E7SE finally in the air!

[maxturbine]

Thank you for the feedback guys

I will package a blue, green, and white dampening system as another option.

System and spares will be on the site

Ralph

[flyalan]

Had to chime in on this one since I beta tested the system for Ralph. I flew some F3C a few weekends ago. Used all white (actually black for the beta test) in my E7 SE. I wanted to be able to run around 1400 for the hovering maneuvers. These things rock! No bobbles or issues. They worked fine for the big air maneuvers but I probably need to add a green or two to get a bit more dampening. I am fitting another set in my E5 and another E7 SE.

The SE head is inherently stiffer not due to lowering of the head but the way the head is designed. The pivot ball makes for a stiffer system. This was Matts intention for hard 3D. This is the reason for bobbles with stock dampeners and higher head gains not the fact that the head is lower.

Ralph systems is a great addition for those of use wanting some versatility in dampening, head speeds and gain settings.

Cheers

Alan

[Grimmy]

Just another update, as I finally got time to do more flying this weekend and at a field instead of my front yard. So I get to the field, throw in a pack and just want to get one under my belt with the same settings that I had when I stopped last, sort of a recheck of where I left off. I idle up, lift off at 1650, things seem just like last time. I trip into IU1, 1750, and I have some wobble, and it was very noticeable. I kick up to IU2, and the wobble it done and there's no shakes what so ever. I talked it over with some people at the field and explained how I got to that point. One thing we did do was to loosen the blade bolts a tad, and then next flight, it was much better, not all gone as it would come and go, but much better.

So I can back into my mode of increasing the cyclic gain and testing, putting different gains on the different banks of the Ikon. I ended up getting to a point of higher cyclic gain, but the winds had picked up and I was getting burned out from so many flights that I decided to call it a day, after getting to the field around 8am and left around 2:30-3pm.

So I make a last minute call to head back to the field this morning, and follow the same thing I did the day before. One pack with yesterdays settings and confirming either more adjustment or less. I flew a couple packs and still noticed some wobble at 1750. Finally after a handful of flights, I went back to the sun shelter and pulled the head apart and changed out he middle dampener. I was going green green white before, and changed it to green white white. Reassembled and grabbed another pack and went out, without changing anything. Brought it up into a nice hover, about 6 feet high in normal mode, and then kicked it into IU1, 1750, no wobble what so ever. I do some piro climbouts and came back to the hover, nice and solid.

I did make one more change to the gain (I'm nearing 50 or right at 50 in the Ikon) and flew another pack. After that, well I had some running to do, so had to pack p and head home.

I will say, that the more I fly the E7SE with the Ikon, the more I realize that my E5 wasn't setup correctly. I had a friend do it, and well he did it rather then show me how. So I've started to make some adjustments on it now as well, but more focused on the E7SE.

Anyways, just wanted to report my findings. I had to adjust the dampening once more. Maybe what I had would have broken in over some more time, but well for dialing in settings it was bugging the crap out of me and I wasn't sure if I should increase gain more or not, as in IU2, 1850 the wobbles were gone. Now to find another good done to get more done, as heat and humidity are in full force for the next 2 days.

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by Chris Sexton

Glad you are liking the progressive damping, I am playing with it too. I like BLUE GREEN WHITE which is softer than stock but still has plenty of cyclic pop. No wobbles at any RPM I have tried!

As for your questions, I want to first put your mind at easy with the difference in negative and positive. This is a VERY common issue with CCPM collective pitch setups. There are a long list of reasons but just about every FBL system has to deal with it. In the iKON, once you center zero pitch and set positive collective, adjust your pitch servo travels in the radio until your negative number matches. This is also how VBar wants you to do it.

Setting zero pitch:
There are a few methods. I like being s accurate as possible. I use a tool from Rick Lohr that locks the grips at zero and then I adjust my pitch links until I get no binding in the servos. Then you can put your digital guage on and zero it then set collective and cyclic pitch. Here is the video I did setting up Brain/iKON on my E5s shows the tool and the process I use.

Synergy E6 Build Video - Part 6 - MSH Brain Basic Setup - YouTube

Cyclic Gain:
Yes you will want to now optimize your cyclic gain. Slowing increase the over all cyclic gain until you start getting odd tendencies, shakes in FFF or bouncing in hard stops, etc. Once you have the over all optimized you can use I gain to help "lock" in the perspective axis if needed. I my opinion, Cyclic gain around 50-52 is great on E5, E5s and E7se on the brain setup. I did have to push my elevator I gain up to 80 to get the nose to stop trying to climb in FFF. These settings will vary depending on setup and equipment, but the stock 44 is very low in my opinion.

Dampers:
Rob is actually redoing that chart for Ralph to include a BLUE GREEN WHITE option just below sport. I personally feel this is a good starting point. With the stock .8mm shims this setting is slightly softer than stock but still retains the hard damping needed when you start to flex the disk a bit. As far as choosing a damping setup, I would find a combination that works best with your intended rpm range and flight style. If you are smacking the heli around with high head speeds, you will want harder/stiffer damping. If you are flying a combination of high and low speeds or a mix of sport and 3d you will want a setup in the middle. I would be VERY cautious of the all white combination. This is VERY soft and if you are at all aggressive on the cyclic you could bottom out the spindle and damage something. I really suggest you only fly all white if you are trying low head speed and or scale type applications.

Tail setup:
Yep just like the head, increase over all gain in your TX until you get odd tendencies. I tend to do full collective funnels, tail will start buzzing when gain gets too high. Also FFF and hurricanes are good tests of tail gain. Once you get the gain optimized and there is no buzzing, you can use I gain to help it "hold" better. D gain on the head and tail is very touchy and you shouldn't need to move it much if you take the time to first optimize the over all gain.


At the end of the day, its all trial and error. Every time you setup a new bird you will need to repeat these processes, and sometimes after a crash as changing parts can have effects on these settings. Once you find a base line though, the process gets faster on subsequent models.

Glad to see you are enjoying the E7se, Grimmy.

Fantastic work Chris!
Rick

[Grimmy]

Just another quick update, I was able to get to the field yesterday morning. My intentions were to meet with a friend and have him put my E7SE through it's paces, as it's much more advanced skilled then I am. I ask him some questions and then he would do a couple maneuvers and say what he though. He said the cyclic was good, no wobbles or anything, nice and crisp. Then on to the tail, and he said it held very well. I ended up with a cyclic gain of 56. I did not have to touch any of the I or D gains. The tail I ended up at 70%. I think I can go a little more, as I just stopped at 70. The tail, to me, seems like it doesn't stop right away when I left go though. He said it looked pretty good, but I think I can get it better. That's just something small that I will play with and adjust accordingly. For that tail stop behavior, would I adjust D gain for that?

Other than that, it's flying great. Got my new canopy on, and WOW you can see that thing from space I think. Nice and bright, even with a bad sky. I'll try to get some pics and post soon. I'm just glad it's pretty much 95% tweaked and now I can concentrate on my flying skills. Well, on this one anyways. My E5 is becoming and E5s, but that process should go a little quicker now that I have it with my E7SE.

[Digger1973]

Congrats

[cmturn0]

Best way I've found to verify zero pitch is fold the blades side by side like your putting them in the blade holder, they should line up perfectly at zero pitch. If one blade is higher or lower than the other adjust as necessary and re-check your swash level.

On the iKon setup I'll level the swash, then fold the blades and if they aren't lined up at zero pitch, I'll bump all 3 cyclic servos up or down equally until the blades line up. I can get it basically perfect every time using that method.