Esky Belt CP

Buy Esky Belt CP - Configuration,Informations

For those of you who are interested in the Esky Belt CP, or already own one, this info may come of use in setup as you begin to build your new heli. This info applies directly to beginner heli builders, not unlike me, who are working with a barebones setup. This info also relays servo info & linkage setup for kits with servos that are pre-installed, so if you have either kit, this info may be of use in setting up your Esky Belt CP. As for building this heli, I was expecting several challenges & areas that would hold me back, but I was pleasantly surprised with the way this helicopter went together. I’m no expert by far, but in all honesty, this helicopter was a dream to build & setup, requiring limited time & effort throughout the entire process. This was my second build, and in all reality, my very first; but, with some background knowledge ascertained from many, I was able to set this helicopter up beautifully. As with everything, take this info with a grain of salt; but, I truly hope I’m able to make the build ever so easy for those new to the Esky Belt CP.

First off, the term “build” is a bit much for this ARTF (Almost Ready To Fly) Kit; in all honesty, there is little assembly required – just a bit of know-how in setting things up just right.

Upon receiving my Esky Belt CP, I had to install the skids, which were affixed via four screws – (2) shorter silver screws, and (2) longer black screws. Simply put, the shorter silver screws bolt the front portion of the skids to the frame, and the longer black screws bolt to the rear – their length allowing the installation of the rear struts. The only real time consuming aspect of this part was lining up the struts just right, which took but a few minutes of work via sliding the skids & struts to match up to the holes of the frame. As for the screws, they were not the self tapping that I hoped to find, which required a bit of boring in the frame holes via a screwdriver, which made a wider hole in the frame for the screws to follow through. Aside from those issues, this was a straight forward process.

My next step was bolting on the main rotor blades, which proved to be a bit fussier than I expected. For some reason, the nuts didn’t want to seat properly as the bolt threaded through the grips, which took some time to finally get things right. But, with a bit of time, patience & effort, this was accomplished easily enough. As for the main rotor blades, do not install them now; a pre-flight & electronics setup is highly recommended, and below is an outline to do so – something that will save you from a lot of stress in case your transmitter settings are off, as mine were on my first run-up.

Note: All rotating parts should be touched up with Loc-Tite to keep from separating in flight, which is a very bad thing. Stress & vibration is a staple of helicopter flight, so be sure to take care of all those bolts & screws that are under stress.

My next endeavor was the servo installation. This was, for the most part, an easy task; the servo has one way to go in, and can be seen by the recessed notch to allow the rear servo wire to slip through. Looking at the heli with the nose pointed away, the (2) rear servos should have the servo shaft facing forward, and the front, right servo should have the servo shaft facing backwards. As for the right, rear servo, the servo slot was quite tight, which forced me to gently shave away a millimeter or so from the frame to make it fit. Once that was done, the servo dropped in with just a bit of force. As for all my wires, I ran a few behind the servo linkages, and some in front; considering I saw no binding, and no real reason to worry, this setup suited me fine.

As for installing the ESC, it seems most have used a double sided adhesive tape to affix the ESC to the middle portion of the frame. If this works for you, great; as for me, it didn’t hold well at all, so I used a flexible, long zip-tie & strapped it to the aft section of the heli, allowing the battery wires to lead under the skids. As for the motor wires, they seem to clear, and the wires running to the receiver were zip-tied to keep from contacting the main gear.

Before we take the next step, we must plug the servos into the receiver. I installed my receiver up front on the angled upper portion of the heli. I noticed the instructions show an installation point in the lower, aft portion of the heli, but to keep access at ease & transfer as much weight forward due to the tail heavy nature of this heli, I chose, as many have, to install the receiver up front, and it works beautifully for me. Below is a guide to install the servo tabs – i.e. which servo goes where. Remember, this is looking from the rear of the helicopter with the nose pointed away from us.

My Futaba Layout:

Ch. 1 Aft Section of Heli/Right Side
Ch. 2 Fore Section of Heli/Right Side
Ch. 3 Throttle/ESC
Ch. 4 Rudder
Ch. 5 Spare/Gyro Gain
Ch. 6 – Aft Section of Heli/Left Side

Here’s a setup for you JR guys care of Tweekster

Ch. 1 - Throttle/ESC
Ch. 2 - Aft Section of Heli/Left Side (Left Swash)
Ch. 3 - Fore Section of Heli/Right Side (Front Swash)
Ch. 4 - Rudder
Ch. 5 - Spare
Ch. 6 – Aft Section of Heli/Right Side (Right Swash)
Ch. 7 - Spare/Gyro Gain

Now it’s time to center the servos, which is easy as pie. First off, it is paramount to setup your computer transmitter to some degree. Neutralize all settings, such as trims, sub-trims & EPA (End Point Adjustments). Set all your D/R (Dual Rate) settings to normal, and when it comes to the swashplate setup, you want to choose a CCPM setting – HR3 with my Futaba 7CHP. Also, enter your swash settings, and set everything at an equal setting, such as below; these values will be changed later, but for now, we’re looking for uniformity.

AIL: +50%
ELE: +50%
PIT: +50%

Note: Be sure the motor is unplugged at this stage. We will be moving the throttle/collective stick through its full range, and it is paramount that the motor remains unplugged during this session.

Now, we need to set the Throttle Curve & Pitch Curve to 0, 25, 50, 75, 100. These settings will give us a nice, linear setup with the pitch, which will greatly benefit your “Idle Up” settings for 3D flight. Now that your transmitter is neutralized, and the throttle/pitch curve is set as specified, we can now center the servos.

With the motor unplugged & your transmitter powered up, go ahead and hook up your battery to the ESC, which should power up your heli. All your servos should be moving or making some noise at this point. Now, center the throttle/collective stick at half way, or mid-stick; with this done, pull the power on your ESC, which should shut things down with all your servos centered. With this done, we can now install the black Esky servo arms supplied with the kit.

Note: For those using another servo that doesn’t retrofit to these stock Esky arms, find another set that works & install the ball links close enough to the originally specified arms.

We are now going to install the arms at 90 degree angles, such as straight up, or straight down. As for the front, right servo, I will supply a picture due to the difficulty in describing proper orientation.

When attaching these arms at 90 degree angles, be sure not to move the servo shafts as you install the servo arms; if you do, power the heli back up, center your transmitter’s throttle at mid-stick, and try again. Once the servo arms are attached at 90 degree angles, you can install the small servo arm screws, and any movement while tightening can be disregarded considering the servo arms are attached correctly.

Now it’s time to install the linkages. I had to make minor adjustments to the linkages here & there by threading a few of them out to make proper contact with the servo ball-links. Connect all linkages to the proper servos, and once this is done, we should now have a rotor system that should be setup at 0 degrees of pitch at mid-stick, which is what all this fuss has been about. Idle Up settings will now be a breeze, so with all this said & done, we will be able to move onto the transmitter settings in just a few short steps.

Note: I am using a Futaba 7CHP transmitter, which very well may differ from other transmitter settings in regard to this setup. For those who need more help, check in on the forums & be sure to read up on your manuals.

I can go into great detail concerning every function that needs to be adjusted to bring about a swashplate that is functioning correctly, but I am assuming that those setting up this heli will have basic knowledge in transmitter programming. What we mainly want to do is adjust the swash settings.

Within your transmitter, adjusting the AIL, ELE & PIT (Aileron, Elevator & Pitch) values between positive or negative will alter the way your swash moves. Reversing servos may also be necessary, and as for me, I had to reverse Ch. 1 in my transmitter before I “recognized” the way my swash was working, which allowed me to make the proper adjustments. As an example, when I pushed my right stick to the right, my swashplate moved left, in the opposite direction. This was easily fixed by adjusting my AIL settings from my previous negative value to a positive value, that being from -70% to +70%. The same went for the pitch; when I raised the throttle/collective stick, my swashplate moved in the opposite direction, so I in turn reversed the PIT values to achieve proper direction. As for percentage values, I dialed in enough on the AIL & ELE to receive enough “throw” without binding. As for PIT, I dialed in enough for my main rotor to achieve a positive & negative pitch value of my liking – something a pitch gauge helps with quite well.

Below are my settings.

Ch. 1 – Reversed
Ch. 3 – Reversed (Something Unique to Futaba Transmitters)

Swash: HR3
AIL: -70%
ELE: +70%
PIT: -40%

To achieve a normal pitch curve, instead of an equal negative to positive pitch reserved for Idle Up, I set my below pitch curve like this, which starts my main rotor pitch at a lower pitch rate, rather than an extreme one.

Standard Non-Idle Up Pitch Curve: 35, 45, 50, 75, 100

As for Idle Up settings, your heli should be set for zero pitch at mid-stick, which should make Idle Up settings easy. But, I have no experience with Idle Up, so I will leave this to others.

I dialed in 15% negative Expo on my swashplate & a full 50% Expo on the tail rotor, or “rudder” due to the yaw authority of this heli – this is discretional, but be careful with that tail rotor.

Note: Be sure to test your electronics before flight, and do a thorough pre-flight inspection as well. Check your throttle/pitch settings, and per your gyro choice, be sure to set that up as well. Also, check your main motor gear mesh pertaining to the main gear. If it is loose, there are (4) bolts on the lower portion of the motor that allows it to slide forward or aft via a plate, which spares us from trying to loosen the screws from below to move the motor.

Caution: Concerning the motor & a proper pre-flight setup, it is wise to spool the heli up without the main rotor blades attached. This will keep your heli from lifting off, and due to the mass of the rotor blades, your main gears won’t be put under great stress if your transmitter settings are off – something I failed to do, which resulted in 2 weeks of downtime due to a stripped main gear. Make sure your main rotor is rotating in a clockwise fashion, and check to see if the r.p.m.’s build smoothly as you increase the throttle. Due to the tail rotor & the r.p.m.’s that will be generated during this run-up, it is equally wise to bolt the heli down in some way, or weigh down the skids in case something happens. The tail rotor has considerable authority, especially at high r.p.m., so be sure to affix the heli in some manner, thus keeping it from moving during this test.

One other note concerning the tail rotor/gyro is to allow enough positive tail rotor pitch to counteract the yaw effect at hover. You want just enough tail rotor pitch to counter the heli’s desire to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction, which will allow your gyro to work effectively, rather than fighting the torque effect in normal modes of flight.

Before your first flight, your CG (Center of Gravity) must be setup right. As stated below, the Esky Belt CP is tail heavy & requires a heavier battery in the neighborhood of 150g+ of weight. I’m using DN 2150 batteries that weigh in at 156g, and I still have to slide the battery a full 2” forward to achieve proper CG. The tray seems perfect for a good sized 2100+ battery, but unless it has some serious weight, you will need to slide the battery forward enough to achieve a proper CG. Holding the heli by the inner portion of the flybar with the main rotor blades fore & aft, you want the heli to hang level, or as close as possible – not tail heavy, and not nose heavy. Make any adjustments needed till the skids hang level.

With all these steps taken, you should now be ready for flight, or very close to it. Hopefully this guide has helped those in need of a bit of direction, and I truly hope your first flight will be a great one. My apologies if any information has been overlooked, left out, or was unnecessary; as I mentioned, I am new to these setup features, but they worked great for me, and it is my hope to help out anyone new to these procedures.

As for any questions, please post them in the Esky Esky Belt CP Build Thread that is listed in this forum. This thread is simply a setup guide, and it is not meant to split the thread that is active with all the Esky Belt CP flyers. So please, post all questions in the already established thread for the Esky Belt CP, because that is where all the action is.

As for any corrections or comments concerning missing or inaccurate info, please PM me & I will make any necessary changes so any others won’t be led astray concerning this info. Again, I am new at this, so forgive any info that is not correct. Also, be sure to check back as I may add more info concerning flights, or any info I have overlooked

Feel free to add comments below, but as listed below, I don’t want to breakup or split the current Belt Thread, so please post all questions in the other Esky Belt CP thread. Thanks so much.

My Esky Belt CP

Yellow Esky Belt CP Barebones Kit
Stock Esky Motor
Stock esky ESC
Futaba 7CHP Tx
Electron 6 Rx
GY401 Gyro
(4) Esky Servos
DN 2150 15C LiPo Batteries - 156g