yet another governor noob... :) (ice lite 100)

[rimaarts]

so. im sloowly (this thing will fly after 1 month) setting up ice 100 lite with msh scorpion 880kv motor. getting to governor tab and i have some questions...

when i set battery voltage to 22.2v (6s), main gear to pinion ratio is around 6.4 to 1, and im trying to set throttle curves to 2700, 2500 and 2200 rpm. on 2700 rpm program is telling me that its too high and governor will have little room to work (97% efficiency). as far as i remember, i could run castle esc up to 105% efficiency without a lot of problems?

since im not planning(more like hoping not) to run my batteries down so low, i tried entering 23.2v and program seems happy and tells me that i need 100% throttle and its around 95% efficiency... does that seems ok?

basically what voltage should i set there? minimum? maximum or something in the middle?

this is my first heli where i want to play around with governor. can i run v curves in governor? while it was flybarred, i was kinda happy runing 74%-65%-50%-65%-74% curve where 74% was around 2700 head speed.

another question... i was reading some posts that governor takes a bit off of flying timer... i was already getting just 3.30min and comming down at 3.8v.. i wouldnt want to cut it to 2.30 lol!

[RedOctobyr]

Opinions:

-Leave it set to 22.2V. You can't go by your resting pack voltage after flying, since the voltage sags under a load, in flight. You could look at some recent logs to gets a sense of your pack voltages. Look at the Minimums as well. I leave mine set to 22.2V, and it's pretty accurate. When it says I won't have enough headroom, I don't. And my packs are 3.78-3.80V when I land.

- Leave your timer as-is, and see how the packs come down. And adjust from there. I didn't really see a difference when going to the governor, as I recall. At least in theory, I should have used less of my battery, vs a flat 100% TC, since I wasn't using excessive HS at the start.

"Facts":

- Changing the voltage # that the software is using won't actually change anything in real life. It will either have enough headroom, or it won't.

- For your different Set RPM speeds, I thought the software was typically talking about predicted required-throttle-%'s, not efficiency? Maybe I have a different version of Castle Link. You can only go up to 100% throttle output. BTW, if you can make something 105% efficient, please tell me how

[rimaarts]

Originally Posted by RedOctobyr

- For your different Set RPM speeds, I thought the software was typically talking about predicted required-throttle-%'s, not efficiency? Maybe I have a different version of Castle Link. You can only go up to 100% throttle output. BTW, if you can make something 105% efficient, please tell me how

i think efficiency and throttle percents are 2 things in here... i just have not figured out what... because program says for 2500 headspeed i have to set 70% throttle and it would be around 50% efficiency...

[Xrayted]

You will be fine at 97%. The Castle governor is very liberal with its desired overhead values compared to other ESCs, and even the Pro pilots say up to 107% is fine.

You cant use the curves you mention. The whole point of a governor is that it maintains the head speed under load and load release, so there is no need for V curves.

You will set flat 30% 70% and 100% curves in your TX for the three different RPM values you have chosen. The ESC will go to those values when it sees those specific TC values. You can test this with no blades on the bench.

The electronics are actually most efficient at or near 100% duty cycle. Take a look at you logs after a flight and look at the power out curve. You want to be up near 100% at the end of flight for most efficiency and coolest running electronics. You can also look at the RPM curve to see how well the governor is maintaining the RPM under loads, and experiment with the govern gain values if you wish. Too high and the heli will chatter or tail wag.

Achieving your desired headspeed with low power out means that you are geared wrong and need to be using a smaller pinion.

[rimaarts]

Originally Posted by Xrayted

You will be fine at 97%. The Castle governor is very liberal with its desired overhead values compared to other ESCs, and even the Pro pilots say up to 107% is fine.

You cant use the curves you mention. The whole point of a governor is that it maintains the head speed under load and load release, so there is no need for V curves.

You will set flat 30% 70% and 100% curves in your TX for the three different RPM values you have chosen. The ESC will go to those values when it sees those specific TC values. You can test this with no blades on the bench.

The electronics are actually most efficient at or near 100% duty cycle. Take a look at you logs after a flight and look at the power out curve. You want to be up near 100% at the end of flight for most efficiency and coolest running electronics. You can also look at the RPM curve to see how well the governor is maintaining the RPM under loads, and experiment with the govern gain values if you wish. Too high and the heli will chatter or tail wag.

Achieving your desired headspeed with low power out means that you are geared wrong and need to be using a smaller pinion.

thank you... but (comming from planes)... i see that most of the heli stuff is fine up to 150F (or was it C ) while on planes, if it gets too hot, means i have to prop down... how come that on helis, esc sometimes runs cooler on 100%, while on planes running constant 100% seems to be sure way to cook something...

[Xrayted]

There is less battery ripple at full duty cycle and running lower PWM causes more energy to be lost as heat in the ESC. Certain ESCs have something called active freewheeling that allows the ESC to be run at a lower duty cycle and still be ok, but Castle does not have this feature. Below is a video link that demonstrates the difference in ESCs running AFW or not, and you will see how hot the Castle will get being "lugged" at low duty cycle

I run governed on both of my helis now, and always gear so that the software says I will be in the 97%-105% range, and Im using as close to 100% power out by end of flight. Currently both helis are at 97% power out on the graph, and they are both barely warm to the touch after back to back flights.

Im typically 125F in the graph in all my flights flying in 85-90F ambient. This of course will vary depending on your individual flight style and PWM and timing settings

Its not uncommon for some to see 180-200F temps on these ESCs, so 150F is fine.

ESC Showdown EP2: KOSMIK 200 + ICE2 160HV -- Partial Throttle Testing. (11 min 49 sec)

[kayakboy69]

Are u useing the stock 15tooth?

Yge with freewheel you can get away with using throttle to set head speed
Castle You Must do a pinion change ...
Play with the pinion page to get the head speed you want ..
Mt mell head speed calc says protos is a 93 tooth main

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[rimaarts]

Thing is,when i was running hobbywing esc, 2700 headspeed was 74% throttle... Now on castle ice lite 100 to get 2700 program says, i have to run 100%... That somehow doesnt sound right! 100 on hobbywing was around 3000hs...

[theodm]

Originally Posted by rimaarts

Thing is,when i was running hobbywing esc, 2700 headspeed was 74% throttle... Now on castle ice lite 100 to get 2700 program says, i have to run 100%... That somehow doesnt sound right! 100 on hobbywing was around 3000hs...

That's because the set rpm mode works different. The lowest chosen headspeed is always 30, the middle always 70 and the highest always 100. Has nothing to do with the actual headspeed, that's just for the esc to know what you request. If you set 2700 as max, that will be 100, but doesn't mean it actually runs on 100%, the esc will run at whatever needed to get that speed.

[rimaarts]

Originally Posted by theodm

That's because the set rpm mode works different. The lowest chosen headspeed is always 30, the middle always 70 and the highest always 100. Has nothing to do with the actual headspeed, that's just for the esc to know what you request. If you set 2700 as max, that will be 100, but doesn't mean it actually runs on 100%, the esc will run at whatever needed to get that speed.

nice to know! thanks!