Picked up a used Gaui 200

[Jerrymac]

Well, I picked up a used EP 200 just for fun and started going through it today. Found a bunch of very loose ball links ready to fall off as I was able to push them off just by handling the heli.
The head is not set up properly, and the tail belt looks like it could break it any minute. The guy I bought it from, bought it used and never flew it, so he told me he had no idea of the actual condition of it. He did include a box full of spare parts with it though. Just about everything but an extra frame.

It is the older version and not a V2. I am hoping to get it in the air by next weekend and will post some pics and flight reviews then. Everything is so tiny on this thing that I am having a tough time with it. Can't hardly see the screws even with my "cheaters" on, and being a longtime class 8 truck mechanic doesn't help either. My hands are badly scarred and about as soft and nimble as the soles of my boots, so, this makes it a little tougher too.

I had the 10 year old grandson helping out today though, and he was having a lot of fun.

More fun to come too as I was working on the "500" build today, and still have a Gazaur Mars 480 to put together. The Gazaur is by far the strangest built heli I have ever seen.

[dunkonu23]

Sounds like you've got a full plate, Jerry. Honestly, I have similar issues with the 450 pro (small parts, tight spaces). I need new glasses, though.

Good luck on getting it in the air next weekend. I think Ivan has one. I will be no help at all. I've stayed away from the tiny helicopters because I'm old, blind, and hamfisted!

Scott

[9sec240]

Jerry, I can try to help. I have two 200s right now but they are both V2. They are tough to work on and even harder to get set up right. What tail gyro and servo are you planning on running?

The Gazaur Mars is one heli I am really interested in hearing about. I scoped them out after the last AMA mag did an article on them. Pretty cool looking heli.

[Jerrymac]

I hear ya Scott, as I am old and don't see too well either. Just thought it would be a fun project and maybe the grandson can learn to fly it someday,I dunno.

Ivan, the heli was already mostly assembled. It has bms306bb servos on the cyclic and Futaba s3110 on the tail. The guy also included a Logictech 2100 gyro with it.
Here is a link to what I bought.

www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=216210

[9sec240]

Sweet deal Jerry. I would have scooped that up in a heart beat too!!

[Jerrymac]

Yeah, I thought it was a real good deal, that is why I jumped on it as soon as I saw it. I am gonna take some time going over the EP200 and see what all I have to do to get it in the air.

I hooked up a spare AR6100 in it and checked it over briefly. The head set-up is way outta whack I think. At mid-stick, the servo arms are all at 90 to the links, but the mixer arms and washout arms are not even close to being level. Funny thing is, the blade pitch was right at 0 degrees.

The manual is all of about 5 pages of useless info, but I did find a pretty good manual online. If I can find time, I will take some pics of the head set-up and maybe Ivan can get me sorted out here.

[Jerrymac]

Ok Ivan, a few questions.
What would be a good size battery for this? I need to order some right away to get in the air this weekend I hope. I was thinking of Hyperion 2s 850mah. Any thoughts?

Where is the best place to mount the gyro? I stuck a 3s 1000mah battery from an old king2 in the tray and it seems to balance real close. With a 2s I think it will be tail heavy. Would it be good to mount the gyro out on the tray under the canopy?

I was going through the head a little bit tonight and it seems that some of the links are way off from the manual. The angled links are about 3mm shorter than what the manual suggests. I am going to set all the link lengths according to the manual first, then go from there.

I have never used the LTG 2100T gyro either, so that will probably be on my next list of questions when I get to the tail set-up.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

[9sec240]

Jerry, being 2S, the Gaui is HARD on batteries. C rating is very important with a 2S of low capacity. I have 800mAh Turnigy 20C batteries and they SUCK!! I think that the higher C rated Hyperion 850 900s would be ideal.

Not sure if the V1 is the same as the V2 but you can move the motor to the front or back of the main gear for adjusting CG. I had the motor in back and the gyro mounted where the motor would have gone if it were up front.

I have a Hitec HG5000 gyro on one of my Trex 450s. It is a rebadged LTG 2100T. I can probably help you with that too.

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[Jerrymac]

Ivan, I just took a look at it and the frame is different on the V1. There is no way to mount the motor forward of the main shaft as the frame plate ends right in front of the main shaft.

For now, I will mount the gyro out front and wait till I get the batteries to see how the CG works out. More questions will follow I am sure.

I just ordered some of the Hyperion EX 2s 900mah 45C/90C batteries to try out. These should be more than ok on the V1 as it only has the 4800 kv motor and 12A esc.

Thanks for the help.

[9sec240]

Very cool. Those batteries should rock in the Gaui. I just put an order in to allerc... I should have picked up a few of those batteries too.

[Jerrymac]

Well, I haven't had time to work on the 200, but the wife and grandson left for Florida today for 10 days so I should have lots of time now.

One small set-back already though. My charger has XH style balance connectors and the Hypes are different. Forgot to order an adapter cable. I also forgot to order the JST connectors for the discharge wires.

Well, it's always something in this hobby, huh?

[dunkonu23]

Yep... I had to buy an adapter to charge 3S Hype's... I do so like 12 minute charges!

Scott

[Jerrymac]

Well, just for fun I took the lil 200 out in the back yard right before dark for a test hover with one of the 3s 1000mah lipos out of the king2 in it. It lasted all of about 5 seconds.

After finding the loose ball links on the head and not so good head set-up, I just changed all the links on the head and started from scratch setting up the head. It might be pretty close, I dunno.

Spooled it up and the tail control rod fell clear off just as it got about eye level off the ground. I guess I should have checked those ball links too. One thing I did find out though, is the lil 200 does not auto well. It kinda falls like a rock. A small rock that is.

I haven't looked it over yet to see if there was any damage, just tossed it on the bench and continued on with the gear changes on my other Hurri's.

[9sec240]

Jerry, what motor is in that 200? What pinion?

[Jerrymac]

Jun 21, 2010 22:15:03 GMT -5 9sec240 said:

Jerry, what motor is in that 200? What pinion?

The guy I got it from said the motor was the stock Gaui 4800kv, and it has a 15T pinion on it.

[Jerrymac]

Well, I took the lil 200 out to the field with me today for another test hover. Surprisingly it is pretty stable for such a small heli.

However it feels very underpowered with the stock motor. Punch-outs were very slow, and I am also having a problem with the tail. The tail kind of wanders slowly back and forth all the time, then at times it would kick real hard one way or the other. I tried different gain settings, but it made no difference. I think it needs a better tail servo, I dunno. Also not familiar with the 2100T gyro either, so might be a set-up issue.

[Jerrymac]

Well, the link lengths per the manual seemed to be way off. I had +8 degrees pitch at high stick and -16 degrees at low stick. No wonder the collective seemed mushy.
I spent the day Saturday going all through the head again. At mid stick I got the wash-out arms level, then played with the links till I got the mixer arms level too. 0 pitch at mid stick, and +- 13 degrees at high and low stick. Took her out for a roadtest Sunday and she flys great with one exception. The tail swings out about 45 degrees on a hard punch-out.

The tail holds great in a hover, FFF , and backward flight, but, hit the collective hard and it blows out really bad. Using gear end points for the gyro gain and have it at +110 and it still don't hold.

Not sure if it is a set-up problem or a crappy tail servo.The gyro is a LTG 2100T and i put a cheap Hi-tech HS50 on the tail. I have that same tail servo on my Blackhawk450 with a cheapo telebee gyro and it holds great. Not sure where to go with it now.

But, I will say, other than the tail problem, this little heli is a blast to fly. A little hard for these old eyes to see, but, a lot of fun to fly.

[dunkonu23]

Did you ever get wag?

I dunno much about these tiny things.

Scott

[9sec240]

Did you go through and set up the gyro per the manual or just fly it the way it was set up by the last owner?

[Jerrymac]

Scott, I did get a tiny bit of wag now and then, but only during a stationary hover.

Ivan, at first I just flew it the way it was already set up, but then I took the time to read through the manual and made some changes.

I set the tail up with 7 degrees of pitch at neutral stick. I then set the servo travel on the gyro so I had no binding at either side. Since the tail servo is just a cheap analog servo, I set the servo selection on the gyro to the low setting, which I believe was #3 if I remember right.

It didn't hold any better after doing that. Still swings about 45 degrees when I punch the throttle stick. It is even worse in idle 1 with a straight 90 throttle curve. It will swing out about 90 degrees on a punch-out.

Any suggestions?