500 Seemingly hot motor

[trainrider06]

I was doing some systems checks on my Align 500FB heli this past weekend, noticed that the motor seemed hot right after this.
Granted I was only pretty much hovering the thing, moving it around in different orientations checking gyro hold and such....flight time about 4 mins. Battery
Check after flight 3.85 +/- 1-2 variance per cell of about 3.86-84.
It was also around an outside temp of about 94.
I noticed this taking the battery off, could feel heat radiating from below. The ESC was not overly hot, in fact it was warm at best, but put my fingers on the motor, and it was pretty hot.
Hot enough to where I couldn't leave fingers on longer than a couple seconds.
I haven't noticed this with my other 500 or other helis, the exception being one of my 450's (the HK/Align one with a Turnigy Typhoon motor on it. That one seems a little too hot whenever it's flown...
Maybe I haven't just noticed the others or something I don't know....

 

[holtneil]

Hi Rodney , if you have an after market ESC make sure the timing is correct as this will make the motor run hot , it may be ok on a cool day but now temps are up in the 90s it may start to show up more

 

[trainrider06]

It's a stock Align 75a ESC, I had checked tail belt, and pinion to gear clearance also and both checked out fine, I did notice that when powering it up, and back down the tail for some reason shakes pretty good, but once skids get light it smooths out.....

 

[holtneil]

Hi Rodney , if your running a fixed throttle the esc like to be 80 to 85% power if your under that this can also make motor run hot but normally esc gets hot too
Tail shake can come from the blade grips make sure the bearings are all good with no play , I had a tail shake on the 500 on power up and down and it landed up being the main shaft bent dose the shake look like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1a3onT6Ce4

 

[trainrider06]

Ah that may be it on both accounts holtneil! I have it set up flat curve in normal something like 0/35/70/70/70.
Yeah mine will shake worse than that even....it's just at a certain point up and down, low throttle to take off it smooths out flys steady and solid....I just had finished building this 500FB a couple months ago, and not one mishap with it!
It's got a brand new shaft in it too! But I have heard them being bent right out of the package also, thank ya my friend!

 

[holtneil]

Hi Rodney I would run it at 80% and see if its cooler the motor may hit the sweet spot at this rpm , I use a governor so hold is throttle off ,normal mode is 82% idle 1 is 85% and idle 2 is 88% ,even on a hot day the motor is cool , the Cobra motor gets warm but thats lack of air flow and its working hard 1000kv geared up for 1900 rpm on governor

 

[trainrider06]

I am afraid "governer challenged" lol I know nothing about Governer setup...
I'll try those settings out, see how it does thanks man

 

[holtneil]

Hi Rodney, the align esc does have governor mode but are not very good , it can make the tail wag, What the governor does is ,it will keep a set head speed for the whole flight so as the battery runs down the head speed does not up to a point, the max throttle is normally about 85 to 90% the other 10% is what the governor uses to keep the head speed , makes the heli fly more like the real thing the pilot will set and lock throttle at approx 80% he will then fly the heli on pitch alone , on the align you can turn it on in esc set up using the transmitter ( set throttle to a linear curve) turn on soft start with governor mode , once its turned on set the transmitter to 80 to 85% throttle use throttle hold to start and stop motor, you may have to turn down the tail gain as it will wag this can some times not be stopped this is why most of us get a better ESC
If you want to upgrade get the hobby king Yap and program card its cheap but really good , set up the ESC off the card and put the esc into gov store mode , Now remove all the blades main and tail , use a lipo that is charged to the max of 4 volts a cell ( Not a fully charged battery) now spin up heli to max throttle ( linear curve again) the motor after a few seconds to a min will stutter its like a little kick ,This means the esc has now learnt what power the motor has at max rpm
Now refit the blades set transmitter to 80 to 85% and go fly using throttle hold to start and stop motor the governor will now keep the head speed the same for the full flight , the hobby king Yap also has active free wheeling this will cut power to the motor when not needed it happens so fast your never hear it but will give you a longer flight time ,my 500 pro on a 6 cell 3000mah will fly over 10 mins , after the 8 mins I normally fly the battery is still at 3.79v a cell if you watch the video of the 500 your hear it get to the set head speed then I take off ( sounds hard to set up its not its easy once you done it and fly on it your never go back to a normal set up ) just watch the take off part
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPGqOhMLybM

 

[trainrider06]

Thanks holtneil I'll check it out, my 500 pro has the Castle ice ESC in it, might experiment with that one
Till I get a different ESC for the FB 500.

 

[holtneil]

Hi Rodney if you has the castle esc this has a really nice governor mode , just tell it the gearing of the heli pinion and main gear and motor KV, and then dial in what head speed you want and it will tell you what % to dial in to the transmitter .
The only strange thing to do is fixed end points on the throttle you dial in the end points on the throttle channel of the transmitter till the esc bleeps so your have a throttle range that looks like 107 to 112 its all in the set up software how to set up ,if you get stuck give me a shout , the hobby king Yap is about £40 for a 500 class , you cant get a CC for that price and it works as well