Roban 800 EC135 Red Bull Flying Bulls 1st Forray Into Scale Build Thread
Hi All.. Michael convinced me to start a thread over here documenting the build. But I want to preface it first. I have no idea what I'm doing. I've flown 3D helicopters for years, and also host a popular podcast on the subject (Rotor Revolution RC Podcast). But I've only ever build one scale helicopter, and that was just a matter of throwing a 3D heli inside a pre-painted fuselage and calling it done. This build is a massive departure from that. So take nothing I do in this thread as advice, even if I'm confident in it. LOL. Just know I'm a raw beginner in the scale world and I tip my hat to all the top shelf builders in this community and enjoy learning from you all.
The Build: You can see a photo of what I'm hoping to achieve attached to this post. I hope to make this build as detailed as I can and may even attempt to compete at NATs with it for the fun of it if it goes well. But that's a longshot. I just want something to make me smile and challenge me in a new way. I'm starting with the Roban 800 size EC135 white painted fuselage kit with mechanics. I have ordered a ton of 3D printed scale accessories to add to it, a much better lighting system from unilight, and will be outfitting it with an Egodrift motor (I fly for team egodrift), a Spirit FBL with their Wave radio system (I'm on the Spirit team too), a Hobbywing ESC, Pulse Capacitor Backup, Unilight BEC system, running on 12S 5300 and trying some new servos which are high torque and run on a 12Volts. But I may change my mind on the servos.
For now I'm slowly working my way through the mechanics and electronics and getting close to being able to maiden the mechanics on a test sled in a week or so.
Hope this thread gives someone the confidence to jump in with two feet while clueless, or at least gives you all something to laugh about!
-Nick
3 Comments
As soon as you open the box... you HAVE to dry fit the fuselage together and just be in awe of how big the thing is! And then you start feeling really really intimidated!
First thing I did was to change the geometry of the servo linkages. They would certainly work stock, but I prefer straighter connections and I have the room, so I flipped the outer servo bellcranks to the outside of the frame and I'm much happier with this linkage layout for my needs and OCD.
I've spent hours and hours and hours researching electronics for this build. For now this is what I decided on:
Hobbywing 180Amp ESC - has a 12volt BEC, I have 6 of them already that perform fantastically, and they just plain work.
Scopion 80V Capacitor inline with a very long battery lead. I really want to put the ESC in the doghouse where there is lots of airflow. Using this Capacitor inline allows me to extend the battery leads without concern for damage from ripple voltage.
Unlight 15 BEC. My plan is to use the main flight pack to power all of the lighting in the helicopter, and the ESC Bec to power just the servos. Hobbywing BEC perform flawlessly in my 3D birds. I just didn't want to tax the ESC BEC with the lighting as well. I also didn't want to deal with multiple batteries. I'm fine with losing a bit of flight time to power the lights, and my Spirit FBL will call out battery capacity via telemetry so no issue there.
Figuring all this out, programming it, and getting everything working with the lighting control on a tx switch has taken some time and a lot of reaseach, but it's been fun. Picture below of wiring spaghetti as I test it all.