ksmith61

Does anyone have one of these heli's? If so, what do you think and would you recommend it for a beginner?

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

got mine a few days ago-build is going well,as all TT Raptors do-however,instructions are far from the best and would more than likely be a problem for a new ,or limited experience ,builder.
I got mine with the TT motor and esc along with a Thunder Power 6 cell LI-PO.

Ill be flying by the end of the week and will give a detailed report,as well as a revue,soon afterwards

AMA Outlaw

I built mine back in March and had no real problems with the instructions after reading up on it at raptortechnique.com. The thing will fly well as a beginner heli when set around 1600 rpm with the less agressive head geometry and comes alive above 1900 with carbons and lightweight paddles. I'm running 6 cell packs in it and get about 7.5 minutes of sport flying and 6.5 of hard flying on align 4200 and DN Power 4400's. I used a CC HV controller and Z30A motor, but the stock TT items are about the same. I put my E550 on a lightweight carbon diet and shaved the weight from 7.2 lbs ready to fly to 6.75 lbs and will lose another couple of ounces in the near future with a composite canopy and skids. The weight loss really perked up the handling on 6 cells, but if you're still just hovering you won't notice the difference except in the wallet. No mods were needed to have a great flying heli (other than the PV0499 tail upgrade) and I'll use the plastic head for a while more before installing the metal headblock I have lying on the bench. It really flies great now that I've put some flights on it to dial it in for my flying style.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

Hey Outlaw,what charger and balancer are you using?

AMA Outlaw

Roy, I'm using the Astroflight 109 and Blinky to charge and balance my batteries. It's not a constant voltage design so during the final charging I have to monitor the charging to keep voltage spikes from damaging the batteries. What happens is the voltage hits 25.20 and the charger stops charging until the voltages sags and drops so it gives more juice until reaching 25.20 again. If you are charging at 1C then you are hitting the battery with 4 or 5 amps and thats hard on the cells, so I keep turning the voltage down every few minutes to keep the charger from hitting 25.20 and spiking voltage as battery voltage drops. That, or when the battery is in the final phase 3 of the charging I turn the amps down to 1/5 C or so. It's a little more user interactive having to watch the charger for the first 3 minutes until the charger selects the right cell count and starts phase 2 of charging and then 45 minutes or so later monitoring the final charging as it tops off. Alternatively you could get the TP setup which IS a constant voltage design. I understand that the TP charger and balancer is a killer combo, but that means I have to use an adaptor for my batteries as none of them use the TP taps.

One of the few complaints I have regarding the E Raptors is the battery tray design. You are locked into using the LiPo "stick" packs. A123 and LiPo brick packs don't fit. I got around this by making some new aluminum lower sideplates. Slightly enlarged the hole in the frame between the skids but and now my brick packs slide in from the side instead of front to back like with the stick packs. Means I also don't have to take the canopy off to change batteries either.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

THanks!!
I just got a MRC Super Brain and Im using a "Common Sense RC" balancer but Im really lost when it comes to the care and feeding of Li-Po's
Do you know of any good books or dvds geared towards beginners ?
I just cant grasp the whole principal of these batery packs,chargers and balancers.
I hook my balancer,which handles up to 6 cells,to my 6S li-po pack and only 3 lights come on.Do I now just go ahead and plug the pack into the charger?Will it balance automatically?what settings should I use?Will it automatically shut off?
WILL THEY BLOW UP??
as you can see,I NEED HELP!!!
Thanks
Joe

AMA Outlaw

I'm not familiar with the operation of the Super Brain so I'd have to refer you to the battery and charger forum at the top of the main forum page. That balancer looks exactly like my Astroflight "Blinky" balancer. On my balancer when I plug it into the balance tap it will go through a 3 second cell voltage check. If a cell is above 3.2V then the light comes on, if not then you know that you have a cell that is below minimum voltage and likely have damage to the cell. In the case of a new and never charged battery, they come all out of balance and with very low voltages per cell. Most folks claim that even a new battery should never have less than 3.2V per cell and should be returned, I say charge it initially at a low rate (.5-.75 Amp ) and it should be okay. Leave the balancer hooked up during the whole charge. On a new battery it might take all night for that balancer to drain off the high individual cell voltages to match the low cell/cells. When the lights blink erratically you are close to balanced, but on all of my batteries they blinked all night long in a random pattern and then were fine from then on. Also try to take it easy on the LiPos for the first flight or two to break them in (low amp draw and short flights). Or you could do this on your charger. Never charge at a rate higher than the packs rated capacity (4200 mAh battery=4.2 Amp max charge rate) and don't drain more than 80% of the battery capacity (80% of 4200 mA = 3360 mAh or less should go back into the battery after a flight). You need to be timing your flights to see how long your flight style and setup can safely fly on your batteries. I would sart out with a 3 minute run and then charge to see what you put back in and calculate it from there to see how long you can fly to reach that 75-80% of battery capacity. Don't rely on the LVC in the ESC to time your battery life- by then it's too late and you've damaged your battery.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

THanks again-I traded the MRC charger for a Thunder Power TP1010c Super Charger and now Im waiting for the TP 210 balancer to come in.
I finally got everything together today and started the chopper.Everything was cool till I powered up and the tail went nuts-Im using a JR 500t gyro and I think I need to go over the settings cuz I had ZERO tail control.
Ive been flying helis on and off since 1990 but this electric setup has me feeling like I know NOTHING!

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

Last post here-Dumped the Thunder Power for a Bantam E-Station BC 6-works flawlessly,easy instructions,very user friendly
Turned down the gain on the JR 500t,reset con-rod lengths-adjusted gyro gain at the radio(Spektrum DX7),set head speed at about 1700,set blade tracking and just like that,Im locked in to a hands free hover.
I think I could learn to love this bird!

nz reg

Being new to electic helis could someone let me know the spacing between the side frames on the e550 raptor ie the battery compartment. Thanks

AMA Outlaw

The battery tray is 50mm wide, and 65mm high at the front (the tightest area, it opens up to the rear). The entire tray is almost 14 inches long.

TPPacks.com has some C/F sideframe setups for you if you are wanting to run the A123 Brick Packs, they might work with other LiPo brick packs as well.

nz reg

Thanks for the info re batteries. I had in mind to put in a123 cells and it looks as if they may just fit.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

Id be interested in how they work out for you-Please keep us posted?

AMA Outlaw

I don't use the A123 cells, but I followed the threads on them in the E-Raptor over on RCGroups. My understanding is that if you are using the packs in power tubes it's okay with the stock sideframes. If you want to use them in "triangle" packs then they will probably fit too, but to use them in "side by side" packs (like they come from the DeWalt pack) then you have to get the TPPacks setup. The TPPacks C/F Lower Frame kit is pretty nice. They did all the hard work for you and are especially made for the A123 setups so you don't have to re-invent the wheel. The problem with widening the frames seems to be in mounting the landing gear supports to the frame.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

Heres one for you all-
ANY info on ANY scale bodies that will fit the Raptor 550e-
PLEASE SHARE IT HERE!

nz reg

I like the idea of using the TPPacks side frames so this will be the ones I use. Can anyone offer advice on motors/esc. My thoughts are to use the Z-Power Z30 series at 1110KV and Max 37 volts along with a Phoenix-45HV or 85HV. I would use the a123 cells either as 10s 1p or 10s 2p. This should give me a good flight time/\. I should mention I am more interested in AP/AV than doing 3d flying.
Any comments/advice on the above would be welcome.

AMA Outlaw

Roy, there are a couple of TT fuses that should fit without too much trouble as they are for the Rap 30/50 like an A-Star, MD 500 (army); the Funkey fuses from Century fit better than the nitro raptors as there is no pitch arm in the electric kit and they have Bell 206's, Twinstars, Bell 222 and Airwolf and Schweizer 300s, etc. Hirobo and Vario should have some kits but those are more money and time than I want to spend.

NZ Reg, I have the Z30A-800 and HV45 on mine. I thought that I would be lacking for power on 6 cells and quickly go to 8 cells so I got the 800 kv motor, but truthfully after flying it on 6 I'm in no hurry to go bigger. It sport flies great, but for aggressive acro/3D more power and bigger blades would be nice. I'm pulling about 28-30 amps in normal flight and full power climbouts have 50 amp peaks so I really should use a bigger ESC on 6 cells if I want to do 3D. I'm geared for 1930-1950 rpm (changed out the 111T gear for a 86T gear when I stripped it during a glitch/boomstrike and I dropped from a 14T pinion to 10T to keep headspeed the same). I've not flown a nitro Rap30 but my E550 with 20 gram paddles and SAB 550 blades at 6.78 lbs flies MUCH better than the Rap 30 in RealFlight!

Anyway, all that leads to this: if you are going 10S on A123 (about like 8 cell LiPo) then you might want to consider the Z30A-800 to keep your headspeeds in check for AP work and duration. For ESC's I think you will be ok on the HV45 if you are doing AP work. If I could find a SAE 85A ESC, I would use it instead.

nz reg

Many thanks AMA Outlaw for the info I will take some time to come to a decision on this and give feedback on my final choice. I was concerned that the HV 45 might not have the capacity for the motor/battery size.

nz reg

Any ideas where to buy the Z30A-800 Google turns up zilch also why would you reccomend the SAE 85A over HV 85 seems the price is lots higher.
Sorry for all the questions but hopefully others can learn from your experience.
Many thanks

AMA Outlaw

NZ REQ, I got my Z30A from TTPacks.com, I see that Infinity-hobby.com has several of them as well. Other than the price, the difference to me is that one is out of the US of A and the other has to be shipped from Taiwan. To some folks that makes a difference, but Infinity does undercut almost anybody on most (but not all!) items. I'm looking at getting an E550 and motor/ESC from them next ($285 for a Raptor kit! ). Then again, Gary at TTPacks.com is great to do business with and I got great setup advice and pricing from him too.

I've been wanting to try the SAE controller since I heard some really good reviews on it last year. I have a hard time finding one in stock, but I know they are out there. Price was a little less than the HV85 at the time but who knows what it is now? I am using the HV45 at the moment and like it, but need the headroom that a 60A or bigger controller would provide (or just make the move up to 8 cells to lower the amp draw). A lot of people have had problems in the past with the CC controllers and that's given me pause to buying another one although mine has worked well so far.

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

according to TT literature,the 550e uses the Rap 30 v2 rotor head assembly.Does anybody know if the metal upgrade parts for the nitro Raptor 30 v2 will work on the 550e?and ,if yes,where is the best place to get them and what would the total cost be?
thanks
Joe

HELI-JOKER

My Feedback: (21)

Will TT metal rotor head parts from the TT R-30-V-2 work on the 550E?

GravityWorks

have any of you guys flown this one yet? TT E-620 se.

I use a Z50-800A motor and two poly-quest 4 cell lipo's to power this beast. along with a CC pheonix 85HV ESC, it flies Awsome with so much power. all carbon and metal very little plastic on this model.

mangojassal

anyone here using hitec eclipse 7 on there 550's,if so any setup info on the TX please.