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| The following is a review of the CCPM carbon fiber frames by ARK I'd like to thank Ark for providing X400Tuning with this frame for review. This frame comes pre-assembled from Ark with a cnc CCPM swash plate, motor mount plate, gyro mount, battery mount and aluminum spacers and screws required to hold the upper and lower frame together. It also includes a new set of servo links to connect to the swash plate from the servos. You'll need to be sure to use loctite on all the metal to metal connections during finally assembly. It should also be noted that the balls on the swash plate did not come with loctite applied and this resulted in one of the balls coming out during a flight while testing the swash during a prior review. This frame was an early production and had holes drilled for the servos instead of the grooves found in the stock frame and currently produced carbon frames. This should allow greater flexibility in servo mounting as I found the holes to be a little off center from my servos and required drilling new holes. The frame also required some slight filing to get the servos installed. This is very quick work with a small file. The upper frame also required a fair amount of filing in the front to prevent the motor mount plate to be installed, but this has been resolved in the production units. The servo layout Ark used for CCPM is a fairly common design with 2 servos on top of each other for the pitch and aileron connections with the servo horns facing outward and a single servo behind that mounts with the servo arm between the frames. You should pre-fit the rear (elevator) servo to see if mounting from the inside or outside will give you the best placement of the servo horn. Use spacers if necessary to insure that the servo arm will not rub against the frame with the ball installed. I would also recommend installing the mast bearing blocks and dropping in the head unit so you can see how your pitch and aileron servos will line up with the balls on the swash plate. Ideally the linkage rods should be straight up and down, or as close as possible. Pre-fitting will save you from having to tear apart the whole frame later if you find that you've installed them incorrectly. |
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The CCPM frame is much shorter then the stock frame and, by nature of how CCPM works, it eliminates the need for the elevator 'seasaw'. This gives a much cleaner setup that in results in about a 50 gram weight savings and reduces the number of parts considerably. The slop often found in the elevator torque lever is eliminated as it is no longer used, and all of the linkage rods for the cyclic input are now done with ball joints instead of the z-bends at one end. One piece Ark failed to include is an additional set of black plastic nuts for the forth servo, since the aileron servo previously mounted in a plastic servo holder and now bolts to the side frame. This was not an issue as I decided not to mount the tail servo in the frame, but rather on the tail boom like the T-Rex. Although the servo is much better protected in the frame (when mounted on the left side) it requires that you re-adjust your tail servo linkage every time you make a belt tension adjustment. Another small issue during assembly is that the the carbon fiber is thicker then the stock frames and without reducing the length of the spacers, you end up with about a 1 mm gap in the front of the frame where the motor mount plate is. File down the smaller of the spacers that go in the front about .5 mm each and it will fit together perfectly. After getting everything together you will wonder why Ark didn't go with a CCPM frame to begin with. This is much lighter, cleaner and everything fits better. There is much less slop and faster response for the cyclic controls as well. Unlike the non-ccpm carbon frame upgrade, you should easily notice a difference in flight performance. I never liked the z-bends in the original setup and found the heli was much more stable in a hover and required fewer inputs from me to keep it there. The weight savings from this new frame is considerable and the heli was noticeably lighter and quicker. |
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| . I feel that the X400 frame is much better suited to a CCPM setup and
carbon fiber is obviously an excellent choice to build it from. This kit
provides a much better overall design then the original. It is both lighter
and stronger then the stock frame. Both the canopy and batteries also fit
much better. This frame provides a huge improvement over a stock x400 and
I wish I had built mine with the setup from the beginning. Ark has done a very nice job with this frame. Although many of the benefits can be had with their aluminum ccpm conversion, the added strength and reduced weight of this carbon fiber version is an excellent option for the x400 owner. Words & Pictures by Jeff Quayle. |
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