Goblin 500 lives again!

[pvolcko]

The goblin 500 flie again!

I have video. Will try to get it edited and posted up during the day.

The replacement ESC did the trick and logs looked good. Whereas before I was averaging a reported 110A and spiking 180A, now it is averaging a reading of 10A or so and spiking only up to around 25A.

I need to solder on a new EC5 connector (I scavenged the one from the broken ESC and soldered on the pigtail ends to the ESC leads for quick test flight). And finalize some zip tied wire bundles. And redo the collective pitch setup (somehow it ended up skewed toward the negative). Since I have so much ESC current headroom now I will probably up my max pitch to 13 or 14 degrees. Thing is going to be crazy fast.

[Tony]

Wow, that's a massive reduction in current Paul, longer flight times now then eh... 14 degrees, insane man...lol. Looking forward to vid bro

[Marius]

Glad to hear you worked it out. I saw the video you made about that problem - that sure was a power hungry heli for a time! LOL

[KevG]

Nice work Paul

[Graham Lawrie]

Nice one Paul:) glad you got to the bottom of it:)

[Tony]

Where's this video I'm wondering.... Lol

[Derek]

That's great, Paul! There is a MASSIVE difference between 110 amps and 10 amps....especially with a 500 class helicopter. WOW! I'm looking forward to seeing your flight video.

[KevG]

Yes that is a dramatic difference

[pvolcko]

Just to be clear, it was never actually pulling 110A, much less 180A at peaks. The ESC has some kind of sensing problem where it was scaling up the actual current value. If it was ever actually pulling that kind of current on average it would have only lasted 2 minutes in the air and likely would have burst into flame mid-air.

And the video, like the forum changes, are pending. Lot of stuff going on on Mondays and Tuesdays. Should be able to catch up tonight.

[treff]

I am surprised for a 500 only pulling 10amps are you sure? I would have thought it would have been in the 80amp region.

[pvolcko]

If I were laying into it it would probably hit peaks of 80A or so, maybe 100A. But hovering and sport flying should only be pulling 10-20A at most.

[pvolcko]

http://youtu.be/L6Z681HRfoI

Test flight from the other day. Nothing special. Pretty tame since I need to trim down the power leads off the esc. Was worried they might get sucked up into the rotor. Logs after the flight were very good so that problem is solved. But I have some other things to fix up before the next flight with it. Mostly collective min/max/zero setup stuff. May swap in the new swash too.

[Superbad]

What esc did you have on it

[pvolcko]

Castle edge 100A.

[Tony]

Nice flying Paul for "nothing special". Lol, pleased your getting the bird sorted out. She's making some nice noises..

[danhampson]

Why do you think the pitch range has moved?

Shouldn't it be near as damb it as long as the main shaft (gears and bits) are all in the same place. Just seems weird that you've had such a drastic change

[pvolcko]

It has shifted. I normally hover upright or inverted at or just short of the first hash mark away from center stick. I'm having to hold half way between 1st and 2nd mark for upright and between center and 1st mark for inverted.

Why? As I mentioned, the swash bearing popped out of the housing during the crash. I popped it back in, but it is possible it hasn't fully seated. Also possible that the blade grip arms got bent a little bit. I have a replacement swash with the improved bearing retention (they added two screws on the front side instead of trying to retain it with a single screw at the rear) which I'll probably swap in. I also have grip arms, but need to see what is needed once the swash is swapped in.

[KevG]

I would put my money on the swash, I doubt if you could bend both arms on the grips by the same amount in a crash, therefore if the grips were bent I would expect to see a tracking problem, just my 2c

[pvolcko]

There is a tracking problem. It hovers well, but the tracking is out of adjustment now. I'll report what I find.

[Derek]

I love the sound that the Goblin's make! Awesome!