ESC Spirit Pro Hobbywing Esc Setup

[Harford]

This is an update on my problems in getting the telemetry to work. The problems were all firmware related. Firstly I had to change the firmware version on my DX9 back from 1.21 to 1.20. It turns out it is a common problem with DX9s on 1.21 not working with this telemetry setup. 1.20 is fine. The second issue was the firmware on the HW ESC needed to be updated to 04.0.04. Everything now works so now on to the maiden.

 

[Smoggie]

that's great! I should have mentioned ESC firmware (I knew about that) but I didnt know about the Tx firmware issue. Good luck with the maiden.

 

[Harford]

Thanks. I took a little bit of comfort that at least my wiring connections and settings were ok. The challenges of RC helis !
Awful weather at present (Winter here obviously) so waiting for next clear day for the maiden.

 

[Harford]

Another update. Maiden with the Trex 700 today, at long last thanks to an ideal still & sunny Winter's day. Flew perfectly, just hovering around for 6 minutes or so.

 

[Smoggie]

That’s great to hear, congratulations! The Spirit is a great FBL you will love it!

 

[Harford]

Thanks Smoggie. All I have to do now is work up enough courage to flick the switch I have set up to trigger Stabilization !

 

[Smoggie]

Check on the bench that collective pitch is added in the positive direction when you hit rescue, I know some manage to get it reversed and not notice.
Another little tip.. In the 'Limits' tab there is a 'Cyclic Ring (Tuning)' slider bar. Do not set this too high, set it so that you get no more than 8-10 deg cyclic pitch, that's usually about value 140-150 on the slider. Setting it too high will result in the flip during an inverted rescue being very violent which can blow the tail out or even cause a boom strike.

 

[Harford]

Thank you very much for this. I will do the bench test as you suggest.

I have not made any adjustment to the Cyclic Ring setting in the Limits tab, ie it is on the default setting of 128. I have set my collective pitch range at a conservative +/- 9.5 degrees and I have set the rudder end points, but as I say no adjustment to the cyclic ring setting. Am I wrong with this ?

No chance of me doing an inverted rescue ...

 

[Smoggie]

If cyclic ring is on default it will be 'safe'.. it might be a bit limiting if you want fast response for 3D flying but otherwise no issues.

Don't rule out inverted rescue. Rescue is intended for situations when you have lost control so you never really know what orientation the heli will be in when you flick the switch. Rescue on the spirit saved me a few weekends back. A sudden gust pushed the heli back over my head and direct into the sun. I completely lost it for what seemed like ages and by the time i got it back in sight it was downwind, I'd lost orientation and the heli was just dropping below the tree line, this normally would have been a 100% certain crash. I hit the magic switch and to my relief up it soared. I flew it back landed and called it a day, only damage was to my underwear.

 

[Harford]

That's a very very good story Smoggie ! And as usual you are right. You can't always foresee what you may encounter . As I understand it, I can set up Rescue using another channel/switch.

 

[Smoggie]

Yes, you can use a spare channel to activate rescue. I dont use the stability option so my rescue setup is quite simple. If you want to have stability OR rescue then you can have stability set in one 'bank' and rescue set in another. You then need to make your rescue switch activate the rescue bank and also activate the 'stabi' function. Some use of mixes will probably be necessary.

 

[Harford]

I probably need to focus on making sure my stability settings work first. I would like to test it on the bench but if I do this (blades off !) and the swash is already level I am not sure if I will see anything (unless I hold the swash off level while I flick the switch ?)

 

[Smoggie]

You could try to test stabilisation by tilting the heli and see if the swash always returns to the level position? Though for stabilisation you should be fine just testing it in flight. It's Rescue that you need to bench test just to make sure that the pitch added is positive, not negative.