit cart to check and set the swash plate connecting rods at 90 degrees to the main shaft.
With the newly operable gyro, and reset heli I went out for a test flight. I must say that the realignment of the swash plate and the landing gear helped a lot in keeping the heli from getting too far out of control and very little input was necessary to keep it level. However as soon as it took off, it started spinning again. I have a feeling the tail rotor is not centered properly even though to the naked eye it seems pretty close, and even then I would assume the gyro would correct any mis alignments - but it didn't. it also seemed like the gyro was pushing the tail rotor too far off to the left making it bind and stuck in that position which I guess is what led to the final spinning mode.
I'll have to put more attention on centering the tail rotor, and re set the gyro and minimize its effect on the tail rotor to keep it from traveling too far and getting the tail rotor stuck at the far ends of its travel.
back to the workbench for some more tweaking...
Friday, July 22, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Renewed Renewed Beginning: The Gyro is ALIVE!
I had a feeling that taking a break and thinking this over will do some good. To recap - when I tried to fly the heli it would start spinning out of control as soon as it lifted off the ground - as if the gyro was not doing what it's supposed to do which is to keep the heli pointed forward and counter react the spinning forces that are induced by the main rotor.
The gyro is supposed to move the tail servo opposite of where the heli is turning, and a short test I did trying to simulate the helicopter spinning showed that the gyro was not really doing much if anything at all:
Since the heli I'm building is made of different parts from different vendors, there really isn't a 'manual' that I could go through so more research was due in. I searched online for setting up 'a' Gyro with the transmitter that I have, and found out that there are additional configuration settings that needed to be done in order to utilize some of the gyro functionality - aka - making it do what I was counting it to do. after adding those settings which added heading hold mode by mixing one of the knobs on the transmitter with channel 5 (the gyro gain control channel) I was finally able to raise the gain on the gyro and actually make it functional:
While the uploaded quality of the videos leaves a lot to be desired, you should be able to clearly hear the difference as the tail servo is quite active after the change and is responding very well to all tail movements.
This is a setting that was missing from the videos I was following, and was not really explained in detail which lead me to miss it all together. a pricy lesson, but at least there is some hope. So I ordered replacement main gears (got a few just in case) and hopefully will get those by saturday for some fixing and another test flight hopefully this time around it'll take off as everything does seem to be operational at the moment....
Back in business (I hope)!
The gyro is supposed to move the tail servo opposite of where the heli is turning, and a short test I did trying to simulate the helicopter spinning showed that the gyro was not really doing much if anything at all:
Since the heli I'm building is made of different parts from different vendors, there really isn't a 'manual' that I could go through so more research was due in. I searched online for setting up 'a' Gyro with the transmitter that I have, and found out that there are additional configuration settings that needed to be done in order to utilize some of the gyro functionality - aka - making it do what I was counting it to do. after adding those settings which added heading hold mode by mixing one of the knobs on the transmitter with channel 5 (the gyro gain control channel) I was finally able to raise the gain on the gyro and actually make it functional:
While the uploaded quality of the videos leaves a lot to be desired, you should be able to clearly hear the difference as the tail servo is quite active after the change and is responding very well to all tail movements.
This is a setting that was missing from the videos I was following, and was not really explained in detail which lead me to miss it all together. a pricy lesson, but at least there is some hope. So I ordered replacement main gears (got a few just in case) and hopefully will get those by saturday for some fixing and another test flight hopefully this time around it'll take off as everything does seem to be operational at the moment....
Back in business (I hope)!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Early end?
After finally having all the parts and having everything put together I was excited to make a test flight. I took the heli outside and fired it up. Before lifting from the ground the heli started tilting to the side. I tried to correct that with some input from the transmitter and it started tilting forward So I tried correcting that as well and eventually the heli departed from the ground to the height of 1 inch above ground when the heli started spinning around and crashed.
Bummed out. Not what I was hoping for.
A close inspection revealed the swash plate was not level anymore with zero throttle. Can the servos get out of tune so easily?
I disconnected the swash plate and retrimmed the servos. I then re set the swashplate links as level as I could. To address the spinning out of control issue I also remounted the gyro this time in a different orientation. Originally it was mounted "face" up (labels) with the wire connections in the back. This time around I mounted it face back with connection to the side:
I then took it for another test flight. This time the leveling was much better. Still had to input some corrections, but very minimal. Unfortunately as soon as it lifted off the ground it started spinning out of control again and crashed, this time doing damage to the main gear:
Some of the teeth have been damaged. the motor can still rotate the rotor, but I am skeptical about it's performance abilities at the moment. This damage was added to the previously damage that was done to the blades:
Bummed out. Not what I was hoping for.
A close inspection revealed the swash plate was not level anymore with zero throttle. Can the servos get out of tune so easily?
I disconnected the swash plate and retrimmed the servos. I then re set the swashplate links as level as I could. To address the spinning out of control issue I also remounted the gyro this time in a different orientation. Originally it was mounted "face" up (labels) with the wire connections in the back. This time around I mounted it face back with connection to the side:
I then took it for another test flight. This time the leveling was much better. Still had to input some corrections, but very minimal. Unfortunately as soon as it lifted off the ground it started spinning out of control again and crashed, this time doing damage to the main gear:
Some of the teeth have been damaged. the motor can still rotate the rotor, but I am skeptical about it's performance abilities at the moment. This damage was added to the previously damage that was done to the blades:
At this point I feel that this has been a very expensive failure and waste of time, but because of the expense involved I cannot just let it lie and I feel somewhat obligated to get this to work.
I did some test by connecting power to the heli and inducing sharp movements to the tail (simulating the forces put on my the mail rotor /winds trying to rotate the heli on it's main rotor axis) I was expecting to see some reaction by the gyro to compensate for this, but noticed absolutely nothing. I took the gyro off the heli and manually rotated it and moved it around - it definitely reacted to those movements by moving the rudder, but when placed back on the back of the heli it doesn't exhibit the same reactions even when I induce pretty severe (sharp fast turns) to the heli tail... not sure what's going on here, but I strongly believe that this non functionality of the gyro is what's causing the spinning-out-of-control crash issues and need to resolve this - at this point with no idea how to approach it.
FWIW the gyro is connected to ch4 on the receiver, and the 1 extra wire is connected to ch5, but I have not done any special programming to accommodate for ch5 functionalities. I do have rudder functionalities with the transmitter, and when off the heli as stated above the gyro does seem to exhibit some functionality.
I feel the need to put this 'project' aside for the moment being and clear my mind, perhaps order a new main gear while at it, and some training bars (to help reduce the crash severity hopefully).
very disappointing. I think this is where most people would give up on this and quit. it's just not my thing I've also invested too much in this to just let it go and most importantly - I'm still very much interested in flying helis.
A couple of thoughts come to mind - mainly that the gyro might be setup in reverse and instead of correcting the yaw, adds to it making it worse.... hmmm... I wonder if the main gear is capable enough to stand another trial flight.
Fine print 3: battery connections
I had thought that battery connections were standardized for Helios so I guess I was wrong. The batteries and charger came with appropriate XT60 connections but I did not have an extra male connections to solder on the speed control as it came with bare wires. I ended up ordering a few male connectors from a local eBay seller and had to wait for those before I could treat fly the heli. A delay in the test flight, and an extra expense, but the good side is that those are good connections with solid hold and solid pull (as opposed to banana connection where it's more fragile or you have to pull on the wires and stress the solder).
Friday, July 8, 2011
Fine print 2: tail servo sizing
I suppose I should have picked up on this but I really didn't think of it.
The videos I was following were using the same servo for the tail as the ones for the swash plate but the model that I got has a specific tail servo mount that can only take larger servos with 4 screw mounting holes and the servo that I got is simply too small:
The videos I was following were using the same servo for the tail as the ones for the swash plate but the model that I got has a specific tail servo mount that can only take larger servos with 4 screw mounting holes and the servo that I got is simply too small:
I ended up milling a new mount from UHMW plastic:
Unfortunately i cut the opening too far to the back (or the the front of the heli) so the servo horn is not centered and square to the servo. I may end up remaking this or just get a bigger servo for the the tail if I find this becoming an issue but at the moment the servo seems to perform full movement on the tail rotor which is good:
Onwards and forwards to the next surprise...:)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Blindly following along
I was following 2 videos demonstrating how to build the EXI 450 heli. one from RCMikey.com and the other from hobbypartz.com / xheli.com (shown on the EXI450 page at xheli.com). Since all of this is brand new to me I was trying to understand the principles that were discussed in the videos but was still following along step by step what was shown in the videos. the video from rcmikey uses an older version of the heli so the parts and the locations of the servos didn't really match what I have so I was watching the videos from xheli.com site (the videos, demonstration, and explanations were not as good, but the model they were using is the actual one I have so I was using that as a reference).
what I found best to mount the servos was to take the entire rotor mount off the chassis and work on it like this as it was easier to access all the screws without having to deal with the rest of the heli (this was suggested from xheli.com videos but I took it an extra step forward by actually doing all the calibration and setup while extracted from the heli):
2 Things:
1. Since I was following 2 instructions I kinda mixed things up. I installed the servos based on xhelis videos, but I oriented the servos based on the videos from rcmikey which will lead to a major issue (to be discussed later).
2. I installed the elevator servo (1 in the rear of the rotor) internally as shown on xheli videos which requires accessing the screws from the inside which is not ideal - I already stripped 1 screw and access is very hard. I think mounting it externally would be easier.
Not knowing any better, I accidentally installed the entire thing in reverse and had to unmount and remount the rear elevator servo 3-4 times... so installing it internally was a real drag... but I'm learning.
I then hooked up the transmitter to the PC and programmed the channels to tune the servos positioning to be parallel to the ground:
As you can see I am using mickysrc video as a reference for some things. I then had the servos setup parallel as such:
And I was able to (after installing the rear servo) connect it to the swash plate and mount it back in the heli chassis.
Now as I said earlier I had things mixed up and being a newbie it was not obvious to me at first. After having things put together in the heli I turned on the transmitter and tried to see how the controls work only to find that the swash plate was not moving much, and when it does, it has a very short movement before the servos start binding. What was happening was that I installed the servos with their horns on the bottom which is how it should have been done if using the heli that rcmikey was using, but since I was using a different model with different mounting of the servos, it resulted with the swash plate being too low on the shaft which meant it was bottoming out and not able to have full movement:
I disasssembled the entire thing, and flipped the servos upside down which raised the swash plate to where it needs to be allowing it full movement up and down the shaft:
This also meant that I had to setup the channels controlling those servos on the transmitter to reverse movement as the servos are not "upside down" from their earlier orientation. I realized this after I did a short flight test and noticed the heli would not lift from the ground. a closer inspection made it clear that the pitch of the blades was reversed then needed meaning the servos were causing the heli to pull down when the throttle was pushing upwards making the heli stick to the floor instead of flying upwards.
Lesson learnt: swash plate needs enough clearance for movement, channels should be setup so that pitch is set upwards for flight and all 3 servos move in unison when throttle is raised (all move upwards) if there is inconsistency, reverse that channel to match the others.
On to the next lesson...
what I found best to mount the servos was to take the entire rotor mount off the chassis and work on it like this as it was easier to access all the screws without having to deal with the rest of the heli (this was suggested from xheli.com videos but I took it an extra step forward by actually doing all the calibration and setup while extracted from the heli):
2 Things:
1. Since I was following 2 instructions I kinda mixed things up. I installed the servos based on xhelis videos, but I oriented the servos based on the videos from rcmikey which will lead to a major issue (to be discussed later).
2. I installed the elevator servo (1 in the rear of the rotor) internally as shown on xheli videos which requires accessing the screws from the inside which is not ideal - I already stripped 1 screw and access is very hard. I think mounting it externally would be easier.
Not knowing any better, I accidentally installed the entire thing in reverse and had to unmount and remount the rear elevator servo 3-4 times... so installing it internally was a real drag... but I'm learning.
I then hooked up the transmitter to the PC and programmed the channels to tune the servos positioning to be parallel to the ground:
Now as I said earlier I had things mixed up and being a newbie it was not obvious to me at first. After having things put together in the heli I turned on the transmitter and tried to see how the controls work only to find that the swash plate was not moving much, and when it does, it has a very short movement before the servos start binding. What was happening was that I installed the servos with their horns on the bottom which is how it should have been done if using the heli that rcmikey was using, but since I was using a different model with different mounting of the servos, it resulted with the swash plate being too low on the shaft which meant it was bottoming out and not able to have full movement:
Lesson learnt: swash plate needs enough clearance for movement, channels should be setup so that pitch is set upwards for flight and all 3 servos move in unison when throttle is raised (all move upwards) if there is inconsistency, reverse that channel to match the others.
On to the next lesson...
Fine Print #1: Power! Need More Power!
I had a feeling building a heli from parts as opposed to getting a prebuilt model would have it's "you should have read the fine print" issues, but was somewhat hoping it wouldn't. well - it did.
For someone that has been flying helis these things may be obvious, and some may have already been addressed in previous builds, but for me as a newcomer with no experience or knowledge of what to expect these were surprising and had to be figured out, and I guess this is the downside, and the upside as well as this is my lessons.
And so, my first thought was after getting the remainder of the parts including the batteries was to charge the batteries while I focus on building the heli. This way when I am done with the build, I can plug the (now charged) batteries and test things out. So far so good except I did NOT read the fine print when I order things and the charger requires a 12VDC 5A input. I did read the 12VDC requirement when I ordered it and I figured I could use any of the extra 12VDC power adapters I have laying around. What I did not think through was the 5A requirement. The most I had was a 2A power adapter at home meaning that it would not be able to supply the charger with enough current over time. I figured I'll try to set the charger to charger slowly so it wouldn't require so much amperage, but that did not seem to work as even setting it to charge slower then possible ended up overheating the power adapter which left it useless.
bummer.
I looked at local stores such as radioshack and none had any power adapters that could handle a 5A output unless I was going to buy a $90 power adapter which I really didn't want to. I ended up searching online for what other people use to power up LiPo (Lithium Poly) battery chargers and found out that someone used their computer power adapter for it as it does provide 12VDC to the harddrives. I went home and opened up my old PC which has not been in use for the last 10 years and confirmed that it can handle 45A+ on 12VDC.
So this is how I'll charge the batteries for the time being:
In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I should have purchased a charger that has dual inputs for DC, AND AC so that I could just plug it to a wall outlet and be done with it, at least for a 1st charger, but since I AM able to charge the batteries, I'll stick with this charger as it does work well for me (as far as I can tell)
Stay tuned for other fine prints that I missed... ;)
For someone that has been flying helis these things may be obvious, and some may have already been addressed in previous builds, but for me as a newcomer with no experience or knowledge of what to expect these were surprising and had to be figured out, and I guess this is the downside, and the upside as well as this is my lessons.
And so, my first thought was after getting the remainder of the parts including the batteries was to charge the batteries while I focus on building the heli. This way when I am done with the build, I can plug the (now charged) batteries and test things out. So far so good except I did NOT read the fine print when I order things and the charger requires a 12VDC 5A input. I did read the 12VDC requirement when I ordered it and I figured I could use any of the extra 12VDC power adapters I have laying around. What I did not think through was the 5A requirement. The most I had was a 2A power adapter at home meaning that it would not be able to supply the charger with enough current over time. I figured I'll try to set the charger to charger slowly so it wouldn't require so much amperage, but that did not seem to work as even setting it to charge slower then possible ended up overheating the power adapter which left it useless.
bummer.
I looked at local stores such as radioshack and none had any power adapters that could handle a 5A output unless I was going to buy a $90 power adapter which I really didn't want to. I ended up searching online for what other people use to power up LiPo (Lithium Poly) battery chargers and found out that someone used their computer power adapter for it as it does provide 12VDC to the harddrives. I went home and opened up my old PC which has not been in use for the last 10 years and confirmed that it can handle 45A+ on 12VDC.
So this is how I'll charge the batteries for the time being:
A bit messy, but does the job. I may at some point reconfigure that PC for RC purposes, and set it with the configuration software for the radio transmitter, and set a pair of power connections on the chassis so that I can easily connect the charger without having to open up the PC case.
For what its worth, I found the Turnigy Accucell 6 to be calibrated properly out of the box, and it did a good job charging the batteries at 4Amps with the now powerful enough power source:
In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I should have purchased a charger that has dual inputs for DC, AND AC so that I could just plug it to a wall outlet and be done with it, at least for a 1st charger, but since I AM able to charge the batteries, I'll stick with this charger as it does work well for me (as far as I can tell)
Stay tuned for other fine prints that I missed... ;)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Renew Beginning
Just before I was a teen I used to build balsa gliders, and just started getting into RC gliders and order my (back then) first and expensive radio setup (transmitter, receiver and 3 servos) when teenagehood happened and my focus was pulled to other things. I always wanted to get back into this field, but never quite made it. Until now.
Among my RC interests (gliders, planes, jets, boats, cars) was always helicopters. I am very intrigued by the complex physics involved in those machines. A good book that I found at the library is "Radio Control Model Helicopter Handbook" by Don Lodge that really dwells down into the physics of the blades (higher speed and forces acting towards the further parts of the blade from the rotors creating variable forces along the blades for example). It may be a bit much for someone just wanting to fly a helicopter, but for those interested in the details I think it's a fantastic book (older book).
And so, I decided it's time I pushed myself back into the RC world and stopped just wishing I was in it. Being a hobby woodworker, and a hobby machinist I also have the tools and materials needed to build, mod, upgrade, and later create anything I think or require.
I looked around available RC helis and decided that I wanted something bigger than the micro models available in toy stores, malls, etc, but still want to go with electric motor as it is quitter and can be used indoor. I have good faith in my abilities to pick up skills and will form a training plan and wanted a heli that I can grow with while at the same time keep the expense somewhat reasonable. All this lead me to decide to go with a 450 sized heli, and after finding and following MikeysRCs fantastic youtube videos showing how to build a 450 helicopter I was set to follow a similar build myself.
I ordered the EXI450 from xheli.com plus a 3500kV motor and the 2.4Ghz remote control and the rest of the electronics (servos, esc,gyro,batteries, charger) from hobbyking.com since they were much much cheaper per part then others. I must say, I was very pleased with xheli.com for their fast shipping and the parts look great. I am still awaiting the parts from hobbyking.com that for some reason took 4 days to process the order after it was paid for. also the shipping from hk was insane and after the fact that the order was shipped, I found out that if I order the same things from hobbypartz.com even though the parts themselves would cost a bit more, the free shipping from hobbypartz.com would end up saving me $20, and it's from the US so shipping would end up being faster as well. oh well, you live, and learn. tomorrow the rest of the parts will arrive, and I'm hoping all will be well.
I somewhat followed MikeysRCs recommendations for parts as I have no experience nor vast knowledge in the field and I tried to use the cheaper parts that had good reviews by other users which ended up being very similar to what is suggested in the above mentioned videos.
Here is what I got:
1 x EXI 450 Carbon Fiber kit (chassis, blades, canopy)
1 x exceed 3500kV motor ~19A
1 x FlySky 2.4Ghz radio system (transmitter,receiver) PC configurable via USB
1 x Turnigy 30A plush esc (Electronic Speed Controller)
1 x Turnigy Gyro
4 x HTX9000 9gr servos (0.12s speed)
2 x Blue Lipo batteries 11.1v 2200mAh 20C
1 x Turnigy Lipo charger
The way I see it, if the motor requires 19A current, the 30A esc can handle it, and as such the 2200mAh 20C battery should be able to handle that in turn (can handle a 44A load (2200/1000*20)) and should last ~6min flight time per battery, which is why I got 2 to start with.
If anyone is looking for the software for the transmitter hobbyking.com has it for download on the transmitter part page at the time of this posting.
While waiting for the servos/gyro/esx/batteries I decided to do what I can in the mean time. First I took each screw on the chassis that screws into metal counterpart, and added blue locktite to keep it from coming loose in flight. I did the same for the screws in the main and tail rotor and I did encounter a couple of screws that I could not undo. I decided that if those screws are so tight that I cannot undo them, they will probably sustain the vibrations of the flights, and if not - I'll deal with them when they come loose as opposed to stripping their heads off now with excessive force.
I also mounted the landing gear, the boom supports, and the flybars and noticed that those were different than what MikeyRCs video shows. I guess I got a different EXI version than he was using in his videos.
The fist difference was the landing gear, in the videos the landing gears are made of multiple parts and screw to the chassis of the heli using 4 screws. my version uses a single molded landing gear part that mounts to the chassis using only 2 screws and some alignment bars.
2nd difference was with the boom support. I did not have an extra hole in the chassis to mount those to, and after checking xheli.com pages to verify I followed what I saw in their pictures and mounted it using an already existing screws that hold the chassis to the mounting bar that the landing gear mounts to:
The 3rd difference I noticed (so far) was with the flybars and the weights. the flybars that I have seem to have mounting holes that the weights fit into them as opposed to having the weights somewhere on the rod:
This does 2 things: 1 it keeps both weights at the same distance from the rotor, so as long as the rod is centered the weights should be level as well although there is no way of bringing the weights closer to the rotor and change their effect (ok I guess you COULD do that if you placed them out of the flybars). and #2 is that by locking the weights it also locks the flybars in place so they cannot rotate around the bar or come loose. I kinda like this, but then again - maybe I don't know enough to know better. time will tell.
So here is my work area while referencing MikeysRCs video to make sure I don't forget anything:
Oh, and I also installed the motor while at it... now just waiting for the rest of the electronics before I start configuring the transmitter accordingly.
I'm trying to see if it's worth writing an application for Mac to control/configure the RC transmitter, but more then likely I'll just laze out and fine a windows PC to run the provided windows app on.
Thanks for reading,
Peace!
Among my RC interests (gliders, planes, jets, boats, cars) was always helicopters. I am very intrigued by the complex physics involved in those machines. A good book that I found at the library is "Radio Control Model Helicopter Handbook" by Don Lodge that really dwells down into the physics of the blades (higher speed and forces acting towards the further parts of the blade from the rotors creating variable forces along the blades for example). It may be a bit much for someone just wanting to fly a helicopter, but for those interested in the details I think it's a fantastic book (older book).
And so, I decided it's time I pushed myself back into the RC world and stopped just wishing I was in it. Being a hobby woodworker, and a hobby machinist I also have the tools and materials needed to build, mod, upgrade, and later create anything I think or require.
I looked around available RC helis and decided that I wanted something bigger than the micro models available in toy stores, malls, etc, but still want to go with electric motor as it is quitter and can be used indoor. I have good faith in my abilities to pick up skills and will form a training plan and wanted a heli that I can grow with while at the same time keep the expense somewhat reasonable. All this lead me to decide to go with a 450 sized heli, and after finding and following MikeysRCs fantastic youtube videos showing how to build a 450 helicopter I was set to follow a similar build myself.
I ordered the EXI450 from xheli.com plus a 3500kV motor and the 2.4Ghz remote control and the rest of the electronics (servos, esc,gyro,batteries, charger) from hobbyking.com since they were much much cheaper per part then others. I must say, I was very pleased with xheli.com for their fast shipping and the parts look great. I am still awaiting the parts from hobbyking.com that for some reason took 4 days to process the order after it was paid for. also the shipping from hk was insane and after the fact that the order was shipped, I found out that if I order the same things from hobbypartz.com even though the parts themselves would cost a bit more, the free shipping from hobbypartz.com would end up saving me $20, and it's from the US so shipping would end up being faster as well. oh well, you live, and learn. tomorrow the rest of the parts will arrive, and I'm hoping all will be well.
I somewhat followed MikeysRCs recommendations for parts as I have no experience nor vast knowledge in the field and I tried to use the cheaper parts that had good reviews by other users which ended up being very similar to what is suggested in the above mentioned videos.
Here is what I got:
1 x EXI 450 Carbon Fiber kit (chassis, blades, canopy)
1 x exceed 3500kV motor ~19A
1 x FlySky 2.4Ghz radio system (transmitter,receiver) PC configurable via USB
1 x Turnigy 30A plush esc (Electronic Speed Controller)
1 x Turnigy Gyro
4 x HTX9000 9gr servos (0.12s speed)
2 x Blue Lipo batteries 11.1v 2200mAh 20C
1 x Turnigy Lipo charger
The way I see it, if the motor requires 19A current, the 30A esc can handle it, and as such the 2200mAh 20C battery should be able to handle that in turn (can handle a 44A load (2200/1000*20)) and should last ~6min flight time per battery, which is why I got 2 to start with.
If anyone is looking for the software for the transmitter hobbyking.com has it for download on the transmitter part page at the time of this posting.
While waiting for the servos/gyro/esx/batteries I decided to do what I can in the mean time. First I took each screw on the chassis that screws into metal counterpart, and added blue locktite to keep it from coming loose in flight. I did the same for the screws in the main and tail rotor and I did encounter a couple of screws that I could not undo. I decided that if those screws are so tight that I cannot undo them, they will probably sustain the vibrations of the flights, and if not - I'll deal with them when they come loose as opposed to stripping their heads off now with excessive force.
I also mounted the landing gear, the boom supports, and the flybars and noticed that those were different than what MikeyRCs video shows. I guess I got a different EXI version than he was using in his videos.
The fist difference was the landing gear, in the videos the landing gears are made of multiple parts and screw to the chassis of the heli using 4 screws. my version uses a single molded landing gear part that mounts to the chassis using only 2 screws and some alignment bars.
2nd difference was with the boom support. I did not have an extra hole in the chassis to mount those to, and after checking xheli.com pages to verify I followed what I saw in their pictures and mounted it using an already existing screws that hold the chassis to the mounting bar that the landing gear mounts to:
So here is my work area while referencing MikeysRCs video to make sure I don't forget anything:
I'm trying to see if it's worth writing an application for Mac to control/configure the RC transmitter, but more then likely I'll just laze out and fine a windows PC to run the provided windows app on.
Thanks for reading,
Peace!
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