Soft start or not ?

[UKHeliBob]

There seem to be mixed opinions amongst users as to whether the soft start facility that is activated when spooling up in Idle Up mode is a good or bad thing.

Personally I use it all the time and have had no problem with it. Some people say that soft start causes the motor to labour and that it will cause damage to the FETs controlling the motor, but I have seen no evidence of this either in person or in reports from users. The apparent labouring of the motor is, I believe, no such thing, but merely a side effect of the voltage to the motor being increased slowly.

So, do you use soft start and if not, why not ?

[Yamahajrp]

tried it an don't see the point, seems to spool up faster in normal then switch to IU

[UKHeliBob]

Surely the whole point of soft start is that it does not spool up quickly but in a slower, more controlled way, but I am sure that we will get mixed opinions in this thread and I look forward to seeing what people say.

[clough42]

I use the soft start exclusively, on all my birds. It's kind of a ritual. As they spool up, I start the timer on my dx6i, take a few deep breaths and think about what I'm going to do next.

[UKHeliBob]

Originally Posted by clough42

I use the soft start exclusively, on all my birds. It's kind of a ritual. As they spool up, I start the timer on my dx6i, take a few deep breaths and think about what I'm going to do next.

Have you been looking over my shoulder ?
You are describing my lift-off routine exactly.

[Liduno]

On a large brushless heli yes, on the mcpx no.

The motor magnets are so strong that the motor doesn't start to turn until there is a significant amount of throttle applied, this means the brushes are sitting on a stationary commutator applying electricity, essentially a short.

When you spool up in normal mode you apply enough throttle to get the motor spinning almost immediately.

I like to spool up to about mid stick in normal mode, throw the idle up switch, then increase pitch to lift off.

[Maypole]

Always. It's a good habit to get into. If you always use it on everything you fly, the chances of going inverted in normal mode are almost completely eliminated.

[Imzzaudae]

More often than not I fly in normal mode, but when I do use Idle up I soft start

[ahahn]

Always worked great for me.

As to the motor sitting there for a brief instant before turning, there is no magic. The motor needs a minimum amount of current to get it to turn, just because the cogging is so high.

That's true whether you are spooling it up yourself or whether you have the 3-in-1 doing it for you. No difference at all.

[Liduno]

Originally Posted by ahahn

Always worked great for me.

As to the motor sitting there for a brief instant before turning, there is no magic. The motor needs a minimum amount of current to get it to turn, just because the cogging is so high.

That's true whether you are spooling it up yourself or whether you have the 3-in-1 doing it for you. No difference at all.

There is a difference, the motor doesnt sit there and hum when I spool up in normal mod.

[Metal]

Normal mode. Throttle up to just under mid-stick, IU, lift off.

No problems when I did try it.

Need an option in the poll for tried it, no problems.

[Talesin]

Know about it, tried it, didn't like it. Prefer having control over the spool-up as opposed to just 'hit button to go'. Too much like just popping it up into the air, as opposed to a smooth and controlled liftoff. Sure, it won't hurt the heli... but in my opinion it looks dumb.

Only time I use it at this point instead of sticking it myself is if there's enough wind to worry about tipping on takeoff.

[UKHeliBob]

I can do smooth and controlled lift offs in IU, in fact better than I can in Normal mode, because only pitch is changing rather than pitch and head speed.

[XtReMe98]

Originally Posted by clough42

I use the soft start exclusively, on all my birds. It's kind of a ritual. As they spool up, I start the timer on my dx6i, take a few deep breaths and think about what I'm going to do next.

You breath?? I'm lucky these batteries don't last long cause i have to shut down to get some more oxygen.

[aaronbru]

I don't care for the soft start feature. It is too... abrupt at times.

I prefer normal because I'm in control of the head speed and start it off really slow. If everything looks good, I take off in normal mode then flip to idle-up right away. If I use the soft start feature I don't feel like I have time to identify any problems and will get a tip-over/chicken dance more often.

The down side to it is that I've definetly forgot to flip into idle-up and tried to go inverted. Makes a pretty soft crash in the grass but still not ideal.