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Mounting
the electronics |
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| Install the on/off switch in the slot behind
the collective servo. The side of the switch that has two
wires on it is the OFF side. I always place the OFF side
toward the front of the helicopter. Of the two wires on
the OFF side, one has a female plug (battery plug) and
the other a male (charge plug). The female plug should be
connected to the plug from the battery. The male plug (charge
plug) from the switch will be pushed through the hole on
the back of the servo tray behind the rudder servo. This
will get the charge plug over to the right side of the
helicopter where it will be more out of the way of the
exhaust. The ON side of the switch has just one wire.
This wire needs to be plugged into the receiver. Note: A lot of receivers do not have a plug dedicated to power. Instead they use one of the channel plugs on the receiver for the battery input. On the receiver all ground pins are connected together and all positive pins are connected together. So any spare port on the receiver can be used to get power to the receiver and all the servos attached to it. So what do you do if you do not have a spare port, use a Y-cable. If you do need to use this then I recommend using a low priority channel such as the gyro gain channel 5. Connect the Y-cable to channel 5 then connect the gain plug to one side of hte Y-cable and the battery to the other side. |
| Routing the
antenna: ================= This is something I see setup wrong a lot. Keep the antenna away from servo wires, notice how the receiver is mounted so the plugs are on the left side of the helicopter and the antenna is on the right. Another common thing is to have the antenna taped or zip tied to the tail boom support rod. This will effect the reception, also the wire should not be parallel with either the support rods or the tail boom. And another thing I see a lot is the antenna is pulled too tight. This can break the wire over time with the vibration of the helicopter. The
picture to the right shows how I route my antenna wire to
the antenna tube. First you will see I use a piece of
fuel tubing that runs from the receiver down to the
antenna tube. I route this down by the right fork of the
frame then under the skid and slip in over the antenna
tube. Tip: To get the wire to go through, first remove
any kinks then spray rubbing alcohol in the fuel tubing
and spray the wire as you slide it it. Next you need to
cut the antenna tube. When you get the tube it is very
long so you will need to cut it down to size. Cut it so
that the tube extends one inch past the front and back
struts. Whichever end you cut you need to look at the end
carefully. If the end is pinched then use a small
screwdriver to open the hole back up. If you leave it
pinched it will not only be difficult to get the wire
through, but it could eventually cut the wire later on.
Next before you install the tube in the guides on the
struts you can run the wire through it. Use the same
technique as you used for the fuel tubing to get the wire
to go through. Now install the tube in the guides on
underside of the struts. If these have broke off, you are
using after market struts, or you installed the struts
backwards, then you can use two zip ties in a crossed
direction to hold the tube in place. I have seen some
drill a hole through the strut for the zip tie but if you
do this keep in mind you are creating a weak spot in a
section that receives a lot of flexing.Now slide a two inch piece of fuel tubing down the antenna wire and over the back end of the antenna tube. This will provide a strain relief section for the wire. ![]() ![]() To mount the end of
the antenna I use part of a servo horn, a rubberband, and
a piece of plastic from a fuel jug or rubbing alcohol
bottle. The reason for making the plastic piece in the
picture on the left is to act as a catch for the
rubberband* that holds the antenna. I like to keep near
zero tension on the antenna and the plastic catch will
prevent the rubberband from coming off and sliding down
the tail support rod. First cut out the plastic piece as
shown in the 2nd picture on the right and drill a hole in
the non-curved side. Next take off the screw on the left
side going through the tail boom support rod and into the
horizontal tail fin. Slide a rubberband on the support
rod then install the plastic piece between the horizontal
tail fin mount and the support rod and tighten the screw.
Now cut off part of a servo arm that has three holes. Run
the antenna wire through one hole then around the
rubberband then back through the middle hole. Adjust the
length so the rubberband is not being stretched at all.
Now run the wire through the third hole to lock it in
place. * Tip:
Use a strip cut from a plastic bag to secure the back end
of the antenna wire to the helicopter. I used rubberbands
before (as seen on my antenna
routing page) but the problem with this is the
exhaust will turn the rubber to goo. I have heard of fuel
proof rubberbands but I did not have any on hand. Instead
I came up with the idea about using strips cut from a
plastic bag. The plastic bag is fuel proof and yet still
weak enough that if you snag the antenna wire or have a
crash it will break before the antenna wire will. Note:
this is to be used only when you a have a zero-tension
setup like on my antenna routing page. |
Mounting
battery monitorIf you have a battery monitor like the Gem2000 you can make a mount out of some plastic from a fuel jug. Cut out a rectangular piece and fold it in half. Stick the Gem2000 to one side and put some double sided tape on the other. Stick this to the top of the servo tray as shown in the photo on the right. Note: Make sure the bottom part is not so long that it interferes with the pitch arm when it is all the way down. For other battery monitors like the VoltWatch stick it to the side of the right frame fork. The battery monitor will need to be connected to a spare port on the receiver. So what do you do if you do not have a spare port, use a Y-cable. If you do need to use this then I recommend using a low priority channel such as the gyro gain channel 5. Connect the Y-cable to channel 5 then connect the gain plug to one side of hte Y-cable and the battery to the other side. |
| Next is to install the servos, then later zip
tie the wires. Click <here> to go to the Aileron servo setup page. |