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Lightening The Futaba GY-240 Gyro
The purpose of this instruction document is to guide you through lightening the Futaba GY-240 gyro so that you may save a little bit of weight to enhance performance or maybe make more room for that extra mod you’ve always wanted to add. Please keep in mind that this will void the manufactures warranty, but with a product like Futaba, if this is done right, there are no worries about damaging the gyro.
With that said ( again ), lets start the process.
Stock gyro before any modification is weighted, note the weight at 23.7 grams
The specs indicate the weight as being about 24.5, the scale was calibrated several times to confirm accuracy.
The next step is to turn the gyro over and carefully remove the 4 screws located in the corners of the case. You will need a small jewelers Philips screwdriver for this. After you get the screws off, careful pry the bottom off.
Please note that great care must be taken to ensure damage to the circuit boards are not done. After you remove the bottom, you will need to remove the thick silicon gel adhesive that was used. Again, this must be done very carefully as not to damage the circuit boards.
Just by removing the case, you can already see the weight savings below. You can decide to stop at this step or take it one step further by cutting the leads a bit shorter or replacing them all together with 32 gauge wires.
If you do decide to replace the wires, do take great care not to damage the circuit board with the soldering iron and remember the polarity and placement of the connectors by marking them accordingly.
The photo to the right shows the gyro leads extended, if you decide to cut them, make sure you leave yourself plenty of lead to reconnect them back together.
The best method to ensure the connectors aren’t connected incorrectly is to do one connector at a time. Again, you can decided to stop at this stage if you should decide.
In the next photo the leads have been trimmed and soldered back together using heat shrink for insulating the wires.
The bottom of the Gyro case can also be removed. Notice that on the bottom PCB board you will find a layer of silicone. The silicone protects the circuitry and assists in vibration dampening. Removing the silicone will save another gram or so. To do so, dab small amounts of paint thinner on the silicone area and very carefully using a toothpick remove the silicone.
Next step is to apply some heat shrink to the boards to protect the circuitry. The DIP switches and gain pot will need to be exposed by carefully cutting shrink around them.
To the right is the finished product. The following photo indicates the weight savings.
Modification completed and gyro is ready to be mounted, note the exposed DIP switches and Gain pot. Total weight savings is 6.6 grams, which equates to a little more than one HS-50 gyro.
If the connectors are replaced with 32 gauge, another few grams could be shaved off. Every little bit adds up when the total weight is computed.
Take good care of the GY240 as this Gyro will produce solid tail control throughout the life of your model.
The same procedure can basically be applied to the GY401; the very popular Gyro used in the Logo, ECO8, Joker and other larger scale Electric RC Helicopters.
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