Cyclic Ring

[Steve]

Just ordered some bits'n'pieces from Midlands, and decided to add a transmitter cyclic ring to the shopping cart. I've never used one before, and not sure if it's really going to make any difference to me considering my flying style, but hey, will give it a go.

Anyone use one (a real one rather than a virtual one)? What do you think?

My other thought is that because I fly planes as well as helis, and quite often do use the extreme stick corners with them, which I don't really do with helis, how much of a pain is it going to be to take it on and off all the time between flights?

[chugga-bug]

You'll soon get fed up taking it on and off Steve. They're held on with sticky pads, so not really designed to be removed.

[Steve]

I was kinda suspicious of that - might need to be modded to velcro then.

[Rctintin]

Excuse me for being thick!! What are they used for?

[Steve]

It stops you from pushing the cyclic stick into the corners of the Tx, where you could get some serious swash plate binding and ball links popping off in flight, depending on how you set up your heli.

The cyclic stick on your Tx can move in a square from corner to corner, but the swash plate is round - square peg in a round hole etc.

There are ways around it, but they tend to reduce the amount of overall throw available. The ring will allow maximum throw, and prevent the stick from going where it shouldn't.

See here http://www.revolutionmodels.co.uk/ac...info_1781.html

I'm just curious really - gonna give one a try and see if it makes any difference for me.

[LipolyGone]

An aid to stop you over controlling the cyclics on your heli copter.
people also use them to help control chaos moves as they make it easier
to rotate the cyclic in a perfect & smooth circular manner.
Cheeting if you ask me tho lol

[sacko]

Might add one of these to my next order to try out.

[SadSack]

you could use a CSM cyclock does that with other goodies or buy FG12 built in

[moyesboy]

My cyclic ring is a servo disc pushed onto the tx stick (saw it somwhere - not my invention). Works exactly the same way as it contacts the round housing of the stick unit on the DX7.
It would be an easy matter to remove the screw on stick end and fit another to fly a plank - if I owned a plank

[Rctintin]

Why should your cyclics bind up? When you set up your throws, and endpoints, do you not check that your not binding at full throws?

[Tim Procter]

Why should your cyclics bind up? When you set up your throws, and endpoints, do you not check that your not binding at full throws?

I know quite a few top pilots who have their throws way beyond binding point.

Swash mix turned up to 80% and beyond.

Its just the way they fly them and set them up.

[Made2Fade]

CSM Cyclock might be better... at least you can put that on your helis and not have to take anything on or off when flying the planks. Obviously the unit has other benefits too. I love mine

[moyesboy]

The pitch you apply, cyclic and collective, add up to load the motor.
If you put full cyclic and full collective on it really overloads the power and bogs the heli.
The top pilots manage the pitch so in their hands the heli seems more powerful - becuase they are avoiding putting too much pitch on for too long and avoiding combinations of lots of cyclic and lots of collective.
At zero pitch the heli can take more cyclic, but with it set like that the head will bind with full cyclic and full collective - that doesn't matter to the really good pilots becuase they will never actually do that when the heli is flying.

However, as I sometimes bend the sticks on the stops to miss the ground, I like to set things up so there is no achieveable binding. I don't want to add to the problems I've got missing the ground by forcing a link to pop off!

[Steve]

Not sure if this will help, but here's the theory as I understand it....



The large black circle is the limit of swash plate travel that gives maximum cyclic effect without causing binding. The red squares represent how the cyclic stick can move on the transmitter, depending on how you set it up.....

Looking at the green shaded circles, and the bigger red square first - this pilot has set his travel limits up so that they get maximum aileron and maximum elevator control, when these controls are used on their own. The downside of this setup is that if they push the stick further out towards the corners of the gimbal travel, then the actual swash output can easily come outside of the maximum combined travel that the heli can accept, so binding will occur, and links may well pop off in flight.

Now consider the smaller red square and the blue shaded circles - this pilot has set their maximum travel limits at the 45 deg positions, rather than the 90 deg positions. This head setup will never bind, no matter where they push the cyclic stick, but the downside is that they have noticeable less total aileron and elevator travel than the first setup.

What the cyclic ring does is allow you to set the limits up as per the green circles, so by getting the maximum independent aileron and elevator inputs, but then doesn't allow the Tx stick to go outside of the black circle, there by giving you maximum cyclic input no matter where you push the stick without fear of binding.

Setup one = round peg in a square hole.
Setup two = square peg in a round hole.

Plastic cyclic rings, either bought or homemade are a cheap and easy way to achieve this effect. Some top end radios have a 'virtual' cyclic ring which applies this effect electronically, without actually stopping the sticks from going too far.

Cyclic ring = best of both worlds.

Hope this helps.

[Steve]

I know quite a few top pilots who have their throws way beyond binding point.

Swash mix turned up to 80% and beyond.

Its just the way they fly them and set them up.

Quite right, no disputing how the setup and pilot's ability have an effect on this.

But the swash mix values are a little misleading, as they are directly related to the servo travel end points - i.e. a swash mix of 80% with servo endpoints at 90% might give exactly the same amount of cyclic input as a swash mix of 60% with servo limits at 115%.

For my meagre flying style, I'd like to be sure that I never push the sticks into the danger areas, which is why I'm thinking about this ring. However, I think what I'll actually find is that it makes no difference at all, since I don't do a great deal of cyclic pushing anyway, so never really go anywhere near the corners of the gimbals.

Will give it a go and see.