Hi DeonJams:

At first look you may have suffered a receiver brown-out. Any heli larger than a 450 should be using two satellites or a standard receiver and one satellite. The larger helis need two sats to get better antenna diversity.

Also, you need to isolate the source of your vibrations and correct it. Excessive vibrations are picked up by the fbl controller (any fbl controller) and create movements that the controller may try to correct.

Scott
RobirdUSA

Originally Posted by deonjams

Hello Scott

Had an interesting problem today, potentially catastrophic, but luckily just minor damage on my new 550 clone (Hobbyking 550 FBL TT). Need your experienced input before I fly this one again. DX8, Robird G31 FBL system fitted with one Orange satellite, no receiver, Hobbywing Funfly 100A esc.

First ran up slowly testing all functions, then ran up to about 40% throttle. Still on ground after 4 minutes of spinning, all seems normal, moving rudder side to side to check responses, when suddenly it takes off straight up (means the gyros are working - one good thing). Closed throttle as in normal mode (and not TH as this could cause it to come straight down with -10 pitch), and only after about 2 seconds (could have been shorter, but when things are going wrong seems like an eternity) does it slow down, and as I stand there in a shocked and frozen state, it ends up in a tree where it hung until I got a ladder to remove it (thus the "minor" damage - blades, canopy, landing skid, main and tail shafts, tail boom, all damaged from hitting the tree). What could have caused this? I replaced all the servo snap links as they were really poor quality, as one failed even before spinning up the motor (servo moved on powering up and it snapped...), but even if this failed the heli would stay down (and probably tilt and have a blade strike). It went straight up, as if full pitch was given, no increase in motor speed noticed (as would be the case if F mode was switched by accident). Pitch setup for testing in normal is mild (35-70%), definitely did not touch any switches. There was quite a bit of vibration even present without blades (the main gear was oval, but for initial testing thought it ok while waiting for spares to arrive)

I do remember it going full pitch without input once during setting up, but I could not replicate the incident. Any comments would be appreciated.

How do you have your failsafe set? The failsafe (on a Spektrum) is detemined by where the sticks were when you bound the model to the Tx - if you bound the heli with the throttle high then if the Rx lost connection to the Tx it would go full throttle / full pitch and lift off as you say - but keep going.

Hi DeonJams, are you using the internal BEC of the HobbyWing Funfly ESC? 550 size needs 4 standard size servos. That ESC has only 3A internal BEC at 5V, might not be enough to drive those servos, worst if they are digitals. A brown out is almost a guarantee in this case.

Originally Posted by SDHeliPilot

Hi DeonJams:

At first look you may have suffered a receiver brown-out. Any heli larger than a 450 should be using two satellites or a standard receiver and one satellite. The larger helis need two sats to get better antenna diversity.

Also, you need to isolate the source of your vibrations and correct it. Excessive vibrations are picked up by the fbl controller (any fbl controller) and create movements that the controller may try to correct.

Scott
RobirdUSA

Hitec, Futaba and FrSky don't have sats.

Also if you have a plastic or fiberglass framed helicopter radio shadowing should be greatly reduced compared to a CF framed helicopter.

Originally Posted by SDHeliPilot

Hi DeonJams:

At first look you may have suffered a receiver brown-out. Any heli larger than a 450 should be using two satellites or a standard receiver and one satellite. The larger helis need two sats to get better antenna diversity.

Also, you need to isolate the source of your vibrations and correct it. Excessive vibrations are picked up by the fbl controller (any fbl controller) and create movements that the controller may try to correct.

Scott
RobirdUSA

Thanks for the inputs all. It does seem like a receiver brownout, although I was pretty close (about 4 meters behind), and not moving the sticks around, although the fbl system would have been initiating servo movements. Yes, using HW bec, so will add ubec (think most likely issue). Only one sat, so will add receiver (or anther sat, but the Orange sat aerial wire seems puny, so may just go with a receiver, although additional wiring will spoil the clean look). I think I bound it with 0 throttle, but will rebind to make sure. Now I have to fix it - pity, was a good build... Thanks again

I just flew my maiden flight on the robird 31. I installed it on my 6s stretched 450 w/ 350mm blades. No mishaps. I used the "3d" preset which is pretty ridiculous on the flip and roll rates. A little too quick for my liking. And I had a slight bounce when stopping from a ccw piro. So I turned the ele and ail rates down to 21 and turned down the left brake (I think that's the right one for ccw piro) to 2. Flew the 2nd pack and it was pretty awesome. I didn't really try much, because the tail needs some tweaking still. But overall I would say very easy setup. It's very stable in a hover too, almost as good as my stretched protos w/ ar7200bx, which is pretty impressive for a 450. I definitely like how you can set specific roll rates rather than just a general "sport" or "pro" setting like on the beastx.

I have not tried the gov, I think I may not at all on the 450. I'll wait until I put it in the Protos, or until they make it direct head speed entry in the software.

So, good job Robird with this controller! And thanks Scott for making it available in the US.

Hi Flint:

Thanks for the nice words. It makes me happy to hear that you guys are liking this fbl controller. My thanks to all the pilots who are using the G31 now.

One of the big reasons that I decided to bring the Robird G31 on is that it's nice to see a good fbl controller that doesn't cost a lot of $$$$.

Scott

Originally Posted by SDHeliPilot

Hi Flint:

Thanks for the nice words. It makes me happy to hear that you guys are liking this fbl controller. My thanks to all the pilots who are using the G31 now.

One of the big reasons that I decided to bring the Robird G31 on is that it's nice to see a good fbl controller that doesn't cost a lot of $$$$.

Scott

Must agree with Flint - good quality and value for money. Was pretty happy until I had the glitch (and at this stage seems clear it is not fbl controller related). I have already ordered another G31, even without fully testing its flying behaviours.

Deon

Just a question regarding using twin Spektrum sats.
I read earlier that the sat had to be bound with the TX using a normal RX for the binding. But if you want 2 sats and only have one sat port, can it be done then?

Originally Posted by TurboLeon

Just a question regarding using twin Spektrum sats.
I read earlier that the sat had to be bound with the TX using a normal RX for the binding. But if you want 2 sats and only have one sat port, can it be done then?

If you can set a fixed id in your tx, you would just bind one sat on the rx, take it off, and bind the other. Both will have the same fixed id then, and should work together.

I guess my Dx6i can't do a fixed Id? Never seen that setting.

Originally Posted by TurboLeon

I guess my Dx6i can't do a fixed Id? Never seen that setting.

I guess that's a deviation thing. I do not know spektrum. (I use deviation firmware on my devo 8s to do spektrum dm2)

Originally Posted by TurboLeon

I guess my Dx6i can't do a fixed Id? Never seen that setting.

Just bind one and than the other under the same model, both should work under the same ID.

I got my G31 in the mail. Powered it up on the USB and all seems fine.

I'm going to put this on a 450 with analog cyclic servos. I'm just flying sport. I use a separate ubec for power already.

I was originally thinking the separate SAT approach makes the most sense. Let wiring etc., but now I'm not so sure and a bit confused.

If I stick with the RX approach, then the Ubec and ESC plug into the RX, and the short wires connect the RX to the G31. The servo wires then plug into the G31, all per the manual diagrams.

If I go the SAT approach, where (or how) do I connect the the Ubec and ESC plugs to the G31? Do I need to create a special "harness" to route the signals, ground and positive power to the various pins on the G31?

Is setting the AileGain and ElevGain via TX channels 7 and 8 vs. the "pots" worth the effort to use the SAT approach? How many of you experienced G31 users are using your TX to control these values?

BTW: Thanks to Scott at RobirdUSA. Product shipped fast and was well packed. Great buying from a USA vendor.

bc

Originally Posted by Blade Crasher

If I go the SAT approach, where (or how) do I connect the the Ubec and ESC plugs to the G31? Do I need to create a special "harness" to route the signals, ground and positive power to the various pins on the G31?

If you use sats then the ESC plugs in to the Motor port, if you are using a UBEC you would need to plug that into the same port ideally - you could either use a Y-lead (and remove the red wire from the ESC) or use the signal from the ESCand the Red and Black from the UBEC into the same plug (I haven't tried this approach but know of other who have though not on the G31).

The one place that you must not put the power in is the RS / GainPitAx port

Originally Posted by Blade Crasher

Is setting the AileGain and ElevGain via TX channels 7 and 8 vs. the "pots" worth the effort to use the SAT approach? How many of you experienced G31 users are using your TX to control these values?

It's not just the use of the Remote Gains, but also the internal Governor for which you need to use sats. Using the sats also gives a cleaner installation due to there being less wires. I use the remote gains and find it useful.