Shoe String Budget R/c

Savox SC-1258TG

2009-07-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

Got these at great price from Heliguru.sg

Did a very short write-up on it.

Mounting hardware and servo horns that came with the savox. Funny that they gave BIG servo mounting screws and nuts that I have never seen before. Probably more for mounting the servo in buggy and car.
One thing I really like about these is that they are using the typical 3mm screw size for servo horn screw.

From savox

The different horn sizes...unforunately, none of the pre-drilled holes are suitable in terms of arm length for my heli..

From savox

Which means that I had to get this...

From savox

Just so unforunately I got the J ones, which is for JR and those for futaba's are out of stock.

From savox

Pardon the very messy everything because I crashed the 700N 3 months back and till now then repair. Lots of things were ripped out during the repair...

My 2cents on the servo...

Packaging/Hardware
Very nicely sealed plastic box that assures you that it is brand new and never been opened before, definately one notch above all the others out there. Something that even the more expensive servos out that can't match. The hardware supplied is definately ample and the horns are quite stiff too.

Build quality
These are actually one notch above the ino-lab 760mg that I had in this heli. Plastic is thicker and metal gear appears to be better machined than the ino-lab ones. However, one thing that that I don't understand is, why do they just so stubbornly refuse to goop the servo wire-PCB solder joint. My cheaper hitec's is like that, my ino-lab's is also like that. Hai. One thing I am a bit puzzled is why the servo screws got rubber o-ring, but servo case don't have? Heat sink seems to be not secured to the motor inside, which might reduce the efficiency of the heatsink. Overall, acceptable for me, but don't expect the build quality of a expensive futaba BLS, but those are like so much more expensive and made in Taiwan also.

On the bench
Initially I thought the servo was going to be quite bad in ability to hold position under load because of that video by Chance where you can see the swash jumping up and down when he use his finger to press. I of course have the same problem, but what I found out is that it is actually due to somewhere in the linkage along the servo to swash coz the servo arm didn't appear to move that much when I force them.

Resolution wise, there is slight amount of jumpiness through the swash movement, just very very slight. Not sure where the jumpiness is coming from, because the servos actually has decent resolution from the fact that I can get it to move with every 0.5% change of the pitch curve point value and my TX pitch curve point value actually ranges from -152.5% to 152.5%.

Speed wise I really cannot get the speed in the video, probably due to my finger and voltage. I am running 5.3v now, which probably slows it down to something like 0.095s w/o load.

I can't really give any flight report yet, coz I haven't been flying for quite a while. After a short 5mins flight this morning, all I can say is, they draw pretty much the same amount of power as other coreless digital, nothing significantly more or less. Control and resolution seems perfectly fine to me, but don't take my word for it, coz right now even a 50 size is very powerful to me.

After a bit more time...

The servos are still working fine and not sure why, starting to get those jumpy movement on the bench also. Not as bad as the ino-lab though. In flight cannot feel anything. They consume very little power and run cool. Very smooth flying servos that work for me.

Very happy with the camera also. All except photo no.10 were taken with the 50mm f/1.8.

My New Hobby AKA I Kanna the ShutterBug

2009-07-02T05:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I mentioned that the 90 size crash and stopping of R/C flight was actually a blessing in disguise...You see, I have always wanted a better camera than the two compacts that I have because it gets a little hard to produce sharp pictures with them especially when I am fixing my heli in the middle of the night in my not so well lit kitchen. For those who are wondering whats the link between kitchen and heli, basically I am very particular(or some call OCD-obsessive compulsive disorder) about keeping not scratching my flooring in other parts of the house, so the kitchen which has ceramic tiles becomes the place where I build and rebuild pretty much ALL my R/C.

The reason I want a DSLR is soley for the low light capability, basically high iso and larger aperture. It is perfectly possible to produce good pictures with a compact camera, but the problem with them is that in a dimly lit room, you need to increase the exposure time to keep the ISO(refer to 1. at the end of article) low for nice and clean photos. In normal situations, I can do handheld exposure of up to 1/3 second because the built-in stablisation of my compact is really quite good. However, building a heli in the middle of the night is not normal and most of the time, I am tired and my hands are sore, which all add to shaky hands and blur pictures.

And so with a little bit of budget, I set out to buy my first DSLR a month ago when my school holiday really started. I had originally wanted to get a Nikon D90 with a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. However, the Tamron was really slow in auto focus and the D90 did not come with micro-focus adjustment, which is used when your lens and camera body are not "in sync" with each other. What happens is that your camera body want to focus on the middle point, but the lens end up focusing on something a little in front or a little behind thereby causing a slight out-of-focus. It can be solved by calibration at the service center, but that would mean having to go down to the service center every time you get a new len. I didn't thought it was such a biggie until I tried a D90 at the shop and it was constantly back-focusing with both kit lens and the the Tamron.

That pushed me towards the canon 50D, which although had a nosier sensor, came with the AF-microadjustment function. I was certain I was going to buy it when I started playing with it and realise that it came with a jog-wheel and joystick EXACTLY LIKE HOW THE FUTABA 10C that I had. As for lens, I settled for the kit lens over the tamron because it focus faster and the image quality is not really that bad. Best of all, the price tag was smaller and it came with image stabilisation which the Tamron does not have. However, the Tamron will probably be great for low light because it has a larger aperture. Consider a larger aperture as a larger hole for light to go in, so obviously more light will enter in the same amount of time. So the difference between the Tamron and the canon 18-55 kit lens is that one came with stabilisation, one came with a bigger aperture(refer to 2. at end of article).So it was the 50D+18-55 kit lens.

Everything that came along with the kit, including memory card and bag.

Bulk of the cost, the Canon 50D body. It is suppose to be "semi-pro" camera body, but I feel that it is more of a hobbyist-consumer body.

Canon 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS kit lens attached. While it is really cheap and plasticky, the image quality really isn't that bad.

The jog-dial and joystick that is commonly found in futaba TX and on all the TX that I use/used.

The excitment and happiness of buying the camera was just like when I got my Trex 700N. Something that words cannot describe.
Here are some photos I took using the kit lens, nothing impressive, but good enough for my use. I thnk it is more of a issue with the user rather than the camera or lens.

Although the high iso is not as great as the nikon, some high ISO sample shots of my Ino-lab servos proved to be ok. Photographers might look a crop from the 100% photos, but how often will we really use that 15megapixels?

ISO200 Noise Reduction(NR) STD

ISO1600 NR STD

ISO3200 NR STD

ISO3200 NR HIGH

ISO6400 NR STD

ISO6400 NR HIGH

ISO12800 NR STD

ISO12800 NR HIGH

ISO3200 is perfectly usable for me and banding starts to appear at ISO6400. ISO12800 is really quite bad and not something that I will ever use.

In addition to the kit lens, I also got a canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens which to me is really sharp and really bright. Again, it is really cheap too, at just $130. I settled for these cheap lenses because of my limited budget and I really don't see the need for expensive lenses yet. I mean these lens are way more than sharp enough for me, just that they feel a little cheap and plastic. More about it another day...

1.For those who don't know, ISO is basically the light sensitivity of the sensor. When you have a higher ISO, the sensor in your digital camera can capture more light in the same amount of time than at lower ISO, therefore, higher ISO means that you can reduce your exposure time required for photos of proper brightness. However, as ISO increases, noise starts coming in and it can be observe in the form of those grains and coarse looking texture, especially in the shadow region. Therefore, we tend to try to keep the ISO low for shooting. As sensor size increases, the high ISO noise reduces, which is why most DSLR have better high ISO photos than compacts because of their much larger sensor. However, not all DSLR have the same sensor size, some are larger(and more expensive), some are smaller and equally expensive. Mine happens to be somewhere in between. In heli term it is like comparing a 90size(Large sensor), 50size(medium size sensor) and micro electrics(small size compact camera sensor) and it doesn't require a Ph.d to know which is nicer to use, although all can work great in the right hands- just not mine.

2. Stabilisation allows you to have longer exposure when taking photos, so more light can enter into the sensor. What the stabilisation does is to compensate for movement of the camera due to handshake when the camera is taking a photo.

A larger aperture on the other hand allows more light to enter in the same amount of time, so your camera spend less time trying to capture the image.

The main difference is that stabilisation minimize the effect of motion-blur created by the photographer, while a larger aperture and shorter exposure time will minimise motion-blur created due to movement of the subject in the photo. I.E. You want a big aperture for moving stuff like a flying heli in a cloudy overcast day, you want stabilisation for taking photo of a static heli in the same cloudy overcast day.

So how powerful a computer do you need to run Realflight G4?

2009-07-02T04:27:00.000-07:00

A while back, I started playing some games like call of duty-world at war, grid and farcry 2. However, the low end card I have in my computer proved to be a very severe bottleneck to the smoothness of the game. While those game were not as demanding as realflight G4, they were somehow still unplayable on my Geforce 7300. Coupled with the fact that I had always wanted a more powerful card for running realflight in the rendered fields, I started looking at a graphic card upgrade. It was obviously stupid for a person like me who so rarely play games to be spending a lot on a GFX, so my I wanted something that is cheap, good and supported by my other components in my current com.

And with my tiny budget... I got a Asus EAH4830

From 50D

It is the slightly overclocked version of the standard ATI 4830 and is cheap and good enough for the 1280x1024 resolution that I run my games and simulator at. This is a full size, dual slot card which is quite a bit longer than my old card and requires one PCI-E power connector, which just so forunately is supported by my P.S.U.

From 50D

And this is how it looks like when installed in my rig. I was lucky enough that it fits my small casing after I shifted the harddisk down. Just a bit longer and I will probably have to change the casing with computer for videos in my bedroom which has a old and ugly full size tower.

From 50D

This card is IMPRESSIVE. At my monitor's native resolution of 1280x1024, everything was much much quicker during gameplay and there was no lag even during large explosion. Impressive card.

Now the important part...How does Realflight G4.5 runs with this?
Good enough for me. For the rendered fields which my previous card was struggling to do, framerate never for once, dropped below 30fps with this new card. That is, even with all the bloom effect, shadows, soft shadow and what not turned on the max.

Night flying in the circus looks awesome and is perfectly playable now. On my old card, I was more like looking at slide show, rather than flying.

Water flying is the tricky bit. With all the effects turned on to the max, I am still not getting the 30fps that Iwant. It hovers somewhere around 25.5-27fps, which I guess is good enough considering that this is a budget gaming card. I suspect the bottleneck is my cpu which is the first generation core 2 duo.

All in all, it was well worth the money and it is something that I regret not doing earlier.

However, there is one tiny problem. Because of the amount of power that it consumes in gameplay, it produces a lot of heat that my mini-tower finds hard to dissipate. System temperature shot up by a whole 4 degree when I am playing game and my P.S.U. seems to be running a low warmer. Probably need one or two more fans to increase air circulation in the casing.

Ino-Lab 760mg, one year down the road...

2009-06-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

THEY ARE TOTAL CRAP AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COST.

On my first crash of the 700N, all 3 of them got exceptionally tight to even rotate by hand. A trip the local distro suggested that I might have gotten the servo case screws too tight, which IMHO, is total absolute rubbish because the servos were free before the crash and so the crash just suddenly tightened all the screws? Wow that is some magic. And not the mention that the crash was a super minor one that only cost like less than $300 including blades, which is really cheap for a 90size.

Post repair flights revealed that the ino-lab 760mg that I have are drawing an insane amount of amp in flight. More than 3amp. Considering that I am running 5.1v output on my regulator, a 4amp load on my regulator will mean trying to dissipate (7.8v-5.1v)*4amp=10.8w of heat, which is definately impossible for any R/C regulator in the market now, not even the very expensive ones which have got even smaller heatsink. What that means is that....the insane amount of amp draw resulted in a second crash, from what I thought was servo failure in flight when in reality was just my regulator going into thermal protection.

So how did I know it was the ino-lab and not the rest of the electronics causing the insane amp draw? Two signs...

1. The ino-lab's got exceptionally hot after a flight. Still remember the comment I made about the lack of a heatsink on the ino-lab being the weakest link? It has been proven by yours sincerely that it does indeed need a heatsink to be cool because if even the plastic case can get hot to touch, then the internal motor temperature is obviously going to be molten hot.

2. I shifted them to my raptor 50 and from the average 1.5-1.8amp draw, with just TWO ino-lab 760 on the cyclic, it shot up to over 4amp, 4.5 to be exact. Only god knows where all the current is running to. Perhaps you may wonder, how come the regulator didn't go into thermal protection this time round? Simple. I increased the output voltage to almost 6v, which means a whole lot less heat for the heatsink to move.

As such, this has proven to be an expensive lesson. $246 worth of servo for just 80 or so flights, excluding the cost of the second crash. Painful.

On a side note, this crash has prove to be a blessing in disguise in some other ways, as will come later on....well...a partial change in hobby. In fact, I am considering quitting from all online R/C activities, including the postings and forums....

My flight log for the months of may and june: 1/3 of a gallon in may and june, combined. So few that I have lost count. Oh well, in any case I was already disgusted by the price hike of almost everything at the local hobby shops.

The wreakage...been sitting there for months. Probably engine and bearings are wasted, but who cares. Canopy is semi-repaired by a half arse job.

From 90size

WAIT A MIN.... YOU CRASHED THE HELI AND ANY SERVO CAN GET DAMAGE IN A CRASH...HOW COME YOU ARE BLAMING THE INO-LAB??

My point is simple. If one or two servo conk out in a serious crash, it is user error. If all three servos fail( and fail in a weird way) from just a light crash that didn't even destroy the canopy, obviously something was not quite right with the servos in the first place. I have seen worse crashes on my raptor and the hitec never had such problem. Hack, even the $20 hitec 325hb on the throttle in the 700N didn't give me any problem after the crash. The futaba BLS251 on the rudder have the tail rod control pulled out from it when the boom ejected upon crash impact and all it took was just a small plastic gear replacement. So how can all 3 servos fail from such light crash?

Tarot CF 600mm main blades

2009-06-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

This review is probably long long overdue....lol

Ok, got these blades from a friend a while back. These are suppose to be priced just slightly above the typical funkey FG blades, but are in carbon fiber instead of fibreglass. FG version of these blades are available too, but I did not test them out because the pair that I had had a little finishing problem.

From Blade

The packaging is really simple, no fancy label, no colourful box, just a sealed plastic bag containing a pair of blades, a holofoil sticker and a piece of foam sheet to prevent the blades from scratching each other.

From Blade

The art design of these blades appeared to have been copied from the funkey sport CF blades, just of a different colour. These blades are the standard length of 600mm and so should fit all old and new 50size. Blade width is 55mm, which IMO is again the standard, nothing like the wide chord radix or the narrow chord GCT's.

The FG version is totally opaque while the CF version of the blades uses the typical see-through gel. Weaving of the CF version is pretty tidy and consistent and really not like some cheap CF blades. It is at least comparable to the Rotor Tech stuff that I swear by. Other than the glue smell and a little dull surface finish, these are pretty much like what we get from the popular brands. A bronze bushing has been inserted into the blade root at the factory. From my past experience, these are good to have, but not really necessary if the material is strong.

From Blade

The blade tip is similar to the Funkey FG blades and Radix that I have been using, just with a larger diameter arc at the leading edge tip. Nothing radical like the Rotor Tech's, nothing primative like a straight cut tip.

From Blade

The airfoil of the blades seems a little thicker than the Funkey and Rotor Tech offerings, just a little. Shown here in the photo from top to bottom is: Rotor Tech 610mm, Funkey FG 600mm, Tarot CF 600mm, Tarot FG 600mm.

From Blade

Shown here is how they look like on my heli...beside the Radix 710SB. It is obvious where they got their inspiration of their blade art design from...

From Blade

SO ALL IS PERFECT? NO.

There are two obvious problems though. Firstly, the art design appears to have been hand painted and is in no way sharp and nice like the popular blades. Secondly, the finishing of these blades are still lacking. On my set, I found these...

From Blade

SO HOW DOES IT FLY???
Average. For someone who does 3D, these blades will probably be a little lacking when compared to those a lot more expensive options like Radix and Rotor Tech's. However, don't get me wrong. It doesn't mean that these blades will not do your 3D moves. In fact, these will do pretty much most of the moves you throw at it, just that you will need to manage the sticks really well for they seem to bog easier. It seems to be very different from what I typically fly.

If compared to the Funkey FG 600mm, these blades bog more, but have much faster cyclic and better collective bite. However, my friend who passed me these blades commented that he felt that the blades are not tracking well and might be due to the blades being out of balance.

To be honest, I feel that the Tarot CF 600mm is not a blade for all out 3D flying, especially if you are at the stage of trying to get the timing correct or trying to piece and link the different tricks. They will be decent and more than sufficent for someone who is learning the basic or doing sports flying including aerobatics flight.

Some updates. Long over due.

2009-03-01T00:38:00.001-08:00

Need to rush report which was supposed to be completed by this weekend. Oh well.

Photos mostly self explanatory.

Cracked starter coupler on 700N. Probably isolated, but once again proving how cheap the 700N is.

Sprayed my own canopy. Doesn't look good and not very cost effective. Good experience though. First time. Total cost was $60+ and a lot of time. The Helidirect V2 canopy is only around $110 at my LHS. Not sure why got some white spots after the clear. Used flat clear as the glossy one was out of stock.

New ball links with the shorter elevator link. Same batch, same serial, same shipment, but I got 1 long(old one) and 1 short(new one)...again proving how inconsistent Align is. Crap brand.

Cracked the 9c gimbal. Mended with CA.

Crashed. Costly crash, granted I only paid $76+ in total for repair bill coz I had everything else. Otherwise I would have been looking at a repair bill of $300+. Nonetheless, nothing compared to my previous raptor crash and definately CHEAP for a 90 size. Really lucky that all gears survived and there was no ding to muffler and engine crackcase which is always the case for YS91.

And the cause is because I lost it in a UPRIGHT FORWARD PIE DISH...lol. Not sure why, it just dropped and "BAM". Not the first time something like that happen, coz I had it before twice on the raptor and once on the 700N. Saved all 3 times...got unlucky this time round.

Front skid, ball links and boom support took most of the impact I guess.

Broke the servo gear in the BLS251. The inolab's all feel really tight after the crash. Loosening the casing screws a bit helped. Service at my local inolab distro is VERY VERY GOOD. One of them still feels a bit tighter than the others. Amp draw has gone up to 3.5amp average from the 2.5. Not good. Servos are a bit choppy moving which was already the case before the crash.

Damaged the main hub slightly as evident from the phasing pin being slightly distorted. Nothing a little bit of force and a pair of pilers cannot fix.

Finally got down to sanding the stupid align tail blade bolt slightly to fit the rotor techs.

Pinned the boom at the front and re-aligned the CF hybrid tail boom as mine was off like everyone else's.

All in all, I am amazed at how cheap 90 size has become, both in price and of course...erm quality.

Added another piston to my collection. Yup, the hyper killed another piston. Still deciding if I should repair or replace the whole engine. No good choice available yet though... TT53 lousy carb...YS50 apparently a bit weaker than the OS...Novarossi 57 expensive...and the worst part is don't know when OS and YS will come out with a larger engine.

Got rapicon. 1x30%, 2x 15%. Indeed, their 1 gallon is a little bit more than the 1 gallon of CP. I did pour the bottle of rapicon into the CP bottle just to prove that. Despite the fact that I just got a lot of fuel before CNY...I just couldn't resist buying the rapicon to try which means that I have 2.5case of fuel in my storeroom now. Should last a while. There is no bottle or colour difference between rapicon 15% and 30%. Only sticker different.

Rapicon 15% nitro 23% oil- Colour is similar to what I have been mixing. Power is way down from what I am using now, which btw, is the same price per gallon. Smoke is way more than CP15%, but maybe slightly less than CP20%. Power is better than CP15% for sure, marginally better, not a whole lot, but better for sure. No way comparable to CP20%. Maybe a hotter plug like enya 3 or OS A3 can help to bring out the best power. I am using OS 8 now, which I found produce the best balance between power and temperature with my 2:1 CP20%+CP15% mix. Why I am using this mix is a long story. Tried enya no.4 with my mix, felt a bit too cold and does not produce as much power. In fact, the rapicon 15% with OS 8 felt the same as MY MIX with enya no. 4. Should have used a hotter plug. All mixtures/plug combo were tested with "can put my finger on the backplate forever before I cut the throttle" needle settings, which I think is just right for a 90 size engine. This YS MP5 combo get VERY HOT after I cut the throttle, despite this setting.

My YS is PICKY on fuel and plug.

I found CP12.5% at LHS. Been wanting to try it. Found it to be quite a little bit weaker than 20%, but comparable to 15%. Probably some old stock. Rare stuff. Scott gray used to mix that with 30% and reported NO PERFORMANCE LOST over 30%. Might try it with rapicon 30% or CP30%.

Pardon the peeling stickers on the old small 1 quart bottle. That is trinity mosterhorsepower. The car blend I used to like the BEST.

12FG vs 10C...

2009-01-20T16:04:00.000-08:00

Got a decent deal for my 12FG.

Extracted from rheliresource...12FG vs 10C...

"With the big price cut of the 12fg from Tower's, the Futaba T12FG has never been more affordable. In fact, the listed price of the 12FG is just a mere $200 more than it's little brother, the T10C. That essentially means that you can get a lot more radio, for just a little bit more. Flyers looking at a new mid-range radio will probably find the decision between the 12fg and the 10c a hard one to make. So, 10C or 12FG?

In this short review, I shall not go into the programming/function part because these are already covered pretty extensively(and well) online. Littlerotors.com has a pretty detailed overview of the heli software in the 12FG, while right here at Rcheliresource, we have a overview of the heli software in the 10C. If airplane is part of your weekend flight, you can view the review of the air software in the 12fg on rcuniverse.com

In any case, if you were to ask me what is the greastest difference between the two TX in terms of Heli software, I will say its the use of "condition" function in the 12fg, as with the higher end TX of futaba. In the 10C, the programs, curves, mixing, governor and etc functions are/can be tied to the different flight mode and in most cases, you can only have one value for each function in each flight mode. The 12FG on the other hand, allows the use of "conditions" which are similar to the flight modes on the 10C, except that each condition allows you to set a few values for some functions like governor, dual rate and gyro. You can also add, delete or rename conditions. Do note that to make adjustment to a condition, you will need to be in that condition, which is slightly different from the flight modes on the 10C, where adjustments can be made to any flight mode, regardless of the flight mode the tx is running.

Another major difference is the swash menu for the 12FG. It is much more advance than the 10C and even includes a electronic swash ring. It is supposedly similar to what you will get with higher end TX. The purpose of the swash mixing settings in the menu is to allow the user to dial out interactions/unwanted movements when using eccpm. Does it work? Glad to say, it does and very well. To be honest, my heli now flys straighter and the difference can be felt from just a simple big loop.

So, what are we looking at if we are not looking at the software? That extra bit to help you make the decision.

Packaging

The boxes are similar and they come with pretty much the same things, except for the larger RX battery pack(1500mah VS 1000mah) in the 12FG set and the neckstrap that is not included with the 10C. Nothing significantly different. Do note that it is normal for 12FG's to come with "worn out" looking plastic screen protector out of the box, at least from what I see at my LHS and my set from Tower hobbies.

From 12FG

The charge jack is DIFFERENT from the 10C/9C and SHS don't stock it.

From 12FG

Functionality

The 12FG has more 3 positions switches, more trim tabs, a much bigger battery pack(that doesn't even drop to 7.2v after 4 hours of usage) and a much more user friendly slider. However, there are two place that the 10C beats it hands down. The user-navigation buttons and the back-lit LCD screen on the 10C. The 12FG employs 1 dial, 2 buttons for navigating through the programs and that IMHO, is quite a bit more difficult to work with than the joystick on the 10C. The LCD on the 12FG is also harder to read when indoor because of the lack of back lit and a darker background. The backlit LCD of the 10C is really a very nice feature.

One thing I really like about the 12FG is that you don't have to open up the radio to adjust the stick tension. It can be easily done by just removing the two rubber grips at the back and inserting the supplied allens. The FASST module of the 12FG has the antenna at the "correct" place, vs the not so well thought out FASST antenna position on the 10C. The 12FG is a real 12-channel radio, while the 10C is a 8 proportional + 2 digital 10 channel. Not that it matters to me as I have never used more than 8 on my helis and I assume, never will. Plankers might find the extra channels useful though.

Do note that programming the 12FG is really quite a bit more complicated than the 10C and more than a bit less user-friendly.

From 12FG

Module that makes sense vs module that shows the stupidity of the designer

From 12FG

The same cheap trim tab feel on the 12FG and 10C. Where is the trim feel on the 9c gone to??

HOW IT FEELS IN YOUR HAND...

Unlike the 10C, the 12FG(at least mine) does not come with the pcm/ppm antenna when purchased in FASST form. What this means is that you can't extend the antenna to balance the TX like on the 10C. However, I find the 12FG to have a much more balanced feel in my hand with just the FASST module, probably because of the lighter battery pack. I was actually quite suprise when I got the 12FG that its not any heavier than my 10C, in fact, it feels lighter. Personally, I like weighty TX, so YMMV.

The rubber pads on the back of the TX, the rounded curves and lines along the TX casing, the stick and switch positions on the 12FG all makes it a nice TX to hold. The 10C doesn't feel bad either. Honestly, speaking, it is just a matter of personal preference as to which is better in your hands because how it feels in my hands doesn't matter, but how it feels in the your very own hands does. As can be seen from the photos, the 12FG and 10C are pretty close in size. Both are quite a bit larger than the older 9C, so whether if you have got big hands or small hands...you haven't really got much choice...

Gimbal wise, the quad bearing gimbals on the 12FG does indeed feel smoother than the 10C's gimbals, but that does not mean that the 10C's sticks are rough or coarse in any way. Both are smooth, just that one is smoother than the other, not by a big margin, really. The stick end bits on the 12FG are actually sharper than the 10C and "bite" into my thumbs( I am a thumber) better than the 10C, so you might take that into account if you fly thumbs.

From 12FG

The clear difference between screen visibility. The plastic wrapper doesn't help much either.

From 12FG

Conclusion

Both of them are decent mid-range TX.

Assuming if both radios meets your needs in terms of the software, one will probably be equally happy with either. The 10C will be great for someone who just flip into idle up, take off, fly, land and repeat the process day after day. The 12FG will be great for a pilot what wants everything his way and is willing to spend a bit of time learning through the menu. Once you get the hook of it, the 12FG is really not that much more complicated to use than a 10C. However, I have to admit that an experienced flyer can probably just pick up a 10C and start setting up his models without even looking at the menu. How it feels in your hand will probably be a personal thing, which I suppose one will have to decide for himself by checking out these radios at the flying field.

The questions you might want to ask yourself when deciding is...

1. Do I ever use more than 6-7 points on my curves?

2. Do I ever use more than 2-3 p-mix?

3. Do I ever find my tx sticks feeling too rough?

4. Am I one who will fly different headspeed, gyro gain and 4 different flight modes in one flight?

5. Do I have more $700 to spare?

If you have at least one yes to the above questions, then the 12FG might be worth taking a look at.

P.S. the "box opening" post of the 10C has been done here, so I did not post the photos over here.. "
--------------------------------------End of quote.

Ok, after spending a cool 5hours with the 12FG, what is my personal opinion?

First and foremost. THE LCD SCREEN SUCKS BIG TIME. THE PROGRAMMING IS NOT THE LEAST BIT INTUITIVE. FUTABA SHOULD HAVE JUST USED A JOYSTICK FOR NAVIGATION, like on the 10C, 12Z...

VERY DIFFICULT TO USE. With some base numbers to follow, it took me a good 4hours to set up my 700N on the 12FG, vs 30mins on my 10C. I had to constantly refer to the manual because of the "lack of human touch" for the user interface. Adjusting the different flight mode(condition) settings requires you to be in condition hold and I found that I can release condition hold if the throttle stick is not super near the original position when I went into condition hold. Caused me a bit of panic when at the field when I couldn't release the "hold" and yet couldn't cut throttle. Maybe there is a way to work around it, I don't know.

While I am not a super good flyer, I think I can live w/o the electronic swash ring. I used to want a e-cyclic ring in the past, but after learning how to fly, I thought it doesn't really matter too much, if at all.

Like I always say, I am the type who set 2 headspeed on gov(1 hover 1 3d), 1 gain on gyro and never touch them anymore. I don't ever touch more than 3 switches per flight/per week/per month/per year because I tie everything to a flight mode and only do idle-up 1/2, T-hold and T-cut. Since I started learning 3D, I haven't really used more than 3 flight modes(normal for spool up, idle up 1 for hover, idle up 2 for stick banging), so really, those extra dual rates, extra gov gain, extra gyro gain, extra p-mixes, extra condition, extra channel, extra everything are all redundent for me, with the exception of the swash menu.

The swash menu is really great because it allows you to cancel out most interaction you have with eccpm and now my washout hub don't move a single bit with cyclic. My loops are definately straighter w/o correction.

The quad bearing gimbals are definately nice to have. Just the swash menu and the quad bearing sticks will make the 12FG worth that extra 200USD over the 10C, not to mention that the tower discount for X'mas back then pushed it to a price as low as 630USD.

The fasst antenna position is also much better than the 10C.

Battery life is really good.

Still doesn't have the feel of the higher end radios in your hand.

Would I have kept the 12FG over the 10C if I were to restart all over again? NO. Don't ask me why. It is just a personal thing.

A little bit of ranting about the seller...

First and foremost, I must point out that I am appreciative of the seller for helping me to bring the TX back for just a small markup and reselling it to me at a VERY GOOD PRICE. The price he sold me the TX was almost close to the price I could get at the X'mas discount with GST and shipping. I really need to thank him for that.

However, the journey to the TX wasn't exactly a smooth and happy one and apparently the seller thought that I was rude and I don't happen to think he is that friendly either. He is, honestly speaking, the type that is proud, thinks that he knows a lot and full of pride. It seems to me, he has the mentality that he is superior to me just because I am young, which I have to say...erm...perhaps you should look at your lifestyle vs mine? I am young, but I don't think my lifestyle, the things I use and enjoy in my daily life, the journey that I went through, the path that I have to take and the route that I will take, are in anyway inferior to yours, at least for then, now and near future. Afterall, what I have in my non-rc life is simple and analog, but might even be out of reach for a Ph.d holder and defintately not within the means of a masters or degree holder's income. Granted, he has no idea of the lifestyle I lead and I have absolutely no idea of the lifestyle he has either. Of course, I don't earn my $$$ and he earn his, so maybe that makes the difference.

He apparently started talking about attitude, service industry and what not, RIGHT AFTER I PAID HIM...lmao. Just had to follow through and act humble, I mean, well, he is kind enough to bring the radio back for just a small fee, surely it doesn't hurt to maintain a positive relationship?

Nonetheless, we ended the deal on a positive note and I will still say "hi" to him if I do meet him again, but that is assuming I still remember his face. No offense, but just have problem with faces.

It was a good deal just like my redbook CD player which I had to lower my pride a bit to get a better price from a shop that I don't really like. More than worth it in the long term.

UPDATE--------------------------------

Got screen protector. Not sure if its packaging mistake, but I got 2 in one.

From 12FG

P.S. The photos appear slightly under-exposed and the photos at the full wide zoom are not quite good...all because of the new(and lousy) camera. Technology improvement= improve sensor, make lens lousy hai.

What I did this holi...updated

2009-01-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

Short one month holi has come to an end. A fruitful one because I have done more than a few things, some of which, I have been thinking about for ages. Basically, I spent a good 1.5weeks of full day sitting there fiddling with my helis...first was the X50 head mod, then the engine bearing change and then trying to fix the leaky tank and attaching a header tank onto the 700N.

1. Fuel pump
Changed the fuel pump. Figured that it might be cheaper to buy a new pump than to continue wasting fuel with the leaking pump. The 700N tank takes very long to pump and results in a lot of leakage/wastage from my old pump.

From Whats been done this holi...

2. Flight power evo-rx 1345 and 8amp regulator.
On great discount. Bought to keep as spare.

From Whats been done this holi...

3. Rotor Tech 105mm tail blades
Reviews of these vs the stock 700N CF tail blades coming soon...

From Whats been done this holi...

95mm/30mm vs 105mm/30mm

4. Replaced the R50 governor sensor.
My heli was screaming everytime the head unloads, found this to be the culpruit.

From Whats been done this holi...

5. RJX head on the raptor

Been wanting to do this for years, getting a "newer" head for the raptor. This head is AMAZING in flight. The metal is definately soft though, so I hope I don't crash. Read HERE for more info.

6. TT50 engine with hatori #522

While the OS hyper was out for bearing change, I changed the bearings on the TT50 too. Its amazing what propellers can do to bearings. In the name of experiment, I got the TT50 with the hatori in the raptor and did 2 flights. It had the power of a OS hyper with the stock raptor muffler, smoked like a hyper and also, drank like a hyper. Full to empty tank in less than 9mins. Idle was not very good also. Nonetheless, it proves that a good muffler DOES make a weak engine a lot stronger.

7. Some maintenance on 700N
Fuel tank started leaking when I moved the rubber plug to the inner hole. My solution was 30mins epoxy. Works well. Got a spare tank and I am confident the new tank will probably not leak because its quite different my the one from my kit.

From Whats been done this holi...

Found some VERY IMPORTANT SCREWS coming off ON THE 700N...photos to come really soon.

Update

The screws that came loose...the one above the jesus bolt will cause the whole rotor head to wobble on the main shaft when its loose. The one holding the tail rotor hub will create an excessive amount of play(in addition to the original alarming amount of play) at the tail rotor when I tried to rotate it.

From Whats been done this holi...

My header tank...

From Whats been done this holi...

In addition, I also found the plastic mounting tabs on the tail boom support rod of the raptor to be really loose on both sides. Tightened them once and all is well again.

Affordable P.S.U. - Its cheap, but is it any good???

2008-12-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

My el cheapo computer PSU converted power supply for my charger died on me more than a while ago. While searching around for a decent replacement, I found a few options, some recommended but really expensive ones and some that are affordable but relatively unknown. Eventually, I settled for a cheap chargery 12v 12A PSU, which is essentially a 12v version of the 14v PSU sold by hobbycity.

So why did I not settle for another computer PSU, since a brand new budget one could be had for $20. Its simply because for $20 more, this PSU has a pair of nice banana jacks out of the box, requires no work or modification and look pretty neat and compact compared to a computer PSU. In addition, not all computer PSUs have proper 12v output voltage. I did find one computer PSU with decent output voltage, a big 14cm fan, a sleek look with its mirror finish exterior and of modular design where you can plug or unplug the cables according to your needs, making it really neat. However, there was one problem-the price. So that stayed in my computer.

On to the "chargery power supply"...

As can be seen from the photos, the box is just a plain white box with a sticker label and the package consist of just a PSU and a power chord without a single slip of paper. Granted, a PSU is pretty much idiot proof.

As with most PSU, this power supply has a small built-in fan. While it is kinda loud, it does cool the thing pretty well. In fact, the outer heatsink casing doesn't even get warm when I tried drawing over 3amp continous. The output jacks are banana jacks, the type that you get on cheap hifi speakers and amplifiers. As can be seen, there is also a on/off switch on the unit and a green led to tell you its running. Thats all, nothing to adjust or fiddle with. Totally basic and simple.

The output voltage was over 12.6v unloaded and dropped to around 12.5v under a 2amp load. Therefore, it will be safe to assume that this unit should be able to work for most chargers around, with the exception of maybe, the more picky ones.

In my opinion, this type of PSU is more than sufficent for powering chargers doing TX/RX packs and smaller lipo packs. Personally, I only charge small 3s lipos and 2s rx packs, so it works great even when I run two chargers at the same time. For charging bigger packs like those 600/700 size flight packs, a better psu might be required.

RotorTech 690mm Vs Radix 710SB

2008-12-16T20:26:00.000-08:00

In this short review, I will be comparing the Curtis Youngblood Enterprise(CYE) Radix 710mm SB edition and the RotorTech(RT) 690mm aeroflat's. The RT's that I am reviewing are the "Asia edition", which has similar specs and tip, but very different art design from the "US version". I don't know if there are other non-visible differences, but since I pay street prices with my own money for everything I review, I choose to keep that an unknown for now.

Not so suprisingly, they are made by the same people. So, how different can they be?

The art design between the ones that Century RC Helicopter Products is carrying and the ones that most parts of the world are getting are extremely different. Photo on the bottom left shows the "US edition" and the one on the right shows the "Asia edition" that is pretty popular among 3D pilots in Asia.

Similar to the US version, these are sold in different sizes of 560mm, 610mm, 690mm and 710mm. The photo above shows the 610mm and 690mm. I opted for the 690mm instead of the 710mm because I will be reviewing them using my T-rex 700N, which many prefer flying with 690's over 710's.

I choose the Radix 710mm SB edition over the Radix 690mm because the stick banger's edition are longer and yet, lighter. If only there is a Radix 690mm SB edition.

Specs For Specs

The RotorTech's are approximately 170g, while the rest of the specs off the box are...

The Radix on the other hand are not only heavier at around 175g, but also 20mm longer and 3.5mm wider.

The most obvious physical/visual difference between the two are the length and tip of the blades. Notice that the RT 690mm is using a not so conventional tip that is termed the "aeroflat" while the Radix is using a curved tip.

How Do They Compare Then???

On the same setup, the Radix gave different blade pitch angle compared to the RT's. In addition, the tracking for both pairs of blades were pretty different. This came as a suprise to me because in my past experience with blades manufactured by Funkey, you can pretty much swop blades across the different brands( Rotor Tech, Carbon Tech and Funkey) at the field and just go fly without touching the pitch curve or re-tracking the blades. Not a biggie though.

I had already been flying the Radix since I got the 700N a few months back, partly due to the positive comments about them and partly because of the popping sound and effect in one of the promos video by Align with Lukas Riva at the sticks. So needless to say, these blades really does have the "pop" in both sound and sight. Sudden stops with the radix are really good and on-the-spot. Cyclics are very snappy, precise and direct. It moves when asked to and just halt the moment you ease off the cyclic sticks. Flight speed was really fast too. However, the heli often feels overly floaty in flight and the engine would load up when the sticks are really banged.

As for the RT 690mm, collective response is equally good, but it requires far more collective pitch(12.5 on the RT's vs 11 on radix) to produce the same amount of "pop" feel and yet, it still does not have that nice sound effect that the radix produces. The cyclic felt a little different from the Radix though. While it appears to have a slightly faster overall roll rate, it just doesn't feel as instantenous and immediate as the Radix. These blades do make the heli feel just right in terms of floatiness. While they don't appear to be as fast in fff and backwards stuff, they don't load up the engine either when collective management goes bad. Autos on these are a lot more difficult than the Radix. They just don't auto too well. In fact, I thought autorotation with the RT 690mm felt more like a 50size than a 90size with light blades. That didn't suprise me though, because the RotorTech 610mm aeroflat doesn't auto too well either. The Radix on the other hand was not super good, but more than decent enough, even for someone who can't shoot autos.

VS.
Conclusion

The Radix 710SB are great for fast and big flights like most of the set maneuvers in 3DX. I found them to bite really well in windy condition.

The RotorTech 690mm are better for tight stick banging, where you rarely feel like easing off on the sticks. They are also great for someone who really bang the sticks trying to tear the heli apart in flight.

They are both great blades for 3D flight. Which is better might be just a matter of personal preference and style of flight.

Raptor 50 Xtreme Edition...

2008-12-10T02:41:00.000-08:00

Well...obviously from Rcheliresource...

Some might have read the article I did two weeks back on the Raptor 50 Xtreme edition...Somehow, it got lost in the server upgrade process and so I did a repost of the article HERE.

In any case, I have continued on with the little project and finally have got everything sorted out. For those the busy ones who just want to know the results...Basically, this whole conversion is definately a worthwhile effort. It corrects the bad tendency of the stock raptor head, that is the pitching in FFF and slow roll rate. It gives a very nice feel in the cyclic, not too slow, nor too sensitive. With the new head, I can get that sort of "pop" effect that I thought was only possible on the 90 size. A lighter pair of paddles like the super stubz will make this head even better for 3D.

For the interested ones...read the full story here =>Preparing the head...

FLybar carrier

The head came assembled, but there was one problem pointed out to me by the previous owner- The flybar bar carrier bearings. In the "older" 6mm RJX head, the flybar carrier is secure to the rotor hub by a pair of 3mm screws that many had problem with. So in the 8mm edition, the screws were changed to 4mm, along with a new flybar carrier. Flange bearings were employed, but without any form of collars for the screws that goes into the hub and flybar carrier.

That means that the tolerance between the bearings( that are seated into the hub) and the flybar carrier has to be PERFECT. Else, the screws will press the bearings toward the carrier, thereby pushing them off their position in the main hub. This creates a loose and shaky flybar carrier relative to the main rotor hub.

My solution to this was to take out the bearings, clean them and reinstall with R48 retainer. Glad to report, its still intact and tight after 8flights. A better solution might be to have a collar on the screw, but that will require a bearing change. Adding shim to better the fit between the flybar carrier and the flange is almost impossible because its tight, but not tight enough.

Dampers

I had originally wanted to change the dampers on the head since it was bought used(and in relatively unknown condition) but was told by the local RJX dealer that this head was just purchased from him very recently and the dampers in the 8mm head are very lasting. Anyway I got a pack of dampers just in case. Note that the 8mm head makes use of O-rings instead of the typical dampers. Have to admit, this head is stiff, even more so than my T-rex 700N.

Washout arm

Due to the smaller diameter of the raptor swash, the longest push rod on the head will bind against the screws on the washout arm. Coming up with a solution to it was a lot more time consuming than I had thought. Anyway, in steps...

1. Replace the ball linkage end on the swash with those shorter ones on the double links of the raptor head. The longest raptor linkage rod on the head will work ok for this head. Adjustment required.

2. Replace the washout hub screws with BUTTON HEAD SCREWS. Only button head will work here. Cap screws don't. I elected to use the RJX washout hub and arm because they fit the screws I have w/o the need to cut the screws.

3. No matter which washout arm or washout hub you use, make sure to use the raptor's washout linkage arm because it sits the washout at the right height.

4. Adjust the phasing ring so that the washout hub don't hit the ring on the max positive collective and doesn't "escape" from the pin guides at max negative collective. Note that the RJX washout hub will have a smaller length of "bite" on the phasing pins.

With that, the head was fitted on with no other significant issues that I can remember of.

SETTING UP...

Mixer Level Position

The most important part in setting up is TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Since I did not have a single clue as to what each position on the mixer arms stands for, I had to refer to this...

This paragraph caught my attention.

"IMPORTANT:
When using very responsive settings the forces applied to the CCPM servos are higher
than normal. Plastic servo gears can suffer or break. Servos with metal gears are
recommended for those settings."

Since the load on the servos for a ECCPM heli is 1/3 of what the servos in my MCCPM raptor will see, I couldn't help but start to worry because I haven't got any metal gears in my servos. So in an attempt to reduce the in flight load on the servos, I changed the ball link position of the servo arms and the collective pitch cradle arm. This will reduce load on the servos, but also slow down the servos, which doesn't matter for me because I don't ever "crack" my heli. I found the 10mm position on the cyclic servo arm to work good for me. As for the collective pitch cradle, I opted for the outer hole with a push rod length of 58mm tip to tip of ball linkages. Haven't had any issue with stripped servos yet, hope it will never happen.

And the mixer arm positions that I ended up with after lots of fiddling and measuring...yup, same as the previous owner of the head.

Blade Shims

Before setting up the push rods length, I will need to at least put on the blades. What started out as a 2mins quickie ended up as 2hr of agony. You see, I always use two pairs of blades for maiden, a pair of cheap Funkey FG blades for first flight test in case something is wrong and a pair of Rotor Tech 610mm for actual flying because they just make everything feel faster. The FG blades fitted the blade grips on the head with 2x 1mm washer on each grip, but the Rotor Tech 610mm did not. It was a case of one too few and two too many. So I had to spend a good 2 hours trying to grind down 4x 1mm washers to something like 0.75mm thickness. After the first 2 aluminium ones were done, I decided that enough was enough and started looking for alternative. Thank god I found some plastic 1mm washers from my VERY old Funkey blade packaging. Grinding aluminium vs sanding plastic...go figure...

Note the black washer on the underside of the blade root. That is the plastic shims...

I also found the nut retainer cup on the blade grips to be loose and spining together with the blade bolt nut. Again, R48 retainer fixed it.

PUSH ROD LENGTH

As per the linkage labelling in the photo above, from tip to tip of ball linkages...

Rod A=>50mm
Rod B=>99mm
Rod C=>35mm
Rod D=>60mm
Rod E=>80mm

Because my elevator A arms are adjustable ones, YMMV for rod D with the stock elevator A arms. A good way to start would be to keep the cyclic servos at neutral and set the rod D such that the swash is FLAT. With those rod lengths, I set my head for +/-12 for collective and +/-7.5 for cyclic. There is still more to spare if desired.

Binding Issue

After all the setting up, I was puzzled for a good 2 days by some weird binding. What happened was that at max negative collective and a slight amount of cyclic, the flybar would bind on the slightest deflection. I checked the rods and ball links and nothing was even touching. I looked, I observed and I stared. At long last, I found the culprit- The linkage balls with the hex nut molded on it. The hexagonal nut part was binding against the ball links at certain conditions. Consulted the expert on runryder and was told that RJX has a different type of linkage balls w/o the "nut" part now, just like on the Kasama linkage balls. Thanks to my local RJX dealer I was able to get it a few hours later...

Where it was binding...

The solution...

MOST IMPORTANTLY...FLYING

As per the intro of the this article, I found this head to be much better at FFF than the raptor's. Cyclic are more positive, but not overly so. Collective was very good too. I did manage to get a slightly faster roll rate, but its still nothing like on the 700N. I suppose I might need either a 3mm flybar conversion or a pair of lighter/larger paddles. Its definately a worthwhile conversion to me.

There were however two very interesting observations.

Firstly, I found that with the correct pair of blades and paddles and suitable position on the rotor head, this rotor head will make the raptor a VERY good F3C trainer. Using my funkey 600mm FG blades, which are supposedly over 140g, and the Align CF paddles, my raptor had EXCEPTIONAL hover capability. Despite the stiff damping, it was so smooth and stable that I WAS SHOCKED. The hover was even more predictable and stable than my 700N. Tracking in aerobatics flight was good too.

Secondly, and even more shocking, I thought my raptor flew better with the cheaper FG blades that was so much slower on the stock raptor head than the Rotor Tech 610mm. With the Rotor Tech 610mm, power demanding manuveurs were slightly less demanding on the pilot's collective management, but thats it. The Funkey FG 600mm that used to feel too soft(as in literally, physically too soft) on the stock raptor head was now much better in everything, and I mean everything.

Hovering with the Rotor Tech 610mm, Align paddles and the mixer arm settings as per above also proved to be a disaster. There was a VERY strong tendency for the heli to fly into the wind, it was EXCEPTIONALLY BAD. Suprising, isn't it? How a change of blades and mixer arm position can totally transform the heli.

Conclusion

Overall, the RJX head is a big step up from the stock design of the raptor head. With a head like this, you get the best of both world- modern head design with a strong and proven plastic frame and a very simple tail belt drive design. TBH, this is already the ideal 50 size weekend stick banging trainer. With a decently powerful engine(i.e a hyper with fresh bearings and ring and a hatori #522), it feels decent even when compared to a 700N.

Having said the above, I don't suggest that anyone just run out and buy a RJX head to stuff onto a raptor. This type of "unorthodox" conversion is very time consuming and can be costly. Do consider the economic sense in buying a brand new head for conversion vs selling your existing raptor and buying a new heli. For me, I did the conversion because I got a used deal for the head and I really love the simplicity of the plastic frame and mechanical mixing on the raptor. And in recent times, I have learn to appreciate the quality of the raptor vs my 700N.

The 700N is like a poshce boxster

2008-12-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

After thinking about it for a while...I came to a conclusion. The 700N is just like a cheap, mid-engine, rear wheel drive sports car- a porsche boxster, using BMW aluminium screws. It comes sporty looking and is like a 911-wannabe, budget alternative.

It performs fine in stock form, capable enough to smoke most sedans(plastic fantastic). And for the price you pay at a Parrallel Importer, you can either choose a boxster which looks sporty or a BMW 525(evo90) with 4 doors and a really stiff suspension that your kids will complain of. Or maybe a less exciting, but equally good looking SLK(raptor 90 3D) with the engine hanging on top of the front axle- "old" conventional design, but works. Or you can pay a lot more and go for the equally capable and very powerful BMW M5(a turbulence 3D) that evolves the kitten purring in the 525 to the king of the jungle.

There are some upgrades that you can buy for a boxster, not required for a decent track day though, just like on a 700N. It comes in different form consisting of ceramic brakes, better tires and wheels, some porsche system that lowers the car and give better handling, and a useless sports chrono package. For the 700N you can get better paddles, better tail blades, metal pinion bearing block, X-stiffened bearing blocks...etc...good to have, but not required.

So all is well. You pay the price of a BMW 525, have the speed of a M5, own a car with the same badge as on the 911 series and get a car with the same engine/drivetrain layout as the million dollar super cars. What could possible go wrong?

Apparently, a lot. First off, maintence is a bitch. I am not saying the cost of the spares are expensive in any way, but the general maintence process itself is a BITCH. Its so time consuming compared to a traditional front engine car because your engine is hidden right under/behind the seat. So to change a hose or plug, you need to pretty much removing a million other things, just so unforunately, like on the 700N. Too time consuming, I might add. Just go try changing the clunk or removing the engine in a 700N. Exluding the exhuast, you will need to remove 14screws on a 700N to drop the engine. On a raptor? 4.

And the screws. In order to save weight, Align choose to use some useless, button head screws made of frozen butter which strip ever so often. Just like on a car using Aluminium bolts to save weight, you can choose to either replace them when you get it out the first time or face some other issues the next time round. So whats the issue here? Just some screws, surely they can't cost much? Well, it just so happens that those are not the generic screws...

Then why are owners of the super duper expensive super cars(or expensive helis) with similar concepts and design not complaining like I am? Simply because when you reach the stage of being able to afford those, it won't matter if changing a hose or plug cost 5 man hour. It wouldn't matter if you have to change the whole assembly because one part of it is not quite good. Anyway, you don't do the maintence work, do you? Anyway, who drives the same supercar everyday?

Realflight G4.5

2008-12-06T02:05:00.000-08:00

Needless to say...this is off rcheliresource again...

The Realflight G4.5 update have been out for a while. Just got mine updated a few days ago and it was a big file at almost 1gigabyte. As with previous upgrades, most of the changes are more on the visual and sound effect, rather than the physics or "realness" of the flight. However, I did discover a slight change in heli flight characteristic.

And the minor change in heli is the auto rotation capability. Gone is the unrealistic and overly easy autos. Now the helis auto with practically no reserve in the blades and to be honest, its even harder than the real thing.

In addition, the helicopters are now a lot more boggable. While it doesn't simulate a boom strike, the power of the helicopters feel a lot more realistic now. And that in itself presents a new problem. You will need to go back and re-tweak your old models if you had previous adjusted the power to feel like the real thing.

One of the new visual effect for G4 was the bloom effect. G4.5 take it to one step furthur with a Depth of View effect. One thing to note though, you will need a decently fast computer with a decently powerful graphic card to get decent frame rate with all these effects on. I suppose something along the line of a 2.6+ghz duo core with a geforce 8800gt should be sufficent...but no gurantee.

Since my computer has neither a fast processor nor a fast graphic card, I left my video in the bare basics. In my opinion, this new depth of view is just like a camera lens focusing on just the part that you want to focus on and blurring the rest of the background. Not into photography, but I think its called macro mode in cameras and the background is termed "bokeh".

Anyway, I took a few snapshoot to show the difference.

Plane with bloom and DOV on.

Bloom+DOV

No effect

Night Flying

Glow only

No effect

DOV+Glow. Note the focus is the "House of Horror"

DOV+Glow. Note the focus is on the plane.

There is also this new feature called "difficulty". It comes in 3 levels-"Beginner", "Intermediate" and "Advanced". Not sure what it stands for though.

Since I am not a plank flyer, I shall not go into changes made to the plane section. However, I did include a short flight video in the plane section of the video. Note the sound you get when the plane touches the ground, that is one of the new feature of G4.5.

And the video. Pretty low resolution for now. A high resolution might be posted in time to come...anyway, pardon the limited flying ability...just a weekend stick-banger here.

All in all a decent upgrade, definately worth the 1GB of bandwidth, considering that its FREE.

Update: A slightly higher resolution video of the HELI PART. Click HERE to open it for larger view.

Realflight G4.5 Heli from Calvin lin on Vimeo.
P.S. Since mine is the friendly version...its not always up to date.

Update on 700N

2008-11-30T02:52:00.000-08:00

Some updates on my 700N...

Ball links still surviving.
Clutch still good.
Main gear still good.

For the first time in my life, don't have to change clunk line.

Still deciding and testing between radix 710Sb and Rotor Tech 690mm. Currently I prefer the 710SB for windy days, but 690mm is almost unboggable.

Finally got the tail WORKING GOOD. Up the piro gain and reduced the expo on the tx. Reset the end points and found a new larger range and most importantly, reduced expo width in the gyro and increased the expo on my tx. Now I have got a pretty decent tail. Got a pair of Rotor Tech 105mm. Will swap on soon.

RJX head conversion for my raptor...

2008-11-30T02:48:00.000-08:00

Yet another month has passed. Exams over. Needa find something to do...and this RJX head conversion is probably a worthwhile project for this short sch holi...

And as usual, extracted from my posting in Rcheliresouce...lazy ya...but anyway it does sum up what I think for the time being...

Its been more more than 2 years since the last decal change(Titan) and I guess its about time for a NEW raptor decal because these photos were spotted off a reliable R/C heli forum. Fret not, this time round the raptor has been REBORN with a sparkling new fully programmable Rotor head. Gone is the overslug flybar design and the new rotor head features a 8mm spindle and 4mm flybar. Exciting.

Existing raptor flyers can convert theirs to the new head and washout, which will be sold seperately at around USD200. This new X-treme edition and the rotor head conversion is expected to hit the street in...well...NEVER. No, there is actually no new raptor, but I think I have found a way to make the good ole reliable compete against the "modern design".

Background (Skip this part if you don't feel like reading a grandmother's story...)

"The raptor is such a old design and its SO SLOW!", "Raptor? 3D? Nah, get a t-rex.", "Plastic fantastic? Plastic pig you mean?". Found these familiar? Well, you should, because they are so often said about a raptor. While I don't disagree with some of the very negative comment, I do think a raptor can be MUCH improved by just doing something to the main rotor head.

The original raptor was designed around a pitch window of +11/-9 with a easily achievable 7degree of cyclic. While it was considered to be VERY GOOD in the days where the competition was just of Shuttles, Nexus and Egros, it is BARELY enough for today's style of 3D flying. As such, aftermarket brands like Kasama and G-Force came about making adjustable 3D mixer arms and whole rotor head, which gives the raptor a much larger pitch window. While the increased +/-14 degree of collective really does give the "pop", something was altered along the way with those aftermarket arms- the flybar ratio. I fitted a pair of Kasama mixing level on my raptor and while it definately made a night and day difference to the collective feel(due to the large amount of collective pitch allowed), the roll rate was still...barely adequate at best. I also found quite a bit of pitching in FFF with decently light paddles.

A flybar ratio mod, involving drilling the flybar carrier and retapping to shift the flybar mixer level closer to the hubd, was invented. This mod is pretty well discussed on runryder and apparently, Colin Bell is running this mod too. I was interested and thought about redesigning the flybar carrier and mixer level, but never got down to it due to resources and time constraint.

In addition, I got interested in looking for a head swap on my raptor. Why a swap of head and not heli? Because I love the raptor for its simplicity not found in newer flavour of the month-The belt drive, the mechanical mix and the plastic frame and tail case. There have been a few different head mod and so far, each has got its own set of issues. The T-rex 600N head fit the raptor ok, but had a small collective pitch range due to the mechanic of the raptor. The Kasama sirimok underslug flybar was ok, but a bit of machining has to be done to the main shaft to fit the head. I have also seen a Hirobo 90 size SSZ series head fitted, but apparently the owner found the blade rotor disc to be too far away from the heli, causing issues in rolls.

By fate, I chanced upon the deal of a used RJX X-treme 50 8mm conversion head complete with flybar cage and washout set. That was when I started my journey of conversion....

THE RJX X-TREME 50 HEAD CONVERSION (Important stuff starts here...)

Full of uncertainty, I had to first make sure if the RJX head will at least fit the raptor main shaft before I threw my pocket money into the deal. Asking around got me the answer. It does. The raptor has a jesus bolt to main shaft tip length of 8mm, while it was almost 10mm on the X-treme. In simple terms, the RJX head will clear the raptor main shaft just fine.

Since I got my head used, I shall not go into the assembly or "out-of-box" part. Also, because its a used unit rated by its owner as 8/10, it is obviously not going to be in pristine condition, but its ok, coz I was given a pretty resonable price(Less than 1/2 of its NIB price). And this is the condition of the as it was sold...

Pretty decent, I might add.

It fits the raptor without any mod required. And this is the outcome after an evening of effort. The blade grip distance and flybar length are both longer than on the original design of the raptor head. I got the Align 700n paddles installed because I had them lying around...

I had originally intended to use the stock plastic washout arm and metal washout hub of the raptor, but due to some interaction between the long linkage rod and washout arm screws, I opted for the RJX washout arm and hub set with some slim button head screws. I retained the original washout arm-swashplate linkage to keep the washout higher on the shaft.

And here are the photos of the settings before the maiden today morning. There are a lot of possible settings on the RJX rotor head. 3 on the flybar carrier, 3 on the blade grip, 6 on the grip mixer arm and 2 on the washout arm. Which means effectively...3x3x6x2=108 different possible combination. To be honest, I don't like it. I just need one setting- MOST AGGRESSIVE.

I only did one flight in the morning and I have to say, its should be quite a jump from the raptor head...but there are a few issues with the rod length and flybar deflection which I am still sorting out as of now and will post the solution and outcome in my final review of the Rotor head which will COME SOON..

I only HAVE 1 VERY SERIOUS disappointment. My raptor has really turn to be a heavy weighter with all the RJX head and washout. I am pretty weight consicious with my heli and with my effort to keep things light but practical, my raptor used to tip the scale at less than 7.5lbs, which is around the ball park of most 50size. With the new head, it actually weighs 7.8lbs, heavy.

The full review will come soon...really soon..

Super stubz Vs Stock 700N Paddles

2008-10-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I last updated...anyway got a pair of super stubz from a fellow flyer who converted to flybarless...did a short comparison on rcheliresource...here it is...

"Since the release of the production 700N, more than a few on different forums have asked for faster paddles alternative. The standard answer would always be CY super stubz. While these replies are usually from people who own a 700N running the stubz, not many of them have actually done any comparison between the stock paddles and the super stubz. In fact, I was a little skeptical, because how much faster can this rocket get? I had to find out.

And so, I had to jump at a good deal from one of my flying buddies.

The CF paddles that come with the 700N are quite closely priced to the street price of the super stubz, so this comparison is a fair one.

Basically, the Curtis Youngblood Enterprise stubz paddles came in a few varients. Options are available for 3mm, 4mm and 5mm flybar. Paddle length are 84mm(the stubz), 93mm(only for 3mm flybar) and the 105mm super stubz. CY has a product code for each type and it comes in the form of P4105, P393, P3105...etc. Where the first digit is the flybar hole diameter and the last 2-3digits are the length of the paddles.

The super stubz are lighter than the stock 700N paddles, but they are hollow, unlike the solid stock paddles. In fact, the "hollowness" felt a bit like those old hollow funkey fiberglass blades, which have long been replaced by the foam filled ones. While the grub screw in the stubz cannot be taken out of the paddles(which mean that you will need new paddles if you strip the screw!!), its actually a 2mm one which is one size larger than those in the Align Paddles. Weights are provided along with the super stubz and are adjusted by sliding them along the flybar. Because I was looking for maximum cyclic, I opted to not use them.

Compared to the Align paddles, the super stubz are not much bigger, if any. The stock 700N paddles were wider but shorter. I suppose this would mean a bigger paddle disc in the air with the super stubz.

Suprisingly, the flybar threaded much deeper into the super stubz than the Align paddles. A full centimeter was lost from each side with the super stubz, which means while the paddles disc is bigger, in reality, its actually closer to the main rotor. I am not an expert in flybars and flybar length, but I suppose a shorter flybar will have slower cyclic.

Super Stubz installed. The exact same heli and setup was used to test the paddles.

FLIGHT CHARACTERISTIC

In all honesty, I haven't expected a lot of difference and I sure didn't feel that much. Sure enough, the initial feel you get from the cyclic is MUCH faster, but the overall roll and flip rate does not change much. One interesting point is that with the super stubz, the elevator is not quite as "linear" as with the Align paddles. I get the full flip rate with 3/4 stick and it doesn't flip any faster if I push the stick furthur. However, on the Align paddles, there is definately variation between 3/4 stick and full stick. Since I changed nothing on the electronics setting, I suppose this is probably a characteristic of the super stubz or the limit of a flybared setup. Piro flips, inverted funnels, tic-tocs...etc could all be done with slightly less input. Fast forward and backward flights showed no obvious pitching, but it just did not feel as arrow like. Overall, these are definately good for a "lazy 3D stick-banger".

To think this was suppose to be a short comparison article... "

20 flights with the 700N and my thoughts on it...

2008-09-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Been a busy month with all the reports and quizzes in school...so I am having very little time for fiddling with the heli in between surfing forums and school work...

But anyway, here is my take on this heli...

Problems/ Complaint...
1. Main Gear- Don't know why they make it white, it is super dirty, even more so than the raptor's 87T ones.

2. Tail pitch slider/arm- Mine is getting slightly loose from a combination of slop from different places along the tail shaft. Don't feel it in the air though. The grip are loose too, but I thought it should be normal coz of the thrust bearing.

3. Ball links are wearing...unbelieveable...20flights ball links feel worst than 200flights old raptor links.

4. No sure if its because of the spacer I used on the canopy mounting post, but the canopy simply does NOTHING to shield my electronics from oil. I get oil droplets on my regulator.

NOT ALIGN/700N induced problems...
5. WHY is there no normal mode on the solid-g? I am used to carrying the heli around in non-heading hold mode and then spooling it up before turning on the heading hold so that the tail won't start spinning on spool up. Due to the lack of non-heading hold mode in the solid-g, I have been fighting my tail quite a bit on spool up. I am sure wiggling the stick before spooling up helps, but I don't have that habit...

6. The anodizing on my YS engine is dropping...not sure why. I stripped the engine coz I thought it might have gotten too hot...but apparently it isn't...Wiping with tissue shows the bits are falling off. It makes good power, so I am not too worried about it for the time being.

From 90size

Flight Characteristic
This heli is amazing compared to the raptor. While the quality is not quite there, the flight characteristic is exceptional. Cyclic is VERY fast and direct, which means now I can do multi-point rolls/flips without struggling. I might try some super stubz in the future, but for now, the stock paddles are good enough. Collective "pop" is impressive too. Anytime you want the heli to stop, just bang the stick and it stops right there, with a nice "pop" sound. The punch is exceptional too. And as with all 90size, this thing has got that hang time, whereby it just stays in the air without losing height even when you put it in knife edge and its most noticeable when doing piro-flips and slappers. However, because of that floatiness, I am still having a little trouble learning to control it so it comes down nicely.

Only thing that I think is still lacking is the tail gear ratio. Its a little too low which lowers the tail authority. Somehow, the tail authority on the 700N just doesn't feel as good as the raptor. Other than that, everything else is great. Also, it tracks very good in forward and backward flight, with no hint of pitching. Everything has become faster, even a simple big loop just get BIGGER AND FASTER.

BUT having said that, this thing is in not a unboggable heli. It still requires good management, even more so than the 50size. On my raptor, most of the time I am using the full pitch range on the throttle stick, but on the 90size, most of the time I am just playing around between the +/-7/8 region. Full stick will definately bog it. The full stick is really just for that instantanous pop. A 50 size uses rpm to produce power and lift, but a 90size uses its torque. Comparing them is like comparing a 2.0l engine with a big turbocharger(a 50size), where you have to keep the revs up, vs a 6.0l v10 american muscle which just pulls and pulls from the start. Its definately worth that extra fuel cost. Like the saying goes, 2 good(and expensive) flights is better than a few average(and affordable) flights.

Futaba T10CHP 2.4ghz FASST review...

2008-09-13T02:22:00.001-07:00

NOTE: The large photos appear lope sided...click on it to open the photo...

After flying ccpm on the T-rex 700N, I found a lack of precision, as if the servos or tx is lacking resolution. When I moved the stick in extremely tiny steps, there are instances when the servos don't move at all. I tried it with my hitec 6965hb and found that the problem was with my TX. In mechnical mix, there is no such issue, just in ccpm. Since my 9C was long due for replacement, I got the 9C replacement, the Futaba T10CHP.

Got it about two weeks ago. I have spent quite a bit of time with it, playing with the menu and exploring the new features(not that there are that many...). Since I got this as a replacement for my old 9C, I will be comparing it to the 9C in this review. Because I don't fly any plane that requires complex mixing, I will only be covering the heli functions of the TX.

I got the 2.4 version, there is also a PCM version which comes with the 1410DP rx. This thing does not work with G3 PCM. To use pcm1024 on a 2.4 set, a PCM module from the 9C is required. I tried the pcm module off my old 9C and it works flawlessly. Initial feel is great. Smooth gimbals although they are not quad bearing ones. Menu is the same as the old 9C and 9C super, except for a few changes(good ones), so it is still very easy to use and program. Only complaint is that the antenna for the 2.4g module goes behind the tx handle.

Box opening...

Whats in the box...same old charger, nicd batt and rx switch that the 9C came with...

Very nice LCD backlight.

Still pcm 1024...instead of the newer G3 pcm. Fasst 2048 is great.

Size comparsion with the 9c.

Module and receiver.

Whats inside the casing...

Initial Feel/ Physical Design

The 10C is very similar to the 9C. From the stick feel, to the switch layout, to the navigation buttons and even the TX battery itself, is the same as on the 9C. I have read a few complaints about the idle up switches being too close together, but so far, I have not found it so be so. It feels a little less weighty than my 9C, but the balance with the 2.4G module is a lot better than on the 9C, not perfect, but better.

Home screen
Not much difference from the old 9C, except that with the 10C you get a throttle/pitch % read out and the user name. The pitch % display the actual curve value, while the throttle % is just the stick position of the throttle stick. There are 3 timers now, instead of the 2 on the 9C.

10C vs 9C

Navigation Menu
The menu in the 10C is almost the same as the 9C. It can be good news, it can be bad. For me, I am glad Futaba kept the simplicity.

10C vs 9C Basic menu 1 and 2

10C vs 9C Advance menu 1 and 2

Changes to the Basic Menu and functions

In the parameter screen, there is now a picture of a swashplate to indicate the type of swash selected. Scrolling further down the parameter page will show the settings for the TX, including the Backlight brightness.

10C vs 9C

The timer function is pretty much the same as on the 9C, except for the 3rd timer. Again, options are provided for switch assignment, including the new Logic Swtich function.

10C vs 9C

So what is this Logic Switch about? It is actually triggering the function via two steps/switches instead of one. For instance, if you want to know the amount of time you spend hovering in normal mode(exluding take off and spooling up), you can set the logic switch to activate the timer when your throttle stick is above 27% and the flight mode switch is in normal. So at any point of time, even if you flip into normal but the sticks is less than 27%, the timer will not run.

Changes to the Advance Menu and Functions

Condition- A new feature in the 10C. While it sounds impressive, it is actually nothing more than assigning switch for your different flight mode. It is not like the real "conditions" on the higher end models.

In the 10C, there is also another new feature call the Hi-Lo pitch. This setting allows you to not touch the pitch curve and yet adjust the max and min pitch value for each individual flight mode.

Cyclic-throttle mixing is now a standard feature on the 10C. Previously on the 9C, the user had to give up the P-mixes if he desire such a mixing. This will be great for governors that work on throttle curve, like the ATG. There is alieron-throttle, elevator-throttle and rudder-throttle mix, seperate values available for each flight mode.

In terms of changes in the advance functions...

The delay function now includes delay for pitch and throttle servo. It is great for switching out of a auto because it opens the throttle servo slowly. For me, 20-30% is about right without too much lag.

10C vs 9C

The governor menu now allows changing of the governor gain base on condition (flight mode) instead of just a switch like on the 9C, which I tied to the idle up switch. As such, a totally different rpm can be set for idle-up 3.

10C vs 9C

The 10C features 7-point throttle and pitch curves as compared to 5 on the 9C. In addition to the extra two points, the curve menu in the 10C also allows the user to set the stick position for each point.

10C vs 9C

And lastly, the greatest change when compared to a 9C...the programmable mixes. In the 9C, each individual mix is listed on the 2nd page of the advance menu, but on the 10C, you have to get into the P-mix "content page" from the advance menu and then select the mix you want to edit. On the 10C, one will get 4 linears mixes and 2 5-point mixes, which is twice of what was offered on the 9C(2 linear+1 5-point). The mixes themselves are exactly like the same as on the 9C.

Settings/Flight

I installed the 6014 rx in my 700N and copied the 9C model file into the 10C. Everything works as it is. In fact, one can just copy all the values( Endpoints, gyro gain, curves...etc) from the 9C to the 10C and it will work exactly the same as on the 9C. A campac with 9c model files will work too.

I know that in theory, our servos can't resolve the the 2048 resolution and any 1024 resolution radio system is more than sufficent. However, I did find myself noticing the difference in flight. When I first started doing CCPM on my 9C, I started noticing a lack of precision compared to the mechanical mix mode. The servos were like moving in "steps" and I noticed that minimal movement on the sticks produced no movement on the servos. With the 10C, this problem has been resolved and I feel the control of the heli being more direct and precise. As to the latency issue of the 9C, I didn't quite feel any of it when I was using the 9C, so I can't really comment too much about latency improvement. However, I did find my usual piro-flip timing going a bit off with the 10C. Stick feel is very similar to the 9C, not super smooth, but good enough for me.

An unexpected difference was my rx battery consumption. Not sure why, but with the 10C and fasst setup, my servos actually consume a bit more power, about 0.3A more. I copied all the settings over from my 9C without any changes which means in theory, the consumption should be exactly the same.

Conclusion

It has been 7years since the 9C was introduced into the market. In this period, technology has evolved so much, from cheap CRTs to cheap LCDs, from pentium 3 to quad core, from notebooks costing thousands of dollars to UMPCs that cost less than $300. In this same time, the 9C/9C super has evolved into a 10C...which is erm...75% similar to what it was like and cost slightly more. So you be your own judge if this tx is worth it.

In my opinion, this is a worthwhile replacement if your old 9C/9X is getting worn and you are looking for a simple and affordable tx. The LCD with backlight is great and the buzzer sound on this is considerably louder than my 9C. It retains the simplicity of the 9C and add a touch of more advance features. However, if you are looking for a more advance radio, perhaps the 12FG might be a better option, considering that it cost just a bit more but comes with a lot more, including the quad bearing gimbal sticks.

P.S. The above is part of two articles I did for rcheliresource.com

INO Lab HG-D760MG review

2008-08-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

A while back, one of the local hobby shops in my area started carrying these Ino-Lab servos from Korea. While they are neither very fast nor really torquey(like those JR 8717 on 7.4v), they are still pretty decent and at the very least, still compares well to the current "decent" digital servos like the Futaba BLS451/BLS252 servos and the Hi-tec 69XX/79XX series. The best part is that it only cost half of what the Futaba BLS series and JR8715/8915, the 8717 for non-US market, are going for.

Packaging

No suprise, no disappoint. The servo came in a plastic box like how futaba servos are. The standard hardwares like rubber grommets, eyelets and servo horns and wheel are included. One small complain though. While the servo wheel was fine, the servo horns that came with it were a bit softer than those on hitec's and futaba's. Not a biggie, because the Ino Lab servos are using the futaba spline, so futaba horns will work good for these.

Specs/Performance

So lets take a look at the spec..

On 4.8v, this thing is faster than a BLS451 and has similar torque, which means that on paper, this servo is exceptionally well priced. BUT...obviously, anyone with experience with servos will know that specs are just specs. There are other things that matters too, for instance the deadband.

There is no technical measurement of the deadband for this servo online that I can found, but pushing these using my hands shows that these definately have a much narrower deadband than the hitec 6965HB that I have been using for quite a while. On the hitec 6965HB, a slight push will move the servo arm off its center by a wee bit, whereas on these, it takes quite a bit more force to move the servo arm, which boils down to better precision.

I am currently running these in my Align T-Rex 700N for cyclic and so far have only had 8 flights on these. Since I haven't run anything else on my Align T-Re700N before, I can't really say if its good or bad relative to the other servos around, but I absolutely don't feel any problem with regards to precision and centering.

The 760MG mounted on the 700N.

When I first got the servos, it was hard to turn by hand (obviously w/o power), which was unlike most of the other coreless digital servos that I have used. Most coreless servos should be turn with little resistance when rotated by hand, unlike these. After a few flights, it seems either the servo gears have bed in or something else have been "run in" coz now the servo feels a lot lighter to turn by hand.

The spec shows the weight at 51.3g, which is light for something of this spec and running metal gears. Full of doubt, I went to weigh this thing...and indeed, it did tip the scale at 52g.

I made a short video of how these servos behave on the bench. Since I don't run any stepdown on my heli, I left my regulator at 5.0v.

From the video (on 5.0v), its obvious that while these servos are not blazing fast @0.11s, they should still be more than quick enough for most pilots, especially so on 6v(0.09s). And in all honesty, even at 5.0v, my fingers are still the limiting factor in speed.

What I don't like about the Ino-Lab HG-D760MG servos...

As with all things in life, nothing is perfect. There are 3 things I don't like about these.
1. The servo horns(like what a online friend told me) are a bit soft. I am not sure if they will compromise flight precision, but so far I haven't really seen the need to change them.
2. Its not heatsinked. The plastic casing on the servo does get slightly warm if I "crack" the servo for over a minute on the bench. While I am not a "crack" flyer, I would think this servo will benefit from the addition of a heatsink casing.
3. The servo wire joint on the PCB is not gooped. This is the part that I don't understand. Why create a decently good servo for a heli and leave the wire joints at the PCB bare and abused by vibration? I hot glued mine with just a generic hot glue gun and stick. IMHO, this is something that should have been done at the factory.

Consumption
I have been told by a fellow flyer that these draw quite a lot of amp because he isn't getting quite as many flights as his JR servos on the same pack of battery. After flying some 3D with these servos, I think their amp draw is still pretty average and definately acceptable. I use 200mah on the 700N for a 7mins basic 3D, which equates to about 1.7amp. Pretty low for a 90size, I feel.

Note: This is part of a review I posted on rcheliresource.com

700N build issues

2008-08-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

First off, some build issues that I faced with the 700N...

1. The rubber grommet hole on my canopy was drilled unequal and too rearward of both sides.
This resulted in having one side of the canopy bulging in the middle and touching the main gear when mounted on.

Instead of redrilling, I added spacer to the canopy mounting post. This solves the problem. Notice the different spacer thickness because of misaligned mounting holes.

2. Page 22 Linkage rod D
The length in the instruction manual was a little too short for the swash to be level. I had to increase mine by about 3mm. Some say they had to increase theirs by up to 5mm, so YMMV.

3. Ball Links do not go onto the rod straight.
A handful (a big handful) of my push rods do no go into ball links straight. The problem I am facing is that I can start out really straight but once it get tight, it just goes crocked.

4. Tail fin being slanted when tail case is fully tightened.
I had already read about this on the Align forum in Chance's build thread. I have the same issue too. Spacers will help to solve the problem, but I am just lazy to take it out now.

I suppose this is because of the tail case clamp closing up when tightened down.

5. Fuel Line hole on the main frame.
I am using a YS 91SR and when mounted on, the regulator will touch the fuel line IF I use the upper hole on the main frame. Using the lower one seems to solve it.

6. I am not usually that picky, but since this is my new heli, I hope it looks and stays clean for a while. Unforunately the white gears are already getting really dirty just after 4flights.

7. CF Rod reinforcement for the Rudder control rod
Either the metal rod is too big or the cf sleeve is too tiny. There was no such problem in the pre-production or the first batch kit, but on the second batch, the metal rod took a lot of effort to screw in, whereas on the older kits, it just slip in in a matter of seconds. Took me 15mins or more to get mine in. Its the CF rod at the bottom of the photo. I tried running without the CF sleeve but there seems to be too much flexing and vibration on the metal rod even at idle, definately a place where metal fatigue will take effect. This CF sleeve is a must.

On a more positive note, my kit came with a very thin shim for the main shaft and that one fits PERFECT on the main shaft. All problem that I have, except for the ball links/linkage rods issues, were pretty minor and easily resolved. Align seems to have also improve the quality of their tail blades. The one that my friends had on their 600N were hollow, the 700N ones appears to be solid and filled-I know because my tail blade got ding..

Mounting a governor sensor on the 700N

2008-08-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

The T-rex 700N uses a pair of clutch bell mounted magnets for the governor sensor instead of the usual fan mounted magnets. It will be fine if you are running the Align governor included in the box, but if like me, you opted for another governor, you will need a bit of mod to fit the governor sensor in. This mod will work for governors like Throttle Jockey Series, ATG, GV-1 and a whole bunch of others.

All you need is

1x 30/50size sensor mount(do take note that some 50sizers are actually using the 90size sensor mount, we need a real 30/50 one.)
1x Small saw
1x sensor
Some shrink wraps and cable tie.
Some C.A, i.e superglue

1. Prepare/Cut the bracket to size.

Cut the 30/50 governor sensor mount as shown above. The black one on top is a un-cut standard 30/50 mount. The one below is what you should end up with after cutting. It should be around the region of 26mm, give or take an mm or two. It is suppose to be a little shorter than the one on the G-600 because on the Align governor, the sensor goes THROUGH the mount, whereas on our generic mounts, the sensor goes ON the mount which increases the length of the final assembly.

It doesn't have to be a exact, on the dot kind of cut because there is a little bit of room for adjustment when the sensor is mounted on the main frame.

2. Attaching the sensor to the bracket.

Bend the sensor gently to form a 90 degrees arc. I am not very sure if all sensors are directional, but on mine, only the side with the wordings work for my magnet. So check yours before bending as you will want the side of the sensor that works to face the magnet.

Attach the sensor to the bracket and shrink wrap the sensor to the bracket as shown in the photo above.

C.A. the sensor tip to the bracket as in the photo. Thick C.A. tends to work better here. The key here is to apply in thin layers. Its going to take a while to dry and solidify, but don't blow at it coz you only end up making the the C.A. run.

Cable tie the wire at the shrink wrapped area. Cable tie on none-shrink wrap area might cut through the wires. I had forgot about the cable ties on mine, but it seems to be working well so far.

3. Mounting the bracket onto the main frame.[download id="null"]

I highly/strongly/definately recommend that the sensor assembly be mounted before putting the frame halfs together. Spacer was required on mine to space the sensor away from the main frame to that it is hanging directly above the magnet on the clutch bell. The photo is a bit dark and blur, but for those who are wondering, the spacer goes between the bracket and the included governor mount(pg10 of manual). You will need to source for self tapping screws to mount the sensor assembly. Adjust the height of the sensor by "dry fitting" the clutch bell assembly on the frame.

My Dream, my Pride, my Joy

2008-08-11T05:08:00.000-07:00

After waiting and waiting and waiting and yet more days of waiting...the T-rex 700N hit my local shore. It was one week later than I expected. Oh well...at least its here. It was the first to leave the LHS door(which makes me the FIRST owner of 700N on my little island) and probably the first 700N to attempt flight...all thanks to my 8-10hours of building time daily.

Got it on 4th of Aug. Spent a few days and almost 2kg of my body mass(YES I LOST 2KG FIXING THIS) to build this thing. Though the 700N is pretty simple and has relatively few parts, I feel that its still a much more complicated build compared to my raptor. In the same time that I build this 700N, I probably could have took my raptor apart, assemble it, take it apart, assemble it again and still be left with enough time to watch a whole series of japanese drama. My build start on a monday, by thursday it was down to mounting the electronics and setting up the electronics.

I ripped out the TJ pro from my raptor(which means it now has the ATG) because I couldn't find a suitable place to mount the ATG on the 700, reason being setting the ATG requires access to the buttons on one end and the g-view slot at the other. I am using the ATG sensor on the 700N though.

The rest of the setup is pretty much as what I planned.

YS91SR + MP5
TJ pro + Hitec 325HB(too lazy to rip out the 9254 from the raptor)
Solid-g + BLS251
Ino Lab-760mg on ccpm
Radix 710SB
stock paddles and tail blades
Dualsky vr-8l regulator and Evo-rx 2100mah

Will be doing a build post and tips and tricks for the 700N soon when I have the time. For now I need to catch up on the 1week worth of lecture notes and tutorial that I have neglected. I have recently be accepted as a paid contributing editor on rcheliresource.com , so most, if not all self produced articles and contents that I post there will probably end up here too. Just to clarify, while the title "paid contributing editor" sounds cool, my pay per week is only just enough to pay for 1 flight worth of nitro for my 700N...LOL...of course you guys can help me by clicking and viewing my full articles there and clicking the google ads at the side, but erm...that is not quite legal..haha...anyway thats beside the point...

Enough talk...time for some pictures.
Whats in the BOX??

The completed heli

Some size comparison between the raptor and 700N

In the car boot and at the field on a quiet and cool sunday morning.

First maiden(8/8/08)...the very day olympic started...

Got the solid g on reverse but left the G-view at home. Dinged the tail blades when the heli started spinning on the ground.(More on the tail blades in another day, its positive though). So I had to pack up everything. Engine was struggling with idle a little bit, but overall my starter was able to crank it.

Went back to the field with G-view, got everything set BUT MY STARTER CAN'T CRANK THE ENGINE. Used my hand to turn and it wasn't lock, so I thought it was my starter. Tried the starter with a BIG CAR BATT WITH THE CAR RUNNING and the engine wouldn't even budge. When I say a big car battery, I do mean a real car battery and not those puny car batts found on today's japanese sedans. Pack up and headed home-dissappointed. Sent a pm to my flying buddy that day to borrow his starter :P

Initially I had trouble with treading the metal rod of the tail rudder linkage into the carbon rod, so I left it all off all together, but then it there was too much vibration on the rod that I had to spent a good 15mins to tread the rod in when I got back home.

Successful Maiden- The real maiden flight(9/8/08) - National Day

Had trouble cranking the engine even with my friend's bigger starter. At the suggestion of another flying buddy who was just dropping by the field, I took the plug out and give it a few crank. Sure enough, lots of fuel came out. After that, the bigger starter had not problem cranking it. My starter was turning it over, but still it looked like it was struggling bad.

Maiden was uneventful. The whole time I was worried of screw coming loose due to insufficent locktite, but all have been well so far.

I thought my headspeed was quite ok and my governor was engaging and that 90size in a low speed break in is suppose to look like that. After my friend told me mine looked really slow, I gave it a look over when I went home after 2.5 flights. The next day out with my tach, I realised that I was only running 1250-1300 and thus my governor was not engaging. That explains why it didn't felt as good as I expected. I know what many will say, but I always run in my engine with my governor on. The only flight which I will leave my governor off is the very first flight of a new engine/piston/ring. Rpm has been increased to around 1550 now. Btw, it is possible to even do circuits at 1300rpm on a 90size. Simply amazing.

Its probably too early to comment on the flight performance, but this thing climbs quite a bit faster than my raptor. Might change out the paddles and tail blades when I see the need to.

Special thanks to those who helped me at the field on maiden day.

Journey to a 90size...PART II

2008-06-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

Finally got pretty much every single thing ready for the 90 size.

My very finalized setup would be:

YS91SR
MP5
Radix 710mm SB
ATG with 9254
Solid-G with BLS 251
Ino Lab 760mg(cyclic)
Dualsky VR8L with Flightpower Evo-rx 2100mah

Ino-Lab 760mg

Pretty ok spec, even on 4.8v. Not sure how accurate the spec is though.

It is really 52g.

Futaba BLS 251

Slower and weaker than the logictech 6100 servo, but at least the wires are pretty well wrapped.

BUT there is still one problem...I DON'T HAVE A KIT YET. At the moment I am considering...after looking at the build manual, here is my thoughts..

T-rex 700N
Looks pretty ok and parts are definately going to be highly affordable, but there seems to be nothing, absolutely nothing that is tunable or adjustable on it. Also, align has NEVER ever released a heli w/o any major issue... like weird static glitch, clutch and bell exploding, fans eating governor sensor, swashplate seperating in flight...oh well, nobody is perfect, isn't it.

-nice production canopy
-main shaft only supported by two bearings
-frame design and build seems to be average, should be durable enough
-HATE THOSE BUTTON HEAD SCREWS, the head tends to wear off/strip
-very light weight and nice tray for mounting everything
-the type of ccpm/elevator arm setup that I really like
-plastic in the correct places

RJX X-treme 90
RJX quality hasn't been quite good, at least on the 50.. While many have had success, many have had issues too. Main gear stripping in flight, pinion wearing very fast, metal fatique, soft metal parts, and even the Chinese themselves(who supposedly should support their own domestic goods and production) say that there is no precision in the parts. I haven't really seen the 90size in real life yet, so I can't quite comment on it. Parts for the 50 is not cheap, so parts for the 90size is definately going to be a lot more expensive.

-whatever happened to them, the canopy on the 50 was just right, the one on the 90 is tiny and looks ugly, canopy mount comes with a breakoff tab though.
-looking at the manual, the frame might be quite susceptible to cracks in a crash. From what I know, its also 2mm thick, but it seems to be the weakest of all. The fan shroud area is just left totally open with nothing in between as shown in the pictures below.

X-treme 90

700N

Aurora

-3main shaft bearing
-very nice looking mixing arm
-hate the anti-rotation
-G10 frames available, in all honesty, I prefer G10 to CF, because its cheap and doesn't affect my pcm rx
-adjustable head
-certain things like the tail pitch slider arm could been in plastic

Avant aurora
-Really nice design and very good frame and rotor head design
-expensive parts($40 main shaft!!)
-distributor for SINGAPORE IS A INDONESEAN HOBBY SHOP????WTF?? So Basically I must ship the heli and parts from a thousand miles away and go through the hassle of custom, shipping cost, unknown "LHS", when in Singapore, the real LHSs are all within a radius of less than 30km no matter where you are in the country/island...so much for a local distributor.
-frames are very well re-inforced and the tail/torque design is very good from the way it is mounted on the frame to the open tail case, great design
-Real question is- Is the aurora a myth or reality??

I know I always say that unless you have got people earning a sizeable amount of income or profit for you...otherwise don't waste your hard-earned money on a 90...but somehow along the way, 90 size equipments/electronics seems to have gotten a bit cheaper than it was, making it more tempting, more affordable. Even the 90 size kit are going down in prices. So for now, I guess the only worry that is remaining is...FUEL COST.

All photos of the different frames are taken off their PDF manual, which can be downloaded online from the respective manufacturer's website.

ATG

2008-06-21T00:18:00.000-07:00

Tried the ATG v3 on the raptor. In comparsion to the TJ pro....

Physical/Package....
The atg comes in a box that is similar size to the solid g and its physical size is the same as the solid g control box. Unlike the cheap zip lock bag that the tj pro comes in. However, the atg only comes with 1 magnet. Not sure if it will cause any balance issue in the fan, but throwing another magnet into the package probably only cost them 10cents more right? Sensors between the two are compatible.

Initial set-up
Calibration is done via 3 buttons on the governor and throttle stick position. Its actually easier to calibrate this thing than the TJ pro. Rpm read out is done via the blinking of leds, but both of them will require a tach from rpm settings. The blinking light led on the atg is over 150rpm different from the actual rpm at hover, but the idle up rpm was pretty close. It might be partly due to the fact that I am using a futaba TX. Futaba mode is provided in the G-view, but since I don't have one....Super servo mode is also done via the G-view, again, because I don't own one, I just left the 9254 in normal mode.

In-Flight Feel

ATG has got 2 modes, basic governor mode and active mode. Basic mode will function like how the TJ works, while active mode will also take into account of how the throttle channel input from the tx. Idle up was set to slightly over 2000.

Basic mode

In basic mode, the rpm was pretty consistent when the head is unloaded. However, I found the rpm to drop off a bit more than the tj pro in between each load change, like for instance between each tic and toc in tic toc. Overall, it was still ok, just that the heli felt lacking a bit in power. Rpm wasn't exactly as consistent as the TJ and it was very evident in big loops and FFF.

Active mode

For a moment I thought my governor was not working, my engine was screaming its arse off when unloaded. It was really loud. No doubt the heli felt a lot more responsive, poppy and powerful, but I bet it was also running a lot harder. The headspeed was sky-rocketing when unloaded. Doing a long tailslide will reveal how badly the overspeeding was. TBH, the rpm was the most consistent when flying around with the engine constantly loaded like in a funnel. Suprisingly, rpm was very consistent when transisting from inverted to upright funnel in a "horizontal 8 shape". In a hover, the rpm will shoot up way too high, regardless of upright or inverted. It actually got pretty predictable when the heli will overspeed and the heli actually felt pretty good. I might use this mode and increase the "gain" if I can get a G-view.

Overall, I still prefer the TJ pro...and the TJ pro with the two cables is 2grams lighter and has a much smaller footprint. The tj is really so much smaller. The TJ performs a lot better as a governor for a weekend stickbanger. I might end up using the TJ on the 90size.

Size comparsion with TJ pro.

My 90size stash.

2008-06-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I last updated...so here is whats happening. With the fund that I had originally saved up for getting a new 50 to replace the raptor...I got...

Radix 710mm SB
MP5-90
YS91SR
Dualsky Vr-8l
Solid-g
Atg V3

Not sure which kit to get, but probably the 700N because my budget for the kit is under US$1000. All I need now are servos and kit(which so unforunately is the bulk of the cost).

Still undecided on servos. Deciding between:

Hitec 7965mg-is the deadband under load still as large as the older series?
Ino lab 760mg-heard that it isn't quite smooth and very power hungry. Worst of all, the local distro seems to be totally uninterested in making my $.
Futaba BLS451- there were cases of weird glitching problem with these and for the price of the 8717 they are neither fast nor strong on 4.8v...
Jr 8717/8715 - best of the lot, but quite ex.

JR8900 or BLS251 - will the BLS really last longer? Anyway 8900 is out of stock at the LHS.

Managed to weigh some of the items at the shop I am working at..

Mp5-90 with header, w/o screws @229g

Dualsky vr-8l(Now also known at flightpower Vr-8l), 64g including failsafe switch. VERY very well built.

YS91SR @551g including check valve, main needle, woodruff key, etc..

Here's is whats in the box of the solid-g and atg, will weigh them when I have the time.

Updates.
Weights of the Solid-g and ATG

Thoughts on ATG here
Test of solid-g coming soon WHEN I CAN GET A SUITABLE SERVO FOR IT

Servos- A very kind flyer allowed me to have a look at his INO-Lab 760mg. Indeed, it was a bit rough. His collective servo was really rough because apparently it was over-stressed by the binding. The cyclic servo were ok, but nowhere as smooth as even the 6965hb. The movement felt a bit coarse. The deadband was very good though. No slop, no deadband despite the fact that it is using metal gear. You can put a bit of force on them and the servo will counter it immediately without any change in the angle of the servo horn, unlike my 6965hb but they don't look as fast as the 6965hb on the bench...overall I would say they are pretty ok buy for the price and should give the "pop" feeling that I am looking for. I might go for these if I can get a good deal.