My Align fbl experience

[GravityKills]

yes :-)

Every FBL owner should accept this as a fact:
If the mechanical setup is wrong, all the parameter tweaking won't help. Period.

A bad setup means, the flybar controller can't accurately command the overloaded servos - sometimes they move faster than told, sometimes slower. It simply does not work.

[MrB]

Your making this FBL look like hard work

When in fact it's dead easy..

Purchase :

1 Mikado logo 600

2 Kontronik Jive

3 30c plus packs @ 10s

4 V-bar


Go fly


Just winding up folks here LOL

Looks like a good system but as usual with align the FIRST release never matches the expected outcome...


Won't be long though

[ChrisB]

A thread that may hold some relevence

Wobbling at stops and minor drift - HeliFreak

[raptorheli2]

well folks my FBL jinx continues. my 600 went in pretty hard today when a tab fell off a 3 months old lipo so i had zero control since no power...........

the good news is i had about a 2 minutes before it went in. i did not get any piro work done other than basic stuff. so far i've noticed this-

1. there is a tail bounce to one side so software required to fix that.
2. the gain pots are pretty sensitive so go easy there.
3. there is a bounce on elev using 3d pro align blades (lasted 2 mins.....arghhhh) i noticed it mostly at the bottom of hard climb/decents. i could live with what i saw as it's minimal. perhaps the software will cure.
4. it autos fine

i know now this is better than my vbar was. those who don't know to sum up it never went well for me.

cheers

[ChrisB]

Final update chaps,could not get the system optimal for my particular setup on my 700.

As the head etc is now on the 700 i am dropping a V bar into it tonight this will be dead easy to do as i dont need to disturb any linkages etc.

At a later date i will use the system on my 600LE when the heads are available separately.

[raptorheli2]

what have you found wrong chris?

cheers

[ChrisB]

Just the elevator bounce and sometimes angry tail really but i cant dial it out.

When the software is unlocked for us to upgrade thats a different story.

I just need my 700 flying,i know i can drop the V bar in and it will work.

Just to confirm paul,there was no firmware upgrade yet,infinity hobby have emailed me and confirmed this via Align.

[raptorheli2]

i didn't expect one as i mentioned chris. there wasn't time to do that prior to release.

what we need now is the software as you say. my elev bounce is livable for me altough not ideal and the stop bounce is livable just now aswell.

i have not tried anything demanding as i'm still running the engine/airframe in. when i rebuild the heli i'll have another go.

cheers

[ChrisB]

Just to add Infinity Hobby have asked for my setup and symptoms and are going to speak to Align Tech support and get back to me,they also are checking exactly when the user interface will be available as there will be one.

I will report when they reply.

[ChrisB]

Use shorter swash servo arms.
On my 700 FBL (with a different head) it's barely 8 mm (16 mm ball-to-ball).
It sure looks funny, but it gives correct pitch range.

Thank you,i have fitted the V bar tonight and using the Align horns and doing the cyclic gain Calculation from Mikado and the collective bar set to 80 i was getting 18 degrees of pitch with the Align head.

I have used Futaba standard horns and brought them in to just under 10mm ball to centre and the gain calc is within spec so on the face of it the mechanical gain was excessive.

At these settings i am around 12 deg each way with zero binding so maybe Paul should try different horns.

[Stuart]

Is there an actual port for the Align interface to use or is it going to use servo pins. I also noticed that in the setup on the Align you leave the swash as a 120 ccpm in vbar you don't. As vbar was my first and as I had a cycloc on my 600 this didn't surprise me as the box of tricks should really be in control of all three servo's - the align system I presume then is having to compensate for the three signals coming into it for pitch as well as ele and ail before sending it to the servo's. I'm NO electronic whizz but what are the reasons for doing the align way or mikado /csm way.

[ChrisB]

On Helifreak they say Align will use the sensor socket to plug the cable in to.

I dont know myself the pros and cons of the different ways they do it but i also would be interested to know this.

[raptorheli2]

Thank you,i have fitted the V bar tonight and using the Align horns and doing the cyclic gain Calculation from Mikado and the collective bar set to 80 i was getting 18 degrees of pitch with the Align head.

I have used Futaba standard horns and brought them in to just under 10mm ball to centre and the gain calc is within spec so on the face of it the mechanical gain was excessive.

At these settings i am around 12 deg each way with zero binding so maybe Paul should try different horns.

chris, i'm using drilled out normal align horns to the 24.4mm i think it was?

so you have went into 20mm now i guess? have you flown this to see if it helps? i don't doubt this is gain related but if it is the head should have been designed to accomodate this to keep the servo arms in correct place ideally.

cheers

[ChrisB]

chris, i'm using drilled out normal align horns to the 24.4mm i think it was?

so you have went into 20mm now i guess? have you flown this to see if it helps? i don't doubt this is gain related but if it is the head should have been designed to accomodate this to keep the servo arms in correct place ideally.

cheers

Paul

Using Mikados calculations for ideal cyclic gain,the balls on a 700N need to be around 10mm from centre,this is where mine are now but i dont know if it will help the Align system as its not on there now.

All i do know is according to Mikado,running a V bar with the balls where Align place them will be very poor.There will be far too much mechanical travel on cyclic and pitch.

Have a read in the English forum here at the 700 cyclic gain thread and others too.

http://www.vstabi.de/

I had an email back from Infinity regarding this bounce but it sheds no light above what i already suspected.



...........................

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your infos. According to Align, if the heli always bounces back and forth (similar to tail hunting), probably the gain of ELEV is set too high. You shall find the balance between tremble and drift for the gain setting. If the heli bounce back and forth only right after you stop the heli after high speed forward flying or flip/roll, you shall lower the ELEV a little (about -10% for every step down). Or you may try to make the damper harder/less flexible (e.g. replace the damper rubber with a new one or add extra washer). Using higher-specs (both speed and torque) cyclic servos will also help to use higher gain setting without making the heli bounce. Hope the above can resolve your problem. Please let us know if we can be of further help.

Regards,
Infinity Hobby

[raptorheli2]

atleast they are trying to help.

i think this can be fixed by the software so i'll hang on till then.

the nod is not as bad as i thought it would be on my 600 atleast. it is livable certainly thus far as i said before. but i have not done much flying with it. it's nearly rebuilt so be the weekend again before i can try.

on the whole though, impressive.

cheers