FBL Gyro Spirit Pro Problem

[Heliman450]

Sorry, i now see that I'm too late to the party and that you got it figured out by yourself, that's great. The one other thing I meant to mention is that the Spirit software only saves settings if you go the the 'Backup' tab and hit 'save'. if you dont do that any changes you make will be lost. This might have explained your problem if you weren't hitting save after selecting DSM2/X in the receiver type.

Good luck with the maiden with your new controller, they fly great.

Hi Grunpy, no need to apologise as all feedback is welcome. Now I'm interested to find out why others seem to have had no problem. I'm inclined to say that it's their acquired knowledge base, which makes the difference rather than the quality of the instructions. As the Spirit is able to mate up with various combinations of Tx/Rx I suspect that the LED indications during the process are different depending upon the combination and the makers have only described one possibility in their instructions. Not that I would have expected them to have tried all possibilities, but their instructions don't reflect this. There are actually no instructions for the wizard, only what's been included in the screens, so for example, there's no way to know that you have to go to the next screen and a new window appears to allow saving of the Rx. Their demo version doesn't show this as I mentioned earlier in the thread.

I've been reading up on the advanced features to double check their claim that my heli is ready to fly before I go to the field. That's proving a bit difficult right now as my good lady's still suffering with the aftermath of a very bad dose of flu and today I must take my mother-in-law to the doctors. No rush, I prefer things right before risking damage/injury. Fingers crossed that I don't end up in bed before the process is finished.

Bye now!

 

[holtneil]

Hi Steve thanks for popping over to help Heliman 450

 

[Heliman450]

Hi all, apologies for the delay on this. It looks like we're all through the flu stuff now.

I've attached a summary of my experience through the basic setup process. Once it's done, the next stage of returning to do more advanced settings and making changes to them, if needed, looks to be straight forward enough. Although I haven't made any as yet, I've returned to the software a number of times with no problems. Hope it helps.

View attachment Spirit Gyro Problem Rev2.pdf

 

[Smoggie]

Hi Heliman,

It's Grunpy here, under new user name (long story)

Good that you got it all sorted out. Have you also got the rescue and/or stability functions working using negative gyro gain? That can take some setting up in the Tx to get right. The bank switching option is also useful if you want to take advantage of some of the more advanced options.
Have you flown it yet? The Spirit flies really nicely, every bit as good as the Vbars I've used which is about as good as it gets.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Heliman,

It's Grunpy here, under new user name (long story)

Good that you got it all sorted out. Have you also got the rescue and/or stability functions working using negative gyro gain? That can take some setting up in the Tx to get right. The bank switching option is also useful if you want to take advantage of some of the more advanced options.
Have you flown it yet? The Spirit flies really nicely, every bit as good as the Vbars I've used which is about as good as it gets.

Hi Smoggie, I saw the threads so know the username story

See my photos below, the last one being the view back to the clubhouse from the heli flying area, hence, the truck.



They were taken Christmas Eve morning and achieved my latest target to get all three of my working helis ready for testing on the same day and to transport them there using my recently completed truck. Mission accomplished ............... a bit embarrassing that I forgot to include a 3mm Allen Key in my field toolkit so couldn't test fly my T-Rex! Aaaaarrrrh !!!!!!!!!!!

However, I did manage to test the Blade 450X and the Beam E4. Both need the tail adjusting and I was so that I just went back home again not being in the mood as it was a cold morning and we were all not well at the time. Went this morning but it was very cold and wet so just did my caretaker chores for the clubhouse and went for lunch. Tomorrow's another day!

 

[Smoggie]

Nice flying site there Heliman!.. Nice trailer too, so is it towed by hand?

The weather is stopping play here too, 50mph+ winds constantly for the last three days along with rain of biblical proportions. Lots of flooding and the fields that aren't under water are like bogs. It's set to continue for the next two or three days at least. Maybe my next building project should be an Ark ?

 

[Heliman450]

Hi again Smoggie,

Yes, the trailer's pulled/pushed by hand. It needs a bit of fine tuning with the drawbar but as you can see it's quite a walk from the car park alongside the clubhouse. We can't just walk straight across the field in the foreground, we have to go round so it's about half a mile walk. I just load up the trailer in the workshop, wheel it to the car and lift it into the frame. The picture below shows the two 450's loaded up. (The heli flying field is behind me in the pictures below.



A lot of the fun for me is all the things you can or need to do to make it easier to enjoy the hobby.

 

[holtneil]

Hi Heliman450 great trolley love it you just need some brushless motors to drive the wheels and your away less effort than pulling or pushing all that way , still waiting for a video if you get a chance

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Heliman450 great trolley love it you just need some brushless motors to drive the wheels and your away less effort than pulling or pushing all that way , still waiting for a video if you get a chance

Now there's an idea? I'm nursing three prolapsed discs in my back so every little bit helps.

Video on the list.

 

[trainrider06]

Hi Smoggie, I saw the threads so know the username story

See my photos below, the last one being the view back to the clubhouse from the heli flying area, hence, the truck.

View attachment 15287View attachment 15288View attachment 15289

They were taken Christmas Eve morning and achieved my latest target to get all three of my working helis ready for testing on the same day and to transport them there using my recently completed truck. Mission accomplished ............... a bit embarrassing that I forgot to include a 3mm Allen Key in my field toolkit so couldn't test fly my T-Rex! Aaaaarrrrh !!!!!!!!!!!

However, I did manage to test the Blade 450X and the Beam E4. Both need the tail adjusting and I was so that I just went back home again not being in the mood as it was a cold morning and we were all not well at the time. Went this morning but it was very cold and wet so just did my caretaker chores for the clubhouse and went for lunch. Tomorrow's another day!

Phil you are truly a thinking man! Nice rig you have there!
And looks like a very nice field!

 

[holtneil]

I Know how you feel my friend I broke my back in 2005 had my spine rebuilt to get me out of a wheel chair , but have 6 discs that are messed up and still cant walk some days , oh well I can still fly so all is good

 

[Smoggie]

Seems like us 'old farts' all are nursing dodgy backs. I'm (hopefully) just coming out of a bout of sciatica though the physio tells me that this time it's not my back to blame, rather a pulled muscle in my butt that pressing on the sciatic nerve. Whatever the cause it's painful! Much better today though so i'm getting hopes up of flying on the weekend.. I hope you can get some air time too.

I'm not sure if it's a comforting thought or not but a fellow 'old fart' told be recently that once you get to 50+ back pain was just natures way of telling you that you are alive.. So start worrying when it feels fine!

 

[Heliman450]

Seems like us 'old farts' all are nursing dodgy backs. I'm (hopefully) just coming out of a bout of sciatica though the physio tells me that this time it's not my back to blame, rather a pulled muscle in my butt that pressing on the sciatic nerve. Whatever the cause it's painful! Much better today though so i'm getting hopes up of flying on the weekend.. I hope you can get some air time too.

I'm not sure if it's a comforting thought or not but a fellow 'old fart' told be recently that once you get to 50+ back pain was just natures way of telling you that you are alive.. So start worrying when it feels fine!

I'd love to tell the complete tale, but I'm sure that the younger members really don't want to hear it

 

[Heliman450]

Hi all!!!! I can finally say that I've tracked down and fixed my tail spinning problem with my T-Rex 550E. I built a turntable test bed and checked it without the risk of crashing followed by a quick hover test at the field and it's now showing a tilt to the left on lift-off so back to the drawing board on that one as the batteries need a bit more juice in them before the next test and hopefully a successful lift-off. The solutions.............

1. The Tx. had a gyro sensitivity setting in it instead of being inhibited. It was still spinning after that correction so back to the software............. (It's a pain having to go into a PC, I need a change in my workshop as the laptop's too big!)

2. The Yaw direction needed to be reversed in the "Sensor" tab and also Pirouette Optimisation (Tuning) in the "Advanced" tab.

3. The "GEAR" setting in the Tx. was 8% higher than that in the gyro (+68% Tx vs +60% gyro) for Heading Hold and 9% higher in Normal mode (-65% Tx vs -56% gyro).

Next update with a video................ promise

 

[holtneil]

Hi Heliman you can plug a blue tooth dongle and use the smart phone app from spirit
How did you set up rescue mode Smoggie showed me an easy way so I have it on my trainer flick switch set up 2 mixes they are both the same then just say what switch you want to use

 

[Smoggie]

Yeah, it pretty much had to be gyro response direction (or the gain being effectively 'turned off') but good to see that you nailed it.

Tilt left is an odd one.. Is it a left drift or a definite tilt as in the heli rolling to the left?.. A left drift on lift off is perfectly normal, all helis with clockwise rotation main rotors do it (google 'Translating tendency'). You need to give a touch of right cyclic on lift off to compensate. If its a definite and consistent left roll that has the heli careering off then that's an issue.. possibly the swash miles out of level or vibrations knocking out the gyro.

 

[Heliman450]

Yeah, it pretty much had to be gyro response direction (or the gain being effectively 'turned off') but good to see that you nailed it.

Tilt left is an odd one.. Is it a left drift or a definite tilt as in the heli rolling to the left?.. A left drift on lift off is perfectly normal, all helis with clockwise rotation main rotors do it (google 'Translating tendency'). You need to give a touch of right cyclic on lift off to compensate. If its a definite and consistent left roll that has the heli careering off then that's an issue.. possibly the swash miles out of level or vibrations knocking out the gyro.

Hi Smoggie, thanks for the feedback. It's a definite tilt left just before lift-off. There's something in the user manual (ho! ho!), I'll look into it later.

Hi Holtneil, seems like a good option, I've got an old Android phone to use. I haven't setup any of the more advanced features yet. I just want it in the air first!

Cheers!

 

[Tony]

The helicopter tilting or moving left on takeoff is completely normal. The tail blades are forcing air out the right side and pushing the helicopter to the left. If you look at a helicopter in teh air you will notice it leaning slightly to the right. As long as it's not doing it in the air it's normal.

 

[Smoggie]

Yeah, as Tony says, if it's tilting slightly just as it gets light on it's skids that's normal due to the sideways 'push' from the tail rotor, especially so if flying off grass that snags the skids. Just correct it and lift off and all will be fine.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Tony and Smoggie, thanks for the calming words. I've just finished checking out page 43 of the Spirit manual, this is where I made the change to correct the tail problem (I reversed the Z axis - Yaw setting). Tomorrow, I'll go back into the software and just check to confirm that the X and Y axes - Pitch/Roll settings are correct. This part of the manual isn't very well worded, it's probably written by a real man who never normally reads a manual anyway, so can't possibly do it for a wimp like me who does like to read the manual first

Bye for now!