Build Thread: CC's Xtreme Novus 125CP FBL

[taosgraveyard]

ok, did more testing.

I have gone back and forth thinking that i either had EMF issue causing receiver to loose link, or a brownout.

measuring at the rondo, when it is plugged in I get 4.3 volts. seems like a reliable 4.3 volts.

installing the satellite under the rondo, on the bottom of the tray, which is close to the ESC, I get glitches, servos sometimes jump abruptly.

I am trying it mounted on the back of the pitch and aileron servos. so far, good.

this is fun, but moving pretty slowly. I think i do have my vibration issue under control. The loose pinion and bad gear was one problem, and then you discover how amazing being a tad out of track on the blades can causes a LOT vibration.

rondo does NOT like vibration. good thing.

going to coffee, then I am going to use up a couple of batteries spinning at 60% throttle or so, to make sure no glitches i connection or possible brownouts and just stay on the floor until I am happy that everything is good, then hopefully a maiden flight.

the tail hold at 60-80 throttle seems VERY good. nice and steady so far. Taking a break and continuing soon.

thanks everyone for the help. It would be difficult to do this without this forum.

[taosgraveyard]

FOUND IT

I decided to switch sateelites as a test. when I unplugged it from the rondo, one of the wires fell off the connector. I didn't tug at the wire at the time i ws removing it as I wanted to inspect to see if the wire was damaged in any way.

think this is why the glitches and loss of control. ran for 3 minutes at 100% throttle and all is good. putting on a set of new carefully balanced blades, setting tracking and redoing pitch curves in prep for maiden flight.

it is amazing how rondo holds this bird when at 100% and zero pitch sitting on floor. it stays in one place, all by itself. this is at 60% in HH gyro mode.

is 60% a good figure for gain on gyro (set from gyro menu from transmitter)??

no idea

[ForceFedDSM]

I got mine in the air today. The tail issue was a loose tail boom, when I put the heli away I heard something fall......it was the rear tail gear. I put the gear back in and the jittery tail servo seemed to cure itself too.

It was really stable and I am still running a low gain for the tail to get rid of some wag, but I think I have some more small vibrations to work out. I did some med speed reverse flight and the tail held with the low gain and no wag. It has lots of power with the 2s system and I tached a headspeed of 4401 at 100% throttle with a 14t pinion at 0º pitch. I have an issue with setting the pitch properly so I am just going to do it by comparing inverted to upright climb out. I only messed around for a min since it was snowing hard and I noticed my dx8 was covered in melted snow. I'll have to wait to try out inverted and more flight tests when the weather clears.

I almost forgot, my main gear is all chewed up from play in the main shaft bearings. My 2 x 6 x 3 bearings float around a little in the bearing blocks, I should prob try loctiting them, but this could be my source of vibrations and why the heli wanders a little at times(it could also be the air currents blowing off the cabinets in my 10 x 10 kitchen).

[ForceFedDSM]

Originally Posted by taosgraveyard

FOUND IT

I decided to switch sateelites as a test. when I unplugged it from the rondo, one of the wires fell off the connector. I didn't tug at the wire at the time i ws removing it as I wanted to inspect to see if the wire was damaged in any way.

think this is why the glitches and loss of control. ran for 3 minutes at 100% throttle and all is good. putting on a set of new carefully balanced blades, setting tracking and redoing pitch curves in prep for maiden flight.

it is amazing how rondo holds this bird when at 100% and zero pitch sitting on floor. it stays in one place, all by itself. this is at 60% in HH gyro mode.

is 60% a good figure for gain on gyro (set from gyro menu from transmitter)??

no idea

When on the floor the µRondo is not correcting very much unless your heli naturally tips while at 0º pitch on the ground. The µRondo will only stop the heli from tilting uncommanded. The fact that your heli is staying in one place on the floor shows that you have very little or no vibrations, good job!

I have a dx8 and my gain is 30% in the gyro menu. The dx8 uses a different scale than the dx7/6i. To convert values you would subtract 50 and then double the answer to get the dx8 gain. That would put you at about 20%. What is your gain showing on the µRondo servo monitoring screen? Mine shows 61% on the servo monitoring screen.

[Jeff_Barrett]

A fully charged LiPo will yield approximately 4.2v fully charged at rest (8.4v total on 2S).

If you were measuring 7.3v at rest, then your cells were roughly 3.65v ... that's discharged beyond what I would ever discharge a battery to. The lowest I stop is 3.8-3.9v ... of course ... you all need to consider how many mah you're putting back into the battery. It should never exceed 80% of the total capacity.

Remember that you must place the meter into the circuit in series to get a proper reading. If you simply put the probe to either side of the diode like you are measuring voltage or resistance, it will not give you an accurate reading.

EDIT: I see you found the issue ... good work! I'm very excited with your initial test results.

[Jeff_Barrett]

Originally Posted by ForceFedDSM

I almost forgot, my main gear is all chewed up from play in the main shaft bearings. My 2 x 6 x 3 bearings float around a little in the bearing blocks, I should prob try loctiting them, but this could be my source of vibrations and why the heli wanders a little at times(it could also be the air currents blowing off the cabinets in my 10 x 10 kitchen).

Use green loctite and let it sit overnight. It is the penetrating kind and works AWESOME.

I'm so glad to hear everyone is getting their rondo equipped helis into the air.

[taosgraveyard]

CC: thanks for the info! that makes sense. I will also set the ESC to shut down at 7.6 volts. ot came set at 2.9 i think, so i set at 6.2. i will change that right now.Fortunately I can now use the transmitter to diddle the ESC parameters something I could never get the walkera radio to do.

ForceFedDSM: I use a Dx8 too. thanks for the info. i wll check the monitoring screen and try 60% (at the rondo) . I have it at 60 at the radio now, and have some tail jitter.

balancing a new set of blades and then setting pitch curves. this is getting interesting.








[taosgraveyard]

Originally Posted by Crazy_Canuck

Use green loctite and let it sit overnight. It is the penetrating kind and works AWESOME.

I'm so glad to hear everyone is getting their rondo equipped helis into the air.

yes, without locktite the play is huge. causes a LOT of vibe. I also use the green. I have not done the bearings on the tail shaft and will as soon as i replace them. they are the xtreme originals and like the main bearings that came with all three of my frames, they are total also trash.

i understand they no longer ship those bad bearings.

[Jeff_Barrett]

Hm. I hadn't thought to check my tail shaft bearings... I'll do that when my Ti components arrive.

They sent me replacement bearings for customers who purchased their frames from me, but honestly, they don't look much better than the originals. We'll have to see though, I haven't taken any out of the package.

[taosgraveyard]

definately it was the receiver wire. thats a relief to have fixed.

now finishing setup, have only hopped, with so far wild results.

might still have to much vibration

perhaps

[Jeff_Barrett]

It takes a little bit of tweaking ... mechanical setup / geometry is so important with any FBL system.

[ForceFedDSM]

I just changed my tail blades to the 4g6 tail blades and my tail does not wag anymore and I think the heli is ready for some real flight testing.......until I hit the wall and shattered the blades. I also think that my head may be shaking on the shaft and not the bearings moving in the frame. I am going to replace the blades, main shaft, and put my homemade head back on and see it if is any better on the vibes.

Almost there!

[Jeff_Barrett]

Try a little bit of scotch tape on the shaft to take some the play out, maybe?

[Jeff_Barrett]

Xtreme told me that making a 'alternate' gyro tray would be easy .... stay tuned!!!

[ForceFedDSM]

Originally Posted by Crazy_Canuck

Xtreme told me that making a 'alternate' gyro tray would be easy .... stay tuned!!!

Great news, put me on your list so I can get one first shipment

[lazor 22]

^Ditto

[Jeff_Barrett]

I'll let you know when they're available.

[hroch]

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[taosgraveyard]

deleted dupe post

[taosgraveyard]

Originally Posted by hroch

added a video walkera & microbeast - see link
http://www.helimagazin.cz/vladimir/walkera-4g6-fbl/

VERY cool.

I see you mounted the mbeast on it's side on hhe frame of the heli. And you get a blue light! I have my rondo on a custom receiver tray. What is the reason you went with counting it on the side

Awesome, your video makes me want to try it too. I like the rondo, and someday want to compare the two systems.

How heavy is the micro beast? The walker edition rondo is very light, stripped of case.

You had to replace the stock servo connectors too? Did you replace the wire all the way to the servo, or use the stock wire. What did you do there

Could you share your beast settings? I AM going to try this some day.

What motor are you using? How are you protecting the servos from thrpe 2s voltage? What battery?