Thinking about the E820

[woodsta888]

Maiden'd today!

Wasn't without it's human brown out though. I'd gone through the whole BD3sx again and thought I'd thought of everything, checked everything...................................... Er nah.

Spooled it up, was very quiet and the blades not looking anywhere near fast enough and she went light on her skids and she pirouetted flat out. Due to the inertia or such a large disc she span on the ground without tipping over.................hadn't checked tail servo direction or if I had I'd not registered it being wrong. So home and a quick reprogramme but now with doubts about what else I'd borked on the setup. Back to my pan flat flying field. Spooled up again and up she went, not very far. Stupidly stable and currently very docile. Got some tail wag even in slow backward flight and only due to bringing it back to be tail in. Loved the sound of the blades and enhanced by the mechanics being ultra quiet. 450X is noisier.


I had in factory settings from the manual for hovering about and I thought blade speed would be higher. Switched to idle up 1 which I thought was around 1000 rpm and the revs dropped, into idle up 2 of which I thought was 1400 so went for a few pitch pumps but motor really bogged and it didn't pump into the air. Thought I must be on 6s instead of 12. Alwarm went off at 5 mins so landed and hadn't charged my 2nd set of packs or taken them. Got home and in both packs was still 4v per cell. Used nowt in 5 minutes. So I'm guessing the headspeeds are still relatively low or maybe too low. I need a blade tach to measure headspeed as I couldnt guess. It was too docile for a 3D helicopter so must have been low. Gonna up all my throttle curves tomorrow weather permitting.

SO after many years away since gassers a first build in 10yrs and foray into elecwizardry......IT FLIES!!!!!

Thanks to all those with their help and advice, though I aint finished yet.

If you've read all that and fancy an E820 brand new boxed, unbuilt for £450 delivered......................................... .................................................. ..... there's one on ebay.

[Bavers777]

Best to have too high headspeed than too low.
Set normal throttle curve as 0,25,50,50,50
then idle 1 as. 70,70,70,70,70, l
then idle 2 as 80,80,80,80,80.
Then it will be all good don't risk too low headspeed for maiden.

[woodsta888]

I thought I'd get to high a headspeed and didn't think that with my setup I can't actually acheive the max headspeed of 2000rpm!
So I'll change up tonight then get better authority for adjusting the head and tail gains. It was actually a pleasure just in teh hover due to its size.

Got 3 very slow moving storms on the radar here moving 20 miles in 6hrs and still just offshore. They need to get a move on if I want to fly tonight.

I just realised why you haven't finished your 820 yet Bavers - you got a 720 to complete too!!!!

[Bavers777]

Hi Mate, My e820 is built and with coolice for final setup and should be ready for it's maiden next week, I've gone 815mm Edge blades, YGE 160HV with heatsink, scorpion 4530 380kv, 12 tooth pinion, 14s 5000mah, vbar pro, bl700/750hv servos with separate lipo for electronics and a scorpion failsafe. I'm very excited to get this in the air too.
Just to re-iterate your max head speed based on the setup you mentioned previously should be around 1600rpm at 80% throttle (allowing for the governor headroom you need) so you cant have too high a head speed for your early flights so you don't need to worry, crank it up then tweak it back. Hope all goes well , pleased for you...
The E720 is built up but I need to fit all the electronics I'm going to get coolice to do this I think. Coolice is the man.......

[woodsta888]

If I was closer and knew someone like coolice i'd have had them do my setup or at least a once over before maiden. I didn't realise you were almost there on both heli's. You need a truck to get all those 700's + in. I only have the Mrs Z3 to get mine in at that needs the roof down!

I was peeing like I had an interview before I put £2k in the air last night. The Mrs was there to watch if things go wrong. If you are gonna ruin £2k worth of stuff then you don't want to be the only one watching. I have the vid of the initial spool up where it piroutees on the ground but there's too much swearing and talking to myself to post that.

I need to get myself the opti ultra guard as a back up as I'm only on the Life for the minute though I check it before each flight. In fact I'll order one now otherwise I'll become complacent.

My Dad said he'll buy me a decent Lipo charger so I may up to 14s depending on what i get.

Good luck on your maiden fella though you have confidence that someone has set it up...or blame someone if it doesn't go right. Or PEBTAG (Problem Exists Between Transmitter and Ground)

[Bavers777]

I have setup five previous helis on my own vbar, Spartan vx1n and 3gx and i've been lucky with my previous maidens but it's a risky business and always scary (especially with an 800 size) I don't think you need to go 14s if you already have 6s batteries I just managed to get a good deal on four gens ace 7s 5000mah batteries and I have a new pl8 charger, the main benefit is the head speed increases over the 12s so I can have around 2000rpm, 1600 and 1400rpm using the 12 tooth pinion. The e820 is a beauty......

[George J]

I now have an E820 on the bench and am really looking forward to getting it flying, Maj has said on more than one occasion now thats the 820 is the best model heli he's owned yet.......believe me that means it's 'really' good!!

[Bavers777]

That's all the compliments a heli could wish for huh lol

[Guest]

New cano arrived today. Went pretty block colours and super high viz orange. E820 cano's hard to come by so gave Fusuno a go and very decent job.

MJ

[George J]

Looks good M. Seriously looking forward to getting mine flying now.

[woodsta888]

E820 pilots!

Had a good few flights over the weekend, 6 on friday and 2 sat eve. Just about to start making use of the bailout on the BD3SX. So I haven't made any really hard stick inputs as when I thumped the collective full whack (I have max 12.5+/- degrees) I have heard the tail rotor REALLY work to keep the tail held. If ypou fluick the stick on the tail and release it was the same tail rotor buzz you get from that when I smacked in some maximum collective. Haven't done it since. Sounded like the tail rotor was at max pitch. This normal on big hel;i's and I've just never heard it before.

Now, this maybe due to the mechanics being so quiet that it is now audible but it has worried me that I have something awry in my setup. My 450X is too noisy to notice this and my old vario gasser was too noisy to hear the tail rotor over the motor and I'd never remember anyway.

What % tail gain are you finding with the E820? Granted, various FBL units may differ but I questioned if bigger heli's require lower gains from smaller helicopters as my 450X is at 75% head gain. I guess they maybe similar as the gearing and tail rotor disc size will influence control. I have 115mm tails.

Thanks

[Guest]

They are spookily quiet. Your tail gain is going to be determined by your headspeed. I don't have any tail holding issues and run 1650-1900 rpm with 120 tails (I think). Gain is in line with other machines. Buzz could be tail gain related or your gov in the esc settings too aggressive.

MJ

[woodsta888]

820ers,

Had a good few flights with the 820 now and I must say, it's a piece of engineering.

Very quiet mechanics with no electrical howl / whine mostly due to the tail drive and with a 10mph downwind from the pilot you can't hear it.....except when you make a hard manoeuvre (I had to look that up) and you hear the blades chop.

I'm flying 2 headspeeds of 1300 & 1700 (calculated). 1300 is a very capable headspeed and currently what I'm most comfortable with as I'm lazy sport flying. My field is 3 football pitches and the 820 eats that up very quickly, there are trees on all perimeters. 1700 really winds it up and the 820 is nearly as responsive as my 450x. I imagine at 2000 it feels similar. For such a large heli and never experiencing similar class heli's since the vario benzin, 26cc lump, plus fuel tank - I used to fly.

The technology and engineering of the kit by TT is leagues above the raptor 30 I started on. How the RC helicopter technology has moved on.

I spent a bit of money on the flybarless unit from Bavarian Demon with the 3SX. It really is awesome. Todays windy flights, when I had an itchy arse which just could not be left was a breeze for the 3SX in self level. There is drift as it can only see level, it doesn't know it's moving like the GPS Skookum which I would have bought if I'd found one. The bailout feature or captain rescue works really well. Very quick. I haven't had to use it yet in a 'human brown out' situation but you cant help but test it. On my DX8 I've taken it apart and swapped the trainer/bind button with the gear switch, essentially swapping a spring swutch for a 2 position switch. With this you can just tap the button and it will momentarily self level, hold it down and you get the climb to the sky. Even on default settings the reaction is violent and immediate - which is what you want.

When I went to buy a FBL in the UK I was told by a very popular shop that bailout was cheating (none in stock). I just can't think how having that feature (if you can stretch to the extra cost that) will have you flying again seconds later from a mistake so you can carry on learning rather than waiting until after a rebuild from a crash. Where you haven't lost 'what you've built up so far' reactions you had before you went in as they deteriorate quickly for me.

What else.....well Bavers777 must have flown his by now. Come on, report!

The YEP, forgotten about that. 12 mins of some big air with Turnigy 5.8 40C lipos has the top of the KDE700XF 395 motor hot to touch. You just cant keep your fingers on there after 5 secs so not unhealthily so. The YEP 180 ESC...........warm at best. Even with heli slow start, having the blades not slip the grips when I knock off throttle hold creates some rocking of the heli. I now spin the blades by hand to start lessening the balde grip anomolies.


The 820 is a delight. Feels big and rightly dangerous but does what it's told. From being out of the game for a good few years to all this tech, I'm impressed. Love flying RC helis again.

Tomorrow brings a parcel hopefully from MAJ and a battery of battery trays to fill. MORE EXPENSE!

[George J]

Have all the electronics now for my 820, Kosmik, hand wound Decker motor etc and is going to a lovely machine. Going to run mine on 12s so can share my other helis packs and as soon as I have it built will share my thoughts......going to be good though I do know that.

[Bavers777]

My maiden was delayed as coolice was unwell, hopefully this week?