700 Goblin 700 Black Thunder T

[Smoggie]

To be honest i already have too many big helis but a brand new in the box Goblin 700 Black Thunder T came up for a great price and I couldn't resist

The build spec will be:

Airframe: Goblin 700 Black Thunder T
Blades: SAB 690 Thunder main blades and 115mm tail blades
Motor: Scorpion HKII 4525 520KV 'Ultimate'
ESC: Hobbywing Platinum V4 130A HV
Servos: KST MS815 & 805 'Contactless'
FBL: Spirit Pro

The Black Thunder T is quite a bit lighter than previous Goblins. Weight saving comes mainly from the carbon parts. Boom canopy and frames are all from high modulus carbon and thinner, making these parts quite a bit lighter but just as strong. The Flipper landing gear saves a little weight too. I've seen reports of this heli build under 5Kg whish is very light for a hardcore 3D 700. I'd probably need lighter batteries to get anywhere near that weight.

The boxes:


I havent got the Spirit pro yet, I may borrow one off my Goblin 630 or I may buy another, we will see. The rest of it is all ready to go.

I made a start on the build. The Thunder uses the 'flipper' type landing gear similar to the speed. This can be a bit unstable on the Speed, but it's wider on the Thunder so I hope will be fine. The battery tray is all new and much improved. It's a 'slide in on rails' design retained by a latch:



Drive-train is standard Goblin 700 two stage reduction, belt primary gear secondary:


And all together:


I'll keep the photos coming as it takes shape.

 

[liquid1]

Nice, The goblins are gaining in popularity becoming the birds of choice , congrats subscribed to your build . Nice looking bench and tool serup

 

[Admiral]

Looks great and looking at the workshop layout going to be a very professional build.

 

[Smoggie]

Thanks guys. Having my own 'man-cave' for my hobby really does make builds a lot easier. Last I cut down the shaft on the Scorpion. They come with a long shaft (about 55mm) but the big Goblins need a 34mm shaft. A cutting disk on a dremel cuts it easily but there is a trick. You must put the motor in a plastic bag and poke the shaft through the bag and seal with tape. This is really important otherwise the metal grinding dust gets attracted into the motor by the motor magnets.

Before clocking off i mounted the motor and assembled the head. The head comes dry assembled but the builder has to dismantle, grease the thrust bearings and fix the outer radial bearing with Loctite bearing retainer, and Loctite all the screws.

Here she is as she stands:


The head and swash on the Black Thunder are, as the name suggests, anodised black:

 

[liquid1]

Very nice looking , your wrapping the motor in a bag is good wisdom and thinking you will have the goblin flying before you know it. I like the stealth black upper components looking good.

 

[Smoggie]

Some more progress today, airframe is complete Now I've got to install the electronics:

 

[liquid1]

Looking nice smoggie, I’ve run into a issue with my trex 470lm linkage ball treads to short. Your making fast progress

 

[liquid1]

Smoggie, Is it the photo illusion or is the motor tilted forward a few degrees

 

[D.O.G.]

That's one fine looking machine you have there Smoggie. It will fit very nicely with the rest of your killer bird collection

 

[Tony]

It's an illusion. All Goblins with the fin style landing gear have a forward rake. they want to be a 70's muscle car with traction bars hahahahaha.

 

[liquid1]

That’s a fine looking muscle bird !

 

[Smoggie]

Thanks guys. It was an easy build helped by the excellent manual. The only tiny issue i found was one of the four screws that holds the tail box to the boom was short and didn't reach the locking part of the nylock nut. Reason being that unlike previous Goblin 700 models this screw has to pass though the tail fin, so it needs to be a couple on mm longer than the other three. I had a suitable screw in my box of spares, so no big deal.

I'll have to pause for a few days as i need a few bits and pieces like servo spacers and servo arms, and of course a FBL unit to go much further.

PS, Liquid, yes it is tilted nose down. On the Goblin it's due to the 'flipper' skid design but quite a few helis have a nose down tilt these days, that includes your 470. Its a good thing because it lifts the tail rotor up and makes it less likely to catch blades in the dirt.

 

[liquid1]

Smoggie, cool thanks for the info great looking build !!

 

[Smoggie]

I've been doing some weight calculations:

• Air-frame complete with motor, blades and battery tray: 3120g
• Servos with arms and mounting screws: 75g x 4 = 300g
• ESC with connectors: 180g
• Spirit Pro: 20g
• SPM4649T Rx + satellite: 6g
• Misc velcro, cable ties, extension leads etc: 20g
• Batteries 12S 4500mAh (claimed): 670g x 2 = 1340g

Total ready to fly weight: 4986g

So it looks like i do have a chance of getting a ready to fly weight at 5Kg or even marginally under, but it depends a lot on if he batteries I've ordered genuinely weigh what they are claimed to weigh... time will tell.

 

[Smoggie]

I've made all the progres I can on the build, servos and ESC are installed and wiring is run to where the FBL will be located. I'm now waiting on delivery of the Spirit pro (from the Czech Republic) and the receiver which was coming from here in the UK and really should have been here already.

Electronics installation can be a chore on many helis but on goblins it's a pleasure because they put a lot of thought into electronics mounting and cable routing. The ESC mount has pre-drilled holes to match most popular ESC's including the HW 130A I'm using, so no need for zip-ties or velcro straps, it just bolts down. Cable routes are well thought out and holes for zip ties are provided:

 

[liquid1]

Nice clean looking job on the goblin , you will have the rotors spinning very soon

 

[Smoggie]

My Spirit Pro and SPM4649T receiver arrived so over the last couple of evenings I've been finishing off the wiring.

I used the SPM4649T along with a Lemon RX satellite to give diversity. The carbon canopy and boom makes antenna placement quite critical.







Hopefully I'll get the setup done tomorrow and it will be ready for it's maiden on the weekend. The weather might stop my fun though as 50mph winds are forecast.

 

[liquid1]

Very nice

 

[Harford]

Hello Smoggie, just admiring your build. Can you tell me please what are those cable wraps (sitting underneath the cable ties) - velco of some sort I suppose ? A very neat job.

 

[Smoggie]

They are just cut off pieces of Velcro battery straps (Turnigy brand I think). It just gives some protection to the cable so that the cable-tie doesnt dig in. I personally prefer this to putting mesh sleeving over the cables because I find mesh 'bulks up' the cables so makes them harder to tuck neatly away