align 600 night blade tacking

[moyesboy]

What is the success rate of getting align 600 night blades to track?
I have a set of align 600 night blades which ran great on my knight503D – I never had tracking problems – just swapped them for my maniac603 day blades and off they went with the LEDs spot on in line.
The same blades on my 600n sport track poorly. No probs with a variety of day blades on this same heli. The align night blades would go out of track in idle-up, and when adjusted to track they would be out of track again after a few manoevres (by over an inch!). A bit of stick waggling on the ground could get the tracking to shift too.
I’m running K&BDD dampers, yellows which are pretty new. I swapped them for some brand new oranges (the hardest) and there was no improvement in blade tracking.
At North Notts two of us couldn’t track our align 600 night blades on 600n helis, Stu from scotland’s setup ran fine, and we couldn’t tell about Jason Platts because he only had one blade lit  (His torsons looked fine for the 15 seconds I saw them fly…).
If you are running these align night blades successfully what is your head setup? Splindle sleeve? Aftermarket dampers? Metal or plastic grips? Any other metal arms?

I’m going to try them on my pro which currently has metal mixer arm, and NSP washout upgrades on it – then maybe the spindle sleeve and new grip bearings might help though the 600nsport head is pretty new…

The blades must be OK, they just sat on a flat shelf in their box for 8 months since they ran perfect on my knight3D, the LEDS still work fine with plenty of battery life. I just checked the balance, chordwise and spanwise C of G and they are a very close matched pair and are straight as a die.
The knight had the grip flip too, so that head was still a fairly aggressive setup. Probably what I should have done was asked to spin them up on Stuarts heli that was tracking his night blades fine…

Alternatively if any knight50/Vibe etc owners want a set of night blades mine might be available to subsidise the purchase of some torsions.

[robgt]

I tend to find that the tracking of night blades is effected more than with day blades by slop in the head - linkages etc.

Metal blade grips definitely help too.

When I have fitted night blades to my Kasama head (metal blade grips) they have been plug and play.
On my stock 600 head, it's much more of a gamble

Cheers,
Rob

[moyesboy]

Stuart's were running fine with the plastic grips, the grips on my knight were plastic too (8mm spindle).
I've already considered the kasama head as a possible solution

[BobJ]

Hi Gordon

Did you go though the thrust bearings and radial bearings as I suggested?
The CG on night blades does tend the more rearwards on most makes so less tolerate to bad bearings and slop than most day blades.

Cheers
Bob

[red_z06]

These blades have problem from the factory. If your normal blades track, then night blades should too.

I had to return 1st and 2nd set and got the 3rd blade to track good. So, it is 33% success rate.

[moyesboy]

Hi Bob, The rotorhead on my sport has only done about 20 tanks from new and has never been crashed. The bearings are like new. I already tried changing the dampers but I haven't tired the std align set up with the spindle sleeve.
Red_z06 -the blades tracked fine on my knight - so it seems the livelier head setup of the 600n is a faxtor in this.
Though the align night blades are a very lively blade. They suited the rather subdued knight3D well and made it more fun to fly in the dark than it was in the light with bbt maniacs.

[red_z06]

I recall mouting it on 600e with 2350 head speed. It initally tracked fine at low head speed but the tip spread to as much as 1inch at high head speed.

What is the head speed difference? You should run it at 2100 (just for checking) and see if it does not get worse. If it does, then the blade is defective and you should get it exchanged.

[robgt]

These blades have problem from the factory

I would disagree with that statement.
As BobJ said, they are more susceptible to slop (and bearing) issues than day blades. This is due to the rearward C of G. Torsion blades can exhibit the same problems due to their rearward C of G too.
Minimal slop is best

Cheers,
Rob

[robgt]

You are overspeeding the blades at 2350 rpm on the head!
Just worth pointing out
Cheers,
Rob

[red_z06]

I know the set I have flown at 2350 (electric 600e) will work well on any nitro bird.
I went through 3 sets and AlignUSA will also tell you that it is a hit or miss.

If it works on Knight 3d, run up the head speed to 2100-22000 briefly to see if the tip separates. If it does not, then the problem is else where but if it does, no amount of fiddling will help.

[moyesboy]

I sold the knight...
and they were running over 2050 on that and stayed in line through all the tick tocks and stuff (you can see the tips spread through the manoevres if its happening).
I've ordered replacement bearings and the spindle sleeve.

Robgt - I guess you never ran your align night blades on this rotor head that I've got from you? Only on the kasama?

2100 to 22000

now that is a bit fast

[robgt]

That rotorhead saw half a tank of flight... a test flight after the initial build.

I've flown the blades on my stock 600 rotorhead and they tracked ok last time I tried them. When we tried them on Petes heli at north notts, they were way out... His SABs tracked perfectly though... ho hum.

Cheers,
Rob

[moyesboy]

Well - I tried the blades on my 600npro, which has metal mixer arms, but dampers with some movement in.
The blades tracked spot on, despite giving them some hammer.

So I swapped the complete rotor heads from one heli to the other to get the head that tracks the blades onto the heli with the light strings.
I'm only back now because I hadn't given the blades a full charge and they went dim