Got my Funcopter RR Flying

[TomC]

Got my RR (receiver-ready) Funcopter flying last week using a 3s-3200 pcak. I originally learnt to fly heli's ~7 years ago with a Lite Machines Corona 120. The Funcopter is a bit more modern version of this.

Very stable and whisper quiet. Seems a little underpowered compared to my old Corona. Flew it without the rear fuz and this helped a bit. Also, moved the tail servo control link to the outside hole and with the gains set faily high (100% on my DX7 gear channel) the tail seems to hold fairly well. Never going to be perfect with a fixed-pitch heli anyway.

Another old Corona tip, without the rear fuz; Wrap a ~6 inch piece of foam insulation tubing (~1/2 id). slit lengthwise and place it on the tail boom in the blade-wack area (or even from each rear fuz support plate). As long as you remember to chop the power off, this will save you a lot of main blades and tail booms.

Small problem with the supplied Multiplex BL37/II esc. You cannot adjust the motor timing on this esc and I find it gives very rough startups. The funcopter motor looks like a 12 pole, which probably needs ~10-15 deg timing. I replaced it with an old Kontronik Jazz 55-6-18 esc and used the prog#1 card to set +10deg timing. This helped smooth the startup a lot and gives a little more power too.

If I need a bit more power, I might have to try it on 4s (note stock esc only good for up to 3s).

This heli is a real blast-from-the-past and should be a good training heli.

Cheers,
TomC

[TomC]

Just put a Flymentor stablisation system ($80 at Hobbyking) on this today. Tested it out today in my front yard and it seemed to work pretty good. I'll take it to my flying field tomorrow and give it a good go.

Cheers,
TomC

[HeliDragon]

Tom I have would love to get one of these, just for fun flying and less stress from something like my TREX 450. Some questions. How are the stock servos? Are they fast enough? What is your opinion of the stock Gyro? Does it lock the tail well? I had been thinking of getting the ARF version and putting my own servo's and gyro in it. But the servos looks like an odd size. DO you think the HS-65MG would fit there for the cyclic and maybe a slightly larger tail servo. Would any heli compatible ESC work with the included motor? It is a much lower RPM since it is direct drive so perhaps a airplane ESC?

Thanks for any feedback and information. I am hoping if I get one of these I will eventually get back into flying my TREX-450 and not feel so stressed out about it. Right now my main heli is a Blade 120 SR! I fly the hell out of it and never crash it. OK almost never. Thank you!

- Jason

[TomC]

Hi Jason,

No doubt about it, the Funbcopter is really stress-free flying!

On the RR (rx ready) version the stock servos are really just Hitec HS-81's with a red Multiplex case. These servo's are fine for this heli although you might want to get the HS-81.Hs-82MG metal gears for the 2 cyclic servos after your first servo rebuild.

The stock esc is just ok. It's just a standard 37amp airplane esc and is only good to 3s. Personally, I don't like it since it does not allow you to program motor timing. I switched it over for an old Kontronik Jazz 55-6-18 esc I had laying around and I like this esc a lot more, plus it allows for higher cell counts (up to 6s).

I tested this heli out today with the KDS Flymentor stablisation system (~$80 at hobbyking and remember that this includes a built-in tail gyro). Worked great and I would recommend this for beginners (although they will need help from an experienced flyer to set it up properly). If you can already fly a 450 heli, you probably don't really need it, but it's kind of fun to play with and can be used as a bit of an emergency bail-out. Also, you should have at least a 7 channel radio in order to set all the gains via your tx. You can set them via the PC interface but it would be a bit of a pain imho.

I ran this heli with a 3s-3200 pack and it flew ok but you had to be a bit careful to land into the wind or it will sink like a rock. Plenty of power for forward flight though, but not like you'd be used to with your 450 heli. Good runtimes though (~12 minutes put back 2600 mahr).

I also ran it on 4s today (the motor is rated for 3-4s) using 2x2s-2100 packs in series (= 4s-2100). This was a lot more fun to fly with since you had a lot better climbrate (still, not ballistic by any means) and had a lot more power available for landings. Motor and esc temps were cool after a ~10 minute run.

I'm going to stick with 4s and ordered some 4s-2650 packs today. If you are looking at other packs try to find ones that are no more than 25mm wide so they fit in the stock battery tray (although I'm sure you could mod this). I think I'll get ~15min runtimes with these packs.

The multiplex gyro is ok on this heli. You don't need anything too fancy although I'm sure a fut401 would work better.

So, right now I'd recommend buyng the ARF kit, not the RR one. I'd suggest the following;

- 3x Hitec HS-81's, or HS-82MG's on the 2 cyclics and a HS-81 on the tail.

- I'd recommend a Turnigy 60 amp Plush esc (~$34 at HK). This is a pretty good esc, good for up to 6s and has a 3amp bec. Since you are generally only running ~60-70% power it's probably a good idea to stick with higher rates escs (60 amp instead of 40 amp) because it works the esc a bit more.

-A fut401 gyro, or something close to this (again, you don't need anything too fancy).

- I'd recommend going to 4s-2650 packs for nice long flightimes. If you want to stick with 3s (or have already bought the RR version) then I'd recommend using lighter 3s 2650 packs to save a bit of weight.

The ARF kits and parts, in general, are not plentiful right now but this should improve over the next month.

Hope this helps.

Cheers to stress-free flying,

TomC

[AtTheCross]

hey TomC, how 'bout some flight videos of your 4s flying? there's a sticky here

[TomC]

Originally Posted by AtTheCross

hey TomC, how 'bout some flight videos of your 4s flying? there's a sticky here

Sorry mate, have not managed to progress into video's yet. Maybe someday!

Edit; Nice little 4s video at page 94, post #1402;

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...copter&page=94

Cheers,
TomC

[TomC]

G'day guys,

I took my Funcopter out to the flying field today. The wind was howling (~20-25 knot winds, with 30 knot gusts). Only one club flyer (planes and heli's) was brave enough (or stupid enough) to fly today.

I put my heaviest pack in (3s-4000mahr Zippy 40C) and out I went. Basically, I just hovered it tail-in, into the wind, ~3-10 feet above the deck. Man this was a lot of fun! You had to stay on the collective (oops, I mean throttle, since this is a fixed pitch heli) all the time and anticipate wind gusts which would soar it up, and when they died down, drop you like a rock.

The Flymentor flight stalisation system was not really too useful under these conditions so I mainly flew it in 'stablisation off mode'. Actually, the horiz. mode (with lots of forward trim) did hold it pretty level, but the position mode could not handle the wind gusts. The flymentor tail gyro seems to hold pretty good though. One quick tip on the Flymentor setup; you need to remember that this heli, unlike most, has a CCW rotation (to the left) so you need to tell it this during the Flymentor PC setup.

I tightened up the blade grip tension (=fairly firm) today and this seemed to help soften the rough motor startup quite a bit. I think that the lead-lag you can get with this heli on startup, might confuse the speed controller a bit.

I installed a Quantum 2.4 gig voltage monitor today (~$60 from HK) so I could monitor the individual cell voltages. The Quantum Tx just plugs into your battery balancer leads. This fits perfect on top of my pack and I could still slide the front canopy on no problem. The Quantum readout (Rx) just sits on top of your Tx (DX7 in my case) and acts sort of like a fuel gauge.

I put it down a few times (once, not on pupose!) and once the resting cell voltages got a little below 3.8, I stopped. After 20 minutes of fun the pack only took back 2700mahr (~70% discharge). I think that the wind-assisted (transitional lift) helped a lot today.

I cannot do videos right now but I'll attempt to add a few pictures.

One picture is an overview showing the nice little fluoro-yellow canopy nose and tail fin spray. This Multiplex Evapalor foam is great, you can paint it with anything and it's CA-friendly (don't try this with regular foamies). Also you'll see my foam rubber tail boom cheat. I also added a little shock-absorber bit on the tail fin too. I think in the old days we would call these 'little rubber baby buggy bumpers', or something like that.

The second picture tries to show the two small screws (CA'd in) I added to the tail rotor hub to help it from slipping off the tail rotor shaft. The two long 3m setscrews (ones that go through the tail blades) that are supposed to hold this together seem to come loose after a few hard piros (and then you get a really fast piro!). I thnk that Multiplex need to include a metal tail rotor hub so you can locktite these setscrews in properly.

The third picture show the installation of the Quantum voltage monitor. I've been using this monitor on my big heli's for past few months and I really like it. Just don't try taking it down to it's low-voltage alarm limit. It's supposed to be 3.2v on lowest cell, and it's not very loud. I've puffed a couple of big packs doing this. On my big heli's, under load, I land before I see a cell go below 3.4v. On the Funcopter, since it does not draw that much peak load, I'd land it when it before it shows 3.7v on the lowest cell.

As you can guess, I'm really loving this blast-from-the-past, low-stress little heli!

Cheers,
TomC

[AtTheCross]

Nice

[TomC]

Found a good Web Site (still under construction) that has the old Lite Machines operating and construction manuals. Go to the light machines tab and you can download them. They contain lots more useful info than the instructions Multiplex provides.

http://flyfuncopter.com/#

I learnt to fly heli's ~7 years ago on my own (no heli flyers in my club at the time) and I did it with the help of these 2 manuals and a very robust Corona 120! I already flew rc planes at the time and I think that this helped as well.

Cheers,
TomC

[sharky_capas]

Hello Tomc,

Just orderd mij own Funcopter with Flymentor.
Do you have info about the flying? Settings,
Where did you put the parts of the Flymentor etc, maybe pictures?
All kinds of info?
You also can mail me.
regards
Sharky

[TomC]

Originally Posted by sharky_capas

Hello Tomc,

Just orderd mij own Funcopter with Flymentor.
Do you have info about the flying? Settings,
Where did you put the parts of the Flymentor etc, maybe pictures?
All kinds of info?
You also can mail me.
regards
Sharky

Hi Sharky,

Which model did you buy, the ARF or the Rx-ready one?

After a bit more flying, I've found the flymentor tail gyro really sucks. I now think it's actually even worse than the Multiplex gyro supplied in the RR kits. Probably not a big suprise since my much more expensive Helicommand-rigid required an external tail gyro as well.

So today I bit the bullet and installed a Fut401 gyro to use on the tail and will bypass the flymentor tail gyro. I'll give it a go at our flying field tomorrow and let you know how I make out with it. Also, I've orderd a faster/better digital tail servo that I'll try later.

The installation is very easy. Just follow the instructions. The only error in the manual is the gains leads for flight mode gains and tail gains are reversed. I just used the stock settings except I increased the manual over-ride to 9 so I can over-ride the stablisation modes quickly.

I mounted the FM gyro just behind the main rotor (you can see it in my pics above. The ccd camera is mounted just behind the front landing gear. The FM box is mounted in the Rx recess at the back left side of the frames. I'll try to get a few more pictures at the field tomorrow.

Cheers,
TomC

[sharky_capas]

Hey Tomc,

I bought the Rx-ready one. Tunigy 60 amp esc and i started with the original servo's and only the flymaster.
My stuff has just been send to me so i dont have a funcopter yet.
Thats why i wanted your info about installing and the problems you encounterd.
I am a biginner (only had a coax and a 4#3) So thats why i looked for the Funcopter with Flymaster.
Thx for the info so far.
Cant wait to see the pic's
Regards
Sharky

[sharky_capas]

Funcoper is in.

[sharky_capas]

Hello Tom C
I have troubels with the software of the Fltmentor installing it on mij Funcopter

Most choppers have 3 servo on swassplate but flymentor only 2
Could you send me the config of your adjustments of the software?

Could you please send me a view pics of the servos going in teh flymentor and the flymentor going in the reciever?
regards

sharky_capas
Mail: sharky_capas@hotmail.com

[TomC]

Originally Posted by sharky_capas

Hello Tom C
I have troubels with the software of the Fltmentor installing it on mij Funcopter

Most choppers have 3 servo on swassplate but flymentor only 2
Could you send me the config of your adjustments of the software?

Could you please send me a view pics of the servos going in teh flymentor and the flymentor going in the reciever?
regards

sharky_capas
Mail: sharky_capas@hotmail.com

Hi Sharky,

Sorry but I have recently taken the Flymentor system off my Funcopter. After trying it out for a couple of weeks I came to the conclusion that the FC really does not need this system because it's already very stable and crash resistant.

I really recommend you just fly it stock, and maybe upgrade the gyro to a Fut401. Use lightweight 3s-2650mahr packs and training gear and you should not have any problems. Later, maybe look at upgrading the tail servo to a faster digital and go to 4s (with a bigger/better esc).

If you want to try out the Flymentor, the only servos you put into the FM box are the alrn, elev, and rud. You do not hook up the servo3 (= collective pitch). I'll attach my last FM configutation file. I don't know if this will help much though. If you need anymore FM help try the stablisation section in this forum. There are a lot of FM gurus who should be able to help you out.

Good luck and best cheers,
TomC

[sharky_capas]

TomC

Thx!!

[movie3d]

Hi TomC

i am first time to buy funcopter i heard that you make it from heavy battery 3s-4000mahr Zippy 40C is that successful how long is flight mins i know 3s-3000mahr for 15 mins is that correct?
thank
omid

[movie3d]

hi TomC
i am first time to buy funcopter i hear that you make it for heavy battery 3s-4000mahr Zippy 40C. is that successful for that. how long is flight mins from 3s-4000mahr Zippy 40C? i know 3s-3000mahr for 15 mins
thank
omid

[AtTheCross]

i get 10 min on a 2200mah 3s battery. depending on outside temp, after some hard flying I have had the esc at 150+ degree F and the motor and battery at 113 degree F.

You'd want to be careful flying for a long time with a larger capacity battery to make sure you don't overheat your esc/motor/battery

[TomC]

Originally Posted by movie3d

hi TomC
i am first time to buy funcopter i hear that you make it for heavy battery 3s-4000mahr Zippy 40C. is that successful for that. how long is flight mins from 3s-4000mahr Zippy 40C? i know 3s-3000mahr for 15 mins
thank
omid

Like ATC says, larger packs with +10 min runtimes can overheat the motor/esc. I limit my runtimes to 10 min (timer).

Also, packs larger than 3s-3000mahr get pretty heavy and if you are using training gear, the FC performance will suffer.

I recommend 3s-2650mahr packs. These fit fine and are a bit more robust than 2200 packs, esp. if you go a little over 10 minutes once in a while.

Cheers,
TomC