First heli! Trex 450

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
IMG_20180208_173135.jpg
HAAHAHAHHAHA I FINALLY HAVE IT
I waited like a year to get my first heli, good ol used Trex 450 sport (converted to FBL and stuff) that I got from a friend.

However as you expect I have some question.
(would have PMed F106DeltaDart but his inbox is full, clear yo messages Delta :p )

Well actually I did a lot of reading about rc helis in the past months but im still no sure how to wire the gyro, I have a mikado mini vbar in there and im using a Flysky ia6b receiver so I understood how to hook up ailerons, elevator, rudder and collective but im not quite sure where the throttle control should go. My first guess would be on the vbar too so it can control pitch and throttle curves directly but it looks like it goes on the receiver so im confused.

Well anyways I hope you can help me with that, I will keep you informed on my progress in the heli world :cool:
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Awesome man! When I get out of work, I’ll type something up for you. Also, cleared out my inbox, thanks for the warning ;).
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Generally, you would plug the ESC directly into the receiver, and your pitch and throttle curves are all done in your transmitter. That is, if you have the governor set up on the ESC.

The Vbar and most other FBL units have a built in governor function as well. If you want to use that, you can plug the ESC directly into the Vbar and set it up in the software. Just be sure you don't have BOTH setup at the same time. You don't want to governor programs fighting each other the entire time..
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Ohhh someones in for a challenge!!

These more then any other part of our hobby require insane attention to detail and precision during set up. Make sure you are perfectly clear on anything and everything during this process and don't hesitate to ask or research things even if you think you understand if you have not actually done it before.

I was finally able to get one to hover and be able to walk the dog around a friends huge yard before I got hurt at work making it impossible to lug all the needed gear around to fly one back in the early 90's.

Good luck and don't rush things on this one.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
I connected the ESC to the receiver and set the governor to about 80% for now, I also set up everything correctly I guess.

Well, you deserve watching the video of the rev up!

Was filmed with my phone so sorry for the potato quality
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
I connected the ESC to the receiver and set the governor to about 80% for now, I also set up everything correctly I guess.

Well, you deserve watching the video of the rev up!

Was filmed with my phone so sorry for the potato quality

Looking good! I’ve got a document I want to send you if you want to PM me your email that walks through the mechanical setup in detail much better than I can.

Also, it’s hard to tell if you’ve done it, but I suggest setting up a slow spool-up on the ESC. Puts a lot less stress on the gears and electronics, and looks more like a real heli on startup.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
Right now it's set to the default of 15 seconds, and yes please send me that document!
I will need to do a fairly complete check up of this one as it wasn't used for quite some time and I hear some weird sounds.
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Right now it's set to the default of 15 seconds, and yes please send me that document!
I will need to do a fairly complete check up of this one as it wasn't used for quite some time and I hear some weird sounds.
Definitely a good rule of thumb to check then! I just sent you the document, hopefully that helps.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
Im finally back home and got to do some more work on the heli and got it running again since I now have a good camera and microphone I can use.


For some reason the grinding noise is gone, I won't complain but I would like to know why.

Also it looks like the swashplate doesn't stay level when I move the collective and I had to do a lot of trimming in the software to get it level so I think I will remove the head and mechanically level it, I also have to oil everything.

Well anyways it will take some time for my new battery to come so better spend that time wisely :D
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Looking good! Definitely better to take your time and really nail the setup. It’s a lot of work, but having a mechanically well setup Bird will pay off in strides on you get it in the air!
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I picked up two Ebooks by John Salt on heli set up and swash plate set ups. Well worth the money to have. VERY detailed on both flybar and flybarless set ups. The swash set up procedure one is a real gift to have specially if you are unfamiliar with it.

Here is his page where you can check out the books and get them if you desire.

https://www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-helicopter-e-books.html

He also has a multi part video series of start to finish learning how to fly on you tube/ (watching them all as we speak hehe)
 
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Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
I should receive my battery soon and thus I will be able to finally learn to fly.
However the control throws of my heli are still rather high so can someones with experience with the vbar can help me on that? It looks like I can reduce the whole collective travel but I would actually like if I could make it something like -3 to +10° of collective and kinda the same with cyclic.
I will try to connect the heli to the computer later today so I will probably find it now that I have asked here but I don't want an overly reactive bird.
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Generally, you would set your min/max pitch on your radio in the pitch curve. The Vbar should be setup with equal pitch in both directions. This gives you the ability to setup multiple pitch curves on your radio depending on what type of flying you want to do, and is optimal for getting the best performance from the gyro.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
Well maybe I read wrong but I think the thing told me to do minimal stuff in the radio is the vbar is supposed to do stuff. Anyways I reduced the collective travel to have a maximum of 10° so it will take quite a bit of stick travel to pop into a hover but that's good I guess, however I can still get 15° with the cyclic.

I did see some peoples mentioning using dual rates and such for the cyclic control so I might do that, I calibrated the gyro so it should be fine.
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Well maybe I read wrong but I think the thing told me to do minimal stuff in the radio is the vbar is supposed to do stuff. Anyways I reduced the collective travel to have a maximum of 10° so it will take quite a bit of stick travel to pop into a hover but that's good I guess, however I can still get 15° with the cyclic.

I did see some peoples mentioning using dual rates and such for the cyclic control so I might do that, I calibrated the gyro so it should be fine.
Generally, "minimal stuff" would refer to messing with servo travel, CCPM mixing, trim, or subtrim in the radio. For all the FBLs I've dealt with (align 3G, 3GX, iKon, ikon2, and AR7200BX) you set your pitch curves on the radio end. Found this response on Helifreak for Vbar and it looks like they did the same as well: https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=657675.

Definitely not a bad idea to keep pitch to 10 deg for now though, should help make it a bit less sensitive in the air. About how much cyclic tilt do you have? I usually put in around 30 deg or so, and would consider turning the agility setting towards the lower end. I will caution you not to go super low on agility though. I actually crashed my Little Bird a few years back because the agility was low enough where I couldn't fight even a small wind.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
Alright I will change the curve and dual rates in the radio now. As I said if I fully move the cyclic stick to one end I get 15° of pitch so I guess I get about 30° between one side and the other if that's what you meant.
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Alright I will change the curve and dual rates in the radio now. As I said if I fully move the cyclic stick to one end I get 15° of pitch so I guess I get about 30° between one side and the other if that's what you meant.
Cyclic authority is usually measured by the angle your swashplate is tilting from level at your maximum control inputs, sorry I should have been more clear there.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
Well I have no good and reliable way to tell the swashplate tilt so I don't really know.

I changed the collective pitch curve and it looks like this.
DSC_8398.JPG
I get -4 to +10° of pitch so it sounds decent and middle stick is 0 pitch.
As for the cyclic is there an amount of pitch I should aim for?
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
I wasn’t exactly sure what cyclic pitch to aim for, so I went and measured a few values off of the Little Bird. With collective set to 0 deg, my cyclic was able to achieve +/- 8 deg from neutral. You will probably want a bit more than that since you are in a 2-Blade system, so what you have is probably a good starting point.

As for measuring swashplate tilt, I don’t use any sophisticated tools either. Most of the time you can just eyeball it, and maybe run a long straight object underneath to help better see the tilt angle.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
I finally received my battery today so I charged it and slapped the training gear on my heli and went to do the blade tracking check.


It was super scary and my camera was too low so I don't know if blade tracking is right but I guess it should be.
Is there anything obviously wrong in there?