450 Uh Oh, Something Is Wrong

[James M. Lewis]

Hi everyone,
I've finish building my Gartt 450 Pro and ran into a problem. When I spoon up working fine, but spoon down motor still turns slowly. Have to use throttle hold to shut down. I set throttle curve at 0-25-50-75-100. No Expo or D/R used and trims are at 0%. I have a Spektrum DX6i radio. It's got to be something simple that I've over look. Please advise, thanking you in advance.

 

[Admiral]

Have you calibrated your ESC ?
Remove your blades, turn your Transmitter on and apply full throttle, plug the battery into the helicopter after the motor starts to beep move the throttle to zero in one continuous movement, this sets the Hi/Lo endpoints for the motor.

Another cause if it has been calibrated is being calibrated with the throttle trim set to minimum throttle and after calibration being reset at mid-stick, in that case just return it to zero position.

 

[James M. Lewis]

Thank you Admiral, very much appreciate your input and will follow your advice. And no I did nothing to the ESC, the factory default setting for acceleration is set for medium.
Best Regards,
Jim

 

[Tony]

I as well was going to say to try calibrating your ESC. Thanks Keith for beating me to it!

 

[James M. Lewis]

Hi Tony, I'm learning something everyday. Pulled out the instruction sheet for the ESC and will get this fixed. That's what I love about this group, the experience and expertise of folks who know their stuff.

 

[D.O.G.]

Yes there's a good group of helpful individuals on this site . No such thing as a dumb question here Tony mention. If you don't ask...you won't know.

 

[James M. Lewis]

Thanks D.O.G,

As a 70 year old who has seen a lot, wish the world would sit down and talk things out like this group does. Many thanks to Tony and staff who make this possible. I see that you have a Tarot 450 DFC with a Coast Guard fuselage WOW One of my helicopters in fact it's an earlier model of a Blade SR (300) by Horizon Hobby. Got it on ebay as used and in parts, I bought a bundle sale that included three broken helicopters with four radios (one didn't work) and parts with manual. Just getting into the hobby and not knowing much that's how I learned. I rebuilt all three kept one and the others went to my son and son in law. My son's is installed in a UH-1 Huey fuselage (like the one I flew in South Vietnam). When I finally got mine flying, came across a guy in the UK who sold scale fuselages kits made out of plastic molds. One model was a CH-53 and I went ahead purchase two. Carey my son in law has one and painted it in USMC colors. I did mine in USCG paint scheme after seeing a guy in the UK do his that way. These had to be the hardest kits I've ever worked on (about 70 hours) a lot of measuring twice and cutting once. Installed complete navigation lights which make night flying (awesome) in my large back yard (city parks are off limits after dark). Carey took pictures and will put on this web site for everyone to see. Also have two 450s that I got on ebay. Besides the Gartt 450 Pro the other is a clone with a XFX main frame/main and tail rotor. How I learn it was a XFX 450 TREX was the videos Tony did about the XFX 450 TREX. Some company was selling the main frame brand unknown. Glad I didn't buy the full kit that came complete with electronics for $60.00 Should have invested in an Align TREX 450. But lesson learn and with Tony's/others help put in quality parts. This bird will be installed in a Augusta A109 fuselage ordered from a company in Canada. Put a lot of time in this by re-enforcing the wooden frame that supports the main frame and built a special battery tray. The fuselage came in yellow so I added green and black paint with black pin stripping. In fact why I choose these colors I'm not sure but soon realized those are the national colors of Jamaica. So I said to myself Hmm, will name it "Cool Runnings" after the Jamaican bob sled team. Don't have any photos yet be will soon. My next bird will be a DFC.

Best regards,

Jim

 

[Admiral]

Thanks Keith for beating me to it!

It's the Time Zone thing I'm up in your tomorrow while your still in my yesterday. LOL

 

[James M. Lewis]

Hi Keith, got it working correctly. Thanks againJim

 

[Admiral]

No problems we have all had that issue at some stage, glad to help.

 

[Admiral]

Hi Jim, thought you might like to see some pix of my UH-1

 

[James M. Lewis]

WOW Keith she's awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was one of the best helicopters the U.S. Military ever had. In the 60s in Nam we didn't have all the fancy stuff on the latest models but she could hold her owe. Not much for crew protection and you know those plastic bubbles won't stop even a BB round. Nothing more will cause you to wet in your pants seeing a green tracer coming your way. One of our birds had over twenty bullet holes in the tail boom. It was luck the linkage held together and brought her home. My son's UH-1 is painted in the 1965 paint scheme. That was before the markings were subdue. When we sent them to Vietnam, the yellow lettering with the white star on a blue background and red/white stood out. They were moving targets for enemy gunners. Still would never trade my bird for a newer UH-1N Viper that the marines are using.

 

[James M. Lewis]

 

[James M. Lewis]

Hi Keith, this is my very first CP (Blade SR 300 size) that's about 10 years old when it came out. The fuselage kit is from the UK which I added later. The heli came in a bundle sale not working with spare parts and manual. Learned a lot from this model, since then have grown to 450s.

 

[Admiral]

Hi James, That looks great, how does it fly? I notice your SR has a full metal head, I had an SR years ago and could never get it to fly properly always thought about putting a metal head on it but at that stage had spent a fortune on it and decided to move on up to 450 size.

 

[James M. Lewis]

Hi Keith, it flies so so nothing to write home about. Not Horizon hobby best product for a collective pitch bird. Should have started with their 450x as my first collective bird. Had so many crash and burns always had damage to something. As you know the head is made of cheap plastic and when something breaks, have to replace that part. Finally learned about and replaced the head with a CNC medal head. And two years ago replace the wooden blades (seen in the photo) with glass fiber ones. Finally learned on you tube what else is out there, that's when I got into better helicopters. First it was a HK 250 that a friend gave me. It was a good model to learn from and flew a lot better than the SR. Later I sold it because the time was right to invest in a 450 and been happy ever since. Being I put in so much time and effort in the SR, decided to keep it as my first scale model. Won't fly it in winds that are 5mph or more. So I use it in my back yard for a 4 minute flight, nothing fancy mainly hovering and small circles. She's not set up to do any auto rotation and when the battery loses power, she'll drop like a rock.

 

[Admiral]

I put an aftermarket belt drive tail on mine to try to get it flying better, did a bit better but not much, I should have gone for the CNC head but I figure I'd spent enough. I took it back to original to sell it and sold the belt drive set up separately funny thing was I got almost as much for the tail as I did for the helicopter, because by the time I sold it they had stopped making them.

 

[James M. Lewis]

I also thought about trying to upgrade it with a belt drive after seeing one done on you tube. Since you would have to install a new main gear with a one way bearing and gear for the belt. You're right too much money invested when you could put those funds into a heli already setup. I guess I just wanted to believe in the SR because it was made in the states. We're still behind when it comes to making a good product. When Horizon Hobby stop making anything over a 450 I new it was time to get out and look. Another reason I started looking at Align TREX and other birds was impressed with the information I found out. My Gartt 450 Pro is my first true heli that's not a clone like my other 450. That clone as mention earlier has good brand name parts. She's ready to install in the Augusta fuselage. I want to hand crave two seats and console out of balsa for the cockpit. Have a figure with adjustable limbs that can be put in the pilot's seat. Your photos of the UH-1 console are very helpful.

 

[Admiral]

I built the UH-1 before I retired so I was able to download the cockpit photos, which were out of prospective and then the company publications guys changed the prospective to normal and the printed them out on 400gm card for me, not the best I've seen but still effective. The center console sits over the battery box. I installed a sound system and LEDs for the machine gun fire. That particular UH-1 served in Australia and Somalia so probably never had waste gunners but who cares, the original is in the Infantry Museum about 600 miles from here. All Australian UH-1 started out being part of the Air force and later transferred to the Army after an argument in the bar between the Army General & his Air force equivalent.

 

[James M. Lewis]

Great audio/video, very nice touch for those machine guns, I like that. Just like yours my cockpit with console and seats will fit over the battery tray. The battery is mounted underneath thru an opening behind the front landing gear. It's held in place with velco strip fasten to the plexiglas tray. And further secured with velco straps screwed to the plywood frame. I'll take pictures and send to you.