Chase 360 Build thread

[PeteStewardson]

Thanks Kyle, I've sent an email about payment details etc

Pete

[PeteStewardson]

OK so I've been out again today for 3 flights.

Upped the throttle to 85%, and last night I loosened the motor to first stage gear a little as I think it was too tight. After flying at 85% with that change I've still got more left in the pack. I think one pack after cooling a bit had 28% still left in it. So this is looking a little more positive on the flight times front, but I suspect bigger lipos might be the order of the day.

I still have a bit of tail kick which is almost like a pulsing as if the governor isn't working right or something.

And the odd inverted issue seems to be more about a kind of bounce/oscillation that it does. Most apparent after coming out of a loop it takes a while to settle. Anyone know what this could be as I've never had it before. I managed to get it on video with my keychain cam but not sure it's very visible. I do a couple of loops at about 1min and 3mins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd3B...ature=youtu.be

[PeteStewardson]

OK 4 flights today, timer said roughly 3:20 for each flight and I was at 23% on the most cooled pack on the battery tester. So it looks like I may have to go to 1600mah packs to get 4min flight times, and I think that's just gens-ace. But the added weight then comes into play. But I'm not sure until I charge how much each pack really has had out of it.

Anyway I set up bank switching and had 3 different cyclic gain settings to choose from. 60 ( standard 450 setting and I knew how the heli would react to it ), 55, and 45

Did the same in each setting and at 55 got almost the same bouncing issue out of a loop but not so bad, then at 45 it was all gone. So it looks like the chase needs quite a low cyclic gain setting. I think I have a bit too much pitch for me though as well, my flips are all over the place pitch wise and I suspect it's because I have too much overall and it's different to my other helis. Might need to check those to see where they are set so everything is the same.

Sorting that out I now have a heli that flies really nicely. Will take some getting used to over my 500 as it's more lively and turns into a dot pretty quickly, but it feels nice in the air.

I still can't get over the lack of noise, you can hear the motor, and the blades, but there's no other sound. Also the KDS servos are silent too, which means you have to watch hard to see the vbar ( oops kbar ) pitch pump initialisation confirm. Also loving the hands off piro's too, my trex 500 never balances this well.

Still have the tail wag issue. Now I've got the cyclic right I can start playing with that to get it spot on. I need to get the links on the tail slider smoother as they're probably a bit stiff right now, and check nothing is slightly out of true.

So after all the issues, she's almost right now.

[Mikej]

It sounds as if you are a bit happier with it now ... a quick question, how far out do you have your balls on the swash servo arms? For a 450 the ideal spacing seems to be about 12mm - 13mm for a Kbar - any further out and you would have to drop the cyclic gain.

[PeteStewardson]

That could explain it, I think the manual for the chase says 15mm so that's what I would have used.

Yes I am a lot happier with the heli now. I still need to sort out the bit of tail wag, but I haven't had chance to look into it yet. I think I'll try disabling the governor in the esc tomorrow for a trial.

[Mikej]

15mm is about right for a 500, but too far out for a 450 - when you set up the K-bar Cyclic 8 degrees you ideally want the % slider to be between 80 and 110, I'm guessing that your value was lower ...

[askeys_heli_madness]

Pete

Any chance of a few piccies now that she is all kitted out, particularly interested in piccies with the canopy off. Just interested to see where you have placed all the electronics.

I had another thought this morning in the early hours with regard to flight times. This thing is allegedly able to run 12S (assuming the gears can take the torque etc). Is there space at present to get two 6s packs in and run them in parallel? Would double your battery capacity, add some weight and at least give you another 2mins flight time say?

Only interested as you commented in my other thread 'which 450 would you buy' and am liking the looks of this chase 360.

Mark

[PeteStewardson]

Sure I'll sort out some photos tonight and update the thread. To be fair it's pretty straightforward wiring wise and I've used the suggested positions for everything.

Glen, the chap that designed the Chase, did plan it to be able to run 12s but I don't think it's tested yet. I'm not even sure there's a suitable motor that is generally available as it would need a 900kv motor. I'm not convinced it would give better flight times though.

According to my flightlog spreadsheet I should be able to fly for 4 mins and stay above 20% left.

[askeys_heli_madness]

Sure I'll sort out some photos tonight and update the thread. To be fair it's pretty straightforward wiring wise and I've used the suggested positions for everything.

Glen, the chap that designed the Chase, did plan it to be able to run 12s but I don't think it's tested yet. I'm not even sure there's a suitable motor that is generally available as it would need a 900kv motor. I'm not convinced it would give better flight times though.

According to my flightlog spreadsheet I should be able to fly for 4 mins and stay above 20% left.

Pete

Not looking to run it at 12s, just two 6s packs in parallel to give you the same voltage but increase your mAh capacity. Just wondered if the frame would allow this as it stands. Appreciate that weight then becomes a factor so you would not be able to double the time, however maybe get half as much again?

[PeteStewardson]

You can run slightly larger lipos but fitting two I think would be too big.

I've been out again this lunch. Another 4 flights, and I've cracked the tail pulsing. It's the governor in the ESC. Turned it off and ran just a flat line in the TX and the pulsing is gone. Very slight way left but that's just a gain issue I think. I've got the bank switching setup still for playing with cyclic gain so couldn't play with the tail gains today. I can probably live without the governor for my flying, but I thought the Hobbywing governor was supposed to be very good.

Anyway really beginning to like the Chase now. After all the issues I was beginning to have a bit of a downer about it and a few regrets buying it, but now I'm happy with the purchase. Just need to do some more flying to get used to it more.

[Mikej]

Pete,

the other option that you have is to use the Kbar governor (assuming you got the sat bound ok). I use it on one of my 450s and it is excellent.

where in Reading do you fly?

cheers,
Mike

[PeteStewardson]

I never got the Sat to bind and just used an RX I had in the end. Although I might give it another go at some point and then yes that is another option.

I fly on some waste ground the business park I work on allow me to use at lunchtimes, and then I go to FMHC near hook if I get to fly at weekends.

[PeteStewardson]

Sorry not great photos but took some to show where the electrics are, pretty standard locations really

[PeteStewardson]

OK so no sniggering at my flying, or that it's too far away to see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCxW...ature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWAD...ature=youtu.be

Beginning to enjoy this bird now

[PeteStewardson]

So I'm now up to about 35 flights on the Chase now, and I have to say I'm enjoying it hugely.

It does look like the first stage belt is wearing now as I've got a decent amount of black dust on the first stage pulley, but I got my GT2 upgrade parts yesterday for those so will have to swap over. Also getting a bit of bogging on hard collective, not sure why yet, could be as I'm not using the governor right now to stop the tail wag I was having, or maybe the headspeed needs to go up a bit.

It's so quiet it still surprises me how little noise it makes.

So far I'm enjoying this heli. So much so I'm tempted to sell my 500efl and just fly the Chase and the Ballistic.