Tweener

Parts on the way. I've debriefed myself on the bad flight, and have come up with a few error points to avoid.
1) Don't fly in winds over 5 mph until my flight precision improves quite a bit. (Wind was about 10 mph and was a factor in the distance.)
2) Don't fly into the half of the sky's hemisphere that the sun occupies. (Although I wasn't blinded, the sun was backlighting the heli, and the silhouette effect contributed to the disorientation.)
3) Don't let the heli get more than about 30 yards away, unless most of the distance is altitude.

I still don't understand some of the trouble with that gyro. I admit that I have to very slightly "mind the tail" in a hover, but the drift seems to be linked to my cyclic corrections in some way. It's not a constant drift, and I only occassionally have to correct about 3 to 5 degrees or so. This is the very first I've heard about the capacitor, and I've been monitoring quite a few Axe 400 threads on various forums.

rayelljay

Hi guys.....Ray 'ere.......

Used to write on the CP pro forum but I had major heart schtuff go down but I'm getting back into the way of things.

I fly an HBK 2 (lovely little flitter), a proper T-rex (flies like a dream), a Rex clone (another great flier) and a new RxR AXE 400.  I just love to build things.

They are all set up to fly with my DX7.

I was a mite disappointed with the 400.  I had a Blade 400 that was un-maintainable....I do prefer a machine that does not require a 100% stripdown to fix.  The AXE suffered from a gross vibration that I ironed out to a severely warped main drive gear and the gyro is nothing more than useless dead weight...I tried just about everything until I started to read this thread.

I'm not a 3d flier by choice and capability....I have a nice course I fly through my trees at about eight foot off the deck (to the joy of the local youngsters).

The 400 will last a while.....it looks relatively tinkerer-friendly but when she needs replacing (I do a lotta flyin') I'm just going to go with another T-Rex...there's a good choice of well engineered 450's out there and maintainability is paramount with me.

I have been told that the swashplate and head assembly from a Rex will fit the 400....is this true...?

Hobby store tomorrow for a decent gyro and a (hopefully) non-wobbly main drive gear.

Sun's just going down so I can fly the Rex for a pack.

Ray

Tweener

I just upgraded the esc to an Align 25 amp with governor and a Castle Creations BEC to power the Spektrum RX, servos, and gyro with a constant 7 amp availability of 5.1v. I only had a short hop on the back porch, but I immediately noticed two things. The governor really saves the guesswork of programming in a throttle curve, and the BEC makes a big difference in servo response. It even seems to make a difference in the gyro sensitivity, because I was getting a little wag like I may need to drop down the gain a bit. My next upgrade will be a decent gyro, and then higher end servos. Once all that is done, I can transfer all the guts to a T-Rex and by then I should be able to fly well enough to not have to repair it constantly.

A1

My Feedback: (2)

Brand new Axe 400 5 min. old. hung tail rotors in grass at full throttle. I know nothing about Helis. The tail rotors are slipping now. If the tail rotors are moved when throttled up the rotors almost stop. Only thing I can see is the Tail Belt Drive Gear (HMXE8027) looks like it has a split in the top of it. How much slip in the tail rotors should there be? What part is suppose to slip in the tail belt drive? How do I diagnose the problem?

dragus359

My Feedback: (1)

If there is a crack in your belt drive gear, replace it asap.  I flew with mine like that for a while, and eventually I had a crash that could've easily been avoided had I not been too cheap and lazy to replace that gear.

A1

My Feedback: (2)

Read a post here and got the Tail belt drive gear out very easy. When I replace the gear should I loosen the belt to get the gear back in place? How do you adjust the belt tension?
While I'm here, the rotor starts turning when it's powered up. I've trimmed the throttle down as far as my radio will go but still tries to move a little. Is the adjustment to the ESC the same as a servo. ie. can I adjust the throttle end point down to correct this?

dragus359

My Feedback: (1)

The only way to loosen the belt is by moving the entire tail boom in, towards the body.  I wouldn't do that, because that's not necessary.  I don't really know how you took off your gear, but as far as I can imagine there's only one way to do it, so I assume that you can just stretch the belt just enough to get it off the old gear, and put the new one in.  After that's done, stretch the belt back over the gear.  As far as your throttle problem, I've experienced it too.  I still don't know why it happens, but as it turns out, the TX somehow lets "neutral" drift in the direction that you trimmed to before, so what I did to correct this ostensibly is that I reset my throttle and tail trims to zero before I plug in the esc battery.  It's scary, because intuition tells you that it would rev up and hit you in the face once you connect the battery, but don't worry it won't.  If it still kinda starts, you can just add a little bit of trim for that flight and remember to set the throttle and gyro trims to zero after you unplug the battery from the esc.

marcusvini_br

I need help adjusting to the normal flight in axe400 futaba t6ex please
thanks