450 New Storm overhead

[sterlingh]

http://www.helipal.com/storm-450-carbon-fiber-premium-edition-without-transmitter-and-receiver.html

I read a lot on this at the helipal website. It looked like a good bird to me, and comes completely assembled. Back when I was looking at buying a new TX, Tony strongly suggested getting the DX6I that came with two extra receivers on top of the Ar 6210. I am happy I did that because I could buy this one "without TX and receiver" As you can see its CF, and not a bad gryo (lock-5) or least what I have read about it. It comes with a Align ds425 tail servo.I don't think the E- max ESO8MD servo's are like top of the line but for the cost they do get some decent reviews. I received it last Thursday, and I have to tell you I am impressed. (I am a newbee and sure that "I am impressed" might not mean that much to some of you.) lol ..

Ok let me tell you. I read from people who bought from Helipal and almost everyone had very good things to say. The website its self of course talks a good story and says that they will ship same or next day etc. So after much thinking, I decided to give them a shot. Here is how it went.

I ordered a week ago Friday 7th of September. Late in the afternoon. Remember this company is in Hong Kong. I received an Email confirm instantly, then the next day I received a "your order was shipped" email. The tracking number told me almost nothing for two days. Then it showed leaving Hong Kong, heading for the good ole United States. As stated already, the next Thursday I got my package. It came in a long box and I thought well protected. There was 0 damage to the heli. I Emailed them a total of three times. Once before my order, and twice afterwards. All three times they got back with me in 24 or less hours. So the bird looks good and it seems to me that they put it together very nicely as promised.

Like many online stores for heli's they claim to check, calibrate, and do all the things they need to in order to make your heli truly an RTF. Of course mine could not be complete without the receiver and TX but I tell you if I had bought the TX , I think they would have set it up. They do not appear to have thread loc any screws. I am not holding that against them as I would have gone thru all of it anyway, and maybe they figure it the same way. However they are all tight. They forgot nothing. My servos were installed, blades, motor all of it. My motor by hand spins just like is shown in "how to's online," and just like the answers I ask in this forum, for my sport. I think it is put together well enough for me to get an idea how these birds go together.

So for me I am extremely happy with this buy. My Erazor was not going to be able to be my learn bird. This one will be, and is why I bought it. I think I can get parts well enough for it as well. Did it cost to much? Maybe but that's all relative anyway, and depends on why one buys what one buys. Could I have bought something else to serve my purposes? lol That is an argument that can always be made. I have more than one reason for this bird. One thing I can guarantee you. If not for Tony and this forum and all the GREAT help on here, I would not have bought anything but some more aspirins to kill the headache I would have from wasting what money I had into it before finding this forum.

So now I am setting it up based on Tony's vids... I using my ar6115e as the receiver and of course my DX6I... hot dogs LOVE IT!

 

[Lee]

Looks good for the purpose its intended Sterling. You always need a hell you don't care to crash, then you learn quicker. Most people are held back from learning by the (I don't want to crash cause it cost me too much and a don't want to rebuild it) mind game. Thats why my 500 looks like crap and my 600, touch wood looks like new, and has never been crash. Now i've said it i'm gonna crash it tomorrow.

 

[stokke]

Congrats on the new bird, Sterling!
Good luck

ps. You're the master of working out titles to your threads

 

[sterlingh]

Thanks Lee and Marius. Kind words and encouraging as well.

Getting ready to re-look at Tony's vids again on setting up. Holding down my Storm450 and wanting to see blade rotation and had my throttle stick at 0. Was hearing steady beeping until i flipped my throttle hold switch to throttle hold (1) from mix (0). When I flipped switch, the blades started spinning even though throttle was all the way down. Did not spool all the way up, or even close, but it was a good thing I was holding it in a way that if blades did start spinning on its own, nothing, including my self, would get hurt. I flipped the throttle hold switch back away to mix and the blades turned off. I did it again, and also noticed that something is way out of balance, bird was wobbling bad even though blades we at low speed and in my hand..lol I have not set the pitch yet or checked for blade tracking, only wanted to make sure all still worked after cleaning up and hiding wires. lol motor works. Servos work, and all is wired up. I am not sure what I have going on with the throttle though. Anyone wanting to direct me as to what this may be please feel free. .. Also don't it sound like probably the pitch is way off, and the blades may not be tracking?

Thanks..

 

[callsign4223]

My blade did that after I leveled my swash. Turns out that when I was plugging and unplugging the heli I wasn't being careful of where I had my throttle stick and managed to reprogram the esc endpoints so that 0 stick was still like 10 percent throttle.

The whole point of that long winded explanation was to say that you might need to reset your esc endpoints.

 

[sterlingh]

Thanks Matt. Elec out at my house. On cell phone . Heard the term before but how to reset?
Where is that in my dx6i?

 

[callsign4223]

It's not in the dx6i. The way I fixed mine was to make sure the throttle stick was all the way down the next time I plugged in the heli. I don't know if that works for all of them, but that's how I fixed my blade.

 

[sterlingh]

Dang, ok thanks Matt. Still having same problem. This ESC beeps, and I guess it would till dooms day,(which might not be that far off). Then if I flip the th. hold to th. hold it stops beeping after 1 or 2 partial beeps. Then of course I get no spin because I am in th. hold. So when I flip switch back it starts spinning with stick at 0 (all the way down).. Man just don't seem like this stuff should be happening. I am new but this sounds like a bad ESC, although I hope not, and hold out hope a bit longer.

Just to see what would happen I have set to 0 all throttle settings in Pitch curve and throttle curve and still when I flip th.hold back to normal it spins. Before setting all to 0 I went to sub trim and set to -20 on throttle and it would not spin when flipping the th.hold switch back to normal. But then if I moved the stick back down all the way after a little up movement it would keep spinning. Man O man, I think the doc needs to give me some special meds here...

Thanks again

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Hey Matt, how do i reset my ESC endpoints?

 

[callsign4223]

All I had to do was leave the throttle stick all the way down the next time I plugged in the heli. There may have been something else I did without realizing it though. It seemed awfully simple to me. You might be best served by googling how to set the endpoints on the esc that came with that bird.

 

[sterlingh]

ok thanks will do...

 

[Tony]

To reset your throttle endpoints, turn on your Tx and raise the throttle all the way up. Plug in the heli. When you hear the first series of two beeps, lower the throttle stick all the way down and you are done. Make sure to set your sub trim back to 0 and your throttle curve back to where it was BEFORE you do this though. There is nothing wrong with the ESC, just needs to be setup. You will have it soon.

 

[sterlingh]

Man, Tony Big ole thanks to ya...... look you need to quit job and just sit in front of computer please... That did it and it only took 24 hrs. Man I am getting faster and faster.. All jokes aside, did what you said and it worked 1st time..

Thanks

 

[sterlingh]

Ok I am working on the pitch and am very slow at it. However as stated in an earlier part of this thread the problem of shaking is only related to pitch? This I don't know so I thought I would post a vid to show how bad this thing shakes. The vid is me holding the bird and showing extreme caution. However I am wondering if pitch alone would cause this to shake this bad? Any one ?


Shaking - YouTube

 

[coolgabsi]

:O

UNSAFE BRO!! Dont be turning your heli inside the house with you so close to it knowing that there is an issue and it could tear itself apart!

Please be careful..

Vibration was crazy.. take the blades off. and throttle up. See if its still there. I couldnt tell, but is your shaft perfectly straight ( sory if that quesion has been adressed before) .. I would roll that on a glass and see if it rolls perfectly straight. If thats not it,

then I would take parts out one by one, and see where the vibration goes away..

 

[sterlingh]

Dang not what I wanted to hear. lol Its brand new and I am just setting it up. Came RTF (lol) and I installed my receiver and checking screws and the what not. Setting up the pitch now but thought I would check 1st as to why this is happening that way I may not have to set up the pitch twice. I am going tho think at least until I eliminate other possibles that nothing is bent, just becaue its suppose to be brand new. I will check without the blades.. Thanks

- - - Updated - - -

Blades off no issue..

 

[callsign4223]

Blade balance issue.

Also, glad to see you got those endpoints setup. I knew it couldn't be as simple as what I did, I just didn't know what other stuff I had done to actually get it into the endpoint setup mode.

 

[sterlingh]

Actually it was that simple. I just pluged it up with throttle all the way up. Waited for esc to stop beeping then put throttle down to 0 . that was it. Thanks. how do start on blade balance? Thanks for your help. We may live close to each other. I am in Duncanville...

- - - Updated - - -

Well looks like that is not a one line answer. Back to the study board. Or maybe my ole e razor can do right by me, and I can try and install those blades and see what I get. Not even going to put me Sport blades on her..

 

[callsign4223]

I am just outside okc. With all the members in Dallas and okc I'm starting to think we need to have a RCH flyin at Texhoma or something.

 

[Tony]

That is definately a main shaft or blade issue. Take the blades off and spool it up. If there is no vibration, then you know your blades are the cause. Put them on a gram scale and weigh them. I will bet you will find one to be way more heavy than the other one.

And if I could make enough money off of this forum to stay in front of the computer all day i would do it in a minute. However, this site is a hobby site and makes just enough to keep it running.

and I would love to organize a fly-in, however I don't see it in at least 5 years...

 

[sterlingh]

Well dang, Man I just want to fly in real life you know? The whole reason to get this last bird was to do just that. Aww nvrd mind I will just be complaining. However for me the bad new and good news is Its most likely my blades. I can spool it up without and no problems. No shake at all. The bad news is I put my e razor blades on, and my new sport blades on and its the same shake. I have no blade scale nor do I know how to balance one. Guess I will call my LHS see what they have and then start the study on that. I want to learn don't miss understand me, but I want to fly as well. Thanks guys. I know what you mean Tony. The way you help around here, and the fact that this is a forum you started and maintain and help so much on, i have no doubt that you would love to do what I jokingly implied..

Hey even though the other blades caused the same shaking would you guys still think its the blades?

Thanks again everone.