Edmund2

Re-built complete will try a startup on Saturday. Now I do know how to take a 550 apart and put it back together again. Just need to plug the motor back in as I was not taking any chances getting those blades turning. Will to tracting at the field but all moves and reacts OK.

Edmund 

Ddaddy

Gents, check out vidy over on hfhttp://www.helifreak.com/showthread....52#post4975452. The vidy itself is just cool and this guy can fly! I've watched at 4:31 several times and can not see where/how it goes inverted...and it's a big bird!

ahamay

The Chinese are cloning them as we speak

rikybob

I got the alert from AMAIN yesterday but I ignored it as usual. Interesting product but I'm afraid that it would be lost on my particular skill set.

Jonesy however.....

b

Ddaddy

Oh yea, I agree on the product, lost on me too! Just thought the vidy was well done (I never see the elephant in the room

Ddaddy

IRS admits to TARGETING conservatives for tax scrutiny!  And apologize!  Seriously!

pushinoldrc

My Feedback: (46)

I had always figured they were, it just amazes me that they actually admitted it.

mnemennth

Ddaddy -

I watched it several times too; the only time I've ever seen a heli do that was my Bats**t Crazy Genius CP; and it jumped right at my face!


Bob -


AMEN! I'll be happy if I ever get to the point of doing inverted (on purpose); I'll dance a jig if I ever get to the point fo doing Tic-Tocs...



mnem
Yes, I get the irony.

Ddaddy

Happy Mother's Day Everyone,

May your Mother's warmth be in your heart and mind today.

Best,
Ken

Edmund2

Went to the field over the weekend with a bit of gloomy weather to try my rebuilt 550 out. Tail was wagging but the experts at the club dialed in the settings and it then behaved as it should. Kept it very high and I only dropped below 20 meters when I came in to land. 

So much easier to fly than a CP or the mCPX not to mention seeing it more clearly.

Hope to get some more time in on Saturday and with winter closing in hope the winds are mild and flyable. Have to do my "solo" test at the club which will legally allow me to fly in "suitable" open spaces.

Edmund  

rikybob

Hiya Edmund!

Enjoying vacation and weekends off for a month on this end!

I haven't been flying in some weeks!

Glad you got your bird dialed in and are taking advantage of the club as the technicle expertise you will get is secondary to the GREAT comraderie!

Yah, keeping the bird two mistakes high IS the way to go!!!

Camping out on my last weekend off!

All the best to you and yours!


b

mnemennth

[EDIT]

I just got an eMail from HeliDirect letting me know about this sale; I dunno if it's really as good a deal as they make it sound, since I don't know what the street price on this kit is. But I know there are a number of 500+ class fliers in here, and here's a genuine Align 500E Combo Kit for under $400:

http://helidirect.com/align-t-rex-50...DDEALALERT-515


[/EDIT]


Also, I dunno who else in here tinkers with the FRSky Telemetry-capable radio gear, but I figured I'd pass this along here as I have elsewhere:

HK Heads-Up... FRSky Telemetry Modules back in stock!

That pretty much covers it... those of us who've been waiting for the FRSky DIY & JR-Compatible modules - they're in stock again at HobbyKing & showing 10+ at the moment; who knows how many they actually have. Maybe 100, maybe 12.



mnem
Good hunting!

pushinoldrc

My Feedback: (46)

I just got the notification. I like the FrSky stuff, have been flying with it in a JR XP7202 for over a year now. Ihave a newbe at the field that is having me convert a long antena JR 6102 to FrSky for him. I sold him on the price of the recievers...around $20 USD each.
I have not tried the telemetry yet, but the guy that does our video is tinkering with it coupled with the Turnigy 9XR open source firmware designed for the FrSky telemetry information. It seems the system would be ok without any additional stuff mounted to the transmitter, and so I like the idea of the 9XR, I just don't like the radio.
Bryan

mnemennth

I'm not a big fan of the gimbals in the 9XR; I think the half-worn plastic bushing gimbals in my old 9X are better overall, though I also think my bottom-of-the-line Walkera Devo 7 has better gimbals than either of them. Don't get me wrong, they're passable quality; no worse than the DX6i. They just AREN'Tthe "full ball-bearing gimbals" we were promised.

I use the 9X/9XR BECAUSEof er9x and because of the simplicity of swapping out modules to control almost ANYTHING. Right now I have Modules for Genuine Spektrum DSM2, Orange DSM2/DSMX, Turnigy/Flysky, Tactic AnyLink, and now FRSky Telemetry on the way, all built into the the Spektrum SPM6718 integrated Air Module cases:





These are swappable between my 9X & 9XR, and my 9X has the telemetry mod & firmware which allows me to see the telemetry data right on the TX LCD screen. I'll probably do the same mods on my 9XR once I have the module built.

Speaking as an engineer with 30 years experience in the field; I believe the FRSky radio hardware can go toe-to-toe with anything Futaba has to offer; and I also believe, after looking at the waveform analyses, that it beats anything JRhas all hollow. Of course, I remember the dark ages at Futaba too; they would have been purple with envy at the component density and the quality of the wave-soldering of even the current regular Turnigy/FlySky readio gear. And there are still people flying that stuff today...

The er9X firmware, in combination with the eePe &Companio9x firmware/memory editing software, make the 9X/9XR a REALLYformidable package in terms of a computer TX; I almost NEVER build a model profile on the radio anymore; I use my old Toughbook and Companio9x to build, then upload the new profile once it passes preliminary simulations in the editor.


mnem
*Point-to-point soldered*

ahamay

My Tarot 500ESP build is progressing slooooowly...... I've had some quality issues with a few of the parts in the kit (replaced with Align) but I have the frame, head, tail all done and I"m just about to do the electronics installation. It should be a nice looking bird once it's done.

I wish there was a way to turn off the beeping sound in the DX7 radio when you programming it. The family and most probably the neighbours I think are over the beeping as it's annoying as heck.

pushinoldrc

My Feedback: (46)

These are swappable between my 9X & 9XR, and my 9X has the telemetry mod & firmware which allows me to see the telemetry data right on the TX LCD screen. I'll probably do the same mods on my 9XR once I have the module built. I would like to know how well that works. Fuel / battery data would be very usefull for my field trainer, as well as other models. I tend to swell my heli batteries due to discharge below rated voltage.

Speaking as an engineer with 30 years experience in the field; I believe the FRSky radio hardware can go toe-to-toe with anything Futaba has to offer; and I also believe, after looking at the waveform analyses, that it beats anything JRhas all hollow. Of course, I remember the dark ages at Futaba too; they would have been purple with envy at the component density and the quality of the wave-soldering of even the current regular Turnigy/FlySky readio gear. And there are still people flying that stuff today...
That is the very reason I chose FrSky. Until the advent of the Hitec system, it rivals the best of all worlds, price and dependability. I also like the re-link time, within a second, compared to Corona, DSM2. 3 seconds or more usually ends up in sub-terrainian flight.
I have had some problems with the SMT components on the receivers, but I have only had those problems after a severe crash. I lost a channel due to a chip leg letting go of the land.

The er9X firmware, in combination with the eePe &Companio9x firmware/memory editing software, make the 9X/9XR a REALLYformidable package in terms of a computer TX; I almost NEVER build a model profile on the radio anymore; I use my old Toughbook and Companio9x to build, then upload the new profile once it passes preliminary simulations in the editor.
I never thought of using editing software via a computer to build model profiles. Neat.
My buddy wanted to program his clone 450, and I had fits programming the CCPM mixing. He is still using the firmware that was shipped with the 9XR.



mnem
*Point-to-point soldered*

[/quote]

Thanks for the info, I know who to turn to for help.
B

rikybob

Thanks for the info, I know who to turn to for help.
B

[/quote]


Bryan and Mnnnenemeemeth,

I think you points are well made and facinating but the most important this has been missed.

We actually are in the presence of an engineer who actually has a sense of humor.

Unheard of!

b

rikybob

As the newly self appointed MOD of this thread since the passing of Peter (God rest his soul), it is important to have full disclousure.

That is, taking the good with the bad even with your favs or picks.

So *** is wrong with the Tarot?[8D]

I'm guessing tail parts??

Yer pal,

b

PS Hurry up and get it in the air!!!

ahamay

Actually the whole driveline is now Align, as I already purchased the Align TT bits to convert it from belt but have since had to replace these with Align as well:

Main bearing blocks - Dodgy bearing and no thread tapped into one side for the bolts
Main shaft collar about 1.5mm ID bigger than the mainshaft - useless
Main Gear hub warped - It was so bad the main gear wobbled like a hub cap about to fall off. I have had to replace this hub on all my tarot 450 pro V2's as well same problem.
Tarot TT front Gears - Gears molded wrong and shaft too big and cannot get the bearings on each end.

It's all looking good now though.

rikybob

Jonesy,

I prolly woulda done the same thing in that Iwould have bought Tarot over HK.

Tragically, HK's 500 worked PERFECTLY out of the box and I would have been "double screwed".

I would have bought Tarot under false economy knowing that HK's quality control was just fine. Then I would have upgraded to Align parts obviating the fact that I should have bought Align to begin with.

God I'm a cheap ******* and as of late still occationally screw myself due to that behavior.

Oh, well!

Get 'er up in the air!

b

PS Oh yeah, wifey wanted to assasinate me when I switched from the DX6i (I literally WORE it out and when I took delivery of the 7, sent the 6 back to H/H and without a word R/R'd the thing free of charge) and I sat in the living room manually switching over.

Rob had a JR for cheap and I passed up on it and kept the 7 due to the fact that I'm just a "frammer" in this hobby and really can't tell the difference between a good radio system and a bad one. In fact for my personal condition and all due respect to Mmnneneneenth, you really CAN'T find a bad radio these days!

sgbfly

Popping in to say Hi with a vid to share:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJeYi1INmKg[/youtube]

Best to all!

Simon

Ddaddy

FYI. Dynam 3GS is back in stock at hobbypartz.com.

edit,

Very nice roll Simon...bugs always attack me when I'm flying...a real pia...oh, next time, get the blonde on video too!

+1 on ER9X...I need to break down and just order one

Pssttt, Mr's rb...check and see what he has in the garage!

mnemennth

ORIGINAL: mnemennth
ORIGINAL: pushinoldrc

Reply: mnemennth



These are swappable between my 9X & 9XR, and my 9X has the telemetry mod & firmware which allows me to see the telemetry data right on the TX LCD screen. I'll probably do the same mods on my 9XR once I have the module built.

I would like to know how well that works. Fuel / battery data would be very usefull for my field trainer, as well as other models. I tend to swell my heli batteries due to discharge below rated voltage.

The FRSky telemetry system relies on a hub device to sort the various sensor data to the correct frames in the serial datastream; the only thing you can read directly from the RXare RXVoltage, Battery Voltage (sensor can be plugged directly into the RX), RSSI/TSSI at the RX. They have a capacitive stick-on fuel guage, and a 40A-Rated Ammeter, as well as GPS, Variometer and Barometer/Altimeter and several others that escape my soldering-fume addled mind at the moment. Allegedly, the Telemetry range is as good as or better than the control range; with 1.5-2 klicks being typical. They just updated their firmware to provide GPSrefresh 2x/sec. I think I may spend the $20 for the 64x128 clip-on auxiliary LCD though; there are times when I really want to keep my radio's control status up on the screen.


Speaking as an engineer with 30 years experience in the field; I believe the FRSky radio hardware can go toe-to-toe with anything Futaba has to offer; and I also believe, after looking at the waveform analyses, that it beats anything JRhas all hollow. Of course, I remember the dark ages at Futaba too; they would have been purple with envy at the component density and the quality of the wave-soldering of even the current regular Turnigy/FlySky readio gear. And there are still people flying that stuff today...

That is the very reason I chose FrSky. Until the advent of the Hitec system, it rivals the best of all worlds, price and dependability. I also like the re-link time, within a second, compared to Corona, DSM2. 3 seconds or more usually ends up in sub-terrainian flight.
I have had some problems with the SMT components on the receivers, but I have only had those problems after a severe crash. I lost a channel due to a chip leg letting go of the land.

I like the Hitec system, but still think it's an expensive clone of the FRSky... the waveform analysis is too similar, mostly it's the terminology they've changed. I suspect they've hired some engineers away from FRSky, just as I suspected Futaba did for their Telemetry program. This is a VERYsmall circle of operations, really.

With the complexity of the functions of a modern RX, of course you know there is no other way to build besides SMT; you'd never fit all those components into a package smaller than a lunchbox. Of course, that would make construction of your next model much simpler; just glue your wings & motor to the sides of the RX .



The er9X firmware, in combination with the eePe &Companio9x firmware/memory editing software, make the 9X/9XR a REALLYformidable package in terms of a computer TX; I almost NEVER build a model profile on the radio anymore; I use my old Toughbook and Companio9x to build, then upload the new profile once it passes preliminary simulations in the editor.

I never thought of using editing software via a computer to build model profiles. Neat.
My buddy wanted to program his clone 450, and I had fits programming the CCPM mixing. He is still using the firmware that was shipped with the 9XR.

HobbyKing NEVERintended the 9XR to be used with the stoxk firmware; they ALWAYSexpected the end-user to load one of the popular open-source firmwares on it. Of COURSE they had to make a few tweaks to get it so it would work standalone, if you have the patience. But they only did that so they could disable the firmware from being read to & written from eePe & Companio9x, which is essentially eePe with a slightly more advance GUI.

As a result, they HAVE to tell you not to flash your TX for warranty reasons; like anybody who buys the TX is gonna send it back when shipping is 3/4 the cost of the radio. THATwas a MAJORpart of the aggravation within the er9x community; they took the code, didn't abide by the terms of the GPL, and hacked it to cripple the best parts of the open-source firmware. As I've said elsewhere; the Chinese don't think about doing business the way we do; otherwise, they would have never even imagined offending their primary customer base so flippantly.


mnem
*Point-to-point soldered*


Thanks for the info, I know who to turn to for help.
B

Certainly. Always willing to infect... err, welcome a new member into the fold. Here are a few links to get y'all started, if you have any interest at all:

http://code.google.com/p/er9x/

http://openrcforums.com/wiki/index.php/Er9x_user_guide

http://openrcforums.com/wiki/index.php/Flashing_your_9x

http://er9x.googlecode.com/svn/trunk...20the%209x.pdf

Note that er9x is NOT the only oppen-source firmware out there; it is just my personal choice and probably the best documented online. The first link has a list of other, similar firmwares you can also investigate. The last two links are pretty much the nuts & bolts of hacking your TX; you won't need to do any of that with the 9XR UNLESSyou want to make the telemetry data come up on the TXLCD. If you can live with a unit clipped to the handle (Or attached to the two screws on the back of the 9XR that are MADEfor attaching such things to), you can either use the $20 add-on LCD or get the FRSky DHT-U module with it all in one small box:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__19966__FrSky_DHT_U_Telemetry_System.html


As I mentioned before; sometimes it's nice to have 2 screens at once.


Hope that helps,



mnem
*Gettin' muh FRSky on*

Edmund2

Simon, you are up and about very early this morning. Have a great day and weekend all.

Edmund

rikybob

(Please except the following in its "guy", mean spiritied, tongue in cheekyness that it's intended.)

mnem,

MOTHER OF GOD SIR!!!!

I didn't know ALL that is going on in the subtext of my little hobby!!!

For GODS SAKE sir, go OUTSIDE!

There are GIRLS there![8D]

b
"If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest."