JR Forza 450 build thread.

[Guest]

Evening peeps,
I thought I'd get this new build underway, it's my first JR build so I'm looking forward to this one.
My favourite 450 has been the Rave for a while now so I'm going to find where this fits in.

Anyway, this is the combo version that comes with all servos,esc motor and blades.
The tail has the 3500G which is my favourite mini tail servo.
The cyclic servos are ds21's which are new out so hopefully they should be pretty good.



Presentation when you open the box is 10 out of 10, very impressive.







The ESC deserves a special mention with some great specs,
3 to 6s lipo
50A continuous
Switching bec rated at 5A
Adjustable voltage in 4 steps from 5v to 6v

Something I like is the fact that all the esc wires are coming out of one side. This means the other end of the esc has some rubber padding heat shrunk on it.
This means when mounting this under the battery tray you can slide it all the way up without fear of the motor wires chaffing on the pinion. Great stuff.




So that's just a quick look at opening the box and build will commence shortly.
Planning on running this one on 6s but for the build I'm just gonna use 3 or 4 s.
Anyway I'm off to do a little building so see you a bit later.




Danny.

[Guest]

A little late night update,
The servos use a neat idea to avoid using subtrim. Some little metal sleeves go over the splines and the screw holds them in place.
Then you put on the servo arms and centre your servos, following which you move them at 90 degrees and tighten a little 1.5 bolt that clamps the servo down.
A neat little idea.

[Guest]

Servos attached to the main shaft bearing blocks and the main shaft holds them in line while you screw them down.
The main shaft is thicker than the other 450's at 6mm thick.

[Guest]

The carbon frames are some of the nicest cut carbon I've ever seen. All screw holes are drilled perfectly and even the edges are perfectly smooth.
You still need to sand the edges though but the finish is top draw.





Both frames are universal in that they aren't handed so you can't get it wrong.
I built one side up and left out any thread lock until both frames were together.
Also the main shaft has no top or bottom so it can be installed either way up.

[Guest]

Both frame sides together and starting to take shape.

[Guest]

Something that is done differently is with the main gear and pinion.
The main gear doesn't have a one way bearing, it's just the gear. They've put the one way in the pinion instead.
This keeps the cost of the main gear down but makes the pinion choice limited to just the JR pinion. It also makes things tricky if you want to use a different motor because the motor shaft is unique and designed to go with the pinion.
The msh mini protos is the only other heli that uses the same type of arrangement.

[Mike S]

Very nice that Danny. Do you have trouble sleeping at night??? 

[Guest]

Thanks mike, yeah my back tends to keep me awake at night a lot, so if something's on the table I do a few bits. 

[Guest]

Swash and linkages, swash is also serviceable if you need to change the bearing.



Head assembled.
Something to note is all the prebuilt parts like the head,swash and tail all had thread lock and the thrust bearings had grease in them.
The main blade grips have the usual 2 radial bearings per grip. Usually after the outer bearing is in place, you then install the thrust bearings with the washer and spindle bolt.
On this they've put the thrust bearings in between the 2 bearings in the blade grips. As such they are nicely sealed from the elements and the grease won't escape.
The pitch links are also incredibly thick.
With the main shaft being 6mm thick you will have trouble finding a swash levelling tool that fits, but not to worry because they include a small plastic one that clips under the swash.

[Guest]

Just a quick note about the esc and your flybarless controller.
A lot of esc's require full throttle on power up to enter setup mode. Some fbl units won't let the esc arm until it senses that the throttle is off.
What I do to remedy this is to use an old reciever, and just hook up the esc and motor.
This lets you setup your esc and then you just bind to your flybarless unit and the programming is already done then.

[Andy Sayle]

What FBL controller are you using Danny? I've got a 7200bx here, with a dsmx satellite I was going to sell if you want it. I'm not going to be using it on my 550....

It looks liek a really well thought out kit this one though.

Andy

[Guest]

That's the one I'm using in this Andy.
How much do you want for them?

[Guest]

Tail assembled and ready for the boom.



And now for the finished pics,




Easy to do neat wiring on this one.

[Guest]

Final pics before maiden, note the canopy wraps around the head, then covers the fbl unit.



Very long boom which is why it will swing 350mm blades.



Also the heli tilts forward. If you look at the boom in the picture below you'll see it is angled upward. This also gives the tail decent ground clearance in tall grass

[Mark Barnes]

The maidens seemed to go well last night Danny, loverly looking Heli as well.

M

[Andy Sayle]

That's the one I'm using in this Andy.
How much do you want for them?

Dunno, make me an offer if you want them, I've got the controller, dsmx satellite, and the USB programming dongle thingy. I'm not going to be using it, instead I'm saving up for something a bit more advanced

Andy

[Guest]

Hmm, how does £80 sound?

[Guest]

Sold,thanks Andy.

[Brian Colclough]

A couple of flying shots of Danny's Forza from last night at the field a beautifully engineered little machine as JR stuff usually is, having just researched the price so it should be

[Guest]

Thanks Brian, cracking photos as always.

[Guest]

Conclusion time,
I've had around 20 flights on the Forza now and the way it flies is simply sublime.
Right from the off it feels so comfortable and you instantly know you're flying something a bit special.
The motor/ESC combo match the model well, being very quiet with plenty of power.
Flying this on 3s is very similar to flying the Rave on 4s,which is a huge compliment.
All the pre assembled parts were built correct at the factory, and the pitch links were even the correct length for zero degrees at mid stick.
There is no slop or binding anywhere.
The canopy looks great in the air and is easily visible from a distance. The only thing about the canopy I don't like is the fact that its so tight over the battery. I'm using thunder power 2250's 3s 70c and it only just fits under there. There's no way anything bigger will fit under it, so 4s packs are a no go at the moment.

PRO's

Build quality
High quality servos
Plenty of power
Canopy visibility
Able to swing 350mm blades out of the box
6mm main shaft
Very easy to build, could probably build in around 4 hours


CONS

Canopy a tight fit
Thirsty motor/esc, I am getting 5 mins and using nearly 80%. I wouldn't use batteries under 40C because I think it would be quite hard on them
Cost of parts


This is definitely my favourite 450. In fact I'm enjoying it so much this leads me straight onto my next build.

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