600 T-Rex 550E - Next Sequel

Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi all, Helidirect have now returned our hard-earned "PayPal Vouchers" and I'm on the lookout for my next choice of gyro.

I have to admit that I'm tempted to try for holtneil's suggestion of a Spirit. Unfortunately, it involves another purchase to the other side of the world and I'm not sure my constitution can stand another disappointment so soon after my last one :banghead:

Today's make your mind up time.......... watch this space!
 
murankar

murankar

Staff member
not sure what it is your looking for or what price range. So give some idea as to what it is your looking for and maybe we can help you come to a decision. I can name a few really great gyros that can suite most people.

Like DOG said the AR7200 series or the 7300 series are great for the build and fly folks. If your looking for an Ikon type then the brain, scookum or Bavarian demon could work or mabe even a vbar if you wan to go that route. If your looking for common man then their is the Kbar, spirit and the beastx clones. Personally I would stay away from the hobbyking versions of the clones except the kbar since it is not their in house product.
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, thanks for the feedback. I was trying to buy the iKON (aluminium) but the delivery was just too long. Unfortunately, I'm not impressed with the deliveries of stuff from the Internet that I've had. It's a great concept, but when you factor in the P&P import duties etc., the price you see isn't what you pay. I'd rather go eye to eye with the seller, old fashioned, I know but there you are.

That leaves me really only the Bavarian Demon range to choose from as I haven't seen the others around locally (within driving distance, not next door :smile:)

I'll let you know the latest news.
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Looks like I've come upon the best of both worlds. I found a local supplier (from the makers of Bavarian Demon), who also stocks the Spirit. They normally open later in the day, so I've arranged a 1-2-1 for Thursday to discuss the pros and cons of each.

They are only about three miles down the road, not bad hey?
 
murankar

murankar

Staff member
The Bavarian Demon would be the better route in my opinion. Down side you will need a governor for it since it is not built into the unit. So after a quick check on the Spirit it appears you will have a trade off. The only thing I see that would be a big difference is the vibration monitor and logging. Is this a real issue in the end, not really although it could be an advantage during troubleshooting for vibration issues. I have that on my VBar Neo and have not really gotten around to using it yet. Then again I have not had a need to use it yet. The other big thing is the integration with the jeti radio system again this is not even going to be an issue unless you own or plan on owning a jeti. If you were to go that route I would just a grand on the VControl and Neo w/ built in rx for about the same cost. Keep in mind that's just what I would do or have done.

As for the BD: It has bank switching if that interests you. Its a great tool while tuning if you know how to utilize the banks. Once tuned you have three (or in some cases 4) flight modes for a lake of a better term. You can not only use it for your head speed (Normal ID1 ID2) but also use it to switch your gains for those new head speeds. Of course you should know how that works since you were looking at the iKon.

In the end I dont think an aluminum case on a gyro is all that great of an idea anyways. If your having a vibe issue that is affecting your gyro then the case would just amplify those vibes.
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi murankar, thanks for the insight. I'll go armed with this (then I won't sound completely stupid LoL). I have already got a governor as I bought the heli second hand. All the electronics are written down and I'll be taking that with me to discuss any compatibility issues. I want to be able to walk away with everything I need (maybe a few I don't as well :smile: ) and of course, I can go back to them if there are any issues.

I had thought of a Jeti Tx. as something in future, but they are extremely expensive and I'm sure why that is really. I don't need to change my JR anyway so it isn't an issue. It doesn't have a backlight and doesn't talk to me either, but it does what I need.

Aluminium case? It just looked cool really. We'll see. Link to the store's website: Modellsport.ch | Der Onlineshop
 
murankar

murankar

Staff member
That's the thing about metal parts, it catches the eye. I do know that BD has some interfacing with jeti, but I don't know to what extent. Justin Pucci of rchn has a jeti and bd combo and loves it.

As for radio comparability, most fbl units have dsmx sat ports. Being that you have a newer JR you may have to use a full rx with either of the units. Spirit claims to have electronic comparability with most common servos types and escs. So that should not have an issue. Basically if all your servos are common like the align 525m or similar all fbl units will work with them so no problems there. The only thing to know is weather or not the gov will work. Again if it an align then it should work with BD. Lastly with the spirit find out if an external gov will work, normally for built in all you need is a phase sensor and that's it. If you have a castle Phoenix edge with the extra white wire then that will be your phase sensor. Just need to configure the esc and it should work.
 
D.O.G.

D.O.G.

Goblin 380 Supporter
Heliman450 said:
Hi all, my decision was the Spirit Pro. Next step is fitting and setting up. Watch this space!
Click to expand...
That's good to here that you made a decision. Good luck with the fitting and the set up. Let us know how that spirit pro works for you.
 
holtneil

holtneil

Active Member
Hi Heliman450 , my mate has just fitted his Spirit pro to his Goblin, he said its so easy to set up the only part that took some thinking was banked switches so the recovery bail out works in all flight modes
He tested the a few days back and reports its all spot on
So this is what is going on to mine
 
trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
I took a look at that Spirit Pro, and it looks interesting.
Myself I look at these factors when dealing with FBL controllers.
1. Reliability
2. Price
3. Support, or good info on how to tune it.
4. My flying style, and where I might want to be in my skills in the future

Some of the equipment that's out there with its adjustability and options is really cool. But if your not a sort that likes a challenge, likes to tinker, or flies your heli to the extreme limits, you can eliminate a few things like radios, FBL controllers that are out there. Also I would not recommend anything very complicated to anyone new to the hobby in fact I'd say they stay with a FB heli till they can fly fairly proficiently.
Myself, I'll probably never be a real hard smack flier, I really can't afford it, because one is going to crash probably twice as much doing that sort of thing. It's only natural because your pushing the heli harder, and yourself and skills....and well let's just admit it....we are human, and parts fail. We all crash just flying these things around for the same reasons, maybe not pushing ourselves or the heli, but we all sometimes do stupid stuff forget, or parts just fail.
It sounds like you made the right choice though, that Spirit sounds like the BeastX only with flight control. The BeastX it really pretty easy to set up too!
Let us know how you like it Phil!
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi Rodney, I've been looking through the user instructions and they're very good. Of course, they are written for all kinds of possibilities, so some are irrelevant for me. Tomorrow, I intend to get hold of my BEC, battery and bind plug from the workshop and do the initialisation at home with the laptop. Sunday is targeted for the installation and final setup. At the moment, the weather here isn't very good at all and not likely to be suitable for a test flight until Tuesday so plenty of time to go through things.

One of the deciding factor for my final decision was the unit's compatibility with the Jeti transmitter. The owner of the hobby store is also an agent for them and he demonstrated its functions. Seemed like a good option in the future if I decide to change my Tx. It was awesome, I can tell you. He used a scale heli sitting in the store to show me. Looks like being an interesting place for me in future and only down the road a little way.

So far to date, my crashes have all been due to a lack of knowledge and understanding. I'm also dealing with some of the mechanical issues to achieve reliability. Of course, I could pay someone to do that for me, but where's the fun in that? I'm really looking forward to the test flight with the 550!

Let you know how it all goes.
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
The box is unpacked ready for the next step............

Spirit Pro.JPG


OK, not feeling very impressed at the moment. Eventually managed to get the software to detect my unit by disabling the USB power features. However, after detecting that the firmware is out of date nothing else is happening. No automatic download of the latest version, nothing in the instructions about what to do :homer:

I'm assuming at the moment that I need to register my unit but there's nothing in the user manual about this requirement. I've been waiting for ages now for the reply confirming my registration to the forum. Not even sure if this is required. Very frustrating :duh:

Spirit Pro.JPG
 
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holtneil

holtneil

Active Member
Its looking good my friend , Rodney did you know the new Beastx plus v4 pro has bail out too you have to pay another $60 to $80 for the download which I think is not fair as you paid for the unit , the Spirit has firmware updates for life , also when in bail out mode you can tell the FBL unit how much control over the sticks you want so you can leave the FBL unit to fully recover the heli before you take back control , inverted recovery is set to climb inverted then recover to upright and then climb some more really smart stuff at a price that knocks the others
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi all, I managed to get over the problem. It appears that in my rush to get ahead, I shouldn't have downloaded any software before connecting up the new Spirit Pro. Once I managed to get both versions of the Spirit software uninstalled (not sure what the problem was there, but I just clicked around a bit until it worked) I was able to do the download with the unit connected and update the firmware.

Next step is to bring the heli and computer together, that needs to be here with the Internet connection to avoid any frustration on that score.

P.S. By the way, I found that the registration acknowledgement was delivered during the late afternoon and, you guessed, it was waiting for me this morning in the Spam folder!
 
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trainrider06

trainrider06

Active Member
Heliman450 said:
Hi all, I managed to get over the problem. It appears that in my rush to get ahead, I shouldn't have downloaded any software before connecting up the new Spirit Pro. Once I managed to get both versions of the Spirit software uninstalled (not sure what the problem was there, but I just clicked around a bit until it worked) I was able to do the download with the unit connected and update the firmware.

Next step is to bring the heli and computer together, that needs to be here with the Internet connection to avoid any frustration on that score.

P.S. By the way, I found that the registration acknowledgement was delivered during the late afternoon and, you guessed, it was waiting for me this morning in the Spam folder!
Click to expand...

Glad you got that Phil, I totally missed your question and pix of your FBL controller, sorry! Stupid IPhone! Saw it when I got on my PC just now..:(
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
iPhones and computers etc. are just dumb machines. Problems with their use are down to us :smile: like not reading the instructions thoroughly enough!
 
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