credence

My Feedback: (2)

First real flight today! This thing is GREAT! I can't believe how well it tracks through the air. It's also VERY responsive. Cyclic response is almost instantaneous. The whole helicopter just feels "locked in". Turns and stops on a dime.
Got my idle up programmed today aswell. I think I averaged about 8 or 9 minutes of flight on the 4400 packs. Mostly circuits and stall turns with a few throttle punches thrown in.

After a few circuits I ended up with my throttle curve roughly the same as yours Charlie. I believe i'm 80 at mid and 100 on both ends, 90 on 2 and 4. Gave me enough punch to climb rapidly.

I'm also pleased to report that my Electric Power 4400 mAh packs are working flawlessly. No overheating whatsoever, even after a full flight with alot of throttle punching. I don't have a guage, but i'm guessing the pack was in the 50C area on touch down. Warm to the touch, not hot at all.

This is very surprising for me since i've read that the Align batteries are hitting 70 Celsius after a flight, and they're rated at 16C constant! These packs here are only 12C but they're coping with the amp draw extremely well. I expect to get a long cycle life out of them. I should probably mention though that I was flying in slightly cooler weather (today was a bit cool). Not cold by any stretch of the imagination, but cool. That certainly helped with the battery temps i'm sure. I love Fall!

I did encounter two things during my flight today. At one point during my flight I was doing consecutive sideways turns (if theres a name for this manuever, i'm sorry, but I don't know it!), anyways, at this point I basically had full collective and hard cyclic being put in. The rotordisk was slowing down CONSIDERABLY. I could really here the motor choking. So much so that I thought I would lose lift. This makes it pretty obvious to me that the T-rex 600 could REALLY benefit from higher voltage. 6S is fine for just simple circuits and mild 3D, but if you're gonna start jamming the cyclic and collective together you're gonna need alot more juice. 8 cells would probably put the helicopter into it's "sweet spot".

My second thing that ocurred is that at the end of my batteries charge, the motor slowed down and began pulsing. This had me concerned at first, but now i'm not sure. Was this the speed controllers low voltage cutoff kicking in to tell me it's time to land? Or was this a case of the ESC overheating so throttling down to avoid damage? Anyone know? .

I got my camera and everything setup and ready to go today. I will be videotaping my next flight. We actually taped this flight, but it was rather uneventful and my...camera man.. was unable to keep up with the helicopter. We'll be bringing a tripod with us next time so focus and tracking are easier. I hope to do it either tommorow or tuesday, as it's my next free day.

I love this helicopter! I would strongly suggest anyone looking into getting one to do so and DON'T LOOK BACK!

mavdriver

My Feedback: (14)

Congratulations , that`s what i was wainting to hear i guess i`ll be jumping in feet first , and not looking back , as far as motor slowed down and began pulsing , that`s your speed controller telling you is hitting low voltage , therefore is time to land , can`t wait to see the video , keep up the good work . Ed

cptsnoopy

If you get a chance, try a higher performance 6s pack. I am willing to bet that the batteries ability to provide continuous high current was your limitation. You may have had a large voltage drop as a result. Using the 6s-3p setup, I have yet to hear any bogging. granted, we are not loading the heli blades up like the 3D guys but we do use alot of power now and then...

I have some rpm sensors for my DPR-100, I need to install the magnets on the spur gear and give it a try...

credence

My Feedback: (2)

I'm going to give these packs a few more cycles first. They're still new and still not at peak power yet. If I still see voltage sagging after a few more cycles, i'll do like you said and strap two 2200 packs ontop of each cell. I plan to fly a bit more aggressively on my next charge now that I know how this thing handles in the air (first flights are always hesitant for me, never know what to expect ).

It'll really suck having to charge 4 batteries for a single flight though if I want to jam the sticks around! But it WOULD give me 6600 mAh. That should bag a nice 12 or so minutes of flight time!

credence

My Feedback: (2)

Welp, no time for flying today. My father managed to break his leg at work, so i've been occupied with other things.

However, since I did promise a video, I went through the footage I DID shoot of the maiden flight, and spliced it into a short compilation for you guys. No fancy flying, it's just basically circuits and forward flight, but it's better than nothing .

http://www.greatnorthernhobbies.com/mystuff/rex600.avi

Right click and "Save As.."
The video is encoded in DivX. You'll need the codec if you don't have it (www.divx.com).

Enjoy!

cptsnoopy

It's a thing of beauty!

credence

My Feedback: (2)

Managed to get another flight in today. All didn't go as I would have liked though. I managed to plow my X-400 into the dirt again! . Didn't respond as quickly as I would've liked..

Got the T-rex into the air too of course. Did some inverted flight today, and i'm thinking i'll definately need to hook some more packs up in parralel. Headspeed was dropping considerably while inverted. Even after the full flight the batteries were not hot, so I can only assume it's just that the packs C rating doesn't allow them to put out the nescesary voltage under high amp draw to keep from sagging.

Or maybe +/- 10 degrees of pitch is too much for the motor on 6 cells. I'll try decreasing pitch to 9 or 8 and see if that keeps the headspeed more consistent.

No videos, unfortunately. My father was my camera man, and now he's a camera man with a broken leg.. . I'll have to drag my brother out there with me next time when he's not in school and have him man the camera!

cptsnoopy

I watched my brother fly his trex again today. I listened carefully for the motor bogging and did hear it bog pretty good after a roll. I asked him about it and he said that it was because he used nearly full collective on the recovery to maintain altitude. I was rather surprised to hear it bog that much but since I don't have the rpm recording setup on the DPR I can't really say how much or what the electric power system was actually doing at that moment. I will see about getting the rpm setup on there and record one of his flights so we can observe the numbers. sorry to hear about the x-400... fun little heli's when they're working.

credence

My Feedback: (2)

I'm getting tired of the micro helis now anyways. The parts are just too damn small and fiddly to work with. I'm going to repair the thing and then sell it. I'll buy a nice .30 size bird and convert that to e-power instead. Thinking a Century Hawk Pro will make a nice e-convert .

The t-rex definately does bog under high pitch levels. I'm going to see how reducing pitch works first. I am also going to increase my throttle curve, probably 100 - 95 - 90 - 95 100. Or maybe just 100 straight across and see if that helps too.

I think the real answer, though, is more voltage.

mamun

Hi Guys, in the past few days I've been really addicted to nitro cars, but recently everybody is buying Helis (Nitro) so I don't want to be left behind, I'm the only one searching for a electric heli, I wonder why? I've seen my friends fly their helis for hours, can we do that? Cause it worries me that I could only do it for 9-10 minutes; and if you convince me going for the electric I would definitely go for the T-Rex 600 CF, so I would like to know in what webpage you recommend me to buy, one that carries everything for the T-REX, thanx.

credence

My Feedback: (2)

The only way you will fly for hours is if you've got $1000 worth of batteries.

Average flight time on a single $200 battery pack is about 8 minutes. You can of course go to bigger batteries for more run time, but they're heavier and cost more.

Electric has the advantage in typically being more powerful (if setup correctly), and overall not as noisy, nor as messy, compared to nitro. But they are much more expensive, and you don't get as much flying time out of them unless you've got the money for a set of atleast 3 batteries . Nitro is much cheaper, but where you can fly it is limited, and you need to constantly clean the machine to prevent things from getting gummed up from the nitro slime. Beauty is, you simply refuel and fly, no waiting for packs to charge.

At anyrate, I wouldn't buy a helicopter "just cause everyone else" is doing it. Helicopters are not easy to fly. They do NOT hover by them selves. The learning curve is quite steep, especially if you're used to driving nitro cars. The hobby is expensive, crashing is expensive, and learning to fly is frustrating, but very rewarding.

If you have access to it, I suggest you try a simulator before putting down the big bucks on a helicopter. Or get both, and fly the sim while you build your machine.
If you just jump in head first without any help, you'll be in for a rough time. Take this from somebody who seems to have done everything the hard way.. [&o]

choppersrule

Mamun,

I'm with Credence 100 percent. As he mentioned, "If you just jump in head first without any help, you'll be in for a rough time."

I was a jumper, and to some extent regret that I didn't take more time to research the pro's and con's of electric vs nitro.
Then too, you have to consider, what type of flying you want to do, where you can or want to fly, does my LHS support the the heli you want, or are you dependent on online ordering? The list goes on and on.

I went with the electric, only because I can pretty much fly it anywhere. I've only been in the heli world for 9 months now, and just love it to death. It's challenging and the rewards are great. And as Credence said, it's very expensive. I don't have nearly the heli, like the 600. But, have invested about 3 grand so far. If I would have know early, what I know now it would have saved me mega bucks.

Take your time researching and start with a simulator. Also, heres a link to Radd's School of Rotary Flight, http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html , follow it to the letter and you'll be much better off in the long run.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress,

Dave / Choppersrule

Psikelly

Credence are you running 4400 MAH batteries and only getting 8 minutes of flight?? I havent had my MX flying yet but it'll be running the Align430L 3550KV motor and a 25 A castle ESC. I havent got batteries yet but in the Maunual they say you should get about 7 minutes of flight off a 1320 MAH battery. Is it because of the setup youre running or the flying style?? I dont wanna waste money on betteries that wont be good enough so Im lookin for a couple hints.
I was considering using thunderpower 1320s like in my CPP.

credence

My Feedback: (2)

psikelly. This thread is on the T-rex 600, not 450 .

A 1300 mAh would probably burst into flames if you tried to fly it on the t-rex 600! . View the previous images on the first page of this thread to see the size difference. The T-rex 600 is about twice as large as the X-400/T-rex 450

I fly two 11.1 V 4400 mAh packs connected in series, so i've got 22.2 V @ 4400 mAh. I average about 7 minutes of flight with mild 3D. If I just do circuits I can bring it up to about 10 minutes.

I have included a picture of the helicopter, in the bottom right corner you can see the two packs connected in series that I use to fly.

Oh, and to answer your question psikelly, on my X-400 I fly 2200 mAh packs on the same motor and I think I was averaging about 10 to 12 minutes with just simple circuits, no 3D.

They're cheap packs I picked up on eBay though some time ago, so i'm sure their capacity isn't properly rated. They also seem to get hot despite their 16C rating, so I don't put a whole lot of faith in 'em, but they've gotten the job done up untill now .

Psikelly

lol oops! I shouldve glanced through the rest of the thread 1st. I knew you werent talking about the MX but I didnt realize the size of the TRex 600. I had never seen 1 before and thought the sizes of the TRex and MX were relatively the same. OK now I see how youre burning through packs like that. At least now I have a good idea on the comparisons.

cptsnoopy

I suppose you could always try 6 1320's in a 6s-3p config.

We are close to trying our second Trex-600, this one with a C50-15xl in a 9s-2p config. I have not compared the weight of the stock one versus this one but this one is definitely heavier. (the Hacker motor weighs substantually more than the Align motor.) I'll let you know if it is any better.

cptsnoopy

OMG!!! The stock Trex-600 with 6 Hyperion 11.1volt 2100mah batteries in a 6s-3p config and a nicad receiver pack (instead of the bec/7.4v lipo) weighs 7.14 lbs. The Trex-600 with the Hacker C50-15XL, Hacker master 77-O-Heli and 6 hyperion 11.1volt 2100mah batteries weighs 8.1 lbs. I did not think that the extra weight of the motor was that much. Hopefully we will get to try it soon. We did do the range check with blades off and motor spinning tonight. the shortest 45 degree angle was about 38 paces. That should be enough for the distance that we plan to be flying it in. This heli is using the Electron6 so we will know if and when it glitches. Just for reference, My eRaptor which I removed as much weight as I could is 8.4 lbs using the lighter TP 2100's and an Actro 24-4.

credence

My Feedback: (2)

Ouch, quite a big weight increase. The C50 is a crazy powerful motor though, and will probably pull all the extra weight no problem. But are you only running it on 6S? I think you might get better performance from it with more voltage.


If you do crank up the headspeed, be warned that the stock Align pinions are not designed for it. I just finished reading a post over on RR where a guy had his pinion teeth sheer off running a 10S setup.
http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t290470p1/

Logo pinions are supposed to be a perfect fit and alot stronger if you want to jack up the power.

cptsnoopy

Thanks Credence,

I looked at the destroyed pinion, I hope that does not happen until we know exactly which pinion we need to use. Right now we are going to use the stock 10 tooth and see how the head speed looks. I am hoping that this thing flies as well as the eRaptor or better. It is just slightly lighter but the Hacker inrunner is not known to be as powerful as the Actro is in the eRaptor. If the weather holds up tonight, well give her a go. Oh, I missed your mention of 6s. No this one is 9s-2p using 6 2100's. The original Trex-600 that we are flyng is using 6s-3p with 6 2100's. Same amount of battery, different config.

cptsnoopy

Well, I flew the Trex-600 with the hacker and was not impressed. I did not get comfortable enough with it to bang it around much. I was getting some glitching now and then so I just stuck with normal flying and only did one invert. I will need to try it again before the final assesment but I think the extra weight is a little much. With that in mind, I wonder how the align motor would work in my stretched logo10? It would be somewhat lighter...

starcop

Credence, Thank you! Wonderful write up by the way. I've decided on the new Spektrum DX7 with the logitech gyro and still working on the tail rotor digital servo. I have the MX 400 also; I'm just going to buy an extra DX 6 receiver. Well I hope your T-Rex 600 will Fly well, keep us all posted. I plan to post mine upon completion. I'm new to helicopters and am curently flying a Raptor G2 Electric Heli. My war-birds will just have to wait...I figure the cheapo Raptor will teach me how to fly, then fly the MX 400, T-Rex without destroying them. I've had 2 successful flights the 3rd ended with a bent rotor shaft and broken blade holder. Parts are on their way...see ya!

iqman86

My Feedback: (2)

All my control surfaces seem to work, but the motor wont come on? When I throttle up, all the cyclics move up, but no motor. I have a AR7000 reciever with dx6i Tx. Do I have something plugged in wrong.

mavdriver

My Feedback: (14)

Take off your main blades for safety sake , being that the small lipo runs the servos , does not mean you have your main pack lipo plug in to ESC , which runs the motor , some times i forget . Ed

stevehickey6

can someone tell me a size comparison from an eco 8 to a trex 500 ?

or images please

i am wanting to fit a heliartist trex 500 airwolf body to my eco 8 if possible

thanks