Microbeast - First Impressions (and pics)

[-/thr/-]

Hi all, i was asked to show some pics and share my experience with my brand new microbeast, so here we go!








First, installing it and setup is sooooooooo easy, even a monkey could do that. I left all the adjustments at factory presets except of 'B' in the parameters menu, which i set to transmitter (LED shows blue). That means that i do not use the presets but set Dual Rate and Expo in the transmitter as done before. I left D/R at 100% and put 45% Expo on Aileron/Elevator and 55% on the Rudder.

First few flights, about 10 or 12 in the last 2 days were without issues and i did not find anything i wanted to change up to this point. Maybe the more experienced flyers will have to make some further adjustment to exactly meet their requirements.

How does it fly? Simply fantastic! It's completely different from what i experienced with the flybar. Much more like the sim, you can concentrate on your flight moves and don't have to fight the birds own ideas where to go that much anymore. Perfect!

It feels absolutely locked in, even with that amount of expo i use now. Stability in hover and fast forward flight is simply amazing, almost no inputs needed, just let it fly.

The bird seems faster now. I cannot quantify that, but i guess it's about 10mph faster now than with the flybar.

Less noise, less blade farts. Overall noise level is much lower now. My bird was never the loudest on on the field, which i attribute to the radix blades and the hacker motor, both at low headspeeds, but it's even less now. On a long banked turn, maybe 300-400 feet away, i was shocked for a few seconds because i thought i had lost power again, but everything was fine. You simply could not hear it.
To get some nice blade farts you have to push it really hard. There was pretty much no winds in the last days, so this might be different in more windy conditions. We'll see.

Turn rates are incredible, even at a headspeed as low as 1700 RPM. At this point of my learning curve i do not think i need more.
Loops were easy to do with the flybar, now they seem even more easy. Next steps will be rolls (still mess them up on the sim), stationary flips and inverted.

Power consumption is lower now. Part of that may be that i was more careful and did not push it, I'll keep an eye on it, but i guess it really needs less power now. I did some 6:30 mins flights and put back between 2500 and 2900 mAh. Everything came down pretty cool.

Here are some images of my setup.



I put smaller servo wheels on the swash servos to get a better resolution on the swash. There is a pretty good description of what to do on the mikado v-bar page, i think it was in their wiki there. Distance from the servo shaft to the center of the ball links is 11mm. This lasts for about 13 degrees colective (i use 12°) and more than 10° of cyclic throw. Microbeast indicates that the resolution with this setup is very good (blue LED after you teach in the swash limits).

One thing more to mention about servos and setup: In some german forums there were many guy who wanted to put the microbeast in some smaller birds like 450s and 250s. One of the developers from Freakware stated that in those classes of birds only the best servos available will be up to the task, because servo speed, torque and response time are critical in a FBL setup. Cheap servos are not good enough even if they work fine in a flybared setup.

The FBL head is a modified Align head. Half an inch shorter now. Works as it should. Still using the grey rubbers. I had to shorten the linkage rods from the Mikado conversion kit a bit, but that's all. The Mikado kit is pretty expensive, 70 Euros for those few pieces is a bummer, but it works.



I installed the mikado balls on the swash on those links that operate the swash driver. Other balls are standard QuickUK balls. Shorter balls might be useful to increase resolution if other options are not available.



I did an onboard video yesterday, but it does not show how nice this thing flies, so please allow me to save the work of editing it and putting it online.

Conclusion: Microbeast rocks!

Thorsten

[MrMel]

What tailservo are you using and what tailgain (Blue + what LED did you run)?

[-/thr/-]

Logictec LTS 6100G, Gain is about 50-60%, LED shows 'G'. Did not yet try other values.

[TRex888]

Your unit does not seem to be in the centre line of the heli/boom. Does this not matter?

I thought the tail gyro was contained within the unit?

[Stolpe]

Originally Posted by -/thr/-

One thing more to mention about servos and setup: In some german forums there were many guy who wanted to put the microbeast in some smaller birds like 450s and 250s. One of the developers from Freakware stated that in those classes of birds only the best servos available will be up to the task, because servo speed, torque and response time are critical in a FBL setup. Cheap servos are not good enough even if they work fine in a flybared setup.

Isn't that what most of the FBL-systems require, for instance Align FL760?
And is there a minimum speed recommendation, or some recommended servos?

/ Stolpe

[MrMel]

Your unit does not seem to be in the centre line of the heli/boom. Does this not matter?

Center in the heli doesnt matter, as long as it's aligned in all axis.

I thought the tail gyro was contained within the unit?

It has 3 axis, i.e. Tailgyro is builtin.

[-/thr/-]

Originally Posted by Stolpe

And is there a minimum speed recommendation, or some recommended servos?

Align DS610s and Logictec LTS6100G are what BeastX/Freakware recommend for 600/700 sized birds. By incidence, that's exactly what i used before, so i had no need to change a thing.

[rickn816]

Originally Posted by -/thr/-

Align DS610s and Logictec LTS6100G are what BeastX/Freakware recommend for 600/700 sized birds. By incidence, that's exactly what i used before, so i had no need to change a thing.

Does the setup software permit you to select/program for other servos?

Rick

[-/thr/-]

Originally Posted by rickn816

Does the setup software permit you to select/program for other servos?

Rick

Yep, you program in the servo frequency (50/65/120/200Hz) for the cyclics and servo frequency (50/165/270/333Hz) and neutral impulse (960/760/1520µsec) for the tail. So virtually any servo can be used, you don't specify which servo exactly you want to use. All that is done via the transmitter, so no software, no laptop needed. Only question is if your servos are up to the task.

Thorsten

[MrMel]

Here is the different settings in English available.

[-/thr/-]

Please do not rely on that chart alone. There are other things to consider which are mentioned in the manual. It should be available in english in a couple of days.

[MrMel]

Yes, but I was refering to the servo combinations.

[rickn816]

Originally Posted by -/thr/-

Yep, you program in the servo frequency (50/65/120/200Hz) for the cyclics and servo frequency (50/165/270/333Hz) and neutral impulse (960/760/1520µsec) for the tail. So virtually any servo can be used, you don't specify which servo exactly you want to use. All that is done via the transmitter, so no software, no laptop needed. Only question is if your servos are up to the task.

Thorsten

Thanks.

Rick