Hacker 77 esc and the beeps? Something amiss, low headspeed!

[OICU812]

Ok getting ready to try this Ion I bought. It will be heavy and not so realsitic as I have some rx and some other goods off another heli, I will also be using two of my 10S1Ps' from my logo just to get a feal for it is all.

I have a question as I am not familiar to the Hacker esc. When I plug in my battery for the motor etc, it signifies a number of beeps like any other esc would, however I notice it signals a number of different beeps. What do these beeps mean exactly?

When hooking this all up I did make sure to see which way my throttle stick was supposed to be and reversed my throttle channel etc and also made sure carefully it was turning the proper way. Now I set my normal curver linear 0,25,50,75,100. I then have made my Idle 1 to 90,90,85,90,90 and my idle 2 to 100,100,95,100,100. I have not in any way done any kind of a calibration or anything to this esc.
Is there some sort of procedure and such I should be going through with this esc for identifying with my transmitter in regards to throttle etc...?

Thx in advance

[Rickster]

IF it is programmed correctly you should hear a single beep when you first plug in the ESC to the Lipo then a pause follwed by 5 beeps with a second between them..

Rick

[OICU812]

Ok well,,, when I plug it in with my throttle stick at bottom it beeps once, then pause, then it beeps twice with a millisecond in between the two beeps 5 times, then stops. SO "Beep" pause "Beep,beep" pause x 5, looking at Hacker site this is what I hear =- 5 time two “beeps” – Mode 2 (beep,beep...beep,beep...beep,beep...etc.)

The motor I have on this Ion is the NEU 1521-1.5YFanned
Gearing is 90 main, 50secondary., 15t pinions between.

Is this mode 2 incorrect for timing? I may have first time on hook up accidently changed something so I may just need direction on how to calibrate the throttle and how to also get the right timing...


The issue is now I went and tried the heli out on a maiden flight and my HS was only 1520 rpm and this was on idle 2 at 100,100,95,100,100 curve. I am missing something as for a procedure or something to let this esc know where my throttle range is .... ideas?? The gearing and the lipos certainly do not add up to only 1520, previous owner mentioned 1950 HS on stunt mode or idle 2 as some of us know it. Owner before had a JR radio, I have a 9C Fuitaba.

Do I start or plug in the lipo with my throttle stick all way up then bring all way down or is there a simple silly step I should have done on first plug in.....? At the moment I am pretty confused about what me the wrong thing if it is timing, frequency timing, or if it is as simple as some sort of calibration...... :arggg:

[OICU812]

Man I am starting to think I may try a friends CC HV85 esc, at least I know I could get that to work..... :roll:

[OICU812]

Ok I think I got this straightened out! As soon as I could I put it to middle stick, then Idle 1 right away, then 2 right away and the HS jumped right up there. I did not have anyone around to tach it but it certainly was up there. Only now I can see on climbouts the tail is not holding at all really.

[FrittsLogic]

Shawn, that's not exactly the right way to set it up. goto http://www.hackerbrushless.com/flightESCInstructions.shtml for the instruction sheet. They are fairly easy to set up. Chris gave us all the defaults for the Hacker 77 a while back:

"The 77-O-heli ramps up quite slow and smooth. Use these settings:

Type: Heli
Controller type: M-77-O-H
Heli mode: Normal
Timing: 0
Frequency: 8 KHz
Acceleration: soft
Accumulator type: Li-ion/Li-pol
Number of cells: 10
LiIo/Po cut off V per cell: 3
Initial point: Automatic
End point: Automatic
Throttle curve: Linear
Rotation: Whatever you wiring needs
Timing monitor: On

Aside from these things, make sure your ATV's are out all the way. Use a quick ramp between points 1 and 2 on your normal curve to about 80%. Then a flat line across the screen at 80%. For idleups, set the end points at 100%, the 1/4 and 3/4 points at 90 to 95% and the middle point at 80 to 90%. These can of course be tailored a little, but those numbers will get you very close. Your hold should be 0 all the way across.

Never pump the throttle, start ups should be a smooth movement of the collective stick to the middle and then wait for the headspeed to come up. Alternately, from a dead stop, you can just flip into idleup1, raise the collective to 0, wait for the head and then go fly...this is what I do.

When performing autos, NEVER EVER bail out. Finish the auto and make certain the motor stops spinning before flipping out of hold.

Hope this helps

Chris"


Maybe the guy you bought it from tweaked it for higher timing angle. My recommendation would be to take it back to default, then fly, and if not happy tweak in more timing, Don.

[OICU812]

Thx fritts but like I said, think I got that part sorted out. As soon as I flipped it to Idle 1 or Idle 2 quicker rather than waiting for normal mode to level out it seemed to get the proper HS. Now all I gotta get is the tail working.....

[FrittsLogic]

Once you're sure it's working, I usually just goto idle 1 or 2 straight away...then take thr hold off with pitch at zero and wait for the spool up to complete.

[OICU812]

Ok... well I read in a few posts the timing on this NEU is closest to the Aveox which is mode2, which would be the beeps I hear now and the mode people are running this motor in. Am I missing something here on this?? :dontknow

In the beginning when I first hook it up there is "one beep", then pause, then 2beeps close together five times in a row with short pauses between the pairs. According to the Hacker site this is mode2 timing, which according to a few threads I have been researching on this is correct for this NEU motor of mine. If someone else has this motor and confirm otherwise please let me know...

[TomC]

Shawn,

I would recommend you go back to mode 1 timing. I flamed-out a hacker 77 esc with mode 2! It's your quarter of course.

Cheers,

Tom C

[OICU812]

Is it a big difference on power? I liked the power I saw with the current mode of 2. I will put into timing mode 1 as you both say to be sure. I felt my lipos. motor and esc after flight and things were pretty cool I thought, but I don't live in Texas or Australia either, lol. Thanks for the help fellas I appreciate it. Once I get dialed in perfectly I am going to start doing some logs with my micrologger and get some in flight data here to see amp pulls and so fourth and get all the esc, motor temps and all of that with each mode etc, that should prove to be helpfull for myself and maybe for others in the future.
Thx again, I hope this mode is good as well. :)

[TomC]

Shawn,

Sounds good, look forward to your logged results. If you have the hacker prog box you can slowly increase the timing. I was ok with up to 5 degrees (like Bobby uses I believe). On startup this still registers as mode 1. I had my esc flame out when I went to 8 degrees. This registers as mode 2.

Cheers,

Tom C

[OICU812]

No I don't have the box I don't plan on it either, as soon as that powerjazz is out I'll get that and fly governor mode, or does this programming box work that well, what are my total advantages on having one?
That is the biggest flaw right now imho is this esc in fixed throttle. When it starts up it is not too bad slow, but then I stick it in idle 2 and wait a few seconds and it abruptly jumps to meet the throttle curve and I mean "jumps" I thik like 300-500 HS at once, kinda silly this controller. And so optimum power and safety timing is 5 degrees you are saying?? Guess I am spoiled with Jazz escs on all my other helis, this Hacker drives me nuts, jerky arsed start up and just feels weird in the air.

[rfaster]

Advantages - for $35 bucks It's nice to be able to see what you are programming...

Note - never start in Idle up :D I made the mistake of switching a bit too soon and lets just say I needed to change my shorts after that one.

[OICU812]

I just start in normal with a linear 0-100 curve as soon as I get to middle stick, quite quick I hit it to idle 2, then wait, after about 3-5 seconds it seems to kick in and it really goes up to HS, too fast imho, worry about it stripping the gear... :roll:

[Rickster]

Why not just bump up your normal mode throttle % to match your Idle2 setting.. I have mine set up so that when in Idleup the only difference in the curve is below 1/2 stick..

Also if you let the HS stabilize then the ESC is out of slowsart mode.. If you want to chage from one setting to the other you need to flip your switch while the HS is still accelerating, once it plateaus you are now out of Soft Start and it will screech a gear when you switch if over sometimes.. If you are flying Futaba Super series you can dial in some delay on the Idleup switching which will "soften" how it reacts to the switch from normal to Idleups..

Rick

[OICU812]

Well the problem initially with me not getting my Headspeed was me letting it stabilize before switching to idle 1 or 2 and it not ramping up, which is why I then read through these and other forums and people said to make sure to switch it into your mode of flying ie: idle or stunt 2 and then wait for it to acheive your HS and fly. No worries but it just seems the ramp up is harsh and I have not had to ever put in any kind of a delay in this regard with any other controller etc It does nto screech when I hit the switch it screecheds and ramps up dramatically like 5 seconds later, maybe something is not right on the controller, not sure yet.

Is there a controller available NOW that is plug and play and has a good governor mode that WILL work 100% properly in this Ion? No one has responded to my CC85 thread so I am assuming maybe no one has used them or will, I have never had a Schulze esc but they may have a fit as well. Either way sure don't like this hacker one to much.... :?

[WillJames]

The hacker works pretty good in AIR mode. You can adjust your curves, but fron what you posted it is probably effectively at 100%. On my 14MZ, a straight line curve at 85% is the same as 100%. IOW increasing the curves from 85 to anything higher will not get any more headspeed/power out of the setup. The programmer box is quick and works great. It wil not read off what the current settings are, but it will let you quickly scroll through a lot of options. Chris says Kohler recommends 8 degrees of timing, I know B and me have tried all the way up to 30 which did give a little more power, but as everybody says, it heats things up. I settled on 8. My 77-O gave up last week with HC at the sticks, so I am borrowing a pretty old 40.160 Schulze, and I will let you know how it does next time I fly with HC. It did pretty good today, but since it is so old and has about 3 versions old software, it will not do GOV mode well at all. B is running a new 40.160 on his 12s Ion, so he can tell you more how it works in GOV. It seemed to fly pretty good at IRCHA.

For a few weeks before the 77-O failed, it started running a little hotter than normal, not much but 10 to 30 degrees which I attributed to the hot summer weather. When it failed during HC's flight it was 160 after about 1 minute of flying and then a forced auto. Before that it was never anywhere near that hot ever during any flights, even with the older 10-12C packs and 12.5 pounds AUW.

[OICU812]

OK well gwk is going to send me a programming box! How cool is that! Maybe that will get me tuned in abit better. I flew it tonight for a short flight in mode1 timing as per everyones recommendation, it flew ok but I sure can tell difference between flying machines with a Kontronik with nice governor to this Archaic feeling Hacker esc, lol. Now just to get this darn tail locked in better.... :wink: