Zap 400

[colin]

I can't believe it. I just went out and bought myself a ZAP 400. It's an electric collective heli. From the first close up looks of it. The linkages and bearings are of good quality and very smooth.

I like the swash plate and the collective arrangement. When the collective moves up and down, the swash is not affected. This is quite different from the Shuttle where the swash plate moves up and down together with the collective.

I've yet to mount all the servos and stuff, but I'm going to take my time on this. The Zap 400 looks like a small Shuttle RG.

For those interested, here's a link to a Movie Clip.

http://www.helifever.com/movies/shogun400.wmv

[colin]

Okay, I said I was going to take my time to fix it. I think 24 hrs later is long enough.

This evening, I got all the linkages and stuffs put into the heli.

Balanced it nicely with a 3 cell lipo and decided to do a small hop to test the motor.

In the small confines of my bedroom (barely 3 meters of clear space), I powered the heli up, and the torque from the ESC turned the heli 180 degrees, facing me. Heck, I threw in rudder and got good tail response. With the tail facing me again, I throttled up and got it 1 inch above the ground.

This baby is really zippy. It feels extremely light after lifting off, and extremely responsive (maybe also because I got full servo throws). But I managed to steady the hover and I can say that it responses to your commands. Hovering controls were very positive compared to my kyosho caliber m24. If you asked the heli to stay at one spot. It will, and it feels very solid with little tendency to drift (I've not trimmed her up yet).

Well, the whole hovering took less than 30 secs, but in that time, I think I'm going to like this bird.

The only problem I had so far is an ESC that I don't like. It doesn't start up gradually... sorts of just kicks in, and it has a brake when you throttle down. Not much good it does since the ZAP 400 has a auto-rotation bearing.

Tomorrow it will be trimming time, and maybe I will go out and get another ESC to use.

Hi colin,

I read your messages on zap 400. I brought one also. But more than a month I can not make it fly. I do not understand the collective pitch setup. I follow the manual guide and cause the heli to crash, replaced 3 parts.

Can you help me on zap 400 setup and test fly. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Tham

Hi colin,

I read your messages on zap 400. I brought one also. But more than a month I can not make it fly. I do not understand the collective pitch setup. I follow the manual guide and cause the heli to crash, replaced 3 parts.

Can you help me on zap 400 setup and test fly. Thank you.

check some info. from http://xmseller.com/html/zoom%20zap%20shogun%20400.html
the web owner will help you some, i got some useful info. from them

Originally Posted by colin

Okay, I said I was going to take my time to fix it. I think 24 hrs later is long enough.

This evening, I got all the linkages and stuffs put into the heli.

Balanced it nicely with a 3 cell lipo and decided to do a small hop to test the motor.

In the small confines of my bedroom (barely 3 meters of clear space), I powered the heli up, and the torque from the ESC turned the heli 180 degrees, facing me. Heck, I threw in rudder and got good tail response. With the tail facing me again, I throttled up and got it 1 inch above the ground.

This baby is really zippy. It feels extremely light after lifting off, and extremely responsive (maybe also because I got full servo throws). But I managed to steady the hover and I can say that it responses to your commands. Hovering controls were very positive compared to my kyosho caliber m24. If you asked the heli to stay at one spot. It will, and it feels very solid with little tendency to drift (I've not trimmed her up yet).

Well, the whole hovering took less than 30 secs, but in that time, I think I'm going to like this bird.

The only problem I had so far is an ESC that I don't like. It doesn't start up gradually... sorts of just kicks in, and it has a brake when you throttle down. Not much good it does since the ZAP 400 has a auto-rotation bearing.

Tomorrow it will be trimming time, and maybe I will go out and get another ESC to use.

Hi Colin,

Its nice to know that you've set-up your bird well. Regarding the breaking of your motor when you throttle down, it comes form your speed controller. Most speed controller can be programed to trigger a break when you throttle down. This breaking function is used for cars but you can disable them if you use it for helis. Try to review the programming of your speed controller. Regarding the rapid start-up- you can also program it for a smooth start-up but usually for heli's, you need rapid start up for you to immediately recover when something happends. Its your preference but I recommend rapid start-up to immediatly pull up when someting goes wrong and you need power. If start-up is smooth, your heli might touch the ground already during a recovery before your motor can pick-up power to pull up.

I hope this will help.