600 Align 600 Camera Heli

[Lee]

Well guys,
As some of you already know i was the lucky recipient of some new equipment. An Align 600 and FPV gear. The owner bought it with the intention of using it to take pictures of Windsurfers using his sails as he is a sail designer. His partner was the heli guy but before the project got off the ground, he left. All this stuff has just been sat there for two year collecting dust.
So enter one very lucky boy (me) to inherit all the equipment in exchange for aerial shots of his products in action.
Here are some pics of some of the stuff. I will possibly sell some of the spares to pay for the camera mounting system i just bought. So if you see anything of interest to bling your 600 let me know.

 

[Lee]

Took it up for its first hover everything smooth..... Then suddenly it veers off to the left rapidly. Full right cyclic and nothing. All i could do was cut the throttle and watch it pile in Quick check of the electrics and all still working. cyclic still smooth in all directions to there limits.
So what happened??? I'm thinking bad battery connection to RX. Vibration cause loss of power, after crash power came back???? What do you guys thing?

 

[Tony]

Wow, that's a scary thought that the 600 was out of control. Without being there, I couldn't even begin to suggest what went wrong.

 

[Lee]

I'm almost certain that it was the RX losing power. I think i'm gonna use a separate BEC instead of a RX battery pack.

 

[Tony]

That is doing the same thing though. Just with tue bec, you only have your normal batteries. I would use something like a 2s lipo with a bec if I was thinking of doing this.

 

[Jolly-Swagman]

Nice 600 Lee and yeah would be better off with separate good decent BEC for the RX and servos

 

[Paulster2]

Everything in the pics with the Tx are spare parts?? Holy Shamokies Batman! Someone went all out. Also looking at the main shafts (spares) ... those things are gynormous! Anyway, great stuff Lee. I hope you get everthing figured out.

 

[Lee]

Thanks Paul, and none of the FPV gear is in the picture or the 3 sets of spare blades or should i say two sets now as i just broke a set

 

[Paulster2]

That is a lot of stuff bro I'm sure you'll get through the glitches with it. I think it's going to be fun for you to film the sails. I just cannot imagine flying it over the water where there will be NO retrieval. It seems a very risky endeavor. Better make sure your batteries are FULLY charged and only keep it out over the water for half of a charge. It's going to take a few charges to figure out how long it will fly before you loose power. Just thinking ... I figure you already have this all worked out though.

 

[Lee]

Got the camera mount today from Infinity Hobby in HK.
Going to take the dimensions of all the components to make replacements if i break it.

 

[Tony]

MAN!!!! That thing is ugly lol. Can't wait to see it in action...

 

[Jolly-Swagman]

Lee ,, that looks like a Gas / Clutch/ or Brake pedal for a Playstion Steering Wheel control set ,, LOL

 

[Lee]

Here it is on the 600, Gonna put it on the tricopter to see how it flys.

 

[Paulster2]

I agree it looks ugly as sin ... but, this is business, not pleasure. If it is functional, who cares

 

[Tony]

Man I can't air to see some great video with this and the gopro hd...

 

[breeze400]

I'm just getting a chance to revisit this tread. Now that I can post to this, did you ever find out what caused your 600 to vear off? I was thinking that I must of accedentaly bent or moved my tail rotor servo when I was carrying her. Haven't had the time to get her back in the air yet. To find out.

 

[Lee]

I'm almost 100% sure it was the RX glitching due to a loose connection from the RX battery to the RX.

 

[breeze400]

So you did find a loose connection. The only thing I could find on mine was the tail servo moved to a different spot on the tail boom and the linkage was bent.

 

[Ghostflyer1]

Over water hmmmm im thinking you might want to rig up some foam floats incase it goes in. May i suggest a CC BecPro with a 7.4v 2650mah battery for the electronics. Works very nice on the Chaos700 incase I loose the esc I might have some chance to auto it down..... Looks like you have plenty of parts to repair that TREX

 

[Lee]

Hi Eric,
I does have floats on it and a clever little system called WATERBUOY
I bought a CC 10A BEC to put on it but never got around to putting it on.
But i'm thinking to put the camera system on my new quadcopter when i build it, and keep the 600's as my fun toys.