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**robgt** · 13-12-2008, 01:41 AM

Some pictures

Cheers,
Rob

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**Tim Procter** · 13-12-2008, 08:15 AM

Was looking at one of these fully built in Fastlads yesterday Rob.

First impression is, The belt mechanism just doesnt look right somehow.

The tiny belt on the massive main gear looks out of place and also looking at your picture of the tail belt over the tail gear isnt running true in the centre, That could lead to belt fraying as we know.

Also noticed too many belt pulley's for my liking, My experience with belt pulley's "ie" the T-Rex 450 tail it wanted removing.

Motor to main gear via a belt is just adding to our troubles, Nothing wrong with direct pinion to main gear contact IMO.

Maybe my assumptions are wrong and I won't say it doesnt fly nice because it obviously does.

Prove my statements wrong Rob.

Sorry to sound negative about this heli but we all have our opinions.

I know you will give an honest review whether it belongs to Trevor or not.

**SRH990** · 13-12-2008, 10:07 AM

The end-to-end belt drive actually works very well. One benefit is that it's very quiet, all you hear really is blade noise. You do have to set two belt tensions, main gear to pinion and main gear to tail but it's not a big issue. I've not had any belt fraying problems and it's always stayed on the main gear and even with the 3 pulley's in the system it still autos fine so the drag can't be that bad, especially as it weighs so little

**Tim Procter** · 13-12-2008, 10:23 AM

Certainly take your comments on board Steve and agree about less noise but to be honest the noise with electrics has never been a problem has it.

Not here to critisize mate just voicing my opinion.

Knowing Rob quite well he calls a spade a spade and won't be hyping this heli up any more than neccesary.

You obviously like yours, Have you any negative comments on it or are you very happy with it.

**robgt** · 13-12-2008, 10:46 AM

Prove my statements wrong Rob.

I will if they are mate

Not flying this weekened unfortunately as I am visiting family for our early xmas meetup.

Soon though... dammit!

Cheers,
Rob

**Britflyer** · 13-12-2008, 12:29 PM

Things wrong with the Protos:

The flybar carrier sucks!! I've used about 7 of them in mine so far. They keep coming loose. For those that don't know the Protos the flybar carrier is plastic with a brass insert in the middle that the pivot bolts screw into.

What I have been finding is that the brass insert is coming loose from the plastic carrier. So although all your bolts are tight you have play on the flybar. This play has been enough to cause noticeable phasing issues.

I thought I knew what I was doing wrong on the build, but no, it still keeps happening. I'm left wondering whether I am running to much pitch/cyclic, but I have no major binding!

MSH are working on a beefed up unit I believe but for now I have a cnc flybar carrier on the way from Infinity Hobbies which I hope will solve the problem.

I was going to sell the Protos because of this very and only issue I have had with the Protos. But it flys to damn good to let it go without trying a cnc flybar carrier or I could just go flybarless !! :-)

Belt system works great so far.

I don't particularly like the stock canopy colours, alot of black in it. But I see Canomod have some nice Protos canopys at reasonable money.

I changed the tailblades as the kit versions are the flexible gorilla type plastic. I went with the MSH 3K tailblades and they are much better.

SAB blades in the kit work good.

The stock motor is plenty powerful but does get hot, but I can run to lipos back to back with no issues so far.

Paul

**robgt** · 13-12-2008, 02:04 PM

Thanks for the info Paul. Very useful!
I take it the flybar carrier hasn't yet been updated by MSH along with the other bits (blade grips, boom clamp, etc)?

Cheers,
Rob

**Edders** · 13-12-2008, 02:08 PM

Originally posted by Britflyer View Post

Things wrong with the Protos:

The flybar carrier sucks!! I've used about 7 of them in mine so far. They keep coming loose. For those that don't know the Protos the flybar carrier is plastic with a brass insert in the middle that the pivot bolts screw into.

What I have been finding is that the brass insert is coming loose from the plastic carrier. So although all your bolts are tight you have play on the flybar. This play has been enough to cause noticeable phasing issues.

I thought I knew what I was doing wrong on the build, but no, it still keeps happening. I'm left wondering whether I am running to much pitch/cyclic, but I have no major binding!

MSH are working on a beefed up unit I believe but for now I have a cnc flybar carrier on the way from Infinity Hobbies which I hope will solve the problem.

I was going to sell the Protos because of this very and only issue I have had with the Protos. But it flys to damn good to let it go without trying a cnc flybar carrier or I could just go flybarless !! :-)

Belt system works great so far.

I don't particularly like the stock canopy colours, alot of black in it. But I see Canomod have some nice Protos canopys at reasonable money.

I changed the tailblades as the kit versions are the flexible gorilla type plastic. I went with the MSH 3K tailblades and they are much better.

SAB blades in the kit work good.

The stock motor is plenty powerful but does get hot, but I can run to lipos back to back with no issues so far.

Paul

Few at first I thought you was going be gunning for me after selling it to you.

Mike

**Britflyer** · 13-12-2008, 06:32 PM

No, hasn't been updated yet.

MSH are aware of the problem but they said it will take a while to fix as it would need a new mould to be made rather than modify the existing one, or summat like that!

Apart from this issue, I really like my Protos.

Flys so much better than any Trex I have flown.

The Trex 500s I have flown all felt like small 30 size nitro machines (nice and stable but really 3D monsters!) but the Protos feels like a slightly larger 450 size electric.

It's almost as quick on the cyclics as my Synergy Flybarless !!

The trade-off for the stunning flight performance is that it is abit fragile hence why I feel the flybar carrier is abit weak.

I should have CNC flybar carrier, blade grips and mixer arms here this week. Will update on how I get on with them!

Ohh and there is an MSH CF frame conversion soon to be released!

Paul

**Britflyer** · 13-12-2008, 06:33 PM

Originally posted by Edders View Post

Few at first I thought you was going be gunning for me after selling it to you.

Mike

Actually glad you guys sold out at the 3D Masters. As I spent about 6 weeks doing DIY after the Masters and by the time I had done all that, the new kits were out with many of the updated parts!

Paul

**wildpalms** · 13-12-2008, 10:26 PM

Have me and Sue to thank for that. Both ours were collected from the Masters.

The update pack arrived just as soon as Sue finshed building the airframe

Having witnessed the destruction of hers I've managed to put off flying mine so far. Quality bit of engineering though.

--
Dave

**SRH990** · 14-12-2008, 03:45 PM

Originally posted by busterboy View Post

Certainly take your comments on board Steve and agree about less noise but to be honest the noise with electrics has never been a problem has it.

Not here to critisize mate just voicing my opinion.

Knowing Rob quite well he calls a spade a spade and won't be hyping this heli up any more than neccesary.

You obviously like yours, Have you any negative comments on it or are you very happy with it.

Not a problem, I mentioned it being quiet because it's quieter than any other heli I've flown or seen

I've had two sets of updated parts FOC since I got the Protos, new tail pulley, tail gearbox, main blade grips, tail fin etc. which have all improved the Protos. No real complaints that haven't been rectified by the upgrades, not had a prolem with the flybar carrier either. The flybar is only 2mm diameter so bend pretty easily, the paddles are Gorilla paddles originally intended for the Trex 450 so look a little small but cyclic power isn't lacking.

As Britflyer says, it flys more like a 450 on steroids than a 500 size heli, nice on a clam day but not so good on a windy one. I've god the weights out of the paddles at the moment but I'm intending to put half of the weights back in. It does fly like a flybarless heli without the weights.

Again, as Britflyer covers, the standard canopy colours aren't that good for visibility, I bought a white canopy and went fluorescent on it, much better now.

Protos are pretty quick to respond to problems and so far all the updated parts have been free, wish all manufacturers would do this.

**robgt** · 01-01-2009, 08:53 PM

I managed to get a couple of flight vids today on the Protos. A very cold day meant my packs were only charged to 90% but it was still performing very well.
The cyclic servos have now been swapped for Align DS510 servos having flown it previously on the Hitec HS82 servos and with them being unable to centre properly on any servo made it bad to fly, but quite funny

The Align servos are working very well and the only thing I have to get properly sorted on it now is the gyro (LogicTech 2100) as it is currently swimming around a little bit. This could just be down to the cold, but I'm going to keep playing around with the settings to see if I can improve it.

I've also switched to the Torsion 430mm blades (having fitted the 10mm blade grip upgrade recently released) as they are just superb on the Trex500, considerably better than the SABs in my opinion.

First impressions are great. It's quick on the cyclics and has loads of punch on the pitch being considerably lighter than a Trex500 (ready to fly weight with pack is about 190g lighter!). It currently feels a bit "swimmy" but I'm positive thats down to the gyro which isn't holding the tail solid as yet. In the air it feels lighter than the Trex500 but not by as much as I was expecting. That said, the packs are coming off barely lukewarm at around 35 degrees so they are having a pretty easy ride.

Once again, thanks to Trevor at Midland helicopters for the loan of the heli and a couple of LiPos - very much appreciated!

Couple of videos to follow...

Cheers,
Rob

**robgt** · 01-01-2009, 08:53 PM

Video 1

Cheers,
Rob

[ame]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IFAoYDDmuPI[/ame]

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Playing with the Protos

Playing with the Protos

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