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EXI 450 Pro Review
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This bare bones ARF kit comes pre-assembled (requires electronics) in 3
versions. Torque
Tube version and Belt
version.
and Sport Version. The sport version is like the Belt version
but
with plastic fins, plastic tail servo holder, cheap plastic
canopy
and a one piece landing gear. Note that the Sport version DOES NOT have
the upgraded head and tail design so those benifits DO NOT translate to
that helicopter. I recommend the Pro Belt version over the Sport
version for just a few extra $$ unless you already have EXI 450 or
Align SEV2 spare parts that you want to use. Note that there are SOME
advantages to the TT version such as not having to ever worry about a
belt slipping in the air during flight, but the advantage the belt has
is that it will be less expensive to rebuild in a crash. Most crashs
(and many simple hard landings) will damage the front drive gears of a
TT design. So if you are flying over clumpy grass or fear a hard
landing or crashes, one of the belt designs may be a better choice.
Initial
impressions are good. The head like the Trex 450 Pro is elongated for
better stability and a larger rotor disk when compared to a 450 SEV2
(or the EXI 450 SE Carbon).
Some differences between the EXI 450 Pro and the Align 450 Pro I have
so far seen are:
- Landing gear is not one piece (I like this better so you
can replace only the skid strut that breaks in a crash).
- Flybar appears to be shorter (200mm) than Align 450 Pro
(220mm).
- Rear Servo support is metal instead of plastic
- Boom support Knighthead are metal on the EXI vs. Plastic on
the Align.
- Mainshaft
is one single diameter piece and uses a collar on the EXI vs. Align has
the collar machined into the shaft and then is supplied with
shims.
Head:
The
play in the blade grips is very minimal. All the linkages up top
except the longer tracking linkage are fixed length to speed up head
setup. I can confirm that the lower washout arm to the swash has dual
ball bearings (2 ball bearings per arm) and are secured with 2 screws
into an insert just like the Align 450 Pro is designed. The initial run
of kits were shipped with a missing piece to the flybar paddle. An
email from Xheli was sent to me to warn me so I'll build with a spare
set of paddles. They temporarily halted shipping of new orders until
the component arrives.
Tail:
The
tail is a direct clone of the Align 450 Pro. The Tail servo tray is
size for a Mini servo (not micro servo like the Cyclic servos). If you
want to use a Micro servo, you will have to fabricate your own adaptor
using spare carbon fiber sheet, Fiberglass sheet or thin metal.
Fiberglass sheet is used on circuit boards and can be found
at
Radio Shack often or cut up a spare computer board or something
similar. During flight tests using
a Futaba S9257 tail servo and Futaba GY520 gyro, I found the tail solid
as a rock. There is very little play in the mechanics which makes the
gyro and tail servo work less. I also found the vibes in the tail and
Torque tube LESS than my friend's Align 450 which had a DS520 and GP750
combination. Mine performed much better than his stock Align 450 Pro.
The Torque tube is more efficient than the belt. You can see
this
if you spin the mainblades, the TT will allow the head to keep
spinning. Belts have more friction and stops your head sooner. This
gives you an extra 5% or more of power and flight time. The
draw
back is if your tail blades hit something, you bust the front gears
often. So when you land in the grass, do it gently or try to
put
a board out for you to land on where the tail is extended over the air
more. I had a hard landing once where I did not set my timer
and
came in quickly. I tore up both front gears instantly. If you don't
care to deal with the cost of the torque tube, you can get the belt
version for a little less. I have several belt driven 450's
and
they perform reliably so long as you do a little mod with tape on the
boom (See #8 on my 450
Tips and Tricks page)
Build:
Like
any ARF kit Align, EXI or other, you should re-loctite all Metal to
metal screws using blue locktite. Follow an Align 450 Pro manual for
the build and setup. Finless bob on Heli freak has a good
build
video. CA glue the TT bearing inside as per the Align 450 Pro Manual is
especially important.
Flight test:
The
helicopter is very stable for a 450, the most stable 450 I own now.
With the wider rotor disk and the elongated mixing arms in
the
head, it removes some of the slop factor in the head. It does not make
my 450 fly like a 500 but it is leaps and bounds above a $39 plastic
EXI. Flip rates are good and even better if you upgrade even
to
the $10 CF blades at Xheli. A 30C battery is good to have for powerful
punch outs and extra UMPH in case you need to bail out of trouble.
Components:
You can get all the electronics you need to build the helicopter over
at Hobbypartz.
If you want to go with
Hitec servos, I recommend the following online stores: servocity,
helidirect,
Amainhobbies.
Here is a list of some
Youtube vidoes that are very helpful to the first time builder.
Pro Build Video 1
Pro Build Video 2
Pro Build Video 3
Pro Build Video 4
Pro Build Video 5
Pro Build Video 6