Beam E4 Build Blog....

[Smoothound]

Jason,

Just ask Rob to send you a new kit of each with servos, Rx etc. and I'm sure you will find the room


Nice thread by the way mate

[woody]

A really interesting thread Jason. Thank you for doing it. The Beam looks like a really nice little heli. Very tempting :-)

[jiberjaber]

Jason,

Just ask Rob to send you a new kit of each with servos, Rx etc. and I'm sure you will find the room


Nice thread by the way mate

LOL Phil - I might try that

[jiberjaber]

Now the costs are available for the Outrage G5 I thought I would perform some cost comparisons with the two latest 450 size heli's against the traditional option of the Align Trex 450. I usualy use this method to help in making decisions about what to buy, but it is never the only reason to buy, you also need to consider the flying experiance from a heli as well - I have flown the SEV1 but not the G5 or the SEV2.



Interestingly the Beam comes out well against the two other helis, mostly because of it's lower component count (only one frame to replace for example rather than an upper and lower). Of course this can be a disadvantage if it is only the lower or upper which has been damaged!

[jiberjaber]

So a little bit of an update.

I decided to drop the pinion down a couple of teeth, so I have now fitted an 11t pinion. This gives me around 3450 rpm at zero pitch at 100% but I suspect there is an issue with the current drawn as it was giving me that at both 100% and 75% throttle. At 55% throttle it was giving 3240 rpm.

Flight time is not much over 3 mins, not sure if that is batter or motor, may need to investigate that a bit more... I may even get the -8 motor to see if it improves things.

A couple of minor build items to add.

I tidied up the ESC area and the lipo alarm. I added some foam stand offs under the ESC to lift it off the ESC tray and provide a bit of vibration protection. The rear of the ESC now clears the cross member better, so I am less worried about abrasion on the motor wires.







I also took the time to drop the motor even though I was able to change the pinion in-situ as I wanted to inspect the motor wires.

It was fairly easy, just removed the two front servos (4 screws) and straight access to the motor screws and pinion.



I had noticed that the motor wires exited at about 45 degrees to the motor's & heli's axis. This meant that they were pushed against the frame and the motor mount. Where the original wires came out and bent they were starting to wear through the insulation. I had previously tried to add some additional heat shrink with the motor installed in the heli, but couldn’t get it round the bend properly. With the motor out I was able to put the heat shrink on to better protect the motor wires.



I also notices that in my quick flight on Saturday, when I was trying to trouble shoot why the heli wouldn’t arm the ESC (it was the receiver deciding to un-bind itself) I had snipped a load of cable ties to isolate components.

As a result of this, the ferrite ring had managed to make contact with the spinning motor and marked the outside casing . At least there wasn’t any damage to the ring or the motor to stop them from working. I have since moved the ferrite up closer to the receiver.

Set up the gyro now, I have the heading hold gain set 80%.

Also decided to try and make a quick video, was a bit of a daft thing to do given the wind but the temptation was too great

When it has finished processing on the rcheliaddict movies it should appear in this thread

[jiberjaber]

[ame]http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/videos/flvideo/261.flv[/ame]

[Stuart]

Give me a few mins to fully convert it......also I'm going to create a forum for the Beam as this review I feel needs a proper home.

[jiberjaber]

Cheers Stuart Feel free to move the thread when it has a new home.

[SteveH39]

video seems to stop after 2 seconds with "click to play", repeat and same thing happens.

[Tim Procter]

video seems to stop after 2 seconds with "click to play", repeat and same thing happens.

Think Stuart is on the case converting it Swigsy..

Its the same for me BTW..

[Stuart]

done - sorry had to nip out

[Tim Procter]

Was just waiting to see that item on the washing line blow into the blades Jason..

Looking good by the way..

[Mike W]

now I enjoyed that lol..... I was waiting for the same Tim , the washing lol....

[jiberjaber]

Yeah - looking back I should have taken the towel off the line, but it was no where near the heli - it is just the angle of the camera (wide angle lens) which makes it look closer

I was realy glad to get it back on the ground, it was very very windy out of the shelter of the bushes - the neighbour appreciated it as well.

I was hoping it might calm down but looks like we are in for a bit of a blow for the next three days or so!

[GizmoB73]

Nice bit of tree trimming there near the end. Well done for keeping it in one piece.

It sounds lovely and the tail seemed fairly solid although the vid was a bit dark at that point.

Keep it up.