Hirobo Dauphine 60 Electric Conversion

I purchased this Hirobo Dauphine around 2002. It was my second scale helicopter. It was nitro powered with a OS 60 engine running 15%. I had many flights, it was smooth, balanced however the fenestron tail performance was always tenuous depending on the engine’s performance and air temperature. I dealt with it, then put it on the shelf for 10+ years. After renewing my interest in RC I jumped into turbine helicopters. My Lama and 429 builds are posted on this site.

Then I got introduced (late) to electric helis and planes. Blade, Goosky, SAB Goblin….gosh electrics are nice! Then I bough an electric conversion for my Vario Bell 222. That was plug and play.

The Dauphine just sat and I needed a winter challenge. Below is what I did.

I had seen one conversion of a Hirobo Dauphine which utilized the original nitro’s centrifugal clutch and reportedly flew well. It gave me inspiration so I went to work.

Starting with the engine out, I took a pic of the frame and scaled it in Fusion. Then I proceed to fabricate a bracket that would accept the new electric motor. I did not want to modify the frame and used as many existing components as possible.

I went to YouTube school on everything motors and ESC. After a few calculations I used:

Xnova Lightening 430/2.5Y-560KV 8P
Hobbywing Platinum 180A HV SBEC V5

The original gear ratio was 97/10 pinion. I sourced a 12T 6mm bore, 1 modulas pinion gear.

I have conducted two test hovers. One was 4 minutes and the motor temp was 108F. The max recommended is 70C or 158F, so nowhere near that.

I installed a Jeti receiver, 900mH backup and Bavarian Demon Axon gyro. I will post various pictures of my process.