Belt needs to be tight enough that you feel a bit of resistance when you turn the head assy. If there is no resistance, then it's probably too loose and will eventually try to slip when the tail kicks in during hard pitch or piros. That can strip teeth off the belt.
Belt too tight will put too much lateral stress on tail shaft and bearings and cause bearings to wear prematurely or wear grooves in the tail rotor shaft.

 

Ok just done the blade balancing, well both the main and tail blades needed some work. The mains took 2 pieces of 3mm tracking tape on the CoG to balance out, chord width is 33.5mm, 377mm length and 5mm root. For the tails just took some material off from rear of the root end. These
http://www.banggood.com/ALZRC-Devil...orful-Carbon-Fiber-Main-Blades-p-1034102.html looks different from what I got in the kit, might be better?

 

Coz the 380's belt is so much longer than the 450 belts, you'd have to crank it tight to keep it from slipping off the drive pulley or even prevent it from slapping on the boom. I'm sure the manual says very tight for a reason.

 

Yes the gobby 380 belt tension is a little different than most helis. It needs to run tight for the reason you mention - slipping off the main pulley. Thats why the belt tensioner is a must as far as i am concerned. originally i tightened the belt as i would any 450 or larger helicopter. And the belt flipped off and the heli fell from a great height with bad damage. I then learned that tight meant considerably tighter than what you are used to for a belt. Not stupid tight but you should be able to make the belt flex around 5mm pushing in at 2cm back from the main pulley. This is an approximation by the way. I would recommend the tailbelt pulley @joeclone ... i have never had a belt flip off with this addition but if you must run without it, keep it tight. The quality of the tail belt is very important.

 

Thanks for the advice, will be getting the belt tensioner for piece of mind. The devil tail belt dun look too flimsy but dun look like the gobby's gates belt. Have read on rcg that it does hold for quite some flights without problems. Maybe not in the hands of hardcore smak guys.

 

"Ver

" very tight" leaves a bit of room for interpretation.

What? Did I read that right? Gates™ belts? That's one of the leading brands of belts in the world. I'm an auto mechanic.... so I know. Now I wonder if I can find one for my 450. What does the D380 have.... Pioneer?

 

Yes very true @Beaver... it does leave it open to interpretation... the very reason why i didnt have the belt tight enough!. And the goby 380 uses a Gates GT3 drive belt. Which might explain the long belt life.

 

No idea what brand the devil belts are but they're advertised as adapting japan unitta or gates belt.... ermm yeah sure.

 

Just a look at the devil's belts, seems like the main belt is slightly shorter than the G380, 302mm vs 304mm on the gobby. Same length on the tail.
Something different with whats pictured here http://www.banggood.com/ALZRC-Devil-380-FAST-RC-Helicopter-Parts-Motor-Belt-D380F28-p-1027328.html

 

Will it still fit though? 2mm is not that much difference?

 

Yeah still fits very nicely, no problems there.

 

Just had a chance to maiden the little Devil today, and I must say I'm really enjoying how it flies. Still some tuning to do on the clone bar, raising the tail gain trying to see how high I could go, tail stops and agility. Was flipping real tight and no hesitation on the turns.

I'm using the Alzrc DS452MG servos on the swash and these are exact rebranded KST 215HV's and also slightly cheaper too. These would be a good choice for those looking for an option for swash servos.

Still holding off the governor function at the moment so I could sort out the tail first, I was running a flat TC 70% with the stock 21T pinion and headspeed seems a bit too high for my skill level so I'll be taching it tomorrow and see how much I'd need to lower it. Aiming for something in the range of 3200rpm.
Just for the fun of it I tried running with my 3s packs and upped the TC to 100%, dunno what headspeed it was at but it was just super slow mo. Almost silent with just the sound of the blades whipping, pretty cool actually but was on full throttle doing funnels and super fun doing circuits. Didn't dare to go inverted coz wasn't gonna risk putting it in on the maiden.

 

It seems Alzrc is releasing a cheaped out version of the Devil 380, thinner frames and more plastic bits. http://www.banggood.com/ALZRC-Devil-380-FAST-RC-Helicopter-Kit-Spirit-Version-p-1052890.html price's right I might just get a kit and transfer all my electronics from the 450Pro, love the red white colour scheme.

 

This kit does not have the motor in it. Did it have the motor included in the original devil?

 

Ok so you are very impressed with the Devil? Would be great if you could post a vid to youtube, I am sure the clone guys would be eyeing this one off as a future progression from the cheaper 450 clones...

 

You only get the motor with either one of the combos.

 

Haha got my hands full with the tx, and lousy flying too. I'll try to rig up a cap cam and post one up soon.

 

looks nice Joe, with the Alzrc servos, did it have shielding for the pcb?

 

@maingeer yeah some comparison pics. At top is the DS425, there's a piece of insulation material sitting between the rear metal cover and the pcb thats shielding solder joints from touching the cover. And below is the KST 215MG which came with some silicone/epoxy material covering the solder joints on the pcb to shield it from the metal rear cover.

Basically both does the same thing, preventing short circuit of the pcb to the metal rear cover. I think this problem has already been highlighted to the factory that makes these servos early on when the KST215 came out on the market and has been adressed in their later releases. Even the Turnigy TGY306 which is again a rebranded KST 215 has somekind of insulation material between the pcb and the cover.

 

Thank you Joe, much appreciated