THUNDER TIGER E325 Mini Titan ARF Assembly Instructions Manual page 4

Decals sheet and parts bags Value added items Pre-soldered motor and esc
I found that the motor and speed controller wires come pre-soldered. In my case the speed controller
wires on the battery side will have to be de-soldered and setup with Deans connectors for my
installation, otherwise a battery connector is provided. I would prefer to see a Deans or Astro
connector for the battery since that is what most people are running these days but if you're just
starting your electric collection, the provided connector will work fine. I also noticed later that the
ESC line to the receiver already had a ferrite ring installed which I thought was a nice touch.
I am very familiar with the various offerings from Thunder Tiger and an examination of the main rotor
had a few differences jump out at me immediately. The first thing I noticed is that the Mini Titan uses
an under slung fly bar. Another difference that I found was the delta arms are on the leading edge of
the blade grips. This means that the swash plate will move down for positive pitch and up for
negative pitch unlike some other designs. Both of the larger electrics offered by Thunder Tiger use
the same rotor head design as the popular 30 and 50 nitro powered Raptor series helicopters.
Yet another difference showed up during setup when I put a pitch gauge on the main blades. Gone
was the 1:1 flybar mixing ratio of the fuel powered Raptor series. If you teeter the flybar while taking
a pitch reading the pitch reading changes on the Mini Titan, on the Raptor 30/50 it will stay the same.
One of the ways to tune the performance of a rotor head is to use different flybar mixing ratios. Why
is this important' Because if a helicopter has something other than a 1:1 mixing ratio then you need
to level the flybar to get accurate pitch readings. I use a small string level from Home Depot and
hang it on the flybar. Some pitch gauges include a flybar lock but most of the ones small enough to
use on the Mini Titan don't have this feature so you will either have to either eye ball it or use a small
bubble level like I did.
Of similar design to the larger models are the adjustable mixing levers. The review flight was done
with the balls installed on the outer holes of the mixing arms but the helicopter fly's well either way
though cyclic response is clearly limited on the inner holes. If this is your first helicopter leave them
where they are, it's more stable and less sensitive. If stick thrashing aerobatics are what you crave
go ahead and move them to the outer holes now.
Ready to get started First step complete Pre-assembled tail case
After reading through the manual and flipping through the pages, I thought that it isn't until page 24
you actually have to do anything. This step consists only of taking the pre-built tail boom assembly
and tensioning the bolts and thread locking the screws. The manual also says to put a drop of thin
CA on the top of the boom.
This is where I encountered my first problem with the manual. On page 5 it says the parts are
packaged in bags according to assembly steps. 'Open only the bag that is needed for the current
assembly step.' First, the bags aren't labeled. Page 26 calls for bag J. But only the screws are in that
bag, the nuts are in a separate and also unlabeled bag. At the end of this step there are 4 washers,
two screws, 3 balls and 2 ball link ends floating loose.
Make sure you get the orientation of the motor mount and motor correct. Even when everything was
assembled according to the manual, I found that the head of the motor mount to frame bolt was
interfering with the wires from the motor. I took everything apart and could find no other combination
of holes in the mount and the motor that lined up correctly so I was stuck with it the way it was.
Electric helicopters don't suffer from the vibration associated with their larger, nitro powered brothers
so chaffing the wire may not be an issue but I'll be keeping a close eye on it. ( This made me nervous
so I ended up slipping a piece of heavy duty heat shrink tubing as an additional layer of protection)
On the other side of the coin, this motor mount makes motor removal for tinkering with different
pinions a snap. Other than the possible wire interference issue I really like this design. The motor
mount bolts are easily accessible and the nyloc nuts sit snuggly in the frame so you don't need
anything but one Allen wrench to remove the motor and mount.
The instructions indicate that a 3s pack (three cells in series) uses the 13 tooth pinion. A 15 tooth