Outrage Fusion 50 Flybarless Electric build

[simonh]

Apologies  - that last post was written a little quickly Basically all the BEASTX does or any flybarless controller is to perform the same actions as a flybar would - by altering the pitch of the individual rotor blades instead. This eliminates the flybar and all associated links and components making the rotor head much simpler. Theres a bit more programming involved but if you can set up a standard gyro then the BEASTX isnt much different - just a few more steps to go through.

If you decide to go flybarless I'd be happy to help with the set up. A lot of the heli guys have a flybarless machines now - so theres plenty of people to give you a hand. So theres no excuse now - you have to get the Outrage built

[Mike S]

Thanks Simon. Seems simple enough to sort out. But may have confused you. I have the new Raptor X50.

[simonh]

First thing to say is that the title of this thread should be 'assembly' rather than 'build' at the risk of offending all you proper modellers out there with the craft based building skills that I dont have  Going to need to learn these at some point as a future build will be a an AcroWot with electric power system. Have had a few offers of help and advice with covering etc - and will be taking these up when I get around to starting that project 

Maybe the admins could look at splitting this section into two - one for kit based assemblies and another for actual builds.

Anyway  - back to the Fusion assembly. I've made quite a lot of progress and will be posting this along with pics but thought I'd make a note of a part that is pretty weak. It's easily broken if over tightened.

It's the swash driver base (part number R50N575-3) that clamps to the main shaft and connects the radius arms to the swash plate, holding them in place. Once the head is assembled to the heli, the radius arms are leveled and the driver based is tightened to the shaft with a cap screw. I'm not known for being heavy handed and still managed to break this and strip the thread with what I would consider to be the right amount of tightness. So, after getting a replacement I fitted the new one using some thead lock around the shaft and tightening it very very carefully. It grips the shaft OK. A few flights will tell if it's going to slip....

Have given the broken part to Titu who agrees this part should be stronger. It seems others have had the same problem and is something Outrage need to look at.

I'll be maidening this Heli at the patch with Titu next Tuesday  - barring any major last minute problems. Will post up the rest of my progress along with pics before then.

[simonh]

To finish this off - here are some pics (click on them to enlarge) with comments along with a quick summary of what I thought of the kit overall and first impressions with the finished model....

As mentioned in my previous post, the swash driver base is not strong enough to take being tightened hard against the main shaft. If you do, either the thread will strip, the part will crack or both Heres a pic of this part assembled onto the shaft


The next pic shows the motor installed. The next job was to fit the main gear and main shaft and get everything lined up. Once I had the motor pinion in the correct place, the motor came out and a flat was ground onto the shaft using the mark left by the motor pinion grubscrew as a guide.

Here is a really good video showing how to do it without damaging the motor...
http://www.youtube.com/user/Innov8tive8#p/a/u/2/h4S9gxzQ39g

The pic also shows the BEC attached with a velcro strap. It's now held in place with some (Strong) double sided tape.

Other notes are that for the BeastX I had to move the links one hole in on the T shaped servo arms. I also used the outer hole on the blade grip levers. This was to get the cyclic pitch geometry correct at setting J on the BeastX.


The only mod I have done is to pin the tail assembly to the tail boom. This was done on advice from Guy and Jaco. They have done this with their Fusion 50's. The tail boom is quite soft and in time, the tail could rotate on the boom in flight. This would result in some nice spectacular looking manouevres before the heli goes in hard The pic shows a 5mm M2 cap screw. I dremmelled out a small hole though the tail assembly into the boom - from the underside so it wont show. This needs to be slightly smaller than the screw - I used a 1.6mm drill bit on the dremmel. The M2 screw is then screwed in with threadlock. It will self tap in. Dont overtighten though - the metal is quite soft...


Et Voila! The completed Fusion. Have flown it a few times. I have only needed to adjust the tail gyro gain so far and adjust a bearing block and rethreadlock a couple of screws. The BeastX is performing as it should. I will up the setting from sport to pro at some point to reduce the amount of built in expo and increase it's responsiveness. For my Heli A, I might put it in beginner mode and let it fly the lazy 8 itself


So - what did I think of the kit? Well, this is only my second scratch heli assembly - the first was a TREX550E so I dont have a whole lot to compare it to. I'd say it's not ideal as a first scratch assembly - the instructions need some work. The lines showing the where the various screws, washers etc are located are not clear.  Outrage have also added a couple of items to the kit (shrinkwrap for the torque tube and a support bearing for a long 6mm motor shaft) without correctly explaining what they are for. If this is your first scratch assembly, get someone with experience to help. Personally, I'm not a fan of build videos - I like to learn as I go and get help when I need it from someone with more experience. This takes longer but I think is more rewarding. Titu helped me several times during the build  - which prevented a couple of mistakes.

Outrage's quality is, in my opinion variable. Most of the parts are OK - but that swash driver base really is shocking. The links could also be stronger and the tail boom alloy is I think too soft. The finished heli, if assembled with care does fly great. With my 8S setup (it can take 12S!) it has a huge amount of power and would I think in the right hands out perform the 50 nitro. I'm getting about 6 minutes flight time with the current second hand packs. These are mainly 2 x 4000maH 4S Turnigy packs. I should get another minute or so with some planned 2 x 4900 mAh packs. This heli can take a wide variety of lipo, motor and ESC setups. I'm happy with the motor and ESC but will in time look at higher capacity packs and maybe a higher cell count for even more power and longer flight time.

[Russ]

Simon,

Have you the scope with the Scorpion 4025 (and pinion change?) to go for a higher cell count in the future? Any idea what range of head speeds this heli will fly on? 

[simonh]

Simon,

Have you the scope with the Scorpion 4025 (and pinion change?) to go for a higher cell count in the future? Any idea what range of head speeds this heli will fly on?

I'd have to change the motor to go more than 8S - the second hand 4025 I have (890kV) is OK for up to 8S according to it's spec. You get 12T 14T and 16T pinions in the kit.

Outrage recommend 2200 max head speed. I'm currently running it at approx 2000 according to Guy's tacho - though this is on around 90% max throttle with my normal (non idle up)  throttle curve.  I'm using the 12T pinion. Some guys are running the Fusion up to 2300 rpm.

A 4025-550 (550kV motor) is what a lot of guys are using on the Fusion.
http://www.scorpionsystem.com/catalog/motors/hk40/hk4025/HK-4025-550/
This can take up to 12S. It might need a 14T pinion to get to the recommended head speed - though there seems to be some discussion about this. Some guys are running it with 12T and some with 14T.

The calculation works as follows....

My motor is 890 kV. I'm using 8S packs which gives 29.6V. The Gear ratio with a 12T pinion is 10.75:1
890 x 29.6V = 26344 rpm. Assume 90% efficiency, you get 23709 rpm. Divide by the gear ratio to get the head speed at max throttle. 26344/10.75 = 2205rpm. This is the max theoretical head speed assuming 90% efficiency of motor/ESC combo.

Apparently with a 4025-550 motor the Fusion is more powerful than most Nitro helis.   My 130 AMP ESC would be able to handle this motor with 10S or 12S.

At present I'll stick with an 8S setup and the 4025 motor I have - til I get good enough to need a bit more grunt . I'd definitely look at the Scorpion 4025-550 if I needed to replace the motor.

[simonh]

One quick note - I'm using RJX glass fibre blades on the Fusion at present. These are cheaper than carbon and at my current level of flying, I dont need the extra strength of carbon fibre. These stood up OK to fairly hard 3D flying by Titu - and Cliff - yesterday so should be fine for what I need for the forseeable future.

If yr not into really hard 3D flying, decent quality glass fibre blades may be a good option.