Unofficial Blade mSR Troubleshooting Guide!

[pabdakine]

Originally Posted by Sidewinder66

My only problem is that when I do have a crash sometimes it wont stop running right away. Doesnt do it everytime just when it crashes sometimes. Any thoughts?

This used to happen to me when the battery was very low. Throttle stick would be all the way down, but the motor would keep spinning.

[hydro_pyro]

Sometimes stalling the blades will cause it to enter LVC cutoff prematurely. The Heli thinks it's landing itself, but sOmetimes this causes a chicken dance. If the cyclic control stop working when the motor stops responding, that's a real problem, and a common one, where a crash damages the board and causes controls to freeze up under certain conditions.

[chemicalflava]

Ugh... I let a friend fly my mSR the other day and, of course, he crashed it and let it do the chicken dance. It broke one of the blade grips, so I had to glue that back together (I'm unable to buy new parts at the moment). To prevent TBE, I put glue on the other non-broken grip to balance it out. I also made sure that the CA wasn't getting anywhere that could cause binding (made sure the blade was loose enough, too).

When I throttled up, it seemed like the tail wouldn't hold and I had already trimmed it to its max. It was also spinning out of control when I would give it a burst of throttle. I replaced the battery (without re-binding) and the tail hold got better, but then it seemed to take too much throttle to hold in a hover. It was also still spinning too much with quick throttle increases (albeit better than it was before).

After a normal crash and battery swap, the tail stopped functioning completely. I checked the connection, board integrity, connection solder points, and everything I could think of and it all seemed fine. I have heat shrink on the motor to prevent the end cap from popping off so I wasn't able to check that, but it was fairly safe to assume that wasn't the issue. I took the tail boom assembly off and tested the motor from the connector with a battery and wire. It worked just fine, so I can rule out faulty wiring, motor, and connector.

So I guess my issue is in the board, and I'm not very happy. Anyone else have a similar issue? And most importantly, a relatively easy (and hopefully cheap) fix?

[Delfin]

Did you tried to change the tail rotor.

[chemicalflava]

Like I said, the tail motor spins just fine when direct power is applied. It just seems to be when it's connected to the main board that it doesn't want to work.

[Pfloyd]

unhook the main motor and see if the tail motor spins up....

[chemicalflava]

Yup... Sure did. Then I hooked the main motor up again and both are working just fine again. I have no idea.

[jcmo]

So, maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but I'm not seeing any threads where anyone has recently addressed replacement tail motor sources... I found on RCgroups where hydro posted something about the mCX2 right hand drive motor working a couple years ago. Does anyone know: how did that fare with the test of time? If I need to replace the tail motor, and don't want to buy the whole assembly, is that a pretty good drop-in and solder replacement?

In the "mSR Go to" thread, I found an answer to my question, but it was slightly aged, although it may still be good.
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=171795

I will post further updates there.

[touristsis]

Has anyone have this problem? Blade MSR jerky when controlling. Example. Cyclic forward, it goes 7 feet, then stop, backups a bit, then go forward again. It's like when I mess with the trim, it mess up something else. Any ideas?

[jcmo]

How long have you had your mSR? I had a problem where my control was inconsistent because my servos were dirty. If you keep it on the table next to you and run through cyclic controls slowly, do your servos move smoothly, or do they find spots where they want to skip and chatter?

[hydro_pyro]

Originally Posted by touristsis

Has anyone have this problem? Blade MSR jerky when controlling. Example. Cyclic forward, it goes 7 feet, then stop, backups a bit, then go forward again. It's like when I mess with the trim, it mess up something else. Any ideas?

Your control rates are too low. Put the lower links onto the longer pair of ball heads on the swashplate, and make sure you're in full-rate mode.

Also, make sure your bird is mechanically trimmed at the servo links so that it hovers with the Tx trims at neutral.

[hefy_jefy]

I am very old, if I tell you that 20 years ago I built and flew a gas-powered model Hughes 300 that had gyro stabilization (a real gyro with a flywheel!) and that 25 years before that I was flying an R/C fixed wing that had real glass valves in the Tx and Rx you might get some idea.

Just wanted to say this mSR is one of the coolest thing I have ever seen and that after all this time my brain still seems to remember how to fly, the Hughes had exactly the same flybar control setup and behaved in just the same manner.

A piece of advice for anyone doing this for the very first time: ground effect is a killer, as soon as you feel even slightly happy with the controls get away from the ground, and initially stay behind the model.

And a question: The battery doesn't have a fixed location fore and aft - its the heaviest part of the machine by far and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about exactly where to place it?
Geoff

[seth556]

Hey guys, I got a mSR from a customer at the shop the other day (pretty random) and it seems to fly alright but I have a problem. Everything seems to be ok except the yaw rate. I'll try to do circles and figure 8's but it's super hard. I can do them with them with a cp heli but not this. I'll go into the turn and it'll be ok but the yaw seems to be not enough or super insane. It's like I'll go into the turn and not have enough yaw so I'll give just a tiny bit more and then the heli will suddenly be spinning super fast.

I tried decreasing the rudder travel thinking this would help but now there's not much small amounts of yaw until I go all the way and then it's insane spinning again.

I'm thinking there's a problem with the gyro but it might just be radio settings.

[sooners]

I had trouble with my msr after putting on tail motor. No forward speed. So adjusted elevator link from ball to servo. Screwed in about 3 times. They are slow with forward speed I have noticed on slow mode anyways. Helped a lot. Had same problem with brand new msr out of box was having to trim elevator all the way forward adjusted it same way now have nice hover and forward speed. I credit this great info from you guys on the forum that told me about the adjustments. Thanks

[hydro_pyro]

Originally Posted by seth556

Hey guys, I got a mSR from a customer at the shop the other day (pretty random) and it seems to fly alright but I have a problem. Everything seems to be ok except the yaw rate. I'll try to do circles and figure 8's but it's super hard. I can do them with them with a cp heli but not this. I'll go into the turn and it'll be ok but the yaw seems to be not enough or super insane. It's like I'll go into the turn and not have enough yaw so I'll give just a tiny bit more and then the heli will suddenly be spinning super fast.

I tried decreasing the rudder travel thinking this would help but now there's not much small amounts of yaw until I go all the way and then it's insane spinning again.

I'm thinking there's a problem with the gyro but it might just be radio settings.

It's all in the control technique. This bird doesn't fly anything like your CP. Right turns are effortless, because lift asymmetry helps the bird bank as it picks up speed, and the torque from the tail lifts the tail up to keep it inline as it makes the turn.

mSR left turns come in two flavors-- slow and fast. Each takes a different approach. Slow turns can be made flat, with a slight reverse or out-leaning bank. Try it , it works,

Your fast left turns are blowing out because you're trying to use rudder to make the turn. The tail rotor must slow down to produce left rudder. However, your banked turn is leaving the tail "hanging" low and out of line, so you instinctively try to add more left rudder, but thr tail can't respond because it's hanging down, and there's not enough counter-torque from the main blades to bring it up inline. At some point, you've added do much left rudder that the tail stops spinning altogether, and the tail instantly comes around and blows out into a spin.

Fast left bank turns need LOTS of cyclic response. You'll NEED the links on the advanced setting (long ball heads) at the least. Even better yet, shortened swashplate arms or an MH SE style plate for amplified cyclic response. This will allow enough cyclic authority to overcome the main rotor's lift asymmetry AND maintain enough downward attitude to maintain speed. If you have the speed and the bank angle, the tail will stay inline easier. The left turns will still need a LOT more forward AND left cyclic stick-- this is normal.

[pumpguy007]

Anyone know how long the servo arm should be for both servos. As a newbie I was messing with mine and I believe they are now way out of wack. Machine does not fly well. Any help would be great.

[Pfloyd]

Adjust them both to make the swashplate level and start from there.

[puppydog_taz]

Mine are both just under 28mm from end to end and it flies good. Pfloyd has it right though, just adjust them until the swash is level.

[mikecoz]

All good suggestions, but mine "wiggles" while in flight. All controls work fine.
Mike C.