450 HK450GT (Align SE V2)

[Tony]

So just checked, and the servos are still on backorder. I think I'm just going to cancel the order because I have a feeling they are not going to be getting them back any time soon. And they are still showing IN STOCK on the site. I HATE sites like this. Which is why I'm probably not going to do another video review for them. It was cheap crap anyway. Story of my life.

 

[trainrider06]

I think these sites do this to get their bulk order quanity discount, then they order them from the vender.

 

[murankar]

A bunch of pre oreder crap. Yes it does suck. hell you can get orders from ebay china faster.

 

[Tony]

So I ordered the servos from banggood on May 3 and they just shipped TODAY!!! That was a stupid long wait, but they are free lmao. So I really dont' care, I just want to get this bird back up in the air with the Align tail servo and the new Align head (thanks Rodney if you ever get on here again...).

So I should have them in about a month lmao.

If these servos are what they are supposed to be, then this will complete the helicopter. Well (you knew that was coming) I would like to get a new frame for it since I modified it to fit the pro canopy. I had to lower the battery tray down so that the canopy would hold the battery right in the center of the nose. And I will need a new canopy. Return it to the true SE V2 that I want it to be. Not really since that canopy is stupid long lmao.

But now that I have the Pro V2 and a Dominator that I'm building (or trying, and it's a 450 Dom, not the 550 Dom lol) I think I can go ahead and set this up as it's supposed to be instead of trying to make a "Pro" out of it lmao.

Dammit, I just want to fly it!!!!

 

[trainrider06]

they have usually shipped stuff to me within 2 weeks, for the most part they are fairly decent on shipping times...You should like those I had them on an Align 450 Pro FB version and they really worked great!

 

[Tony]

Finally, here is an update on this helicopter.

The servos are sitting at my house and I need to shoot a video on them before I put them in. I need to test the centering against a couple other servos and see how these cheap servos compare to something like the Align DS410. Use an old Align servo to give them a fair chance lol.

So this weekend, hopefully this helicopter will be back in teh air. I still need to find an original canopy for it though... But that is not going to stop me from flying this damn thing lol. I want to fly it...

 

[trainrider06]

Looking forward to seeing how it does for ya!

 

[Tony]

Last night was a bust on working on anything (including this helicopter). I didn't get in until about 2030 and when I did, the fecal matter hit the aerial rotating device. I shouldn't have come home, end of story. But I'm here.

So this morning, I wake up and the first thing is to make coffee. I really want to sit at a table and drink a proper cup of coffee rather than making it in an insulated cup and hitting the road immediately. So that is what I did. I pulled out the old filter, put in a new filter, put coffee in the filter, put sugar in the pot (yes, everything is premeasured, it's just easier that way), got my water, poured it into the coffee maker and off it went. But it sounded weird. Whatever, I have not been here for a while.

So the next thing that I wanted done while I'm waiting the 3 minutes to make a pot of coffee (It's a Bunn coffee maker) is to kill these damn wasps that are invading my shop/studio and my shed. So I go out and go ballistic on their ass. I won.

I come back inside and the coffee is done. I pull it out to stir it up and it looks weird. It looks like tea. My coffee is very dark and rich, this was not that. I decide to stir it up and pour it into my cup and that is when I noticed it, someone unplugged my damn coffee maker. You see, this is a Bunn, it keeps a full 10 cups of water in it and keeps it hot, ready to brew. But some asshat unplugged it (I know who it was and 'they' will pay for this).

so I plug it back in, wait 10 minutes for it to heat the water up and I repeat the process above to make a PROPER cup of coffee. I'm so pissed.

So now that I have my coffee, Lets see what we got in this week. Since this is a thread on the SE V2, we will just say I got my servos in.

First thing that I noticed is that there is no stop on them. You can rotate them a full 360º and there is no stop. So much for getting it 'close' with the servo arms. Whatever, I will figure that out later. So I go get the SE V2 and start to tear it apart (you have to take the frame completely apart, bottom off the top, then remove the tail boom (wire management) and one of the sides of the top) and that is when I notice that the receiver is gone. What in the hell did I do with the Rx...

Screw it, I keep plugging away with removing screws and parts, and I remove the servos. The servos that I'm using are the Corona DS929HV servos (THEY SUCK ASS!) and I compare them to the Emax servos and I notice the Emax are not as long and just a hair narrower. So with these servos, if you are replacing servos that are the same size, you will not have to tear the helicopter apart to install them, they fit within the frame. But I had to do it because the Corona's are way too long to get out.

My small zip ties are out in the shop somewhere, so I couldn't do any wire management, but I did get the servos installed. I also installed the Corona servo arms on the Emax servos (splines are the same) and this keeps me from having to screw those little balls into new arms. And they are almost the perfect setting (only slight angle on the links to the swash).

So now I have to find my Rx and get the servos centered and install the arms on the servos adn put the helicopter back together. But that will have to wait, there is a crapton of work that has to be done around the house before I can even think of putting anything in the air, including this bird that I have wanted to fly for some time now. Oh well, the toys will just have to wait. And I'm out of diesel for my tractor... More money...

 

[Tony]

I found a Rx for the helicopter, but it's not the one that I took off of it. This is the brown out special that I had on a test foamie that I have been working on (unsuccessfully I might add). So I put the Rx on, I bound it up, I centered all of the servos and from there, it was time to put the helicopter together.

After an hour or so of wire management and trying to put those damn shims in place on the frame (I hate the SE V2 for this...), the helicopter was ready for the final setup.

I don't know where my flybar lock is and I don't know where my mechanical pitch gauge is (never use them) so I decided to just set it up by eye. First thing I noticed is the head was WAY OFF on setup. It only had -2º of pitch at low stick (linear curve) but a massive amount at high stick. Mid stick I'm guessing was about 6º of pitch and it should be 0. I think the previous owner of this head had it setup to completely beginner settings, meaning no way possible for it to reach negative pitch, not enough to do anything with anyway. Instead of using curves to limit the pitch, he used the links. And that is just wrong lol.

So I did all of the setup on the helicopter and I figured I would go out and just see if it would fly. If you haven't figured it out already, the servos work, how well is yet to be determined. So I had a 2200 here that I have used for some other things and I stuck it on there knowing it was pretty low. I just wanted to see if it would fly.

So off to the back yard and I let it do its very very slow spool up, then I put it in the air. And there is the damn cyclic shake that this helicopter has always been known for. Whatever, lets test the cyclic. Holy crap it was sluggish as HELL!!! So I land (carefully since I have no vertical fin...) and I check my DR/Expo settings. Wow, they are soft as hell. So I put it on 100% with no expo. I put it back up in the air, this time in IU1 and test it. Still a cyclic shake. Screw it, IU2, 100% throttle.

With that, the shake was gone, the cyclic felt pretty good (I think it needs more but we are going to have to see if the flybar paddles will stay with this new head before I crank it up). I then just started doing pitch pumps and just tossing it around the sky playing with a mixture of cyclic and collective and it did well. But the head speed just wasn't there, and I knew this battery was tired so I went ahead and landed.

I need to charge up some packs then it's out to the front yard to get some real flying in. My truck is sitting where I normally fly otherwise I would just fly there. But here's hoping that these servos fix all of the issues that I was having with this bird. We will find out when I flip this bitch inverted. That is where all of the issues were with the last servos. The centering was so horrible that when inverted, everything was off and it would not hold. Not to mention they were slow as hell, almost causing a crash in that last video.

And speaking of video, I will get the next flight on video for you all.

 

[Tony]

There are just way too many people and way too many interruptions to get a video right now. I did charge up a 2200 pack and I flew a full 5 minute flight and even though I had to trim it all the way to the rear on the elevator, it seems pretty good. Just need some more stick time on it. I did not go inverted on this flight (I was over my truck) but I did to a back flip and again, it's very slow so I didn't even try an aileron roll.

If I can ever get a time where there is no one out side (daughter has friends over) then I will get some video. But I really need to get this friggin thing trimmed. It's a handful to keep in the air as it sits right now.

 

[KLA]

Glad to hear that you got in up in the air again. Haven't flown my 450 sev2 in almost 2 years. All I need is a new tail servo but keep putting it off.

 

[Tony]

They are quite a bit different than flying the flybarless heli's, that's for sure. But man, flying it, adjusting the weights on the flybar, knowing that you can use trim to level it out... It's a nostalgic feeling lmao. I will try to get some video tomorrow. I did some more adjusting on the swash this evening while sitting at the table and I think I have that massive drift taken care of. Now I just need to get it in the air, do a final trim and get some video of it.

Did you know that the DX9 trims for each flight mode? What kind of crap is that. I kept clicking through the flight modes, including Hold, and all 4 of them had different servo positions. I could not for the life of me figure that out until I started looking closer. Of all people, I should have known about that feature. If you can call it that. I need to find a way to turn that 'feature' off lmao.

And I need to get a bigger pinion on this bird. I need a LOT more head speed for the lower throttles. I think a tooth or two will do it (helical gears so larger teeth meaning less of them compared to the straight cut gears). I think I have one around here somewhere, but I think my large one is on my Pro V2. I wonder what the 450 Dom has on it.... Or should I say "with it".

 

[KLA]

I don't have a Spektrum TX so I wouldn't have known that either. But, yes flybarred helis are a whole different level of heli than FBL. Other than my Blade micros and 230s, flybarred helis are all I have ever had til I converted my 450 pro to DFC.

 

[Tony]

Yup, true dat. I'm thinking it's going to take about 5 flights to get this thing nice and dialed in and then, it's game on. This was always my go to helicopter when I wanted to try something new and didn't want to take a chance with my Pro V2 and crashing it. I can't wait to get it dialed in and fly this thing like I stole it. Which in a matter of speaking, it almost true hahahaha.

 

[KLA]

My SE V2 is a Hausler and it is all stock. Not a bad heli at all. The frame is all carbon fiber, head and tail are both 100% aluminum and I got it RTF with a cheap ass TX for $179 brand new. All of the electronics are cloned parts, but at least the servos are digital. I burned up the tail servo about 2 years ago and just put the heli on a shelf. I still never replaced it. But that's because I have the Align 450 pro which I now converted to DFC and is a much nicer helicopter. But sooner or later I will fix the SE V2, cause like you said, I too would rather not crash the Pro DFC.

 

[Tony]

That is a pretty good price for a RTF heli. And at least you had better luck with the clone parts than I did. I think the frame and the tail supports are the only thing stock on this helicopter. Head, tail, gears, belt, shafts, skids and everything else have been replaced with Align parts over the years. If i crashed it, I replaced the parts with Align. And in the last little push (can be read in this thread) I replaced just about everything to get away from the clone parts.

I did find a notchy bearing in the head block (top bearing) so I see a set of bearings in my future. I would also like to replace the main blocks with Align, but I think that will not happen. I have a feeling this helicopter is going to be stripped down for another project. Maybe.

So now, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to do some flying and try to get some video or if I'm going to shoot some video and try to get to some flying. It just started raining here so the ground is going to be wet, but I did just mow the yard yesterday so it should dry when the sun comes up. I think I need to work on some videos and try to get a schedule for uploads going. I also need to do some work on the channel. Ugh, there is always something lol.

 

[Tony]

Been looking for a stock canopy for this helicopter, and they are no where to be found. Guess I will keep running my Pro canopies on this heli...

 

[KLA]

Yeah, you definitely got a lot of stuff going on. Not me. Got a 3 day weekend, and although I still might not get any flying in, I'm gonna enjoy being off work for a while. Had to drive tri axle dump a couple days last week and I hate being on the road. Should haev never got my CDL cause I really hate driving. It's mostly cause of the other drivers. They always gotta be in front of a truck! Sometimes I feel like just running right over them. Lol!!!

But I might try to do a bit of flying. Nothing else to do. Changed the AC Evaporator Coil in my wife's car yesterday, so she is happy. Maybe I'll take the 450 Pro out for a proper flight.

As far as clones go, I have a HK 250GT that I have done the same with that you do with your 450GT. Every time something needs replaced it gets replaced with Align parts.

 

[Tony]

Don't get me started on the HK250GT. That damn thing... Ugh. Glad it's gone, lets just say that lmao.

 

[KLA]

Oh I know all about it. You don't have to say anything. That damn tail!!! Took forever to get it to where I can fly it comfortably. But that's a whole different story.

I haven't tried to find a stock 450 SEV2 canopy, but I know I have seen them somewhere. I'll do some searching and let you know if I find one.