Important note: The fix described below worked well for me but it has yet to be tested by other pilots. If it turns out that I it's a fluke and it only works for me, I will change the thread title accordingly.

OK so I think I found a fix for the tail drift on the Genius CP. Also works on the Mini CP.

A brief about this is that when flying the Genius CP, a vast majority of pilots are noting a slow CCW drift. Some pilots have been successful using program mix, mixing rudder and throttle, to eliminate this tail drift. But the bottom line is that pilots keep complaining about the drift problem, and as such, there doesn't seem to be a good solution to this problem where pilots come to a consensus.

Pilots have also tried using several types of tail rotor blades with more or less success.

Rudder trims and subtrims fail to correct this problem as well. In fact, using excessive trims leads to problems after a while because the heli seems to always want more and more CW trim, flight after flight. This can lead to what has been reported by many pilots; both the rudder subtrims and flight trims are almost maxed out and the heli still drifts CCW.

Livonia bob came up with a fix for this. It's a way to trick the transmitter into resetting the trims back to center position. It works well for this purpose, but it doesn't stop the CCW tail drift.

To do this, you have to follow the following steps.

1-Turn on TX

2- Bind heli

3- set subtrims to 0%

4- move rudder trims all the way to the left

5-Unplug heli

6- Turn off TX

7-Turn TX back on

8-Bind heli

9-Move flight trims to center position

10- Unplug heli

11- Turn off TX

Then you're ready to go fly as usual. The trims are centered and the tail will hold OK, albeit it will still have a CCW drift.

What I did is not much different. I followed the steps above but I did it 5 times in a row. Essentially, when you finish the above steps, go through them all over again another 3-4 times. Make sure you end on centered trims. Unplug the heli, turn off the TX, and there you are ready to fly with NO DRIFT!

Below are two videos. The first one is pretty much explaining this like I just did in writing with a demonstration on how to do this. The second video is a flight demonstration showing that the tail drift is non existent on my Genius CP.

I am using a Mini CP tail rotor on my Genius, but it was also drifting CCW until I followed the above instructions.

I hope this will work for other people, too. If it helps or not, please post your results. Make sure you wait for the heli to bind before you touch the trims. If you forget to wait, you have to follow the steps 4 more times.

I hope this helps.

Chris

Tail drift FIX: Genius and Mini CP 1 (6 min 36 sec)

Tail drift FIX: Genius and Mini CP 2 (4 min 14 sec)

Damn that's steady! Good job

Originally Posted by Zoide

Damn that's steady! Good job

Right on! You are now the second person to report this as a working solution for the tail drift. With me, that makes 3. Bytemuncher is the other poster who reported having a very steady tail after calibrating the rudder trims as explained above. Here's the link to his comments:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=1509

Now we need to establish how long the "fix" works for and how often this calibration process needs to be done. In other words, we need to find out how long it takes/how many flights it takes before the rudder trims need to be re-calibrated/ before the drift comes back.

When I first got my Mini CP, the tail had NO drift at all. After about 20-30 flights, I started having tail drift just like on the Genius. Calibrating the rudder trims fixed it and I have no drift on my Mini CP, either, anymore. So this works for both the Mini CP and the Genius CP.

Best,
Chris

Somewhere along the way I read instructions from Walkera to "reset" the helicopter by plugging it in, unplugging, then plugging it in again. I think I've cured the drift in my Genius by doing that, also by switching to a different model on the 2801 tx and then back. Nothing seems to last forever though. I wind up doing it again after some unknown number of batteries.

So what is this fix actually fixing? is there an issue with the transmitter or the receiver?

Originally Posted by mescalinedream

So what is this fix actually fixing? is there an issue with the transmitter or the receiver?

I'm not sure. I don't think there's really anything broken. It's just the trims need to be calibrated, I think. In fact, you can do the above steps, stop when the rudder trim is all the way to the left. Rebind the heli and the heli will fly well. The TX will, as such, be tricked to think the trims are centered when in fact the rudder trim is all the way left.

Just try it, it takes a minute, and see if it works for ya.

Best,
Chris

Originally Posted by bobepine

When I first got my Mini CP, the tail had NO drift at all. After about 20-30 flights, I started having tail drift just like on the Genius. Calibrating the rudder trims fixed it and I have no drift on my Mini CP, either, anymore. So this works for both the Mini CP and the Genius CP.

Best,
Chris

To me this says to me your heli has something wrong with it for setup and the radio manipulation and changing what is suppose to be center trim is only countering what should really be fixed on your heli.

I have near 100 flights on my mini and i do occasionally get drift. But it is always something physically wrong with the heli or not being level during binding.


Sure what you are doing is a fix...a quick one but I believe it is covering up another issue only for a short time

For me, the drift has always been such a slow drift that I simply fly my heli and I correct for it without thinking about it. Just don't see it as much of an issue personally.

Originally Posted by indoorheli

To me this says to me your heli has something wrong with it for setup and the radio manipulation and changing what is suppose to be center trim is only countering what should really be fixed on your heli.

I have near 100 flights on my mini and i do occasionally get drift. But it is always something physically wrong with the heli or not being level during binding.


Sure what you are doing is a fix...a quick one but I believe it is covering up another issue only for a short time

Are you saying the Genius CP doesn't have a tail drift problem? Because Mini aside, this works on the GCP and so far it has worked for others as well. What gives?

Chris

Originally Posted by pmerritt

For me, the drift has always been such a slow drift that I simply fly my heli and I correct for it without thinking about it. Just don't see it as much of an issue personally.

It's not much of an issue, indeed. It would take too long to write about how I came about binding and unplugging three-four times in a row, but suffice to say that I found this fix by fluke and it works.

Why wouldn't you take a minute to try it to report about it, instead of saying the tail drift isn't an issue? There is at least 100+posts on the subject by posters who do not appreciate the tail drift, hence why I posted this. Try it first and post after. Seems more productive to me, anyways.

Best,
Chris

Originally Posted by bobepine

Are you saying the Genius CP doesn't have a tail drift problem? Because Mini aside, this works on the GCP and so far it has worked for others as well. What gives?

Chris

Just because it works doesn't mean it fixes it. I believe It is a patch for something else not setup right. I don't know on the first versions of the genius but on the one I have proper setup eliminates drift. Now walkera has been known to release different firmware versions and one or two is possible to not be not to par.

But if the tail drifts you can do mechanical corrections to help it instead of messing with the trim center points as some do. If changing where center of trim is onthe radio fixes it unless the gyro is damaged you can mechanically fix it.

I am not saying the way you and others do it doesn't work as I know it will, but if you try i believe you will be able to find a permanent fix such as extending the tail or verifying all else is as it should be.

If it worked for 20-30 flights as it should and then started to drift something has physically changed. It is quite possible the gyro is damaged as well.

Originally Posted by indoorheli

Just because it works doesn't mean it fixes it. I believe It is a patch for something else not setup right. I don't know on the first versions of the genius but on the one I have proper setup eliminates drift. Now walkera has been known to release different firmware versions and one or two is possible to not be not to par.

But if the tail drifts you can do mechanical corrections to help it instead of messing with the trim center points as some do. If changing where center of trim is onthe radio fixes it you can mechanically fix it.

I am not saying the way you and others do it doesn't work as I know it will, but if you try i believe you will be able to find a permanent fix such as extending the tail or verifying all else is as it should be.

If it worked for 20-30 flights as it should and then started to drift something has physically changed

Well... Now I want to see a video of your GCP flying with no tail drift as you are the ONLY poster who has so far reported not having tail drift on this heli. If correct settings eliminate the drift, then I wonder why you were never tempted to tell this to the dozens and dozens of pilots who reported having tail drift on the GCP.

Look, this "fix" I discovered by fluke and I posted a video showing a GCP with no drift. Others who have tried it reported the same result. If you manage to do this some other way, it would be helpful to see a video and for you to tell us how you do it.

Best,
Chris

Chris I am just trying to help with sharing my experience. I have been telling what to try and mess with for a long while, now whether people listen and try is up to the individual. People complain about the 120d02s too, yet I have two setup with no drift.

I only have 4 Walkera heli's currently yet all that people complain of drift on but I currently have none. Maybe I am just lucky with the Walkeras I get..

IF you want to see a video look at my YouTube channel I am pretty sure I have a vid of it flying as it should, though please note tail blow out in the vid and tail drift are different things

The trick you now use for changing trims center as I said is a trick that we did have to use with the old gyros walkera had. The tail hold would change throughout flight depending on battery level. But unless the new MEMS gyros are really damaged or have sub par firmware you shouldnt have to do that anymore

Like I said, you're the only pilot to report having no CCW drift on the GCP. The ONLY one. So don't blame me for having doubts about that...

Chris

I am not blaming you ...though you do doubt most I say
Again if it worked for 20-30 flights before you had issues something else is wrong with your heli/radio setup. I get drift and am able to locate and correct the issue by trial and error usually within one battery. I can also create tail drift by manipulating the tail blade pitch, gyro angle, trims, boom length and gain.


Again since I am the only one without drift on the Walkera heli's I must be insanely lucky. Ill wait till the mega millions gets up to 200m then buy a ticket