Vikki's T-Rex 500efl FULL BUILD THREAD

[Vikki]

On receiving the box containing my T-Rex 500efl Pro kit I was surprised at how small it was.

When I got it home Junior and Chopasaurus had to just check out the new member of the family:

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On opening the boxes I was struck by the quality of the parts. I could see I was going to enjoy owning an Align helicopter:

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The kit even included the Loctites and grease required. Now that is just inspired:

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On removing the head components ready for assembly I noticed that they were already assembled. But only insofar as to show you where parts went. I had to remove each part that required Loctite and aply a small amount to the tip of the thread before refitting the part firmly. Could have done with a bit more blue Loctite as the bottle had to be kept upside down to keep the stuff at the nozzle. If you kept it upright you'd have a long wait for the little bit of liquid to reach the nozzle.

The head went together very easily and I paid careful attention to the instructions at each stage. It took me about 9 hours in total to build the model and about 4 hours to set up the AR7200BX flybarless controller. Why so long? Because I'd watched some videos on how to set it up and realised I wasn't too happy with the way I had done it so I did it again to be sure.

The head is simply gorgeous. I'm really impressed with this kit so far.


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Next stage coming in a few minutes.

Vikki.

[Vikki]

This build thread is a diary of my build and is the first one I've ever done. Basically it's pictures and my thoughts on the kit, so let's move on to the frame.

The frame is carbon fibre and looks quality when you see it. CF bits, plastic bits and aluminium bits. Lots of screws.

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I'd seen that the frame had to be really square and and the screws shouldn't be tightened at this point. Once all screws were in the frame needed to be put on a very flat surface and when there was no wobble the screws could be pinched up. So, this I did. Then it's like doing it twice as you take each screw out and apply Loctite then put it back and tighten it up. Then I found that the holes in the CF frame are so good that this isn't necessary. Well, it was, because I had a wobble and I got my frame square so there was no wobble then tightened the screws before doing the Loctite thing. The main shaft spins freely and slides up and down without binding and all was well.

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Put the skids on and you start to get some idea of the size of this critter.

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[Vikki]

When I saw the size of the motor I nearly had a fit. Here it is next to the Blade 450X's motor. The bearings on the Align motor are quite large (unlike the tiddly ones on the Blade motor which disintegrated on my.
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Next to be fitted were the servos. The cyclic servos are full size and have metal gears. I wonder where the shock goes if it can't strip plastic gears? These servos look the business. The tail servo is inboard of the frame and is a high-speed plastic jobby. No more servos hanging out on the tail. Screws come with the servos, long silver things (meant for wood no doubt) but Align provide their own screws that are not as long, they are more than long enough for what they are going to screw into.

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More coming in a few minutes.

[Vikki]

The next item to build was the tail unit. Again this was already assembled but nothing was tight and nothing was loctited. Assembly was simply to assist you in getting parts in the right places and in the right order. It didn't take long to Loctite and fit the screws. The tail slide appears to have change from what I've had described to me and I had no problem with it binding.

There is a threaded tube that goes through the tail slide, this needs to be done up properly or there will be slack. Put Loctite in the female part before screwing together to avoid getting Loctite on parts that move. The torque tube inner rod is supported by a bearing held in a rubber holder about half way down the tube. The bearing needs to be super-glued into the rubber so be VERY careful that you don't get any glue in the bearing.

With the tail in place you get an even better idea of how big this thing is going to be.

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[Vikki]

The main gear was installed along with the tail drive and one-way bearing. This was fully assembled for you and only needed checking to be sure.

Now it was time to install the motor. This was an easy thing to do but only if done without the gear pinion on.

Apparently there has to be a gap of 0.1mm between pinion and main gear. I had no idea how to do this so I installed it so there was a very tiny movement one the main gear before the pinion was touched. I mean very tiny. I found out later you can use some cut-up plastic bag between the teeth. I figured I had that and I'd already Loctited the large screws.

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One problem I did have, well two really, was that there was a note in the box saying not to use a tie wrap to hold the ESC in place but to use two bits of double sided sticky. It also seemed to refer to the T-Rex 250?! Looking at the underside of the battery tray I was very dubious that sticky would hold as there was no flat surface on which to stick it and the manual showed a cable tie being used. I used a cable tie but didn't pull it tight. The other problem was it was difficult getting one of the Velcro straps in place because of the ESC. I think this is a new critter not covered by the manual. The other Velcro strap couldn't be fitted at all. I managed to get it all sorted in the end, bar one Velcro strap.

Make sure the ESC's capacitors are close to the battery tray and not the other way (further away). The wrong way puts the capacitors right on the pinion. Bzzzzzzz!

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[Vikki]

Here's the AR2700BX flybarless controller unit as donated by Larry. Don't worry, Larry will be rebuilt sometime but I'm getting a better motor for him (and another AR7200BX). It sat neatly on the upper tray. This model gives you two positions for the FBL controller. I chose this one as it gave me easy access to the menu button. Although not in this pic I had some tube that I glued pointing straight out the back and shoved the long antenna wire from the receiver down it to keep it in that orientation. The short one just stuck straight out.

I had to do a little filing to allow the antennas to come straight out rather than climbing out over the frame. It was only about 3mm.

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This next picture gives you some idea of the size difference between a 300X, a 450 and the 500.

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[Vikki]

Junior and Chopasaurus greeting their new friend Harry.

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I need to fix the centre of gravity as the nose was quite heavy. Using plasticine I determined that I needed about 30g of weight somewhere along the last half of the tail. I made the sliding ring that can be seen in this picture. The brass ring was bored out to the exact size of the tail and a 4mm dog-nose grub-screw was used to secure it (Loctited of course). The o-rings either side just make it look prettier.

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Here is a video of Harry spooling up. Just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong, like shakes or something. I didn't expect there to be but better find out here than in the field.

Oh, yes, when I went for the full motor speed I had the feeling I wanted to be in the next county along and I didn't particularly care if it was east or west of me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI0DhfDk3w8

Thanks for reading, I hope I did the build some sort of justice. I may tweak the pages as I remember things or add them further down, further down is probably better.

[Vikki]

I was meticulous over the set-up of the blades and geometry. I used an RC Logger digital pitch gauge and used it to level the Harry on the bench and did all the needed things and when I checked the blades for tracking on spool up they were spot on! I'm one happy little bunny

Best regards.

Vikki.

[muscleflex]

Very cool Vicky. Where did you get those blank connectors for the unused channels on the ar7200? I like them.

[muscleflex]

Uhm, Vic, is that dog poo on top of the Heli head on the video??? Hehe

[Vikki]

Thanks, Muscle the little covers came with the heli in the little spares bag that would be the 450X and the 300X.

Dog-doo? Nooooooo. :whistle:

[Vikki]

Here's the pic of that antenna tube I mentioned.

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[Pantone 186C]

A well presented build thread Vikki - Look forward to the vdeos of your maiden flight

[Reality Bites]

Here's the pic of that antenna tube I mentioned.

[ATTACH]46027[/ATTACH]

Hi vicki, I've been looking into this tube for my 7200 on a 550. Is it the same as this tube for a car?
Fastrax FAST103 - Antenna Tube (1) - Various Colours

[st200ol]

Hi Vikki, very tempted to get a genuine Align 500 (mine is an HK) the quality looks excellent. Thanks for posting the pictures of the build.

One little observation, the brass spacers that go through the servo mounting rubbers are the wrong way round.

I used to assemble them that way, the rubber gets a little too compressed. After I saw a build video with them the other way round and tried it they do seem to work better.

I'm not sure its worth changing it now though.