DX6i Swash Mix?

[msssltd]

Hi
I am a bit confused by the Swash Mix function on my DX6i. I have worked out that setting 0 for Ail, Elev, Picth causes the cyclic servos to do nothing. I guess setting negative values will cause the servos to operate in reverse.

I would really appreciate an explanation
1. What do the numbers actually mean
2. How does the Swash Mix relate to the pitch curve
3. What would be a good starting point for someone, using a Belt CP2 as a trainer, that managed his first 360 circuits and piros a couple days ago and realises he now has to get his head around pitch and throttle curves to get a higher, constant, head speed [1].

Blade pitch is +-10 with throttle hold on and 0 degrees is at middle stick.
My pitch curve is 30, 40, 50, 75, 100. Zero degrees is at middle stick but the extents appear to be affected by the swash mix numbers somehow.

I was trying a throttle curve of 0 45 80 90 100 and scared myself silly. The heli refused to lift off until somewhere past 75% up stick when it immediately lept about 20 feet in the air :eek

Thanks in anticipation

[1] Yes I know I should bin the Belt and get something bigger and better

[Steve]

Set the swash mixes to 60 (or -60) each to start with and your servo travel adjusts to 100% each way. The swash mix is another type of servo endpoint adjustment which works on the channel rather than the individual servo, so increasing the swash mix on the aileron will increase the travel on two servos, not just one.

Generally (well in my DSX9 radio anyway), the maximum swash mix is 120% so 60% is exactly half way and a good starting point which generally works well on most of my helis.

If you had a heli with the individual servo endpoints all at 100% and a swash mix of 60% which gave you + and - 10 degrees collective pitch at the head, and you decided one day that you want more (i.e. +-12 deg), then the easiest way to do is to just tweak up the swash mix by a bit, and it wouldn't take much to get that extra 2 degrees (maybe an 10% on the mix).

Care should be taken if the swash mixes get too high, as the combined control inputs (say from aileron, elevator and collective pitch) all at the same time can quickly drive the servos to the limits of their travel, so keeping the servo endpoints at approx 100% and the swash mixes around the 60 mark is a good idea.

You don't get any of this hassle with mechanical mixing as each servo controls each axis and there's no electronic mixing.