New Owner Lots of Questions

[halo25]

Thanks guys will post a pic up later

They key issue is that the Sbus has a couple of longer ariels which I am struggling to route. So I could put in on a side frame but then have funny angles and routing going on and I worry signal will cut out.

[halo25]

Well after a bit of surfing I managed to find a few pics of an Sbus side mounted and copied that.

3gx is all set up after a flash to 3.1 (wee panic due to wrong leads aside) - re-did everything to my satisfaction.

So....I really need to do my ESC thing which I guess involves gritting my teeth and hooking up the main batteries. The ESC goes into the 3gx, so basically I can assume the throttle is in the right direction if I check the 3gx screen.

I do have a Castle USB on the way next week, but really want to try and get her in the air for a test flight so I can go ahead and order the rest of my packs

Oh and my balancing board for the PL6 arrived today along with a bag of EC5 connectors

[JoeBailey]

New Owner Lots of Questions

Just pull the mains and tails off it. If it does fire up by accident it won't be able to go anywhere.

I always dread the esc setup on any model, never know how it's gonna work.
Engines are much easier, no noise means its pretty damn safe.

[trillian]

So a maiden tomorrow then? I just did a test hover of the Beam on Friday, I was quite nervous about the FBL unit behaving but fortunately no dramas.

[halo25]

Joebailey - With you on that one, though I was nervous starting up the nitro first time least you can burn the clutch out in a panic. Lucky you mentioned taking the tails off!!! wow, that would of been interesting.

Trillian - How did the Beam go, have you updated your thread with how it went ? Hoping a maiden tomorrow, but sitting here listening to the wind gusting that may be a distant hope

3gx makes me nervous have to admit...

[trillian]

Joebailey - With you on that one, though I was nervous starting up the nitro first time least you can burn the clutch out in a panic. Lucky you mentioned taking the tails off!!! wow, that would of been interesting.

Trillian - How did the Beam go, have you updated your thread with how it went ? Hoping a maiden tomorrow, but sitting here listening to the wind gusting that may be a distant hope

3gx makes me nervous have to admit...

I just hovered it a couple times on Friday and I did update the thread but I'll do a final update after I get a chance to fly it properly. I was worried the Total-G might misbehave when it's on the ground because I remember some discussion about that a couple years ago when it first came out but I think those concerns were over-stated because now most of us are used to FBL and being more cautious on takeoffs / landings. One thing different is I have the cyclic gain on a switch, so at the moment I can turn the flight control completely off, essentially making it flybarless with no stabilisation. Anyway, if the forecast can be relied on I'll fly it tomorrow.

[halo25]

Well we have a maiden

Took blades off, took a risk and powered up the ESC which beeped nicely at full, mid and low throttle. Got throttle hold set and a quick spool up in the kitchen meant we were ready to go.

Took it out and had severe tail wobble, dialled back the gain massively and seemed better but upped the throttle curve. Its still got tail wobble and its bogging on heavy up/down testing. But we have air and a nice smooth feel at that.

Sadly I only have 2 packs, added to my problems are that I cant charge them just yet as still faffing about getting bits for my charger.

So few more packs to be ordered tonight along with a lead to keep me going in interim

Thanks for the help so far guys - I suspect might be picking some brains about throttle curves and what the ESC set up is.

Oh and bagged a CC USB link cheap off e-bay too for more fiddling next week

[highlightshadow]

Not sure what headspeed you're aiming for (assuming its governed) but i found mine never felt stable until it hit about 1900 rpm and went all out mental fun at 2100rpm

I tend to fly mind at the lower end around 1950 and get good 7-8 min flight times on 3300mah packs

[halo25]

Not sure what headspeed you're aiming for (assuming its governed) but i found mine never felt stable until it hit about 1900 rpm and went all out mental fun at 2100rpm

I tend to fly mind at the lower end around 1950 and get good 7-8 min flight times on 3300mah packs

Just starting to look into headspeeds just now, my CC Usb link should arrive this week so hoping to get the governor set up.

I guess I need to know the pinion teeth and the main gear, then follow the CC guide to setting up each headspeed by using a flat throttle curve?

I was going to go with a 1950 on normal and 2100 on idle 1/2 - how do you soft start and cut power in normal mode though if you are governed - or do you set normal to be a linear curve and switch to idle1 once spun up?

[trillian]

In my experience with the CC Ice (and a few other ESCs behave similarly) when you have a governor mode enabled it will want to lock in to a constant throttle percentage. So what I do is set my normal mode starting at zero and have it ramp up to the target hovering headspeed in the first half or less so that, for example, if you need 60% throttle for your normal mode and you have a 5 point curve it looks something like 0-40-60-60-60. This way the governor locks on after it hits a constant percentage and that's where you're at when hovering, taking off and landing etc.

With the Castle Ice you have a really soft start regardless no matter how fast you raise the stick.

Then idle 1 and 2 are just flat lines all the way across at whatever percentage it tells you for the headspeed you want.

[halo25]

Spot on that explains the bit I was missing - my USB hasnt arrived yet so if its not here by the weekend I may just fly with a 0-40-60-60-60 for some light hovering and practice set up.

I guess my next questions are around throttle hold, I take it I just set that to 0 to ensure no sudden start ups etc - bit like a nitro but without the idle speed dialled in. That being the case I didnt quite understand the CC bail out feature and how that worked with autos. Seemed to suggest it would ramp up to full speed if you went above a certain % of throttle to help bail you out - but if you flair the pitch doesnt that have the same effect (could be being thick here).

I now have 8 packs to give me 4 flights in total but need to do a massive EC5 soldering session to let me charge in parallel. Managed to get two packs charged tonight individually that came with the heli and they look good and healthy. So I can have one little set up session again tomorrow night

[halo25]

Well I seem to have a problem and its doing my head in.

I got my new front tail gears and fitted them but felt they weren't really a good fit but got them spinning as freely as possible. Fitted them and they gave up 2 mins into a nice hover today. So back to square one again now.

So I have had a look at ordered a velocity 90 tail to avoid the tail sinking in and the 96mm KBDD blades causing issues before I take off. I also ordered two sets this time just in case, I have checked the fronts arent fitted to the rear and got some new bearings just in case.

One thing I did notice was my tail despite being pinned appears to keep going squint. I took it apart and the "pin" screw isnt fully through the tail boom just supposed to hold it in place, so going to drill that out and put a longer screw in place to avoid that again.

This is annoying thought as it was hovering well - but the gears just stripped completely like someone had held the tail in mid air in hover.

So other than what I am doing any thoughts? Is the headspeed too high, I will put on the CC Gov this time round and get that dialled in for normal/idle etc

This is really frustrating as I feel like the 600n I sold I am chasing a problem in circles that I shouldnt have to...

[JoeBailey]

New Owner Lots of Questions

What did you do to the gears to make them fit better?

[trillian]

I never had any issues with any of the gears on mine. I watched the video on RR by Wilson Miller about the tail gears when I was building mine and made sure the bearing was not able to move around.

Here's two vids about this on Youtube including the same one I saw at the time;

How to Mod/trim the Fusion 50 Gears, Wilson Miller - YouTube


Outrage Fusion 50 RC Helicopter tail gear housing still not fixed - YouTube

[halo25]

Thanks guys - will watch the video tonight and hoping Midland get my parts out today for tomorrow.

When I fitted the new gear it felt tight at a certain point as if it was out of balance slightly. I stripped everything down and re-fitted new bearings, gave everything a clean then made sure the bevel was pressed into the bearings properly.

It seemed to mesh better but did still feel tight at a certain rotation and it wasnt that quiet when I took off.

I see there are new retro fit gears now but my plan is;

Pin tail properly
Set the CC governor make sure I get the right calculated headspeed
Fit slightly longer tail blade
Follow the video closely

Hopefully that will be end of it - and I can focus on dialling the slight drift I picked up in flight and actually fly for longer than 2 mins!