Cutting away the frame here doesn't make it any weaker and also allows easier installation of the motor. The 3rd bearing being added also helps strengthen the area. With the 3rd bearing the longer CF 600 main shaft must used instead of the short ESP main shaft. The ESP's main shaft ends at the bottom of the gears where the longer one goes into the lower 3rd bearing.

  The aluminum main blade grips are changed out to plastic type. These offer a little more "softness" to the heli which is OK with FPV and AP helicopters. I installed the complete rotor head, main shaft and the gears checking all the bolts.  I placed the 13t pinion gear on the Scorpion motor which is the recommended size for this 890KV motor to get the longer flight times. With the frame cut away for the larger motor installing the Scorpion outrunner  was extremely easy.

   The targeted head speed is 1900 rpms with the 8S lipo and 13 tooth pinion. I also had to drill out the top of the 13t pinion because the Scorpions motor shaft is longer then the stock motor the gear was designed for. You can also cut the shaft down instead but I preferred  inlarging the gears bore on a lathe. This set up should produce longer FPV flights then the stock 6S lipo battery. Since it's using more volts with 8S lipo it will use less amps  then the stock 6S set-up creating less heat and better performance for low "C" rated lipos. The flight times are estimated between 11-14 minutes. For the battery packs I use one 6 cell 6S 5000mha and one 2 cell 2S 5000mah put together in series to gain the 8 cell 8S 5000mah lipo pack.

                     



  The next item to be installed was the tail which has no modifications. I went with the belt drive because of the lower cost, smoothness and in my opinion I won't need the Torque Tube type since quicker tail response is not a factor with my FPV/AP helis. I added a ground wire from the tail boom to the motor mount to stop any possible static build up the belt may induce which can ruin electronics (this is not needed on aluminum frames). With the tail installed I moved on to the battery area. The stock location needs to be change to the lower frame rather then stood up like stock configuration. This allows more room for the larger 8S lipo battery and also now the Eagle Tree data logger system can be placed above it making it easy to attach to the power supply. Doing this will also allow better Center of Gravity (CG) when the FPV wireless gear is placed on the rear of the heli like video system battery, video TX, radio RX (AR9000), radio battery, etc....

 With the Battery being placed on the lower frame there is a chance that a mis-hap like a nose in crash may ruin the expensive lipo battery so the FPVpilot.com battery tray is used for support and a little added protection. The battery tray also has 2 bolts that go through and attach to the landing gear which gives even more security. The tray also has a stopper designed into it at the motors end so the battery can not be pushed or placed against the motor.

 
               





                                                  


  I installed the Castle Creations HV 85 ESC. Once I soldered the connectors on I placed it inside the frame behind the motor. Some suggest placing it outside the frame but since this heli will be Over-Kill on power I don't expect it will heat up much and if so I'll add a cooling fan on it.


                                           


  I'm using a Castle Creations 10amp BEC for powering the Spektrum AR9000 RX and DS821 servos instead of the Align regulator BEC. This heli will require other gear and more servos to be operated other then the control servos so the higher rated CC BEC is needed to meet the demand. Both the AR9000 and CC BEC are mounted at the rear of the 600 along with the 3S lipo battery that will power them. Note in some cases with the older CC 10amp BEC you had to remove the orange wire when powering a JR/Spektrum RX. This wire is easily removed and reattached if BEC re-programing becomes needed. This issue may have been fixed with newer CC BEC's.


         



  With the AR9000 RX there are two external diversity antennas so I used an extension cable and mounted one on the tail and the other on the landing gear strut. The 900mhz transmitter will be mounted between them mid-way on the boom. The theory is to have the RX antennas able to receive better when surrounding the 900 mhz transmitter from the front and rear.

                                                  



                                                  

      With the Eagle Tree Systems eLogger, GPS and OSD being installed onboard I used the FPVpilot.com's RPM sensor mount. The Align main gear has a place for the magnet which triggers the sensor on every revolution giving a 1:1 ratio for accurate Head Speed.


                                                   


                                       



Even though the Eagle Tree gear is circuit protected I like to cover the un-used pins with servo connectors that are "dead" with the wires cut or removed. For sensors I will use magnetic RPM sensor, temp sensor on the motor and a temp sensor on the ESC.



                                              



  

                 

                                   

                                                      

 
                                    

                                                  

            

            




                   



                                                                                Up-date Oct/2010