IRCHA Jamboree dates for 2012:   Aug. 15th-16th-17th-18th-19th

http://www.henseleit-helicopters.de

It’s competitor, the Diablo, is similar but different in several ways too. And then there is the belt 2-stage drive train from the Goblin. I have to say, though, the most readily available model in the USA and versatile heli that is THE QUIETEST machine is the Synergy E6/7. For that alone it is super impressive, but it is made in China and I’m not a huge fan of supporting that market.  Curtis Youngblood’s Balistic even has helical tail gears (metal), but its gears are almost as loud as Align’s crappy gears. The Trex700′s clone (I forget the name) has even worse sounding gears – terrible high pitch wine.

1) The Bailout Arm light will not light up green until about 10 long seconds has passed after full RPM has been reached!!!! (this killed me so all of my initial tests were false negatives. That is why I previously stated my Bailout was not working.) Until I exercised patience only then did I have results as expected.

2) I recommend initially setting up the Motor Off slider with the idle checkbox disabled. Follow MrMel’s video #18 on his Vbar 101 series.  If you don’t disable it just be sure the Bailout Arm light is off during setting the Motor Off slider such that there is no delay when flipping out of throttle hold. Otherwise if Bailout is armed the idle feature may make the motor run and confuse you.

3) I set my Motor Off endpoint and Motor On endpoint all the way down and up until the status bar was completely empty and completely full. This resulted in having -106% and 106%. My final tweaking ended up being -114% for the Motor Off slider. That is the only way I could get combination of both the lowest idle rpm and desired bailout speed via the throttle hold transmitter value. I now do not have any delay when flipping out of throttle hold while the bailout is armed and the motor is idling.

4) To my disappointment I have found while adjusting the throttle hold value it also changes the idle RPM of the motor. This should be accounted for in the software somehow.
Repro steps:
a) enable bailout and idle modes; no blades; on the workbench.
b) spool up to full RPM.
c) wait 10+ seconds until the Bailout Arm green light appears.
d) hit throttle hold.
e) the motor should now be idling.
e) increase/decrease the throttle hold value on the transmitter and notice the idle rpm changing too.

5) Related to point #4 above, I must lower/raise the Motor Off slider until just after the motor rpm starts (lowest possible idle rpm). Otherwise if I leave the Motor Off slider to the point where there is no delay while flipping out of throttle hold then the idle RPM is too high (~1100RPM)! This should be accounted for in the software somehow.

6) Edit: The idle is much lower when the motor is engaged and blades on, etc.  Headspeed RPM was more like 10RPM, so that is totally fine.  At least on my particular setup the idle rpm is 37% headspeed (700/1900)! That still seems like allot to me. I would think maybe 5-10% would be an appropriate idle RPM. I wonder if this high idle percentage is intentional.

7 ) In MrMel’s Episode#18 video the software does not have the Idle check box present? I’m waiting on an answer on this.

8.) I’ve asked MrMel for an appendix video demonstrating the motor idle feature on the workbench to give an example of what to expect. For example, initially I didn’t truly know what to expect and was unsure during my v5.2 tweaking and testing on the workbench.

9) ** If you make any settings changes, return to normal mode with throtle stick down and throttle hold off, then test your changes. Otherwise you may experience this: During my testing and tweaking I was moving back and forth between the setup wizard and the main screen while simultaneously switching in/out of throttle hold. I was also adjusting throttle hold values on the transmitter, and adjusting the Motor Off slider. Any one or more of these adjustments caused the phenomenon where the motor would spool up to max headspeed RPM (~2200) and then very slowly lower to my specified RPM over the course of 60 seconds time.

Then follow MrMel’s setup videos:
http://heli.dacsa.net/MrMelSite/VBar101.htm

I have additional information for calculating headspeed RPM, but it goes deeper than before and considers motor RPM first.  There are few who delicately calculate the both motor RPM and headspeed RPM for optimal flight time and power combination.  Those two factors are my goal and [so far] have been successful not by accident.  Bottom line is electric pilots cannot look for the plug-n-play enjoyment of a nitro heli.  A nitro power setup is forgiving merely requiring motor tuning – that’s it.  An electric power setup simply requires pilots to approach setup in a calculated manor, else the consequence will either be equipment failure and/or poor flight time & power.

Motor RPM is a factor since it drives the gears.  The motor has a sweet spot – not the main rotor.  So we look at the motor speed first, and at the end we target ~85% of max motor RPM relative to 3.7v per lipo cell, and with this motor RPM should the gear ratio allow ~18% headroom.  The calculation logic is as follows:

1. End of flight should be 3.7v per cell (Lipo’s).
2. Your ESC should always exceed your max amp draw
3. Average Amps = Nominal Voltage * Motor Max Watts (conservative manufacturer specification, so perhaps increase by 10-15%)
4. Milliamps (mAh) only means more/less flight time.
5. Preferably have the highest C rating in your battery pack(s).
6. Calculate the numbers in parenthesis ( ) first.
7. Battery voltage numbers are from nominal voltage.  For lipo’s that number is 3.7v per cell (Example: 12s = 44.4v).  The reason for 3.7v is to account for voltage dropping, and allow RPM to be the same from start to finish in your flight, else you are more likely to experience RPM sag at the end.
8. Max motor RPM = (KV * Nominal Voltage)
9. Max headspeed = (Max motor RPM \ Gear Ratio)
10. Choose a desired headspeed for initial calculation only.
11. Motor RPM  = Desired Headspeed * Gear Ratio
12. Motor RPM percentage = (Motor RPM \ Max Motor RPM) * 100      And should be ~85%
13. Headroom RPM = Max Headspeed RPM – Desired Headspeed.
14. Headroom percentage = 1-(Motor RPM \ Max Motor RPM) * 100     Should be ~15%
15. Repeat steps 10-14 until Headroom Percentage is ~15% AND Motor RPM Percentage is ~85%.
16. Now, relative to a typical headspeed for this size helicopter, this is the optimal headspeed you should run for this motor for the governor to work most efficient.
1. Too little headroom will result in shorter flight time and RPM sag (bog) at the end of your flight.
2. Too much headroom will result in warmer motor temperatures, warmer batteries, and shorter flight time.

What’s new in 5.2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqAc4tWZNA8

How to connect the RPM sensor to the mini vbar (Hyperion Phase sensor)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1NVKcgJN24

http://rc.runryder.com/helicopter/gallery/56481/

As for me, a friend of mine is willing to trade heli assistance with parts so I can get my 700E back into the air again.  The last crash cost was about $250 or more, unfortunately.  I really hope my luck returns with many crash-free flights with zero dumb thumbs.  So, I may be flying by September.  I also need to get the rest of my stuff up for sale.

See you in the air,
Sam

Tim S. from Oregon put on amazing shows during the day and especially at night.  Holy cow he improved big time!  Super fun to watch at night for sure.  I was having so much fun Saturday that I crashed about 8:30pm.  I was kinda tired but I was confident I could fly a fun flight with my yellow glasses on.  I could see the heli perfectly fine, but 10 seconds into the fight while doing some low maneuvers the brain signal did not send to my thumb and I crashed.  It was like I was in simulator mode or something.  It was a sure sign my brain was fried and was time to call it a day.  Here’s a little picture:

I also took time to balance my tail assembly (hub & grips).  I used a magnetic prop balancer and simply filed away the tip of the heavy grip.  Now it is balanced, so before it might have been vibrating and maybe the reason for this bearing wear, and/or it could just be normal wear over time.  Lord knows I pirouette like mad too, so maybe that’s why.  :-D