Setting ER

[sly the dogman]

Ok, I'm about to test the ER on the C.P.2. Just have to set in ER mode and go, leave everything else as is ?

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by sly the dogman

Ok, I'm about to test the ER on the C.P.2. Just have to set in ER mode and go, leave everything else as is ?

Hi:

That's it. Just set it to on using the programmer. Here's our FAQ on ER:

How does Emergency Recovery (ER) work and should I turn if ON or OFF?

When ER is set to ON in Preferences menu, the following will occur:

ER activates when the following criteria are met:

1) The CPII is set up for Level Flight Mode on the Remote.

2) The aircraft is pitched away from level by 20 degrees or more; in either pitch or roll axes. (Inverted is considered more than 20 degrees away from level).

3) The Remote is changed from a low setting (nearly 0%) up to 100%; e.g., if Level Flight Mode is set up on a toggle switch and is moved from OFF to ON. In other words, ER is only activated by the changing the Remote setting from OFF to Level Flight Mode ON as in a panic situation.

What happens?

1) Gain is increased by a factor of 2x to bring the aircraft to Level faster.

2) The ability for the pilot to over-ride stabilization is greatly reduced. CPII ignores pilot input by 75% when ER is activated. Therefore any attempt by the pilot to over-ride stabilization is mostly ignored.

3) The duration of ER is 2 seconds.

When should I use ER and why is it defaulted to OFF?

ER is designed to enhance performance in a panic situation. However, the most basic instructions we provide to customers when initiating stabilization is to center the control sticks; particularly in a panic situation. This action becomes ingrained in the pilot quickly and is already a normal reaction as one reaches for the Remote switch as it is. In normal operation, the CPII is already capable of leveling an aircraft from any attitude in less than one second, depending on gain settings. Therefore, in normal applications, setting ER to ON is generally not necessary or preferred, as many customers would rather have the capacity to over-ride the system if they so choose. Nevertheless, the use of ER is generally non-problematic and it is up to the individual to decide whether or not to use it.

Contrary to previously released information, ER has the same basic utility whether used in a fixed-wing aircraft or a helicopter. There is no reason to believe that ER is preferred in one type of aircraft over another. Statements to this effect were the result of early testing of ER during the beta program, long before ER was thoroughly tested and perfected. Engineers were initially hesitant to recommend ER in heli’s because the feature over-rides pilot input. Subsequent testing has indicated that the duration of 2 seconds for ER has no adverse effect on pilot control and certain beta testers do prefer ER recovery to normal recovery.

Additional Information:

In subsequent CPII releases, we hope to support a feature termed hard deck. Imagine an aircraft, out of control, and heading towards earth. Pilot is completely at a loss to recover. Hard deck will represent a minimum altitude at which Level Flight Mode will be activated, regardless of Remote setting. ER will become mandatory to swift and un-constrained recovery of the model in this scenario which is the main reason why the feature is already available in the CPII firmware.

[F-16 CHIEF]

Man, I hate to sound stupid, but I thought you could just have ER on. No level flight mode on and no switch needing to be activated. Just let off the sticks?

For example, I want to have full control and just ER. I was going to put stick priority to 150% and hopefully ER would just kick in if I let off and allowed the stick to go neutral. Do I have this way wrong? Thanks!

And thanks for coming on here to support your product. I reccomended you all to a friend and he immediately went out and purchased CPII.

[jperkosk]

It's not a stupid question at all, F16C.
The answer is no, though. The ER kicks in for 2 seconds the moment all of the following conditions become true:

1. The ER function is enabled in CP2's configuration.
2. The heli is more than 20° away from level.
3. The CP2 got just flicked from OFF to LEVEL FLIGHT

[F-16 CHIEF]

Okay, thanks for the answer. I need to rethink my idea then.

My idea was to just have the ER available, but fly it all by myself. I probably just need to turn it off then. Which really, that's fine, but if I get confused or disoriented, I'm in trouble!

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by F-16 CHIEF

Okay, thanks for the answer. I need to rethink my idea then.

My idea was to just have the ER available, but fly it all by myself. I probably just need to turn it off then. Which really, that's fine, but if I get confused or disoriented, I'm in trouble!

Hi:

You do not need to utilize ER at all in order to set CPII up as a bail out. Setting CPII to turn on level flight mode is one of the key reasons customers buy it. The only thing ER does is make the recovery a little faster when the conditions listed above are true.

So, I guess I don't understand why you are confused or what it is you are trying to accomplish?

[jperkosk]

Same here, F16C. I was getting in trouble every time the heli got a bit further from me or whenever it was facing nose-in. Then I installed CP2 on my Blade 400 and assigned CP2 on-off to the green OMG switch operating ch7 (Aux2).



Then I started flying with CP2 on (in level flight mode) and stick priority 100% and I found I was able to practice nose-in. Then I started increasing stick priority little by little. After few months I started flying with CP2 off. Few months later I found I wasn't using CP2 at all, so I went back to stick priority 100% and increased pitch and roll gains to the point that the heli get's a bit bobby when I try to fly it with CP2 on, which is OK because I just want the quickest possible bailout.

You don't really need ER while you're learning orientations and FF, you're not very likely to find yourself so much out-of-level. Just fly in normal SL mode and start increasing stick priority when you get more confident.

Word of advise: assign CP2 on-off to the switch that is very easy accessible to you in flight, and then practice a lot flipping it on and off in the air.

[sutty]

If there is any small confusion Tim I bet it might be because no one has pulled it all together with a list of options. Rather each little bit has been delivered without directly addressing the question. I'll try, but am no expert, so please guys help me if I miss anything out or get it wrong.

If you want to fly around with CPII having no effect on your heli then it must be off. Any state other than off then it will have some influence. There are a whole bunch of ways where influence can be reduced, but only if it is off will it have zero effect, in the way you desire. How to make it more pleasant to fly whilst it is on can be revisited, but for now the only way for it to leave you alone is for it to be off.

If it is off then releasing the sticks cannot have the desired effect because it is off. If it is on then it will be slightly pulling at you to level the heli, especially as you get closer to centre with your sticks, and it will feel a little odd. As mentined above, these things can be fine tuned, made to feel better, but will always be present to a certain extent if the CPII is in the on state.

Without enabling ER though, you can still assign the on/off control of the CPII to a switch on your transmitter, Jerry's OMG switch if you will, and when you sense trouble you can switch it on, and centre the right stick, and it will self level as per the normal self levelling that you get when CPII is always switched on. This is clearly because it is now switched on, so you would expect it to behave like this, and it should now bring you back to level flight smoothly and quickly, just as it would have done had you been flying with it on in the first place and had simply released the sticks. The problem is that this is a two stage process, in that you must remember to not only flick the switch but also to centre the stick, or you can still fly the heli into the ground even though you have now turned it on. Also if you just release the stick, and forget to turn it on, then nothing will happen, as it isn't turned on, so you must do both in order to benefit from the SL feature. If you have already practiced by flying with it on, then this will not be such a big deal, as you will already be used to the release the stick method, and will only be adding the switch flicking to the procedure in order to turn the CPII on.

As an alternative to the above, ER enabled, when you turn CPII from off to on by hitting Jerry's OMG switch, the CPII will not just level the heli as above, it will do so by ignoring your off centre stick. What it does is for two seconds after being turned on, it will increase the gains, reduce your stick priority significantly, to stop you being able to spoil the recovery, and it will literally slam your heli back to level. The beauty of this choice of method is the increase in gain results in a faster recovery, and better, the change in stick priority means that you can forget to centre the stick and it will still recover to level, as it is almost impossible to influence the recovery by forgetting to immediately centre your stick. You can in theory still influence it somewhat, but stick priority is cut by 75%, which pretty much means that the CPII is fully in charge. This coupled with the higher rate of recovery, as a result of the increased gains, means that as long as you can hit that switch in time then the CPII will almost certainly save the helicopter in time too. Of course you will at some point have to centre the cyclic, otherwise after the 2 seconds it will start to fly off again, in the direction you are holding it, but actually this is quite easy because the heli is now level, and CPII is now switched on, and operating in its normal SL mode, so just letting go of the stick will just let it settle back to level again.

This ER option is the way I have chosen to use it, because I only wanted bail out, and because of the agressive style of flying I am doing I also wanted the fastest possible bail out. Weather dependent it works extremely well. Sadly I have to mention the weather, because over here in the UK, especially this summer, we have had precious few days where there is any blue sky at all. Might be some days where it would have worked with reduced effectiveness, but I only want to fly my 600 when it is nice anyway, so it is not too big a deal.

Anyway, maybe this helps, maybe not, hopefully it can't hurt.

Cheers

Sutty