Cypher 3D - Love this Heli!

[kevinbattista]

Dru, Kevin, Chris,

Why don't we set up a session on Phoenix sometime and fly?



hey ya !:thumbup: I was thinkin bout askin about that ... good idea.. we'll have to set up a good time .. remember the time difference ;)

[kevinbattista]

Hey guys , I was setting up my Cypher at work today and noticed my cog from side to side is off. ie.. my tail servo puts more weight on my right side. I dont mind much but would like to know if anyone else has this issu and whats the easiest way to fix it?

[maddog57]

Ah Clem I've been wanting to go on line with Phoenix, but not sure what it's all about. Plus I'll probably embarass myself with my minimal skills. But what the hell...think it'd fun, maybe you guys can teach me some things. Let us know when.

Chris :thumbup:

[kevinbattista]

well, when i fly on Phoenix i'll start flying on line in a "Cypher" session.. i'll be under the name "BoneHead" If you you want , come join Me and we can figure it out together.. I think if when any one fly's the phoenix if we make a "Cypher" session the title then we'll know it's us... :thumbup:

[Ah Clem]

"I'll probably embarass myself with my minimal skills."

I feel this way every time I get on to a group Phoenix session.


"when i fly on Phoenix i'll start flying on line in a "Cypher" session.. i'll be under the name "BoneHead""

I will watch for it. I sometimes set up "Compass Fun Fly" under "Ah Clem", you are all welcome to join that as well!

[blvdbuzzard]

I have the free sims and Realflight G3.5. Have been thinking of upgrading to the RF G5.5. Money is just headed to other ares then a new sim.

Would like to fly online with you but not sure my satellite connection would be fast enough.


Dru.

[kevinbattista]

Dru, get the Phoenix.. :YeaBaby: free upgrades , imo it's better for heli's .. to each his own but i've flown both and like the Phoenix better... :thumbup:

[1157]

Dru, get the Phoenix.. :YeaBaby: free upgrades , imo it's better for heli's .. to each his own but i've flown both and like the Phoenix better... :thumbup:

+1

[maddog57]

+1 on the +1 !!

Chris :thumbup:

[blvdbuzzard]

I wasted 3 hours getting the demo DLed last night. Kept dropping connection so I had to start over. I get it all loaded and what a crappy demo. If I wanted to watch a video of what it looks like, a link to YOUTUBE would have worked better.

I wanted a demo where I could fly it, like the one for RFG and a few others.


Well the $130.00 is going to have to wait for a while. I can do a lot of crashing for that price.


Dru.

[Cryptovariable]

Hi Maddog,

I just read your post. I didn't mean to be a tease about the four bladed setup! I actually started to type a simple write-up the next day, but wanted to fly it again before I gave out some potentially bad info. When I flew it again, I had a vibration I didn't notice before, and to make a long story short, the mainshaft was bent (ever so slightly). I'm not sure what caused it or if it was already like that, but whatever it was, the cheap Chinese steel probably didn't help. I ordered some Rave 450 hardened mainshafts (3 for $10) and am in the process of fitting one of those up this week. Sorry for the delay!

A question for everyone: I have two Cyphers and have bought another tail rotor hub and shaft just to troubleshoot this problem. All three of my tail rotor hubs are machined crooked to where the tips of the tail blades (when looking straight from the rear) track a 1/4 inch apart from each other. If that doesn't make sense, the hole in the hub for the shaft is not 90 degrees perpendicular to the blade grips. It's not a bent shaft either. All three hubs are bad enough that you can actually see the off-center geometry just looking at them. I can even place the hubs on a jewelers screwdriver, spin them with my finger and get the same effect. All three are machined crooked... plain and simple.

My question to you guys: Are your hubs the same way? I actually filed the tail blade mounting surfaces at an angle to compensate for the hub so the blades would track true. I know you guys are going to suggest checking the bolts, or the blade grips, et cetera, but I already have. I can mix and match all three tail rotor components and it's always the hub. I'm in the process of trying to make a Blade 400 tail rotor hub fit, but it doesn't look like it will be easy (at least it is true!). I'm just hoping you guys have some straight ones out there so I can dream of owning one someday. :) Just one of the frustrations of an inexpensive ARF model I guess.

Thanks in advance,

J

[maddog57]

Crypto take your time with the 4 blade head info. We'd much rather have you work all the bugs out and get it right. Just create a seprate thread when you're ready.

I've never noticed a problem with the tail hub before, like you're describing. Can you post a pic or two of a bad one? I'll need to check my spares to see if maybe they could be bad.

Chris :thumbup:

[Cryptovariable]

Hi Maddog,

Here is what I came up with. I said before that the tail hub is so far off you can see it with the naked eye, but photographing that wasn't so easy. So, I came up with this idea to set the heli on graph paper with a light shining straight down on it. I lined the boom up with the lines in the paper then rotated the tail 180 degrees each way and took a picture. You can see the angle it is off by the shadow (pretty clever I thought!). It isn't quite 1/4" off like I said, but it's at least 3/16". The tail shaft is true. The wire you see is my [temporary] tail skid. I have my tail fin turned around the 'right' way so it looks like a real helicopter! ;)

Thanks for looking.

J

[irjamesm]

Hi Maddog,

Here is what I came up with. I said before that the tail hub is so far off you can see it with the naked eye, but photographing that wasn't so easy. So, I came up with this idea to set the heli on graph paper with a light shining straight down on it. I lined the boom up with the lines in the paper then rotated the tail 180 degrees each way and took a picture. You can see the angle it is off by the shadow (pretty clever I thought!). It isn't quite 1/4" off like I said, but it's at least 3/16". The tail shaft is true. The wire you see is my [temporary] tail skid. I have my tail fin turned around the 'right' way so it looks like a real helicopter! ;)

Thanks for looking.

J

To me it looks like hub,shaft,grips are true....to me it looks like your blades are whats off. My $.02

[kevinbattista]

+1 Ya, I'd say blades too..... or grips. everything else looks good :thumbup:

[maddog57]

Crypto...very clever with the graph paper and the shadow, I must say. Very hard to tell though if it's blades, like James and Kevin see it, or if you are right. I even put a 6" straight edge on the pics and the hub/grips look straight and the blades look off. Let me know if this makes sense...could you take just a hub [without grips] and mount it to a tail shaft, then put that assy. on your graph paper... maybe that would show whether or not the hub hole is 90* to the grip mounts. Hope that makes sense. I looked at both my Cyphers and my spares and don't see what you're describing. I'm really curious to hear what Dru and Ah Clem think.

Chris :thumbup:

[kevinbattista]

change the blades and take another pic ;)

[blvdbuzzard]

Crypto, we will have non of that cleverness here. I will not stand for such a good idea :)

To me it looks like the hub is ever so slightly out. But the blades look like they are out a lot more. So together, they are way out.

I had the main rotor hub on my old Nexus molded out .022 of an inch. 22 thou does not sound like much, yet it would do the funky chicken when I tried to spool it up.

Check the thickness of the molding of the tail hub. It may be off a little. Use a set of calipers to see how well it is molded.


Dru.

[irjamesm]

Hey Guys, Well a week or so ago, I switched my gyro's from the cypher to the EXI500, And now the 500 is flying awesome with the futaba GY401, and the cypher is flying crappy with the Logictech LTG-2100T....so it's either defective....or I just dont know how to set it up. But ive read the stuff over and over, and im pretty sure I understand the setup.
So, Dru, Chris.....I aint digging this gyro:shock:

[blvdbuzzard]

James, the gyro works great. Sounds like you may have a bad one. Any way to try the gyro with another servo and the servo with another gyro?

James, if you have a FAST servo, this gyro works pretty well.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20020

I bought mine here

http://www.cnchelicopter.com/servlet/the-1403/xmhobbies-digital-gyro-G401B/Detail

They did work well. Mine always had a wag. No matter what I did. I tried to adjust it until I was ready to use the helicopter as a hammer. Every one said it was a great gyro. Well turns out my servo was just not fast enough for it. When I built a friends EXI 450, his Align gyro melted and I sold him one of my Gyrd G401b's. It worked great with his .05 speed servo and worked like crap with my .10 speed servo. Mine held like it was freakin glue to the spot. Problem was, the tail always waged about 1 to 2 inches each side in a hover. If I slammed power or just cut it, tail would not move. I have it mounted in a helicopter right now. Works great, just need a faster servo.

Dru.

[irjamesm]

"They did work well. Mine always had a wag. No matter what I did. I tried to adjust it until I was ready to use the helicopter as a hammer. Every one said it was a great gyro. Well turns out my servo was just not fast enough for it."



Are you talking about the logictech? The Tail servo for the cypher is a Hi-Tec HS-65HB .14sec @ 4V (Worked great with the futaba gyro)
And on the 500 an Align DS-520 .07 sec @6V

You can fly the 500 next weekend if you want....it flys great!!!

[Ah Clem]

E3DFlyer was out at the Rose Bowl again, this evening, doing Kaos's with the Cypher.

We tried to get video the other day, but it did not turn well out due to the lousy cameraman (me).

[blvdbuzzard]

James, the gyro I was talking about was the cheap, errr I mean LOW cost one. My Logitec has the Logitec servo so it is a matched set.

The $14.00 gyro works but needs a super fast servo. The people who had good luck had servo's in the .07 to .05 speed range.

What I did was to put my Futaba 240 in with my digital .10 servo. That combo works well.

So, you are going to go to Ocotillio with us. Sounds good. We should have a real good time. I will bring some foamie planes and my Cypher. I will find some time to call you this weekend. I am looking at getting there around 8:00 in the morning or so.


Dru.

[Cryptovariable]

irjamesm:

I haven't read back far enough to see what your problem is with the Logictech, but have you tried the calibration function?

(Copied from another post...)

The self-calibration function is NOT documented. You activate the self-calibration by powering up the tx, then holding the gyro button down, powering up the gyro, waiting for all eight gain LEDs to light up the second time, then releasing the gyro button and not touching the gyro for a few minutes. The gyro will then cycle through the eight gain LEDs, first slowly, then towards the end of the calibration faster, until it finally finishes the calibration with all eight LEDs flickering at the same time permanently. Then just power-cycle the gyro to finish the setup. BTW: The self-calibration leaves your gyro programming alone, so servo speed, rotate rate, servo direction and servo limits remain the same. You can re-calibrate at any time without affecting your programming or "mechanical" setup.

Thought I'd throw that out there just in case. Like I said, I haven't read back to see what your problem is. I have one and it works great, even after a pretty hard crash.

J

[irjamesm]

Yea Thanks, I did try that calibration method....didnt help my issue.
But thanks for the post