Rave On !!!!!!!!!!!

[mattie-lodge]

Hi All,

Yesterday I was fortunate to receive a Rave 450 size helicopter designed by Curtis Youngblood. In this thread I'm going to try to produce a build blog so it can been seen how the model goes together on a step by step basis. I hope that this info will be usefull.

I first saw this model at 3D champs this year and although some of the pictures I saw didn't sway me straight away, as soon as I saw it in the flesh and Russ Deacon flying it I instantly loved it. It had plenty of power, seemed to fly straight and have more than enough tail authority not forgetting that the thing looked simply awsome.

The setup

Rob Blake from EVO RC as usual supplied the kit to me in a super quicktime with the best advice for setup. I elected to go for the 4s setup and run 350 blades. Pictures below shows what I'm using. Revo packs are my choice of cells and being the 2100's seem so strong I will be using these in a 4s con-fig. Scorpion motor HKII-2221-10 and their 55A esc with the Infer-red programing gadget will be the power plant. Radix 350 blades and HS-5056 cyclic servo's with a 9257 on the tail. The gyro will be a CSM 720 of course







Whats in the box

When the box is opened you are instantly impressed with the quality of this kit. The manual is a 48 page glossy book containing very detailed colour pictures of how to assemble the model. In mine I have an amendment sheet to the instructions. As this is the first batch of kits there was some changes I guess. Will details these as I go. All the parts bags are sealed and labelled with their individual step numbers. There is also a spare parts bag which I'm sure will come in very useful. The canopy is a high quality fibre glass resin based and painted to a good finish.





As I get through the build I will update this blog/thread for you to see each step.

Hope you enjoy it

[machasm]

Thanks Matt,
Looking forward to the rest of the review.

[jiberjaber]

/subscribes

You not using the -6 motor that comes with it?

Is the boom 'Trex' dia?

[robgt]

Is the boom 'Trex' dia?

No, it's 1mm (I think) bigger.

Cheers,
Rob

[Droid]

Mines built and flown, damn thing is awesome, i hate 450's, this doesn't fly like a 450.....
Stock paddles are useless, needs the Stubz to give it F/Barless performance ( without weights of course).

I'm running 3S at the moment 2100 Revo and 2170 FP have tried the 2500 Outrage packs on it using 350mm blades outdoors, but they are a wee bit big to fit under the canopy.

Had three indoor sessions with it so far.....loving it!!

[mattie-lodge]

First Building step

Step 1 is where the main frame gets assembled and the undercarriage fitted. As can be seen by the bag in the first picture, all the steps for building the model come in their own respective bags.



First of all you attach the bearing blocks, battery tray and motor mount to the right hand frame. It’s recommended not to tighten the bolts until the frames are together as this will help in getting the frames square. The plastic bottom strip is a great idea as it will allow you to keep the radio installation neat and more importantly place the gyro directly beneath the main shaft. (The optimum place) The bearing blocks have a certain orientation that they have to be fitted but this is well explained in the instructions.






They give you the option of using cap head screws or shallow dome head screws to hold the carbon battery tray on. I went for the dome headed to protect the battery.



Once the frames are together you place the assembly on a flat surface and tighten the bolts making sure the frames are square. You will have to leave the motor bolts still loose and un-loctited until the motor is installed. This is how you will adjust the motor gear mesh.




Next the one piece undercarriage is fitted. A bolt is screwed into the fwd underside leg and left hanging by 8mm. A piece of fuel tube is pushed over it and then this acts as a post for the canopy to locate on.




Initially I didn’t like the idea of a one piece undercarriage as I was thinking of cost but at £6.99 and you get two of them I didn’t think that this was too bad. In fact the spares costs for this heli are very reasonable according the EVO RC site. Link here

This then completes Step 1 which went without a hitch

[Droid]

They give you the option of using cap head screws or shallow dome head screws to hold the carbon battery tray on. I went for the dome headed to protect the battery.

Matt, ditch the dome heads, they will break, i ended up using the spare cross head (silver) ball screws, protect the battery even more.......

Also you'll wish you put the servos in before putting the frames together.......

Also the canopy grommets are useless, 5 flights and they will start to tear, havent sourced anything yet, but working on it

[Droid]

One more thing..... In the instructions it states to put a small shim (optional) between the split in the front tail boom carrier, it is more beneficial to actually just loctite the clamp screw making sure the clamp holds, but the bearing on the TT gear doesn't go tight. Other than the see-saw screws this is one of the few places i dared to put loctite......

[mattie-lodge]

So moving on then

Step 2, Main gear and auto rotation hub assembly.

These components come packed in a separate bag.



The main gear is a 177 tooth which has a recess to fit the pre-assembled auto hub carrier and one way bearing.




This is attached by 5 screws with out any resistance at all. I applied some one way bearing grease and then pushed through the sleeve which will accommodate the secondary tail drive gear.



After the tail drive had been fitted I noticed some up and down movement between the two gears. I measured this at .4mm max. Initially I went down the road of making a shim up to remove the error but recalling my days with the JR Vibe 90 I remembered I had the same thing. After investigation I found that this play didn’t cause any vibration or running difficulties at all so I have decided to leave this as a standard fit and will eliminate it if the need arises at a later date. (As you can see by this picture I was going to use a brass glow plug crush able washer to take this error out but I omitted it in the end)





Fitting the running gear to the main shaft is a standard procedure. The mast locking collar is slipped over the top and secured. The kit shows one grub screw to secure the mast locking collar, however I used one out of the spares bag to even up the locking pressure on the collar. This squares up the mast locking collar to the main shaft and helps prevent any binding of the top bearing.




So good so far

[richieclarkie]

Great thread Matt. I'm looking forward to flying my.... sorry YOUR Rave.

[mattie-lodge]

Onto the head then

Step 3. Head Assembly

Ok, so it’s time to put together the head. Once again it comes in its own sealed bag.









There are a few of the head parts that are pre assembled, like the flybar carrier and mixing arms and the lower mixing arms to the washout base. I took these apart to check for thread lock. They had plenty there but I always like to check.


First on the agenda was main blade grips and feathering spindle.





The damping system for the head is a X2 o-ring affair on each side. An amendment to the instructions is to check the sizing of the head block for damper fitment and that they are not to loose in the block itself once installed, but I’m pleased to say that this one was fine. A spacer is fitted on both sides next to the dampers and then the main blade grips are installed. Thrust washers sit on the outside which have to be greased and then the bolt inserted into the feathering shaft with thread lock.
Too much thread lock here will lock the thrust races up and too little will cause disaster.

Next was to the fit the balls to the swash plate and place this over the main shaft.



Lower mixing arms and washout were check for thread lock and this is where another amendment is. Where the links come off of the mixing arms and go to the swash there is play. The cure for this is to use two of the .15mm shims that come with the Radix blades, cut them down and sandwich them in between the links and mixer arms. This removes the play.



The flybar carrier is installed above the blade grips on the head block and then the flybar is pushed through.



The flybar carrier is built round after putting on the links that will go to the lower mixing arms. Orientation is critical here so follow the instructions. After the flybar carrier is fitted there maybe some side to side play. This is also noted in the instruction and can be taken out by a washer which is in the spares bag if needs be.



Two sets of paddles are supplied. The larger set for a more aggressive feel and the small set for a softer feel of flying. I’ve put the larger ones on but have a feeling they be changed for the smaller ones.



All that’s left is to fit it to the main shaft, install the top Jesus bolt and connect the links up.



I'm off to start building the next part, Loving it so far

[mattie-lodge]

Onwards and upwards or should I say backwards (tail section)

Step 4 Tail gear box.

As you have probably gathered this model has incorporated a torque tube tail drive system. Do I think this is a good idea for this size of model? Yes I do. The amount of times I have struggled to keep the belt tight on 450’s, I think its very wise.

When you open the packet you will find the various parts that build the tail gearbox.



Beginning with the base unit, you attach the left side and carbon fin to it.



Next place the tail output shaft in the bearing slide the spacer over. The right side is then attached.



After this had been done I found it required another shim on the shaft to take out the side to side play. I believed it’s necessary to remove this due to the way the tail gears will mesh
.

The tail pitch slider is built. I like this idea with the two bearings running down the guide as opposed to using a pin type of arrangement. The only difficuitly I had doing this was tightening up the bearing screws as you have to use a mini screw on an angle, however I was able to tighten them up.



The pitch slider is attached along with the pitch fork and control links.




One thing I forgot to mention on the head build is that you will have to ream the ball links out on this model to fit the balls. I made my own ball link reamer using one of the spare balls and dremeled two 45 degree slots in it.



The tail grips and hub was already pre assembled but I did remove it to check for thread lock. Also I noted that the grips run on a twin bearing arrangement here with no thrust washer. (not unusual for a 450 style machine). This is then placed on the shaft and attached with a grub screw completing the tail box assembly.

[machasm]

The tail assembly looks really neat Matt.
The slider and TT look clever.

[mattie-lodge]

It is a great little heli in the build and if it flys any where near as good as the build were in for a winner here.

Fancy a spin when its done?

[machasm]

Wouldn't mind thanks!