Castle ICE Auto-Rotation Bailout Setup w/ 3 Flight Modes

[wolfdown]

Last night I setup the auto-rotation bailout feature, and came up with with a pretty good setup for my DX7 I wanted to share. In the normal setup you loose "norm" flight mode to initialize the ESC. Some people use trim to do this, but that is kinda annoying. Instead, I was able to come up with a workaround using a program mix on the gear channel.

How Does it Change the Way You Fly?
Basically, you use the gear switch to reset the ESC back to low throttle position. Once you do that, you can fly like you normally would, with 3 flight modes, and throttle hold. The difference is that coming out of throttle hold will give you a quick spool up, instead of the slow start.

New Start Procedure
Turn your radio on. Stay in normal mode, w/ throttle hold off. Plug in your battery. To arm the ESC switch the gear switch LOW (down). The ESC will arm. When you are ready, switch the gear HIGH (up). The ESC will spool up in soft start mode.

Bailout Procedure
Turn on the throttle hold. Power to the motor is cut off. If you want to bailout, switch the throttle hold off. ESC will quickly spin the motor up to speed.

How to Soft Start After a Bailout?
Auto to the ground with throttle hold ON. Land. Go back to NORM flight mode. Turn GEAR switch to LOW pos. Switch OFF Throttle hold. ESC will now see reset low position. When you switch GEAR switch HIGH pos, the ESC will start back up in slow-start mode.

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ESC Configuration Steps
When you are ready to try out this setup. Here are the steps I followed, in order:

Step 1
Watch the setup video from castle to get yourself familiar with the setup proceeder. I basically follow this pretty closely, just a few extra steps.



Step 2
Disengage your motor pinion from your main gear !!!!

Step 3
Connect your castle link and get into the ICE programming screen. You want to check Auto-Rotation Enable and set the Head Speed Change Rate to control the bailout restart time. I started with 14.

In my setup, I also assume you are using Set RPM Gov Mode. The setup does not change since you can use all 3 of the flight modes.

Make sure to save, and disconnect the castle link.



Step 4
Next we have to reset the TX throttle endpoints. Get your transmitter. Go into Normal Mode Throttle Curve and set it back to linear (0 to 100). Go into ATV/Travel Adjust screen and set throttle high/low values to 50% each (assuming DX7). Plug in your battery, wait for ESC to init. Put throttle high, and step up the high Travel Adjust value, until the ESC chimes. Go to throttle low (one more chime), step up the low Travel Adjust value until the ESC chimes. These steps are the same w/ or w/out auto-rotation bailout feature, so all these steps should be known to you by now.



Now the TX throttle is set correctly. At this point, you should rebind to your RX at low throttle, to make sure the RX has the correct default low signal stored.

Step 5
Put your normal mode throttle curve back to where it was before. It should be a flat curve for Set RPM Gov mode. I leave mine at flat 25%.



Step 6
Now you need to set the throttle hold value. Put throttle hold on, and go to the throttle hold adjust screen. Power on your heli. You should here the ESC initialize when it sees the low signal. In the radio menu, bump up the the throttle hold value until the motor begins to slow start. Then go back down 1 click, so the motor stops. This will be the auto-rotation bailout value. On my radio it was 15.5%. Make sure to power off the heli.



Step 7
The final steps are to set the GEAR mix. After step 6, throttle hold will no longer send a low enough signal to the ESC to arm it. That is were the GEAR mix comes in. First power off the heli, and turn the radio off, and go into the model config screen. Navigate to the Input Select menu, and make sure the GEAR switch is on the GEAR channel.



Step 8
Exit the model config, and go to the first program mix in the standard config menu. Set the mix to "GEAR -> THRO". Leave rates at 0%. Set SW to "F-NR". This means the mix is only active in NORM flight mode. Leave OFFSET at 0. Now make sure you are in NORM mode, and throttle hold off. Power on the heli. The ESC will not arm because it has not seen a low throttle yet. Now set your GEAR switch LOW, by leaving it in down position. Slowly increase the RATE value on the program mix menu screen. When you get the value high enough. the ESC will arm. On my TX, the value was 60%. It is safe to go a few clicks higher. Now power off the heli.



Finish
Those are all the steps. You can verify the settings by checking out the Monitor menu, when you change the switch positions:

Below, Gov speed 1: normal mode, throttle hold off, gear up -> throttle is 25%


Below, auto-rotation bailout mode: normal mode, throttle hold is on, gear up -> throttle is at 15.5%


Below, arming ESC: normal mode, throttle hold off, gear switch low -> throttle is at 0%

[Sparky Inman]

Excellent Post !!!!!!

[Friday]

This should be sticked...! Gr8


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[johnsma22]

I have three flight modes using an Ice Lite 50 in my 450 Pro, along with the bail out feature enabled with DX7 and didn't need to do any of that.

Calibrated throttle end points, and calibrated throttle hold for the bail out feature according to the Castle "How To" videos found in their section of RC Groups. Have my governor (set rpm) set to 2700 rpm for "normal", 2800 rpm for "Idle 1" and 3000 rpm for "Idle 2". I have my Idle 1 throttle curve set to 80's straight across, Idle 2's throttle curve is set to 100's straight across.

Position "L" in my normal throttle curve is set to zero, which allows the esc to arm. All the other throttle curve positions in normal mode are set to 40. All I use normal mode for is to spool up and spool down, but I could fly around in normal if I wanted to because you'd never go to zero throttle in normal mode flying anyway. Unless of course you forget that you're in normal mode and go to full negative collective and the motor dies and goes into soft start. But that's just all the more reason to fly a CP heli only in idle up.

[wolfdown]

Originally Posted by johnsma22

Unless of course you forget that you're in normal mode and go to full negative collective and the motor dies and goes into soft start. But that's just all the more reason to fly a CP heli only in idle up.

I like the posted method since it gives you 3 full flight modes. There is no chance you will accidentally get back to soft-start when flying.

Also, since I don't fly nitro, I use my NORM mode as standard flight mode, so if I forget to go to IDLE1, there will be no issues.

If you fly nitro, then I can see why doing it your way is probably better.

[Rªzª]

maybe i did mine all wrong, but all i did is set the th value on my radio just just below spoolup (somewhere around 15 or so in the th menu). when i hit th it cuts the motor, but when i unflip th for a bailout it starts the blades back up at a fairly decent rate... am i missing something?

[wolfdown]

Ya, after you flip out of throttle hold, the motor should spin up fast. That is the bail-out part.

[Blayd]

Great post! I'm very new and very old, so I'm having a hell of a time setting up the Pheonix ICE 100 in my almost finished 500 build. Apart from trying to find a place to fit it on the heli, I'm having alot of trouble figuring out hot to set it up, never the less, this really helped me understand how the bail out set up is supposed to work. Whether or not I can do this in my Tx, ( Walkera 2801 Pro ) is another story.
Thank you!

[scottward]

I have three flight modes using an Ice Lite 50 in my 450 Pro, along with the bail out feature enabled with DX7 and didn't need to do any of that.

Calibrated throttle end points, and calibrated throttle hold for the bail out feature according to the Castle "How To" videos found in their section of RC Groups. Have my governor (set rpm) set to 2700 rpm for "normal", 2800 rpm for "Idle 1" and 3000 rpm for "Idle 2". I have my Idle 1 throttle curve set to 80's straight across, Idle 2's throttle curve is set to 100's straight across.

Position "L" in my normal throttle curve is set to zero, which allows the esc to arm. All the other throttle curve positions in normal mode are set to 40. All I use normal mode for is to spool up and spool down, but I could fly around in normal if I wanted to because you'd never go to zero throttle in normal mode flying anyway. Unless of course you forget that you're in normal mode and go to full negative collective and the motor dies and goes into soft start. But that's just all the more reason to fly a CP heli only in idle up.

This sounds so much more logical and simple than messing about with gear switches etc etc.

johnsma22, did you just set your throttle valve in throttle hold to a point just before the rotor starts to spool up? I assume so.

Scott.

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by johnsma22

I have three flight modes using an Ice Lite 50 in my 450 Pro, along with the bail out feature enabled with DX7 and didn't need to do any of that.

Calibrated throttle end points, and calibrated throttle hold for the bail out feature according to the Castle "How To" videos found in their section of RC Groups. Have my governor (set rpm) set to 2700 rpm for "normal", 2800 rpm for "Idle 1" and 3000 rpm for "Idle 2". I have my Idle 1 throttle curve set to 80's straight across, Idle 2's throttle curve is set to 100's straight across.

Position "L" in my normal throttle curve is set to zero, which allows the esc to arm. All the other throttle curve positions in normal mode are set to 40. All I use normal mode for is to spool up and spool down, but I could fly around in normal if I wanted to because you'd never go to zero throttle in normal mode flying anyway. Unless of course you forget that you're in normal mode and go to full negative collective and the motor dies and goes into soft start. But that's just all the more reason to fly a CP heli only in idle up.

I'm doing this way. Normal mode is audably slower sounding, so I know I'm not in IU. Good for us DX6i Owners as we only have 2 flight modes. Sux having to lose one just for a ESC arm.

[fletch3d]

Would love this to work with the DEVO8S, but it is not working for me. I have everything working up to the Gear>Throttle. I am able to set it on the Devo, but it doesn't work the same as the DX. Has anyone else run into this?

Thanks

Got it.. Thanks

[JohnDoe.]

I have a buddy that sets his esc up like the OP he like's it as well. To me it's confusing all switch here to this and that I just did as castle suggested and put a value on the TH from there if I bail out the heli does not have the chance to spin due to the fast start up. Not to mention this method is good for all esc's and not just castle.

[fletch3d]

So you set up your heli to fast start high value so when you go throttle to 0 and you bail out you don't have a soft start, it kicks in pretty hard?

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[phoenixheli]

OH, finally someone did a proper tutorial so I don't have to keep explaining it over and over again.

[wolfdown]

Originally Posted by JohnDoe.

To me it's confusing all switch here to this and that

It's pretty simple actually, the only difference is that you need to toggle the gear swtich at the beginning of the flight. Then just fly like you usually do.

And there's not problem if you forget the toggle the gear switch, cause the ESC won't be armed.

[fletch3d]

It is an awesome way of setting it up. it gives you all of your flight modes and is a great failsafe.

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[Bladecpnitro]

This method is fine, only thing I do different is keep Normal mode 0 30 30 30 30. I have 4 idle ups and an extra throttle hold, which use up my Program mixes.
My factory throttle hold on my DX7 doesn't work so I have a Gear/Throttle Program mix for throttle hold and like it on gear.

That and the extra two Idle Ups use up my program mixes.

[gtrsteele]

I've been doing this for years to get all 3 FM in IU, except a little differently. I assigned the Throttle Cut to a switch of my choosing and set it to the same setting on my throttle low end point.
For start up I power up with TH enganged, engage the TC and the ESC will arm. Release the the TH, then the TC and she will soft start. TH will now auto and wil quickly spool up the blades.
When I am ready to land I hit the TH. I repeat the the same start up proceedure to get back into the air.