RunRyder - The New Dragonus II N-Plus Build/Review

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e-New & Emerging Electrics > The New Dragonus II N-Plus Build/Review

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

The Dragonus II PLUS

I have been given the opportunity to do a Build/Review thread for the new distributer of RCer's Dragonus II helicopter. That distributer is Hobby-Lobby. The Dragonus II PLUS is a slightly upgraded version of the Dragonus II SA kit. The upgrades are mainly to help during the kit build. I will show the spots that have been upgraded as I reach them.

So on with the build.

This is how the kit arrived from Hobby-Lobby. One really tiny box and then the components for the build. This included 4 HS-65HB servos, a Jeti Spin 33 amp speed controller, an Electron 6 receiver, an Art-Tech heading hold gyro, a "Twenty" 2150mAh 3Cell pack, and a 500XH (3300kv) motor. This will most likely be the recommended setup for the heli.

I've now unpacked the box and this is all of the part bags laid out on the table. A quick inspection shows everything is in fine order and the build is ready to begin.

One of the most important things to remember is to have the correct tools. For this build you will need Blue Tread Lock, Small philips head screwdrivers of various sizes, needle nose pliers, scissors, and a hobby knife. The manual calls for CA but I did not find any use for CA on the heli while I was building it. Also lay out the bags so you can see the labels.

The first step in the build process is to put the head together. This includes putting the main grips and center hub together. First I laid out all of the parts from the bag that was listed in the manual and everything needed to do the step on the page was included. Very nice. There is almost no searching for parts during this entire build. For the most part everything is included in the labeled bags.

Here is what the head looks like once it is put together. There was nothing really complicated with this part of the build. Just make sure you DO NOT glue the bearings in to the plastic grips and do make sure to use your blue thread lock on the end cap screws. I do really like how they have done the thrust bearing and the head came out incredibly nice. The manual recommends using the flybar basemount to press the bearings in and it works great. Definitally the way to go. Also to note is that on the mixing lever I used the middle hole on one side and the outer hole on the other for the ball links. This is the setup to use for 3D flight.

Here is the next step which was simply to insert the main shaft and install the seesaw. The only thing to note in this step was that unlike what is shown in the manual there are 3 holes for the programable head instead of 2. I'm going for the 3D setup in my build so I opted for the inner most holes on this assembly. You can choose the middle one for sport flying and the outer most one for hover practice. Also make sure that the flybar is equal on each side here. For me I believe it came out to 78mm on each side. One thing that was pleasently surprising was that I did a balance of the seesaw assembly and with a perfect 78mm on each side the assembly was completely balanced. So far the fit and finish is simply first rate.

The next step was to put the balls on the swash and to assemble the washout. Nothing to really report here. A pretty simple step.

Next is always the fun part which is creating the linkages. The manual does a great job of explaining the linkage lengths using both inner and outer measurements. They also show you which way the ball links are supposed to go. Remember that there is a right way and a wrong way to put on a link. On these links there is a little protruding dot on base of the link that should be facing away from the ball. The manual shows how they align. Very nice.

Now you simply put the linkages on the head assembly following the diagram in the instructions and making sure the links go on the right way. One thing I did note is that not one linkage needed to be sized to the ball. The fit and finish here was simply amazing. This now completes the head setup and now it's on to the tail.

The next step is to assemble the tail assembly. This is pretty simple. Just make sure to put the belt around the shaft before screwing the sides in. I was amazed at how free this setup is. There is 0 slop in the linkage assembly here.

The next step was to install the tail blade grips and put the tail case on the boom. You must put the bearings into the tail grips just like with the main grips. In this situation the manual recommeds that you use the main shaft to put the bearings in and that works great as well. Again here DO NOT glue the bearings in to the blade holders. Do make sure to secure the cap screw with blue thread lock though. Again I'm simply amazed at how free and slop free this assembly is. It's really very well built for being the plastic version.

At this point the head component and tail component have been completed. The next step is the main frame

04-06-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

The Main Frame...

The manual has you begin with the lower frame assembly. This is where I see the first major difference in this kit. Everywhere that a screw would normally have a nut behind it there is a molded in nut to the frame. This means that you no longer have to futz with pliers to secure these frame screws. Let me tell you this seriously reduces build time. Just dip the screw in thread lock and screw it in. Simply great. Each screw also has a fairly substantial lip on it which helps tremendously with truing the frame. The frame needed almost 0 truing once all of the screws were in place.

The next part in the build is the upper frame. You first look at the manual and boy does it look daunting. It really was not as bad as it looked though and actually went so fast that I forgot to snap any pictures during the build of it. The steps I found that worked well to put this part together was:
1. Put the canopy mounts on first. This will create your left and right frame for you.
2. Next put in all of the plastic peices first using the 5mm screws. Do remember that the bearing blocks go with the open side of the bearing facing out from the center of the frame.
3. Now using the 4mm screws when you are going into metal and do remember to use thread lock on these screws. Some people don't use it on the frame but I do and do recommend that you do as well.

I did however find a problem in my kit here. You must use two M2 nuts on the underside of the tail belt wheel pulley's. These nuts were not in the parts bag for this step and this was the first time this has been the case. I was able to scrounge 2 nuts from the spare parts bag though so not a big deal

The next step is to put the upper and lower frame halfs together. I found that it was easiest to put the middle frame stiffener in first. This is the stiffener that is closest to the canopy mounts. This will be the hardest one to get at if you don't do it first due to the way the frame is setup. Then I did the front 2 mounts and then the final back mount last. Oddly there were 2 sets of screws here that did require the M2 nut on the back of them. In this step there were some extra parts left over which was another first in the build. The kit included an extra spacer that would be used in the elite kit and there were two m2 nuts here that were not needed that can be used in the previous step.

This step is where everything really comes together. In one swoop your 3 sub components become one and starts to look like a heli. First slide the tailboom into the tail boom bracket on the main frame and make sure that you get the twist right. At this point I recommend installing the landing skids. Once the main gear is in getting at the front 2 screws in extremely difficult. Then insert the assembled main gear and drop the main shaft in and set the collars. It's a very nice setup that provides for extremely free movement of the tail and head. The only problem I had here was that the jesus bolt that was in the parts bag for this step was to small. Again there was the correct size screw in the spare parts bag. The final thing to do in this step is install the tail fins and boom brace and now we have a heli.

At this point I have completed the mechanical build of the heli and I am ready to do the electronics install. I did take the time to do a quick cut at the canopy

Here's a few pictures next to my MX-400 for comparison as well

Total build time to this point is about five and a half hours. The build was amazingly easy and really went quite fast. The only big difference that I noticed from the SA is the new molded nuts on the main frame. May not sound like much but it's a hassle and time saver. I would recommend checking out finless's videos of the elite helicopter. It may not be exactly the same but a lot of the tips can help if you are feeling confused specially with the top frame build.

I unfortunatly won't be able to get to the electronics install until next week as this weekend is completely shot for me. One thing is for certain. This heli is vastly superior to my MX-400 in both build quality and design. I can't wait to get it in the air.

04-06-2007 Over year old.

HeliDuce
Senior Heliman
Location: Nashville, TN

Dragnous II review

Great job on the build review, I like the changes that they have made on the Dragnous. Anxious to hear your impressions on how it flies.

Gary

Trex 600,Gazaur Mars 480, Trex SE V2, ESky 550 ESmart, Eco 8 Royal, Dragnous II, Falcon 3D, SE,

04-06-2007 Over year old.

HeliNY
Senior Heliman
Location: Long Island, NY

Thanks for the review LOstSoul, I've been hoping a big company like Hobby-Lobby would step up to the plate and support the Dragonus, and now its happened!!

As soon as they start selling the Pro I will be buying one to show my support of RC'er and Hobby-Lobby, spare parts will be readily available now, YEAH. I see the fanboys of you-know-who already harassing another reviewer of the Dragonus, lets us all know how badly this move by Hobby-Lobby affects them, love it!!

04-06-2007 Over year old.

GTMAXX
Senior Heliman
Location: Leetonia, Ohio

More to come.

Looks like there's going to be more to come concerning the Dragonus as far as developments and improvements. The blind nuts are a definite plus and a welcome improvement and those concerned about parts need not worry anymore.

Todd

04-07-2007 Over year old.

Sonex128
Heliman
Location: Claremore, OK

Welcome to the world of the Dragonus L0stS0ul!!

Look forward to more of your review.

Brian J Bland
Claremore, OK
Dragonus II

04-07-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

Thanks guys. I'm now back from the holiday and did some more of the build tonight.

The first thing I did was weigh the airframe. As it sits now it's completely put together without any of the electronics. It comes in with an empty weight of 404 grams or 14.25 ounces.

Now on with the build.

The first thing I did tonight is not a step in the manual. Like Finless, I don't like that the stock setup has the battery pack butting up to the motor so I modified my frame in a similar fashion that finless did. This is an incredibly simple modification. I bought an extremely thin sheet of aluminum flashing from home depot. This stuff is so thin you can cut it with scissors. I cut out a square just big enough to fit over the area they tell you to put the speed controller and then bent it and screwed it in. Put on some velcro and use a velcro wrap and you have a nice battery mount. The speed controller will now mount where the battery was supposed to go. The two spacers on the lower 2 screws did get grinded a little to make room for the aluminum. No modification to the top 2 screws had to be done. Again make sure to thread lock when you put the screws in place

I did a quick test fit of the servos and found that the two servos that connect to the anti-rotation assembly were an incredibly snug fit. So much so that I was conserned about case flex so I pulled that part off the heli as shown and then filed down the metal with my dremel until the servos fit cleanly inside. It didn't take much but now there is no force on the case. Then I put the piece back in the heli and tightened the screws back up using blue thread lock.

\

Before putting the servos in I decided now is a good time to put the motor in the heli. Once the servos are in it looks like it'll be trickier to get to the motor screws so now seems like a good time. I first used my dremel to put a very small flat spot on the motor shaft for the grub screw to dig into. Make sure you protect the motor when you do this. You don't want to get shavings into the motor. I chose to start with the 13 tooth pinion so I did a quick set and found that the pinion had to be placed in the middle of the shaft. Put the pinion on and with some blue threadlock on the grub screw I set it.

Also in the picture you can see me starting my oh so favorite part of RC modeling. Soldering. There is nothing better in this world then a set of helping hands. They make the work so much safer. I've not burned myself since getting them

Here is the speed controller and motor after the bullet connectors are soldered. I like to put two male and one female on the motor and two female and one male on the speed controller. This makes it easy for me to keep track of which ones can be switched. Just something I do.

The next step is to mount the motor and set the pinion mesh and once that's done I'll get to mounting the servos. I originally thought that the servo mounts in the frame were to small and it turns out that it's not as bad as I thought. They are a smidge small but you can get away without filing them. So the only things that really could use filing IMHO are the 2 servo brackets on the anti-rotation assembly.

04-10-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

I didn't get as much done tonight on the build as I would have liked so no pictures tonight. Before I get to mounting the servos and doing the frame setup I'm going to head out tomorrow and pick up a set of digital calipers. Gonna make sure I have everything to the manual to start with.

The only step I got done tonight was to get the battery connectors soldered on and I modified the rear plate where the gyro mounts. The gyro that hobby lobby provided, the Art-Tech heading hold gyro, is much wider then the telebee or futaba gyros and does not fit in the gyro mount. I'll upload some pictures tomorrow of the modification and will hopefully begin radio programming tomorrow.

04-11-2007 Over year old.

HeliDuce
Senior Heliman
Location: Nashville, TN

The Art-Tech gyro has to fit sideways with the two wires coming out the back. I know it doesn't look as nice but it works, you also have to spread the gyro protector cage apart about 1/4 inch so it doesn't interfere with the gyro. Since the gyro doesn't care which way it's facing it really doesn't matter since it will work the same. If for some reason you don't want to use channel 5 for the gyro you can leave it unplugged and the gain adjustment works just backwards from what you'd think. The + plus setting is actually a minus- setting, the lower the gain is set, the higher it actually is. I know it sounds odd but that's the way it works. The gain pot setting on top of the gyro has no effect if the channel 5 wire is plugged into your receiver, with it unplugged from channel 5 the gain pot will work, just backwards! Just a little extra info for those that use the Art-Tech HH gyro.

Gary

Trex 600,Gazaur Mars 480, Trex SE V2, ESky 550 ESmart, Eco 8 Royal, Dragnous II, Falcon 3D, SE,

04-11-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

I actually decided to go at the gyro mount with my dremel and get it so it sits correctly on the mount. It won't have the protection that the 401 would have but that's ok. I didn't want to remove the protective thing all together since it is partially there for rigidity so modifying seemed the easiest thing to do.

I wonder why they made the case as big as they did. The gyro is incredibly light and does not feel like there is much inside it.

04-11-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

Gyro Mount Mod

Here's the pictures of the gyro mount mod I did. This was done purely for looks and is completely optional. You can fly the heli with the gyro set on it's side. I just like the look of it sitting on it's back better. The cage that is designed is a nice look but I don't really think it would provide much protection to the gyro since the entire top portion of the gyro is exposed anyway. A very simple hack job with the dremel and then touched up the bare metal with a black sharpie and it looks like it was always trimmed like that.

Just a few shots with the gyro in place and how it looks.

This picture shows how the speed controller will be situated. Wiring is going to need some serious work to be pretty. It's hard to tell from the picture but the motor is mounted and has had the paper pinion mesh done.

I'm still waiting on a reciever crystal for the electron 6. I'm gonna have to scavange another receiver until that comes in.

04-12-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

Servo installation

There were no issues with the servo installation. Once the mounts for the 2 servos in that anti-rotation bracket were filed down the servos just went right in.

I picked up the crystal tonight from my buddy and will now be able to start the radio programming. I've gotta charge my transmitter overnight though as it's been a long time since I've used it. Thank goodness winter and early spring are almost over. Flying season is getting close

(EDIT: 4/15/07) Note that in the pictures above the front 2 servos are actually upside down. I noticed this when I was doing the linkages and fixed it then.

04-14-2007 Over year old.

HeliNY
Senior Heliman
Location: Long Island, NY

Hi Lostsoul, you are doing a great job with this build thread, I am following it and find it really good. Thanks for taking the time.

04-14-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

Thanks a lot HeliNY.

I've now got all of the servos centered and the linkages installed and I'm now working on programming my radio. If all goes well I should be able to get the heli hovered today in my garage. Here in northern va we've got some crazy weather so I won't be able to fly it outside until these crazy storms go thru. I will see if I can't get some video of the very first lift off.

More pictures and hopefully some video later tonight.

04-15-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

Motor and Linkage Setup

The first thing I did today was program the speed controller using the jeti control box. I walked thru the setup taking mostly the defaults. The only 2 things I changed starting out were:

1. the type of aircraft which is airplane by default. I switched it to helicopter.
2. Set the motor up to use 30 degrees advance since I was told that this motor can be difficult to get going.

Using the Jeti Spinbox really does make programming the speed controllers a no brainer. I'm really looking forward to checking the log capabilities of it. Apparently these speed controllers keep statistics. The only problem I had here was that the display on the spinbox had a dead section in it right in the middle of the display. It made reading some of the items a bit difficult but still extremely usable.

Now with the control horns that come with the HS-65's you only have the option for a distance of 10mm or 13mm for the ball link from the root of the control horn. The manual recommends 11-12mm. If you trim the control horn really close and bend the servo mounts back you might be able to get the 13mm one to work but it was to close for me so I opted to use the 10mm hole.

Once installed I noticed that the front 2 servos linkages were not even coming close to 90 degrees probably do in part to the missing 1-2mm missing from the control horn. The elevator servo is very close to 90 degrees. I remembered seeing one of finless's videos where he also noticed this and he recommended using some of the left over trimmed servo control horn as a spacer. I tried this and it worked very nicely. As you can see from the third photo the linkages are now very close to 90 degrees.

The next step is wire management. It's always fun trying to figure out the best way to route the wires. This is what I came up with. The receiver is sitting in the recommended location in the manual. The speed controller is moved down to the battery tray. Everything else is as the manual recommends. I think it came out quite nice actually. I could really use to shorten the gyro wires but that's about it. Every other wire was almost a perfect fit. I did not have to use the extensions that Hobby-Lobby provided for me.

04-16-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

Final Mechanical and Radio Setup

Here is the first test fit of all of the components. The antenna routing is temporary until I can get an antenna tube. The landing skids have space for it but an antenna tube was not supplied with the kit.

The next step is the radio setup. I have a futaba 7CHP radio so here are some of the more important settings (all of these will probably change due to reasons outlined below):

Swash Type: HR3
Ail: -65
Ele: +65
Pit: +65

Servo Reversing: Channels 2,3, and 6 are reversed.

At this point you should have all of the servos moving the correct way. Now we need to think about the throttle and pitch settings for the first flight. I am not programming in the idle ups until I've actually flown it.

Currently throttle and pitch settings for planned first flight:
Throttle: 0 : 40 : 75 : 75 : 75
Pitch Curve (in degrees): -3 : -1.5 : 0 : 5 : 10

That should get me a constant head speed from 0 pitch to hover. Once I actually get the heli flying I'll come back and post my settings once I'm happy with it. I am also dialing in 25% expo on all of the control surfaces to start out with. I'm already thinking that the rudder might be needing some extra.

Everything was working well to this point so I went to check the main blade pitch. I learned here that the stock linkage lengths must be for the hovering mode. On my heli the main blade pitch when my radio is set to be at 0 degrees is currently -11 degrees. The 10.5mm linkage length for the servo linkages is not enough. I first increased the 3 linkages to 15mm and rechecked. I am now at about -4 degrees pitch when the radio is at 0. I still have a few more turns to do on the linkage. This day took much much longer than I was expecting and I called it a night at this point. I've already put in about 4 hours tonight on the heli.

Before leaving I threw the heli on the scale to see what the full RTF weight would be. With the "20" 2150mAh battery installed the total weight of the heli with all components RTF is 27.15 ounces.

I'll definitally finish the heli up tomorrow night and I'll let you all know where my linkages and radio settings ended up and have video of the first flight. I'm hoping I can do it outside but the weather here is really bad right now. Worst case I'll maiden it in my garage.

04-16-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

The build is DONE! and WOW

I just came in from the first test hover to track the heli. All I can say is wow. This is one amazing heli. Before we get into the flight let's get to what I had to do to get it airborne.

So the first thing I did today was balance the main blades. I didn't bother to do any fancy balancing. I checked the CG of the blades and checked the weights. To my amazement they were both identical. On my balancer it did seem to favor one blade so I chose the lighter one to put the tracking tape on. I could not put more than a 1/2 an inch of tracking tape on the blade or it would be the heavier one. I can honestly say between e-sky blades, helimax blades, and align blades I have never had a set of blades so perfectly matched.

So on to finishing up the linkages. I decided to take a step back and start at the beginning again. I have a tendancy to get ahead of myself. So I pulled all of the linkages and reset them to what the manual states.

Servo to Swash linkage: 10.5mm
Washout to mixing arm linkage: 4mm
Swash to mixing arm linkage: 42mm
Mixing arm to flybar linkage: 0mm

I started with the swash. Centering all of the control horns and making sure the swash was level and in the center of travel on the main shaft. I then moved on to the washout and then to the mixing arms. In the end I ended up with my linkages at the following lengths:

Servo to Swash linkage: 12mm
Washout to mixing arm linkage: 3mm
Swash to mixing arm linkage: 41mm
Mixing arm to flybar linkage: 1mm

(Note: Images are with the blade pitch at -3 degrees)

This provided me with the main blades at 0 pitch with the radio set to be at 0 pitch. I then had to adjust the swash menu of my heli to keep everything from binding. I ended up with these swash settings:

AIL: -70
ELE +70
PIT +50

With these settings I am currently getting from -11 to +11 degrees on the main blades. Honestly, setting up the head was tricky but I am very glad I took the time to get it right. You will find out in the next section.

After getting the mechanical setup with everything perfectly aligned it was time to do the first test hover and blade tracking. I setup the radio for the test hop.

Throttle curve: 0, 45, 50, 75, 75 (didn't want the head speed to high)
Pitch Curve (radio settings): 40, 45, 50, 75, 100 (-3 to +11)

So I took my MX-400 out to the garage and flew off a pack to get used to flying a heli again. I can't believe it's been so long. The weather here has been awful. Anyway I finished off a pack and came in and grabbed the Dragonus.

I had 2 gyro settings programmed into the heli. One for "A 75" and the other for "A 50". On the 7CHP they separate rate mode from heading hold mode with "N0 - N100" being rate mode and "A0 - A100" as heading hold mode. It turns out that 75% on the heading hold side is a bit to much.

Even 50% was to much. I moved it down to 30% which is about 65% on most other radios and the wag was gone. This is where the WOW came in.

As it sat there spooled up and I was checking everything to make sure I didn't do something stupid and everything looked great so I poped it up into a hover. This thing is stable and crazy quiet compared to my MX-400 and the head speed is quite a bit higher on the Dragonus. I brought it up to eye level to check the tracking. Perfect. The blades were dead on. Not a single thing to change there. So I brought it down to waist level and litterally let go of the sticks. The heli was flying hands off for 5 or 6 seconds before I had to correct. Simple amazing. There is 0 tweeking of this heli to do other than program my radio for 3D. This thing is simply amazing.

04-17-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

Final Thoughts... For now...

I guess I should list my conclusions at this point as far as I can.

As far as the build went:

The Plusses
1. The build is very easy and the manual is excellent. The manual goes out of its way in some areas to be incredibly clear. This really helps remove a lot of ambiguity that I have seen in many other heli manuals. I honestly think someone with little to no experience could build this heli.

2. The molded m2 nuts on the frames are an amazing time saver. You really can't understand how such a small thing could be such a big deal but it really is.

3. Some other reviewers have commented on the screws being soft but I did not have any problems with them. I didn't even come close to stripping any of the screws. A few were pretty tight, like into the landing skids, and could probably be changed to a different type of screw but I was pleased with the quality here.

4. The quality of materials overall is very nice. Compared to the plastic on my MX-400 the plastic on the Dragonus is leaps and bounds better.

5. I am constantly amazed at the smoothness of this heli. From the tail case to the belt drive to the freeness of the head. Everything is just so smooth and I've not even lubricated anything yet! Have I mentioned that there is very little slop. I've not seen a plastic kit be so slop free.

6. I have not personally been able to measure the frame width as I don't have an older kit but other reviewers have noted that the newer frames are slightly thicker than the older frames.

7. While I've only done a test hop for blade tracking and trimming I have never had a heli be perfect right off the bench requiring 0 trim anywhere. Truly remarkable.

Kit Minuses:

1. This is more of a wishlist item really: While the linkage lengths they give in the manual don't work in the full 3D mode I don't doubt they are correct for the hover mode. It would be nice if they provided linkage lengths for the different ways you can program the head. They also don't tell you how to program the head. That information had to be found online and the only place I know to find it right now is one of Hobby-Lobby's competitors. I would hope that hobby lobby includes this programming information as an adendum for release.

2. The manual also has build information in it for the Elite. They recommend using CA glue in certain areas of the heli like gluing bearings into place. I do not recommend doing this on any of the plastic kits. The only area where CA can be used is in the pin that is in the center hub that guides the washout. The only other glue you should be using is Blue Thread lock.

3. There were some parts missing from 2 parts bags. While these parts are available in the spare parts bag and as left overs in later steps it does detract from the experience a little.

4. This is more of a design issue but I still see it as a negative. I would like to see RCer do a battery mount similar to the one I did. I really don't like the battery sitting in the bottom try like that. You could very easily push the battery into the motor just by putting the canopy on. This is one area I could see as needing improvement in the design. It's already there, it just needs a plate.

5. The front 2 servos in the anti-rotation bracket are a very tight fit if using HS-65's. It would be nice if these were molded a little wider so the fit was a bit better. Sanding is not a requirement here but I would recommend that you do so to keep any possible issue from occuring with the servos.

6. The HS-65's need a spacer behind them to achieve a 90 degree angle on the swash linkages. I realize this is extremely servo dependant and is probably not the case with other servos but be aware that if you use HS-65's I recommend using a spacer. You can get by without them but for optimal setup use the spacer.

Hobby Lobby's included components:

1. The HS-65's are a great choice for this heli. While the heli seems to be designed around a slightly smaller servo it is not difficult to get the hs-65's to work.

2. The Jeti Spin 33 amp speed controller is an amazing piece of hardware. All of the capabilities it has are amazing. Just plugging in the spinbox controller board and seeing all of the options that you have is truly astonishing. I'm looking forward to playing with a lot of the options some more including the flight memory information. The only negative was that my spinbox had some dead pixels but it was still usable.

3. The "20" 2150mAh 11.1v lipo so far is doing great. I checked the pack balance and it was dead on from hobby-lobby. I can't comment much more on this one since I don't have much experience with it yet.

4. The 500 XH/XT motor. I'm not entirely sure which exactly it is as the instructions list both but it's definitally a cheaper motor. Nine times out of ten the speed controller can start the motor up but there were a few times tonight where the motor just whined loudly and didn't spin as I increased throttle. When it's running it seems to be nice but I'll be able to revisit this once I get it out to the field and can do more than just hover it.

5. The art-tech gyro. From my test hover so far, seems to hold pretty well. Definitally better than the telebee gyro at the same price. The temperature drift on the telebee is very noticable but there was no drift on this gyro in the 5 minutes or so I was flying it. It seems to be happy between 60-65%. Again I'll be able to better review this component once I get out to the field. I'd like to hold my full opinion until I have a bit more experience with it.

I tried to get some video tonight but if you would have seen the look on my wife's face when I asked her to come to the garage with me at 10:30pm. Classic

Needless to say I hope to get some video tomorrow of how amazingly smooth this heli is.

There will be much more to come as I get to fly the heli more and get some videos and test the 3D performance of this Dragonus Plus kit. I definitally think Hobby-Lobby has a winner on their hands here.

04-17-2007 Over year old.

HeliDuce
Senior Heliman
Location: Nashville, TN

Dragnous II are in and available

They are in now for ordering at Hobby-Lobby, click here to order, or watch the video; http://www.hobby-lobby.com/dragonus.htm

Gary Morris

Trex 600,Gazaur Mars 480, Trex SE V2, ESky 550 ESmart, Eco 8 Royal, Dragnous II, Falcon 3D, SE,

04-20-2007 Over year old.

L0stS0ul
Senior Heliman
Location: Virgina - USA

More thoughts after some time with the heli...

I wanted to post some more information on what I've found after flying it a bit.

I ran into a little problem when I bumped the head speed up from 75% to 100%. I started to see a very slight vibration in the skids and tail fins. I turns out after some digging to figure out the problem that my main blades were not as well balanced as I had thought. I had originally used a scale that only has .1 ounce resolution. I pulled out my pocket scale that has .01 ounce resolution and rechecked and it turned out that my blades were .03 ounces out of balance. This lead me to recheck the CG of the blades and they too were off by about 4mm. I must have been really tired the night I balanced the blades. So needless to say I balanced the blades and got the CG dead on and the vibration went away. So moral of the story is use a good scale and get those blades balanced or you'll have issues with slight vibration at high rpm.

I've also now got the decals on the canopy. It looks great. My wife thinks it's really mean looking.

The heli is very smooth, very responsive, and very stable in a hover. I've been out of town for a while so I've still only done hovering in my garage with the heli so I still can't really speak to the performance out at the field. I'm all charged up and just waiting for the winds to go away. Hopefully this week we'll have some good weather and I'll get that video.

05-07-2007 Over year old.

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