Flasher 450PE Build

[kiwi1080]

Ok, so I said that I was gonna wait to start building this but thought I would at least throw up the first frame build for those people interested in seeing if it is worth buying so here goes...


This is what the kit looks like in the box. The frame and canopy are in a nice protective bag, and the frame is also in bubblewrap too. Doesn't look like much but its all there.


A nice touch was the individual compartments with sets of screws and parts for different areas of the build, made it quick and easy.


The frame is mostly a fiber compound but feels really strong and well built. It also has a metal motor mount, nice touch too. The screws on the frame are decent, but not great quality. One good idea for the future is to buy a T-rex screw pack for $10 and change them all to good align stuff.


It comes with a black aluminum boom, but I had this CF one that would not for some reason fit on my T-rex, so I put it in this, little upgrade already!! On this frame there is no little tab in the mounting block that the notched boom can fit onto. It doesn't seem to matter though as the boom holds in there really well and I can't turn it by hand even with a lot of force.


Heres the head, pretty much all metal except for the blade grips, but that just means there is a cheap part to give way on a crash which is what I want at the moment. Comes assembled and even with the linkage rods attached, more than the T-rex did!! Some are a little loose thought so may need to be changed to remove slop when I set it up.


I thought this was a nice touch too, the shaft collar has two grub screws for extra grip. Note also the the swashplate is all metal on this model.


Heres the head unit and gear all attached, nice and easy to do. One thing I will say though is that the bottom of the shaft sticks down below the gear unlike the T-rex which sits flush. I got these EXI metal servos and they slide in there like a dream, no squeezing and forcing them in like an Elephant doing a pig.


Heres the tail all attached with struts and stabilizers, everything went together easy and all parts are good.


One negative thing, about the only one I came across, is that there were no washer bits for attaching the struts to the stabilizer. I have a full spare set for my T-rex so just used these. The blue looks good on the black too.


And here she is all done. This was an extremely easy and quick build. There are no instructions but someone who has experience with a 450 will be fine. Also there are Finless Bobs T-rex vids that work for it anyway.


And here she is next to my T-rex 450SE. The blades are actually spare ones that came with my Rex but wouldn't fit into the CNC blade holders for some reason but fit this perfectly.


Last photo! Even though this is a T-rex clone, I found that it is actually taller than the Rex. I think the landing gear is higher by the looks of it, other than that its a perfect match.


Final thoughts on the build is that it was very simple and I had the whole thing done in 2 hours!! Yep, that easy, even considering its the second one I have ever built. It is obviously not on par with the quality of the T-rex, but for $60 with a mostly metal head and tail, this is the best looking and quality I have come across so far, beats the HK and the EXI squadron hands down IMO. Anyway, hope this helps someone out there, it was a fun build and I can't wait to get this finished and in the air. I may borrow parts from the T-rex to get it flying and make sure everything is fine in the head for now.

I'm gonna reserve a couple posts on this thread for the next couple stages. All questions/comments welcome.

[kiwi1080]

Alright, so I put the electronics from my Rex over to the Flasher to try it out. Everything except the servos, which are metal geared EXI ones on the Flasher to better handle idle-up flight. I will post up a few pics later on when I get the bugs worked out and then some vid of flight when it is set up properly. I will say at this point that the only negative thing about it is that the tail is junk! It had a metal slider but plastic tail grips. I was firing it up for the first time, and even though I checked it over, it flew apart and spat a blade and grip at me! Luckily I was only about 2 feet up so no damage done. I put the T-rex tail on it and it holds so much better with a metal tail. I am gonna put the Deal Extreme CNC tail for $20 on it.
Otherwise the head is solid and flies all fine. It does have Align motor and ESC on it though and a telebee gyro at the moment. Gonna get the 401 clone for it soon too. Anywho, will get some pics of the remainder of the build and a video of flight up in a while.

Heres some pics of the remainder of the build and the broken crappy tail too.


Here is the finished product with the Align 430X motor and 35A ESC off my T-rex. It also has the Telebee gyro and Ino-lab tail servo. The cyclic servos are all EXI metal geared I got for about $12 each to try out. They perform pretty well so far but the test will be Idle-up flight.


Here it is preflight mode ;D. Has the spare align 325 Pro blades on it since I had them spare. The stock ones are ok though, just your basic cheap fiberglass 325mm ones. Just keeping them as spares for now since I have better ones.


Heres the stock tail that flew apart. You can see where the blade grip just broke away and took the arm with it. Not sure what happened there, just a cheap tail I guess. Maybe I had a bad one but I wouldn't trust it too far. The CNC $20 one will make a good replacement.


And lastly, here is the T-rex looking very sad and stripped at the moment. When I get the other parts for the Flasher I will rebuild it again to its former glory. Just waiting on the money to get the parts. If money allows I think I may put a scorpion motor/ESC combo, put in good Hitec or similar servos and a better Gyro. Might as well upgrade it all over the next couple months while I'm flying the Flasher practice heli I think.


Thought I would add in a pricelist for stuff that WILL be in it, not the align stuff I have in it:

Flasher 450PE kit $60 with free shipping from SN hobbies

3x EXI metal gear servos at $12 each $36 total

GY401 clone gyro for $36 on RC super sales

INO lab tail servo or maybe Hitec for about $26-$34

Motor like an Alpha for around $18

Pentium ESC at about $30

CNC tail from Deal Extreme at $20

Total is about $228-$235 all up for a good flying heli

I already have batteries and tx/rx so these would be extra. This would add $45 for an AR6100e Rx so about $275. This makes for a heli with good parts including metal servos, almost completely metal head and all metal tail and flying with a spektrum rx. Only $25 more than the Blueray 450PE, plastic edition without all the plastic and problems of exceed parts. Something to think about if you have a good Rx already and looking for a good but moderately priced build. Hope this helps someone out there, been fun building it!!

[kiwi1080]

Heres a vid of the first short flight in the backyard on a rather windy day. More to follow when weather is better and I can really open it up. Enjoy!!

[mimir]

2 hours! That was quick... Looks good. I look forward to hearing how it flies.

[kiwi1080]

Yeah it really surprised me how fast the build went! I checked a few of the frame screws and they seemed to have some kind of lock-tite compound on them, but they were just all loose so had to tighten them all up. The head was all good too and moves nice a smooth. The tail is a little tight on the slider, but a little machine oil should help that. Anyway, I'm gonna change some parts from the T-rex over to the Flasher soon and give it a work-out. The weather is perfect here today, been flying all day and don't want to pull apart the Rex yet!! On the next rainy day I will change the parts and then give it a go after that and let you all know how it flies.

[mimir]

I don't blame you for choosing flying over rebuilding It is too windy here to fly, which is good because I stripped the gears on one of my servos the other day and have to order a new one.

[kiwi1080]

Build and first flight all done now, check out the other two posts above with the final build phase and first flight. Very windy day though so flight was pretty basic and quick so I didn't destroy it straight away, I will at least wait til next week for that! ;D

[kiwi1080]

Well the wind died down a bit this afternoon so I took the Flasher for a bigger flight. Got it zipping round the backyard doing some banking turns, stall turns, and some good FF just putting it through its paces. Went really well for a cheap heli, the head is definitely not the quality and control level of the Align, but pretty good for $60. I think the flying ability is due in a small part to having the align tail and motor on it, but one of the cheaper alpha motors and a $20 CNC tail would still fly this thing pretty well I think. When I get round to it I will probably get something like the Alpha or one of the similar priced ones that Kyle has on RC super sales and a decent ESC. Gonna keep it as is for a while until I get the money together.

[akent]

Hey Kiwi, nice build thread!

Well done!

The oops in the second video was unfortunate. You were flying great!

Was that a brain fart or something that broke?

That Flasher kit looks a lot like the Exi SE. The head is mostly metal on the Exi SE, and the tail sucks on it, too, as you know.

Kent