Archive for the ‘ Mini Titan ’ Category

Bank Holiday Weekend

Just a quick update today. Been out flying as the weather and the wind has finally calmed down to allow such things. I have been out practising the aileron tic-tocs and I’m getting there. I had a good session on the simulator on Saturday and watched a few videos off the internet on how to do it. This helped but I need to work at it.  Still it’s like when I started learning the elevator tic-tocs and they were a bit random but now there much better.

After today’s flying I need to change the main gear on the 250 after a little crash, and the Mini-Titan has a horrible wobble in the head when in Idle-Up. Strange as I haven’t really flown it so I’m not sure where that has come from.


My squadron: T-Rex 550E, MSH Protos, Mini-Titan, T-Rex 250 3G

My squadron: T-Rex 550E, MSH Protos, Mini-Titan, T-Rex 250 3G

btw I  did go to the BMFA nationals at RAF Barkston Heath on Sunday but the weather was awful and there wasn’t much flying.  I saw some bits and pieces, F3C, pylon racing and some aerobatics but not any jets. It was a bit of a shame but at least I tried.

2010
08/30
CATEGORY
General Flying
Mini Titan
MSH Protos
T-Rex 250
T-Rex 550
The Squadron
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Hottest Day of the Year – so far…

Well I have been quiet for the last few weeks on here. This is mainly due to the fact that I have been busy in my working life.

Nevertheless I did eventually get the spare parts for the Protos and managed to build it back up again. Along the way I noticed several problems and had to buy new parts.  This was generally caused by all the flying that the Protos has taken over the last year. Still it was all fixed and ready for today’s flying!

Today was, I think, the hottest day of the year so far so I have spent all afternoon in the field with the 3 helis. Fortunately there were no crashes but they all came home with problems:

  • Protos – the new 14t pinion looks like it will be okay.  Still has a high head speed but I think it will be good.  However didn’t get time to really fly her as the cir-clip holding the pinion came.  Also a bolt had come out of the head that forms part of the flybar cage so the Protos was back in the car fairly early. I just have to find a cir-clip that fits now..
  • Mini-Titan – The glued undercarriage snapped again on the first landing of the day.  This didn’t really stop me but as I have had to resort to wooden blades they don’t really cut it.  Too much flex means I couldn’t get into my tic-tocs and various tricks. A bit disappointing but predictable.  I have just ordered some new Align 325 carbon blades so this should be sorted for net weekend.
  • T-Rex 250 – Well the work horse of the day.  Flew hard all day and worked flawlessly.  This was of course until the last flight where, some how, the bolt that secures the main gear to the main shaft came loose.  This meant that upon landing I could pull the main gear straight out.  I was very lucky this didn’t cause a crash.  I thought something was up as the collective was getting very spongy towards the end of the flight. Anyway this is now been fixed and the bolt secured with thread lock.

The other interesting issue of the day was that due to the high heat the batteries were all coming back red-hot. Not much I could do about this but worth noting for the future. Will keep the cool in the shade before use next time.

2010
05/22
CATEGORY
Mini Titan
MSH Protos
T-Rex 250
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Screw.

Just a quick update today.  The weather this bank holiday weekend has been stormy and not ideal for flying.  Despite this I had a quick attempt today but Lady Luck was not with me.  After the Mini-Titan crash last week I gave her a maiden flight and what happens a minute into the flight? Yep the rudder linkage comes off the tail servo – queue fast pirouettes and mating of helicopter and ground.  Joy.   Back to the workshop..

Align 510M metal gears

Align 510 metal gears.

Talking of the workshop I have now started fixing the Protos after it’s latest attempt to mimic farming and plough a giant furrow in the ground with it’s nose. All three Align 510 servos on the Protos had broken their internal gears, but looking at the web shops most of them are out of stock of the plastic gears (£4.50). Fortunately Align now do metal gear sets for £14.50.  More expensive but at least they won’t break so easily and mean I have to take the Protos apart change them.  I have therefore ordered a set to see what they are like.

2010
05/03
CATEGORY
Crashes
Mini Titan
MSH Protos
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Simulator training required. (more of)

Went for a quick fly earlier today with Mini-Titan but ended up crashing it for silly reasons.

Mini-Titan stripped down for repairs

Mini-Titan stripped down for repairs

I wanted to practise doing inverted circuits therefore you have a go and then you relax for a bit before having another go.  Whilst “relaxing” I did a figure of eight but put in the control as if I was inverted.  Hence a one way ticket to the ground.

In order to get to grips with this I have spend an hour or two today on the simulator trying to get this.  It’s so hard.  My brain just can’t compute the reverses required.  I can the the left turn but the right turn is all over the place.  (This implies my altitude is constant but it isn’t but I can control that easier) grrr..

2010
04/25
CATEGORY
Crashes
Mini Titan
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A clean day at last

Just a quick update today.  Weather was perfect for flying today, sunny, light wind and warm!  Finished tweaking the Mini-Titan and got the T-Rex 250 setup perfectly.  Both are now flying great, and doing what I want them to do.  The Mini-Titan with it’s new electrics is running well and feels very smooth.  Those new servos are paying off.

The only thing I am tempted to gripe about is that I didn’t have the guts to try some inverted circuits.  I feel I really want to conquor these.  I know I have enough ability to try it, I just need to get on with it.  Will give it a go tomorrow.

2010
04/24
CATEGORY
Mini Titan
T-Rex 250
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Result!

Well, the mini Titan is back! Weather was still this evening so thought it was time to try the mini Titan with all new electrics. Up it went and perfect no tweaks needed nothing! Been an expensive one but at least I can get back to practicing..

2010
04/22
CATEGORY
Mini Titan
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Brown times solution?

Okay, well what a weekend.  Lets start with the Mini-Titan and it’s electrical gremlins. I took the plunge on Friday night and brought a new ESC and Rx – £113.  As I use a Spectrum Dx7SE transmitter I brought the AR7600 High- Speed receiver. That way it would run at the high frame rate of 11ms. The logic being I could test to find out where my problems were.

So to work.. I changed the ESC for the new one and then started setting it up. After a while it did it’s reset thing again. This clearly means that it wasn’t the ESC and that means I now have a spare speed controller. Therefore the problem was with the receiver so I changed that for the new one and switched it on. Immediately the servos started twitching, which confused me further. I have a spare DX6i transmitter so I binded this with the new receiver and the servos stopped twitching. At this point I was ready to bin everything – so I went to bed.

Onto Saturday morning where I decided to take the transmitters and receiver back to the shop. Once I was there I showed them my problem  – on the Mini-Titan I had Hi-Tec analogue servos.

Spectrum AR-7600 on Mini-Titan

The new AR7600 fitted. Align 410M mounted alongside.

Due to the high frame rate when using a DX7SE and AR7600 receiver the analogue servos can’t keep up (news to me).    Therefore I either had to get a different receiver or upgrade the servos. I don’t need two receivers so instead I had to buy 3 Align 410M digital servos (£70). I went for the metal geared as there was a discount and they should stand up to more crashing.

In conclusion, I think I have solved the problems but until I have a test fly the jury remains out. On the positive side though I have a superb set-up for the Mini-Titan, all running at 11ms. I suppose after 2 years it was wearing out..

2010
04/18
CATEGORY
Electrics
Mini Titan
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Brown times indeed :-(

Nightmare.  Total and utter.  Followers of the previous post will note that the Mini-Titan crashed recently whilst I was trying to learn inverted circuits.  I thought it would be a simple repair job and then I could get back into the skies for more fun and learning.  Far from it…

After putting it back together I went for a trim flight, 20 seconds after being airborne it lurched to the left and would not respond to stick input.  It therefore crashed into a wall fairly hard shattering the carbon blades and left me sweating.  Even though I had hit throttle hold it didn’t respond and thus did the “chicken dance” on the floor.   Worried me as it could of hit anyone.

Despite this I put it back together and tried again.  Didn’t do much just trimmed the heli and then left it for the night.  This evening I thought I should get to the bottom of it so I went up to the field and spooled her up.  After taking off I noticed lots of vibration on the tail so I was just monitoring it when it flipped inverted and hit the deck hard.  However when I got to the heli I noticed the receiver was flashing indicating a brown out.

Hmm.. this got me thinking so I put re-plugged the battery in an started wiggling the wires. Nothing happened and then suddenly it resets itself!  So I try again at the same point and nothing! I keep trying for a bit and then I touch around the front again and it resets itself.  For those that know the Mini-Titan then speed controller is at front and this all indicates a loose wire in the ESC (speed controller).

I have just spent the an hour or so in the cellar trying to create it again, by waggling everything but I can’t make it do it again.

Conclusion: We have to assume something in the electrics is causing a brown out and re-setting the on board electrics. It has to be said that this has been the heli I have had from the start and has so many crashes it’s hard to remember.  Maybe the ESC, Receiver, servos need replacing?  I had to replace the gyro and tail servo 3 months ago because they had started playing up. Either way the Mini-Titan is grounded until I can find the exact component.   My gut feeling in that I should get a new ESC (£40) and a new Rx (£65 for the 11ms frame rate) to be safe.  I mean after all the crashes I guess things wear out?  Problem is I want to practice my inverted stuff and the 450 size heli’s are the best for this.

2010
04/15
CATEGORY
Crashes
Electrics
Mini Titan
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Inverted Circuits Part 2

Made a decision that I have to crack inverted circuits and the weapon for this has to be the Mini-Titan. It’s stable in the air, cheap to fix and handles well under pressure.

Fortunately it was good flying weather this evening and there is no time like the present.  The good news is that I managed a shaky half circuit, the bad news is on the second battery I sent it in.  I think this was down to the light failing and I lost orientation.  It takes a lot of concentration when you are first learning but it was very satisfying.

The good news of all this? Well I have most the spare parts in the cellar, I just need a new under carriage.  Oh and of course I have to set it up all again..

£4.

2010
04/12
CATEGORY
Crashes
Mini Titan
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Beach times

2008
12/06
CATEGORY
Mini Titan
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