DFC and BeastX

[khoysagk]

So with my DFC head installed I had to check and adjust my MicroBeast of course. It says in step J to go to 6° and it would be best to have the blue light. It goes: off-purple-red-blue. On my 600 I get the red light at 6°, no big deal, right.
On the 250 with the DFC head I got nothing at 6°
I moved the ball links on the servo horns in one hole, this is as close as I can go without the links touching the servo case (DS410M) and I barely get the purple light at 6° now. This has me concerned a little but I don't know what else I could do. I could see if shorter balls on the swash would make a difference but the balls are already short and I don't know if 0.5mm shorter balls would really make a difference. Any thoughts?
EDIT: The only balls on the swash I could change are the ones on the rotating part as the other ones are already the shortest ones available.

[toys2cars2toys]

Originally Posted by khoysagk

So with my DFC head installed I had to check and adjust my MicroBeast of course. It says in step J to go to 6° and it would be best to have the blue light. It goes: off-purple-red-blue. On my 600 I get the red light at 6°, no big deal, right.
On the 250 with the DFC head I got nothing at 6°
I moved the ball links on the servo horns in one hole, this is as close as I can go without the links touching the servo case (DS410M) and I barely get the purple light at 6° now. This has me concerned a little but I don't know what else I could do. I could see if shorter balls on the swash would make a difference but the balls are already short and I don't know if 0.5mm shorter balls would really make a difference. Any thoughts?
EDIT: The only balls on the swash I could change are the ones on the rotating part as the other ones are already the shortest ones available.

I've not fitted my DFC head yet, here's what I did on my Align FBL head with BeastX, blue light at 6°

Short balls on the swash centre
Long balls on the swash arms that connect to the servos - including the one with the AR pin

In fact my servo arms are quite long so my gain dial is pretty turned down, I may yet move the balls in on the servos by 1 hole

If you are still having problems it would be possible to file a small amount off the inner swash where the balls mount

[toys2cars2toys]

As per nexgen's excellent build thread

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=284783

[khoysagk]

I guess I'll give that a try. I hate having to place an order for parts worth $3.50.
Did I read it right in the thread that the AR pin used from the Gaui 200 is smaller in diameter and needs to be glued into the hole in the swash?

[animan]

I did not change the outer swash balls, only the inner ones, used the outer swash balls for the two balls in the inner swash (I believe they are 3.5mm x 5.3mm found in align part H25055A).

Moving the servo horn links in by 1, I went from purple to just red, changing the inner swash balls got me to 3Q of red, with blue showing around 6.3-6.4. Heli flies great with default settings and dials, only thing I changed was set Parameter B to transmitter mode. Note, this is with the older align FBL head, have not tried DFC head yet.

[toys2cars2toys]

Originally Posted by khoysagk

I guess I'll give that a try. I hate having to place an order for parts worth $3.50.
Did I read it right in the thread that the AR pin used from the Gaui 200 is smaller in diameter and needs to be glued into the hole in the swash?

I'm trying to remember what I did
I had some spare balls with holes through them - the sort that require separate fixing screws
I think that these were from some HK250 mixing arms which I'd bought for another project

I used an old threaded pushrod as the "screw" - this was a good fit into the swash and some thin tube to bring the diameter up

Then some epoxy to hold it all together

All bits that I had in my parts box

[seanm135]

Originally Posted by khoysagk

I guess I'll give that a try. I hate having to place an order for parts worth $3.50.
Did I read it right in the thread that the AR pin used from the Gaui 200 is smaller in diameter and needs to be glued into the hole in the swash?

Yes it is.... mine looks exactly as toys posted above. What i used to make sure the AR pin/screw was secure in the threaded hole of the swashplate was use a mixture of CA glue and locktite then just threaded it in. Once that sets, you should be good to go.

I'm glad you brought this issue up because I just received my DFC in the mail and am going to install it this weekend and wasn't sure if I was gonna have to resort back to the stock swash ball configurations or not but I guess not

let me know if you have any other questions and ill check back in once my head is installed and i run through the BeastX setup again

[khoysagk]

I had a 250SE long time ago with the "old" Align fbl head and BeastX. I don't remember exactly but I know I got at least red at 6° on that one. I have to admit I'm disappointed that this is a problem with the new DFC head. Guess I'll be ordering some parts...

[animan]

You may try shortening the links from the servos to the swash and increasing the length of the links on the head, this should provide some additional resolution.

[khoysagk]

After searching for a good website to get the Gaui parts and not finding anything good yet and after thinking about it a lot today I will try something first. As of now I have the balls with washers on the inner swash. The outer swash balls are the short ones. I might try and switch them around and add a washer to the AR pin and see how much more that'll give me. If not enough I will try your suggestion animan. You can actually adjust the links on the DFC arms a little as per the directions and I 'm not too worried about having them screwed in all the way as on the bigger birds.

[toys2cars2toys]

Originally Posted by khoysagk

After searching for a good website to get the Gaui parts and not finding anything good yet and after thinking about it a lot today I will try something first. As of now I have the balls with washers on the inner swash. The outer swash balls are the short ones. I might try and switch them around and add a washer to the AR pin and see how much more that'll give me. If not enough I will try your suggestion animan. You can actually adjust the links on the DFC arms a little as per the directions and I 'm not too worried about having them screwed in all the way as on the bigger birds.

Have a look at the thread I started showing my build it has some pictures of my swash
All you need is some threaded rod and a ball with a through hole
You could even use one off a bigger heli as long as you can fit a larger plastic ball joint

For the life of me, I can work out how different length linkages will change travel - is this what animan is saying?
Different servo, swash and grip ARMs yes, but lengths of links? - please help me to understand

[jmisuraca]

I get the blue light at 6.8 I think that is good enough to fly with. Is 12 too much pitch for this bird?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[animan]

Originally Posted by toys2cars2toys

For the life of me, I can work out how different length linkages will change travel - is this what animan is saying?
Different servo, swash and grip ARMs yes, but lengths of links? - please help me to understand

If you think of it as a lever... with shorter links to the swashplate and longer links to the blade grips, it would take slightly more servo travel for the same pitch change on the blades. Getting to the blue (increasing the resolution) is all about increasing the amount of servo travel for a given change in blade pitch (6 deg in this case)

[animan]

Originally Posted by jmisuraca

I get the blue light at 6.8 I think that is good enough to fly with. Is 12 too much pitch for this bird?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have flown mine at purple, though from purple to red you can tell the difference. Folks on the beastx forum say anywhere from middle to end of red is fine and you can't tell the difference when flying vs blue.

12 deg pitch should be fine as long as you don't have anything binding.

[khoysagk]

Originally Posted by toys2cars2toys

Have a look at the thread I started showing my build it has some pictures of my swash
All you need is some threaded rod and a ball with a through hole
You could even use one off a bigger heli as long as you can fit a larger plastic ball joint

For the life of me, I can work out how different length linkages will change travel - is this what animan is saying?
Different servo, swash and grip ARMs yes, but lengths of links? - please help me to understand

The problem is that the next size up I have is for the 500, a little too big I think.

[khoysagk]

So I did what I said in my earlier post. The light now goes from purple to red at 5.8°. So I do have red at 6° now. I'll test it tomorrow and see how she behaves.

[toys2cars2toys]

Originally Posted by toys2cars2toys

For the life of me, I can work out how different length linkages will change travel - is this what animan is saying?
Different servo, swash and grip ARMs yes, but lengths of links? - please help me to understand

Originally Posted by animan

If you think of it as a lever... with shorter links to the swashplate and longer links to the blade grips, it would take slightly more servo travel for the same pitch change on the blades. Getting to the blue (increasing the resolution) is all about increasing the amount of servo travel for a given change in blade pitch (6 deg in this case)

I still don't get it, maybe I am misunderstanding you, looking at my sketch are you just changing the lengths of the linkages E and F. My second sketch shows shortened swash to servo links, longer swash to grip links, if that's the case I can't see how leverage comes into play as the lever's lengths don't change

I full understand how changing the lengths of A, B, C and D change the leverage
My suggestion was to Shorten B and Lengthen C
Shortening D obviously helps too, but you have to stop if the geometry starts to suffer
Of course A isn't easily adjustable

[toys2cars2toys]

Originally Posted by khoysagk

So I did what I said in my earlier post. The light now goes from purple to red at 5.8°. So I do have red at 6° now. I'll test it tomorrow and see how she behaves.

That sounds promising, I'm keen to hear your flight report

[khoysagk]

Originally Posted by toys2cars2toys

I still don't get it, maybe I am misunderstanding you, looking at my sketch are you just changing the lengths of the linkages E and F. My second sketch shows shortened swash to servo links, longer swash to grip links, if that's the case I can't see how leverage comes into play as the lever's lengths don't change

I full understand how changing the lengths of A, B, C and D change the leverage
My suggestion was to Shorten B and Lengthen C
Shortening D obviously helps too, but you have to stop if the geometry starts to suffer
Of course A isn't easily adjustable

You're not the only one. It makes no sense to me either.

[khoysagk]

In case I'm not happy with my new setup, can someone suggest a good website to order the Gaui parts. I tried Empire Hobby but they charge me $12 shipping for that tiny bag from California to Oregon.
They won't be getting any of my business.