Chase 360 Build thread

[PeteStewardson]

OK so another hour or so spent last night on the Chase. I don't think it will be ready for Saturday as it's taking me longer than I thought.

First off I got the dremel out and shaped the bottom of the motor pinion so I can move it all the way up without catching the motor screws. Nice job even if I do say so myself lol



Frames are all together now. I've not loctited the screws yet as I want to make sure everything is in the right place first as the manual is very much full of holes. It does seem a bit flimsy at the minute, but then it occurred to me that I've forgotten to put the ESC plate up front and that should give a significant amount of strength. Good job I've not put the loctite on I've also got to put the cyclic servos on and center them so I may remove the top plate to do that as it will be easier.



The tail is nice, although not as free moving as I would like. I've reamed the ball links and it's better but think I need to give it a touch more. One thing with the two links on here is that they were near enough solid before reaming them out a little.



The finished(ish) airframe.



A couple of observations.

The manual doesn't say how tight anything should be belt wise. I may have them too tight as there seems to be a lot of friction, but I've never owned a belt drive heli so I don't know how they should be. Right now if you turn the main shaft by hand then let go it wont free run when you let go like every none belt heli I've had. No idea if this is normal.

The battery tray is interesting. The carbon plate is forced to bend as you fix it in, which gives it tension to force against the battery catches. At first I thought I'd done something wrong as I fitted the tray and it was loose. Turned it round and it all made sense.

The boom is REALLY light, made of thin carbon. When you pick it up on it's own it feels like it weighs nothing at all, really odd after being used to metal booms of this size.

So far it's quite a slow build for me. Being belt which is unfamiliar, and also having a very unfinished manual, is making it a slow build. The quality of the parts is there, ignoring the odd screw size issue which I'm sure will be addressed, but this is very much a beta release heli I'd say.

Still haven't made my mind up whether to go with the ebar or a Kbar I've picked up.

[PeteStewardson]

OK so things didn't go to plan last night. Fitted the servos and started to sort out the swash and head. Put everything together and found the swash to head ball links are all very very loose. One so loose it can be removed and refitted with almost no pressure at all, wont hold in flight

I've contacted the supplier and distributor and it's not somethign that's been seem before, and they will get swapped out, but it seems like the first real quality control issue I've seen.

It does mean it wont be ready for the weekend sadly, so will have to wait for it's maiden until I can get the replacements.

[cupracing]

Oh dear, great it's all getting sorted though.

[PeteStewardson]

I think KDS rushed it out, the manual is almost useless in a few places, but as long as you can follow the pictures it's ok.

It's a nice looking heli though. Can't wait to fly it.

[kylelnsn]

Our stock arrived late this evening, very nice looking model indeed! Pre orders getting a free set of blades!

Very tempted!!!!!

[cupracing]

Got any combos Kyle?

[kylelnsn]

Got any combos Kyle?

Of course! The full range.

[PeteStewardson]

Got any combos Kyle?

You know you want to

[That Guy]

Any Updates?

[PeteStewardson]

Funny you should ask, I was just about to post an update, or more a non-update TBH

I'm still waiting for ball links, so I'm not much further forward right now. I was hoping to have them quickly but it's not happened. No idea where they are TBH and it's pretty annoying looking at a pretty much finished heli you can't fly.

I've done some wiring and eventually discovered how to get the servo wires to the FBL. The ESC has it's EC3 connector on, the lipos have their plugs on. I just need to centre the tail servo, and set up once the links arrive. Just can't do any of that yet

[PeteStewardson]

OK so still no news on when I'll get any links, so instead I've decided I need to take matters into my own hands and find alternatives... And you know what I think I may have a solution. Going through the parts last night I have found some link rods and A ball links from a trex 600 ( I think ) which fit nice. Nice positive click on, wont come off easily, but are smooth and not too tight on the swash and grip balls

So today I'm going to build those up to see if I can get the right length as they look ok but wont know until they're built if they will work.

Looking at the heli last night thoguh I thought I'd post some further thoughts on quality. There's a few things that I'm not happy about on it now it's built.

First off the main frames are not identical on both sides. I never compared them before building but now it is built I can see the clearance between the frame and the main gear is different on both sides. One side is almost touching the frame, so not sure if I'll have to dismantle the whole lot to sort that out yet.

Then the tail drive gear ( which is plastic ) is awful and no where near running true. If this was a TT drive heli then it wouldn't work, not sure what it will be like when up to headspeed so this might be a big issue too.

All the plastic ball link ends are the worst I've seen in my limited experience. The tail ones I reamed out a bit and they seem ok but still a bit tight. I think I'll need to go through that again. The swash to grip and follower are too loose. I found two that were 'OK' for the followers but even they're not brilliant. There's also no markings on them to show which side is which. The align links I've tried fit really nice, nice positive click on, and move nicely on the metal balls, but because of the way the KDS ones are made up, you can't replace the standard ones on the followers as they have a moulded in thread.

Hopefully tonight I'll have the links made up for the swash to grip links and then I can try and get everything setup.

[PeteStewardson]

OK so an update. The heli is now finished and maidened.

In the above post I mentioned the tail pulley not running true, this turns out to be an issue with the screw head being too big and deforming the support fins holding the pulley in shape. By getting a dremel on the screw head to remove some of the thickness it all runs reasonably true again.

I also had to file a small amount off the frames to give the main drive belt more room, and there is also some work to do on getting the main gear a bit lower to center the belt on it, but I think it's fine for now running where it is.

So I maidened it today. Only had 2 flights due to time and a couple of unexplained issues.

I'm running the stock combo but with a Kbar ( vbar clone ) instead of ebar. And Haiyin 1300mah lipos.

First the good.

The sound, or lack of in some ways. Loving that.

Also I have to say this is the first heli I've had where it will hands off piro in roughly the same spot. I guess this is down the the weight being higher or something. But I like that.

Everything seemed spot on from the first hover, although I had to turn my DR down and the expo up a tad to get the cyclic how I like it. Flying a couple of circuits it all feels good. It's nice and stable, just how I remember the Phoenixtech TT360 being. This is exactly what I was hoping for I'm thinking to myself.

Then the bad

Running the throttle at 75% I only got 3 mins flying out of a 1300mah pack. And I'm only doing very basic circuits. That took the packs down to 21% Ouch on flight times even at 75%

At 90% throttle I seemed to have a tail issue where every now and again the tail would seem to kick out a very small amount in the over. Tried playing with gains but it didn't seem to make much difference.

Upright I had no issues at all really, but then I flipped inverted. I can only hover nose in inverted so I just put the heli in a tail in hover and flip over. Once inverted the heli seemed to have a bad case of the shakes, not stable at all. I tried this twice with the same result. Each time it went back to being fine after a second or two once flipped back the right way up. I have absolutely no idea what could cause this as I've never had this before. Anyone any ideas?

On real close inspection on landing the second time, I noticed that the boom has been damaged by the boom clamp. To get the boom to stay in place I had to slot the bottom frame holes for the boom support screws like others have otherwise the boom is too loose in the metal mounts. This seemed to work and I got the boom clamp just tight enough to hold the boom. However the metal has been CNC'd not assuming this, and so when the two halves are closer together the bottom section squeezes the boom in a pressure point and then punctures the boom. I guess this happens when it's under stress in flight rather than when you put it together.

So I'd check the boom at that clamp everyone to make sure yours is ok. The boom appears completely solid in the mount, so I'm convinced it's not that that is causing my issue inverted though. But it looks like I need to buy a new boom.

All in I'm a bit disappointed. It has potential and flew nice until I flipped it inverted, but the shakes then don't fill me with confidence. And since there are a few QC issues on things like the boom clamps it's caused more issues.

I hope KDS can sort this heli out, it will be awesome once the problems have been ironed out. But until then I can see this being an expensive heli.

[GIXERMAN]

i feel a disappointment for you, as you have been waiting patiently in anticipation for this heli to land, hope you get it all sorted out pete.

[PeteStewardson]

Yeah disappointed kind of sums up my feelings right now. Especially at needing a new boom when I haven't even had a hard landing, and then the massive shakes inverted. I might try and get it on video tomorrow doing that to see if anyone has any ideas. The low flight time I wasn't expecting at a low headspeed, but I can probably cope with that by getting loads of packs. Lets hope the issues can be resolved and I have a better view soon

[kylelnsn]

Drop me an email, I will get a boom out to you