Tone down 300cfx

[Spifferd]

Can anyone help me tune down my 300 cfx. I am just learning to hover and and do the basic newbie stuff. I programmed it to my dx6i using the settings in the manual. It is still really touchy and very quick. Is there anyway to change some settings to tone it down? Thanks

[Livan75]

Originally Posted by Spifferd

Can anyone help me tune down my 300 cfx. I am just learning to hover and and do the basic newbie stuff. I programmed it to my dx6i using the settings in the manual. It is still really touchy and very quick. Is there anyway to change some settings to tone it down? Thanks

You can lower rates and add more expo...

Its not going to slow down the heli, its going to slow down the controls. Expo will make the controls a bit less sensitive around mid sick. You can mess with the rates as well, but all it does is "allow" you to slam the sticks with out getting full throws. Useless...

Lower the throttle a bit and its going to calm down, dont use the "linear" throttle curve for normal, do a 0-55-55-55-55 if your "stunt mode" is 75%, its better to have a constant-ish rpm over increasing as you move the pitch... later on you will probably want have a good gov that really tries to hold the rpm constant...

...best advice you'll ever get is "Get a simulator" do some winter practice and then you will fly the <beep> out of it! Do the boring stuff in front of a screen and have fun at the field, not worrying how to dumb it down...

[DoubleCH]

Totally agree with Livan. With today's FBL system, it should really take not long to master hovering without feeling heli being too touchy. Simulator helps but the key I find with newbies is that they don't understand that cyclic stick doesn't function like steering wheel and thus keeping cyclic stick off-center for too long giving them the impression heli is too touchy.

With steering wheel of a car, steering angle is pretty much directly proportional to steering wheel angle. Let's say you're driving straight, turn steering wheel right and the car starts to turn right and drifts off the lane. When you steer the wheel back straight at this time the car goes straight but at an angle to the lane and that means it keeps drifting off the lane at a CONSTANT rate.

With cyclic stick for a heli during a hover, flicking cyclic stick right tilts the heli right. But when you move cyclic stick back to center, the heli still tilts right which means it doesn't just drift to the right at a constant speed like the car's case but it drifts to the right at and INCREASING speed. To have the heli drift at constant speed to the right you need to flick cyclic stick to the LEFT to make heli level. Remember level heli doesn't mean it doesn't drift. It means it doesn't ACCELERATE in any direction.

To understand the difference between controlling a car and controlling a heli, the heli's case is like keeping a car going straight by using cyclic stick to control the speed of a motor that turns the steering wheel. Letting go of the cyclic stick back to center doesn't mean the steering wheel will go back to center. You have to use opposite cyclic stick movement to "steer" the steering wheel back to center. With such system, "steering angle" is not directly proportional to cyclic stick deflection. It's proportional to the sum of cyclic stick deflection over the entire time the stick is off-center. So even if you move cyclic stick very little but keep it that way for long you can still be "steering" A LOT and thus giving the sense of cyclic response too touchy.

Newbie's common mistake is that they feel like cyclic stick is too touchy so they try to be smooth and start moving the stick slow and with very little movement. This means they'll be too slow to react and have to play catch up. By the time they are able to prevent the heli from drifting increasing fast the heli has to tilt way too much and that makes cyclic stick feel touchy.

With today's FBL systems you should keep cyclic stick at the center as long as possible to maintain hover. You don't slowly move cylic stick and hold it there to correct heli drifting. You do a quick flick to correct and quickly move stick back to center. It's like: nudge-stop........ nudge-stop.......... nudge-stop.......... Leave the "smooth" part in the training for later after you master stable hover. In the beginning of practicing hover, if you find yourself having the cyclic stick off-center for more than a second at a time, that's way too long and you're giving too little cyclic stick input too late.

Hard to understand? Think of trying to balance a long stick standing up on your palm. The stick is very unstable and wants to tip over random direction all the time. Say the top starts tilting left by an inch, obviously if you move your palm an inch to the left that's not enough because the momentum of the falling stick is still going to fall to the left even though the stick is standing straight up. You need to move your palm more than an inch to the left so that the stick leans right to slow down it's speed falling to the left. Newbie mistake is that they try to be smooth and slowly move palm to the left by half an inch first. Since the stick is still tilting to the left half an inch more on the top it's still going to fall to the left faster and faster. By the time you realize you need to catch up and move your palm to make the stick tilt right to prevent it from falling the stick is falling so fast you can't catch up, or you have to move your palm so much to the left the stick is like leaning to the right 45 degrees just to be able to stop it from falling to the left. Guess what happens next? The stick is now falling to the right fast and it gives the newbie a sensation the control is too touchy. The correct way to balance a standing stick is to move your palm more than the amount the top drifts as soon as you see the top drifts and you have to quickly move palm back to make stick standing up perfectly straight after correction.

In simpler words, newbie problem learning stable hover is that they deflect cyclic stick too little too late and too long. Don't be afraid to give more cyclic to correct as long as you remember you HAVE TO move stick back to center as quickly as possible right after. If you apply what you learn here you won't find stock setting for the 300CFX too touchy and you'll master hovering real quick. Before that, I agree with Livan that turning down throttle curve has much much better effect of taming down the heli for learning to hover than to change expo/dual-rate.

[Tim Wolff]

What's been posted is true. But, it can feel like the heli is taking off in the direction of the last stick bump when you're getting started or with a new to you heli. Play with the throw and expo and see if you like the feel.

Make sure the AR7200BX is set to transmitter. Parameter menu B, solid blue LED or the transmitter adjustments won't make any difference or may not work as expected (I don't know, I've always flown with it set to transmitter).

If you can set the expo to use the flight mode switch, set it that way (I've only flown the 300x on a DX8). Set the dual rate and expo to 70 and 30 respectively (70 throw and 30 expo) on the aileron and elevator when the flight mode switch is in normal. Leave the rate and expo at defaults in Stunt 1. Set the throttle curve the same for both flight modes.

As posted earlier, make sure you are bumping the stick and not holding it off center when you fly. See how that feels in NORM. You can compare by flipping into Stunt 1 (higher rates no expo). Because the throttle curves are the same, you won't get a boost in head speed that bunches your shorts when you change flight modes.

Be careful with lowering the head speed too much. Generally speaking, helis "like" more head speed. Too low, and things can really get sluggish and that can be worse than too sensitive.

When you get comfortable with the handling, set your throttle curves to flat lines all the way across. I don't recall the stock percentages, the values in the manual will work. Use throttle hold to start and stop the motor. You will want to do it this way once you setup a governor, so now is as good a time as any to learn it.

[Helithunder]

Look for the ebook from John salt on how to tone down a cp heli it will be the best money spent on this hobby.

[mattbeau]

With the ar7200 you can increase dial 1 to increase cyclic gain, this will (hopefully) return to stationary hover faster after an elevator or aileron input . 50% is stock for a 450 so your mileage may vary.

[tony#1]

Hi Guys.
I am seeking information here in an attempt to understand the Beast X.

Page 65 of the Version 3 manual for the Beast X in the Parameter Menu B states:
If you are a rather inexperienced model pilot it is absolutely essential to select the option "normal" for the first flights............
The factory setting for the Beast X in my Blade 300X is "sport".

Is the Parameter menu best ignored as far as this discussion goes regarding "taming" of a Blade 300X/300CFX?

[mattbeau]

I like to set mine to transmitter and adjust my DR and expo there

Sport should be fine for first flights

[tony#1]

Thanks Mattbeau.
I am at the same stage as Spifferd with my 300X. Just hovering!

I am trying to get into the habit of flying with a constant head speed so I have been spooling up in NORMAL, switching to ST1 and then taking off.

Landing is a little more problematic and I cannot decide if I should land in ST1 (which will be closer to the set up I may one day progress to if I ever have a heli with governed head speed) or if I should switch back to normal just prior to landing.

I have taken on board the comments above by Livan75 that adjusting the head speed is a good way of "taming" the 300X and will experiment with gradually increasing constant head speeds in ST1 and for the time being keep ST1 and ST2 identical for head speed just in case I am clumsy and overshoot when clicking up from NORMAL mode.

Any comments gratefully received.

Apologies if this is straying from the original posting.

[mattbeau]

I would get rid of normal mode or just don't use it. It's better to just get used to flying with flat curves or if your using the stock esc slightly curved throttle curve. Having normal mode will cause you to pick up bad habits like hitting throttle down and slamming your heli into the ground, breaking landing gear or other stuff

[terryv83]

Just run stunt mode, also the 300x has a slow spool up built into the esc, so if you get into of the habit flipping to throttle hold before plugging the battery in you can actually run without normal mode. Then teach yourself to use Throttle hold when landing, just as you touchdown.

With hovering I learned by imagining the rotor disk was a plate and all I had to do was keep the plate level. However treat the controls as if there's a marble on the plate and you don't want it to fall, so lighter movements are better.