500 ALZRC Devil 420 FAST - build log

[Smoggie]

Acetone wont touch it nor will other very strong solvents such as nitomethane or lacquer/cellulose thinners... I've tried them. Maybe some other very nasty chemicals will do it, i guess there must be something that does it because motor manufacturers manage, but those chemical arent easily available.

I did eventually manage to get it off my test wire, first by burning it with a propane torch until the wires glowed red, then using the Aspirin method to take off the black residue. Even then it was messy because you are left with a sticky residue which was hard to shift. After all that effort it was still not great because part of the remaining lacquer was black with the heat and it was still difficult to get a good solder job as bits of black residue stubbornly clung on.

So although i got a just about adequate solder job I still havent found a genuinely practical method to shift the stuff. So my original advice still stands (probably stronger than ever)... NEVER shorten multi-strand motor wires... If you do chances are you will trash the motor.


PS.. maybe I've missed the obvious on getting this stuff off... paint stripper might be worth a shot?

 

[Smoggie]

And back on the subject of the Devil 420 build, the postman did his duty today:

 

[Smoggie]

I got home early today so put a long shift in the get the devil 420 finished, so that's it all finished, setup and ready to go:

 

[D.O.G.]

Looks great! Can wait to see you fly her

 

[Smoggie]

So despite some mixed weather, including fog and blutery wings I got a few flights in on the Devil 420. It all went without hitch. I had it setup within the first flight and after that she flew as if I'd had the heli for years, it goes really well. I cant recommend the heli highly enough, it's a real bargain and great quality and really does fly fantastically.

Getting ready for the maiden:

And ready for a maiden in the fog:

First flight after setting up (excuse the lame skills):

So overall comments looking back on the build and first flights:

Pros:

• Flies great and looks great
• Very well priced
• Good service from Bangood, well packed
• Great quality overall, this isnt your typical clone
• Fit and finish on metal parts as good as anything out there
• Sensible use of plastic parts keeps weight down and work well
• Brilliant design, low parts count, quick and easy to build
• ALZRC motor powerful and cool running
• ALZRC Combo package looks like great deal (I was given the basic kit)

Cons:

• Boom and tail servo tray needed trimming for good fit
• Main bearing holder/shaft retainer supplied is different to what's shown in manual so might cause confusion
• Not enough red finishing washers supplied (order up two extra packets, they are pennies)
• Main blade root thickness varied on my blades making it hard to get even tension, I had to shim one blade.
• Tends to come out tail heavy, so needs a biggish battery or weight added to nose to balance
• It's a clone, that might put some people off.

And a reminder where to get it from: ALZRC Devil 420Fast at Banggood

 

[D.O.G.]

Like always Smoogie, very nice flight and good explanation of the pros and con. Sounds and looks like a decent bird for the price.

 

[D.O.G.]

Opps Smoggie :0

 

[vyrnguy]

very nice smoggie, love the TX too.

Trying to save more in to the heli budget hoping to get a DX9 Black Edition, and may be a D420. Just need to save a bit

 

[Smoggie]

I can genuinely recommend the Devil 420. The 'combo' package is a cracking deal if you need all the electronics to go with it.

The DX9 is a nice Tx too, hope you manage to get the funds saved up soon.

 

[Admiral]

Great build and great maiden, I am seriously looking at the 380 after following your build of the 420.

 

[vyrnguy]

I can genuinely recommend the Devil 420. The 'combo' package is a cracking deal if you need all the electronics to go with it.

The DX9 is a nice Tx too, hope you manage to get the funds saved up soon.

Pulled the trigger on a DX9 just now, so hope to see that soon in the mail.

I just need to sort out a few more stuff, and I'll try to start putting some funds away for a D420. If I can get D420 before the end of this year, I'd be happy.

 

[Admiral]

The 380 just went off the radar, I was offered a deal I couldn't say no to on an Agile 5.5

 

[Tony]

I think I would have went with that deal too Keith lol. Larger and you know the quality you are getting. Post pics, we need to see it!!!

 

[Smoggie]

Yeah, the Agile 5.5 should be a terrific heli, I have the Agile 7.2 and like it a lot. The 7.2 is on the heavy side but still flies great, I'm not sure how heavy the 5.5 is. I look forward to your thoughts on it when you take delivery.

 

[Smoggie]

My new hall effect / contactless KST servos arrived today:

The model numbers are: MS325 for the swash and MS565 for the tail. They look really good. For KST they are quite a spendy servo, right up there with some of the premium/boutique brands, but the hall effect feature is as far as I know unique. Banggood did me a good deal on the price. These will be going in the Devil 420 and the standard KST's will be transferring over into my Chase 360.

I've also got one of ALZRC's new 'geometry corrected' swashes to go into the D420. This fixes the 'quirk' of the standard SAB design that has the outer/fixed balls set well below the inner/rotating balls. To be honest the standard swash despite the geometrical imperfection seems to work ok, so this upgrade is out of interest than necessity. To use the new swash also requires that a new (longer) anti rotation guide is used along with longer servo to swash link rods. I'm still waiting for the link rods as Banggood were out of stock so I'll do the upgrade once the links arrive.

 

[D.O.G.]

That's cool Smoggie. I'm a fan of KST servo so I would appreciate your opinion on the hall effect. I like to put them on my X3 if there worth the price.

 

[Smoggie]

I decided to try out the ALZRC 'geometry corrected' swash. This modified swash is to fix the issue with the stock SAB design where the balls of the stationary and rotating part of the swash are out of line by about 8mm. In practice I've not noticed any problems but theoretically this misalignment causes non linearity in response of blade pitch to servo movement, the parts are cheap so i thought it worth trying out..

Here's the 'problem'' - The balls dont line up:

So to fix this you need the modified lower swash and also the longer servo to swash turnbuckles and longer anti rotation guide (all available from Banggood):

This gives you an idea of the difference between the original and modified swash:

Swash is fully rebuildable, three screws on the bottom retain the bearing and another two on the top hold the top on:

Swash dismantled:

Swash rebuilt with new bottom half:

New turnbuckles next to old one piece link:

Rebuilt and ready for test flight:

 

[D.O.G.]

Looks good Smoggie. Nice catch and fix. Good luck on your maiden and

 

[Admiral]

I understand the difference that the modified swash would make, but I would have thought that the difference that it made at the blades would be so minuscule that you would never notice it.

Love the build quality of the 420, also just received my first set of KST servos for my 500 impressed at this stage.

 

[Admiral]

Yeah, the Agile 5.5 should be a terrific heli, I have the Agile 7.2 and like it a lot. The 7.2 is on the heavy side but still flies great, I'm not sure how heavy the 5.5 is. I look forward to your thoughts on it when you take delivery.

Hi Smoggie, I would also rate the Agile 5.5 on the heavy side, still on the learning curve but you do notice the difference to flying the higher power to weight ratio models.