500 Blade 550 X Pro (Build Thread)

[Ken Jackson]

I noticed the carbon fiber parts. That is the most solid Blade helicopter I have seen. Looking good. I do prefer a plastic bottom frame plate just because it can take a little more abuse. Metal and carbon fiber don't hold up as a bottom piece.

Hope you can get someone to take some video of that bird in the air.

Just took my 500 out for a quick flight. I must be flying really hard because my flight time was set at 6 minutes and I have had 2 in the last 4 flights where the ESC was shutting down as I was landing, Yikes.

Anyway, good luck and I hope you get her in the air soon.
Ken

 

[pvolcko]

Quick question for you guys: I have hear what I can only assume is a weight near the tip of one of the blades rattling. Is this a problem? Normal? I suspect under rotation it would be pinned pretty well and not result in issues, but thought I'd check.

 

[coolgabsi]

I dont know about something Ratteling . .. ....thats shifting weight.. and at the tip .. thats not good as that can cause issues. Might be a defect.

ASk Horizon.. IMO get them replaced.

 

[pvolcko]

On hold now.

 

[pvolcko]

Ended up doing their call back option. Took the blades off and tried to make them rattle. Nothing. Put them back on, one seemed to rattle a bit if I "pinged" it. I'm thinking I'm being a bit too sensitive on this. I'll be bringing it down to the LHS for a once over by the "pros" there. Will see what they say.

That said, I'm done.


Got the ESC taped down and zip tied, battery velcro and strapped down, wiring zip tied...


Decided to just curly up some of the wires to help tighten them up and keep them in place. Not pretty, but not sure what to do to do it "right".
Rx foam taped down and strapped in. Tray TLed and secured.




Woo! Spin up and hopefully maiden tomorrow!

 

[Tony]

When you move your blades, look at the linkages where they go over the balls. I thought I had a blade coming apart but it was the loose ball links. Also, check to make sure your balls are in securely. It's always good to have secure balls!!!

Can't wait for the maiden bro, that thing is looking GREAT!

 

[Lee]

It looks very well made. The only thing for me that lets it down is the one piece landing gear. I think they look cheap. Black legs with aluminium skids would make it look better. But that just personal. Good luck with the maiden.

 

[stokke]

I like it Beefy rotor head!

 

[pvolcko]

When you move your blades, look at the linkages where they go over the balls. I thought I had a blade coming apart but it was the loose ball links. Also, check to make sure your balls are in securely. It's always good to have secure balls!!!

Can't wait for the maiden bro, that thing is looking GREAT!

Good idea. I'll pay attention. The ball links are pretty free, but they were secure going on and coming off. Maybe the little bit of give in them is transmitting through the blade.

It looks very well made. The only thing for me that lets it down is the one piece landing gear. I think they look cheap. Black legs with aluminium skids would make it look better. But that just personal. Good luck with the maiden.

I don't mind the color. Actually like it. Hopefully it will help on visibility at distance. But I agree, they are cheap looking. White struts with AL skids would be my preference. Could always dip or spray paint the skids.

I like it Beefy rotor head!

Yeah. Basically a 600 with a bit shorter boom and blades.

Hoping my 35C battery will be enough. Should be fine for the normal flight I do at my current skill level. May need to upgrade when I get into sport and 3D.

 

[Lee]

The battery will be fine. If you went with the 5000mah pack, then at 35C its capable of 175A continuous. The ESC is 130A so the battery shouldn't even break into a sweat.

 

[coolgabsi]

by the time you get to 3D you will probably need to upgrade the motor.

 

[pvolcko]

Right, Lee. I knew that, wasn't thinking. More on this later...

So... the big day.

Brought it down the LHS and they gave it a once over, ran through the beastx config, etc. They guy helping me was pretty impressed that I got it built and the beastx configured as well as I did for a first time build. I chalk it up to good instructions by Blade and all the build vids Tony and the rest of you put up on here, and the help you all offered as I was going through.

So we spun it up and did some hovering in the parking lot. First he did, at my request, just in case it did something squirrely he'd have a better chance of saving it than I. That went well so I took it up for 5-10 seconds or so. Long enough to know I had to dial in a bit more rate limiting and expo. It wasn't bad, but just a bit touchy for my tastes. Probably could have gone with a higher expo only, but wanted to cover my bases.

No vid of this. It was a total of 20 seconds of air time between the two of us, and I felt odd asking the guy to video it.

So I got it home and, since I had a partially drained battery, figured why not.

[video=youtube_share;JWhmSBRo__8]http://youtu.be/JWhmSBRo__8[/video]

Of course, my camera's sd card ran out of space.

Suffice it to say, the flight ended well at the 4 minute mark (my starting point to see how long the battery will last). I'm impressed with the power of it. Even light pitch bumps (as seen in the vid) produced prodigious lift compared to any three of my other helis (120SR, nano cpx, and a large but old quad). Tail hold and control was amazing compared to the nano and 120sr too. I think I see a slight side to side wobble in the tail when I put it into slow forward flight. Going to pay more attention next flight and maybe bump the gain down a touch.

So Flight 1 and 1.5 were a total of about 4m20s. Battery took 1900mah of power on recharge and voltage was only down to 23.8v or so. So for this kind of non-spirited flight I can go 8 min on a battery, will set timer to 7min to be safe.

Off to inspect it now. Make sure nothing came loose. Then take her up again. I have the day off and it is nice out!

 

[coolgabsi]

Good.. actually.. GREAT flight there brother! Bird sounds and looks pretty healthy!

 

[pvolcko]

by the time you get to 3D you will probably need to upgrade the motor.

Someone at the shop mentioned upgrading to a new pinion when the time came. Seemed to think the motor had enough balls, just needed a new ratio to really open it up. As I said, though, I'm way impressed with the power it has as is. Got a lot of sim and nano practice before I get to doing some sport flying, much less 3D, with this thing.

 

[coolgabsi]

Yeah .. mod it only whe you need more power,, fly stock as much as possible and get confident with it stock.

yes and then you have a world of possibilities.. of pinions and KV's and gear counts and .... it goes on .. lol

 

[Lee]

Fantastic mate!!! Great job. Shes looking smooth. Are you using the presets in the BX? Normal, Sport, Pro, Extreme. Or did you set it to Transmitter? You can only use EXPO/DR if you are in Transmitter mode. The default is Sport. Maybe knock it down to Normal if its too twitchy and see how that feels.

 

[pvolcko]

Transmitter, Lee. I like being able to tweak from the Tx via DR/Expo. Bumped my DR back to where I had it on 1.0 flight, but kept the higher expo (at 60 DR, 30 Expo now), and I'm pretty happy with it. Took it out for another flight already. Tried out idle up (Wow!) and also DR 80 to see what the tail response would be. I'm blown away by how much yaw rate thing has at just 80. Afraid to put it at 100. And it is locked on solid when you let off the stick. I really am amazed at how crisp and responsive it is, both compared to the nano and for the size heli it is. After flight 2 I'm actually worried that its stability and control responsiveness will give me a false sense of security and skill and I'm going to end up running it straight into my garage by accident.

Sorry, video on the second flight was bad. Need to get the tripod out there so I can aim the camera and have it hold position well.

 

[Tony]

It flies! Congrats!

 

[pvolcko]

Flight 3. Got my fiance to do the filming. She was displeased at times. Also, sorry about the crappy resolution/quality. My camera is bad for zooming while already recording. Have a feeling she was dialing in some "digital" zoom (aka. crop and stretch, making everything look horrible).

I'm still getting used to the power and responsiveness, dialing in my rates, etc. Should be trying some slow circles, 8s, and other circuits pretty soon. Need to ask my neighbor if he minds if I fly over his back yard since he has a bit more space than I do. May have to cut that mulberry tree down too. It's been dying in sections the last couple years anyway and I never particularly liked it. Now it is an obstacle waiting to cause me grief.

[video=youtube_share;w2h-bL9KPoQ]http://youtu.be/w2h-bL9KPoQ[/video]

Post flight checks are good so far. Nothing is loosening up. youtube cut the vid off at 4 minutes, but it was about a 7 minute flight. Still only draining the battery down to just short of 3/5's discharge. Will leave the timer at 7 min and add on a bit while my flights are as tame as they have been so far.

Prob won't post any more video until I get some circuit flying in and on camera. Or if/when there is a "mishap". Shudder...

 

[Tony]

I hate mulberry trees! Nothing but mush on the ground in the summer. I have one in my hard that, sadly, is doing great lmao. I would love to smoke some meats with that tree!