RunRyder RC Helicopter Topic - Bell 222 50 Build Thread

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Scale Model RC Helicopters > Bell 222 50 Build Thread

gadgetdude
Senior Heliman
Location: Southern California

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Very nice! I should have mine today or tomorrow.

Got my 'mini flash' from DIYRC.com today. Works perfect. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend going with this options. Did I mention, I highly recommend buying the mini flash unit

As far as the programming issue and some people not being able to make it work with there computer, the unit comes pre programmed with a great lighting sequence. Some may find they don't need to program it any different. If you do order from Tom I would buy his LED units with the beacon lens holders. They really make the light shine bright.

04-03-2008 Over year old.

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tauscnc
Veteran
Location: Joliet IL

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Hey gadgetdude,

I am ordering that same one from Tom as recommended by ya. I should have my paypal issue worked out today and hopefully have it shipped out tomorrow.

thanks!
taus

04-03-2008 Over year old.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Well I got some more done tonight. I painted the wood with dope fuel proof paint (one coat grey, one coat black so I knew what I still needed to paint).I also got mounts made etc.

Pic 1) I remade the mounts with aluminum I had as I killed the ones the kit came with. I am using an existing hole for the rear mount.

Pic 2) The kit only comes with one aluminum mount for the upper part of the heli...I found this to be questionable (here we go questioning a kit that has been flying for how many years

but anyway I made front mounts too. AFTER I PUT THE SERVOS IN I realized the mount is too big and has been cut down some.

Pic 3) Rear pins in

Pic 4) Instead of hard mounting I used the canopy gromets. I CAed them on, they seem to hold REALLY well but I don't know how long they will last.

Pic 5) Here is a pic of the antirotation guide, this will give you an idea of how far it will stick up. Please note the top hatch is NOT all the way back so really you will see more once you cut this out.
I am in the process of flipping the blade grips around, etc to have it so the swashplate moves DOWN to get positive pitch. Hoepfully I can make it so the swash never has to move that high and I can simply cut the antirotation guide off.

Pic 6) I noted this before but now you can really see the hatch is not centered with the body. It fits well but all around but you can see the light does not line up with the centerline...I'll have to fix that.

Off to bed!

P.S. if you noted the frames are now black, I really liked the sliver frames so I switched them out with my other 600N.

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

04-04-2008 Over year old.

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gadgetdude

Senior Heliman - Location: Southern California - My Posts This: Topic Forum

Here is my latest progress.

Got all the lights in. The lights are from DIYRC.com. Great product.

You can see I replaced the red lens on the bottom of the tail and replaced with a white strobe. Jury is still out on if I like it or not.

I am mounting a landing light to the front retract wheel. I hope to make it come on when the lights go down. The light housing is from Maxxilights.com.

Retracts are all in and I am just waiting the 'Goslow' Servo controller from emsJomar,com. I am not a happy customer. I ordered it over a week ago and paid for shipping. The store is only about 10 miles from me so I thought I would have it in 1 or 2 days. Got a confirmation email with a link to track my order. Kept checking, kept checking, kept checking, No tracking information. I emailed them, nothing. I called and there was a answering machine message from Mark, the owner. He said he was at a trade show in Toledo Ohio and that he would not return until April 9th. I thought they have to have someone back at the office mailing out the orders. NOPE! Finally got a late response from Mark saying that he would ship today. Still no word. Totally understand that the trade show is how he does business, but at least make mention of it on your website that orders will not be shipped until x date. What would have happened if I paid for overnight shipping...a week later?

Other than that inconvenience, I am very please with the fuselage. Very nice quality!

04-08-2008 Over year old.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Man that is pretty!!! I too am thinking of putting the white strobe with the lens from diyrc.com. The mini-flasher is awesome!

I love the panel lines, looks like they did a really nice job on that fuse. Is that a small screw they put on the front upper part of the top hatch? I was going to do that too but the instructions don't show it.

I finally got my goslow... I think the name goes with the shipping huh

It works well. The only thing that would make it better is if it had endpoints for the 3 servos. This way you could fine tune them individually. Right now all are connected to the gear channel and tuning must be done via servo wheels, pushrods, etc. Overall it is light weight and works...I am happy.

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

04-08-2008 Over year old.

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gadgetdude
Senior Heliman
Location: Southern California

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Take a video and post...PLEASE

What do you mean the fine tuning is done via servo wheel and pushrods? I cant believe you cant adjust the travel.

04-08-2008 Over year old.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Hey gadgetdude,

Well you plug the 3 servos in the goslow and one is reversed (channel 3). You can set the speed of the up and down so they are independent.

Since the three are tied together and use one channel in the RX (gear in my case) you can't set the ATV of each servo. You can set the ATV of all the servos as if they were one. This is where having many channels (JR 12x

for example comes into play

You will have to fiddle around with the pushrods and servo wheels to make it so the servos pull all the wheels up / down and lock without binding the servos. I don't think it should be to difficult as the system is pretty sysmetrical.

It would of been very nice however if they did have endpoint adjustments via the goslow.

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

04-08-2008 Over year old.

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DCORSAIR
Senior Heliman
Location: Selma, Calif.

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retracts????

Just wondering guys, has anyone tried air retracts???? I know spring air made a small air set for park plank flyers but not sure if they would be strong enough, I know from my ducted fan jet days that we used Spring air retracts and they worked flawless and you used to be able to get belly mount or firewall mounted. All you would have is a small air tank, mini servo for the control valve. PM me if you want more info and if your not familiar with air retracts

. Just a thought.
Well I checked it out on retracts.com and Spring air is still around, I looked up 602 mini series and WOW $150 so this might not be what a person wants to spend plus you will need to make bend your own wire but you wouldn't have to worry about linkages or retracts not coming down, Spring air, if I remember right are air up but when air loss is a problem they come down anyway and with the air ajuster you can slow them down to scale like

I'am really thinking on building a 222 so I might give it a try.

D. Lee.....t.Born again.t.....

04-13-2008 Over year old.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Hey guys,

Finally got a little time to get back to building on the Bell 222. The slowgo is nice, wish it had endpoints, I still have to play around with the retracts, links, servo wheels, etc to get them to all work...part of the hobby aye

I think I am getting to spoiled with this ARF stuff now.

I felt that the rear might be lacking some support so I was going to make some support mounts...here is a contour gauge in the body...I decided not to go this route but instead double up on the rails.

I started adding bondo to the fuse, that stuff dries quick! I used 400 grit sandpaper to rough up the fuse.

NOTE: I am in the process of drawing out the dashboard in CAD and will cut one out on my CNC. I plan to cut this in styrene plastic with gauges, dials. etc. All we would have to do is paint and put it in. I will make it and if you guys like can cut out more...stay tuned.

I really like these two color schemes so far...but still looking.

so far so good. I did flip the grips etc. on the 600 and it works great! I think I might be able to keep the swash just at or below the heli top. Will seeeeeeeee.....

taus
wwww.cuttingedgecnc.com

04-15-2008 Over year old.

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gadgetdude
Senior Heliman
Location: Southern California

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Looking good!

I love the black Bell 222 Finish.

I installed my SloGo yesterday. I am pretty happy with the unit itself, however, I am having some problems with the linkages that came with the fuse. They are very very stiff on the ball links. I tried to use a ball link reamer but you cannot fit it in the housing. I have put some triflo in the links but still very tight. Any suggestions?

Also when I tested the servos yesterday for the first time, the one servo horn broke off

This is the arm for the retracts. Little grey one that you cut one or the other side off and mount. Any idea where I can find a replacement? I have never worked with retracts before so i don't know if these are common and I can just go down to my LHS and buy a new one?

04-15-2008 Over year old.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Hey Jon,

For the stiff ball links put them on the ball and squeeze them with pliers,,,just ever so slightly. It will put a tiny indent in them and they should loosen up. I agree you can't really get the ball reamer in there. If you had to you could replace them with normal ball links that we use on the heli. Mine are a bit tight but after just a little squeeze they are fine.

Sorry to hear about the broken bellcrank. Ummm. I don't know if you can get just that part. You might have to buy a bellcrank and drill it out or make one out of plywood, plastic, etc.

I too like the black finish but wonder if it would be to hard to see in the air. I really love the 4 blade head!

Later
taus

04-15-2008 Over year old.

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steph280
Key Veteran
Location: Irvine, California

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Richard Clauson did an wonderful build thread on a T-Rex 600E Bell 222 install here:
http://www.thetrexforums.com/?topic=1475.0

Lots of photos and tips. I fitted a 600 into an airwolf based on his thread. It saved me a lot of time.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Very nice thread..beautiful Bell, they really paint them nice. I hope mine comes out that well. I see he used a different height on the mounts...

Interesting way to store the heli, under, well IN his bed !

taus

04-15-2008 Over year old.

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gadgetdude
Senior Heliman
Location: Southern California

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steph280,
Thanks for that link. Very nice. I have sent Richard an email but was wondering if you knew why you have to use the Torque tube rather than the standard belt drive as Richard points out in his build?

I already have the cnc tail rotor but was not aware of the need for the different tube.

04-16-2008 Over year old.

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steph280
Key Veteran
Location: Irvine, California

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The reason why he went with torque tube was because the tail fin mounting ears on stock tail box stick out too far to fit in the fuselage tail. Those ears are needed because they are also used to hold the plastic case together. The torque tube aluminum tail box do not require those ears to mount to tail boom, so they can be cut off without problems.

You can also do this: Cut away the mounting ears on the stock plastic tailbox and then use a tiewrap to hold the tail box halves together. This idea came from ScoobyDoo in his Jetranger build thread. It is how I did mine and so far no problems. Here is a photo of what it looks like.

I believe Align also has a metal tail box for belt drive now. If it's constructed like the torque tube tail box, then it can probably be used without converting to torque tube drive.

Richard is a nice guy and he will answer all your questions. But he's a commercial airline pilot and may not respond to your email until he gets back home.

04-17-2008 Over year old.

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gadgetdude
Senior Heliman
Location: Southern California

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Thanks for the quick and informative response. I do already have the 'new' cnc metal tail box, but it is for the belt drive. Looking at pictures of both side by side, they look to be identical. From the research I am gathering I gather the real advantage of the torque drive is that you do not need to adjust it once it is in. I further thought and in this particular build (Bell 222), I don't know how I would tighten and adjust it once it is in the fuselage.

I also have a MD530 scale and that is easy because the whole front part of the fuselage comes off and you can get to the tail boom rather easy. The Bell 222 you have to remove the tail boom to place the mechanics in the fuselage and then reattach. This would be extremely hard to with the belt drive.

Off to the LHS I go

04-17-2008 Over year old.

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victorb
Heliman
Location: Newark, DE, USA

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Broken Retract Arm

Hey Jon,
Don't feel bad, as I did the same thing duing an Airwolf build.
Call Century and order one from them, if I remember correctly,
The guys had to go to the retract manufacture to get the PN.
But the cost was less than $10.00.
Hope it helps, Great build thread...

Vic

I Have a Love Hate relationship with this hobby, Love to Build, but Hate to Crash..

04-17-2008 Over year old.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Hey guys,

Well I took some time off the heli...sort of and figured I would sit down and try to remember how to use Rhino3D and start learning how to cut "real" 3D parts. I have fiddled around with the 3D before but nothing serious.

The heli has to have seats right??? So here is a quick drawing and cut to test it out. The seat is about as big as a servo right now but of course will be redrawn with lines, etc and cut to the right size.

NOTE: When done if you guys want some seats I should be able to cut them out and instrument panels. Stay tuned

Pic 1: is a quick rhino rendition...the real seat will be more deatailed, etc. and have a bottom as I re-teach myself rhino.

Pic 2: Dremel with ball endmill cutting pink foam

Pic 3: Here is a little seat

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

04-17-2008 Over year old.

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gadgetdude
Senior Heliman
Location: Southern California

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Now that is cool

I want one of those

While you are figuring that out, I am having a heck of a time with the servos and retracts. I finally had to just walk away tonight after replacing one servos and breaking yet a second bell crank

I have figured out how to make my own. I will share that tomorrow.

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tauscnc
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Location: Joliet IL

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Hey Jon,

I wonder why the bellcranks are breaking ??? I have to take the retract out to place it into the bellcrank and than screw it back down...or you have to really push on the bellcrank to get it in the wire. You should be able to make them out of plywood...just put a couple pieces together and drill it through..the middle piece is the bellcrank. Of course I make it sound so easy

Getting them to work is also another chore..I have not messed with that lately.

When I get the seats "perfected" and instrument panel made, I can make more. Landing gear...that is a whole differnet story.

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

04-17-2008 Over year old.

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Scale Model RC Helicopters > Bell 222 50 Build Thread

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