bryon261

IDID NOT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS TAKING MY HUB OFF THE SHAFT. IF YOU HAVE TO DRILL MAYBE YOU BENT THE SCREW. TOWER HOBBIES HAS A PARTS LIST , CLICK ON THE HUB YOU GET A GOOD LOOK AT IT. THE SHAFT IS FLAT OR MACHINED FLAT ON ONE SIDE IT GOES INTO THE HUB ABOUT A 1/4 INCH. IF YOU CAN'T GET IT OUT. TAKE THE SCREW OUT OF THE GEAR,THERE IS A RETAINING COLLAR THAT HAS TO BE LOOSENED AS WELL THAT HOLDS THE SHAFT IN PLACE. TRY TAKING THE HOLE ASSEMBLY OUT THAT WAY. TAKE IT EASY , I FOUND THAT THE GEAR WAS HARD TO COME OFF THE SHAFT. I'M REPLACING MY SHAFT AND GEAR AS WELL. PARTS ARE PRETTY CHEAP. I LOOKED AT THE CNC PARTS ALUMINIUM, I'M NOT GOING TO SPEND $240.00. THAT MORE THAN I PAYED FOR THE HELI. I CAN REBUILD THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY MANY TIMES OVER BEFORE IT COMES CLOSE THAT PRICE..I'LL LET YOU KNOW HOW IT TURNS OUT

Heli Bat

the part that I am having problems getting out is the LXNWH4 Heli-Max Head Bolt & Nut Axe CP. My LHS said that they got in some more parts, so I will try and see if they can get me this before I start to drill. Other than that I have a wish list set up in Tower in case I just need to order a whole set of replacements. I think it would be great if I could prebuild just the rotor. Then I can change out the entire rotor if I need to. You are right about the CNC parts.

Heli Bat

bryon261

hey got my parts today... replaced main shaft,gear,and hub,and it still wobbles! i'm starting to get alittle pissed. i should have bought a falcon. i'm going to call tech support on monday and *****. i can't even get the main blade grips off the old hub and the allen wrench they sent with the heli stipped out pretty easy. hey does your gear wobble as well when throttle up ?.... mines does even after i replaced all parts.

Heli Bat

Man - this is strange. I hate to hear that you replaced everything and it still wobbles. Yep, I think a call to tech support would be in order. I don't know anything about the falcon.

Heli Bat

PilotLight

My Feedback: (1)

Have you checked your blades' balance?

My Heli has a little vibration which shows up mostly in the antenna and the training gear balls. These things are mounted at the end of a long "flexible" plastic tube or carbon rod, so any vibration will be amplified. Unless its damaging my heli, I'll just fly it. When I finally have to replace some parts, then I'll start to look for the vibration or out-of-balance part.

dfalcon

My Feedback: (76)

I got my new shaft Thursday, and as I expected, it didn't make any difference. I've still been flying at least 2 batteries a day since the new shaft got here. Today, I was on my second battery, kinda feeling like I should land in another minute or two and go charge the batteries. The heli was two feet off the ground about 10 feet away when it happened. The whole head assembly flew about 5 feet into the air, while the rest of the heli flipped over sideways and landed upsidedown in the snow. I hit the throttle hold on my 9C and picked up the pieces. Before I inspected anything, I thought that something like that would happen if I forgot to put the retaining screw back into the center hub. But nope, the center hub itself broke right above where the main shaft ends. And, surpisingly enough, the center hub is the only piece broken. The flybar links popped off the swashplate without breaking any ball links, and the blade grips even survived to my complete relief. Everything landed in about 6" of soft snow, so nothing was broken on impact. The canopy did end up partially packed with snow, and it was causing some radio glitching. Hopefully replacing the hub will eliminate or reduce the vibration, but I'm a little doubtful of that happening.

I also noticed today that the tail is beginning to wiggle side-to-side a little. This would indicate to me that the gyro gain needs to be turned down. But since it's been fine until now, is it a sign that the tail motor is already going out?

Heliko

Hey Falcon,

Where you getting excessive vibration at the time the tail was wagging? I ask because when I bent my mainshaft the vibration caused tail wag in my bird as the gyro kept pulsing the tail motor to keep it straight.
Anyway I just I'd thought I'd throw that out there, and sorry to hear about the hub failure.

dfalcon

My Feedback: (76)

No, the tail was wagging while the heli was in the air at higher headspeeds when the vibration is no longer noticeable. But I imagine there is some interaction between the 3-in-1 and vibrations that are too high frequency to discern.

Heliko

Actually the tail wagging happened to me while the heli was hovering in the air, and I did try to adjust gyro gain, but it didn't work. You could also hear the tail motor pulsing which threw me a little at first.

Heli Bat

I had heard from someone that you have to unplug the battery, then make the adjustment to Gyro before it would take effect. Has anyone actually confirmed this. It sure would be nice to be able to adjust this while you are bringing it down without having to unplug the battery. Reason: it would be nice(er) to have some holes drilled in the canopy that would line up with the Gyro adjustments. Bring the machine down on ground quicky make the adjustment and try again. Now, what I have to take the canopy off yada yada -

Heli Bat

Heliko

I don't think that you'd want to drill holes in the canopy because after it's trimmed you shouldn't have to mess with it anymore. I just made the adjustments without the canopy.

I also tested the unplug-to-adjust theory. It's not true. What I did was unplug the positive on the main motor, plug in the battery, let it initialize, then run the throttle up till the tail rotor just comes on. After that I increased the tail rotor trim and the tail rotor increased in speed.

In my experience with trim on this heli the Tail Rotor Trim is more critical than Gyro Gain. This is what I did.

Left/Right Bias- I didn't adjust this because it seemed OK, but I believe it adjusts the deceleration of the tail rotor so it doesn't just snap the nose to the left went you yaw to the left. ( just in case anyone was wondering)

Gyro Gain- I left the main motor unplugged and put the throttle up, but not quite enough to engage the tail motor. Then I rotated the heli counterclockwise smoothly simulating main rotor torque. I adjusted it so that the tail motor comes on smoothly but isn't too sensitive as to be set off by small movements. If I did make it that sensitive I figure it would cause the "tail wag" they mention in the manual. I wasn't too critical with it because of what the manual said.

Tail Rotor Trim- The important thing about this is it only works in a hover and not while the heli is on the ground. Also if you spin up the blades quickly the TRT will not compensate you'd have to put in some right pedal so to speak. This is trial and error. Get it into a fairly stable hover the see how far to the right you have too hold the tail rotor control. You want to get it as centered as possible. You also want to center the trim on the TX before the final adjustments because after you get it close the final adjustments will be made with the TX trim and the canopy installed. BTW I believe increase is counter clockwise.

This may be an unorthodox method, but it worked for me and I hope others will find it useful.

Lastly if you use this method always double check to be sure the main motor is unplugged if required for adjustment and always, always be aware of where the tail rotor is because once the throttle is engaged it could go on at anytime since motion triggers it.

Heli Bat

HeliKo
Thanks for your suggestions. I want to try this. I really wish you could go a step further and take a picture of your Gyro Board Settings. This is only for curiosity sakes.

Thanks (if you can manage this) - I am wondering if you had your AXE in some type of clamp or something. Did you just have the AXE free standing on a table when you did these adjustments? I have a clamp that I am thinking about putting mine in. I am waiting for my tail rotor parts to come in so that I can put mine back to gether again.

Heli Bat

Heliko

Hey Heli Bat I would like take a pic for ya, but unfortunely I don't have a digital camera []. Actually though I'm not sure a pic would help because I unknowingly made final adjustments with a slightly bent mainshaft so they may be a bit off. Live and learn I guess.

To answer your next question, I didn't use a vise. For Gyro Gain the heli had to be free so I could rotate it, and for Tail Rotor Trim which took longer I had to hover it, adjust it, hover it, adjust it, etc.

I did utilize a different trim method then the manual. It says to make small progressive adjustments till you get to the proper trim and this works okay for GG(mainly because it doesn't seem to critical), but for TRT this method is like a watched pot. Instead, I use big adjustments at first so I can see the contrast then gradually use smaller adjustments to zero in on the best setting. I don't know if it's better, but it works for me.
I will also say TRT trim is more of a challenge because on top of everything else you have to get it into a fairly stable hover for a good adjustment.

BTW on a totally unrelated subject did you ever own a Tamiya Frog? It was my first real RC car and everytime I see your sig I can't help, but think of it.

Anyway Good luck!

Heli Bat

Well, (so far) I have never owned an RC Car. I don't remember when I started using that phrase. I think along time ago I would use that phrase from time to time. Thanks again for your Gyro adjustments theories. When I get mine all put back together again, I will try those.

Heli Bat

outtamyway

This is probably aready common knowledge so forgive me if I am throwing elementary stuff out here... I read somewhere that recommended modifying a light lazy susan, seems like rubbermaid was the brand, to hold the heli while fine tuning gyros, proportionals, and yaw trims. I haven't tried it but it seems like a good idea. I must have gone through 2 batteries trying to get the proportion on my Blade CP set up today. It sure would have been quicker with the Lazy Susan.

Heli Bat

Now that is a thought. I wonder how to attach the AXE to it.

JJP9398

Heliko,

I had a frog for my first RC car. Then a Turbo Optma, Baja King, Nitro RC-10. Bringing back childhood memories.

Heliko

Hey JJP9398 it does bring back memories doesn't it. Ahh, the good ol' days.

JJP9398

You said it. I remember begging my dad to take me to the hobby shop to buy parts for the frog because something was all ways stripping out on that thing. Now I have to beg my wife to let me go to the hobby shop to buy helicopter parts. I guess everythig goes around full circle

CAT POwer

My Feedback: (61)

Hi, I also had a wobbiling center hub/head at mid RPM's.kinda went away at high head speed. I took everything apart and checked and checked I was so focused on the main-shaft area that.. out of balance ect ect . I just took a quick look at the Feathering Spindle and went on. After not finding anything I started to check each piece very close.
I found that my Feathering Spindle was bent.. I had to roll it on a mirror to see it. Changed out the Feathering Spindle and my wobble is gone. I'm still on the orginal blades but they show no damage/scratch ..so you can bent the Feathering Spindle without breaking anything else. Let us know if anybody else had this happen.
Manfred

Heliko

Hey Manfred,

This happened to me too. However in my case the heli's mainshaft bent without damaging the blades. When I ordered a new mainshaft I actually ordered a feathering spindle too. Just in case.

Heli Bat

CAT Power, this is very interesting too. I had ordered a feathering spindle to have on hand as a spare, but I hate to say that I haven't had the time to research what this part does. I need to look this up. I have been so busy lately that I have not had the time to spend on the AXE. My parts came in yesterday, so I need to start rebuilding the machine.

Heliko

Hey Heli Bat,

You know what the Feathering Spindle is. It's the shaft that the blade grips mount on.

Heli Bat

Oh Ok ! thanks for pointing that out to me.

Heli Bat

Heli Bat

Ok, since I started this post, I want to inform everyone that I have a very bad bent Feathering shaft or whatever you call it that runs down the middle of both of the Blade Grips. I also have slightly warped Flybars.

I had to grind the Main Head Bolt out of the Center Hub to get everything out of the way so that I could finally work on the main rotor. I can say two things about this machine. 1) (cheap) aluminum, 2) some poor contruction from Factory - rush jobs 3)way too much loctite or even superglue used on parts.

They most absolutely need to make the main shaft out of something else. That shaft can be scratched just by looking at it. The bushings used with the main shaft should not be aluminum either.

In their defense, I guess they are trying to keep the cost down vs profet margin, but please Heli Max, if you are listening, I would not have minded paying an extra few bucks for just a little wee more quality.

I should have just bought another AXE and used the one I have now for over all spare parts. But I wanted to learn ALL about Helicopters. Not just wanting to learn to fly, but to really learn about them. In the grand scheme of things, I guess I am still satisfied - as opposed to me racking a $700 machine up against a tree and getting parts for it !!!