I thought I would share my build experiences with you and ask a few questions on the way.
Chris
Initial boxes
Very smart aluminium case. What will I do with this after it's built?
What's inside?
Following the book page by page.
Here are the first bits to assemble.
Fortunately the head assembly is mostly built in the factory. This is HH in the book and is wrapped in bag HH. That's useful
And bag HH4 contains the paddles for the flybar and part of the control linkages.
The flybar itself was contained in the long bag with the tail. A lot more sophisticated than my eSky models as it has threaded ends. No more using the training gear rods! Now, where is linkage rod B? Ah in another bag, plastic ends and metal threaded rods. Make sure I use the 12.5mm ones (I know this because the NEXT page of the manual tells you). It's really hard setting the length to exactly 23.5mm but I'm sure it's OK. As long as the two are the same length. Loosely fix it all together before applying thread lock. Just as well I do because the rod ends will only fit if the A is outermost. Now I will check it's all level and then, tomorrow, apply the thread lock and tighten it all up.
As I've ordered the digital vernier I have decided not to assemble the linkage rods until that arrives so I have temporarily skipped this section.
This is fixing the battery mounting plate. The holes are countersunk on the carbon fibre so I know which way up it goes. Applied a small amount of thread lock using the supplied T43 and a cocktail stick.
And here it is fitted. Align supply the Allen Keys and two precision screwdrivers.
Just tried the head assembly to see if everything is smooth. It is! Everything is precise and smooth. So far I'm very impressed with the build quality. It is certainly much better than my Belt-CP. I still haven't fixed the flybar as I'm waiting for my vernier to arrive.
Taking RCa advice. I have jumped forward to fix the servos on the body. I opted for an upgrade to 4 * HS-65MG following advice of Chris (another one) on Heliguy Live Support.
First problem (and solution)
There is no way the servo will fit through the hole because the wire comes out the side and the fit is far too tight. I considered filing the carbon fibre body but in the end I had to unscrew the back of the servo, squeeze the servo in and then tighten up the back of the servo. Before I do the same on the other two servos wanted to check that you would do the same thing? I was a bit reluctant to open the servo
Chris
I've watched Bob's video (several times) and I've read the T-Rex manual. Which should I use? Well I must admit, in the end I followed the official guide. I've been messing around fitting these servos for hours! The two front servos have the flanges on the outside. These required a lot of pushing and shoving to fit as the wire comes out the side and makes it very hard as the tolerances are so small. The rear servo is different (according to the manual). On this one you don't put it through the hole. You mount the flange on the same side as the servo. I hope my photos will show you what I'm talking about. Fitting the rear called for more thought as I wasn't happy for the carbon frame to take the full load of the screw head without some kind of washer. In the end I used two spare brass washers from my Belt-CP feathering shaft kit. One final point; I did have to enlarge the holes (as per Bob's video) because the holes on the servo mounting flange are further apart than the holes on the frame. I didn't want to have the screws going in at an angle as Bob very specifically says you must not do this as any distortion of the servo body will cause binding and failure. I'm still not convinced about all this as I don't like all this uncertainty (you can already see, as highlighted in Bob's video, that the servo horn will not be in line with the centre line so I may still change the servo position). We will see how it goes when I do my receiver / servo testing. I am glad I put the servos in at this very early stage. Chris
wbrownj wrote:
UPDATE: I just put my front servos on with the flanges inside to see how they look and how easy it is and I must admit that the alignment for the linkages looks like it will be much better.
Since I have gone this far, I think I am going to stick with Bob's method. However I think that Chris has absolutely the right idea when he advocates putting a small washer on the screws so that the load is spread at the point te screw passes through the CF frame.
Cheers
Jonathan
Thanks Jonathan. I'm going to undo mine and do it Bob's way as well. I will upload some more photos when I've changed it. It's funny because I had all these same concerns when i was building my Belt-CP and I changed that several times. Regards, Chris
Here we go again. All the servos out again and this time assembled exactly as shown in Bob (Finless) video. At this rate I won't have it finished by Christmas. Good job I have the Belt-CP to fly in the meantime.
kww wrote:
You will need connectors for connecting the battery to the ESC, did you remember to order them, as if not now would be a good time while your doing the build, so that they arrive when you need them, rather than realising you haven't got them when you need them ?
Thank kww. You saved me some frustration later down the line. Will be starting the build very soon and will keep posting photos as I do.
The build continues. I'm leaping back and to in the manual. Having fitted the servos I've now gone back to completing the head assembly and linkage rods.
Here are a couple of shots as I'm building the main body.
Nearly there.
The body is just about ready now. I haven't noticed any nuts or bolts loose from the factory. I did have a problem fitting the plastic plugs in the skids so it took a few minutes with a sharp knife removing some plastic. (Only at the up tilted front). I superglued these in place as per the instructions.
The next stage was to prepare the main drive gear but it's ready out the bag.
Most of the tail is complete out the bag as well. I'm not sure how far to push in the tail so I have just covered the hole on the boom. When I adjust the tension this will need changing.
I started fiddling to get the belt through the boom but it wasn't going well so I decided to drop some cotton through there and pull the belt through. Worked a treat.
It's nowhere finished yet but I couldn't resist fitting the canopy just to see if it all fits and looks good. The quality is first class so far. You can easily see why they cost twice as much as the Belt-CP.
