Setting Gear mesh 101

[Charley Stephens]

I have received a couple pms in regards to setting Backlash so I hope this thread can help clear things up.

Delrin gears are very strong but..... not impact resistant so an improper mesh setting is like using the pinion as a mini hammer beating the main gear and eventually chipping off teeth

so.....

Basic ESC settings
1. Make sure you have your ESC set to a "Very soft" start should take your heli approximately 10 seconds or longer for complete spool up.
2. Large throttle point or curve jumps are bad. Example: when switching from normal mode to stunt mode(Idle 1-2), A basic scenario is Normal mode throttle is set to 65% and Idle 1 throttle is 90% and your ESC has no throttle delay.
3. Governor mode on your ESC governor gains and head speed change settings should be set to lowest settings then fine tune from there.

Setting Gear Mesh

Using the method noted in manual is a "Basic Setting Method" I will touch base more on it to help clear things up


1. Use the Paper trick noted in manual
2. Once set rotate gear in 4 different positions check for more or less backlash to be sure there is no high/low spots on your gear
3. If you find a high spot (very tight no backlash) reset your mesh to the lowest spot(more backlash) found using the paper trick.
4. Once mesh is set your back lash is to be "VERY MINIMAL" being that very minimal is hard to explain it is when you "slightly" turn the gear back and forth the backlash should feel like the thickness of paper.
5 After the first 2 flights re-check your backlash and adjust if needed using the above steps
6. Re-check periodically during the first 20+ after that you should be fine.

If I may ask please keep non related posts to a minimal to allow this thread to better help to those who need it

Thanks

[DominicD]

Nice Post Charley. What i plan to do is use the soft start on the HV85 and just spool up in idle up, i spool up in idle up in all of my heli but the Hobbywing which doesn't have a soft enough start up.

[billyd]

I just put the motor pinion up against the main gear as tight as I can. Just barely snug the motor screws so that the motor can still move but with just a little bit of friction. And then spin the main gear so that it fully rotates 3 or 4 times, and then tighten the motor mount screws the rest of the way, being sure that the motor doesn't change position (by ocassionally spinning the main gear). Any high spots on the gear would have pushed the motor back into a perfect position. This method will create minimum backlash with no possibility of unwanted sideways loads on the motor shaft. After I am done tightening I very carefully examine the mesh to be sure the motor didn't move too far away and there is no binding.

Works very well for me, and I don't have to find a piece of paper.