EXI 500CF - One of my new cyclic servos crapped out

Did a second short shakedown hover yesterday afternoon and all of a sudden the heli took a hard lean to the right and the motor seemed to be cutting out. I managed to get it down without any damage. But, now it looks like my Hitec HS-5245MG pitch servo has failed. It has intermittant response to input and it apears to be loading down the receiver to the point where there is loss of signal causing the motor to stutter. Damn!

I have sent Espritmodel a pm and an email. Hopefully they will come up with a acceptable solution.

I was so excited, now so frustrated. It hovered so well the first time in Beachcombers carport. I was looking forward to doing some flying today and tomorrow.

Back to the waiting game. I guess I can cleanup some of the fine points on the build that I skimmed over trying to get "The Beast" in the air.

Just venting, thanks for listening, I'll let y'all know how it turns out with Espritmodel, I've had great service from them so far.

Curt

Yep, I can verify he got it airborne. Had to do it in my 1-car carport because it was raining. Fairly small space for 500 size.

Good going Curt.

Tried to attach a picture, but can't get it to work.

if you uploaded a pic to photobucket all you need to do is copy the code that has the [img ] tags and paste that into your post.

or if the pic is already on the web somewhere, all you need to do is right click any web pic, a menu will pop up, at the bottom is a tab for the properties of that pic, click that and the next screen that pops up will have the web address (URL) for that pic, copy the whole URL and then above where you type your post, there is a little icon of a picture, click that and a box that pops up, paste the pic's web address (URL) in the box that just popped up then hit ok, then your pics will show up.

Damn Curt, sorry to hear that!!

Hey I have to share something I found at a LHS in Enid, OK this past Friday. I have asked several people on the forum about whether or not to use Deans Ultra connectors on my EXI 500 because the wires on the esc are sooo big you can barely solder them on without them touching.
I was explaining my situation to the old guy at the LHS about using the Deans and he said why dont you use the ez connectors. I had no clue what he was talking about so he handed me a pack of them and all I can say is that the name is right, EZ!



They are item number 2818, about 1/3 of the way down the page on the right. They are awsome!!!

Have you ever heard of these???

Hope you get your servo issues straight and get back in the air soon!

J.

Looks like you solder the EZs onto the wire then the connector onto the deans. Right? I'll have to get some to try. I have some batteries coming from HobbyKing and I'm sure they will have the "jumper cables" coming out of them.

I shortened my ESC wires yesterday and I was fighting with them trying to get the jumper cable sized wires on the deans. So I can relate and appreciate the tip.

I just sent off the defective servo to Esprit, they wouldn't send a replacement until they had the returned servo. Glad I had a backup plan and my servo ordered from Helidirect should be here tomorrow or the next day. (I hope) I also ordered some spares and a 14t and 15t pinion to try. The pinions were cheap and I thought I'd experiment, once I get back in the air and trimmed back out.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that my parts get here soon. I'll post an update. I have been fine tuning what I can work on without the servo. I had purchased the "Greaser", and it works as advertised. I greased the two mainshaft bearing while they were still mounted in the bearing blocks. Tonite I plan on disassembling the tail and greasing the tailshaft bearings.

When I took the mainshaft out to grease the bearings I noticed that the shaft looks like it had been spinning in the inner race of the lower bearing. I was thinking of using some cylindrical loctite to fix the shaft to the inner race but, I'm not sure that is a good idea. I'm a little concerned about the very small amount of vertical movement of the shaft being directly transmited to the inner race of the bearing. What do you think? Fix the shaft to the inner race of the bearing or let it go like it is and possibly have the shaft spinning inside the inner race?

I'm sure someone will offer their opinion as I'm torn at this point which way to go.

That's enough for now. Thanks for your tip on the connectors, I'll get some on order. Catch you later.

Curt

That's exactly right!

You solder the wire into one end of the connector then the other end has a notch cut into it that fits tightly onto the flat prong of the deans. When you push it onto the deans it fits tight enough that you don't have to hold it in position to solder it! I used them on my "Jumper cables" and think they are great and I will probably use them on every Deans set up, regardless of wire size.

Just my thinking, vertical movement is allready being input to the lower bearing by the raised portion of the one-way bearing. On lift off, the entire weight of the heli is transmitted to the lower bearing.

If inverted, the entire weight of the heli would be transmitted to the upper bearing, by the raised portion of the mainshaft lock collar. So , I dont see the difference in whether or not the means of transmission is changed (by putting loctite between the mainshaft and inner race) because the load that the bearing sees will be the same.

Did that make sence or am I overthinking???

If the shaft spins in the race and gets worn, I would think that the small amont of slop that would be created probably wouldn't be noticed in the cyclic (excess slop would allow the mainshaft to lean slightly) but probably would be noticed in the main gear (excess slop wouldnt allow the main gear to run true) and could cause some wobble or oscilation.

Wouldn't it make it a lot harder to remove the main shaft though???

Damn, another question.

The procceding thoughts and commentary are soley my own and should not be given any serious thought, unless you are a trained proffessional. Please do not try this at home.