Project Protos Mini nearing nd end

[murankar]

I started the rebuild yesterday after receiving all the stuff the was needed for the rebuild minus the canopy. I sure did not know where to start so I started tearing things down so I could install the new main shaft and main gear (gear not really needed but did anyways). Then I had to install the new tail boom, not an easy task, it was my second time dealing with the tail boom. Let me tell ya, it was a task that took way to long, you have to feed the belt down the tube while it is installed around the main gear and motor. Once you get it through the tube you then have mount the boom in the main block then secure it in the air frame. Next is the great task of untwisting the belt and getting the proper 90 degree twist and then install the tail box.

So now that the main stuff is done now how to get the new Tarot zyx-s 4.0 setup. Lets just say that after hours of trying I finally said screw it and reflashed the stock turnigy v2 firmware. Now that I got that done it was a breeze to get set up while watching youtube videos on how to do it. In order for me to get the most amount of perfection on the setup I took the main blocks out and 90ed the servos outside of the airframe. Once I was confident about that I went and reinstalled the blocks and servos. Now was the challenging task of routing more wires so I had to take the right side airframe off and started stuffing wires inside the frames. The short of the long, I finally got it back together and started working on the gyro again and discovered I had to tear it down again and check my connections. This time after getting everything set I check the setup in the software and it was good to go. Reassembled the frame and mounted the rx in a new location and mounted the gyro.

Finishing the setup took some time, cyclic and collective pitch stuff. This took again hours to get done, but its done I hope. After all that I balanced the baldes and they were with in a few mm of each other and the balance is just a tad off. Now time to do some tests, took the blades off the main head and proceeded to spool up to just under mid stick and after touching the air frame the vibrations are at normal levels. Now its time to test with blades on. I thought I had the baldes loose enough but found out I did not, started wobbling. T.H. and loosened the blade grips and respooled up and things calmed down but still had to looser yet. Finally I got to just over 1/4 stick and the main blades started humming tunes of goodness. THese wide cord blades sound awesome so far I think tomorrow a video is in order of the first hover in 5+ months and a post repair maiden. Be warned I have never flown fbl as of yet so this is like starting all over.

P.S. I have a tail drift I have to solve and not sure how to do it. I'll post in the forums area after the maiden flight.

 

[murankar]

Ok well I got a bit further yesterday on the setup. Just to give ya what was going on and why the helicopter was all over the place.

1) expo: I had my expo 5 points to low. I used a setup from some one else and thought it would be a good starting point. During the maiden I had major pucker factor and my wallet was screaming. Now on the second flight I had made the adjustment and it really helped out a lot.

2)radio TH9X: Some of you know that I flashed my radio with er9x. This firmware has a learning curve to it. Some of you can attest to it. Since I was have such difficulty with the firmware, due to my inexperience with it, I reverberated back to the turnigy firmware. I figured once I flashed it I should be good to go. Went through the radio setup while watching a YouTube video on how to setup the zyx- s. So now that radio was done I moved on to the software side of the setup.

3)software: I bypassed the stock program and went straight to fbl.net.nz. Went through the setup with out much difficulty so I was relieved on the process.


4) maiden and testing: If you watched the videos you know what happened. After finally getting the heli tamed down I had to start working the setup issues. The tail as of right now while on HH has a very minute drift. That's easy to fix, slide the servo mount on the boom. Next I have some drifting in the heli itself, won't hold a stable Hoover. I had to keep adding input to stop the drift. Since I can't really use trims I had to figure out what was going on.

5) solution to 4: I went through and read did everything. For starters I had remembered that the sticks had to be calibrated with the turnigy firmware. With that done I had to recheck every thing in the zyx-s software. Yes I had new issues that were easily fixed. Now for the heli setup, I went through and unchecked the swash with the leveler to make surveyed swash was still level. Yes it was so I put the head back on and moved up to the blade pitch. I aligned the blade along the boom. I had 0° at mid stick and 10°+/- on collective. I had to tweak it a bit but for the most part it was on, so no major changes in the software. Now for the cyclic pitch ranges. On aileron I had to play around a lot on the software and got it set at 8.5°+/-. Now for the tough one, elevator pitch. I spun the blades and frgame 90° and set the pitch gauge on and wth, my pitch at mid stick was showing +5°. It took me about 15 minutes of looking at the swash and airframe. After staring at it at eye" LEVEL" I noticed the frame with the gorilla skids sits with a forward tilt. Not only did I not catch it but it threw off my setup. So to correct for it I had to get out my bubble level to confirm my observation and then had to prop the skids enough to level the frame. Now the blades are at 0° pitch while set for elevator setup. Nor to drag this out I went through with about 5 to 10 reboots of the gyro because the servos were not doing what they were supposed to. Eventully after about 45 minutes I finally got 8.5°+/- pitch set for the elevator. By this time it was to late to fly and my esc needed a break since no power was being delivered to the motor (caused the esc to get hot). So now I decided to drop a setting for the tail (in the advanced menu) gain, I went from 30 [stock] to 10. Then turned my radio gain down to 60 from 70. Now on sudden stops of the tail it does not bounce or shake.

6) test: today after work I had just enough time to get the heli in the air for a quick battery. My head speed is at 85% just for this test. I get the heli light on the skids and do a couple of partial pyros just to see if the tail shakes or bounces, and the answer so far is no. Now I get it in the air, I actually took my thumbs off the sticks for a second and let me tell ya big difference. I still have tbe going on but it is a big loose circle. Very manageable but I think it can be tuned out, just not sure what settings to go with.

As of right now I am going to see if I can continue to dial in the gains and by the weekend I hope to video the final product. So far I like what I got going. Flying on this new setup is exciting to me. Watching the video and not seeing the flybar is just to cool. As for the options for tuning, yes they are limited but the gyro is only $60 sob what do you expect.

Time to wrap this up. Suggestions comments and tips are welcomed.

 

[murankar]

Finally the rest of the pieces are on their way. I had a check of a time sending the money to fusuno through PayPal. The customer service was better than I had intended being from Vietnam, I was expecting hobby king service. They were very understanding which the tech issues and PayPal.

One thing that is going to be a future show stopper with them is the shipping. They charge $25 per 450 sized canopies and $5 per additional item. The only reason I had for the order was for the design on the canopy and matching stabilizers. The canopy cover I could have gotten anywhere but I added to the order just because. Once this order comes in I will have the final pics read of the remod.

I do have one thing that will need to be addressed in the very near future and I already expected this to be an issue. My batteries are getting tired. I am having to run 85% on head speed just to get decent power and the batteries will run great for about 3.5 minutes Then they just lose it. I am running my packs to 50% so that's how I know it's time. I still see no puffing in the packs and they are still running cool and balance fine. Once throwbacks are done on the charger overthrow them on the Hyperion battery tester/balancer and they get to .004 difference at the biggest gap. So now I am looking at 30c packs and I might look at 2650 May, will see how hard the wallet/wife will slap me. If the batteries can last till February then I should not have much issues with getting new packs.