GY401 flashes slowly, yet servo works?

[JEB123]

Why would this happen? My DX6i binds, but the GY401 continues flashing about once a second. I had to increase gain to over 70% so it would work? Is this mormal? Do I need to change the default switch setting so that stunt mode is 0 and not 1 and therefore it boots in HH mode? Is my understanding correct that stunt mode is HH mode? :confused:

[Spawnmen]

I am not sure, what you mean - but when you turn on the receiver, the gyro msut be set into HH mode (because it loads the middle of servo etc .. ), than, if you want, you can switch it into NORMAL mode, but never turn on the receiver, when the gyro is in NORMAL - it woun´t work ! And ofcourse - if you made some changes (moving trim, subtrim) after you have turned it on (receiver ... ), you ´d better to turn it off and turned it on again in HH mode .-).

The changes 0-1 - I don´t get it ? .. .

[HeliSmith]

The default switch with the DX6i is gyro not flight mode. I have only setup one DX6i for someone but as I remember the gyro sense menu is default. If you are using the gyro sense menu start at around 72% as it is offset like 1.44:1

Anytime I have problems with a DX6, DX6i or DX7 radio using the GY401 I make sure I have no RUDDER trim, make sure my throttle stick is low and rebind. The receiver remembers middle position of a gyro and will blink when receiving input which it perceives non centered as input as well. I believe.

Hope that helps,

Mike

[JEB123]

Yeah, I just had to re-bind and now it's working. Spawnmen, what I mean by 0 and 1 is right now it boots and the light is on solid. That means normal mode. I have to flip the switch towards me, to 1, and the light goes off. HH mode. Right? Now if you go into the gyro menu and place the cursor over the numbers 0 or 1 you'll see they can be changed, or normal and stunt can be set as either number. That's why I ask if I make stunt 0 instead of 1 will it always default to stunt when I boot up. Isn't it better than having to remember to switch to HH before you take off?

[HeliSmith]

That switch is to switch between HH mode and RATE mode. It isn't tied to your flight mode but it certain can be. You can test this with your motor unplugged test to see if the light goes out when you switch flight modes.

Now DX6i also defaults with 0 for the rate mode setting "I think". Rate mode would have to be setup with revo mixing and really offers no advantage to typical guys like me. Long conversation about getting the tail to follow doing circles so I won't bore you.

What rate mode is great for is setting up your tail. With 0 gain flipping into rate mode you can see if your tail is still in the middle and that you have full and equal travel. This is great for a preflight check especially if you think your tail servo could have been bumped out of place.

Always start the heli in HH mode then flip to rate mode for checking. Never ever start in rate mode as the gyro will not initialize correctly. Never fly in rate mode unless you have it setup, which is probably not something you will want to do.

Wow that post turned out long! :)

[BarracudaHockey]

Yeah, I just had to re-bind and now it's working. Spawnmen, what I mean by 0 and 1 is right now it boots and the light is on solid. That means normal mode. I have to flip the switch towards me, to 1, and the light goes off. HH mode. Right?
You're backwards.

Light solid= gyro initialized correctly and in heading hold mode
Light off = gyro initialized correctly and switched to rate (normal) mode
Slow single flash = gyro not initialized correctly, error condition. (Gain wire not connected, radio programmed incorrectly, or switch in rate mode during gyro initialization)
Double flash = gyro getting stick or trim input. Normal when you are giving a rudder command. If the rudder stick is neutral then it means its getting a trim or mixing input.

Don't confuse normal gyro mode, which is correctly called rate mode, and normal flight mode and your flight mode switch.

[HeliSmith]

Thank you for catching that. At work and didn't even notice that he had it backwards.

[JEB123]

Right, Right, sorry, typing faster than I'm thinking, solid on, AVCS mode. Here's where I may be confused. Normal and stunt flight modes are for selecting throttle curves, no? And you can select which of the two preset gyro gains you want in each of the two modes by reversing the 0 and 1, is that right or am I totally lost again? :oops:

[JEB123]

Oh, I also found out the hard way, slow single flash is also if you made a change to the gain setting and didn't re-bind. While we're at this, the bind plug is just a short between pins 1 and 3, right? Do you guys see any problem with installing a switch that can simply be flipped on to re-bind? It's gonna be impossible to reach once in my scale Hughes 500. Seems easier anyway, I notice that a lot of people have to re-bind a lot to clear problems, etc.

[BarracudaHockey]

The 401 has two modes.
Heading hold and non-heading hold.

They call non-heading hold mode "normal" mode but in reality its "rate" mode.

People sometimes start reading the directions and confuse normal gyro mode with normal flight mode. Normal flight mode is a throttle curve and pitch curve just like stunt one, stunt two etc (also called idle up one and idle up two)

You don't have to rebind if you tinker with the gain. You do have to rebind if you change servo direction, sub-trim and some other things. If you were to change the direction of your gyro switch you would have to rebind to make sure the switch is in heading hold as rebinding sets the fail safe. While a spectrum system is booting it sends the fail safe position to the servos (and gyro gain lead) until it links up. You always want this fail safe to be heading hold mode.

Yes, that is all a bind plug does is short signal to ground. You could wire it up to a switch and plug it into the battery port. Or you could just use a spectrum switch harness if its a larger model. It has to be plugged into the battery port though. You can of course, plug a battery into any other open port if you rig the battery port with a bind switch.

[JEB123]

See, I knew it was a Spektrum thing, why can't they all agree on the same terminology? So with the DX6i all you have is normal and idle up (which they call stunt mode) and the respective gyro gain settings for each one when you select flight mode. That's where I'm seeing that you can reverse the 1 and 0 to select which gyro gain setting corresponds to which flight mode, right?

[BarracudaHockey]

Yes

[JEB123]

Thanks for all your help and for putting up with my stupid questions.