Flymentor wireing and setting up useing Helibal Trex and clones

[Ivor Hill]

If you have a area 3mx3m thats enough room to fine tune. You need to learn how to set a 3 way switch to channel 7 so you can adjust the gain from the TX and provided you do not have to use more than a few clicks of TX to stop the heli drifting in positioal mode then you will never have to connect to a PC again. You will find the hand held conntroller more confusing to use than the PC programme.
To much foam under the gyro can cause problems because the gyro can move around easily, it can be made firmer with a velcro strap.
I now allways mount the gyro under the heli, less vibration there.

[ZeLuis]

Hi
I paste my last 2 hours, reading here all (I suppose) about FM.
Mine FM arrived yesterday, and after many hours on youtube trying to find out to connect my PC (with XP pro) or other one with Vista the result is Zero!
This is what I tried:
Wires blue and green out.
First power on radio
Power on heli (wait a few secs for grenn light blink fast (not light enought) I put heli upper and green becames steady. Put it on the floor again. I suppose FM is working.
Put usb connector on any port (I try all 3) execute Helibal. But No adapter (link not found).
Execute heliball, connect usb on PC -Power on radio, power on heli connect small usb into FM, but still no adapter found.
Most of you had setting up your helis with a PC (only a small group use FM programmer).
Can you please help me? Did I fail anything? I´m sure I did!
Thanks in advance.
ZeLuis

[Ivor Hill]

If the green led is blinking then FM is initialized so that is not the problem. When you loaded Helibal onto XP did you load the driver when the found new hardware pop up appeared. If not delete Helibal and load again.

[DanF]

Ivor:

Thanks for your help in the past.

My KDS Fly mentor seems to be working ;but I have one minor (hopefully) issue.

When I tilt the heli 45 degrees left and right, the the swash responds properly by correcting in the right direction with almost 45 degrees of movement. So far ok.

When I tilt the heli 45 degrees nose down/tail up, the swash responds in the proper direction,but with only about 30 degrees of movement. I understand that to be a normal reaction, so that's ok..

BUT, When I tilt the heli 45 degrees nose up/tail down, the swash moves in the proper direction,but only with about 10 degrees of movement..

How do I get the Flymentor to give me the same amount of swash correction nose up as it does nose down?

[Ivor Hill]

Hi Dan, First let me say this problem has never been reported before and i'm afraid there is nothing in the programme to correct it, you can increase elevator travel but that will increase it both way's. Close the bottom of the advance page you will see elevator gain,it's preset is 7 which represents 70% of aileron travel, normaly this works well useing the preset. More aileron correction is needed than elevator.
I see you are not a noob so I assume the servos are not bottoming out because arms are not fitted off centre, all 3 servos are moving both ways,and the TX servo travels are set at 100%.
I can only suggest you do the following check.turn FM off, set elevator neutral and 0 and travel at 100 in helibal and in your TX make sure end points ( travels ) are set to 100%, subtrims and trims at 0, set a linier pitch curve 0-25-50-75-100, throttle is set to send 50% in your pitch curve and check that the servo arms are close to 90 degrees. Move the stick and check that the servos are moving the same amount both way's.
Please let us know how you get on.

[PeterE]

Hi Ivor,

Firstly, thanks for all your posts about the FM, invaluble reading..

I'm a spring chicken compared to you being 'only' 55 and new to rc helis.. :o)

I have a Gaui 550 that I've fitted the FM to, not flown her yet with the FM. I'm using a DX6i tx and the FM gyro. All seems to going well so far apart from:

I've read conflicting advice about the correct gyro wire for this set up, I should be using the green wire yes?

Swashplate movement was initially far too much for my limited skills so I reduced swashplate servo travel in FM but that correspondly reduced the FM stabilising movement to almost no movement, I tried increasing FM sensitivity but that had no effect. I'm concerned that the FM won't have enough movement to control the heli?

Am I right in thinking that I shouldn't use the tx for any adjustments to servo travel or position?

Many thanks.

Peter.

[TeeJayShelton]

Peter,

You should setup flymentor for as much throw as you can give it on cyclic, Collective set to your preference. Then in your tx use dual rates to back off how much throw you have to your disposal.
The reason I say this is so that flymentor has the max abiltity to bail you out of a jam. If you only let flymentor have 4 degrees of cyclic pitch vs 8 it will only be able to recover with 4 when it would have been faster with 8.

Now if you want to only have 4 degrees at your disposal from the tx just back off the rates till you get the pitch you want.

[Ivor Hill]

Originally Posted by PeterE

Hi Ivor,

Firstly, thanks for all your posts about the FM, invaluble reading..

I'm a spring chicken compared to you being 'only' 55 and new to rc helis.. :o)

I have a Gaui 550 that I've fitted the FM to, not flown her yet with the FM. I'm using a DX6i tx and the FM gyro. All seems to going well so far apart from:

I've read conflicting advice about the correct gyro wire for this set up, I should be using the green wire yes?

Swashplate movement was initially far too much for my limited skills so I reduced swashplate servo travel in FM but that correspondly reduced the FM stabilising movement to almost no movement, I tried increasing FM sensitivity but that had no effect. I'm concerned that the FM won't have enough movement to control the heli?

Am I right in thinking that I shouldn't use the tx for any adjustments to servo travel or position?

Many thanks.

Peter.

Yes green wire controls gyro gain and yes you shound not use your TX to control servo travel or position.
The rest TJ has answered, elevator and aileron travel should be set at about 7 degrees for stabalization and recovery.If you want the swash to move less with the sticks use duel rates and if you want less sensativity around center stick use expo.

[PeterE]

Many thanks TJ & Ivor, will have a play this evening, tomorrow looks like it'll be pretty calm here so will give her a go...

[tcb2185]

First and foremost i want to thanks TJ and Ivor I spent a good 2-3 hrs with TJ on Skype Setting up flymentor last night. and he was right on about every thing. my gyro will be here today. So If the Weather Holds out i can get a test fly in This afternoon.. The Only Thing i had to cheat at was the pitch curve not matter what i did i kept coming out with a Crap Load of - pitch and Very Little + Pitch and The 450 pro head has mostly Fixed Links!

[tcb2185]

well I did have one Great Flight today.. with a good flight from Flymentor... the 2nd flight not so well.. im wishing i would have got a V2 Clone by now so i would not have to change the Dang Gear so many times for the Tail!! LOL Any Way. the 2nd flight i took off with FM Off got into a nice hover. and switch it on the heli Jerked to the left Big i got it straightend out and then landed in the grass ( MY FALT) and Bamm There goes the Tail Gear for the belt drive!

Why would the first flight have went so well and the 2nd flight went bad. the only thing i did differnt was drop my Gain down to 65 instade of 70 becase the head was shacking at 70..

Very nice setup.. Cant wait to order some gears!

[Ivor Hill]

Change it to belt drive. You will save money and have less vibration Fm does not like the vibration created by TT's. IMHO torque tubes are not suitable for beginners.
Dont switch modes in flight untill you are shure you know what it going to happen.

[tcb2185]

It is a Belt Drive. This is going to give me a Chance to get the servos dead on at 90. Witch will be nice! I just hate waiting for parts! LOL

[Jayray]

I am new to the forum been reading a lot. I also have a turnigy 9x and wish to adjust the Position hold and horizontal mode and gain via and or dial for my FM. I just don't understand how to setup total yet. I have gotten the flymentor to switch on and off by using the throttle cutoff and or the gear toggle. But I would prefer another, more like one of the dials.

[Blackhawk Crew]

I'll have my KDS 450S tomorrow. It has a FlyMentor installed already and includes a KDS-7XII which is 7 channels so it will have it's own switch for the FlyMentor!

[Jayray]

Sounds cool. Let me know what you think of the settings. Might be helpful, my TX is a 8 channel. It's called a turnigy 9x but only had a 8 channel receiver lol.

[gandal]

Heres a vidio of my heli flying with FM installed

Now the flight after this one
the next day

FM decided it wanted to go right
i barelly landed it

i ended up haveing to romove it from heli so i could fly

why would it just mess up after like 20 ish perfect flights

i changed nothing

opps forgot vid of it working

HobbyKing 250 GT Flymentor (4 min 23 sec)

[Jayray]

Your video is cool. I am not an expert but, I have ran into some instances that might help. Remember to have it balanced / level when starting it up I noticed that the flymentor will think it is level when it is powered up unlevel. Also remember in position mode if it is unable to distinguish the ground (perhaps the snow) it might play tricks with you. I have had something similar happen when it was to dark for FM camera to see ground. (try lifting off a checker board or something noticeable) In that case you are better off just putting it position mode. Also check the settings make sure they are the same in FM. Instead of taking it off next time just disable FM in the settings. Or setup a switch to turn it off
and on. I am not sure if this help but hope it does.

[renemay24]

Hi, i just received my kds 450sv w/flymentor i am a bigginer and i dont think the settings on the flymentor heliball or the Tx are right can someone help me with this setting. thanks

[Ivor Hill]

Sorry but you need to be more specific and tell us exactly what your problems are.