General Let's talk head speeds

trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
Ok, finally got around to checking my head speeds on my 450 Pro and 500 Pro (after going to the field yet again!!! Whooo Hoooo!)
Since PGL brought it up I thought this may be a good subject to maybe put some depth into since it can be confusing.
Myself I am a little unsure really what head speed I need to be at if I wanted to do some more spirited flying since I am at best a shaky sport flier.
So here are the results of my head speed readings in idol 1
Align 450 Pro 2600 RPM
Align 450L RPM 2800
Align 500 Pro 2500 RPM

So where would I need to be for more spirited flying?

To clear up pinion change mysteries what does smaller size verses larger size pinions do for head speed?
What are ways to increase head speeds?
Pinion size, and throttle settings of course but again where or what are the good RPM ranges for any particular size heli's

The dreaded over speed....how does one know where not to go for any particular heli?
Just thought I'd see what the thoughts are of everyone?
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
You have the Pro and Dom backwards. The Dom has more blade length and needs a lower head speed. Just swap them and you will be fine.

And you can do just about everything with those head speeds. The 500 is about maxed out for what I would run. the Pro you can raise to about 3200 max, but I would keep it around 2800 max for less wear on the parts in the head. The Dom I would cap at about 3k and just fly it around 2800. This is what I would do anyway.
 
trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
Uh wait a minute, you said swap head speeds with the Pro and Dominator, then you said run it around 2800, it's at 2800 (The Dominator) right now buddy! Are you trying to fry my pea brain???
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Meaning the Dom should have a lower head speed than the Pro because of the increase in blade weight. I know I sais 2800, but that was when talking about max head speeds, and I also raised the Pro's head speed.
 
PLANETGETLOW

PLANETGETLOW

Banned
I think i did my calculations wrong earlier with the gov setup. My divisor might not be right.

When i watched your video the headspeed on either of those helis can be tossed around pretty easily. For me, i can tumble, roll, and flip with high head speeds but i want a slower more stable inverted headspeed.

Matt botos has a video on youtube where hes flying a 700 at 900 and 1000, looks like its about ready to fall out of the air and the collective management is crucial. I dont want that low, thats a whole new level of flying.

Tomorrow i will recalculate my headspeed and probably pick up the HW esc.
 
D.O.G.

D.O.G.

Goblin 380 Supporter
I guess I should bring mine down some.
450 Pro 3100
X3 3300 rpm
500 rpm
2700 rpm

Or should I leave well enough alone. I do think the 450/X3 are running high,what do I know. That's why I'm asking.
 
trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
Tony said:
Meaning the Dom should have a lower head speed than the Pro because of the increase in blade weight. I know I sais 2800, but that was when talking about max head speeds, and I also raised the Pro's head speed.
Click to expand...

Hmm? ok just so I don't get confused here....
The 450 Pro which has a 2600 RPM should go up. (which I can since my throttle curves are 65/75/85 Flat w/Gov So that should fix that huh??

The Dominator though I am running same Throttle curve, and I have no room to drop that with my curves. Pinion change?? I have an 11 tooth in that one....

The 500 is the same story, Throttle curves are 65/75/85 flat, but a 12 tooth pinion??
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Usually a governor will want you to run something like 30/60/100 or there abouts. But if you are running a governor, then you should be able to set your rpm when setting up the gov.
 
trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
All three have Hobby Wing ESC's I am not sure what ya meant about the 30/60/100, but part of the setup is run the heli at 50% throttle for 15-20 seconds to lock in the governor. I haven't seen anything about adjusting the governor in the setup anywhere.
one of the reasons I love the HW esc is the simplicity of it's setup. It sounds like your refering to something like the Castle or other esc??? I think I remember something about my Castle being that way....
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Nope, more like the governor setup on a nitro because that is all I have run lmao.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Yup, nitro good!!! Not really, but that is what popped into my head. Now stop thread jacking your own thread lmao.
 
trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
You jacked it with your nitro fogged governor setup buddy! Hehe....
So I'm reckoning I'll need to pinion change on the ones where I can't really drop the curve? If so what size? I was thinking if 2500 was pretty high on that 500 that's probably why the motor ESC seem awfully hot after a flight.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
I'm reading people are running 3000+ on the 500's. So you should be fine where you are at.
 
Smoggie

Smoggie

Well-Known Member
D.O.G. said:
Just wondering :scratchchin: how they can calculate headspeed base on blade size if they don't know what Kv motor your using or the number of Tooth being use on a specific motor?
Click to expand...

All this tool is trying to do is to come up with a target headspeed that will suit various flying styles for different sizes of heli (which was the subject of this thread). So it's purely what RPM you want, not how to achieve it.
What kV motor/gearing/battery cells/throttle curve etc you need is already well covered by the likes of MrMel's headspeed calculator, so not much point reinventing that wheel.

Here's a new version that has 2 or 3 blade options:View attachment headspeeds.zip

I'd appreciate any feedback on if it's in the right ballpark or not, especially on smaller blade sizes as i have less experience of those. The calculator is based on my experience of 700 size helis then uses an scaling factor (square root of linear scale) to work out for different size blades.
 
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