Align RCE-G600 with PCM9Xv2

[jwmachon]

Evening all,

If you have not guess im not a technical person lol, I just fly helis.

I have entered the world of governors and bought a pcm9xv2 and just found out how they actually work.

I will be running it on my pcm9x v2 tranny.

As it stands I fly with 2 flight modes

1- Normal
2- Idle Up

I have a spartan quark gyro on a raptor 50 running woodies at the moment and 85t-10t gearing.

My gyro is controlled through gear and gyro sens on aux 2 so i control gyro gain through gyro sens menu.

I would like to govern the head speed in both normal and idle up states.

Do i have to program these mixs that I have read about or not cos these are seriosly baffling me i would like the governor to kick in at about 25% throttle in normal mode which i think it does anyway and obviously all the time in idle up.

Another idle up position would be good aswell so i can have a setting where its not governed at all and just through my throttle curves that i have set.

So any help from programming from here on this tranny would be great.

Thanks,

Jonny

[waveydavey]

I'm a bit confused as you say that the gyro is controlled both on the gear channel and also the aux 2.

I found it better to control the gyro through the gear channel so that you can switch between head hold and rate mode using the endpoint adjustment for the gain values. I use the governor on aux 2 so that I can have 2 headspeeds and with the switch in the middle the governor is off. The 9X2 is very configurable and you can set it so that your governor is off say in normal flight mode and as you switch to idle up 1 you switch the governor in. Be aware that the Align governor only has 1 headspeed available to you although you have in basic mode 3 flight modes on your tx and if you really need them a further 2.

What mixes are you reading about? You don't need any to use the governor.

[jwmachon]

thanks for ur reply at the moments on my gyro i use gear switch for flipping between hh and rate, and use gyro sens for the gain values of each but i dont mind changing that think i have a wrong switch assigned in service menu when u turn tx on and hold scroller down.

Pmixs i ahve seen on other sites but if i dont need them thats good.

Do i take in then u use gyro sens to change governor headspeed

Any Chance of any pics of ur tx settings e.g service menu, gear epa, and where u set the governor settings this would help alot

Thanks

[Steve]

The 9xii has built in governor and gyro functions. My advice would be to use them rather than a work-around.

With both these functions activated, your gyro gain goes to channel 7 (Aux 2) and your governor signal goes to channel 5 (Gear). Both of these functions are automatically assigned to the flight mode switch, so when flicking from one flight mode to another, you define the gyro gain and the head speed for that mode on one switch.

If you consider basic AI flying style for a moment, you need 4 flight modes - NORM for startup, ST1 for hovering, ST2 for aerobatics and HLD for autos.

With the standard flight mode switch arrangement and the default gov and gyro functions active, I'd program something along the lines of:

NORM: -3 deg bottom stick, +5 deg hover stick, +10 top stick, gyro 70% (say), governor off.
ST1: -6 deg bottom stick, +5 deg hover stick, +10 top stick, gyro 80% (slightly higher - better for hovering manoeuvres), governor to 1650 rpm head speed.
ST2: -10 deg bottom stick, zero deg mid stick, +5 deg hover stick, +10 top stick, gyro 75% (slightly lower than hovering - better for fast forwards flight manoeuvres), governor to 1900 rpm head speed.
HLD: -6 deg bottom stick, +5 deg hover stick, +12 top stick, gyro 75%, governor off.

Works a treat - the point is the head speed control and the gyro gain and the pitch curve is all being controlled by one single switch with the separate HLD switch being setup for autos with the gov off and a slightly increased maximum pitch value.

You can then go a further mile and activate the extra two flight modes for even more options if you wish. I don't see the point of using gear channel end points to control your gyro gain when there is a dedicated function for it (unless of course you're using a 6 channel receiver and therefore don't have a Aux 2 channel). I also don't see the point in programming a separate switch for governor control, when you can use the dedicated function to assign a head speed to each flight mode automatically - flick the switch and go fly in accordance with the preset parameters.

Always happy to be educated otherwise though.

[Steve]

thanks for ur reply at the moments on my gyro i use gear switch for flipping between hh and rate, and use gyro sens for the gain values of each but i dont mind changing that think i have a wrong switch assigned in service menu when u turn tx on and hold scroller down.

Pmixs i ahve seen on other sites but if i dont need them thats good.

Do i take in then u use gyro sens to change governor headspeed

Any Chance of any pics of ur tx settings e.g service menu, gear epa, and where u set the governor settings this would help alot

Thanks

I could do some pics, but not until Friday I'm afraid.

PM me to remind me.

[jwmachon]

hi steve i see what u mean so i set gyro settings for each flight mode idvidually as well as governor speeds individually.

2 questions tho what does the gear switch do when set like this?

Also will I have the option to flick between hh and rate or just the one gyro mode based on the percentage I put in

[Steve]

hi steve i see what u mean so i set gyro settings for each flight mode idvidually as well as governor speeds individually.

2 questions tho what does the gear switch do when set like this?

Also will I have the option to flick between hh and rate or just the one gyro mode based on the percentage I put in

The gear switch does absolutely diddly-squat on my transmitter.

Why do you want rate mode? It's pointless for normal flying. It is useful for accurately setting up the gyro linkage if you are so-inclined (and that is easily done by just assigning a rate mode gain to one of the flight modes during setup flights) but once that is done, to hell with it, just assign every flight mode to heading hold.

Only real use for rate mode is if you have a (30 size maybe) heli that doesn't have a constantly driven tail. Then, rate mode is useful in throttle hold condition as it takes all the pitch off the tail blades and allows the heli to just weather-(ock into wind on the way down to a safe landing.

[waveydavey]

I think I prefer the way Steve has his set up configured. Originally I did this with mine a year or two back but changed it when I joined the club and everyone has theirs set the way I described above. I might have a little fiddle.

[jwmachon]

Doing it steves way to i set the gyro under gyro sens and then choose auto where i get all flight modes

Thanks

p.s. Pics would be brilliant

[Steve]

You have to activate both the gyro sens function and the governor function in the model setup menu first. Then you have to set the gyro sens screen to auto I think in the main functions pages.

This is from memory though. I'll get you a couple of pics of my screens when I'm at home tomorrow just to be sure.

[jwmachon]

on the governor settings what percentage does the governor kick in i take i 0 is off.

Also if the sensor or magnet falls off would it go back to normal throttle curves, if there anyway of testing teh governor without starting engine at all not sure if u can tho cos blades wont be moving to detect magnet basically to test it

[Steve]

Here you go - setup for my TRex 700 on my DSX9 transmitter (exactly the same screens as a 9xii)

First pic should be the Device Select menu from the initial setup screen - shows both the gyro and governor functions active along the bottom line. It also shows hover trim off (very important) and the extra flight modes active. The extra flight modes is just a personal preference, for most the basic 4 modes (Norm, ST1, ST2 and HLD) will suffice.

Second pic should show my TRex700 setup menu where you can see that both the Gyro Sens and Governor options are displayed. If they're not then you need to go back to the first screen.

Third pic shows the Gyro Sens function with 3 gain values assigned (0, 1 and 2) and then how each of these is assigned to each flight mode. On this Tx, 50 is the cutoff between heading hold and rate mode, so HH mode starts at 50 and rises upwards towards 100. Rate mode starts at 50 and raises upwards as the value falls towards zero. A bit confusing, but you learn to live with it. Hence the value that is below 50 is a rate mode value and the other two are heading hold.

Fourth pic shoes the governor menu, again with 3 values and how the values are assigned to each flight mode. A zero value in this screen is governor off. Hence in NORM and HLD modes the governor is off for start/spool up and autos (throttle is then held at tickover by the throttle hold menu).

In answer to your PM, yes zero is governor off. Check the destructions for the Align governor - I seem to remember that the governor only engages when the throttle output is over 50% so you need to make sure your throttle curve is always over this value when in ST1, ST2 etc. In NORM, you need a value of zero on the governor menu and a normal straight line throttle curve. This heli has this same governor and the values in my governor screen give me head speeds around 1700 and 1950 rpm, but this is a 90 size heli. Finally, yes, if a magnet gets thrown then the governor no longer operates and the throttle curve goes back to the curve.

Hope this helps.

[jwmachon]

so dont see any pics

thanks

[jwmachon]

found them now sorry mate

[jwmachon]

Steve thankyou so much that as sorted it for me many many thanks to everybody you dont get away that easy though one last question does this sound right.

os hyper as a max rpm of 21000

I want a head speed of 1800rpm

my gearing is 85/10

so i need a rpm on engine of 15,300 lets say 16000

so on governor that would be set at the percentage of what 16000 of the 21000 which i belive is 75%

have i got it about right so governor percent would be 75%