spool up and down procedure / settings

[cjm180]

Hey guys

i have recently built a 600l with an edge 80HV ESC and i am slowly figuring out the electric side of this hobby. Had a raptor 50 before this!

anyways, i read on a post that to use the governor mode. I read on another forum to set a straight throttle curve of say 30% (norm) 70% idle up 1 and 100 for idle up 2. 0 for throttle hold.

the writer suggested arming the ESC by powering up the heli, then moving to throttle hold (ESC sees zero) then turn off and then the motor will spool up till governor speed. All good. Thread here, post 5:

Trex 600e pro throttle curve and pitch curve setup - HeliFreak


To spool down at the end of the flight, simply flick to TH and then i guess go and bring it in to the pits. My only worry this way is you only have the safety of one switch to protect you from a spool up?

How are you guys doing this. I see the ESC comes with an aux wire for arming / disarming. Would this be wired into the gpro or direct into the receiver (futaba). Would this give 2 switches for safety?

Kr
Craig

[Grumpy]

That's all correct but with the castle ESC you have to set fixed endpoints prior to setting the governor: http://www.castlecreations.com/suppo..._endpoints.pdf

Personally i just use the throttle hold switch as my only protection against spool-up. It's safe enough if you follow reasonable precautions. I leave the Tx on the floor, power up the heli, carry to take off point. Go back and pick up Tx and once ready for spool-up release TH.

With the Tx sitting undisturbed on the floor there is no chance of accidental spool-up.

If you want extra protection the auxiliary lead can be used with an 'arming lockout' harness and key. This is an extra you can buy or usually the ESC comes with a voucher that you can use to order one from castle for free.

[james_2k]

Well put throttle hold on before putting any power to the heli.

on my 570 it is 12s with the Bec attached to 6s, so it's possible to have the receiver etc powered before the motor is.

procedure for me is; tx on, th on, receiver on heli on,allow to initialise. Take to launch site and then connect other battery, canopy on and launch. I don't use any normal modes anymore, all idle ups on all my helis.

[jimmyhorns]

Im using a different ESC, but it has a similar principle.

I 'arm' the heli in normal mode, which has a flat 70% 'curve' The ESC will not initialise like this, but the FBL will and so the heli sets itself up on the bench, but will not spool up.

When at the flight line, I flick into hold, and then the ESC arms. I then flick back to normal and it spools up.

My throttle hold is on a three way switch, so when I land I click the second click, and then im two clicks away from it spooling back up.

The risk here is the walk back to the pits, in that I might click something by accident.... Im hopeful that I wont do this.


The other way would to set a normal throttle curve that starts at zero, then set a point at around 10% throttle stick that is where your flat (in your case 30%) comes from. I dont like this as it means the ESC cutting out if I accidentally forget im in 'normal' mode, and essentially means I only use IU1 and IU2.

[james_2k]

Im using a different ESC, but it has a similar principle.

I 'arm' the heli in normal mode, which has a flat 70% 'curve'

Isn't that just an idle up mode then? I thought normal modes are ones with 0 at the lower end

[cjm180]

thanks for the replies, i had a similar thread a while back on nitro helis that i think grumpy commented on!

i suppose one switch is enough, TH. While i am a very long way off 3d flight, i wanna kinda get into a groove that will serve me through all flight

[jimmyhorns]

Isn't that just an idle up mode then? I thought normal modes are ones with 0 at the lower end

These are just the standard 'notations' or names I guess.

Traditionally Normal is what you would spool up in, take off in and then land in.

Some manufacturer use Normal/Idle up, Others use Normal and Stunt, and now on a lot of transmitters you can name them whatever will fit on the screen.

Before electric flight, you had to bring the heli's throttle up slowly, let the clutch engage and control the spool up, otherwise you ended up with one hell of a mess. With electrics now this is unnecessary due to soft starts, and so is the case with some nitros, especially if you run a governor.

Probably more than half the club are still using normal mode in its traditional form, only to immediately flick into idle up once they are past the hovering stage, which to me is the waste of a mode

[james_2k]

Ah cool. Yeah I've renamed my flight modes idle up 1-3. With soft start they take off and land great in those modes. And no chance of accidentally flipping while in a 'normal' normal mode

[Grumpy]

Ah cool. Yeah I've renamed my flight modes idle up 1-3. With soft start they take off and land great in those modes. And no chance of accidentally flipping while in a 'normal' normal mode

Yep, same here. Normal mode is just a carry over from nitro power, it's got no useful purpose that I'm aware of on electric.

[jimmyhorns]

Ah cool. Yeah I've renamed my flight modes idle up 1-3. With soft start they take off and land great in those modes. And no chance of accidentally flipping while in a 'normal' normal mode

Yeah thats exactly the problem if you dont run a flat curve in 'normal' mode. I've done it too many times than I would care to admit to. Now that doesnt happen, only when I hit throttle hold instead of the flight mode switch.....

[10x]

But if you are using a Castle ESC and have set up auto bail out on the TH switch, you will have to have a 0 start normal curve to arm the ESC

[jimmyhorns]

But if you are using a Castle ESC and have set up auto bail out on the TH switch, you will have to have a 0 start normal curve to arm the ESC

Or have a mix on a switch to drop the throttle to 0 to arm it.

[10x]

So then you could have a double switch safety for start up at the beginning? TH and what ever switch you decide to use for the mix...

[jimmyhorns]

So then you could have a double switch safety for start up at the beginning? TH and what ever switch you decide to use for the mix...

Indeed, though I think the greatest risk is after the ESC arms at the end of the flight, before you disarm it.

[myxiplx]

Just adding my 2c. When you switch to all idle up curves they yes, you typically only have one switch guarding against accidental spoolup, but that may not be as risky as you think, and there are some standard procedures you can adopt to minimise the risk. The main ones I use are to always have a soft start set on the ESC, and to disconnect the battery immediately after landing.

- When you initially connect the pack, if you accidentally knock throttle hold the soft start gives you plenty of time to react.
- After landing ESC behaviour can vary, it could be set to ramp up rapidly for auto-rotation aborts. So I disconnect the battery as soon as I get to the heli.

I'm also now running the Spartan eGov (using an interim firmware build), and really like the solution there:

- Soft start always kicks in if throtting up from zero
- Auto-rotation abort is possible, the motor cuts out around 10% throttle, and will ramp up more rapidly from there

So you can set that up as:

- Setup your usual throttle hold switch to go to zero throttle. That always kills the motor, and needs to be the switch you hit reflexively.
- Set another switch for your autorotations, and have that go to around 10% throttle.

And you now have a number of procedures you can use:

- At startup, you can just use throttle hold, and rely on the soft start as your secondary safety feature.
- If you prefer to keep the ESC disarmed, keep throttle hold off and have your autorotation switch enabled. That 10% throttle will prevent the ESC arming, and you can arm it using TH once at the flight line.
- After landing, provided you hit throttle hold, soft start will always re-engage