errr... I think I found my problem. 2 of them actually. First, I had the tail at 0 pitch. I was wondering why it looked severely off centered. I see that it needs to be at about 8 degrees. Newb mistake. I come from the land of the mcpx, where you adjust the pitch of your tail by twisting the prop. Second, the gyro gain was at -127 which I believe is rate mode. No wonder the thing was wonky. Red light bad. Blue light good. Got it.

For what it's worth, there doesn't appear to be any slop or binding in my tail at all.

Edit: What should I set the AVCS gain to as a starting point? Anything above 50?

If your tx uses a -100 to +100 scale, +30 should be good to start with.

I set one mode for 40 and another for 55. I'll adjust accordingly. Thanks for the advice!

Originally Posted by flint723

If your tx uses a -100 to +100 scale, +30 should be good to start with.

Originally Posted by MikeHRC

So I've basically got it set up now - I had small issue as when I first plugged in the G31 - it would not talk to the software. Fortunately I guessed that the new firmware on my G31 wasn't happy talking to an old version of the PC software so I upgraded the PC software and we were all systems go. I had another slight scare when I found out that my LHS had given me a DSM-X satelite rather than the DSM-2 that I had asked for (my DX7 doesn't do DSM-X) but fortunately the DSM-X will work as DSM-2 when bound to DX7.

Anyway, I got it all set-up, I have soldered the RPM sensor onto the ESC to motor cables but will start with simple throttle curves to get it going and try the G31 governor once the rest is working OK.

One question that I do have - has anyone used the remote AIL and ELE gains yet - if so what is a sensible setting to start with - the pots don't have a scale on them so I don't know if 1 click past 12 o'clock is (for example) 1 or 10, does the scale go from -100 to + 100 or 1 to 10 etc.. I'd love to know what a good starting point is ...

Cheers,
Mike

Instead of replying you in DH forum, I will do it here for more to know. The scale goes like this, from 0 to 100 is the same as from min (CCW) to max (CW) on the knobs of G31. The same thing for 0 to -100. So 50 and -50 mean the same thing which is 12 o'clock on the knobs.

Originally Posted by PhantomLeg

Instead of replying you in DH forum, I will do it here for more to know. The scale goes like this, from 0 to 100 is the same as from min (CCW) to max (CW) on the knobs of G31. The same thing for 0 to -100. So 50 and -50 mean the same thing which is 12 o'clock on the knobs.

Brilliant - thank you very much for that

That's really good since it means that I can use Aux 2 set to Gear and use EPA's to set

Thanks again.

Mike

So I put a few batteries through the Robird equiped 450 today and I have to say that I am very happy with it. As I already knew it is very stable in the air (even using cheap analogues on the cyclic - though they were great when this was Beastx equiped as well), just using standard 3D settings to start with.

I then set up the governor, initially using the Align RCE-BL35X that I was using with using with throttle curves previously. I then swapped to Governor with the Align ESC and it worked very nicely - the headspeed staying very constant throughout the flight. The only slight downside is that with the Align's (excellent) soft-start along with the G31 Govenor's soft-start lead to a really slow start up (the Align 450 ESC slow-start is the yard-stick for soft-starts for me, absolutely fantastic).

So I then swapped in a HobbyWing Pertium 40A ESC that I had set up without soft-start to test the G31 soft-start, it's (very slightly) better than the HobbyWing, but still not very soft. So I then tried the Hobby-WIng super soft-start with the G31 and this is OK - not as good as the Align, but better than just the G31. To explain what I mean - I really like the Align as the first 3 or 4 rotations are very slow, but it then quickly ramps up to full speed in about 10 seconds; the G31 does the first few revolutions very quickly, but then takes about 15 - 20 seconds to get up to full speed; the Hobby-Wing goes from stationary to full speed in about 2 - 3 seconds.

I setup the G31 on one computer, but intend to continue setup and adjustments on a different computer. Where is the setup file stored so that I can transfer to new computer? (Search has been futile.) Is there an option that will cause setup program to "read" the gyro to capture setup back to the comjputer?

Fly safe, Glover

Originally Posted by glover

I setup the G31 on one computer, but intend to continue setup and adjustments on a different computer. Where is the setup file stored so that I can transfer to new computer? (Search has been futile.) Is there an option that will cause setup program to "read" the gyro to capture setup back to the comjputer?

Fly safe, Glover

There is no option to save configurations yet. There's a save button but it's not functional. The software just reads the settings back from the gyro. Best you can do is just write everything down in case you screw up the settings and want to get them back. Subtrims for the cyclic and rudder servos are the only ones I bother writing down as everything else is easy to remember. If the sliders for positive/negative collective range and cyclic pitch geometry all have different settings then you should probably write those down too. In my experience they always end up being the same but maybe with analog servos they can end up with different values. On my 500 with the RJX head the proper setting turned out to be 100% for all of them. No idea how or why but 100% is where they should all be for +/- 12 degrees and proper cyclic geometry apparently.

Originally Posted by MikeHRC

So I then swapped in a HobbyWing Pertium 40A ESC that I had set up without soft-start to test the G31 soft-start, it's (very slightly) better than the HobbyWing, but still not very soft. So I then tried the Hobby-WIng super soft-start with the G31 and this is OK - not as good as the Align, but better than just the G31. To explain what I mean - I really like the Align as the first 3 or 4 rotations are very slow, but it then quickly ramps up to full speed in about 10 seconds; the G31 does the first few revolutions very quickly, but then takes about 15 - 20 seconds to get up to full speed; the Hobby-Wing goes from stationary to full speed in about 2 - 3 seconds.

FYI the Turnigy Plush and Hobbywing Pentium aren't exactly the same. The Plush has a much better soft start, the startup music sounds in a higher octave with smoother sounding tones, and the Plush doesn't catch on fire on spoolup after 2 days like the Pentium did.

Originally Posted by Atomic Skull

FYI the Turnigy Plush and Hobbywing Pentium aren't exactly the same. The Plush has a much better soft start, the startup music sounds in a higher octave with smoother sounding tones, and the Plush doesn't catch on fire on spoolup after 2 days like the Pentium did.

Have you tried that comparison with a recent Pentium? I use a Platinum Pro 40A, and was surprised to read of failure reports for the earlier version - so it seems like something that Hobbywing would have fixed across their range.

I've had really good luck with the pantium pro's. Can't say that for the funflys though!. After a while they just quit working. Ed

So what exactly is a "left pirouette"? I'm confused by this because what "left" actually means depends on what direction you're looking at the helicopter and whether you fly the tail or the nose. The meaning of clockwise and counter clockwise was clear, this is not.

I think most people would consider a left turn to be when the nose goes to the left, so it's in the same sense as if you were flying a full size heli. I still have to go back to first principles when setting up my heli tails....

Originally Posted by Atomic Skull

So what exactly is a "left pirouette"? I'm confused by this because what "left" actually means depends on what direction you're looking at the helicopter and whether you fly the tail or the nose. The meaning of clockwise and counter clockwise was clear, this is not.

Yup, left piro would be counterclockwise (from top of heli).

Hey guys:

Robird has just released a new software update with two small improvements:

1). Added support for ppm single-line receiver
2). Increased the governor top speed

The update can be downloaded at www.robird.net/G31

Thanks,

Scott
RobirdUSA