T-REX 450SE GF build log

[kiwi1080]

I posted about this before in Advanced section, but thought I would put it here and start building a thread for this build. I got the 450 kit from KA Planes for an awesome price of $249 with motor, battery, and ESC. Its full CNC with fiber frame. Check it out:

T-REX 450SE GF kit
www.ka-planes.com/inc/sdetail/7993
This is the cheapest I have seen it anywhere so far. It is usually at least $380 as they list on their site. Great deal!!

I also got this as the tail servo. Super fast at 0.09sec!!
store.rcsupersales.net/servlet/-strse-4575/ULTRA-FAST-0.09sec-fdsh-60-INO-dsh-LAB/Detail

Gyro is a telebee on special for $44 from RC Super Sales. It is pretty much like the actual Align or HDX ones but cheaper and should work great.
store.rcsupersales.net/servlet/-strse-45/Telebee-fdsh-Zoom-Sub-dsh-Micro-6g-Head/Detail?sfs=b301a4b5

Other cyclic servos are 3x Towerpro 9g servos, just went cheap for the meantime to let me get this bad boy up and going, then will upgrade later. Got these from RC Super Sales at $8.99, but they are cheaper elsewhere.

Motor and ESC and Battery are the ones that come with it.

Just need the tx/rx which will be a DX6i/AR6200 when money rolls in in the next couple weeks.

I am going to reserve the next 3 spaces on this thread for the follow-up build process. Hope it helps you all out there.

P.S. Some of you may have noticed that I had it as the V2 before, just realised it is the GF, but still an awesome heli. Difference between the V2 and the GF is a slightly different head, motor, and CF blades and about $100-$150 depending on where you get it as far as I can tell.

[kiwi1080]

Build Part 1

Well I got the kit yesterday and started looking through it and putting together the main frame. First impressions is that this is an extremely well made kit with high quality parts. I could literally throw the frame around the room all day and it wouldn't break, thats how tough it is. All the CNC parts are well made and look awesome with the blue paintjob. The thread lock and little tool kit with it are a nice touch, but the allen key isn't very strong and got stripped quickly. The hexbolts themselves are strong though. They also give you a heap of extra screws and parts and a nice surprise in the form of some 325mm Pro Carbon blades which I didn't know came with it, happy with that ;D. Anyway, some photos will follow shortly, Doozer is hosting them for me and then I can get them up for you guys to enjoy. For those thinking about this kit, it is well worth the $249 that it is on special for. Here's the shots:



This is the box it came in with all the parts. Doesn't look like much but its packed in really well. Theres a whole heli in there somewhere...

The instructions were actually pretty easy to follow and what made it easier was that the bags were labelled to correspond to the steps in the manual. The main rotor and frame were already assembled too, had a little help.


Motor and ESC came in a nice protective case, these are excellent quality. When you compare these to a half decent RTF heli the difference is clear, these T-REX helis are made to last.


Heres everything laid out for the build. The only tools I needed to do all this was a couple sizes of allen wrenches, a phillips screwdriver, and needlenose pliers, too easy!! The canopy comes bare so you can customize it. You will see later how I did mine.


Here is the already assembled rotor head (comes like this to save time). It looks awesome and is much better quality than other stuff I have seen. Looks nicer in person so to speak also. They went all out on quality for this!!


Heres the mostly assembled frame. Really nicely made and talk about strong. I would have to jump on this thing a couple times to break it and I weigh 200lbs!! Seriously though, you would have real trouble breaking this even in a good crash.


Another nice touch was a bag of spare parts, some flybar weights, and some collar pieces that you can change inside the blade grips for either sport flying or hard 3D flying. Obviously I am just leaving the Sport ones in for now


Frame and rotor head all assembled. The longest part of this was making up all the ball joint links and measuring them to the right length. The manual tells you how big to make each which will save some time later on trimming and setting.


Here's the tail section all assembled and ready to put on the boom. It also comes like this to save time. Really nicely made with a tough belt.


I went ahead and attached the whole tail section including the struts and fed the belt through. You need to undo the bolts on the boom mount to get it to fit but it was actually really easy to get set up. Stabilizers are nice a strong, same stuff as the frame. Comes with Carbon tail blades too. Heineken not included...


Here is the placement of the motor and ESC. I also put the main gear in and attached the rotor head assembly. The end of the main gear has a recess that a nut and bolt fit through so no chance of falling off! Also the tail belt sits on an independent gear and is not attached underneath the main gear, but run by a cog system, very nice.


I will have the cords between the ESC and motor running underneath at this point I think. They will be protected by the bottom of the canopy when it is on. Also they are covered with heatshrink when done so extra strong.


These are the nice carbon blades that came with it. The standard white ones it is shown with don't actually fit in the blade grips unless you remove the black plastic protective ends, kind of annoying!!


Here she is with the whole frame done, motor and ESC installed and ready for the other electronics. You get a heap of stickers for the canopy and these are just a few of the ones on it that I used. Overall a really nicely constructed frame and took 2 afternoons to do, not bad for a first build.


As a bonus, I now have a nice aluminium field case that holds a heap of tools and extras like batteries and blades, nice added touch from Align.

The next section will be the rest of the kit with basic electronics and some finished shots. Hope to have the Tx/RX in a couple weeks then I will post some maiden flight footage on the third post, can't wait!!!

[kiwi1080]

ELECTRONICS INSTALLATION

Well the electronics arrived today from RC Super Sales in Montana, only two days from when he shipped them to Connecticut, awesome! It was also via free shipping which I got spending over $95, and he sent it USPS Priority, great considering it was free ;D. Anyway I am taking shots and installing the stuff tonight and so will have the shots up tomorrow hopefully. I will say this, the servo positioning wasn't well thought out when they planned the manual, as it would have been a lot easier to put them in before assembling the frame!! Oh well, at least you will all know that if you get this heli. Hindsight is great isn't it, but then again I was too excited to wait for the electronics and I got there with a bit of swearing and time ;D. Enjoy the shots.


Here are the servos and gyro that went into the T-Rex, bought them from Kyle at RC Super Sales. I also bought the Ball Link Pliers from him and they are there for scale. Everything was packaged nicely and in great condition.


The gyro I used is a Telebee 6gm extra liteweight one and a Ino Lab tail servo. This servo is super fast at 0.09sec. Got the Telebee on special for $44 and it is pretty much a clone of the HDX and Align one of the same type, just cheaper.


These are the towerpro servos I used for the cyclic ($5-$9 each depending where you get them). They are cheap ones but sturdy and will do the job for getting this up and running. I am planning on going digital later when I get better at flying. I went digital on the tail as it counts more there for the head holding of the gyro.


This is where the two front cyclic servos sit. Make sure when you are putting these in that the gear part faces towards the tail. It helps to remove the stickers if there are any on them for an easier fit as they are pretty tight anyway. These have little plastic pieces that go inside the frame to hold the screws in place, and believe me they are a b*#@h to get in with the frame already built. If you have all the stuff when you are building I would advise putting these in before building the frame!!


The frame has these little slots for feeding through a zip tie and holding the wires in place. Let me say this, unless you have fingers that are 5mm wide to get down inside the frame then these are as useful as tits on a bull. Thats another reason to do this before the frame is built.


Here's the rear cyclic servo installed. You don't need to worry about the sticker, and the plastic backing pieces on this one are easier to put on with needle nose pliers. It helps to remove the anti-rotation bracket though to get inside the frame. It's a good idea not to use any locktite or CA on these screws for when you need to change out the back servo.


Here is the gyro and tail servo installed, it's pretty small and sits nicely on the boom mount with the sticky foam padding that comes with it. It is probably a good idea to put a zip tie around it and the frame for added security. I just haven't done it until I start flying it and to make sure the gyro position is good, then I will secure it better.


This is where I am going to put the Rx into, lots of spare room here. I have the wires from the cyclic servos all zip tied down the inside of the frame and coming down into the back area underneath the boom mount. I will have the Rx with the plug parts facing the tail and plug everything in there. Will use some sticky foam padding and a zip tie to hold this in too. This arrangement worked well on the Black Hawk I had, pitty the rest of it didn't work quite so well and I sent it back .

Well thats the electronics part done for now, will throw up a couple more when the Rx gets installed and then some video in my third post when I get it flying. Feel free to ask any questions about this or any suggestions too if you have them. Enjoy!

[kiwi1080]

Well, after seeing the guy at my LHS and finding a bearing in the head being the issue with blade pitch I thought I was ready to fly. Turns out I also had issues with tail spin, but that has been sorted thanks to playing with reversal switches and settings, and also overcoming my own stupidity, lets leave it at that...Anyway, I am uploading the vid of its maiden flight and waiting on You-tube to process it and it will be up shortly. It is a really sweet flying heli now that it goes. Blade tracking is good as far as I can see so far and the CF blades make a nice smooth sound.
A point of interest to add is the pitch curve I used and pitch settings as given by the guy at my LHS for noobs as follows:

0 stick = -2
25% stick = +2
50% stick = +6
75% stick = +8
100% stick = +11

Pitch Curve: (On the DX6i)
L = 40
2 = 45
3 = 50
4 = 75
H = 100

I know this may sound a little strange from what people usually do but it makes sense to me now. If you have it going from a negative or 0 pitch at 50% stick it creates a sudden desire for the heli to leap up once headspeed is high. Going positive earlier makes a much smoother upward transition and also means that when you chop the stick down when nervous, the heli won't pull itself into the ground when you go negative on the pitch. Finless Bob's vid sets it up for 3D flight, but for most people here building them, they are not going for hardcore 3D flight so this makes more sense. I am lifting off at 50% and all the flying in the video is done at 55-58% max so it works very well.
Anyway, vid will be up soon, I know, about time isn't it!!!

Here's the video, enjoy:

[akent]

That's really cool, Kiwi!
I am really glad you are going with a real radio!

I'm willing to bet that the head is the same as a V2. The SE I think designates that, too.
In fact looking at all the CNC stuff, I'd be willing to bet that it's all the same as an SE V2.

You get to build it pretty much from the ground up, set it up, and you will know how to fix it when you need to!
I prefer that approach much better, personally.

Oh, and the frame they list as G10 material. That is an epoxy laminate that is tougher than nails. That's what they use in making circuit boards. It will not bend, either. Rigid stuff.

One thing I really like about Align is they include the Loctite that you need for these. That's a nice touch. I saw the bag with that stuff in the picture.

Your parts list sounds good! I couldn't see the tail servo, as that link has a problem, but it sounds fast enough.

Should be a fun project! I hope you post lots of pics of the build!

Best,
Kent

[Doozer]

Woo hoo.... I'll be waiting for this one. That Trex kit is a good deal. I may get the kit in a month or so if it's still the same price.

Pics, Pics, Pics!! If you need space let me know I'll shoot you my email addy then pop them on my ISP's server. You can then link them in your post. That is ... if you don't have that ability already!

[Doozer]

I post my videos to YouTube.... too big to put on my ISP. I'll pm ya with the details on the pics.

Thanks Doozer. Will have to set myself up a you-tube account now that I am into the building craze.

[Doozer]

See how you are.... you're going to make me want one. Nice photos. I just don't know why the 450 frame is so different from the 600 frame. One of the main reasons I got away from the Belt CP frame was because of servo placement and because of all the linkage. If everything is not just right that translates into major slop. The trex 450 doesn't have them but the 600 does... not real sure why.

[akent]

Nice pics, Kiwi!!

I look forward to more as you progress!
Kent

[skiboyscuba]

Feb 20, 2009 13:42:27 GMT -6 kiwi1080 said:

Rest of the kit build shots are up now so check em out, just posting this reply so the thread gets moved up and active, enjoy!! Electronics install photos should be up tomorrow.

Thank you for the build post!

Me likey

Mike

[kiwi1080]

Well all the photos are up to date with the electronics section as of today. Will be a bit of a delay on the last section while I sort out financing a good tx/rx combo, most likely the DX6i or maybe even a DX7 if I feel like splurging. Anyway, ask questions if you got em' and stay tuned for the maiden flight, hopefully without a bad ending!!

[skiboyscuba]

Feb 21, 2009 10:35:21 GMT -6 kiwi1080 said:

Well all the photos are up to date with the electronics section as of today. Will be a bit of a delay on the last section while I sort out financing a good tx/rx combo, most likely the DX6i or maybe even a DX7 if I feel like splurging. Anyway, ask questions if you got em' and stay tuned for the maiden flight, hopefully without a bad ending!!

Are you going to do a video of the flight or any of the build???

Mike

[skiboyscuba]

Feb 21, 2009 10:35:21 GMT -6 kiwi1080 said:

Well all the photos are up to date with the electronics section as of today. Will be a bit of a delay on the last section while I sort out financing a good tx/rx combo, most likely the DX6i or maybe even a DX7 if I feel like splurging. Anyway, ask questions if you got em' and stay tuned for the maiden flight, hopefully without a bad ending!!

What do you think about the

FUT6EX2.4
Futaba's FASST (Futaba Advanced Spectrum Technology)
2.4 Ghz Spectrum Radio and reciever

as compared to the Spectrum DX6i?

Mike

[Doozer]

It's looking good Kiwi. Align makes a quality product. Don't forget to screw in your servo Horns!

[kiwi1080]

Will do Doozer, otherwise I will be the one pooping a little when the servo horn comes off and the heli goes sideways into the ground!!

Skiboy - I will likely make a video showing the whole heli (an overview of it) when I get it together and also of the first couple flights and any adjustments that need to be made if I find anything important to share. As for the build, its already done sorry so maybe the next one I will video!! If you or anybody has any questions though I would be happy to answer them as best I can.