Align FBL g3 Versus V-Bar

[barney]

V-Bar = 1 Align 3G = Nil

Today my mate turned up with a new v-bar and me the Align 3G FBL

Well my first flight was a disaster. 3G Booted as expected etc so stuck the 600 into the hover, after 10-15 secs it started to oscillate so I sat her back down.

What went wrong I hear you say?

Cyclics working fine, but no Pitch!.

After poke-ing around the culprit appears to be the cable juntion where it plugs into the 3G control box. In the vid I pulled the rubber boot back to see if anything obvious up with the cable.

You can clearly see the 3G reboot when pushing down on the lead.

people have a large investment in these machines not to mention the safety implications.

Meantime my buddy was glued to his lappy for most of the day but its a 1 Nil victory to the Mikado V-bar


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[Si_B]

Not good.

[Bart101]

Hmmm.... That's not good at all!!

[mark lane]

send it back..... fast

I had a similar issue with a 2in1 reg.

I proceeded to then blow the unit by poking the plug with a hex driver!

Binned

[lex7919]

All these reports are really starting to get concerning, looks like the Total G system will be the way to go in future then.

[Paulice]

Get it sent in before you loose the heli,
Bad connections sometimes can be sorted but it's a risk...

[Paul.GT]

Went out with a freind to fly Friday afternoon he said to bring video cos he was flying the new fly barless system,he had flown five time before with out a hitch,got into a hover and had slight tail wag so adjusted gyro gain, went up again and the heli just shot up and was going nuts no way to save it.

[jamesb72]

Good job a vbar heli has never crashed with a loose sensor wire eh !

[barney]

Time for an update. Align 3G Vs V-Bar

3G is 2-1 up at the mo

3G problem in my first post fault was traced back to connecting pin that had partially pushed back into the control unit causing a contact failure on the Pitch function.

Meanwhile Mr V-Bar (Ianthebrave) has pulled 2 helis apart/changed mounting/motors, mufflers everything you could possibly think off chasing a slow drift, nose left. Hes put over 40hrs into it now chasing the problem without resolving it.

Me and 3G..opened the control unit at the field and pushed the pin forward into place and re-inserted the cable (casing off ) to ensure full connection occured. Job Done!

3G Elev Bounce

Flew the 3G..it nodded a little at times in stops, tic/tocs so dropped the gains to about 45%
The 3G still exhibits this but can noticably be smoothed out by the pilot.
At this point I strapped the gyro unit down as tight as poss with a velcro strap which helps too.

The bounce on elevator can be seen in a std 600N + other helis subjected to 3D flying but just to a lesser degree.

The only other quirk apart from FBL take off's and the elev bounce is still elev related. If I piro flip slowly its happy but when I speed it up a little it gets kinda notchy looking compared to flybar. Maxing out the Piro speed it can enter a series of elev bounces mid piro and I tend to lose my timing a bit as a result.

Untill the software is available I'm stuck..meanwhile V-Bar Kid awaits a new sensor to try as hes exhausted everything else.

The 3G is Pi$$ easy to set (approx 1 hr in total) and get decent results quickly and familiar to anyone with CCPM experience..V-Bar you need to be a Laptop Geek in comparision..

Below is a flight on 620 blades, 20% Nitro, 600N NR57/Outrage 56 Pipe , at 1950 H/S
Sorry about the zoom level etc but the camera is new and unfamiliar but results are promising


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXLBFWfnvWc"]YouTube- My Movie[/ame]

[Ashley Davis]

had me wincing on that inverted piro wall of death, nice recovery though

Flying is looking very nice Brian, heavier blades I think is the only proper fix for elevator nod. By the way, that pin pushing out on the connector......common problem, would be flybarless purchasers take note.

[Si_B]

Looks really good. Can't wait to get to fly my 700 with the 3G unit. Only really had a hover and a quick fly round since installing it.

[Aidi]

Interesting point about strapping the gyro down tight. Got FBL on the 700 flying nicely. A small amount of bounce but as you say its evident on non FBL heli's too.

I'll have a go at strapping the gyro down tight and see what happens on mine.

Cheer
Aidi

[Si_B]

Have you had any problems with tail wag when you've strapped the sensor down ??. Not really had enough flights to tweak it, but it my 700 was deifnitely oscillating on the tail, even though the machine looks smooth.

Seen a few posts where people comment that the unit performs better with a more positive mounting i.e. strapped down. I was going to go with some of that Pvu mounting pad stuff from Align, but will try tightening the strap I have fitted.

[GravityKills]

The V-Bar is best enjoyed with a laptop at home and the control panel in the field :-)
I find the V-Bar rather straightforward to set up if you know how to do it - switch the control panel to "expert" mode, go once through all the parameters and set them to a meaningful value, and the heli will fly very decently. If the mechanics are set up properly, there isn't any single parameter that's particularly sensitive or in need of careful tuning.
The biggest advantage of the Align unit seems to be the easy setup, "just follow instructions without understanding them".
What counts for me is only how it flies :-)

BTW drift problems are either erroneous stick input (solution: calibrate subtrims) or erroneous sensor input. The latter are usually vibration-related:
- Align the clutch very carefully on the crank shaft (using a dial indicator, if available)
- Put a spartan ds-760 steel plate underneath the sensor
- try to mount the sensor in a different location

[barney]

Hi Simon I see a little at 1750RPM but its likely the mildly rich engine setting. It does not exhibit anything bad in flight. The tail Gyro does like a short servo horn as per instructions as at lower gain values it can become a little whippy.

I prefer to strap down my Gyros as firm as I can get away without getting vibration drift as it helps prevent rotor vibration

Ash The blades in that flight were 620 Maniacs about 140g?. I've a pair of SAB's to try + the supplied 600D'S?.

I often shim the head dampners on my std 600N's to reduce elev bounce and extend dampner life and expect to see another small improvement since the 3G Combo is running as supplied at the mo..

Gravitykills, Ian's waiting for a replacement sensor for the V-Bar to try as it's been remotely tested via Mikado online and who confirmed Its not radio/setup issue. This is on a Velocity.

Brian