Total G Review

[Hangar-7]

Hey guys, this is Curtis.

......some people have gotten along fine with it (instruction sheet), I will have to agree that most people do not find it (instruction sheet) that helpful. Sorry, we tried to do something different and it did not work that well.

Right now I am finishing up a full detailed instruction sheet to cover every detail of every step in the Total G. At the same time, we will have a "Quick Setup" bullet point sheet....

Curtis Hi,

Welcome to RCHA.

If I understand you correctly then you're saying you'll have a "Dummys' Guide to Total G" and a "Super Cleaver Cloggs (IQ 140+)" versions....lol

Either way, you're now going to satisfy all the users - than can't be bad. I appreciate the time you're spending to help us.

Cheers

[Helivig]

Yes, we checked and it is only on Machines over 7kg that is must go to throttle low for the UK. So our models are fine.

I holds last position if lockout occurs.

[raptorheli2]

that rules it out of my club then and possibly scotland as i'm 90% sure the SAA require a failsafe on the throttle and i'm 100% certain my club does.

i assume you can use one of those cheap separate failsafe units that closes the thro if need be although far from ideal?

i believe at most comps it is a requirement to have a failsafe that cuts the thro-it certainly was at 3DS and will continue to be a requirement for us due to insurance demands by the underwriters.

is this a drawback with the sat rx setup curtis or is this something you think can be firmware added?

cheers

[genty]

Re the failsafe issue - if a Futaba 2.4 receiver is used, I presume you can use the failsafe on that via the Total G?

[Helivig]

It would be good to know the specific rules.

What do they do with PPM and other systems that do not have throttle low fail safes?

[jamiem]

The bmfa says that "if there is a failsafe in the receiver, then the throttle channel must at least be set to return to idle". It's not a legal requirement that it MUST have a failsafe on any channels. Page 28 of the handbook iirc

[raptorheli2]

It would be good to know the specific rules.

What do they do with PPM and other systems that do not have throttle low fail safes?

in my club-you HAVE to use a thro cut failsafe and PPM is not allowed. my old club did allow PPM but you had to use one of those cheap separate thro failsafes which are common in cars which was the way around it.

personally i would never fly without a failsafe to cut the thro regardless of how it achieves it. is there a reason it has been omitted? i.e is a technically possible using sat rx system?

on the BMFA rules-imo all our models should cut the throttle. those rules were made a long time ago and need revising. maybe they are already doing this now?? with 3DS we HAD to have thro failsafes that cut and we had to check every single model on the flightline to make sure they worked to get insurance nod.

cheers

[Helivig]

It was not omitted, it was simply set differently. We were not aware that you had such rules in England. And as I have been told, we had some people check the specific rules when it came up, that it only applies to models over 7kg. But I understand local rules are being applied differently.

We will have to look at the best way to deal with your specific rules.

[sacko]

Surely it just makes sense to have a throttle fail safe, last thing I would want is to see an open throttle as the Velocity beats itself into the ground.

Would definitely be good on the next upgrade if poss

[3D FLIP]

Hi Curtis

I have been following this thread as I am looking at buying total G.

I would not bye it with out a working failsafe, I hope this can be changed with a firmware up grade.

The BMFA handbook quotes CAP 658 on page 28, CAP 658 is a Civil Aviation Authority Guide to safe flying of model aircraft (page 17) http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP658.PDF

John

[Helivig]

I read the rules. We are working for the best solution for people that want the low throttle fail safe.

For general information, when you are running external receivers their failsafe will work with the Total G just like they always do.

And in a Total G with Spektrum satellites, the Satellites are the receiver, the Total G is not. The Total G is a servo bus. The Satellites are the receiver and they do not have a throttle low failsafe. So according to the rules, this receiver does not have a setable failsafe. So it does not have to be set to throttle low. So you are still legal to use it as it is. The Total G will hold in the last position it is given, so it has a built in hold.

Now I know for those of you that want the throttle low, as a fail safe on your machine this does not help. But technically this system is legal today under those rules. Having said that we are going to have a solution for those of you that want the throttle low failsafe.

Personally I went away from throttle low failsafes years ago, because I had the "going to low throttle" cause several crashes that would not have happened if the throttle had gone to hold instead. But I can see why people would want the throttle low option.

[Swashbuckler]

Excellent to see the main man looking after our queries, I will get another unit when I have the time to play.
I too had the soft tail stop issues and could not get the gain high enough to make the tail wag. 17mm servo arm on an Outrage Torq tail servo at 8v and 95mm Radix tails. I didn't find the extra settings in the GView menu though, I thought it was just there to talk to/upgrade a Gview! Should have played more. When my buddy showed me that menu I did kick myself. But Curtis why do you need to abbreviate the titles of those settings in the pc software? I can understand it for the actual Gview with the screen being of limited size but in the pc software I think it would clearer if it gave the full name of the setting you were about to mess with. And a reset to defaults button too. Apologies if there is one, we couldn't find it! Also sorry about being a bit unkind about your instruction sheet, but I did exactly what you mentioned earlier... discarded them and tried to figure it out for myself!

[KnifeEdge]

I would rather crash due to low throttle than hit someone full throttle.!

I think any unit like this should have a low throttle failsafe as standard, legal or not. Quite surprised at this.

[raptorheli2]

I would rather crash due to low throttle than hit someone full throttle.!

I think any unit like this should have a low throttle failsafe as standard, legal or not. Quite surprised at this.

couldn't agree more-legal and good practice is a different thing.

glad a solution is being worked on to resolve. i wonder if any other FBL units are the same that use the bus......i.e the VBAR...ummm

cheers

[ChrisB]

V5 on the V Bar takes the throttle position during binding when using the satellites as your failsafe position much like the fullsize spektrum Rx`s do,the original V4 software did not and drove the servo one particular way for throttle,if it was the wrong way you had two options.
A Live with it or use separate rx
B Move the ball to the other side of the throttle servo horn so it would now close throttle or use a different servo ie if Futaba use JR or vice versa.

As far as i am aware now there is a V4 update to solve this so they are both throttle to predetermined position,hold all other channels.