Align T-Rex 450SE

[Darren 0]

All this talkof helis and Jimbo doing so well has inspired me to dust off the old machines. Problem is that you need constant practice and I only get to the field a couple of times a month.

 

Nutz and his little electric helis got me thinking that even with a small garden, I could get in hovering practice a bit more often.

 

So during a visit to SMC I had an attack of wallet weakness and picked up a T-Rex 450 SE. At least I'd sold my Raptor 30 first

 

Anyway, the assembly was quite quick but I've built a few helis before. The first thing you notice when you open the box is that it comes in a nice ally case. The trouble is that when it's built it no longer fits. Jolly nice if you want a case for your tools but how much cheaper could it be if it wasn't included??

 

[Darren 0]

The kit is available in two colours, black or silver carbon fibre. probably would have preferred black but no one seemed to have that colour in stock.

 

Major chunks of the kit are pre-built, upper and lower frames are already assembled and just need joining, the main shaft and rotor head is also already built. Getting a completed main frame with undercarriage and rotor head is no more than 2 dozen bolts, a bit of loctite and 15 minutes away

 

 

 

 

[Darren 0]

Just as you'd expect, boom and tail is next. Tail rotor is powered by a toothed belt, twisted 90degrees Raptor styleee to a pinion geared off the main gearwheel.

 

The pre-assembled tail rotor hub just needs blades adding and bolting to the boom. Boom supports added to the main frame and the job is done - again no more than 15 minutes.

 

[Darren 0]

The SE kit, not only comes fully blinged with all the nice blue anodised alloy bits but is also an eCCPM setup using the 120degree ccpm mode on your radios.

 

For those of you who don't know what CCPM is, all three servos raise the swashplate up and down for collective picth change, but forward/backward (elevator) is achieved by both front servos going one way and the rear servo the other way. Side to side (aileron) is done by the two fron servos moving opposite but the rear staying still.

 

The advantage is direct single linkages from servos to swashplate, the downside is more complicated tx setup - but easy once you get your head around it.

 

Tail rotor control is via boom mounted servo and straight control rod run to the tail.

 

These piccies show the initial install and testing of the setup.

[Darren 0]

And that's about it - well not quite

 

A brushless motor and speed controller is supplied with the SE kit, just needing the connectors to be soldered up.

 

Final placement of lipos, esc, gyro and RX needs to be considered to get the CG right and to keep the power circuit as far from the RX circuit as possible - not easy on something so small

 

I bought a PC cable tidy kit from Mapplin that has various sizes of expanding cable braiding to allow me to do quite a tidy install without using hundreds of little cable ties. I think I'll use this again on my planes.

 

Balance and fit the blades, plus trim the canopy and it's all done.

[Darren 0]

So what's left ?

 

Build a lightweight set of training legs from CF tube

 

Dig out the bicycle clips and rubber pants and fire it up

 

 

Some final points. Anyone considering building one of these small helis or any heli for that matter could do worse than going over to www.helifreak.com and looking at 'Finless Bobs Helifreak Tech Room'. He's videoed a T-Rex build as well as a number of 101 vids, such as blade balancing 101 concise and clear explanations of how to and why.

 

I hope to have the training legs done this weekend, so stay tuned for the next installment.

[Lofty 5]

Was just about to say, o a nice ally case to carry it around in, but then I read the text after looking at the photo

 

I'm sure I've seen Nutz with a case like that at the field, maybe he Carry's stuff for the helo in it...e.g Li-Po batterys & Charger etc etc? Will we can find out if he post here later.

[Darren 0]

I did buy the 'carry case' as well, but it seems a bit excessive to package the kit in one too

 

But hey, I've got a nice case to keep my spares in

[Nutz 0]

Darren I am green with envy, I was just getting over the fact that I could not get hold of the SEV2 at Sandown & then you have to go & post this LOL........................I am going to have to go back into therapy LOL.

 

The little monster is looking great Darren, & yeah Finless Bobs are very good for references & set-up techniques.

 

Stephan, I do have an Align carrying case, it is smaller than the Zoom 400 case & holds more (batteries, TX, heli, tools, spares). The downside is it cost around £10-£20 more than the larger Zoom 400 case & has the old Align "Conquer you wallet" logo on...........I wish they would stop concurring mine

[Darren 0]

I was going to do a two colour paint job on the canopy, but after spraying the first, I quite liked the feather edge, fade to white look. Plus it saved me an awful lot of masking

 

Charlotte commented that I had a Daddy, Mummy and Baby helicopter, so here are a few more of the 'family'. Can you see who's the daddy ?

 

I guess there really is no excuse now, if the weather remains good I hope to try and get it in the air later in the week.

[Nutz 0]

T-rex is looking good darren, I have ordered mine nut with the amount of builds I am doing at the moment I don't think I will have time to build mine.

 

Is yours a V2?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beauty of the micro heli is that you don't need a calm day to fly if you have a large garage or access to a hall.

[Darren 0]

Yep, V2. Stainless tail rotor, blue gears etc.

 

However, I\ve not seen a V1 or the XL in the flesh so I can't really comment on the differences.

 

I've made up a lightweight training undercarriage and am tyrying to get some tim ein on the sim as its been at last 18 months since I last flew rotary

[Darren 0]

It flies

 

Yep, you might have guess I'm rather happy. OK it was only a cople of tentative hops in the garden and it's quite sensitive but it as off the ground.

 

Need to sort out the training undercarriage and bring it to the field for some proper trimming and perhaps a test flight from one of our better pilots.

 

Hopefully this means I'll get more stick tim ein now

[Darren 0]

Managed to break the canopy where it attaches to the frame mount, probably the weakest part. Fortunately it only broke half way across so the application of some carbon tows and cyno on the inside looks like to have saved the day.

 

Training undercarraige sorted, couple of 4mm carbon tubes and some table tennis balls were all that was needed. Shouldn't really need it but as it's been 18 months since I last flew a heli I thought it better to be safe.

 

I'm getting about 9 mins out of the 1800 3s1p Flightpower lipos of hovering and 'walking the dog' and that's with a head speed of about 2200rpm. Might need to tweak the throttle curve a little.

 

Had about 10 flights now and I feel that I've caught back up to where I was when I stopped flying the helis. Just need a session at the field or somewhere with a bit more space to do some lazy eights and then the training undercarriage will be off.

 

Overall I'm very impressed. My two previous attempts at electric helis to use in the garden haven't been that goo. The original piccolo always struggled power to weight and was a skittish little beast. The JR Voyager E again never really got over the power vs weight problem, I'm sure that if I had kept it and upgraded the motor to brushless and thrown lipos at it, it probably would have worked better.

 

If you're looking for a micro-heli then I'd be happy to recommend the TREX although I can't compare it to it's rivals. So that's the end of the review from my part apart from a flying shot or two to post later.

[aerowood 0]

Dear, Darren

did you find it easy to set your t rex up? I have just

purchased one with jr gear and have now fitted a

futaba receiver. Do you have to set up the esc first or the

transmitter?

 

regards Martin

[Darren 0]

Martin,

 

Is it the standard Align ESC? If it is then it'll probably be OK as it is. Do you have the instructions as they can be programmed with soft start, govenor settings etc.

 

The way I approach any electric model (heli or aircraft) is to set the TX to the default settings and then connect all servos except the ESC/Motor. I then use a spare rx battery/switch plugged into the RX so I can check out throws, reversing etc without any fear of the motor spooling up.

 

Once that's done I connect and setup the ESC/Motor. Most ESC's recognise if you switch on with high stick so you should be safe.

 

Do you have any experience with Helis? Regardless of the answer, you'll find some videos posted over on Helifreak.com to be a great help. Just go to Finless Bob's section on the forum and look at some of his build/setup vids.

[aerowood 0]

Darren,

I hav,nt any experiance with helis only flown a medivac

and got on quite well flying it. Now i have this complicated

thing that was recommended by a chap who flies in a heli

club near Brands Hatch. Looks to me like its all carbon fibre

tiny screws and wiggley bits. I have dammaged one of the

pitch servos already but new ones are on their way. I think

that i will leave it to someone who knows what they are

doing although it was supposed to have been set up by

Ali Machinscy. I suppose that i should have just gone out and

perchased a J R heli set but ive always had Futaba.

 

Thanks for your quick responce

 

Martin

[Darren 0]

Why not bring it all to club night and we'll have a look

[aerowood 0]

Darren, Thanks again for your reply.

I think that,s a good idea as i will have the new servo

bye then and at least it will give other people an idea as well.

Well hope your family are ok and have a good holiday

weekend.

 

Regards Martin.