500 Align Trex 500-XT

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Hi all,,,,,,,,,
Well I finally did it. I got my Trex 500-XT.
She is a beauty and went together nice and easy.
Now I'm not done by no means, but I'm having big time fun. I love the build of it all.
Here's a few snaps of the action.

I was looking at the wiring of the Microbeast Plus gyro. On the side is a 6 pin plug. it says its for a satellite receiver. I'm planning to use my Spektrum AR8000 receivers. I THINK I should ignore it and plug it in the way I always do. (shown in the picture).. What do you guys think?

I still can't find a scale Hughes 500D fuselage for it. argggg.........
 

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fran11784

Goblin 380 Supporter
Looks awesome so far! On the Microbeast, if you're using an AR8000 your only real choice is a standard receiver. Most would say it's too big of a Heli for one satellite. Does that beastX say Microbeast Plus or Ultra? Looking good tho...
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Looks awesome so far! On the Microbeast, if you're using an AR8000 your only real choice is a standard receiver. Most would say it's too big of a Heli for one satellite. Does that beastX say Microbeast Plus or Ultra? Looking good tho...

It's a Microbeast Plus...
Also are you saying that I need to get a different receiver? Or just use the main receiver without the satellite?
Thanks guys!
 

fran11784

Goblin 380 Supporter
Also are you saying that I need to get a different receiver?
No, not at all. The AR8000 is quite old but should work just fine. What I'm saying is you want to use a standard receiver set up with the AR8000 and the satellite as well. Probably the way you've been doing it all along. Where you use the three supplied patch cables from the beastX to the receiver and all servos plugged into the beastX. See photo. The only reason I ask about the Ultra is because it would have come with the SRXL2 cable. But you'll be fine with what you have there. Sorry to be so confusing, I confuse myself most of the time.:smile:
 

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Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, I'm back..
Ok I got it all hooked up except for one plug. The -B- plug from the ESC. It says its brown and red in the book but its really black and red. (RCE-BL80A) I have the -C- plug, plugged into the throttle port of the receiver. Does the -B- blug go into the SYS port on the gyro or do I ignore it?
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Ok guys, I finished all the wiring and it came out great. Now it's time for the programming and servo setup and all that hoo-ha..
I'm comfortable with the ESC programming but the Microbeast Plus ESC makes me a bit nervous because I never dealt with a FBL system before. Any tips would be very welcome...
 

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fran11784

Goblin 380 Supporter
Wiring looks very neat. That gyro is probably one of the easiest to setup, just follow the basic setup. One thing I would ask is did you use a servo tester to center those arms? If not, you might want to remove the arms on first power up. I think at step J you will 90 the arms. Good luck, piece of cake.
T
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Here we go, first problem.
I'm trying to program the ESC but it just sits there, no beeps and the program box doesn't turn on either. I can't even set the throttle range. The receivers are on and bound but no settings are possible. :nevreness:

What do you guys think?
Humm maybe I need to setup the Gyro first?
 
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fran11784

Goblin 380 Supporter
Ok so check it out, you have to power the ESC in order to power the box or you can power the box separately. Easier to power the ESC. Now for throttle calibration, this gets a bit tricky but not really. Remember the BeastX needs to see a zero-throttle signal before it will initialize. And the ESC needs a full throttle to be put into calibration mode. So, you will have to bind the receiver first. doesn't have to be setup yet, then you will have to power the Microbeast separately with a 2s pack or something. Let the BeastX fully initialize. Once that happens you can move your throttle stick to full, then power your ESC and listen for the beeps. I assume you're using the manual for your ESC. You can YouTube it, there's plenty of videos on doing this as well. Search Hobbywing throttle calibration.
 

Rob Lancaster

Well-Known Member
Ok so check it out, you have to power the ESC in order to power the box or you can power the box separately. Easier to power the ESC. Now for throttle calibration, this gets a bit tricky but not really. Remember the BeastX needs to see a zero-throttle signal before it will initialize. And the ESC needs a full throttle to be put into calibration mode. So, you will have to bind the receiver first. doesn't have to be setup yet, then you will have to power the Microbeast separately with a 2s pack or something. Let the BeastX fully initialize. Once that happens you can move your throttle stick to full, then power your ESC and listen for the beeps. I assume you're using the manual for your ESC. You can YouTube it, there's plenty of videos on doing this as well. Search Hobbywing throttle calibration.
No go,,,
The receivers are on and the transmitter is on, and when the Beast is powered separately, she just scans like a cylon. Does the Beast have to be completely disconnected from servos and all during this procedure? If you look at the pictures, everything is plugged in. Maybe that's a bad idea at this point?
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
I've sort of been of the mind to do double the wiring work. Start the initial setup without the gyro ( BeastX ) in the mix... so battery, ESC, receiver and motor ... then calibrate the ESC to the motor to get the full range set according to the ESC's manual/instructions. Now rewire the gyro into the mix and follow it's setup instructions.

I know it's twice the wiring work but it seems to help in cases that were not able to get things running when a gyro was also in the mix by setting up the throttle calibration first. I can also see how Fran's method by using an additional 2s battery initially would work also and then doing the throttle calibration within the BeastX setup but when other ( probably new to gyros ) users kept having issues and I mentioned the other method, they seemed to be able to move on.
 
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