transmitter-gyro gain set up

[jonny boy]

hi, only joined here today so new to all this, also very new to the rc heli scene, have aquired a concept 30 with a futaba ff6 transmitter, when purchased needed quite alot of work, eventially got it in the air but tail was twichy, whilst turned off turned the gain screw a tad and now radio gear dont work receiver end, beleive the tx has to be changed to new gain setting, but unfortunately i dont know where to start, any info or ideas would be much appreciated, thanks jonny

[jimmyhorns]

A few things!

Firstly, welcome... ive only been here a few days myself.

Second, the concept 30 had quite a bad rep for tail wagging, as does the concept vr32 which I have. Because the tail is drive by a wire rod, rather than a shaft, it flexes far too much and leads to a less than stable tail speed. People have done torque tube conversions with good effect.

Before we can help more, we are going to need to know a bit more about what you have. From what you describe changing the gain screw at the gyro shouldnt make any difference to the rest of the radio gear, so there may be issues there.

Starting at the beginning, can you tell us:

receiver model
gyro model
tail servo
how old your flight battery is.

Thanks, James

[jonny boy]

hi james, thanks for speedy reply, the info you asked for is,
receiver- futaba FP-R-138DP dual control
gyro-ICG180 (CSM)
tail servo-SPEKTRUM DS821
not sure of flight battery age as it was in the heli when purchased, but had no probs up to now,
thanks jon

[jimmyhorns]

Well you are probably not going to like my advice

First off you need a new receiver battery. I wouldnt chance all the work you are putting in to an old NiMH or even worse NiCad (if its a NiCad its old old).

If you are running digital servos throughout, then you are going to need a battery that is capable of supplying a reasonable current, on demand. An old battery may not be able to do this. I never run my batteries for more than 2 years, and I make sure that they are charged regularly.

You just cannot depend on an old pack, whose history you do not know.


Second bit of advice, you need a new gyro. Those gyros were awful when produced, and in comparison to new (even the cheapest of the cheap) significantly underperform.

The servo, well its a little slow for the tail, but should work.... although you should be aware that spektrum warn against the use of the servo in anything bigger than a 30 size nitro due to vibration causing failure.... So I wouldnt have that in my heli.

I know that none of this addresses your set up issue. If you choose to ignore the bit about the gyro and servo then please, at the very least, get a new flight battery.

[jonny boy]

ok, thanks again james, learning loads already, firstly just replaced receiver with a spare and hooray its all working, my flight pack is a 4100mAh pack, is this ok if not what would you recommend, also have a spare gyro, its a GWS Piezo (pro) would this be better than the other one, and i also have a futaba S9001 or a JR NES-517 servo, would any of these be quicker than the spektrum, thanks again for help, jon

[jimmyhorns]

Both of your spare servos are analog, so not ideal for the tail and neither are any quicker than the spektrum im afraid.

The GWS gyro is again old technology, and were not ideal on nitros from what I have read.

A 4100mAh flight pack is more than enough. I use a 2100 4 cell NiMH which gives me 8 flights before I have used half the capacity on my hawk 30, and use a 3300 on my hawk 50.

If you are looking for a cheap gyro to get things going, have a look at the assan GA250 on ebay, ive had them work well for me in the past, but have now upgraded to a spartan quark, which incidentally are half price at the moment.

[jonny boy]

oki doki, have to suss things out abit, thanks for advice seems like i have to spend a few quid to get it up to scratch, jon

[jimmyhorns]

This hobby is an endless money pit im afraid, still you could get a new flight pack, all for 30 to 40 quid...

I have some cheap (towerpro) digital servos in my concept 32, and every time I flew it I wondered, will the servos go.... which is ok if you are hovering, you will just crash, not so good if you are doing aerobatics and the heli is coming straight for you out of control....