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- MS HORNET 1, micro heli-

** ORDER OF PAGE **

- V2 Hornet Main Frame Set; DXF File
- V1 Hornet Main Frame Set; DXF file
- Original Hornet
- Handmade flybarless rotor head
- Handmade "MFS" (moving flybar system) rotor head
- MS Collective Pitch Head
- Handmade tail rotor gearbox and pin

LOOKING FOR MY HORNET 2 SETUP AND MODS? CLICK HERE

Disclaimer: Your more then welcome to use the DXF and change as needed. I have tried my best to make sure he file is as accurate as possible. Please remember, if you use it, the product is NOT to be sold for profit in anyway! I have placed my work here for sharing only.

I bought an MS Hornet! After flying the ECO 8 for sometime I am really enjoying this electric stuff! I plan to go straight to CCPM and whatever modifications I see fit. Thank you again to my very good friend Glenn S. in Hawaii for selling me a new kit and gyro at a discount price!

Quick overview of my hornet.
Motor	Included 300 size
Radio	JR 8103 FM w/ GWS 6 Channel Receiver (case removed)
Servos	Hitec HS-50s with the cool blue case (tiny as can be!)
Gyro	Century piezo (case removed)
Battery	700 mAh 8 cell NiMh (AAA size)
Blades	Symmetrical Fiberglass or homemade using spruce and balsa wood
ESC	Pixel- 7P (now this is really small!)
Fuse	Bell 222 made out of lexan, Plan for homemade retracts, or other-not used at this time
Main Head	CP upgrade kit, just get it, it's wonderful
Charger	Dymond and Regulated 12V 10 Amp Supply
Main Frame	Handmade out of plywood, fiberglass (G-10), aluminum or carbon
Tail Boom	Arrow shaft turned to fit bearings (V2)
Main Mast	Arrow shaft turned to fit bearings (V2)
Tail Case	Handmade out of aluminum

  Things I don't like about the Hornet.
    -Getting the tail to work consistently is difficult, getting it together and apart is another issue :)
    -Tailrotor gears are Horribly drilled, mine don't even come close to running true- poor, poor, poor!
    -Tailrotor pitch slider is a bad design, mine came apart in flight! Check yours now!
   -Swashplate comes apart, take yours apart and glue the two pieces together.

ORIGINAL MS HORNET

Here are the first pics of the Hornet, it's so small and cute! Mostly made of carbon fiber, it is quiet strong and light. The wires seen next to the landing skid is the ESC! A tiny, can we say TINY Pixel-7P. 11-13-02	I can't believe how small the HS-50s are! The first servos is a JR standard, then a Futaba S-133 micro and then the tiny HS-50!	Here is my servo setup and may change as needed. I made a little plastic mount for the aileron servos. I plan for CCPM with the stock swashplate. I also made a tiny "EZ connector" for the tail pushrod out of aluminum with a 2 mm setscrew. 11-14-02
Here is a pic of the Hornet next to the Bell/Airwolf fuse! So darn cute. I put a AA size NiCad next to it for size comparison. I plan to make homemade retracts for the fuse :) Also shown is the teetering rotor head I made on the top. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I went with the general design already thought of by others; thanks guys! I will probably remake this at sometime. 11-15-02	I tried the Hornet flybarless and found it to tilt to the left as my ECO. The blades hit and the pinion stripped. I found standard servo gears to have the same pitch. Just drill them out with a 1.93mm-ish drill bit and they are a perfect fit! My Pixel started smoking! I wrote to Castle Creations and they had another out the door the next day! I even received a pre-paid envelope for the other one. Great Service, thanks! 11-18-01	HORNET LIFTS! I flew the hornet about 6 inches for a few seconds. The flybarless head is still "all over the place." I need to refine the head for a stable flight and get a gram scale for the tip weights. 11-21-02 Anti-rotation Mount Want the DXF? CLICK HERE

HANDMADE FLYBARLESS ROTOR HEAD

I have started building a new rotor head with aluminum blade grips. I had to write much of the code and since my 4th axis is still unavailable I had the machine stop at certain points were I would rotate the part as needed (I was the 4th axis). Here is a picture of the grip after it was turned down and milled on all 4 sides.
11-24-02

Back on the lathe. The rotor blade fits perfectly! I just need to bore out the hole for a 6 mm bearings and then cut it off. Pretty Neat!

11-24-02

Here is the finished head. Right now I have the grips mounted on an ECO's tailrotor hub. Just need to add ball links, perfect the tip weights (around 6-7 grams) and give her another try.

My design is more or less a copy of the work from others. Thanks guys for putting in so much R&D to get this heli flybarless. 11-24-02

UPDATE:

The heli didn't work. It's very difficult to keep control. I don't think I have the weights in the blades right. I have read that 1 US nickel weights about 5 grams. That is about how much weight you want.

Lets try something else.
Next?

HANDMADE "MFS" ROTOR HEAD

Moving Flybar System (MFS) rotor head. Here you can see the main head block being drilled. I turned it and then put it on the mill cutting it every 90 degrees! 11-28-02	Here is the complete head, well sort of. I just need to made an anti-rotation for the swashplate and its time to try her out. You can see the flybar and rotor blade almost have a 1:1 ratio! Hope it works! 11-29-02	Is is another picture. You can see how the flybar moves up and down in that groove. A 6 mm bearing rides in there to help to smooth the motion. 11-29-02
Here's how it works. The entire flybar assembly moves up and down via the "L" shaped flybar pieces. Since the main grips are attached to the flybar carrier they move too (all yellow arrows) giving pitch. For cyclic, the "L" pieces move again but this time one up and the other down. Paddles deflect, flybar assembly deflects (like a normal heli) and the main blade grips move since they are attached to the deflected flybar carrier. This time however, 1 moves up the other down. Neat!	My pinion gears stripped again. This time I used a metal gear from an older Futaba servo. The top part of the "2 level gear" is a great fit. Drill out the hole using a 1.93mm drill bit. I am sure I will regret this as something has to fail. This means the more $$ part probably will :):)	Here is the head on the heli! Looks promising! 12-03-02
NEW FLYBAR CONTROL PARTS! The flybar assembly broke and I had to remake it. This time I made it right. Here is a "blow up" picture of the head with parts, most of them, fully one piece! I also made the anti-rotation link this time. Everything fits, time to test her out! 12-03-02	HORNET LIFTS! The hornet flew and was Very Stable! Almost No trim changes needed. If I could just keep the tail working it would be great. I had very little cyclic and the poor heli ran into the wall chipping one of the main blades. I put in a new shaft and tightened a few things but the tail just gave up and the main gear stripped. However, the collective was very smooth. I found the hole I drilled to be larger then the existing one, about .04 mm too big! Yep, a tiny number but it shows up in shakes. 12-04-02	I have ordered new parts with the conical tail gear setup. Once I burn these out I will start looking into a belt drive system.

MS COLLECTIVE PITCH ROTOR HEAD

Tired of modifying and not flying, I have ordered a CP head upgrade kit for now.
Take it from me, it is worth it! The part fit is Excellent and you get many goodies with it.

Here is a picture of the coupler I turned so I do not have to glue the boom in place. It uses two 2 mm screws placed 120 degrees apart.

I found the flange on the bearing that fits in the boom to be larger then the boom itself. This made removal very difficult. I glued the bearing in and used a Dremel with a sanding disc to sand down the flange. Now it is much easier to remove. Be careful you don't get dust in the bearing.
12-15-02

I found the cyclic to be a tad bit sluggish. I read about cutting out the paddles on John's site. After I cut out the paddles there was a remarkable difference in cyclic! The hornet is now zipper then ever and I am having a great time with it! I am still using the 90 degree swashplate with no problems. I remade the anti-rotation link out of aluminum and turned down the heads on the main blade screws. I also remade the "wheel collar" out of aluminum used to hold the flybar in place (a great way to save weight).
12-21-02

Here you can see how the tail servo is attached, mainly with twisty-ties. I turned a coupler and put a 2mm thread on it using a 2mm Die. The ball joint is now adjustable.

The "ball" is cutoff from the "flybar control thing" used on the fixed pitch head. I drilled it through and put a tiny eyeglass screw with bolt to connect it to the servo horn. Perfect!

I found the tail would vibrate no matter what I tried. I found the tail gears to be horribly drilled! Check yours. I remade the tail shaft out of a 2mm pushrod used on 30-60 size helis and found this to be very helpful. I also turned a new spacer, a new guide for the pitch slider, and turned down the heads on the grip screws.

Here is my latest setup. I used Walt's 120 degree servo template and it was a perfect fit! I made mine out of 1/16" (1.5mm) lite-ply and cut out lightening holes. I used Trinty double-side tape to secure everything.

I also cut down the receiver ant. to about 4 inches and attached a "lightened" Deans Whip Ant. Remove the blue plastic and remove the inductor. Solder that directly to the RX ant. and to the steel wire. Simple and so far it works.

Trouble with JR 8103 CCPM Setup?
Main thing to note the numbers in the [Swash Mix] window can be made negative.

- Aile Ch#2 Servo Reversed
- Elev Ch#3 Servo Reversed
- Pit Ch#6     Servo Reversed

[Swash Mix] Window 3 servos 120 degrees
    -Aile: Negative # (-80%)
    -Elev: Positive # (80%)
    -Pit:    Positive # (40%)

Note the position of the servos arms (red arrows) and the swashplate orientation.

HANDMADE TAIL ROTOR GEARBOX AND PIN

I finally broke the plastic gearbox while tying to remove the tail shaft. Instead of buying this $9 piece, I figured I'd spend my entire day figuring out how to make one :):) It only took me two attempts (hey I must be getting better). The first one was 95% before the mount gave up and the machine made quick work of it. Machining is much like RC Helis. You can spend your entire day trying to get it just right only to find out you have gotten no where :):):)

TOTAL TIME SPENT: About 6 hours. $9 bucks to buy the perfectly made, perfectly working piece, how do they do it :)

I first cut a "flat" outline of the piece I wanted. Again, the aluminum is scuffed and super glued to a piece of hardwood which is held in the milling vise. Works great (well this is the 2nd attempt).	After the initial shape, I remounted the piece using only the vice and had the mill cut a 6.95mm hole for the boom mount (boom is actually 7mm).	After that, the piece went back to the lathe and the back section was rounded further and tapered. I turned a quick "arbor" to hold the piece in the hole the mill just made. I also added little rings every 2mm just to look pretty :) Coming out good!
Back on the mill to do some of the final touches. I had the mill cut out the bearing holes and round off the ends of the tail gearbox. This is where the mount had loosened last time! 95% there!	All Done!! I lathe a brass pinion for a hole I drilled in the gearbox (tapped for 2mm bolt). The brass pin was threaded using a 2mm Die. Perfect!	It works great on the bench! I will test it in the air soon. Here you can again see the head of the little blade screws turned down.

V1 HORNET MAIN FRAME SET (v2 is below)

Here is the machine cutting out the plywood. This also could be made in other materials. Everything is held down by Scotch Double-Sided Tape. Perfect!

Here are 5 pieces to the frame!

The one in front is the newer design. After I put the first one together I found a few bugs in. The tailboom is an Easton Arrow (1816 Lite or XX75) that is lathe down. The ID is around 6.14mm so not to far off.

-DXF File for Main Frame set, Tail Fin set, Anti-rotation mount V1	Click HERE
-Did you read the Disclaimer?	Click HERE

Click Picture to see the Main Frame

Click Picture to see the Tail Fins

6-22-03 SUCCESS! Chris downloaded my G-Code and used it in his CNC router. Here are some pictures of his mostly completed frames he sent me! Glad to hear it worked great, Chris !! As you can see, Chris used carbon fiber for his frame set. He gave the design and G-Code a 9 out of 10!

V1, VERSION 2, HORNET MAIN FRAME SET

Here is the newest version! I spent most of my Sunday trying to get the frames right. After cutting them out in plastic I found a few errors and corrected them. The "final" version was cut in 1.58mm (1/16") aluminum! I think this set would be excellent in Carbon Fiber but I don't have any laying around. Maybe next time.

- DXF File for Hornet V2 Top and Bottom Frames (updated)	Click HERE
- Did you read the Disclaimer?	Click HERE

Hornet 1 has been retired Sadly, no further work is being done on the frames.

Here is the aluminum cutting. I just can't figure out a way to keep it clean, keep the chips out and not use too much oil. The aluminum is Scotch Double Side taped to the MDF wood. The lower frame needed to be CAed as it came off once. 12-14-03	Here is the first plastic version of both. I noted the center of the lower section had to be removed for the main gear. Very neat, I love these machines! 12-14-03	Here is the complete frame upper and lower halves. The white are the plastic and the other two are the aluminum. You can see how the center of the lower piece was changed to compensate the gear.
Here is a close up picture of the aluminum set. Now I just need to buff them and they will glimmer!	Boom Mounts being cut. Aluminum was CAed to MDF wood which is held by Scotch Double Side Tape. After the mill, parts were mounted on the lathe and ground down. Back to the mill for drilling.	Here are the pieces mounted on the arrow shaft boom. After they where cut I spun the rear mount on the lathe and cut it thinner, leaving the "lip." Pretty cool 2-14-03
Here is the frame so far. Very Rigid! Everything fits so far! Now to mount the rest of the things.	Here is a back view of the frame.	Project has been terminated.

Want to see the next generation hornet? HORNET 2 ! Click Here

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