Official RotorScale UH-1A Medic Green 450 Size Helicopter Discussion Thread

[Alpha]

In time for Independence Day, here are some updated 3DPUP .STL files for the UH-1. With a few hours of printing and basic painting/cutting/screwing/soldering, one can really personalize the model beyond what arrives in the box. I especially like the fiberglass body because typical techniques from the plastic modeling world can be used. I haven't had the time to take this model to the next level, but it's nice knowing I could. Work in progress...

Stance: Cut the struts down the lower the stance as shown below. For more scale, shorten the skids themselves. I haven't done this yet on mine.



3DPUPs: The files attached for the most part screw together. You'll need lots of 1.5mm wide screws.



Ammo belt: The great thing about PLA is that it softens under heat. A half second pass over a lighter will soften areas enough to bend the strip before it hardens again.



Drill 2mm holes into the fiberglass, and use those holes to also drill through the holes of clear green sheet. I try to minimize where glue is used.

[eawings]

Cyclone is absolutely right, Loosen the screws on the rudder servo mounting plate and swing the servo where the pushrod aligns with the tail pitch lever. Upon doing this make sure your tail blades are in neutral with your servo arms at 90degrees.. And when you get everything all lined up with no binding, then set those pushrod guides by applying some epoxy and tie wraps to hold the pushrod tube in place.

[Cyclone 7]

I think mounting the servo 'underside' as you suggest, is a good idea - it will certainly gain you quite a bit of height reduction(by the look of it) and reduce the bend significantly - if not making it almost straight? I've done the same thing in the past where I had a clearance issue.

Other than that, it is sounding all good if you are hovering around comfortably. I generally get 7+ minutes out of my 450's 3S 2200mAh batteries - just mild scale flying though. Seven minutes on my Tx's alarm lands my batteries at 3.72 - 3.74V consistently, which is where I like them to be at the end of a flight. I run my throttle at 66% & 68% flat curve for I/U 1 & 2 respectively and likewise, the Hobbywing 60A is not even slightly warm. I use the FBL controller(AR7210) governor for no other reason than to keep everything 'neat and tidy', control wise. Keep us updated on progress - you, RidgeRunner and DeltaDart seem to be the only customer feedback around at the moment.

[Tron]

Hi Cyclone 7,
I tried rotating the mount and this is as good as it gets with the current rod and tube arrangement. It was apparently factory test flown in this configuration and they had the tail servo ball at 13mm.

I may try to mount the servo on the underside of the boom mounts if I can find some longer screws, washers and a lock nut. That would make the tail control rod a straighter run.

As it is, it's doing ok in my test hovers in the yard. I've got it setup as good as I can now and need to expand the flight testing to forward flight and see how it flies. I'm at the bare minimum on the esc governor (60%) throttle and getting 6 minutes hovering with cells coming down at about 3.80V. No heat issues with motor, esc or battery although that's probably being helped by hovering without a fuselage.

[Cyclone 7]

Can you not loosen the mounting and swing the servo round into a position where the ball is more in line with the cable run? Not sure if it will make that much difference to the geometry, but might be worth a try in order to reduce friction/bending moment.

Fuselage fit permitting, of course.

[Tron]

Tried to move the tail servo ball inward but with the ball link on, it would hit the top of the servo case. The ball is mounted on the 'underside' of the servo arm.
So back to the middle hole position. From arm center, the hole distances are about 7, 10, and 13mm going from innermost to outermost.
As received, the ball had been mounted on the outermost hole in my model.

I also attach a picture of what the tail control rod and tube look like. It runs along boom and then bends out towards the servo ball. Not as smooth and friction free as a straight shot run would be.

[wdmustang]

Thanks to all for the information and photos.

[Tron]

If you are able to take the frame off from the shell it would be much better to install the gyro right underneath on the battery Tray. I am using the Spektrum AR620 on this model shown and perfectly works fine.

Hi eawings,

From your pics:
1. It looks like the gyro is mounted on the bottom plate towards the tail of the heli. Your esc is right underneath the battery tray in front.
2. Your tail control rod run to the servo looks a lot straighter than mine was out of the box for my huey. Did you remove one of the nylon tie wraps?
3. I also moved in the ball from the stock position (3rd hole furthest away from servo screw). Right now it's in the middle position. I may try to move it to the innermost position as I'm still getting a steady and slight tail wag in hover with tail gains lowered all the way.

[Cyclone 7]

Do I detect a tip-over at the end there? ;)

[eawings]

This is also the Rotorscale 450 A-109 Frame set. I normally test fly my helis as pod and boom to dial in my controls whether small or large helis.
I have the tail rudder set at 0 pitch offset / neutral with 57.5% gain setting (HH Mode) on my Tarot gyro. Bring in the steel ball on the rudder servo arm closest to the center which will eliminate Tail wags.

[eawings]

If you are able to take the frame off from the shell it would be much better to install the gyro right underneath on the battery Tray. I am using the Spektrum AR620 on this model shown and perfectly works fine.

[wdmustang]

I purchased the Huey with the ZYX system. I have looked through the above discussion and the video's. Could someone post pictures of the preferred location for mounting the receiver and gyro? The set up video's above show the receiver and gyro located at the rear of the the heli frame (they're using the HK450GT). I have a TREX 450 SE with flybar-less system and gyro and receiver are located in the rear to get away from motor and esc interference. Only way I see to do this on the Huey is to remove the chassis from the body. Also, I'd like to use the new Spektrum AR620 sport receiver, anybody know if this will work or will the graphite chassis cause interference ( I have not tried it on the Trex). I like these receivers and are using them in my planes (jets, propped, nitro and electric) and have not had an issue. Appreciate any assistance.

[Tron]

Curious where to mount FBL controller on the mechanics and wondering what others are doing.

1. Carbon tray under the main battery? With the mechanics out of the fuselage, and sitting on a table, this plate doesn't look flat (perpendicular to main shaft)
2. Bottom plate aft of the motor wires?
3. Middle shelf underneath where the boom enters the frame?

Also, did anyone rotate the tail servo mount (two clamps that attach to the boom) to get a straighter shot of the tail linkage? Seems like it would be better to have that rod with less of a bend in it. Just don't know if it will be a problem going back into the fuselage.

Thanks

[Aros]

Thank you for your excellent information and feedback ridgerunner! You and F106DeltaDart have really been helpful for others in these threads. Bravo Zulu! Well done! :Cool:

[ridgerunner]

Tail Gyro setup update.
Ok, so I now have 8 flights under my belt with the Rotorscale AS-350. Its fitted with the recommended ZYX-S2 gyro and Admiral 6S 1100mAHr battery. The only mod I made was to replace the tail servo with a KST-DS215 (but the stock one may have worked Ok - I didn't actually try it.) Regarding the tail setup, I simply started off with a HH gain of +30 (as viewed in the SETUP-MONITOR page of the ZYX Assistant software) and this setting worked (and is still working) just fine thank-you-very-much. I have not yet bothered to set up rate mode. Note that on a Tx with values ranging from 0-100 rather than -100 to +100, the equivalent CH5 gain value would be 65 (which would show as +30 in the software MONITOR). I also setup the linkages pretty much the same as James showed in his video - so that the servo arm was 90 in the middle of the usable range with the Tx sending out zero on the rudder channel. I haven't bothered measuring the tail pitch angle at zero, but it does have a bit of positive angle. I did move the tail servo ball in to 8mm from the arm center (stock was too far out at 12mm).

Bottom line - the ZYX is working very well so far.
Thanks again MotionRC!

[ridgerunner]

This might be of some help to you, in the meantime;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkonH1Vfzk

I watched that one and its... ok. But I found the following one to be be much more in-depth and helpful. Although this one covers the earlier ZYX version of the hardware and software, I found that much of what he discusses applies to the ZYX-S2. His six part: "Flybarless Conversion" series covers a lot of ground on the proper setup of a 450 heli. Highly recommended:

HK-450GT Flybarless Conversion - pt 4 - Radio and Software Setup

Note that I maidened my Rotorscale 450 Eurocopter today (see that thread for a vid). I started off with a HH gain value of +30 - it worked beautifully.

[Cyclone 7]

This might be of some help to you, in the meantime;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkonH1Vfzk

[DJLEWIS]

When will the ZYX setup video from Motionrc be back up? I saw that it was taken down.

[F106DeltaDart]

You say the Huey was test flown,has it also been lubed and loctite applied?

It will still need lubrication and loctite applied.

[guitarman64266]

You say the Huey was test flown,has it also been lubed and loctite applied?