Beam E4 Build Blog....

[jiberjaber]

Last post for tonight, need to catch up on some sleep!

The kit comes with a blade caddy, with similar inscriptions to the tail LOL



From this you can see the belt over the tail pully, there is a raised edge on either side to prevent movement.



The kit also comes with a velcro strap which fits the battery tray well.



I tried out a battery to see the fit and it seems fine.



I might plan to put the ESC below the battery, which it a switch from my usual Trex layout of puting the ESC under the main gear and the RX under the battery.



I will have to solder new sockets to the Jazz ESC to fit the new motor.

Below is the gear/pinion mesh and also the gap where my two HS65's will go. These are the pitch and aileron servos.



I am still waiting for my servo gear sets from Inwoods, hopefully tomorrow they will arrive and I can sort out the servos and then move on to where to feed the wires and mount the rest of the electronics.

So left to do:

Servo gears
Mount servos
Mount Gyro
Mount tail servo
Solder new sockets on to ESC and mount ESC
Mount RX
Test it out connections
Mechanical set up of servos & links
Radio programming.
Canopy decals


Bed time!

[Dashik]

Looking nicer each time! I would get one myself if your flying report is positive but to be honest with a T-rex 450 se v2 and all the toys for it I cant rally justify it, I reckon I'll wait and get a T-rex 500 that can deal with the slightly windier days that we get in Fife when I cant fly the 450

[Tim Procter]

I reckon I'll wait and get a T-rex 500 that can deal with the slightly windier days that we get in Fife when I cant fly the 450

I think that's a very good decision Dashik..

[GizmoB73]

This Beam looks beautiful, can wait to see it finished and test flown now.

[jiberjaber]

So progress has been slow tonight. Sat in the front room to keep the other half company The pictures may not be as well lit as the others as it is a bit dim in the front room.

The servo gear sets finally arrived today, so I set about sorting out the servos.

Only 2 of the 3 servos needed new gear sets, so I have a full set of 3 gear sets spare now.

After sorting out the servo gears, I turned my attention to the servo arms.

These servo's were originally on the Trex, so the ball distances were different and often on the wrong side. I have moved the balls in to 11mm (second hole out on the Hitec horn) and they all face away from the servo case.

The servo mounting screws also come with the same cup washers as the rest of the frame.



I started about fitting the elevator servo first. I decided to follow the fitment of my old Trex, so the servo was fitted on the left as viewed from the front. There is a longer servo ball in the kit which was fitted to this servo. This ensures the ball is in line with the swash elevator ball.

I tried fitting the servo internal to the frame, but the upper bearing antirotation fastner fouled the servo stopping it from secureing by the center screw. So the servo was mounted on the outside of the frame.





I fitted small nyloc nuts to the servo screws for the elevator servo.



Next was the pitch and aileron servos. These had standard balls fitted, again on the second hole from center.

These have a carbon spacer and then fit in to the upper bearing block and an adjustable lower cross brace. On Bob (Finless) White's video for the servo installation which I checked this evening before starting this, he talks about this carbon spacer being flush with the cross members when installing. I approached it from a different way, they only fit one way round as the holes are off set from the longitudinal center.

On inspection this lined up well with the holes of the servo and sat nicely on the shoulder of the front of the servo as in the following picture. This did not result in the spacer being flush to the cross member, but standing a little proud.

Maybe this is manufactureing tolerances, but if fitted so they are flush, they would be sitting half on and half off the servo front shoulder.



Both CNC parts have threaded holes (6 in total) to accomodate nearly any suitable servo mounting arrangement. I decided to install with the single holes top and bottom on the servos.





Remember that tail push rod I mentioned, well the epoxy has cured on that, so here are a couple of pictures. It is fairly sturdy carbon rod so no tail boom supports should be neccessary.



The eyes screw on to the CNC ends - the picture exagerates my kak glue skills



Last but not least, here is the stock supplied boom clam for the tail servo. Unfortunatly my 3154 wount fit the mounting holes, so I am going to pull the boom off tomorrow night and install the Align aluminium servo mount I have and we should be ready to sort out some wires.

I already have a plan for the servo wires, if I had brought in some cable ties, I would have finished that off tonight. The Gyro, main part of the receiver and ESC are fairly straight forward... the ones I am not sure of are the slave receiver, my cellpro protection device and my lipo alarm. Will have to play about with them to see where it is best to fit them

[Aidi]

Great build thread Jason, the Beam looks a pretty nice heli. You also have a very good talent for Photography, the quality of the shots is excellent.

Well done mate, this will come in handy for others when they go through the build process.

Rgds
Aidi

[jiberjaber]

WOW thanks for that compliment about the photography Aidi

[Dashik]

Indeed the pictures have been very good and an interesting build thread, well detailed

Hope your enjoying it

[jiberjaber]

Yes, the pictures get in the way of the build a little but downloading what I have done in to text and the thoughts relating to the build is interesting.

Never bothered with this before when I have built other heli's but hopefully some one finds this useful, if not a good view of what the heli is all about.

I had never seen this heli in the flesh untill I bought it, but I had Andy rabbit on to me when I was discussing the Knight a few months ago about how ace the heli was I was interested but with no Uk dealer at the time, it was a no go... the Trex was still servicable back then as well

With the Trex going in - it seemed like the ideal oppertunity to look at something else, I had toyed with a new V2 or even just the head but the cost was significant.

After missing a small electric for those trips away etc, I am glade I decided to get the Beam.

I have some reservations as to what state the gyro and tail servo are in and the motor size and esc still.

The gyro and servo appear to work well on the bench, but something in the tail was contributary to the last crash when it spun round and chased me.

I am a little concerned about the 6 pole high KV motor and pinion, mostly about if the ESC will manage and also the battery life.

Time will tell. I still have a 430XL which I could fit... first flight will be the eye opener.... maybe that could be this weekend (hangover permitting )

[chopper]

hello i was just wondering wot battery would be suitable for the 2221-6?

thanks ;-)

[jiberjaber]

I am planning on using the battieries I already have which are Aurorra Revolutions 2100mAh 3S, I think they are 18C so will have to see how the stand up to the current drawn in flight.

[robgt]

I think you'll be fine with those - I have the same motor and packs on my 450
Cheers,
Rob

[chopper]

well i couldnt resist so ive took the plunge and bought myself a beam E4 wiv 2221-6 motor and 55amp esc so i will be followin this helpful thread on my build cheers

[jiberjaber]

Great stuff chopper Dont forget the finless videos as well as they are an additional source of great info - stick a message on here if you get stuck or are after an opinion on something

[chopper]

will do mate thanks gud luck on ur test flight cant wait to hear the results