Stuck on build...

[MartinW]

Yeah, been a long day and I need to engage brain before I type, and then get off the computer ASAP as brain's frazzled! The 50-50-50-50-50 is there from when I was setting up.

I'm not averse to trying for the 0 degrees at mid stick. I'm used to flying the MCPx in idle up mode now because of the need for the increased head speed and I have to say the difference in speed on switching was a bit off-putting when I tried it on the 250

[MartinW]

Something that's constantly confusing me here is why the throttle / pitch curves part of the manual says +/-11 degrees and the 3GX part says 12. Should I maybe just ignore the 12, set my swash mix to give me my +/-11, then redo the 3GX setup. By the time I've done that I would think I'll be back to some far more linear or straightforward pitch curves!

[Sharpedge]

11 or 12, its up to you for the type of flying that you do. People over on freak are using 13 deg to get extra "pop" from this little heli. I have used 12 deg and find it ok for now. Have motor and esc set up the same as you but have had to put Brain under the bottom frame as it is just too thick to fit inside the frames. Using Thunder Power packs and have had no brown out issues.....but only had it for a week so time will tell.

[Stevec]

exactly as Sharpedge says. it is up to you. I tend to set up for around 12 and then tune it back if it feels a bit manic. but saying that my pitchgauge doesnt fit the little rex so I just eyeballed it. I used a screwdriver through the blade bolt holes to find 0 on the head and 90 degrees on the servo arms at centre stick and just did the rest by eye.

the DFC head will give a stupid amount of pitch though I think with 100 swash mix i was seeing just shy of 45 degrees each way.

I am only at the flying around and loops and rolls stage though, I did a couple of flips and half an inverted circuit but I was about 5 mistakes high and couldn't see it properly so I bailed out. I am not really a big fan of rebuilding.. If later on I find that it lacks pop I'll just up the swash pitch mix a little.

it sounds like you have it flying so I'd only mess with it if you really want to make it the same as your mcpx. (which incidentally should have zero at centre and hover at about 3/4 throttle too.

it really is personal preference though the only caveat to that is don't expect someone else to be able to fly it to show you something or check it out for you.

/Steve

[MartinW]

Thanks for all the input from this thread! I'm happy to report that I've now got it set up more or less sweet as a nut!

I've not really got anywhere to test fly it at home, especially now the nights are coming in so it's a bit of a case of tweaking something, then waiting a week or two to test it (right pain!). So anyway, all I've done for now is up the head speed at mid stick to 70 as suggested and also put my ail / elev roll rate back up to 33. Issues with changing height solved!

I've also added expo to the tune of about +30 on the TX. I'm not used to that much by a long way but without it I find it's still a bit twitchy. I'm hoping that fairly soon when I get some flight time in I can bring the expo back down. I'm also going to go for the matching normal and idle up pitch curves too but I didn't want to change too many things at once.

All in all, very happy now and am looking forward to it immensely. It's a major confidence booster. I only wish I could get my 450 sport running as nice.

All ive got left to do now is tidy the wiring up, sort those few screws out and buy some decent sats. I would post pics but it's stock and doesn't look any different to anyone else's! Until I get an assassin canopy to match my 450 of course

[Stevec]

Glad you got it sussed...

With regard to the 450, set the curves up the same as the 250 once you have it done to your liking, a little less expo and it will feel very similar.

Get some pictures on here when you get your canopy.

Also double check those servo wires aren't or can't get anywhere near the motor. It gets interesting flying a heli with half a servo lead cut.... Don't ask how I know.

/Steve

[MartinW]

I bet!

The 450 is an entirely different issue - tail wag that I've never been able to solve since new basically - but I'm starting to actively try and hunt that one down now! Loads of info out there on it so just working my way through it bit by bit

[MartinW]

The 450 is an entirely different issue

Having said that - increasing the head speed is on my list of no-cost things to try before I get to stuff like bigger servo. So, yep, point taken - I will. He's flybarred though. Going FBL on the 450 is certainly on the list of things to do one day, but I feel I should get some flying out of it with the flybar first!

[MartinW]

Right, well, had my first proper flight on the 250 yesterday and it went very well. Was doing a nice amount of "lazy 8's" and it all went off without incident. Well, until the end. I'll start a new thread in the general section but basically one of my ball links decided to detach itself from the servo horn in flight. It definately didn't come undone as the plastic evidence was there to show that it had stripped itself out. Thankfully the only damage done was a few teeth on the main gear so I'll just pick a new one of them up during the week (I have a spare servo horn already) but that's a little disconcerting to say the least. The flight line marshall (this was at an event) said he had the same happen to him the other day too - though he was too busy for me to get into a discussion about it so I didn't get to ask what heli it was. Won't have been a 250 though I don't think!

I've got them all lined up for a photo shoot now as the new canopy arrived yesterday but there's no batteries in the camera, the weather's vile and I have a hangover so I'm not going anywhere today for batteries. Photoshoot will have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest

[Stevec]

Hi Martin, so was the ball link still connected to the servo and the rod pulled out?

these things do take a pounding I have had 2 pretty bad crashes from esc resets and both times it came back with hardly any damage.

/Steve

[MartinW]

Hi - no, the ball was attached to the rod. You could see a tiny slither of plastic attached to the ball where it had clearly stripped the thread out of the plastic!! It makes me want to go and get metal servo horns but even if they did them at this size (which I don't know) that would open me up to other issues such as servo gear stripping under the same event so TBH, it's probably better that it did what it did. Maybe. Don't know!

I started a thread in the general section to ask if it's possible to buy balls with longer threads on them so a small nut could be thread locked onto the back but no replies on that one so I guess either the answer is no or it's just gone un-noticed for now. I did notice when looking for the main gear last night that you can get a set of DS4 servo horns and they are black. The white ones seem like very soft plastic so maybe I'll buy a set of the black servo horns. They may be harder plastic and less prone to stripping the thread?

Just glad it didn't strip the torque tube or anything that would have involved stripping it right back down again! Wouldn't mind if it was a proper crash but all it did was tip over on take off. Actually no, that's a silly thing to say - I'd have been gutted if it had been a proper crash. All the more so on my first proper flight with anything beyond my MCPx!