CP2 all in one spot

[Ty01]

I've been anxious to get my CP2 since I ordered it earlier today. I have extensively browsed this forum and I put together what I believe are relevant notes on the CP2. Thanks very much to nightflyer and several others that have made this forum invaluable. Below you will find what I, in my very humble opinion, are good sources of information:

CP2 will always recover to level flight when you center the stick. Also, you can set up CP2 to level out in inverted mode. I have a DX6i and works well with CP2. I have assigned the Gyro gain switch as the on/off switch for the CP2. Up being on and down being off. I sometimes fly with it off but when I get into trouble, a quick flick of my finger up and CP2 is turned on and save the day. Many people turn it off when doing 3D because CP2 (depending on your settings) can interfere because it thinks the heli is out of control. Finally, you are correct that you must have enough height for CP2 to recover.

Teb, you do this in the "quick setup" mode. You will come to a section where it will ask you to assign a switch for on and off. In our case, you will pick the gyro switch on the DX6i. It will also ask you which position of the switch you want to assigned as on or off. The setup is pretty self explanation. I assigned the switch down as off because it makes a natural finger movement to just flick my finger up to turn the switch up which is ON. By the way, once you assigned the gyro switch you have to plug your yellow gyro gain wire into the CP module (SVO4 slot) and set the gain through CP and not from your transmitter. For some reason, the gain setting is much lower than through the TX. I think mine is at around 30 something.

I think it's called actual gain, 70-50 = 20 then, 20 times 1.44=28.8 is the actual gain, I run 28 on my dx7. that's how it was explained to me..

Teb, once you assigned the switch to be used to turn CP2 on and off. It no longer provides the gain value to the gyro. This is now done by the CP2. This all makes sense from a wiring perspective. The on/off wire from the CP2 goes into the gear slot on your RX which use to be your gyro yellow gain wire. Now, you take your yellow gain wire and plug that into the CP2 unit (SVO4 slot). The control and setting of the gyro gain is now all done through CP2 via your little hand unit. The gyro switch is only used to turn CP2 on and off. Yes, it is a bit challenging to set up the CP2 if you do not have a good basic understanding on how everything works on your heli.


Teb, my settings are:

150% for stick priority which is the max, the lower the number the more CP2 will try to level the heli- lower numbers like 90% is good for beginner

I have auto trim at 1%, I use the set angle to level my heli for pitch and roll. When you center stick and heli moves back/tail tills back, you need to set the pitch to some negative value. The amount is whatever it take to make you heli level when you let go of the stick, usually not more than 2%. Try to make sure your main sensor is as level as possible first.

I left the pitch and roll gain to the factory default and have not played with those numbers

Make sure your main sensor wire securely plugged into the module, I taped the 3 sensor wires together (main, vertical and IR) to lessen the chance that they can disconnect.

Once you set up your heli that it will hover level when you let go of the stick, you are pretty well good to go. Just make sure you do not use CP2 on overcast days and always check your "preflight" to make sure the system is GO with no system errors. Sunny days or clear sky is best for CP2 (yes, CP2 will work at night)

http://www.fmadirect.com/support_docs/item_1284.pdf
http://www.fmadirect.com/videos.htm?videoid=12
http://www.fmadirect.com/videos.htm?videoid=11

When the CPII is assigned for remote on/off, one position will always be off, then the others can be assigned for flight modes. When you only have a 2 position switch available, one position is off, the other is assigned for inverted hover. This does not leave a position for level flight but there is a way to "cheat" and get both level flight and inverted flight and still have the off position (which you can't change). This is because of the specific steps to arm the CPII for inverted flight (which are outlined in the manual). To arm for inverted flight, the on/off switch must be in the off position, you roll to inverted, then turn the switch to on while inverted. The CPII will now keep the aircraft in inverted level flight, you just have to manage the collective. Here is how to get level flight stabilization even though the switch is assigned for inverted. You can either take off with the switch in the on position or turn the switch to the on position as long as the heli is upright. This will not arm for inverted, the switch must be moved to the off position and the heli flipped inverted, then the switch turned back to on. Also, when you are in inverted hover (with switch on), and if you were to roll out to upright, the CPII will be in level flight stabilization until you turn the switch off. This function is set in the preferences section and called "Disarm Flight Modes to:" level flight is the default.

This by Niteflyer: The higher the stick priority the more control the pilot has over the heli hence if you set SP to 125% or greater you control your bid much more than the CPII

Copilot II, DX7 and 3-way switching (for inverted)
Guys, I spent a little time last Friday figuring a way to setup my Spektrum DX7 radio to allow the FMA Direct Copilot II to switch between off, level flight and inverted mode.

It requires the use of a mix (I used PROG.MIX1) on the DX7. So here is how I control it:

Gear=Copilot on and off. You could use AUX2 to do this if you prefer.
Stunt Mode switch=NR [down]=level flight stabilization (or off if gear switch is forward)
Stunt Mode switch=1 [middle]=level flight stabilization (or off if gear switch is forward)
Stunt Mode switch=2 [up]=invert stabilization (or off if gear switch is forward)

It might be possible to use a second mix to turn the CPII off in Stunt Mode NR. I never use that mode so I did not care.

One problem I did not find an answer for is the Idle up (DX7 calls that the Rudder Dualrate switch) puts the Copilot in level flight stabilization. This would be a problem if you wanted to use the copilot while doing an inverted auto-rotation. Of course, if you are doing that you probably are not using a copilot anyway. (I did just now have an idea of how I might be able to fix this but I'm at work and can't test it right now.)

I am going to assume you have the Gear (or AUX2) already controlling the CPII. If not, get that figured out first.

First go into programming mode on your DX7. Get to PROG.MIX1. When there, do this:
[PROG.MIX1]
GEAR->GEAR ON [again, if you are using AUX2, put that here]
RATE: 0%
-100% [I can't remember if this is -100 or +100 right now.]
SW:F-S2
OFFSET: 0

Now, get to the CPII setup and tell it your remote control is a 3-way switch. Put the Stunt Mode in 1 and gear/AUX2 off. When instructed, switch the gear/AUX2 on and off. Assign switch position one to level flight. Assign position 2 to inverted.

IF YOU GET AN ERROR ABOUT OVERLAP, go back to PROG.MIX1 and change the -100% to +100% in RATE. That should fix it.

Go into preflight and test the switches. You should see Off when the gear/AUX2 it off and Level Flight when it is on. Now switch the Stunt to 2. You should see Inverted in preflight.

When flying, have your Stunt in 1 (middle). Get inverted and switch Stunt to 2. It should stabilize upside down. To get out of inverted, just flip over or switch Stunt to 1.


I like the concept but unclear what the advantage is over just using a 2 position switch set to "off and 3D mode".

The way I understand it, when setup in 2 postion 3D mode, switching the CP11 on while the right way up effectively operates in level flight stabilization mode. Then when you want to throw it upsidedown, just flick it off, roll upside down, flick it on and you are in 3D mode. Then just roll out like normal and you are back in level flight stabilization mode (or CP11 off if you want).

So what extra ability is a 3 way switch combo going to give you?





Yes that is almost true. The difference is if you are inverted and you switch to level flight mode, the model should turn over on its own.

Which brings me to a change I made last night.

I changed the Stunt switch to go into Inverted mode in position 1 (middle) and level flight mode in position NR and 3 (down and up). This was done so if I'm in a panic, I don't have to try and find the middle position of the switch. Doing so required the use of 2 mixes in the radio.

This does make it slightly harder to switch on inverted mode while upside down but it seamed to me a better compromise.

[nightflyr]

Very Nice write up, hope anyone with general questions will read it.

Save us a bunch of time repeating the same things over and over