ABF 2200mAh 11.1v 18-23C Lipoly

I am a big fan of the ABF 2200mAh 11.1v 18-23C Lipoly!

D3S_1052
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

As you can see from the photograph, I have a small collection of 3S1P Lithium Polymer batteries.

I consider the "2100mAh 20C" from Advanced Battery Factory to be among the most cost effective solution for the Align T-Rex 450SE. In the photograph, they are the red ones -- I have 9 of them.

The Align RC batteries, "2100mAh 20C" (for example, the $59.00 ones from HeliDirect) are total crap. I have had about 8 of them, you can see the "surviving" six in the photograph. They're just not capable of handling a T-Rex, which is unfortunate as they are the kit battery.

I fly the ABF Batteries, which are available from HobbyCity for only $19.99!! So we could buy 1 really crappy Align LiPo for $60 or three ABF 2200mAh 11.1v 18-23C LiPo for the same $60.00. Guess which one I recommend?

• Align T-Rex 450SE V2
• Radix CF 325mm Blades
• 430XL 12T
• Advanced Battery Factory 11.1 volt - 2100 mah 20C 3 Cell Li-Poly Pack
• Idle-Up (100-100-100) and -4 to +11 pitch
• No bogging during big pitch changes, good climb performance.
  
• Low temperature (105 after 4 minutes.)
  

I am also a big fan of the Kong Power 3s1p 11.1v 2200mAh 25C Lipo, which are the blue ones in the photograph -- I have 4 of them. However, the drawback is that the Kong Power batteries are $62.00 and they do not come with pre-soldered Deans connectors, which is more work and extra expense per battery.

Crash Report : Align T-Rex 450SE V2 #2

I went for almost a month without a single major crash and in the last week I've crashed two birds pretty badly. Last week it was the Belt CP and today, sadly, it was an Align T-Rex 450SE V2, my silver one.

As you can see from the photographs the damage was not extreme and no parts of the CNC head assembly were broken or damaged.

Damage Included:

• Flybar (bent 75 degrees)
  
• Main Rotor Blades (both cracked badly)
  
• Feathering Shaft (bent 10 degrees)
  
• Main Gear (cracked)
• Main shaft (bent 1-2 degree)
  

One of the HS-65MG servo arms cracked as well and the ball-link screw was thrown from the crash (not recovered.)

The servo was not damaged in the crash (no servos were) which is nice.

Regarding the servo with the cracked arm I am curious if having the nut on the screw to hold the servo ball-link (which I was not using on this T-Rex) would have made the damage transfer into the servo itself. The way it was set up the ball-link gave and that was that.

The loss of the main blades is unfortunate but seemingly impossible to avoid with low-weight Carbon Fiber Main Rotor Blades no matter what brand you use. Wood blades are much more durable (partially from running lower headspeeds with them I think.)

Anyway, the crash cost less than $50 and I had it back up in the air flying great in about two hours.

While no one likes to crash this did give me the "opportunity" to check everything on the head for locktight and proper assembly. After some more test flights I think I will take V2 #2 into idle-up mode tomorrow and see just how well I did with my rebuild.

Crash Report : Esky Belt CP #1

Had a crash yesterday with the my E-Sky Belt CP. Some damage:

• Flybar Rod (Bent) $2.50
  
• Feathering Shaft (Bent) $1.80
  
• Flybar Case (Broken) $7.00
  
• Carbon Fiber Blades (Cracked) $32.00
  

One thing that surprised me about this crash is that the main gear survived without damage. The E-Sky Belt CP crashes like clockwork, these are the standard parts that break during a crash, next would be (after the normal main gear stripping) control rods breaking, the main shaft bending, the tail boom cracking, . Usually if you have enough force to crack the tail the frame suffers minor damage as well.

So the total crash cost was around $11 without the blades, which is not bad.

The crash was a tail in crash on the end of a forward flight piro, a move I'd been doing over and over and for some reason I just lost it into the deck. The Align tail assembly held up very well, no damage done.

Mounting 2217-04 BL Outrunner 3500KV in E-Sky Belt CP

D2X_9273
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

Mounting the 2217-04 BL Outrunner Helicopter 3500KV motor in the E-Sky Belt CP is not terribly difficult but does require a small frame modification, show in the photograph (and in the photo-notes.)

A small portion of the frame needs to be remove to accommodate the motor's wires. The Belt CP motor mount and frame are really designed for E-Sky brushless outrunners and they have wires at a particular angle, this motor just doesn't match perfectly.

The modification is simple, does not weaken the frame if done carefully and the power this motor provides makes it well worth it!

Advanced Battery Factory Flight Record

• Align T-Rex, Radix CF 325mm Blades
• 430XL 12T
• Advanced Battery Factory 11.1 volt - 2100 mah 20C 3 Cell Li-Poly Pack
• Idle-Up (100-100-100) and -4 to +11 pitch

No bogging during big pitch changes, good climb performance. Economic power consumption for performance (lighter than Kong Power) and low temperature (105 after 4 minutes.)

I like these batteries a lot. I have four of them so far and they have all performed well with no puffing at all and hold charge well even after 100+ cycles (on one of them.)

Flight Record

• Kong Power 2100mAh 11.1V LiPo (25C)
• Align T-Rex, Carbon Fiber Rotors 325mm
  
• 430XL 12T
• Fast Forward Flight in Normal
• Throttle 0-55-65-75-100 and -4 to +11 pitch curve
  

E-Sky Belt CP #2

D2X_9284
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

E-Sky Belt CP #2

• Stock E-Sky (Plastic)
• CNC Swashplate Upgrade
• 3 HS-65MG servos on swash
• LogicTech 2100T Heading Hold Gyro
• Futaba 9650 Digital Servo on Tail
• E-Sky Carbon Fiber Main Rotor Blades
• Align Tail Rotor Case
• Off-Brand Carbon Fiber Tail Rotor Blades
• Castle Creations Phoenix-35
• Suppo 2217-04-H-S 3500KV 10-pole brushless outrunner

My Charging Station

D2X_9259
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

- Three Battery Bunkers
- Two DN Chargers (with AC Adapters)
- One BC6 (AC Powered)
- Steel Tool Box
- Balancing Plug Extensions
- LipoSack

E-Sky Belt CP + Align T-Rex 450 SE V2 Tail Case Mod

D2X_9268
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

This photograph shows my E-Sky Belt CP and Align T-Rex 450 SE V2 Tail Case Modification. The basic idea is a high quality CNC tail case mounted and geared for the E-Sky Belt CP drive train.

As you can see in the high resolution version of photograph the tail rotor shaft and the tail belt drive gear are both from the E-Sky Belt CP tail. The parts fit the Align T-Rex tail case, however, you do need to use a Dremel to grid down the smaller piece of the E-Sky gear. The E-Sky gear separates into two pieces and the smaller one (the one that doesn't have any teeth) should be ground down 50%.

Once the E-Sky gear has been resized everything fits together perfectly, and you will have the same RPM on your tail as before.

RC Heli Balancing Guide

This online guide to heli balancing covers:

• Blade Balancing (static and dynamic), blade Center of Gravity
  
• Determining the center of gravity for the entire helicopter
  
• Tail Blade Balancing
  
• Main CCPM control, Swash & Head balancing
• Main Shaft Bending (weird one)
  

The Guide

Align T-Rex 450SE V2 -- Tail Rebuild

I have just yesterday completed a rebuild of the tail (everything on the boom) on my Align T-Rex 450SE V2. I purchased this as a used heli from http://www.runryder.com/, it would have been a good deal but the guy who sold it to me had no maintenance skills worth mentioning (sorry dude, it is true.)

Anyway, long story short, when I bought it the tail was one of the parts I thought I could salvage. I put it down on the long-term-needs-replacing list but on my 20th flight on the bird the tail actually disintegrated (nearly) during take-off. The tail rotor shaft bent during spool up, causing a tail-blade to tail-boom strike and damage to the carbon stabilizer fins.

As you can imagine this type of impact is deadly to the tail blades, tail drive belt, carbon fiber tail boom, ect. The entire thing needed to be torn down and rebuilt. Unsure going into the project what state the interiors, threads and condition of the V2 tail case, I assumed I would need all new parts.

Here is what I ended up buying:

• HS1259-84 Align 450V2 Metal Tail Unit
• Hyperion Carbon Fiber Tail Blades TREX
• Align Carbon Fiber Tail Boom
• HS1201-72 CNC Tail Rotor Parts
• HS1252-00 450V2 Carbon Stabilizer Set / 1K Black 450 V2

Heli Setup Log Post

A regular post on here will be a listing of my equipment, as a log of how it changes.

E-Sky Belt CP #1

• Stock E-Sky (Plastic)
• CNC Swashplate Upgrade
• 3 E-Sky 8g servos on swash
• E-Sky Heading Hold Gyro
• E-Sky 8g servo on tail
• E-Sky Stock Wooden Blades
• Castle Creations Phoenix-25
• E-Sky 3800KV motor (10T)
  

E-Sky Belt CP #2

• Stock E-Sky (Plastic)
• CNC Swashplate Upgrade
• 3 HS-65MG servos on swash
• LogicTech 2100T Heading Hold Gyro
  
• Futaba 9650 Digital Servo on Tail
  
• E-Sky Carbon Fiber Blades
• Off-Brande Carbon Fiber Tail Blades
  
• Castle Creations Phoenix-35
• E-Sky 3800KV motor (10T)

Align T-Rex #1

• Align T-Rex 450 SE V2
• 3 HS-65MG servos on swash
• LogicTech 2100T Heading Hold Gyro
• Futaba 9650 Digital Servo on Tail
• Radix 325mm Carbon Fiber Main Blades
• Hyperion T-Rex Carbon Fiber Tail Blades
• Align RCE-BLX 35A Brushless ESC
• Align 430XL Brushless Motor (12T)

Align T-Rex #2

• Align T-Rex 450 SE V2
• 3 HS-65MG servos on swash
• Futaba 401 Heading Hold Gyro
• JR 3400 Digital Servo on Tail
• Hyperion 325mm Carbon Fiber Main Blades
• Align Carbon Fiber Tail Blades
• Align RCE-BLX 35A Brushless ESC
• Align 430XL Brushless Motor (13T)

When Hobbies Attack

My first helicopter blog

Another hobby turned into an obsession

Money down the drain

Which is higher performance -- D2Xs or T-Rex 450SEV2

At least the D2Xs doesn't crash

Align T-Rex 450SE V2

D2X_9070
Originally uploaded by digital2noise

A test helicopter.

New Heli Blog

Welcome to my new New Heli Blog.