Headspeed governor problem solved

[jrohland]

Other members of this forum will find I like to tinker with my 400. To that end, I have installed a Throttle Jockey Pro to maintain a fixed head speed. The magnet is on the tail drive gear and the sensor is between the frames just behind the the tail drive spindle.

Putting the sensor on the tail drive works well because the Throttle Jockey operates between ~9000 and ~21000 RPM. Since the tail drive has a 5:1 ratio with the head on the X400, that RPM range is just right for an appropriate head speed.

The Throttle Jockey Pro can be adjusted on the fly using a channel on the radio. Since I do not use my gear channel, I use it to adjust the head speed from my radio. While this can be done with throttle curves, it is hard to get a curve set to maintain a fixed head speed regardless of load. An onboard, sensored governor should do a better job.

Today, I finally figured out how to set the gear channel on my radio to give me a mild head speed in normal mode and, a much higher head speed when I switch into flight mode (3D mode).

jrohland

[femi]

What tx are you using, you sound like its a DX6, please confirm

[jrohland]

What tx are you using, you sound like its a DX6, please confirmI do indeed use the Spektrum DX6.

However, since my original post, I have removed the governor from the heli and gone with throttle curves to control the head speed. This is a clunky problem with the DX6 because of it's very limited throttle curve options. Never the less, using curves gives me the best performance.

I like the idea of having a governor with a true RPM sensor but, the governor proved to be too slow in responding.

jrohland

[femi]

jrohlqand. i like your sense of adventure and nag for experimentation, true to type of a real flight enthusiat. Am also tinkering with some experimentation myself; Subject is; "GLUING BROKEN WOOD MAIN BLADES"

Am trying to see if i can burst the myth lots of blade manfacturers run when they caution that one shouldn't re-use damged blades. Yes i agree that on the basis of safety and common sense, this does appear correct; but i recently glued back my stock MX400 blades which i accidently broke during a rough landing, i checked the location of the break-point and found that it was about 1/4thrs from the blade grip hole on the blade, and not at the tip area of the blade. I figured that since the break-point was not at the blade tip area, which from what i gather is the area of the blades generating lift. i decided to experiment by gluing back the blades, and also using some thinly cut wood shavings to strengthen the glued back break-point. I then celotaped the blades for further strengthning.

I then set the baldes back on the heli, and spooled up, lift was generated,. i hovered quit comfortably and had a good forward flight. However, i also realised it would be pushing things too far if i effected any 3D manuvares, cos i didn't want to over-stress the baldes.

Am still conducting further tests cautiously though; but my preliminary results show that you can actually put back these blades to together PROVIDED;

1. The break-point does not exceed 1/4thrs of the length of the blades when measured/judged from the balde grip point; and
2. The nature of the break is clean, i.e the break results in two clean complete halves and not pieces.

But please note, my test results are not conclusive.

[jrohland]

There are wood glues with plenty of strength. I don't think breakage is a big concern. However, you may have a hard time getting them to track right as the blades may have a very different flex profile.

On the bigger topic, i.e. experimentation. We are pretty lucky since mostly only our money is on the line. Remember Igor Sikorsky and Larry Bell put lives on the line with their helicopter experiments.

There are fliers and, there are builders. I'll never be a hot 3D pilot. My talent is in the creative modifications department. Some mods will not work out, some will not help but, they won't hurt either. On rare occasion, a mod will really help. That is the nature of the tinker.

Keep up the tinkering. When we stumble on a useful mod, the whole hobby improves.

jrohland