500 Derek's Trex 500 hover test

Graham, are you talking about normal calibrating the Tx to the ESC when you first initialise it on its first ever run?
 
Graham Lawrie said:
I havent read all of this thread, no time, so i may be repeating a question. What ESC is on it? I had "nodding dog" on mine as I had not set up the TX to low and high speed on the ESC when I programmed it:) It is like night and day now that it is correct, man do those blades turn at speed now:)
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I'm using the stock Align 70amp ESC. The entire helicopter was setup by the local heli pro, no longer available, when I bought the helicopter. Although I wasn't very confident last year, I was able to hover the helicopter without any nodding nor wagging.
 
Graham Lawrie said:
I havent read all of this thread, no time, so i may be repeating a question. What ESC is on it? I had "nodding dog" on mine as I had not set up the TX to low and high speed on the ESC when I programmed it:) It is like night and day now that it is correct, man do those blades turn at speed now:)
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Derek had tail wag Graham (side to side) Yours was up and down (nodding dog)
 
Ok....I got back to my 500 today and started going over things.....AGAIN! It's odd...I started messing with the tail blade grips and I noticed that there is some "slop" between the hub and the inner part of the blade grip. It's almost as if there is a shim that is missing or needed. I got looking at the Align 500 manual and there is no shim at that location at all.

Here is a picture of the manual. I added the black arrow to show you where the slop seems to be.
diagram.png

If you guys need a video, I can do that.

Would you have any suggestions to help make this more solid? Actually, I can already tell that I'm going to need to make a video to show you what I'm talking about. I'll just go do that now.

diagram.png
 
Hey there... make sure the thrusts are correctly installed. one should have a bigger hole I think????? should be an inner and outer as is the same in the feathering shaft/..... could be incorrect, but something to check.
 
Ok...here we have video. Maybe this will help shed some light on what I'm talking about.

Trex 500 tail blade grip slop - YouTube

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This is interesting. I was just looking at the Align website and found the tail rotor hub for $6.99. Actually, they sell the hub in a two pack.

I noticed something else.

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Rotor Hub.png

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The play in that tail looks like the play in my head on the 450. Mine is caused by the grips being drilled out too large and allowing the thrust bearing to slide around in there. You can try the spacers, but I'm thinking that may tighten them up too much and cause binding. Only one way to find out. I know this, you need to get this heli in the air, and soon.
 
I called up my LHS to see if they had a rotor hub in stock. They did. I drove over and pick it up. I'm gonna take the tail apart tonight and add the washers. The washers really are pretty thin, so I'm optimistic. Depending on the weather tomorrow, I'll try the hovering again.
 
While fighting my gyro on the 600, a thought came to me. How securely is your gyro mounted? Can you rotate the gyro with little force?

As for the shims, I would put them inside the grip, before inserting the bearing. I'm sure you know this, just putting it out there.
 
Well...bummer! I put the shim on the inside and the outside of the blade grip and it bound up on both sides. Ok...so i removed the shim. it then caught my eye that the new hub unit that I bought was longer than the one that was on my 500. That's odd! I got looking at the instruction picture that came with the new hub unit and it shows a bearing on the inside and the outside of the blade grip. My 500 hub unit only has 1 bearing and that is on the outside of the blade grip.

So...the stores are closed and, once again, I'm without options, so I put the tail back together and it will have to wait until tomorrow.

As for my gyro....Yes, Tony....my gyro is firmly mounted and does not move. It would take some great pressure to move it or remove it.
 
Yeah, that's play caused by the radial bearing not being tight to the blade holder shaft, or the radial bearing not being tight to the inside of the tail blade holder. Can't fix it with shims or screw pressure. Did the heli take a crash or fly for a while with something out of whack causing a bunch of tail vibration? I have a similar issue on my 300x at the moment. Probably going to replace the blade grips and see if it fixes it. Been through a lot of crashes with minimal tail parts replacement. Everything is spinning and sliding free, but it's developed a pretty wicked tail vibration, especially in idle up.

And on the thrust bearing make sure the smaller inner dia race is on the outside. If on the inside it can exacerbate this kind of play and make things worse.
 
No, the heli has never seen a crash...not even a hard landing. Yes, I did double check that the thrust bearings were installed correctly.

I think I'm done trying to chase this crap around. I"m going to order a new CNC tail. I'm just not sure when. Looks like the 500 is going back on the shelf. I was really hoping to have this sorted out before IRCHA. Now....I just don't know.
 
I've got 2 EXI CNC tail assemblies. I'd be willing to give up one of them. Private message me if your interested. I hate seeing good parts sitting around.

Ken

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Let me know what day(s) you'll be at IRCHA. Going to be there probably only one day. May spend one night but haven't worked out details yet.

If your there we can meet.

Ken
 
My wife and I are leaving Friday morning...maybe Thursday night, but Friday morning at the latest and we are staying through Monday.
 
Ok guys! Here is another update!

I'm sure you have seen, above, that kenjack had a spare EXI CNC tail assembly and he offered it to me. kenjack made a brief video for me showing me what he had and it looked good to me. We agreed on a price and he shipped it to me even before I paid him for it. That's "trust"! The tail assembly arrived today and I have to say that the tail assembly seems to be even better than what I had seen on his video. He even sent me two pairs of tail blades. Awesome!!!

I did get the tail assembly mounted on my 500 and it definitely seems to be more solid than what I had with the stock parts. Unfortunately, it is late, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try it out. I'm really hoping this will solve the tail "hunting" issues. I really want to be able to fly this very expensive paper weight.

This part is for you, kenjack! Thank you very much for your offer and your speedy shipping. I really hope this works. About 10 minutes ago, I did send the money to your paypal account.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen...boys and girls of all ages......WE HAVE SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! It flies!!! It hovers!!!! and the tail is solid, once again!!!!!!!!!

A massive "Thank you!" to kenjack for offering that metal tail unit to me. The installation went real quick and I appreciate the two extra sets of tail blades, too. Thank you!

I'd also like to thank everyone on this forum for their continued help with this issue. Even though the suggestions given didn't immediately remedy the situation....I did learn a lot about the helicopter and I consider that a benefit, too. You all kept trying to help with tons of possibilities and you all kept with me. Thank you for that!

So...without further delay....Here is a short video of my Align Trex 500e hovering with a solid tail:

Trex 500 in the air with solid tail - YouTube

Thanks a lot, Ken!!! It's just like new again!!! I'll get the battery charged up and we'll try it again and and hopefully move into some actual "flying". All I know is that as long as this holds up....I'll be ready to fly at IRCHA 2013.
 
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