eGov interim firmware

[907Heli]

Nope, guys I'm a nitro guy by heart and I didn't know any of that. So I'll be looking for those instructions. Thanks a bunch

[907Heli]

Hey Lubeman1 and sutty, that was exactly what I was looking for. I was hoping that these instructions were written somewhere, but after I started looking for more info at your suggestions, I watched the video and it all started working. I have a lot of tuning to do as the governor is hunting pretty bad, but at least it's working.

The default gov gain was 50, I'm all the way down to 10 and it's still hunting slowly, mostly on punchouts. It really plays hell with the tail. But I've only played with it for one pack so I'm sure I'll get it figured out.

Thanks again for the replies and the general directions.

[dkpodder]

Got the same ESC + FBL combo in my G380, and gov gain is down to 9%. More than 10%, and tiny tail wag is introduced.

If possible try out the Vortex remote adjust feature, really makes the gov gain adjust much easier.

[myxiplx]

I have minimal hunting on my headspeed, without adjusting the gains at all.

Did you set your throttle curve to give you the approx headspeed before enabling governor mode? And did you follow the governor instructions carefully, every step in there is important.

The Vortex governor is different to most in that it uses your throttle curve as a hint for what it needs to do. So if your throttle curve is way off the governor has a much harder job to do. Get the curves in the right ballpark first and you should find its nice and smooth.

[LubeMan1]

"The Vortex governor is different to most in that it uses your throttle curve as a hint for what it needs to do. So if your throttle curve is way off the governor has a much harder job to do. Get the curves in the right ballpark first and you should find its nice and smooth.[/QUOTE]"

Yes this is correct, you need to set your TC to something like 100 85 50 85 100 for it to work properly.


Directions:

http://www.spartan-rc.com/pub/vortex_beta/150506/

[907Heli]

Okay, I want to report back that the egov is awesome!! Before I said I had the tail gain down to 10 and it was still hunting and throwing the tail all over the place. Well.......when you have the actual instructions as posted above and follow them it's amazing the difference.

Honestly, I couldn't find the instructions so I was trying to piece it together. I put the gain back up to 20 and set up V curves in the transmitter like I was told to, and I just took it out again (had 40 mph winds yesterday) and it hold rpm rock freaking solid. I have three governed speeds, no normal, and they all work great. I followed the advice of the guys in the hobbywing forum as well on how to get it to work with the external gov and now I'm happy to say that I absolutely love the combination of the VX1e and the Hobbywing 50V3 esc in my Warp.

By the way, putting the esc in Airplane mode solved all my other problems and gave all control to the spartan. I was trying in with it in gov off mode but that didn't do it. Now I control all the soft start and everything with the spartan data pod and it takes seconds to adjust anything I want and I don't even have to power it down.

The last thing I want to try is the remote adjust feature with the data pod. Can you guys point me to the instructions on that one as well and cut down my search time? I'd appreciate it.

And thanks to everyone for all their help, and thanks to Angelos for putting out this awesome system. Honestly, I almost didn't buy it because I wanted the bluetooth like an ikon, but I prefer the datapod now that I"ve used it.

[PowerDyne]

DataPod Remote Adjust with selectable safe range (2 min 1 sec)

[PowerDyne]

I'm having a small issue with my normal mode governed headspeed and spooling up.

What's happening is that once the motor powers up and begins to spool, I get a decent soft start if I go to mid stick, but once it gets near target head speed it overshoots then settles in at 1750 where I have it set.

I had to adjust the startup power in the VX1e to about 2.5 to get the motor to start just about 1/4 stick. I am wondering if that is a little too high? Or maybe I need to change the Engage Ramp settings?

I have not set up the Autorotation bailout yet.

My setup:

Thunder Tiger Raptor E700
Futaba 14SG and R7008SB running in FASSTest 12ch. Mode B.
Castle Talon 120 HV Set to Multirotor mode
Scorpion HKIII-4035-560Kv
13T Pinion (Gear Ratio of 9.846)
Hobbywing RPM Sensor
VX1e set in eGov mode.

Set Head speeds: N: 1750, 1: 1950, 2: 2150.

Firmware: 3.72 on the Vortex.
Gov Gain: 20
Startup: 2.5
Engage Ramp 3.5
Soft Start: 7s
Gov PID are set to defaults as outlined in the text on the download page for the interim firmware.

Throttle Curves are set 0-50-100 for normal and 100-80-60-80-100 for both Idle ups.

I am wondering if perhaps I need to drop a tooth on the pinion or adjust my throttle curves to 90-50-90?

I might try adjusting my pitch curve a little to give just a smidge less negative on the ground. I have it set shallow but I didn't measure. So it may be too much negative collective on spoolup by a couple of degrees.

I have a 12T pinion I can use.

I can try to get video later if possible to show what's going on. I'm just not sure what I need to adjust to calm this down a little. I did not have this issue on my other helis. The TSA 600 had a spoolup that wouldn't start until 50% throttle, but that was just how I set it up.

Once the headspeed settles, it holds there just fine (only 5RPM higher or lower on an optical tach), and no other issues once modes are changed to 1 or 2. In fact, the heli is rock solid with exception of needing the stop gains adjusted on the tail a little.

I'm kind of at a loss.

[myxiplx]

I suspect it may be your throttle curve. The Vortex governor uses the throttle curve to give it a hint to the throttle needed, so if your curve is too high it could easily overshoot.

Ideally you should setup your curves with the governor disabled, and configure a v curve in each throttle mode that gets close to the headspeed you want.

If you do that before enabling the governor it should give you a very smooth and accurate governor, and my guess is that it will solve your problem.

[PowerDyne]

Originally Posted by myxiplx

I suspect it may be your throttle curve. The Vortex governor uses the throttle curve to give it a hint to the throttle needed, so if your curve is too high it could easily overshoot.

Ideally you should setup your curves with the governor disabled, and configure a v curve in each throttle mode that gets close to the headspeed you want.

If you do that before enabling the governor it should give you a very smooth and accurate governor, and my guess is that it will solve your problem.

I found the issue(s)

In the castle link software, I had forgotten to switch over to Airplane mode on setup to change the throttle response to "High".

I went in and made that change, then set it back to Multirotor: Fixed Endpoints. Moved over to the Motor tab and set the motor timing to 3 Custom.

Test spooled and the rpm jump is now gone. Had a little chatter in idleup 1 and 2, so I dropped the gain to 17, and it's smooth as silk now.

Funny how missing two little settings in the ESC software can throw a monkey wrench into the cogs.

Now I can finish tuning this bird, and get it set up how I want!

Thanks for the input!

[mlb83]

Myxiplx, are you saying if I set the bottom point of my v curves to be my target head speed for idle up one and two and then enable the governor that will make it run smoother.
So if I was after 2000rpm and that was at 68%, I would have a v curve that went 100%-68%-100%?

Originally Posted by myxiplx

I suspect it may be your throttle curve. The Vortex governor uses the throttle curve to give it a hint to the throttle needed, so if your curve is too high it could easily overshoot.

Ideally you should setup your curves with the governor disabled, and configure a v curve in each throttle mode that gets close to the headspeed you want.

If you do that before enabling the governor it should give you a very smooth and accurate governor, and my guess is that it will solve your problem.

[907Heli]

I just made mine 100 80 60 80 100 and it took care of it. I never bothered to get the rpm close on the V curve, but it works fantastic now.

[myxiplx]

Originally Posted by mlb83

Myxiplx, are you saying if I set the bottom point of my v curves to be my target head speed for idle up one and two and then enable the governor that will make it run smoother.
So if I was after 2000rpm and that was at 68%, I would have a v curve that went 100%-68%-100%?

Well ideally you'd also work out how much throttle you need in a climb out to maintain the same headspeed (as that could be less than 100%), which might give you a curve like 90% / 68% / 90%.

It doesn't need to be perfect, but if you're miles off with your curve it's definitely noticeable.

[Gladius]

I started with 100-60-100, and the rpm noticeably rose during pitch pumps, so I adjusted the curve to 100-70-100 to help it maintain a more constant rpm.

[Tomy.]

I'm using the Spartan gov on my 380 but I was not able to set the Spartan throttle out end points to the CC throttle input yet. Can someone please shed some light at the difference between Setup -> Throttle -> Idle Endpoint and Gov -> Minimum Throttle Limit? Which one of these should ideally be set to match the minimum limit of the Castle ESC throttle input? On a nitro gov it's clear but on an electric having these 2 confuses the heck out of me.

I'm also assuming that Setup -> Throttle -> Max Endpoint needs to be set to match the max limit of the CC throttle input.

Thanks.

[Gladius]

Yes, max endpoint is for the max limit in the ESC. The idle endpoint is for the minimum limit in the ESC.

The minimum throttle limit is for doing overspeeds. The Vortex will sense that rpm is over your programmed value and cut the throttle. During an overspeed, that won't have any effect of headspeed, so the Vortex will try to compensate by cutting throttle more, and more, until the throttle is bottomed out. When you get ready to finish the overspeed, throttle won't come back up fast enough, and you would get massive bogging and maybe a McFail. So, the min throttle setting sets some higher throttle value as the minimum, so the Vortex has an easier time regaining control of the headspeed, and you get less bogging.

[Tomy.]

Great explanation thanks a lot!

[PowerDyne]

As my subject title suggests:

If I am using the Scorpion 160A Opto ESC and setting up to use the eGov in the VX1e, Do I I need the Opto cable from Scorpion to properly operate?

I'm a little confused as to why I would, since the Commander V 160A has the RPM out if set to External governor mode. I know that with Vbar you need it because of the voltages. Also because it does filter excess signal noise. I can see the need for the noise filtering, but is it absolutely crucial? Do the voltages still need to be dropped to 3.3V with the Vortex?

I do not have the opto cable right now, but I can get one if it's really needed.

I've searched around and really haven't found a resolute answer.

Just don't want to have to use the hobbywing sensor and Airplane mode otherwise.

Thanks!

[myxiplx]

I don't speak from experience, and intuitively I would have thought you could just connect it straight up, but I'm no electronic engineer and looking at the instructions for that ESC it very strongly advised against connecting without the opto cable:

"Never connect the RPM output signal cable to your
Receiver and never connect your Commander V Link
to any other connecters on the ESC. Failure to do so
will destroy your ESC and viod your warranty."

It's the wording "will destroy" rather than may or might that makes me think there's likely a sound reason being the requirement for the opto cable.

[mlb83]

Is there a way to get the head speed above 4500rpm using the Spartan egov? I'd like to try my oxy 3 at 5000-5500-6000 head speeds