Hard Deck Function

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by sutty

Thanks Tim, I did see that, but sadly it does not answer my question. During set-up it asks me if my heli is 3 x 120 ccpm, which it is, but I do not believe I should set it to this, as the channels that are sent to it from the receiver are unmixed. They are unmixed because the FBL controller will do the mixing, and this is what it would expect too. On this basis it is my belief that I should tell the CPII at this stage that it is not 3 x 120 ccpm, even though it is.

Maybe it is obvious to you, you guys are the experts. To me it simply seems logical that it should be set to non-ccpm, since it is FBL, or else how else could all the other types be supported, when you have an FBL controller. The MB can mix it any way I tell it to, and if my swash type were different then I would have to set it accordingly, and if this were the case, I would clearly answer no to 3 x 120 ccpm. Mine is 3 x 120 ccpm though, so whilst it might seem obvious because I have an FBL controller that does the mixing, I want to be sure.

What would answer the question, would be another column, in that table in the manual, that said what you should actually set it to during set-up. Or, better still, in the help file during set-up, it should say, assuming this to be true of course, since I still don't know for sure,

"Only answer yes to the following question if your heli is a 3 x 120 ccpm heli, and the channel mixing is performed in the Tx, and not in any FBL controller, or similar device, that may come after the CPII. This is because the CPII needs to know to send unmixed signals to your additonal controller, in the same way that your Rx would previously have done, prior to the installation of the CPII."

Failing this, perhaps you could just tell me if I should answer yes or no, even though it is a 3 x 120 ccpm heli, now that you know I am mixing in the FBL controller and not in the Tx.

Thanks again.

Cheers

Sutty

Hi:

Sorry you don't get the answer from our statement. If you are doing the mix after the CPII, and you are sending only discrete channels like aileron/elevator into the CPII computer, then I guess it follows that you do not have a CCPM mix setup in your transmitter, right? This means you have a non-CCPM setup at the CPII and you should answer no to the 3x120 CCPM question as you suspected. We have advised customers to use the new CPII Display Software when running v2.37 firmware. Did you do that? I'll check the new Help text for the screen that asks this question during setup. That's the best place to address these things. If you haven't installed it, and you have the FUIM3, go here, download and install this right away, and give it a go:

http://www.revolectrix.com/new_appli..._software.html

Hope this helps!

Tim Marks

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by jperkosk

+1 Andy.

In preparation for HD module delivery we went through the v2.37 firmware setup of my fb TR450 and Andy's fbl (MB) TR600 today and it's not clear at all, Tim. We came to a conclusion that he should answer "no" to this question as he does no mixing in the Tx, but it would be nice to have it confirmed by you or Jack.

Second question is that apparently you have removed servo travel (pulse width range) scaling from v2.37, so we have assumed you're passing it on as is now. So the question is (rephrasing Andy's question above): if I set the travel on the Tx to 70% for the quick setup and then go back to 100% for normal flying, will I have achieved my normal flight response and tamed down ER response at the same time?

Hi:

I think I have answered your first question sufficiently. As for the 2nd question, which is similar to the question Sutty asks, I'm afraid this one is over my head. I'm consulting with higher powers and we'll have to get back to you.

[jperkosk]

Thanks Tim, that answers the 3x120 CCPM question fully. And yes, we have used the new display software with the help screens, but the help texts are copied from the manual and don't instruct to answer "no" in case of mixing being done in the fbl controller. We have guessed it, but it is a bit confusing, as the question during the quick setup is "Is your heli 3x120 CCPM?"

[nightflyr]

Hi Jerry,
Being that the FBL controller is doing the mixing and you set it specifically to your swash configuration (being 3 x 120) for it,
CPII being after the controller, sees it being what ever you setup the controller as (3 x 120)
The 3 x 120 mix signal is now being fed into the CPII, so you set the CPII to 3x120

[sutty]

Originally Posted by nightflyr

Hi Jerry,
Being that the FBL controller is doing the mixing and you set it specifically to your swash configuration (being 3 x 120) for it,
CPII being after the controller, sees it being what ever you setup the controller as (3 x 120)
The 3 x 120 mix signal is now being fed into the CPII, so you set the CPII to 3x120

Not so Night. The FBL controller is after the CPII, and as Tim has just confirmed, the answer is no to this question in our case, when the CPII is followed by a MicroBeast. Funnily enough it was your post that first advised me of the order of connectivity. This is also in the HD manual, that the FBL controller must come last.

Tx ~ Rx - CPII - FBL controller - Servos

Cheers

Sutty

[jperkosk]

It's the other way around, Rich. The FBL unit is after the CP2. CP2 is fed the unmixed signal from the Rx, it never sees any mixing, so the question "is your heli 3x120 CCPM?" should be answered "no" in this configuration.

Edit: Andy's beat me by a minute (again ) to the answer. Got to run to work, see ya later.

[nightflyr]

My bad. see what happens when you work all night...
Ummm , not sure how or why at this point in time ..I'll need to check ....
But I configured all my FBL machines with CPII setup for 3X120 swash, always have.

[jdd1]

Hi Guys,
Sorry I have not been able to contribute more on this issue but I have been on a trip for over a week now and will not be back home until this coming weekend and again have access to my equipment. I only own and have setup CPII HD on non CCPM helicopters and FBL helicopters using Align 3G system. Thus my knowledge is limited here.

I also feel the appropriated answer to the question needs to be obvious during setup to avoid confusion. It has been implied that the the answered, yes or no, to be a correct response. But it may be both answers, yes or no, will work properly. I am theorizing here and based on Nigh's comments that he has answered the question during setup with a yes and that worked.

Just a thought,
Jack

[jperkosk]

Thanks Jack, and yes, it is strange that it all worked, I would expect the "invalid CCPM data" message. But this issue is clear now, we're just waiting on travel adjust clarification, as the travel range affects how quickly MB reacts. In the older firmware you'd set the servo travel range in both Tx and CP2 to the max during quick setup, and then dial it down in the Tx until the heli response felt OK. CP2 would use the max range for ER, making for lightning-quick bailout.

Now that the travel adjustment is gone from CP2 I assume the range is being read from the cyclic stick input directly, meaning we could do the same as before, but in the Tx only, with the same results. If I'm right, we can now control how aggressive or soft ER is by setting servo travel in the Tx for the quick setup, and then adjusting it to wherever if feels good for the normal flying without further affecting ER response. Waiting for confirmation from Tim's software gurus.

[Tim Marks]

Hi:

Just to be certain, I gave the correct answer last night, I just received confirmation from the program engineer. If you're swash mix is done in the FB controller after CPII and you have no mixing in the TX, then the correct answer is "no" to the 3x120CCPM question during Quick Setup.

I will be adjusting the Help text in the CPII Display Software to explain this today. Then we'll re-compile and re-publish. Still no answer on the travel adjust question. That's a little involved, so didn't want to do that over the phone with the engineer. I should post an answer for that later today.

[jperkosk]

That's what I call customer support

[Tim Marks]

Originally Posted by jperkosk

+1 Andy.

In preparation for HD module delivery we went through the v2.37 firmware setup of my fb TR450 and Andy's fbl (MB) TR600 today and it's not clear at all, Tim. We came to a conclusion that he should answer "no" to this question as he does no mixing in the Tx, but it would be nice to have it confirmed by you or Jack.

Second question is that apparently you have removed servo travel (pulse width range) scaling from v2.37, so we have assumed you're passing it on as is now. So the question is (rephrasing Andy's question above): if I set the travel on the Tx to 70% for the quick setup and then go back to 100% for normal flying, will I have achieved my normal flight response and tamed down ER response at the same time?

Hi:

From the software engineer:

The version 1 firmware had a simple servo travel clipping feature that prevents the servo from running to extremes. This didn’t prevent servo binding from differential movement to the cyclic. Sometimes the binding would be enough to pop the ball links off, even though the clipping menu was set to a low value.

Version 2 does away with a single travel clipping value for all the servos and actually learns the servo travel for aileron, elevator and collective. These three separate valves are saved and 3 different clip values are calculate to prevent clipping in the 3 different directions of swash plate movement. The old universal clip menu couldn’t accomplish this, so it was removed.

I recommend setting up CPII with the servo travel for normal flying. If emergency recover needs to be reduced, use the gains setting in preferences rather than a different value for setup.


Hope this helps!

[Howard Matos]

I will heading out to the NEAT fair (Downsville NY) in the morning, anyone that wants a first hand look at the HD module is welcome to stop by our booth. I will also fly a demo at the noon flights each day. Hope to see you there!

[nightflyr]

Back from NEAT fair...

Howard demo's the CoPilot Hard Deck for the crowds..
Sorry it's short, tough time following it with a video camera, but you'll get the idea.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT0ihmQ82po[/ame]

[CeeveeSiN]

Jack did a great demo at SRC this past weekend..
totally changed my mind on this unit.

will be getting 1 setup on my beater bird to see if I can progress.

[nightflyr]

It does do an impressive job don't it

[CeeveeSiN]

Originally Posted by nightflyr

It does do an impressive job don't it

that it does.. even a full speed tail slide it was able to handle.

[Howard Matos]

Originally Posted by jperkosk

That's what I call customer support

I have your 6 all tested and ready to go! Maybe the Mezcal will get to me at the same time!

[Howard Matos]

Originally Posted by jperkosk

That's what I call customer support

I have your 6 all tested and ready to go! Maybe the Mezcal will get to me at the same time!

[sutty]

You're not going to tell him 6 times are you?