Idle Hands Do The Devils Work

[Shannon Davis]

Don't ask me why --But I like it.

It does seem to work well and I expect to get longer batt life- but I could be completly wrong. I really just love swithing flight modes and hearing the speed change.

I will let you know what I find.

Head Speeds Norm-1600 rpm
Idle1-1750 rpm
Idle2-1900 rpm

Thje GV-1 does spool up nice and calm.

[Russ McC]

Very interesting Shannon,

I was confused tell I scrolled down and saw the pictures! Well one of the things I like about this model is that it seems self governed, will just only turn about so fast. The GV-1 is a great thing on the glow models but I am glad to have rid of it because it also causes the old governor hiccup where it has to play catch-up when going from low load to high load, this can be reduced but not completely eliminated. Your speed control has a governor mode but it does the same thing as the GV-1 when going from low to high load. One other problem I see is with your lower head speeds you will half to be below the 80% minimum throttle setting so be careful about that. I think I will stick to using throttle curves for this model but you do get an A+ for ingenuity!! :)

[WillJames]

Awesome!!! Have you tried it yet?

[Shannon Davis]

I'm just playing around- It stays aboves 60% I think- hover yesterday for about 5 min @ 1600- no heat build up at all. I'm sure I could have fixed the over speeding w/ throttle curves- but I'm too lazy. I also have never had any trouble w/ "catch up" on my nitro helis. I just love GV-1's-- thats why I have one on my elec.

I will keep you posted of my findings.

[Russ McC]

Over speeding? I’m not having any thing I would consider over speeding, if I severely unload the system it goes to about 2000rpm give or take a couple but just won’t seem to go any faster. Sense this is not fast enough to wig the gyro I just use the energy to enter the next maneuver. This thing also seems to be getting more powerful with each flight, as if the batteries are getting stronger with use. Is that possible? I know it also performs better above 60F degrees then at 50F degrees, because the Batteries like it warm I think, so on a cold day leave your charged batteries in the car to keep from getting cold.:)

[Shannon Davis]

Over speeding was not the right word to use- your right, I only saw about 2000 rpm-- I just like the cont. speed. You are also right about the stored energy- you can use it for some impressive direction changes.

The batts doo seem to get better w/ use and I also believe they like to operate between 90-130 deg F. I think I read the the sweet spot was around 120F.
My little hornet sucked at 40F, it had LiPo's.

[Russ McC]

Cool :D

[JonMann]

Russ,

Lipo's will get stronger after about 5 or 6 uses. If you talk to TP they actually recommend a break-in of about 5 flight where you take it a little easy the first 5 flight (try to minimum the current draw) and only charge @ 1/2C (4 amps) the first 5 charges. If they sit for a long period (month or so) with uses you might have to go thru a little "break-in" again.

-jon

[Russ McC]

Thanks Jon,

I was taking it kind of easy for the first ten flights with two sets of batteries, five cycles on each set. Have been charging at 6 amps, never knew about the break-in period but this thing has come screaming to life now that I have more then ten cycles on the batteries! We flue this thing back to back with a 90 glow machine yesterday, The Ion-X ripped it to pieces! And did it so smoothly! :D

[Shannon Davis]

I have heard it said that the ION has about the power of a 70--Bull Sh*t :bs: . From what I can see it will out do any of my 90's for the first 1-2 mins then it is equal for 5 or so min. then it does fall off a bit-- but still a strong 60 up till about 10-11 min.

[JonMann]

Russ, Shannon,

What HS are you guys getting. Flew mine for the first time today :D :D :D and was getting 1650 with 90% throttle curve and 1720 with 100%. First run on these packs, so didn't expect anything spectacular, but did expect a little more HS.

Thanks - jon

[ChrisS]

Hi Jon
The stock setup with the 5S4P batteries should yield well into the middle 1800's wide open. Check to make sure you have the speed control in normal (not governor mode). Also check your throttle ATV's. Also make sure you are getting a full charge, each of the batteries should be at 21 volts or very close after charging.
Chris

[Russ McC]

Hi Jon,

I have only officially checked mine on the ground after 5 minutes of flying; I have only used the tack built in to the 9Z/not recommended, you half to get a bit to close. I am getting 1960rpm at approximately mid stick; throttle curve is 100-85-100 so I would say it is between 85 and 90%. I can’t tell that it slows down any when lifting in to a hover, tomorrow I will have a friend check it with his optical tack. SAB 680s, 95mm tail, TP 5s-4p 7600s. The batteries do get better with use but yours is sounding week assuming all are tacks are the same, better check all that Chris recommended. I will report the results of the optical tack tomorrow night :)

[Shannon Davis]

Mine was getting to 1960-1990 at times in the air and stayed above 1800 under all conditions. One beeb on the speed control is gov off.

[Helirob]

The Ion-X is amazing. Russ did make my 90 look wimpy. Those Thunder Power batteries just keep getting stronger and stronger.

My Ion-X will be here on Tuesday.... YeeeHaaaa :P :P :P

It's so nice to go back to electric power, no oily mess to clean up at the end of the day.

Russ and I plan on adding cell balancing connectors on our Thunder Power batteries to make sure each cell pack never exceeds 4.2 volts. Anybody else going to do that in order to make sure the batteries last as long as possible? We plan on balancing the packs after 10-20 cycles.

Rob

[WillJames]

We shot video of Shannon's Ion-X using the GV-1 today. Seems to really help. He will post the Video once he gets back from his son's soccer game and once he finishes all his honey-doos. :)

We did video of with and without the governor, and hopefully if my filming does not suck you should be able to immediately see the differences with and without headspeed governing.

Stay tuned. :)

[Shannon Davis]

It was much better w/ the GV-1. I do think you could get it almost as good w/ the throttle curves, but I am way to lazy for all of that.

What surprised me was how much better it maintained power during a flipping takeoff. The only thing I can figure is that I had the mid point too low on the tcv and let the motor drop too much while going thru midstick. I lowered the tcv to 70% mid to help w/ "overspeeding" at midstick.

I believe if you ran 100% all the way in idle2 it would pull any manuver w/ no prob. but expect to see 2000 rpm at mid stick-- more if falling upright w/ neg pitch. :)

I will post some video later tonight- around 11:00pm est. :P

[Shannon Davis]

Here are the videos:

Ion-X w/ GV-1 900kb (http://www.moretraction.com/images/_private/ION%20GV-1lr.wmv)

Ion-X w/ GV-1 2.7 Meg (http://www.moretraction.com/images/_private/ION%20GV-1hr.wmv)

[JonMann]

It was my ESC setup, was in heli mode switched to normal, WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! yesterday when I left the field I was a little dissapointed, ION flew good and all, but was a little sluggish. today, well all I can say is I can't wait to get my second one built and in the air!!

[Russ McC]

Hi Rob, had a great time at brooks today, flue five times and ran the Honda generator out of gas!

Jon, one of my buddies used his optical tack on my Ion today, after six minutes it was doing 2010rpm on the ground center stick with tail rotor centered and 1960 in a hover. Smokin!! :D

[Helirob]

Glad you had a great time today Russ.

Sounds like we should try to put on one of our GV-1's and try it out. What is the best RPM to run??? 1750 RPM is the speed we have set on our Fury 90's.

Rob

[Russ McC]

It does not seem to be geared for 1750. 1900 to 1960 would be good. I have no problem un-loading to over 2k so no GV-1 for me I don’t think. What we will do next with mine is to put in some throttle to cyclic mixing so when ever your leaning on the cyclic the throttle will be bumping up against 100%. :D

[bob00]

Good stuff Shannon,

Been wondering how effective a govenor in the Ion would be - can post some more pics of your GV-1 sensor installation, I'll like to install one (when my kit eventually shows up :? ).

What gear ratio did you use on the GV-1?

Thanks,
- Rob

[Russ McC]

Hi Bobb00,

The main gear is 90 teeth and the pinion driving the main gear is 15 teeth so the correct ratio would be 6.0 to 1. Basically Shannon has the magnet on the gear driven by the motor pinion this gear is equivalent to the fan or engine speed on a glow model.

I programmed a throttle to cyclic mix in today of 40%; this gives me full throttle at half cyclic input at mid stick. This made a noticeable improvement in power when doing maneuvers needing moderate to large cyclic input around center stick, the head speed is also more constant (stays closer to 2k all the time) :D

[ScotY]

Hi Russ,
Can you tell me how many teeth the other two gears have? Also, would you know the diameter of the shaft for the secondary reduction?