Flymentor is Ridiculously Good

[sytamra]

pril250: I just got mine up and running and as I said in a previous post, I set the perameters at 75 on the gain. I have not had the heli over 10' high and everything works pretty well. You suggest programming the switch to -70 for bal/horizontal mode. Doesn't FM switch automatically to balance mode ? My thought was to just leave the switch alone and let it do it's thing. Or is there a situation where I would want that -70 setting and flip the switch?
Thanks
ba

[Ivor Hill]

Originally Posted by TeeJayShelton

I saw my first FlyMentor oddity today... I didn't cause me any problem but while the heli was on the ground and I was in throttle hold I increased the collective a bit and the swach kinda danced about and up and down when I did it was scary to think about that with my bird in the air.... I had just brought the bird out into the heat from a cool house and set it down... It is the first time I remeber what I read about letting the heli sit in the temp you sill fly it at for a few before you fly with it.... Well when I took it out of throttle hold the prob didn't present itself and shortly after I nervously took off but had no problems... I flew out 4 packs on it today and it performed well the whole time though it did scare me at the beginning none of that showed up it when it was in the air....(thankfully)

The behaviour is normal when it is subjected to a sudden change of temperature, cold to hot or hot to cold. Always wait 5 minutes before flying. Ivor

[pril250]

Originally Posted by sytamra

pril250: I just got mine up and running and as I said in a previous post, I set the perameters at 75 on the gain. I have not had the heli over 10' high and everything works pretty well. You suggest programming the switch to -70 for bal/horizontal mode. Doesn't FM switch automatically to balance mode ? My thought was to just leave the switch alone and let it do it's thing. Or is there a situation where I would want that -70 setting and flip the switch?
Thanks
ba

Firstly the other negative figure won't come into play unless you switch it there, anyway if you are using a two position switch then you should program one switch position to +70 to +75 for POS mode and the other switch position to zero (0) which will turn FM OFF.

When you hover in POS mode and as you gain altitude FM will automatically switch to BAL mode as soon as it is out of range of the CCD camera, flashing green, to the gain value in the software. Setting both switch ATV's the same makes the switch not to have a function unless you use it to experiment with two different gain settings so you might as well have an OFF position for FM.

The green wire only provides gain to the Rudder gyro and if the figure of 25 does it for your tail that is fine.

I use FM on both my helis and installed quite a few and different pilots have different requirements and some TX's can do pretty complex things with the switching and mixes. The way I described it above is the simplest form of remote controlling FM ie OFF, POS and auto BAL.

Hope this is clearer and is of help.

[sytamra]

Basically I had the switch set to the correct value for my heli, but flipping the switch would do nothing
I will set the switch to another lower gain position (maybe 60 or so) to see how it reacts, and later on when I'm more comfortable with the heli, I'll set it to 0 to shut FM off totally. Good for testing while in flight!!!!
I'm still waiting for some electronics for the HK500 and will DEFINATELY put a FM 3D on it once I've convinced myself that it is set up correctly and is airworthy.
Thanks again.
Bryan

[pril250]

I am sure glad you are now getting to grips with the whole thing

[jbx907]

hi guys i tested my flymentor on my kds 450c, kds k-7x k-8x rx, i got mine programmed and align the swash all in the software... i used my kds800 gyro for the tail cause i wanted to test it without tail problems!... kds tail gained in my tx ch 5, ang flymetor lead to channel 7, my first flyt was drifting and had found to move or compensate the drift i had to push full stick... now i realized the line on ch7 for mode is also the gain of the flymentor where i saw it was 100 -100, has anyone set this gain to function have still control over the helicopter, defualt in the software has 70, has anyone tried other than that so you get the feel of the same stock heli?

om my first test i really thought the swash throw was to small, but after revising my settings, it was also the gain for the flymentor, wana ask if 70 in my tx would be the same 70 in the program! they said it would disable the setting on the program if i plugged this in the rx ch7!

[jbx907]

hi guys just finish installing my flymentor on KDS450C, i decided to put the kds800 gyro with it, my tail servo is KDS N590 digital coreless servo... i can't see a setting on the program to set delay to zero... 2 is minumium, testing it out on flymentor, i see the arm movin back slowly, not like my kds 800, if you push right, it will remain right! so for the first test i used the KDS800 for the tail place the gain channel 5 which was in 60 before hand, i pluged flymentor mode wire to channel 7, setup A1 -100 for horizontal mode, A2 for postion mode!
wow when i tried to hover it, it had left drift and tried to compensate, gosh full stick to move it back, had reviewed my settings and arrived at the setting on my tx to be also the gain of the flymentor, ill try puting A1 -70 A2 +70, i was wondering if the default 70 in the software is also 70 in my transmitter, it was my mistake to set it maximum for it is also the gain of the flymentor, all adv setting are default for me, i couldn;t control the heli on to much gain!

[jbx907]

hi again, just finish testing again, the gain at -70 balance mode and +70 hold mode is good, i tried fiddling with the gain and got a rather nice stick sensitivity on 65 and 60 for balance mode, it feels like it's the same without flymentor but will still balance it! good for practice, 70 has some kind of hysterisis effect.. where it will only be affected with more stick movement form the center! i like to feel it as normal as possible but have the benefit of auto balance! hold mode the 70 setting is good or even higher!

[pril250]

DX7, 75 pos, -80 bal is good on Blade 400.

[Woody05]

Can someone tell me the port config for a K-8X?
which is elevator, aileron etc.

[Ivor Hill]

Download the TX manual from the KDS site the info you require can be found there.
Channel 1 aileron, 2 elevator, 3 Throttle, 4 rudder,5 gyro, 6 pitch, 7 aux. Same as Futaba. Hope this helps.

[xv-townboy]

I just set up an FM on a 450 size heli with a DX-7 radio.Blue is wire is unplugged for initial testing.I have my position hold gain down to +45.I started at the stock setting of +70 but it had lots of fore/aft rocking..+45 seems low? but it works with hardly any fore/aft rocking.Anyone else have their position set this low?.Thanks

[pril250]

No, default values should work fine mostly for a 450 size heli. Some thing must be out of wack.

[xv-townboy]

Thanks for the reply.Any ideas as to why?.What are the detriments of having it set that low?.I can manage it at +70 but lots more rocking..I will say that it does seem to stay more more locked over one position with the higher gain setting,maybe thats the benefit of a higher gain setting?..Thanks

[Ivor Hill]

Originally Posted by xv-townboy

Thanks for the reply.Any ideas as to why?.What are the detriments of having it set that low?.I can manage it at +70 but lots more rocking..I will say that it does seem to stay more more locked over one position with the higher gain setting,maybe thats the benefit of a higher gain setting?..Thanks

Be sure that the fore and aft rocking is being cause by FM by testing with FM switched off.
Fore and aft rocking is normally cause by head speed to low so try increasing head speed.
Check elevator and aileron pitch, normally 7 degrees maximum.It may be that you have to much elevator movement, if so reduce useing travels in Helibal.
If the problem is not there with fm switched off and pitch is set correctly,go to advance page in helibal and reduce elevator gain. It's factory preset is 70 and that means that it is 70% of whatever positional gain you have set. But as Pril said this is not normally necessary so I suspect that the problem is elsewhere.

[xv-townboy]

Thank you very much..I will do that right now

[xv-townboy]

Reducing travels from 100 to 70 in heliball to both Ail and Ele seems to be the ticket..It's smooth now at the stock setting of +70 position mode.

On another note..Seems my set up is quite tail heavy as i have +25 subtrim on elevator in heliball..Should i lengthen the elevator link one turn or is it ok to just leave the subtrim in heliball at +25?.Just not sure if that much subtrim is ok or not?..Thanks again..The flymentor is working great


Edit... +65 in postion mode seems to be just about perfect

[Ivor Hill]

Originally Posted by xv-townboy

Reducing travels from 100 to 70 in heliball to both Ail and Ele seems to be the ticket..It's smooth now at the stock setting of +70 position mode..

On another note..Seems my set up is quite tail heavy as i have +25 subtrim on elevator in heliball..Should i lengthen the elevator link one turn or is it ok to just leave the subtrim in heliball at +25?.Just not sure if that much subtrim is ok or not?..Thanks again..The flymentor is working great

Its ok to use Helibal trims thats what there are there for, but FM does not like to much TX trim so any more than a few clicks go back and adjust helibal trims. Have fun.

[Moosejam]

Ivor – May I express my appreciation to you and your cohorts on this thread, for sharing the wisdom and experiences you’ve accumulated on Flymentor. With your help I’ve set up an FM on an old Belt CP without tearing out too much hair or burning midnight oil – leastways until now. I’ve reached an impasse; my FM control unit may have a memory problem so I’d like considered opinions please.
On the first test flight, the brute turned turtle about 6 inches after lift off. As you’ve often warned Ivor, I should have kept my eyes glued to the rotor disc and aborted the take off sooner. As a novice, I’ve yet to distinguish an unstable bird from inept piloting – I saw no stability or tendency to dance, it just fluently lifted off, drifted left and rearwards and rolled on its training legs to flip over.
Having righted the damage, I’ve gone over the control linkage geometry and electronic settings with a fine toothcomb and all agrees with the ‘Sticky’ and Finless Bob. During tied down bench running, with gyro sensor fitted to and removed from the airframe, no vibration effects were seen and no physical reason for crashing was found.
During the many setting up sessions using Helibal v2.11, I have found the following worrying and curious behaviour:
• Each time FM is connected to Helibal and FM data is down loaded, all sorts of random settings appear in Helibal. This occurs irrespective of the order in which items are connected or switched On. Simple tipping and stick checks show FM is working correctly. When the random FM download results are loaded back to the FM, it goes wild, so I’m guessing the FM is functionally sound and the fault is an artefact of the download code. I always reload FM from config file before disconnecting USB but how can I be sure the right settings exist in FM when I next power up pre flight?
• After sending a software change to FM, the modify flag (Fig 2.2.3 on page 8 of manual) that is displayed most of the time, vanishes, then reappears within a second or so. This seems illogical since Helibal and FM settings should now be the identical as the manual says or have I missed something?
• When FM is first powered up or has stood without an input for some minutes, the tipping test wash response is nil to the initial tip then becomes normal within a few swings. Is it advisable to apply some cyclic inputs to exercise the system as a pre flight routine to stimulate the levelling process before leaving terra firma?
I hope to dump the CP far a more modern 450 size in the near future and would welcome suggestions for a technically sound economic solution to this goal.


Best regards to all,
Derek

[pril250]

It looks to me that you are using Vista or other non XP operating system. In that case do not relay on what is retrieved from FM, the info is false. Each change you make send to FM as well as save to a file which will be your true setup.