Progress Report

[copterboy]

I understood it too. I also have the same left hand side dumbness, so going back to practice it, is now also a must for me to keep progressing.

Think I missed out on practicing it because of my now resolved left hand side mental block (thanks again to the mcpx for that bit). So whilst my right hand rudder moves have progressed, and progressed, my left hand rudder practice is still lacking.

Lets say I need to do a left rudder and left cylic stir correction, I just don't have the same instinctive reaction LH as I do RH, so that's where I'm most at risk of dumb-thumbing and getting things mixed up. I think thats exactly whats happened to you there sutty, so I understand and sympathise completely.

Practice, practice, practice is the only solution, so going back and catching up on a step you missed out on is all part of the game, and yes you will still find new ways to crash.

Glad to hear your actually getting the flight time/practice in despite the typically wet british summer! I'm just glad to be back in the land of the living, and look forward to getting back onto things this weekend. Had a quick tidy of the bench today, and catching up on other domestic chores after landing back at home.

Picking my son up this afternoon, so will get him into bed tonight and get back to the 450 re-build later

[sutty]

Originally Posted by sutty

I've written to Horizon in the UK, lol. See what they say.

How good is this:

Hi Andrew,

If you email me your address I will send a top case from a scrap satellite receiver for you FOC.

Regards

Glenn Doman
Product Service Manager





Their support is just legendary.


Cheers

Sutty

[sutty]

Originally Posted by copterboy

I think thats exactly whats happened to you there sutty, so I understand and sympathise completely.

Yeah, I was confused, no doubt, but full -ve when the right way up. Don't get it. Maybe my brain started trying to reverse everything.

Originally Posted by copterboy

Practice, practice, practice is the only solution, so going back and catching up on a step you missed out on is all part of the game, and yes you will still find new ways to crash.

No doubt about that, lol.

Originally Posted by copterboy

Glad to hear your actually getting the flight time/practice in despite the typically wet british summer!

I'm fortunate to be able to rush out during the smallest of breaks in the weather, and I've also been on holiday all week, so yes I've been getting the flights in. Off out now for 5 for the 250, and 4 for the 450.

Originally Posted by copterboy

Picking my son up this afternoon, so will get him into bed tonight and get back to the 450 re-build later

Make fun of the time, and glad to hear you're gonna be able to get back to the 450 re-build. If you lay off the beers you should be able to crack it off in one evening.

Cheers

Sutty

[sutty]

Me again, sorry, been in and out four times, and every time it started raining on me, just as I'd got my act together and was ready to go. Just about to have my evening meal and will have another go before I go out for a few bevies.

Cheers

Sutty

[jperkosk]

Well, I don't think anybody will talk me into moving to England on account of weather

So what's the conclusion on the brain farts, just more practice? Meaning I should abandon the search for the split canopy, red on the right and yellow on the left?

[sutty]

Yes, abandon nonesense like that! Practice is everything, but it doesn't account for brain dead cretins, of which I am one.

Had a good night out though, and beer is now in. Woo Hooo.

Cheers

Sut

[copterboy]

Originally Posted by sutty

Make fun of the time, and glad to hear you're gonna be able to get back to the 450 re-build. If you lay off the beers you should be able to crack it off in one evening.

I shouldn't have had those 2 beers this afternoon. Got my lad in bed for 9pm, and promptly fell asleep myself! Ah well, needed to catch up anyway

Will do it tomorrow evening now...Not got a baby sitter in the house (mum and dad are out), and my workbench is in the granny flat at the bottom of the garden

[jperkosk]

Andy, totally laying off the beer is cruel and unusual punishment which is expressly forbidden in American constitution

Just found my favorite Mexican brand (Sol) in the store in Brazil, all printed in Portugeese, looked funny but tasted perfect

And Denis, I have a feeling you needed this catching up on sleep anyway...

[copterboy]

Indeed Jerry, just grateful to have it behind me now. Still got a few bits to do, but just glad my working hours can return to somekind of normality - whatever that is!!

Anyway, back to the 450!! See if I can get it done tonight, so I can get a test in tomorrow. I know the wind won't be ideal for tweaking the tail, when I give it a hover in the garden, but at least having it back together is a start

[copterboy]

I'm still dragging my feet a bit, but it's back together and I should start on new electronics tomorrow.

[copterboy]

Well, another anti-progress report. I forgot to check my soldering to the servo wires before I re-installed it!!

Was dead when I first powered up, but after a pinch of the heat-shrinked section of wire, the eservo came back to life.

At least I don't need a new servo, but I'll need to take the servo out again

[copterboy]

After some more consideration, I decided I'll swap the AIL and ELEV servo's round.

The need to cut the wires for soldering has left it about 25mm shorter overall. It is a bit of a stretch for the wire to reach from the front of the heli where the AIL servo hole is, to the back of the heli where the RX is.

The ELEV servo still has the original length of wire, so I will swap it upto the AIL servo position, so there is no stretching of the wire. Also, the ELEV servo is easier to remove, if I get any more problems. So it seems the best solution for now. Can't beleive I didn't think of it first time!!

I was dragging my feet a bit, as I knew the weather won't be good until end of the week, but looks like the dry spell is heading our way still, so I want to be ready to get some flights in this weekend

[sutty]

Speaking of repairs, check out this little beauty!



Nice one Horizon.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

Links not working for me

I take it HH have sent you the new case already Got to admire there customer service

[sutty]

Oh, I wonder why the link is broken. Yes, it is a picture of my new top fitted to my satellite. As good as new now. Hats off to them.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

I'm finally heading out to the garden for a test hover with the 450. Just need to get the new gyro and rudder dialled in at a speed I like.

Looking forward to this as I got the DX8 and 6115e onboard now. Also got my timer alarm set to vibe, which is a feature I've been looking forward to having for a while.

Since the last crash, I've put the V3 head back on, instead of the PRO head. The LTG2100 gyro, instead of the CSM420. Plus the new frame side in, so I can mount the canopy properly again without vibes (on two mounts instead of one!!), and the PIT servo wire properly repaired and swapped with the ELEV servo.

A nice easy rebuild...lol Luckily the head setup only needed a couple of turns to get +11/0/-11 in idel up. Will still need to check flip/roll rate's. Just hope I'll get used to the new TX pretty soon.

[sutty]

Great news Denis. I hope by the time you read this your post re-build maiden has been a success. Personally I just came in from 9 packs, 5 on the 250, and 4 on the 450, and I had a great time. Due to the none stop rain the field has still not been cut, apart from in little circles by me, lol, and the long grass gives me a lot of confidence. I've been flippin and a floppin, at grass top height the whole way through.

Only real small progress to report is that I was getting better at backwards inverted, and I manged a few circuits of nose left piros, which were messy, but better than not being able to do them at all.

On the repair front, bad news for me, and is why I have had to call a halt to the days flying, as I have no 550 to fly. The repair I did to the ESC has proved to be a failure. The replaced capacitor repair is fine, but the problem is that it is overheating and shutting down now. Much as I could mess with it, and re-visit the thermal paste, and heatsink contact, I just cannot take the risk.

At first, after the repair it was fine, but after a while, many sessions later, towards the end of my 4th pack it started shutting down. Not a brown out, so I have control, but a shut down of the high power, motor, side of things. It comes in and out, so I haven't had any problems getting it back, but I think you can imagine how disconcerting it is to get the power drop out in the middle of a low piro flip. Anyway, it is now doing this more often, and earlier, like in the second pack now, so whatever the problem it is getting worse, or it is getting warmer, lol.

Although I may be able to repair it, I cannot take the risk on such an important component, so I'm in the market for a new one.

On that note, anyone got any suggestions. The one it came with, the now semi faulty one, is the Align RCE-BL70G. The motor it came with is the 600MX. I think Align have replaced it with a soon to be released 75 Amp version, but I'm not clear on this.

If anyone has a lower power demand application it might be good, so you're welcome to it, but not until I've decided on a replacement, as I might still use it for tweaking set-up etc in between time.

A little disappointed that in the end the repair has failed, but at least I tried.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

I'm back!!

450 now maidened and she sounds very happy in the air. New blades balanced out of the box, and tracked first time so no worries there.

Tail took some tweaks as expected, and spent 4 packs just trying different gain settings to iron out the piro rate. Basically, just kept increasing the TX gain setting for HH mode, once I got it in a stable hover in rate mode. Plus, increased the ATV value.

I've got it holding solid in a hover in HH mode, great at stopping piro's now, but the tail blows out just a little when I pump the pitch. I would like to try and resolve it, as I know it will bug the hell out of me trying to progress to some 3D manouvers.

I've set the DX8 gyro gain to 75%, and the tail still moves a little. Maybe try to reduce the pitch range so there's less load going onto the blades for example.

Anyway, will get all packs charged up and be heading down to a local field with it tomorrow. Maybe I'll treat myself to a beer now. The 600 spares not arrived yet!!

[ragge1]

Originally Posted by copterboy

I'm back!!


Tail took some tweaks as expected, and spent 4 packs just trying different gain settings to iron out the piro rate. Basically, just kept increasing the TX gain setting for HH mode, once I got it in a stable hover in rate mode. Plus, increased the ATV value.

I've got it holding solid in a hover in HH mode, great at stopping piro's now, but the tail blows out just a little when I pump the pitch. I would like to try and resolve it, as I know it will bug the hell out of me trying to progress to some 3D manouvers.

I've set the DX8 gyro gain to 75%, and the tail still moves a little. Maybe try to reduce the pitch range so there's less load going onto the blades for example.

Anyway, will get all packs charged up and be heading down to a local field with it tomorrow. Maybe I'll treat myself to a beer now. The 600 spares not arrived yet!!

75 , to high , I'm at 40ish on mine

[copterboy]

Hey Ragge,

I thought 75% HH was too high also. My old setting on the DX6i was something like 45-50% HH, so it would make me happier if it were a more standard value.

It's perfect weather at the moment, so I'll be off to the field soon and will give it some flight test's.

After giving it some thought last night, I realise the only thing I may need to do is reset the servo limit, as I did move the central position when I moved the tail servo to setup the gyro in rate mode. I can't recall the exact order I did it in, but I'm sure I did it after finishing the rate mode setup (which is what the manual state's). I don't see how it will affect gain, but may help get rid of the bounce, so I'm open to any other idea's at the moment.

The rotate rate setting of the gyro is currently on the fastest setting (light no.8), so I may need to change that value to 6 or 7, instead of 8, to suit the S9257 better. My logic being the S9257 is a fast digital servo, but it's not as fast as the LTG dedicated servo, or others available.

Other than that, I'll check my headspeed again, as I also want to see what it's like having 3 different flight modes w.2 idel up modes, and may need 2 respective gain setting's. With an aim of starting to get used to being setup like a govenor.

I'll try and get a vid, as I've found myself being too fussy over these minor details before. I did just plan on trying to tweak it out and go fly, but I'll be sure to video the last pack (if I make it that far ).

Forgot to mention, I bought a head torch the other week, and I'm hoping to adapt the bracket into a new head cam mount. Not too fussed for today, as I will be focused on the heli, but will see if I get chance to test it.