More RC

Well I bought something to keep me going while I fix my heli. I bought a Nitro stadium truck and it's sick!! I got the Traxxas Jato 3.3. This truck screams. I does 0-60 in about 4 seconds and tops out at 65 MPH. I am really lovin' this on my lunch break. I had previously tried to fly the T-Rex during lunch at the RC airfield near my work but I found it too windy(near the beach). So now I can rip around the parking lots with the Jato instead. Did I forget to mention that it will do a wheelie @ 40MPH while throwing a rooster tail of dirt. Smokin!




Money into the Jato pit:

$549 for kit batteries fuel and tools @ LHS

T-Rex - Crashed again

So I went to my personal field, the cemetary, to get in a couple of flights and was surprised to find a bunch of people burying someone in my field...bummer. I decided to go to a different location to fly. The other location was different in that there was no flat surface to take off from. I tried it anyway and you can guess the rest. I think I got some grass caught up in the tail rotor or something. Needless to say I crashed again. The crash wasn't that bad I had all of the parts to fix the problem but I am still re-setting up my head. I am still struggling with getting equal positive and negative pitch on the blades. Anyway the saga continues.





Crash analysis:

2 dented blades but still useable
bent flybar
bent feathering shaft
bent main shaft
main gear shredded

T-Rex - Still tweaking

The T-Rex is still kicking. I have been flying as much as I can which isn't much due to how late I get home from work and how early it has been getting dark. I made some changes to the setup: First off I moved up to the 13 tooth pinion gear (the gear on the motor) this gives me more head speed, and creates more stable flight characteristics. I also bought some more batteries and 2 sets of "Gorilla Gear" landing gear, the stock landing gear is a joke and is very brittle. I also bought a digital caliper and a new Align hex wrench.




Money In the Pit

$138 batteries and Gear from RcHover
$10 Calipers from Harbor freight

Total so far: $1826.20

T-Rex - First crash

I finally crashed it! I m not a virgin any more. I totally dumb thumbed it right into the ground. With all the time I put into the build I didn't have time to fly on the sim and it shows. I have since made it a policy to fly every night regardless! I am about ready to get rid of the training gear, I know I can fly without them, I was just trying to protect my investment.

Crash Analysis:
Feathering shaft
Fly bar
Main Shaft
Main gear,
Landing gear
Pro Wood blades

I had most of the parts except for the landing gear, main shaft, and main gear. My LHS had everything I needed. The actual cost of the crash wasn't that bad... maybe $25, but I bought some extra parts that I know I will need for future crashes.

Here is a video of the crash http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1279739640755098434&hl=en

I will be adding more pictures soon, my friggin server is not liking my usb 2.0 card and I am too impatient to transfer pictures @ usb 1.1 speeds.

Money in the pit:

$89.00 various parts from Hobbytown USA

Total so far:
$1678.20

T-Rex - First flight

Well I got the heli in the air. The first flight was unremarkable in that it was just to see if everything was trimmed just right. I had to adjust a few of the links so that the heli wouldn't drift in any particular direction. I also found out that I had the rudder servo reversed...that means that the rudder input was backwards. Servo reversing is very easy to fix, you just go into the reverse settings on the radio and reverse that channel. Problem solved. I also decreased the negative pitch to -1 degree at low stick. The negative pitch set to -1 allows for a beginner (me) to have some room for error in the event of a panic low stick and prevents the pilot from slamming the heli into the ground. I have a video of my second flight. It is just another test flight.

My server crashed, therefore I had to rebuild my OS partition. I lost all of my heli pics as they were in my www root directory. I am getting good at installing and configuring exchange server... which is a good thing.

Here is the video link.....more to follow.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2517156347215222977&hl=en

T-Rex - Final Steps

The last steps involve programming the ESC, Setting up the gyro for heading hold, and creating throttle and pitch curves in the radio. To setup the ESC you must have the throttle stick in low position before you power the heli, once you do this you hear a series of beeps that indicate to the user which settings they have. I will not go into what all mean. One of the coolest things about this setup is the Gyroscope. The Gyro automatically adjusts the pitch of the tail rotors to compensate for the change in heading. So, whithout any stick input from me, if I move the tail to the right the tail pitch compensated by itself, and then when the movement stops the pitch returns to center. Is cooler than it sounds. I am not going to try and explain throttle curves.

Here is a quick little vid of my bird.

Money in the pit:
$56.85 Parts and tools from Readyheli.com


Total so far $1589.20

T-Rex - Tuning the head

Well after waiting around for that receiver crystal (no not Dilithium)to show up in the mail and driving all over Connecticut looking for one, I had the brilliant idea to try the crystals from my other copter and guess what! they worked!! yeah so All in all it was a good thing because it gave me time to paint the canopies.

Ok, so the next step in the build process is to setup the servos, control arms and links to make the head operate properly and to allow the bird to fly smoothly. What a frigging pain in the Ass! It took me 2+ days to do this and I am still not completely satisfied. I will try to explain this process but I may not make sense. Ok the servo moves the linkages to the swashplate and that in turn changes the attitude of the helicopter. The linkages also control the pitch of the blades ot either increase or decrease the rate of climb. The trick to this head setup is to get all of the links to work together and control the heli. Lets just say it sounds easier than it is. I was cooked after this step, but I trudged on.

T-Rex - Canopy painting

Well I am waiting for the crystal for my receiver, it still didn't come in the mail. I was impatient so I drove up to 2 of my local hobby stores looking for that crystal..no luck. I did however buy some supplies to paint my canopy. I grabbed some primer and couple of bottles of airbrush paint and some datail masking tape 1/8" in width.

I had already trimmed the canopy flashing that is left over from the molding process. The next step is to scuff the surface with steel wool, or scotchbrite. Once the surface was scuffed I wiped it down with alcohol to remove the dust, I applied 2 coats of grey primer and let dry. I then wet sanded with 600 grit sandpaper. Now for the fun stuff. I happen to have an air brush and compressor so that was money I didn't have to spend. I applied a basr coat of yellow/green pearl and let that dry. I then followed up with a teal pearl fade from the nose forward and up the center. I am no pro with the airbrush but I am pleased with the result. Tomorrow I will be sealing it with multiple coats of clear so that it shines. I might try some accents with the airbrush prior to the clear if I can get the airbrush tuned properly.



Money in the pit

$38.75 Paints and supplies from Hobbytown
$39.69 color shift paints from Countdown Hobbies

sub total: $78.44

Total so far: $1532.39

T-Rex - Tail servo and boom install

I finally received my Futaba 7CHP radio in the mail on Wednesday. In a previous post I mentioned that I am a dumbass, well would you believe that the only thing that I need is that receiver crystal that I ordered before I ordered my Radio....Grrrrr. A $12 part is preventing me from trimming this bad boy and getting it in the air. Oh well it's in the mail on it's way. Lesson learned.

As the title of this post states I will show you some pics and and a brief summary of how my tail servo install went. Well as I have stated before the instruction manual sucks. It never makes mention of how to install the tail servo, so I had to call on the experts at helifreaks.com. My tail servo is the Futaba s9650, it works great with the futaba GY401 Gyro and both are the best for the tail setup for the T-Rex.

The general idea for the proper setup of the tail servo is to have servo arm, in this case the servo disc, be in line with the pushrod race that is built into the horizontal tail fin mount and the tail pitch ball link. (I know that was a mouthfull) In order to do this the servo needs to be on an angle. The orientation of the servo mounts themselves is very important as if you have them upside down the servo horn is too far away from the boom. It took me quite a few tries to get it right. One more note, I used the supplied rubber grommits and metal sleeves with the mount screws that came with the kit.