B450 Pitch Range Seems Wrong...

[CaptHal8HS]

Well, got out to the school-yard to test hover my B450 after all the work I did to the setup.
I have a pretty docile pitch curve +3 degrees at low stick, +5 degrees at the mid stick, and +7 degrees at the high stick.
She gets off the ground and I can hover it. BUT if I let go of the cyclic it dives to the left. I don't expect it to stay perfectly in one spot, but it shouldn't be diving to the left. Maybe my swash is still out of level?
Also, I notice that it slowly piro's CCW. I stepped up my throttle curve a bit - running 0.0,30.0,60.0,75.0,82.0 - but it didn't help.

Any suggestions as to why it might be banking hard left in the hover if I let go of the cyclic? Also, any suggestions as to why it is piro'ing CCW slowly in the hover?
Thanks!

UPDATE:
I pulled the head - again - to check for my swash being level at the low-mid-high stick positions. It's level at the mid stick and low stick, but at the high-stick position the elevator (front) servo is a bit low. When I try to raise it using the travel adjust menu, it won't rise. In fact, travel adjust for the elevator servo doesn't move either up or down. I have a call in to HH now. Something is not right.

[CaptHal8HS]

I figured out how to raise the elevator servo via the travel adjust menu. It was a personal problem, not a technical problem!
Anyway, my swash was still not level through the collective travel, so I leveled it again!
Will fly it again tomorrow and let you know how I made out.
I now officially hate the DX6i. Some of the adjustments are convoluted.

[spykez]

Swash not level most likely I agree. Have you tried a tripod leveller? They are great, you can see what your swash does on the bench throughout full positive to negative. (Also, flybarred heli's will go to ground in any case if you don't fly them so that could be the othrr issue).

I like tools for this although you probably can eyeball and adjust at the field. Fix your cg as best you can then the general advice is to do a full collective climb out on a windless day and adjust for interactions ie if it's climbing up and backwards, you probably need to tilt your swash at max pos collective just a tad fore and try again till you get a nice straight climb. With travel adjust I mean.

Then flip her on her back and do the same for negative collective.

Honestly getting a windless day is hard for me lol and this is a relatively light heli so I went fbl.

For the dx6i the biggest counterintuitive thing is having to push the stick in the direction of the desired atv correction and that could be counter to what one would initially think. It is dependant on your servo reversal and swash +/- mix. But it is ok once you get the hang of it.

[CaptHal8HS]

I'm using the Trublood swash leveler. http://www.truebloodengineering.com/...howpage&pid=13
Seems to work ok. Which leveler are you referring to?
I do actively fly the bird. It could also be a normal behavior that I am unaware of. Trying to hook up with a pro so I can get some higher knowledge.
Finless Bob has a CCPM setup video and he covers swash interactions. I should re-watch it for reference.
I won't be flipping it on it's back any time soon! Not there yet.
I figured out the ATV correction. What a pain.

[spykez]

Hehe yup, it is not intuitive at all!

You're probably using a better quality 5mm leveller than I am, that's probably grand what you're using. I have 2 noname brand 5mm tripods. I should mention Rick Lohr makes interesting plastic setup tools you might like to check out in particular flybar locks. If I am not wrong rdlohr is his login here. Can't recall the website - one finger typing on phone atm.

If you don't want to invert yet don't worry too much then about your max negative collective esp if you're only running 2-3 neg pitch, but one thing you can do is from altitude with full collective throw active (e.g. "standard" idle up curve of 0-100) do a full negative ummm.... climb down? drop/dive? hehehe whatevet you call it. Same principle, tweak the travel if not straight.

Warning : this will pull your bird to the ground and if you are not used to the amount of negative collective, you could pile drive her in.

[CaptHal8HS]

I'm familiar with Rick Lohr and his tools. I like the Trublood tool - very accurate!
I'm going to watch Finless Bob's CCPM video again and learn about CCPM interactions. Then go from there.

[CaptHal8HS]

Well, finally got out to test fly my 450 at the local school yard.

I believe I have the swash totally level. It's a lot more stable in the hover. There was some wind today, so letting go of the sticks was not an option. But I do believe that it's no longer darting to the left like before. Feels pretty good there. The heli did want to drift badly backwards; probably a CG problem. I adjusted my next battery forward, but no help. Also, sliding it further down on the battery tray made it nearly impossible to put the canopy back on. I had to remove the rubber canopy grommets to get the canopy back on. Even at a nominal position, the canopy is so difficult to put on. Any suggestions with that? It seems like the battery or the ESC wires are conflicting with the canopy. Anyway, 3 clicks of forward trim made the heli more stable.
I still have a drifting problem with the nose/tail. The tail drifts to the right. If I up the Gyro gain, then my tail starts shaking. The nose just doesn't want to hold. Yes, I let the heli's gyro initialize on the bench before moving it. Yes, I gave a couple of left/right tail inputs to get the heading hold to adjust. I still don't know what to do about it.
All-in-all, I was able to hover it and move it around. It's a pretty twitchy heli. All the more experienced heli pilot's recommend a bigger bird - and I'm beginning to understand why.
Suggestions on the above?
Thanks!

[spykez]

Originally Posted by CaptHal8HS

...
I still have a drifting problem with the nose/tail. The tail drifts to the right. If I up the Gyro gain, then my tail starts shaking. The nose just doesn't want to hold. Yes, I let the heli's gyro initialize on the bench before moving it. Yes, I gave a couple of left/right tail inputs to get the heading hold to adjust. I still don't know what to do about it.
All-in-all, I was able to hover it and move it around. It's a pretty twitchy heli. All the more experienced heli pilot's recommend a bigger bird - and I'm beginning to understand why.
Suggestions on the above?
Thanks!

CCW rotation to me suggests your tail is not holding esp when you bump up the gain and you get the shakes.

Are you getting good anti torque travel on the tail? (you set that on the gyro)

Are you getting enough tail rpm? (how much head speed are you running?)

Did you put in your tail? I'd check it out for bent shaft, binding, loose pulley, blade grips/bearings etc.

Do you have a vibe issue elsewhere perhaps? The head is another place to look

If you think your tail is sound, and your setup is good, I might suggest ramping up the headspeed a bit, so the tail gets more rpm. See if it drifts a bit less as you ramp up the HS. This may or may not work.

In any case, I might join you soon with a flybarred b450 soon, I just discovered I have enough bits to put together another B450 flybarred (my current B450 is FBL so none of this G210/DS76T stuff).

I might just do it for the lols. Just need some servos and a gyro, I think I have a spare ESC and receiver... Just trying to decide on a motor too.

[CaptHal8HS]

All good suggestions. Thanks.
I'm going to try and get out today to see if my tweaks had any effect on the drift. Will let the thread know how I made out.
So much for "Ready To Fly"!

[clough42]

Originally Posted by CaptHal8HS

I left my sub-trims alone - assuming that all my servos are at 90 from the factory.

That would be awesome. And also rare. I wouldn't skip this check. If they truly are level, it only takes a few seconds to verify.

[CaptHal8HS]

Wow. So much for RTF, eh? I'm gonna check it.
Also, do the tail blades have to have 8 degrees of positive pitch?

[clough42]

Originally Posted by CaptHal8HS

Wow. So much for RTF, eh? I'm gonna check it.
Also, do the tail blades have to have 8 degrees of positive pitch?

If you're using the stock gyro, the manual calls for zero degrees of pitch, centered slider at 90 degrees on the servo. This allows them to use a single pot to adjust max throw in both directions at the gyro.

[CaptHal8HS]

Cool. I had to adjust mine as the drift was bad.
Thanks.