JR E6 550 build thread.

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I've been after a 550 for at least a year now and couldn't decide between the Align, goblin, logo or the JR. I was so over the moon with the little Forza that I took the plunge with the E6 550.
Here's a few picks opening the box.



Going to be trying these Pulse 6s 4500 45C packs.





This is the combo with servos, motor, esc and it came with their TAG 01 flybarless system. The TAG required a separate reciever, which I preferred to use the 7200bx so I swapped with Andy as he had a 7200bx he wasn't using.

Here's the servos, as per the Forza they include the awesome 3500g for the tail.
Note this uses mini servos and the head is the regular design with mixing arms, so not a dfc arrangement. I prefer heads this way.

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On with the build,
Step one, after I sanded the frame edges they give you these red L shape brackets to mount the centre plate to the frames. The frames are a 4 piece arrangement.
Checkout the laminated card with 1 to 1 pictures of all the hardware and ruler edges.
Very neat.



One side done.




The torque tubes bevel gears in the boom block are metal.

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Lower frames with white tabs for mounting the landing gear.



Frames together.



These little plastic wheels are for the canopy mounting. Inside the canopy you have 2 forks that engage these with regular canopy posts at the back.

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Right well first off I found a small mistake in the instructions.
You are given 2.6 by 10mm screws, 12 of them,
And               2.6 by 12mm screws, 6 of them,
If you look in the next picture of the servo arms you can just see the step telling you to use 12mm screws to attach the servo mounts to the servos. If you do this you only have 6 when you need 12 of them.
It then tells you to use the 10mm screws to mount the servo mounts to the frames. If you do this you will have 6 screws left over and the 10mm ones are not long enough to engage the nylon locking nuts on the inside of the frames.

The 10mm screws are for the servo to servo mount and the 12mm ones are to mount the servo mounts to the frames.
I called the tech department to ask about this and it has already been noted by a few others and is going to be changed.



Here is what it looks like with 12mm screws holding the servo to the mounts. They're meant to sit flush.



If you follow the instructions to the letter without noticing the mistake this is how the servos look. The tops of the servos will have 10mm and the bottoms will have 12mm, leaving you with 6 screws left over that won't reach through to the nylon on the frame locking nuts.



Once you fit them to the frames, you can see the correct 12mm screws go through the nylon and sit nice and flush with the end of the nuts.

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Here is how it looks with all the servo arms fitted. The quality of all the red anodised parts is excellent.
Something to note is that they now include the servo tube set so you can use futaba servos and still use the subtrimless setup. In the past you had to purchase these separate.

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Here's the main gear, swash plate and main shaft locking collar.



The swash is a work of art.

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Here's a picture of the inside of the main shaft. Sorry about the poor picture quality.
Running through the main shaft is nylon so the screws can be doubled up.
In other heli kits usually you have one Jesus bolt at the top and bottom of the main shaft, followed by a main shaft collar to lock it into position on the top bearing block.
With this arrangement however, you put the main gear in, slide the main shaft in and put 2 screws opposite each other to lock the main gear to the shaft.
Then the same with the locking collar which sits under the upper bearing block, followed by the head.
The head attaches to the main shaft with 4!! Count them 4 screws. So there are 6 bolts attached to the main shaft. This is one solid main shaft area and very impressive.



The head is an impressive piece with a stealthy mat black finish and looks ace with the hint of red throughout.

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Tail gearbox and grips. Everything was already thread locked and the fit/finish is top notch.





Nice carbon boom and tail blades.

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Sorry about the poor lighting in these shots. The only drawback of twilight building.

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Here's the rest of the boom parts. The boom supports clip on using ball joints which is much better than a screw being pulled on at an angle.

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Motor and esc.
The esc like the Forza has some good features. The one that stands out is the adjustable bec voltage. This is adjustable from 5v up to 8v which is great with the current crop of 8v mini servos.
Couple that with a switching bec and it looks more like a spec list from a Kontronic Koby or Jive.

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They include 2 pinions in the kit. An 11 and a 12. I'm starting with the 11 to see what head speed it gives.



Motor installed.

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Airframe built with motor and servos in.
I forgot to mention the swash setup is 140 ccpm instead of the regular 120. Most JR heli's are 140.
Also the swash moves down for positive pitch.




Here's the canopy ready to go on. Note the 2 screws which hold the mounting forks on the inside.



Now to figure out the wiring. There's room for the esc behind the battery. You could then plug in the battery with the canopy on.
Keeping the wiring inside the frame here is going to be tricky, because of the centre plate holding the frame together. You'll need to carefully run the wires very close to the main gear, maybe to close for comfort.
This layout reminds me of the hirobo lepton I built a while ago. That was a tricky wiring job especially if you're a wiring OCD neat freak.

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This is what the canopy forks look like. They engage without much effort and the canopy posts are in the perfect place. No pulling on the canopy to fit it with this one.









Next up will be the wiring and setting up.

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Wiring done, in the end I mounted the esc up front for a cleaner layout.
The tail servo needed a small 10cm extension to reach the reciever.

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Finished and ready for maiden, next to its little brother.





Head setup was spot on with no messing round. Just make the links per the manual and you will have perfect geometry.

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Ok well I managed 3 flights earlier tonight.
Totally uneventfull. Spooled up as smooth as cream cheese and popped in to the hover, and just sat there.
Loads of power on tap and Ooooo those blade farts with the stock blades sound amazing.
After a 5 minute flight there was 65% still left in the battery, so a comfy 10 mins should be possible.

Overall I love this model and although its expensive, you can really see and feel where the extra has gone.
Bottom line is its faultless.
I'll post back once I've flown it a bit more and share settings.

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