Macdad's flight progress

[macdad]

Stuff has started to show up. I have the tail boom for my new to me heli!!! My wife says I have some "splainin'" to do. I told her it was bigger than the X5

I also received the Neuron and connectors from Helidirect. Man the Neuron is small! I mean it is small! It doesn't seem big enough to work on a 700 helicopter. I hope it is easy to setup. I am not looking forward to learning another FBL...

I really can't wait for the rest to show up!

[jbobb1]

You probably know this, but you need a special adaptor cable to run a second satellite. It drops voltage from the bus connector to 3v.
And you're right, this thing is little!

[macdad]

Thanks jbobb1, but I'm actually using a taranis. I do, however, need a male to male servo cable for the sbus connection. I think I have one laying around.

Curious though, can I power the fbl through a servo channel, or just the esc channel? I need to look into that...

[jbobb1]

"Thanks jbobb1, but I'm actually using a taranis."

OOPS! I knew that!

"Curious though, can I power the fbl through a servo channel, or just the esc channel? I need to look into that..."

You'll probably find your answer here, but I'm guessing you could any servo channel!

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=701129

[Larryu]

Cool I know you're excited. Have you seen a Spirit they're tiny too, it looks funny on a big helicopter. I know the power on my Ikon can come from any plug except one because it's a power buss, I would think the neuron would be the same. Don't you use the same software you already have to program it?

[macdad]

Originally Posted by jbobb1

You'll probably find your answer here, but I'm guessing you could any servo channel!

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=701129

I have been reading that. I didn't see a definitive answer. I think I will just give it a go and see what happens I am sure it is the case, the main man said something about y-cables into multiple ports. He just didn't specify servos. However, they are designed to supply power to servos.

Originally Posted by Larryu

Cool I know you're excited. Have you seen a Spirit they're tiny too, it looks funny on a big helicopter. I know the power on my Ikon can come from any plug except one because it's a power buss, I would think the neuron would be the same. Don't you use the same software you already have to program it?

It was actually a toss up between a Spirit and this new one. The only major concern is that there may still be some bugs with the neuron. The software for this is different than my other FBLs. I did mess with the demo though. Looks pretty straight forward. In certain things, I guess I just don't like change

On a side note, I have the received more stuff today. It is starting to look like a hobby shop puked in here. Got my big Hobbyking order and the frsky receiver. Waiting on Servos. I may also need a few parts for the Mostro. The main frame should be in tomorrow.

[Larryu]

Originally Posted by macdad

On a side note, I have the received more stuff today. It is starting to look like a hobby shop puked in here.

I love it when that happens........... You never said what servos did you get?

[macdad]

Well, I couldn't help myself. I bought the brushless ones. I really like the idea of lower amp draw. Per the specs, they should still have plenty of torque. Also, it seems they are now advertising the gear sets as the same for both the coreless and brushless servos.

I was also planning on running the servos through a voltage regulator. After receiving it, I am not so sure. It is pretty big. I will see where I can fit it on the helicopter. I have a tendency to lose my patience with wiring and it ends up looking like crap. I would like the wiring on this one to actually look pretty nice (if I can stay patient )

[macdad]

I received the body of the Mostro. I tore down the tail and head, regreased the thrust bearings and reassembled. I also pulled the belts, put them in a ziplock back and spray a bunch of silicon lube in the bag. Assembled the tail to the body. My wife just kept saying "Oh my gosh! "

I have a bit of soldering to do. I think I will change the motor bullets to 5.5 mm. I have to solder up the plugs on the ESC as well. I am a bit nervous about soldering such large connectors. I really don't want a cold solder to rear it's ugly head.

Not related to helis: Karate camp this weekend, so no heli time. My daughter will be with me. She will be testing for blackbelt this weekend, and I will be testing for my 3rd degree black. I am so proud of her.

[Larryu]

Congratulations I know you and your daughter will do well. Few people make it to your level and I know it's great having your daughter follow in your steps, you have a bond that few parents have with their children. Enjoy it.

[jbobb1]

Originally Posted by macdad

I received the body of the Mostro. I tore down the tail and head, regreased the thrust bearings and reassembled. I also pulled the belts, put them in a ziplock back and spray a bunch of silicon lube in the bag. Assembled the tail to the body. My wife just kept saying "Oh my gosh! "

I have a bit of soldering to do. I think I will change the motor bullets to 5.5 mm. I have to solder up the plugs on the ESC as well. I am a bit nervous about soldering such large connectors. I really don't want a cold solder to rear it's ugly head.

Not related to helis: Karate camp this weekend, so no heli time. My daughter will be with me. She will be testing for blackbelt this weekend, and I will be testing for my 3rd degree black. I am so proud of her.

There's a lot of posts about soldering the larger connectors with a small butane torch. You can probably do a search and find some info. I've soldered them with my iron in the past and had no problems.

Larryu pretty much summed it up about your father/daughter relationship. That is really awesome!
Best of luck with your test. I almost made it to brown belt many years ago before a industrial accident took me out of commission and I could never get back in.

[macdad]

I plan on using a butane pen torch. We will see how it goes. I practiced a bit on some use 4mm connectors. Seems pretty straight forward. It seems to be more of an issue of not getting too hot.

Shame about the accident, jbobb1. Karate is the only hobby that I have truly stuck with. It is more of a lifestyle thing now.

Thanks Larry. It is a special relationship. I will cherish this time that we spend together before she gets old and grows up

[Larryu]

Originally Posted by macdad

Thanks Larry. It is a special relationship. I will cherish this time that we spend together before she gets old and grows up

Fred it's a life time thing that just evolves the speical never goes away.

[macdad]

Very true, Larry!

Today was a beautiful day to go flying, but family first. We went to the local fair and had a good time. Saw some friends.

This evening, I installed the bullets on my ESC. This will be my first official helicopter with torch soldered connections. Needless to say, I am a bit nervous. We shall see how it goes. So far, they look pretty good, but one of them has a bit too much solder. I essentially tinned the wire, put solder in the bullet and put the wire in the bullet. Then, I held heat on the bullet long enough to see solder get hot on the wire. Since there was a bit too much solder, it was a little hard to tell. It is shiny and the connection is mechanically strong. Fingers crossed!

I did get about 20 minutes of sim in today to satisfy my flying addiction.

Servos are due in tomorrow. If all goes well, I will have the Mostro in the air by the weekend!

[macdad]

No flying updates... Working on the Mostro. After 3 hours, I have the cyclic servos installed. Voltage regulator, FBL and receiver are all wired up.

The FBL was a little bit fickle initially with the receiver and Throttle channel. I had to change my safety setting (Throttle hold) in the transmitter to 100 after I reversed the throttle channel. This will definitely need to be tested before blades are installed. It also seemed to be somewhat sensitive to changes to the throttle channel, but I think I have it sorted.

Swash is leveled and moving in the correct orientation.

Now, I need to install the tail servo and finish the FBL setup, solder up my ESC battery connections and mount it, solder connections to the motor. That should just about do it. Probably about another 3 hours seeing how slow this is going. It sure is fun, though!

[macdad]

I don't know if I like this Eznov or not. I have been fighting the setup for several hours. Took forever to figure out how the tail adjustments actually functioned.

I had to go the Cyclic pitch setup screen to find the center for the tail servo. Then I went to the tail section and started adjusting the end points. However, it didn't seem to increase the throw. It just seemed to move the center point... I don't really know... I think I finally got to the throw to be pretty equal and almost out to the extremes.

Then, I configured the 3 different setups. One for sport, 2 for Aerobatic 3D and 3 for Hardcore. Then, I started messing with the changing setups and watching what it did. I get full throw on the tail on the sport setting, but not on the other 2. That seems strange to me... I am almost afraid to take it for a flight.

However, I think it is all setup. I need to solder the ESC battery connections and motor, setup the ESC, and all should be good to go.

Feeling excited and nervous.

[jbobb1]

I'm not liking the Eznov either. Haven't gotten to the tail setup yet, but I'm not impressed with the software at all. when leveling my swash, I had to toggle back and forth from that screen to the pitch set up screen and back to get the center stick dead band to work. I messing around with the governor now, and unlike the iKon governor (which I'm used too), you don't have the convenience of entering desired head speeds, unless I'm missing something. I've been kind of on and off with this heli.

On a side note, I almost made a deal on a Mostro myself, but had to turn it down. It sold right afterwards.

[macdad]

I think most of my problem is simply learning a new FBL. What was throwing me off with the tail was that I was setting the servo horn properly at center stick (on the pitch adjustment menu since it always returned to center). Then I would go to the tail menu and adjust the end points, but it wouldn't go as far one way as it would the other. Watching the servo horn movement, it wouldn't go equidistant from center when moving to R and L. When I would then go back to the pitch screen to look at the center/neutral point on the tail servo, it was no longer where I set it??? Very confusing.

I ended up going to the extreme that I couldn't get full travel and shortening the pushrod until it was there (as close as I could). Then I went to the other end point and increased the throw until it was at the end point. After a couple iterations of that, the neutral was close to where I originally set it, and I had equal travel in both directions??? Pretty confusing compared to Vstabi.

I don't even want to think about governor at this point... I'll just use the YEP Gov for now.

I think, in an effort to make the setup as simple as possible, the developer left out some important setup information that would really help users. That being said, the rest of the setup went pretty painless for me. I have just been very methodical. I really don't want to make a mistake with this one.

Regarding the Mostro, there will probably be a few more that are jumping ship with Avant and selling their helis. I am being optimistic. When you look back at the posts of parts availability, they didn't really start till around late April/early May. I think this also aligns with their facility move and when people start flying and crashing again. There seems to be a continual shortage on canopies though. Time will tell if I made a mistake buying this heli. Worst case, if Avant tanks, I just need a new airframe.

[macdad]

Woohoo! It flies! Hovered the Mostro for 4 minutes to check the settings, throttle etc... Man does it sound impressive!

Remember how I said I didn't have full throw in setting 2 and 3 on the tail. You know what happened when I set it to 2? It started to spin to the left! I think I read somewhere that you can copy the settings from one setup to another. I thought that just meant gains, but I think that means everything.

Overall, I think it is pretty good. Need to reduce the I-gain on the tail a bit. Then, I need to get it to the big field and see how the tail holds in harder maneuvers to get it really tuned in.

What a blast!

[Larryu]

Congratulations on your successful maiden there's always that little doubt did I miss something. I called and talked to Dave at Anythingheli.com about my X3 problems and he told me sence I had covered everything mechanical to reset my Ikon and set it up from scratch it appears to have worked. I have a little bobbing in the tail so I need to drop the I gain too but no shakes. I know you're going to fly the Mostra today so have fun. I'm sure you don't want to take a video yet but I would love to see one soon.