'S T U F F'
Concerning the etheriality of 'stuff'
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Gaui 425
This was my first 'real' heli. I think I got into them by accident one day, about 5 years or so ago. I bought one of those 'toy' R/C dual blade job's from Lidle or Aldi, the battery was woeful. I seem to recall. However, it got off the ground, and instilled within me an interest, that would end up in the form of the above.
Before I made the Gaui purchase, I had a couple more of the micro types, one a Xmas pressie from my bruv, which broke on the day! Then, after an interenet trawling session, I came accross the Gaui 425, which seemed the best intro to 'real' heli flying, in that it was of a decent 500 size (the 425 is the blade size) so wouldn't (I guessed) be too fiddly to build, but was 3D capable (should I ever get passed the takeoff!) and was...cheap!
I'm not kidding, £65 it cost, and was an absolute bargain. If you can get one these days, it'll set you back more like £150.
So I hacked over to Midland Heli one Saturday morning, shopping list in hand. After a schoolboy error on the A5, leading to a near miss with a Weetabix lorry, I found the place, an Aladdin's cave of rotary goodness. I tell you, I've said it before, but I wager you to enter that place and not emmerge without making a purchase! I kid you not, wall to ceiling to wall heli's. ;-)
The pic above was from last Sunday's chilled out flying session, in my 'secret' location. Those who know me, will testify to the fact that I am not a club person, and my recent brush with such organisational machinations has just confirmed that, at least to me, if not the true doubting Thomas' out there. Suffice to say, I will be flying solo for the forseeable future at any rate.
The heli itself has a 600w (or thereabouts) motor, a Gaui GU-211 heading hold gyro, 60a BEC and runs on 6 cell lipo's. I find I get about 6 or 7 minutes just hovering around with a 3000 mAh lipo, although of course if you were doing 3D it'd last considerably less.
So far the beast has been very reliable, much more so than I imagined in fact, and the only issue I've had with it has been it likely shipped with a defective one way (autorotation) gear that failed under load. I ordered up another, and the fit took about an hour, although I wasn't rushing!
I'm afraid I don't have any pics of it in the air, a slight pitfall to flying solo I'm afraid!
I do have some pics of the repair job I did tho', here's one of the motor & drive pinion.
And the one way gear, on the right. Not too tricky to remove, given the sensible sized components. I lost track of the number of owg's I replaced on my Trex 250, which was fun but expensive (and fiddly)! I bought it at the same time as the 425, complete with a Spektrum DX6i 5.8 ghz Tx. My first forray into the modern world of 'Spread Spectrum frequency hopping'. A far cry from it's 1960's/70's forerunners.
This is what happens when you stay in the air too long!
Thought I'd show you the very lively Align Trex 250, which I parted with as it was making me bankrupt!
It was a truly amazing little piece of engineering, and I converted it to DFC (flybarless) which made it very precise, but also very twitchy and nimble.
Beleive you me, that wasn't easy!
Enter the dragon!
Last year (2014) at some stage or other, my brain must have become momentarily detached from reality, as I ended up purchasing a Naza H flybarless/GPS flight controller. It's partly down to my 'love' of technology, and part wish to become a better, more capable pilot. Now, since I no longer have an affiliation with any clubs, I have to rely upon my own resources, hence the Naza H FC.
I love strawberries, so couldn't help but take this photo, just to remind me just how sweet this thing is.
Here's all the bits. I decided to resolder the 60a BEC to include a tap for the Naza H power module. THis unit supplies the power to the FC and can accept voltages of above 30v.
Installation was very simple really, on a heli of this size, options are limited as to where stuff is placed, I hope I got it right!
Setup was pretty easy, with DJI's now familiar format of 'assistant'. If you have ever set up a flybarless controller before, it will be fairly reminiscent as I recall it was when I set up an Align DFC FL760 FC, in that you need to go through the process of telling the FC the Tx travel limits and stick directions etc. THe Naza H incorporates a very capable tail gyro, which I have found holds the tail as steady as a rock. I finished the setup wizard, and for belt and braces, I powered it all up, flicked it into atti mode, and tilted it down, then back, then side to side, to see the swash reactions. Once I was satisfied that it wasn't going to throw the heli into a screaming fit, I took it all to the field for a maiden.
That was me enjoying GPS positionality! I was able to get the Gaui up in the air, and hovering in a steady fashion, then once accomplished, I then got my Xugong 10 airborne and attempted some footage of the heli. It was really only when I watched the rushes back, did I realise that with GoPro format cameras you need ot get a lot closer! Although, of course I could have set the GoPro (Hero 3 Black) up with a different field of view, as it is set to wide angle at the moment.
I have to say, it is a superb piece of wizardty, and in the short time I've been using it, I am at last beginning to be able to fly it in the way I want to, which really has to be a good thing. THe great thing about the GPS is, if I get disorientated, I can just flick it into GPS hold, and it will lock it down in the air, until I regain my equilibrium!
It hasn't been without incident I hasten to add, I managed to let complacency slip in, and found myself heading for a tree, normally hitting the throttle/pich stick would have averted the crash, but as I had the stick reactions set to default (porridge!) it made little movement, before entering said tree with a sickening screach. Yuk!
Note to self: Adjust reaction gains.