Friday, October 30, 2009

My Phoenixtech Torque Tube TT360 Review and Flight Report

FINALLY! I completed it today! Below are some pictures of the completed TT360.

Completed Assembly
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Mystery 40A ESC
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Scorpion 2221-10 motor w/ 13T
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.My fav Gyro (Align GP750).. I know, I know, Spartan is the best... yeah...yeah..
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Cyclic Servos (first try at Savox servos)
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My faithful little Assan RX
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Tail Gear Assembly
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Main CF Blades (Beautiful!)
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Wanna see the difference in size between the TT360 and a 450 size heli?
Here is a comparison shot between the TT360 vs my 450 SE. :D

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And here it is compared to Gaui and Trex250!

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The very first hover test video... I am only using a 3S 40C batts for the hover testing. I wanted to check if the blades were tracking properly. And guess what? They were! No adjustments necessary!! :L



I took it out for sport-flying in the evening. Here I am using a 4S dualsky 2200mah batt. I was alone and I mounted a small cheapo, crappy, worthless mini-cam on top of my cap. Unfortunately, the video does not come out clearly..:bh



Some thoughts to share:

1) As mentioned in my previous few post back, I need to increase the swash mix up to 70-75% to achieve +- 12 degress of pitch and +-7 degrees of cyclic. But even at this value, there were no mechanical binding.

2) I didn't have to do any blade tracking adjustment. I measured them at 0 degrees mid-stick and the blades tracked nicely! (I guess I was lucky?)

3) The rudder servo mounting is different from Rave heli. It is housed in a fixed location but in a horizontal position, unlike the Rave. But because the rudder servo is a fixed position, adjusting the rudder linkage rod to get center position at the rudder requires some effort. You cannot simply 'shift' the rudder servo. Instead you need to loose/tighten the ball links @ the linkage rod ends to get the rudder to center mechanically. Not a big issue, nevertheless.

4) I used a Futaba9257 servo for rudder and I used the default round horn. However, i found out that i cannot get the rudder to move to the extreme end-points. Therefore, my piro rate is slow. I think i will use a longer horn instead.

5) Running 4S with the 360mm blades seems to be the most ideal setup. After 5 mins of sport flying, the esc, motor and batt is barely warm.

6) Overall cyclic response is too slow for me. I am already at 100& flat throttle curve at idel1. Perhaps increasing cyclic pitch might help?

7) Overall stability is definitely better than 450 size heli, but I wouldn't say it flies like a 500 sized.

8) The TT360 has a narrow body width. I cannot even fit my receiver or ESC into the body and they both needed to be mounted on the outside of the frame. Those with spectrum rx may have better luck.

9) Buying blades may be a problem. At the moment, I think only Pang carries the 360mm blades. None of the other LHS or even HC carries these sizes.

10) I need more 4S batts! I only got one at the moment.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Got a new addition - Phoenixtech TT360!



I had wanted to get a Phoenixtech 450 PRO which is a 450-sized helicopter but using torque-tube (TT) instead of belt. Then I saw the launch of the Phoenixtech 360TT which is a stretched version of the 450-sized using a 360mm blades with torque tube! (The 450 sized is using only 325mm blades). So i got this baby instead!

I haven't assembled it yet as I just received it a day ago. It's full metal head, with a carbon fibre body and a fibre-glass canopy. There are 2 possible configurations to fly this:

1) Fly it with a 3-cell (3S) lipo batt. But I will need a high KV brushless motor, about 4400KV and with 325mm blades instead of 360mm ones.

2) Fly it with a 4-cell (4S) lipo batt. I will need a 3000KV motor capable of running at 4S voltage and with 360mm blades.

I guess i will go with option 2 since i already am flying my other 450 sized helicopters with 3S. That means, I have to get myself a couple of 4S lipo batts cause I don't have any at the moment.

Some more pics of the TT360 below: