Paddys Synergy N9 Build

[paddy]

Hey guys, thought I would put up a post relating to my latest acquisition, Synergy N9. Thanks to Ady for helping me see the light

All the tools have turned up now, so will start building it this weekend. Will post pics as I go.

Specs as follows:
OS 91HZ PS
JR 8717 on Cyclic
CSM RL30, with collective management enabled
CSM Cyclock
CSM 720 w/ JR 8900g
Revolectrix LIPO Rx pack
FMA 6V Regulator
Radix Main Blades

Thought I would take the opportunity to refresh/renew my tool kit (thanks again Ady ) so after discussions acquired the following:

Vernier Calipers
Dial Test Indicator w/ magnetic stand
Snap On Allen Key set w/ ball ends
Drill Press Vice
Standard Quality allen key set w/ ball ends
Decent set of Screw drivers (flat head & pozi)

[Adyonline]

Looking forward to seeing the build old chap.

[paddy]

well a slow start, but it has begun.

Skids - a different idea here with cylindrical nuts which slide inside the skids. Quite tricky to line them up with the holes in the skids, they also have a tendancy to get wedged. I oiled them, then pushed them into place with the flybar and maneuvered them with an old flat head screwdriver. I've heard of people using dowel with superglue to get them in place, bolting them up and twisting them off the dowel as another method. I'll reserve judgement on these until I sucessfully retrieve a set from bent skids!!

fuel tank - straight forward as long as you push the grommet in on its own! I needed to trim the inside of the tank as the lip of plastic on the inside was far too large for the grommet to get a seal. I used an allen key to maneuvere the tank vent nipple into place, then pulled it through with pliers.

Main gear assembly - pretty straight forward. The only thing the manual doesn't make clear is to assemble the cap to the sprag bearing with the least protuding edge towards the bearing. Note I didnt threadlock the sprag outer cover to the inside of the main gear hub - mixed opinions on whether this is necessary. I also intend to dial indicate the main gear.

has anyone got a 90 size piston locking tool?? peggies don't

[Adyonline]

Lets see some pics then Pads !!

[paddy]

got my piston locking tool, so assembled the fan, red loctited the engine nut. The fan hub itself isnt threaded thankfully. With the SE hub the collets weren't required (although no instructionstell you that).

Then did some dial indicating. Admittedly I havent put the bolts in the fan hub yet (they dont come with it...) but i dial tested it as a practice run (never used DTI before). Got ~0.01mm on both the inner and outer surface, and got ~0.01mm on the inside edge and 0.03mm on the outside edge.

As I understand it the run out to aim for is ~0.002inch, which is around 0.025mm. So pretty close.

Will do the clutch shaft tomorrow.

Tried to take pics tonight but the misses has flattened the camera battery taking baby pics, so will take some tomorrow.

[Santini Air]

Well Paddy put a photo of the baby in He must look better then a heli.

[paddy]

Did some more dial indicating tonight, eventually got the cluch shaft to 0.02mm which should be fine. To my disbelief when i moved the dial indicator closer to the tip, rather than at the base, i got much better readings (i did check everything for movement). This says to me that I managed to pick the only bit of the shaft that wasn't quite round, thats my luck. I tried tightening one side of the clutch to pull down the high side which helped, but eventually had to bend the shaft slightly to reduce the runout significantly.

Assembled everything around the motor, something tells me the fan shroud is going to give me some grief. Main gear and pinion also were assembled onto main shaft. Now next job is to start assembling the frames.

ps tried adding pics but they're too big

[paddy]

Plently more down now. Engine mounted and frames assembled. All really straight forward. I didnt loctite the engine until everything else around the frames had been done, then i moved it into position and locked it down. Bit of tweaking needed so the engine didnt rub the cooling shroud. Assembled the servo mounts and bell cranks.

Pics of work so far below

Dial indicating the clutch shaft

Engine assembly complete

Frames coming along

[paddy]

Finally made time to do some more on the Synergy, rotor head now assembled. Recieved a hyper performance main shaft collar from Fastlad, so tried to retrofit it - bad idea!!

It strikes me as a seasoned crasher of these things, that one of first things im going to bend in an accident is the main shaft. So one would think that a mainshaft change would be top of the list to make easy on a heli designed for 3d, and therefore to be smashed and repaired. It appears not. After half an hour of struggling and swearing ive now resorted to an online rant and a beer.

Im sure its just one of those things that requires "the knack", but jeezzz its frustrating.

With regards the rotor head simple stuff build wise, watch out for the updated parts (longer stemmed pivot balls) and manual updates, which are extra bits of paper. Note I didn't threadlock the bearings into the SE Blade grips. With retrospect I think im going to do a few flights, then check it over and loctite these in.

[paddy]

One lightinging storm and new motherboard, hard disk and 32 bit OS later, finally got the airframe ready and moving onto installing electrics.

The tail assembly had only one slightly tricky bit, the insertion of a split pin into the heli side torque tube coupling. I noticed that the plastic inner for the coupling didnt quite sit flush on the bottom of the outer piece, but I wrongly assumed it would go straight when i pressed the split pin in. In the end I had to enlarge the hole on one side by a few thou to get the split pin to come through. With hindsight, it would have been better to have sanded off the bottom of the plastic inner so it sat flush.

Onto the electrics, slight change of plan, it will be using a SGP Reactor X regulator, due to a intermittent failure on the regulator I was going to use.

Also will not be using RL30 governor but RL40. This allows slightly more intelligent use of collective management. It apply its collective management to combat bogging in high G scenarios. This will allow for flat out climbouts, passes etc to gain the highest speeds, but still knock the pitch off in more aggressive, fast attitude changing maneuveres where its easy to bog (e.g. any metronome related maneuvere)

Now I have a 32bit OS i can use the CSM software again to setup all the electrics. Currently CSM stuff doesnt support 64bit (as with most software).

everything zeroed ready to install servo arms and setup the swash

[paddy]

have just done a couple of test run ups of the engine to check for any obvious problems, vibration etc. Engine started really easily to my suprise - on 12v aswell (haven't soldered up my 24v lipo packs yet). Vibration seems normal for a nitro, at idle anyway. I thought it was pretty quiet too ( annie didnt ) .

One thing i will change is my gyro mount as it seems very floppy and looks as tho it will be prone to vibration as it was jerking lots on idle, however im sure it will change, maybe even disapear at higher revs. This may well be due to where i've mounted it - on the battery tray. Didn't want to mount it at the rear as would necessitate long cables.

So, Rotor heads setup, initial governor setup is done, just need to set headspeeds, change out the tail servo as its overheating when not doing anything, and should be good for test flight this week.

Adys spraying up my canopy aswell

[paddy]

RESULT - IT FLIES !

Flew couple of tanks through it this evening. Needed very little adjustment, just the tail push rod length to get the tail steady out of heading hold. Governors working fine, flipped her over, few piro flips. Tails holding but drifting occasionally, also a bit of fuel tank foaming at one stage but seemed to settle - however the engine is very rich, so will put it down to that for time being. Also had the usual tight new build feel which was quite good to feel again.

Something dropped off it on the first flight. I was quite alarmed so landed quickly and checked it over thoroughly. Couldn't find any bolts missing at all, no cable ties snapped, no velcro straps misssing. Can only think it was one of two things, the end of a cable tie which had been clipped off, or some grass/straw which had got in it during test run ups. Needless to say it was fine the next flight. Will check it over again thoroughly just to make sure.

So next flight will be setting idle up curve (just in case governor fails in flight). Then maybe can start leaning it off a bit.

Ady has showed me some pics of the canopy in progress - looking very neat

Below is couple of pics just prior to its first flight

[paddy]

More test flights tonight. Whacked the gyro gain upto 120% and it still didnt wag!! Gave it some, and it held up well, tons of power. Setup the idle up curve to be good enough as a back up. Bit of an ohh sh*#t moment, the engine cut on me in flight at a really awkward point - so i now know how well it autos (amazingly well!). I believe the first engine cut was glow plug, second & third was fuel line coming off. No damage done at all tho.
Will flush the engine and clean the carb and filters out next, bit dusty & gritty where i've been flying it.

Ady wheres a link to some pics of the canopy?? Also can I have a flight log in my blog?

[Adyonline]

Latest Piccys can be found at http://www.adyonline.net/gallery/

Canopy so far.........