Derek's Align Trex 500 FB

[Derek]

I wonder if many of you even remember that I have a Trex 500, lol. I'm always talking about my 450 and 600.

Well, I've just finished up some maintenance on the 500. I replaced each and every bearing, whether it needed it or not. Replaced the head and tail thrust bearings. Replaced the head dampers. Oiled and greased what needed oiled and greased and then finished it off with a dab of blue thread locker where needed.

I was just about to put the helicopter back on the shelf, for the winter, and I noticed that both of the tail control rod guides are NOT where they are suppose to be and they are sliding freely on the tail boom. Initially, I had a bit of scotch tape wrapped around the tail boom and the control rod guides were slid over the tape to be held in place. I just tried to slide the control rod guides back onto the scotch tape but they don't stay in place. I suppose I could just add a bit more tape to the tail boom to secure the control rod guides but I've never been fond of how it looks on the boom.

How do you all secure your control rod guides to the booms of your helicopters?

[danhampson]

I push a zip tie in between the boom and the guide and then trim it make it neat, ive only ever done that on my 450 as myprotos had a carbon push rod and no guides and the 550 the guide clamps down on the boom with a screw (it should be the same on your 600).

[Derek]

Thanks Dan! I may try that! Yes, my 600 has the same style as what you are talking about with the screws that you can tighten up.

[cml001]

I went with after market aluminum guides on my 450.. It has screws to clamp it in place.. & the 550 has a scrw stlyle as well. I've seen the tape method as well as the piece of zip tie used to hold it.. Personal it seems a little ghetto to do either tho IMO.

[Graham Lawrie]

+1 on Dan:) i do the same on mine:) never had any move, even after tail in crash:)

[Derek]

Cool! Thanks guys! I'll have a look around for some aftermarket guides. They can't cost very much, I'm sure.

[cml001]

Search for QuickUK tail pushrod guides... They have a few different kinds... Different colors... I like their stuff.

[KevG]

You got a metal push rod or carbon fibre one on yours Derek, as the dfc is carbon fibre and has clamp style rod guides

[Derek]

Currently, I have the metal push rod.

[Derek]

I just ordered some new DS515M cyclic servos for my 500. I'm really looking forward to getting this helicopter in the air again this year. I was flying it pretty well, early last year, but then it developed a naughty wobble and instead of fixing the wobbles, I just put it on the shelf. Thinking about it now...that was pretty stupid, lol. There is no sense in having a nice helicopter just sitting on the shelf.

I've done some maintenance on the 500 and now I'm just waiting on the servos. It's a shame that I couldn't find a suitable tail servo from my ebay seller but I'm going to replace the tail servo, too....just so that everything is new. I'll be on the hunt for a Castle ESC, too. I imagine the Talon 90 will work just fine.

[Derek]

I was just reminded that the Postman doesn't always deliver bad news, lol. My new Align DS515M servos just showed up. I actually anticipated delivery tomorrow, so naturally, I'm quite excited. Now it's time to pull the original (3 year old) servos from my 500 and install the new servos. Now that I've got some more experience and more knowledge, I'm expecting a much cleaner job with the wiring, lol. It really is quite a mess right now.

[xokia]

I push a zip tie in between the boom and the guide and then trim it make it neat, ive only ever done that on my 450 as myprotos had a carbon push rod and no guides and the 550 the guide clamps down on the boom with a screw (it should be the same on your 600).

^^^same thing I do it works great. If you have to replace the boom it is easy to pull the guides off and reuse.

[Derek]

Thanks xokia! I've already added a bit of zip tie to the guides and they seem to me holding in place very well.

It's nice to hear that someone else has done this with success.

[Derek]

Well, for a while, xokia had a Castle Ice 75amp esc for sale. He posted it to the Hangout and I snoozed on the deal. My loss.

I was out flying my 500, the other day, and I was reminded why I wanted to upgrade the esc. The stock Align ESC doesn't have the gradual RPM change when I change flight modes. It changes RPM's immediately. Although it is still very functional, I just don't like that immediate RPM change. So, I got asking around today and I found a guy in California that has a lightly used Ice 75amp esc for sale and at a great price. One of my Youtube buddies knows the guy and he told me that I could by from the seller with confidence. I jumped on the sale. I've sent him the money and he's going to ship the ESC tomorrow. With any luck, I'll have the ESC this weekend. YAY!

Finally, all my helicopters will have Castle ESC's. I've gotten very fond of the programming via the Castle Link USB cable and I love the gradual RPM changes when changing flight modes. I'm super stoked about this!!!

[Derek]

When I checked the tracking number on the "new to me" Ice 75amp esc for my 500, the estimated delivery date was Saturday, the 25th. I just checked it again (impatience, lol) and I see that my package has arrived at my local post office and delivery is scheduled for today. That's awesome!!! I hope to get it installed on my 500 and programmed and ready for Sunday's flights. YAY!!!

[danhampson]

When I checked the tracking number on the "new to me" Ice 75amp esc for my 500, the estimated delivery date was Saturday, the 25th. I just checked it again (impatience, lol) and I see that my package has arrived at my local post office and delivery is scheduled for today. That's awesome!!! I hope to get it installed on my 500 and programmed and ready for Sunday's flights. YAY!!!

Sweet mate. Hope you get plenty of video on sunday, the weather has taken a turn for the worse here, it looks like i may be showing no fly cards for the next few days

[Derek]

I'm not sure if we got any video of the 500 flight today. The flight was very short because it's still misbehaving.

Keep in mind, my 500 is still flybarred so I don't have a flybarless controller to adjust. It won't hold a steady hover. It wants to bank to the right slightly. When I take it high up, flip it and do an inverted punch out....it rolls around to the right, as if to begin a funnel maneuver. Today's flight test was very short. I consider myself lucky to be able to bring it home in one piece because it rolled around so hard and I feel that I was lucky to be able to regain control and then land it. I'll have to check with my Dad to see if he got the video.

I was going over the swash setup the other day. It is level based on what I saw from the swash leveler. I'll have to get out the pitch gauge again. Perhaps one blade has more pitch than the other. It's very disappointing because I love this helicopter. I love the 500 size.

[Graham Lawrie]

Be good to see the video by the sounds of it:)

[Derek]

Yeah...I think you guys are gonna need to see video to actually understand what i'm trying to explain, lol. It's complicated to put into words. I haven't had a chance to check the blade pitch yet....had to finish up some yard work and then chase my daughter around the backyard

I haven't heard from my Dad yet to see if he got any video from that flight. If not, we may be able to try again tomorrow.

[Derek]

OK....my Dad did get the video of the 500. I wasn't sure if he did or not.

At 2:13 in the video you can see that I go into an inverted punchout and the helicopter wraps around to my left, as if I had given right aileron. I did not. Then the tail kinda comes around and it was just UGLY!!! Thankfully I was able to regain control and land it safely.

I don't know if you guys will be able to give any suggestions as to what may be wrong.