500 ALZRC Devil 420 FAST - build log

[D.O.G.]

Thanks holtneil. I will do that. I had a Tarot 450 pro v2 frame on it with the dfc. My other 450 that I fly... well the frame broke a while back so I stole the Tarot frame from the coastguard fuselage and never got one since. That was a Tarot 450 pro v2 @ $145.00 " No electronics"and that Aztec is half the price. That's why it caught my eyes, the price.

 

[holtneil]

It sure is a good price the other way is to get the airframe that RCaerodyne do for the scale birds they sell

 

[D.O.G.]

Thanks for the information. I remember seeing that site but not checking it out. I will do that this time.

 

[holtneil]

They used to do a basic airframe for the scale 450 helis kits they do they where cheap but good kits and they carry spares

 

[Smoggie]

Sorry for the complete lack of any building on this build thread

Reason being that the Devil 420 is still in transit. It shipped by Singapore post which means that it first gets taken from China to Singapore and only then does it get routed to final destination country. It took a week to get to Singapore but it arrived there a couple of days ago and is now winging it's way to the UK. Estimated for delivery Monday 24th, so not long to wait now

 

[D.O.G.]

No need to be sorry. It's not your fault. It takes about 21 days for me to get anything from over sea's. That's why I try to order in the states.

 

[Admiral]

Good score Smoggie, I'll be watching the build with interest, I like the look of the 420 & the 380 will be interested to see how the 420 turns out.

 

[Smoggie]

So here we go with the build

For those of you who have forgotten what the thread is about, those nice people at BangGood gave me one of the new ALZRC Devil 420 Fast heli kits to do a review of
This is the heli: ALZRC Devil 420 FAST at BangGood (please click the link as it tracks and shows the guys at BangGood that that these build threads generate interest in their products so they might give more people here the chance to review)

The kit took ten days to arrive which wasn't at all bad considering how far it's had to come. It was well packed in protective foam and lots of labels as proof of it's world tour:

Under the foam packaging was the box, which looks spookily like the box of a certain heli brand I could name :

Inside are found another three boxes, so everything is well protected:

The boom, tail pushrod and blades are found in the first of the two skinny boxes. Quality of the boom is flawless and it's made out of carbon rather than glass fibre, so nice and light.

The blades are nice too though there was some very minor fuzziness of the masking lines, purely cosmetic and nothing I've not seen on high-end expensive blades.

In the second skinny box was hardware such as the alloy frame plate, motor mount, heads, swash, pulleys, main shaft and it's bearing housing, tail assembly etc. The quality of these parts looks absolutely top notch:

The heads and swash are loosely pre-assembled but these will of course need stripping and reassembling with grease and Loctite as per normal practice:

And finally the big box which contains the canopy and the main frame components along with canopy edging rubber, battery straps etc:

The canopy like the tail boom is flawless, the white colour is pearlescent metallic and looks really good:

I couldn't resist taking a pic of the canopy alongside my spare Goblin 700 Speed canopy for an idea of scale:

So all in all I'm extremely impressed so far. The only flaw of any kind I can find is the slight fuzzy edge on painting of the blades, but that's nit-picking. It is worth noting the obvious absence from the kit... NO MANUAL... This comes as no surprise to be honest, i guess the intent is that the builder uses the Goblin manual.

That's the unboxing done, so watch this space for the build starting proper

 

[Smoggie]

PS.. Today i ordered all the remaining hardware that I'll need. The build spec will be as follows:

• FBL: mini Vbar on Pro firmware
• Motor: ALZRC 1000Kv
• ESC: Hobbywing Platinum 60A V4
• Swash Servos: KST DS215MG V3
• Tail Servo: KST DS565X

 

[Smoggie]

A correction on the missing manual.. While there is no manual in the box there is one to download from ALZRC's web site, so I've got that printed off and I'm ready to get building. No point rushing though because the servos and motor and stuff wont be here for a couple of weeks.

 

[Derek]

Looks good man!

 

[Smoggie]

I started the build last might. It's coming together nicely but there were a few little areas that needed extra though or attention. The fit of the tail boom was the biggest issue, it looks like when the 380 boom was 'scaled up' to 420 size they increased all of it's dimensions, so as well as getting longer it also got wider and deeper.
Whatever the reason, it was too wide to fit between the frames and I had to take a file to it to take off the corners. Also the bottom of the boom hit the rear part of the servo tray and I had to trim the plastic of the tray my a fair bit (about 2-3mm) to allow it to sit under the boom without bending. Where the boom fits into the alloy boom mount plate also needed some work.

here's some pics:

I filed down the tapered seating area to allow the boom to seat properly into the boom mount:

I also filed flats on the side corners of the boom so that the boom fits between the frames without causing the frames to bow out.

I trimmed away the rear 'wall' of the plastic tail servo mount to fit up to the bottom of the boom without having to force/bend the plastic. It fits fine now:

I've read reports of people building the original Goblin version having similar issues, so I don't think these little niggles are unique to the ALZRC Devil.

 

[holtneil]

Hi Steve its looking great so far

 

[Geena]

It looks very good so far, and the quality from what I can see, also looks to be very good. I can`t wait to see it finished and flying.

 

[Smoggie]

Thanks,

Yes, the quality in general is excellent, as good as anything else I've come across at this size. The one and only issue I've had is in the tail boom fit.

Last night I assembled the tail and trial fitted the belt and the canopy. The build is a bit out of the sequence I'd normally build in because I don't have the servos or motor yet. All I've got left that I can get on with is to finish off assembling the head (half done) then it's just a matter of waiting for the servos and stuff.

The canopy fits really well, the magnetic mounts are a nice touch:

 

[Smoggie]

One thing that I did come across that's not a fault as such but did have me scratching my head was the main shaft retention. The manual shows the main shaft to be the same as the Goblin and retained axially by two flanges integral with the shaft that are trapped between the upper and lower main bearings. The shaft supplied doesn't have flanges so the shaft slides freely though the bearings. Only after rummaging though the bags did I come across a collar that was the correct size to fit the shaft and had no other use. by a process of elimination I figured out that ALZRC have changed the design so that the shaft is retained by a locking coller rather than the double flanged design, but they haven't gotten around to updating the manual!

Here are the two different designs. On the left the original shaft and bearing housing as fitted to all Goblins and the earlier ALRZ Devils, and the new ALRZ design on the right with modified shaft, bearing housing and locking collar:

 

[Geena]

That's interesting that they used a collar to hold the shaft. I guess they had to change a few things to keep it different from goblin though. Keep us posted on how it works out.

 

[Smoggie]

Here's the devil 420 built except for electronics installation. Other than the fit of the boom and a bit of confusion over the difference between the main shaft design supplied vs that shown in the manual, it was all a very straightforward and enjoyable built. The quality and fit of all parts was first class. I think she looks great too:

Cant wait for the electronics to arrive...

 

[Geena]

It looks fantastic! I can`t wait to see this critter fly. Good job on the build

 

[Tony]

That is disappointing about the main shaft. One of the best features I liked about the real Goblin 380 was the way that block captures the main shaft. It is by far the strongest way to hold a main shaft that I have ever seen. Is it over built on the Goblin 380, yup, but that is what I love about it. And no collars to work loose. And I never had any issues with the tail boom going into the upper plate. Fit is perfect on the Goblin.