FBL Gyro Spirit Pro Problem

Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi all, a bit embarrassing this one as one reason for buying my Spirit Pro was its reported ease of installation/setup and here I am stuck. The following summarises the issue:

1. The unit won't bind with the transmitter
2. I managed to get over a problem with software/firmware and can now get to step 1/11 of the Setup Wizard
3. I select the satellite (DSMX) and move to the next step of 1/11, which is inserting the bind plug. At this point the status LED is supposed to begin flashing rapidly and I should start my JR ProPo to complete the process. The status LED doesn't change from steady

I'm using a BEC and have the positive wire from the ESC disconnected. I'm connecting the main battery to give power to the ESC and the tone sounds. The servos are connected and the swashplate levels out when the unit is powered up.

Any insight is much appreciated before I give up and get my Spirit Pro supplier to sort it for me. I didn't buy the heli from him but no worries there he offered to set it up for me if need be.
 
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holtneil

holtneil

Active Member
Hi Heliman450 it may be the same as the Kbar where you ask it to bind on the pc but to start it off pull power then plug back in within a second or so it should then go into bind I will call my mate Steve who has just fitted this unit and check

Hi my friend yes I am right as you have the DSMX make sure you put the bind plug in the right port ele/pit/ail
Now you must cycle the power so cut power and plug back in to enter bind as soon as its in bind mode hit bind on transmitter
 
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Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
holtneil said:
Hi Heliman450 it may be the same as the Kbar where you ask it to bind on the pc but to start it off pull power then plug back in within a second or so it should then go into bind I will call my mate Steve who has just fitted this unit and check
Click to expand...

Hi holtneil, thanks for that suggestion. There's a sentence in the instructions, which is very vague suggesting that power is removed but there's no time specified. I tried toggling the power using the BEC switch but it wasn't as fast as within a second. The software just lost the connection to the unit and showed that it wasn't detected. Any feedback from your friend confirming this is much appreciated.
 
holtneil

holtneil

Active Member
Hi Mate yes I right but just put in bind plug no button to hit sorry not a lot of sleep , then turn power off and on you normally have about 3 seconds to do this it will then go into bind so have the transmitter ready to bind to it
The important part is the bind plug must be in the right pins for the sats you are using DSM2 is different to DSMX the bind plug must go into the port that is marked ele/pit/ail
 
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Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
holtneil said:
Hi Mate yes I right but just put in bind plug no button to hit sorry not a lot of sleep , then turn power off and on you normally have about 3 seconds to do this it will then go into bind so have the transmitter ready to bind to it
The important part is the bind plug must be in the right pins for the sats you are using DSM2 is different to DSMX the bind plug must go into the port that is marked ele/pit/ail
Click to expand...

Thanks for the swift follow-up. I've been using the correct pins for the bind plug. From what you've said, I'm not doing the power switch off/on fast enough to push the unit into bind mode. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Cheers!
 
holtneil

holtneil

Active Member
Hi Phil, Steve backed up what I told you, another thing Steve said was not to have the transmitter to close the unit when you bind 6 plus feet is good , he did say its should bind with out any problems
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Will do. I was closer than 6' when I tried the Tx, however, I need to persuade the unit into bind mode before that step. When I do that I'll stand further away.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
If you have more than one bind plug, try that.
I have a bag full of bind plugs, and some work better than others.
Seems strange as is just a loop of wire, but trust me in makes a difference.

Also saw this on HF.

"Hi just trying to setup spirit pro on blade 450x but will not get to bind state just initializes every attempt, running firmware 1.3.2 using 1 dsmx sat tried both ports and another sat also tried 2 sats connected,same result every time. Plugging bind plug into ele/pit/ail also tried sys, 6volt batt into aux1 also tried aux2.

Edit- please ignore sorted did not realise you had to go to next page to connect and save settings"
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi all, thanks for the feedback with some new ideas, just what I needed. It's so easy to get frustrated and quit. I also went through to the next page but didn't notice that there was a save settings option there. I didn't get the binding change to the satellite mentioned in the instructions.

I take back what I said about the user instructions. It looks like they don't describe what to do well enough and give advice if there are problems getting the bind done successfully.

P.S. I just checked through in Demo mode and there's no option to save settings until the final step is reached so it looks like the statement is incorrect. I'll bear this in mind when trying again tomorrow just in case something changes in the real setup process.
 
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Tony

Tony

Staff member
Well, it's the next day. Did you ever sort out all of these issues? Hate it when manufacturers can't seem to write clear instructions.
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Tony said:
Well, it's the next day. Did you ever sort out all of these issues? Hate it when manufacturers can't seem to write clear instructions.
Click to expand...

Hi Tony, hope all's going well. Yes, I fixed it with a little help from our Rc-Help friends!

I now have a Tx. successfully bound to the Spirit Pro with the correct servo frequencies. There was a bit of clicking around and I'm sure that there could be a number of other combinations and possibly different reactions of the status lights depending upon which satellite is being used. I was binding my ProPo DSX9 to the Spirit Pro using a separate BEC and a single DSMX satellite Rx. I suppose one could go right through everything in one go but as I see it, there are basically six steps once a heli is built and ready to go with the electronics.

1. First initialisation of the Spirit Pro. 2. Downloading the Software to the PC and Flash loading the Firmware to the Spirit (Pro). 3. Connecting up the ESC and the Satellite Rx. 4. Entering and saving the setting for the correct Satellite 5. Binding the Tx. to the installed Rx., ESC and Spirit (Pro). 6. Programming the unit ready for first flight

The following describes the solution I found starting at step 3:

1. Connect the main battery to the ESC (it beeps)
2. Connect the USB to the PC and SYS connection of the Spirit Pro
3. Switch on the power from the BEC to the Spirit Pro - Spririt Pro initialises - Status LED flashes slowly and then goes solid red
4. Open the Spirit Settings software - First display shows the connected unit and the correct software/firmware with all tabs active
5. Using the Setup Wizard go to Step 1/11 and enter the correct Satellite Rx. (DSMX in my case)
6. Click next and go to second page of step 1/11 - The description here is extremely misleading! It mentions that the bind occurs but it isn't possible to bind to the Tx. at this point from what I can see.
7. Fit a bind plug to the ELE/PIT/AIL connection - Now for the tricky part..............
8. Quickly toggle the power Off/On again (within two seconds for successful execution) - In my case, the Spirit Pro Status LED remained on and the Satellite LED blinked on once and went out
9. In the software, click next and new boxes appear on the next page that aren't shown in the Demo version of the software, hence, the "Edit" in thread #10 below. It only appears when doing it for real!
10. The message is shown that settings have been changed and ask for confirmation so save the settings (it changed the Rx. page to show DSMX)
11. At this point I stepped through each stage and also changed the servo frequencies to 200Hz and 333Hz. Then saved the changes and exited the software

I had tried to do a "normal" bind procedure using the Tx. whilst doing step 8 above, but it failed and the heli didn't respond (as expected). I went out of the software completely and powered down the ESC and the BEC, then attempted to bind with the heli without opening the software. The Satellite Rx. LED and the Spirit Pro Status LED began flashing when I switched on the BEC power after connecting the main battery to the ESC. Switching on my Tx. in bind (standing about 6' away) resulted in a successful result and the heli responded to the Tx. but with the need to change the servo directions in another session (hopefully on Sunday)

A bit long, but once again I've got to say that the user instructions are useless at the beginning. I can only think that most of the people claiming that they're simple to follow, aren't really following them, but are drawing on prior knowledge gained through experience and acting instinctively. Also, it's possible that the instructions are written for a Satellite Rx. other than mine but the author didn't realise that not all combinations give the same LED indications.

Bye for now and thanks for the feedback! :yahoo:
 
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Tony

Tony

Staff member
That is fantastic news Phil! And thank you for posting the whole process, I'm sure this will help out someone else in the future. Sounds like a pain, but thankfully, it's almost ready. Keep us posted on how it goes when you get the other issues sorted out.
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Tony said:
That is fantastic news Phil! And thank you for posting the whole process, I'm sure this will help out someone else in the future. Sounds like a pain, but thankfully, it's almost ready. Keep us posted on how it goes when you get the other issues sorted out.
Click to expand...

My pleasure. That's why your creation is so beneficial to us!

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Lee, I used a different bind plug as you suggested. Now that it's successfully bound I'll do a test of the other (new) bind plug and throw it away if it doesn't work.
 
holtneil

holtneil

Active Member
Hi Heliman450 glad its working for you now .sorry most of us had be messing with FBL units for years so forget that not all of us have my fault :homer:
If you need any more help just let me know :thumbsup:
 
Heliman450

Heliman450

Well-Known Member
Hi all, started with the setup today (was busy Sunday with family stuff). The pdf below shows my latest problem, the Pitch servo is showing -118% in the diagnostic page (step 3 of 11). It also shows the same in the Servo Tab. No matter what I did until now doesn't seem to resolve the problem. I tried reversing the servo in Tx and Spirit Software with the same result (+118% or -118%).

The wizard says "do the necessary changes in your transmitter" (end point adjustments) but this is just too way out to adjust in this manner.

Any help much appreciated.

View attachment Step 3 of 11.pdf

By the way, I drained my Tx. battery having forgotten to switch it off when having lunch. OOPS! At least it gave me chance to write this up in the meantime, always look for the positive!
 
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