First Flight Lots Of Probs!!

[Ronniebiggs]

After re building today was my first test flight.

Various things went wrong. Firstly I seemed to have very little tail rotor power. As you all know I switched to the HDX superframe and I have the HDX gear set which included both main gears and the tail gear set. But the tail seemed to want to spin all the time even if I put full rudder to counter it.

Then as I lifted the heli into the air to see if it made a difference with a higher head speed the heli just cut out on me. Then after a few secs the heli picked the signal up again. So I tried again and the same happened. Is this the dredded Brownout??

Again as you know I have just fitted 1 digital servo for the rear rudder?

On the plus side the Radix blades sound nice and seem to have alot of lift. But thats the only plus:roll:

Any help much appreciated as always

Andy

[Ber60]

Not funny if you have to fight the heli on takeoff Ronny, as I don't know the hdx superframe I will be of little help but a pic of tail rotor with full left and full right may help . For loss of contact with the heli what tx/rx gear are you using ?

[another_finn]

Have you checked your pitch lately? That almost sounds like you're running way too much pitch with not enough headspeed. If blade pitch goes to ridiculous angles to lift off, you may be pulling too many amps - that would trigger either the low voltage cut-off or the current limiting function of your ESC. It's a Castle Creations, right? You might want current limiting on "Insensitive" setting for helicopter use.

Here's some of the obvious stuff to check, in case you missed some:

Tail servo travel - do you have full pitch range available on the tail?
Endpoints - do you also have full pitch range available on the stick?
Belt tension - not slipping, is it?
Setup in rate mode - does moving the tail servo help?
Gyro direction - is your new servo operating in reverse?

[Ronniebiggs]

Checked all them points I think Mika. I have my throttle curve set so I have a slightly higher head speed. Pitch curve is the same as it was as well. Im running the DX6I. Servo travel is fine. Its like the tail isnt spinning fast enough. Could be the number of teeth on the gear? It was a set so you wouldnt think it could be that.

Will go out and have another play and see if I come up with something. Cant think what the loss of signal is. I use the Castle creations Phoenix 35A and I have A uBEC 5a MAX. running 3 X sg90 and 1 x Futaba digital servo on tail.

[Ronniebiggs]

This may sounds silly but when my main blades spin the rotor goes the opposite way to the belt cp rotor. I think this is due to the motor been positioned upside down on this frame. So I turned the tail rotor blades round. Now I had a little control over the til. SO I spun up again and had to hold the rudder across to stop it spinning. Then when the head speed went up the tail had a mind of its own. It wanted to spin on its own I couldnt hold it steady enough to get it off the ground. I have loads of movement on left stick with the rudder but little on right stick compaired. Im lost?

Also the signal. When i first did the test the RX light was flashing when I tried. Now it never it was on solid and didnt have any signal problems. But when I disconnected the battery I noticed the rx light had started to flash on its own again, but I never lost signal! at that point.

HELP:arggg:

[another_finn]

Er, you might want to put the blades back the way they were and switch any two of the motor wires to make the motor spin the right way before looking further. I won't go into the whole precession effects thing, but it takes more than reversed blades to make the helicopter fly with the disc rotating counterclockwise.

[Jonnyheli]

1. Yea, put your blades back the right way. There is a way to make your motor spin the other way. Its really simple but I don't know exactly what to do so dont try it untill you know for diffinate. Ok so what you do is... Re-arrange the wires going to the motor. for example red to blue etc... BUT dont try it because that was just an example. I don't know what wire need to go where.

On my 1/10th touring car there are only two wires to the motor so its just a simple case of swaping them around but because there are 3 wires I don't know.

I will try and find out for you.

2. You are right. You tail gear and main gear ratios might not be right.

3. Your belt drive might be twisted the wrong way?

Try and make sure 3 of these things are right then it should work.

Ps. I will try and find out which wires go where.

-Jonny

[another_finn]

It doesn't matter on a brushless motor. Like I said, switch any two of the three wires and the motor will spin the other way.

The gear ratios are fine with the 3DX gear set... but after switching the blades and motor direction, it's definitely a good idea to check that the tail is spinning the right way again ;)

[Ronniebiggs]

I can easily make the motor spin backwads but If I do this the gear doesnt turn it just spins and the main blades dont spin. It has to spin the way it is to make the blades spin.

My main blades spin clockwise at the moment and the tail rotor spins clockwise. On the ESKY the main blades spin clockwise and the tail goes anticlockwise.

Only difference I can see is my motor on the new frame is mounted from the botom upwards which is opposite to the belts top mounted motor

[Ian 777]

I think the receiver flashing because it's warning that youv'e had a break in connection to the Tx. If you change the battery without turning off the Tx, the Rx, the receiver automaticaly looks for the last 2 frequencies it was operating and flashes to warn of a loss of contact (I think) Any how If you switch on the Rx first and then the Tx you should get a solid light.

You get into all kinds of difficulty if your head's spinning the wrong way,:lol: its the same with helicopters:roll:

[Ian 777]

Sorry didnt see that last post

You have the tail belt twisted the wrong way then

[Ronniebiggs]

LOL.

Well somethings wrong with my head and I cant figure it out. Im absolutly baffled!!

I always turn the TX on first. Should you plug the RX in first Ian? That may be why I always lose my connection and have to keep re binding the RX.

Im looking frantically at my heli now and cant see what the hell is wong. The belt rotor spins the opposite way to my new heli thats all I can see. But I cant figure out how to change that

[Ronniebiggs]

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR. That might be it ye:shock:

Will have a quick try now

:banana

[Ian 777]

Shouldn't have to rebind because of that, the radio will still work but the Rx flashes to warn of a loss of contact with the Tx. If you switch on the rx first it shouldn't flash

[Jonnyheli]

My main blades spin clockwise at the moment and the tail rotor spins clockwise. On the ESKY the main blades spin clockwise and the tail goes anticlockwise.

Yes, plug the RX in first, then the TX.

And also Ian is right. Your belt is deifnatly twisted the wrong way.

another_finn, you are right. All you have to do is change the wires around in any order and it will reverse. Also, this doesn't wreck your motor. But it seems that you have solved the main rotor blade problem.

-Jonny

[Ronniebiggs]

Got the belt spinning the right way now. But still losing connection to the heli. If I play with the throttle so I keep pushing the throttle up and down. The heli rotor speed seems to die. If I slowly increase it. Then it increase the head speed. Will try a new battery to see if that make any difference. Also you wont believe this. When I was taking the tail off I never undid the servo conector to the gyro and I pulled the tail snapping the wires out of the servo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There goes another £25 GUTTED:arggg:

Will have to try and send it back as faulty. Hope it works:oops:

[Ronniebiggs]

Still losing connection to the heli in flight and I dont even have a digital servo on now!!

Any suggestions?

I have had nothing but probs with the DX6I since I bought it losing connection. But usually it only happened when I landed then changed battery. I had to rebind. But that could be my fault as I sometimes left the hand set on etc. But it has never cut out mid flight like it seems to be doing now.

[Ian 777]

Contact Spectrum and describe the symptoms, I think you have a faulty unit.

Mine never loses connection regardless of which way I turn it on. I really dont think this is anything to do with low voltage brown out, if it was you would only have a momentry loss of control and it would rebind.

[Ian 777]

Sorry if you can still effect the heli by moving the collective stick you havn't lost connection its just esc cutting the power for some reason

[Ronniebiggs]

No it does lose connection. For a few secs then works again

[Ian 777]

I think it should only be 0.4 sec....till it rebinds on all new DX6i's

Contact them they, know the system inside out, you should not have these problems with it. Despite Dierwolfs bad experiences Thousands of people are using them without difficulty.

you changed the Esc and the Bec after you got it? so youv'e had the same probs with both sets of electronics.

5A bec is not going to alow the servo to drop the voltage

I still use the Esky Esc with no BEC (sg90's all round) and have not had one glitch with it.

It must be faulty then I think

[Ronniebiggs]

Will have to wait till Monday to call them. I dont fancy calling the US though will cost a fortune!!

Hope they have a UK depot. Havent flown now for about 2-3 weeks. Its like starting all over again. Feels so dodgy when its in the air.:roll:

[Ian 777]

Such a shame your having a struggle mate

You have a brilliant heli, or will have when the proper head arrives. It will all be worth it when it's streaking accross the sky responding to every thing you ask..

I was so fortunate....DTS....SG90's..... CopterX head and tail...... DX6i.......

It is a joy to fly ,OK I need a decent gyro, digital servos, better motor Esc and Bec but

the flight characteristics are so appealing as it is...

I just feel at home with it .

Can someone at heliguy go over it for you:YeaBaby: they must be fairly near to you:)

[Ronniebiggs]

Ye they are. Will call them Monday and see what they say. Might be worth trying to re bind the RX again. Will read the manual and stuff again.

Thx Ian

Andy

[Ronniebiggs]

Sick

Just rebinded the rx and flew about 1 foot high. Power went again and the heli blade spun round bent completly backwards and struck the CONCRETE floor. Only good thing is there was remarkably no damage!!

Iam glad as the blades are a fortune!!

But thats me not flying at all now. Dont understand why it would start to do this but it has!