 |
||
 |
| The following is a review of the carbon fiber frames by rc-expert.com Initially some pictures of the frames before assembly, nothing more than the below three pictures is supplied in this package : |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On opening the packet you are presented with some very nicely cut upper
and lower frames, a front battery tray and a small carbon spacer. The frames
are constructed from 1.5mm carbon fiber sheet. There are no instructions
with this frame set which makes for an interesting build. However, a few
moments to study the parts is all that is required to understand how this
frame goes together. The side frames are similar in design to the frames produced by ARK but there are some differences such as the upfront battery tray and also the arrangement for mounting the rear servo. Building this frame is simply a matter of transplanting the needed parts from your existing X-400 and bolting them to the new frame is. My X-400 uses a combination of Pico servos and Align servos. Both of these servos fitted the predrilled holes in the side frames and required no modifications to the size of the holes in order to fit. As the frame is built up the rigidity of the 1.5 millimetre carbon is apparent and provides an extremely robust and flex free frame set. The fit and finish of the frames is extremely good and I encounter no issues in transplanting the motor mount, main shaft bearing holders and rear tail pulley into the new frames. The original X-400 battery tray also bolts onto the front of these side frames. The undercarriage mounts to the frames in exactly the same way as with a stock X-400. The build up of the frames can be seen below: |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As can be seen from the pictures I have gone for a configurations with
the receiver up front on the battery tray, the ESC on the right side of
the side frames, the gyro between the frames at the rear and the antenna
routed down the side of the helicopter the opposite side of the speed control.
This has proven to be a very good configuration when looking to reduce
the chances of getting a glitch. Based on the server positions and their alignment to the swash plate the overall geometry is very good and little or no interaction is present when setting up CCPM. Very large throws are possible on the cyclic and it is relatively easy to achieve +/-9° of pitch for collective. One of the things I like about this frame is the fact that all the electronic components are tucked nicely out of harm's way should an incident occur. A regular occurrence on my trex is for the tail servo to get smashed in a crash, this frame does a very good job of protecting the tail servo particularly if you mount the servo the opposite side to the pictures above where it will be out of the path of advancing main rotors. I will be moving my servo as an afterthought. So the burning question is how well this frame will fly? The answer is that this is in fact a very nice set of frames with very good flight characteristics and a good positive response to stick inputs. Certainly the introduction of CCPM control in a very rigid set of carbon frames does wonders for the overall handling and aerobatic capability. Added to this the carbon frames also shed a little weight. Matched to a good motor a very good vertical performance can be achieved and the extra throw available to the swash plate allows for some more interesting and aggressive manoeuvres. Overall this is another good set of carbon frames and very much worth a look for the budget conscious buyer. Considering this set of frames is almost identical to the frames being offered by Rc-expert for the trex I have decided to link the review data below such that any feedback on this article or the review of the trex frames will be shown below. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
