×SlappY×

I GOT MY DF4! Its so sick! its gunna be a challenge to fly this thing, its my first heli, and i gave it a little throttle and damm its alot harder then i expected. i have a question. like i said, this is my first heli.

When giving it a little throttle, as soon as the main rotor starts to spin, the tail starts to spin a little after. when i move my throttle stick to the right the tail goes full throttle, but when i move it to the left nothing happens, is this normal? and is it supposed to throttle like on its own when i make the rotor spin?

yvesOttawa

Hi, you cannot look at the individual rotors and the way they are spinning. You must look at the entire helicopter and the way it behaves. Have you got it airborn yet? give it enough throttle (left stick up) so that it just about starts to take off, preferable on a smooth floor finish. Then look at the direction the helicopter wants to go. Remember, the DF has onboard gyros to keep it steady, so it is constantly trying to adjust each of the 4 rotors to keep it level. The important step is to trim it out properly.

Does it want to go straight up? good then the trims are set. If it wants to creep right, left, forward or back, then you will need to adjust the trim sliders (black sliding things on the sides and bottom of sticks) so that the heli hovers straight up (as much as possible). At least then you will have a "trimmed" heli.

Next, practice, practice, practice. Make small adjustments and adjust the throttle little bit at a time, up and down to try and keep it steady.

If you have the latest "Laser 6" radio from Rctoys, they have "dual rates" settings which can be adjusted so that the controls are less sensitive for beginners. Look in the manual on how to do this.

Have fun!

×SlappY×

hm ok, uh well for some reason, my throttle, to get it air born is left stick down..... cool i guess.

uh i noticed that theyre are swtiches in the back.... theres 8 of them... what are they what sould they be set to? i got my radio, and the first 3 are on "on" and the rest are all off...

yvesOttawa

That's not very cool, your throttle is reversed.

Attached are my switch settings. Good luck.

×SlappY×

hmmm. i dont have that radio, i have the stock one i guess. my df4 was rtf. all mine says is

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
with on or off on both of em...

ill take a picture now,

is there a way that i can put my throttle back to normal?
there are some thihgns on my radio that i dont no what they do, i have 2 switches on the top, and a button....what are these for?

oops

Switches 1,3 ad 4 should be ON... For correct control orientation.

David

×SlappY×

ok cool. ill go do that now, do you know what the swtices and button thing does on top of thejoysticks? and ill take a video of the copter....like rotor spinning, see if u guys can notice anythin awkward about it that needs to be set up correctlty

×SlappY×

did that, but now the main rotor doesnt spin and the tail either... it seems to only spin when #2 is on.


EDIT: Fixed it! my throttle isnt inversed anymore, turns out i had to bring joystick down (full throttling it) then change the dip swtich,
good thing i taped the skids to a bench haha.... i woulda got chopped up!

×SlappY×

ok, ive gotten it airborn for like rly not long. ive been practiing on FMS alot. when i give my df4 enough throttle so that it lifts off a bit so it can like skid the floor, it always goes to the left for some reason.....is this normal? how can i fix it?

anyone have a guide or something to help me out, i dont know how these things are supposed to act, and i dont know what parts to what and what i can adjust and stuff... help?

Sky High

Hello SL4. It sounds like your trim needs adjusting. Have you considered upgrading to the DF V Ti Pro? You won't have any problems flying with the thermal infrared stabilizer on that model. Check out the tips in this link. It is mostly for the V Ti Pro but some may work for you as well. I don't see how anybody flies without Ti. I have alot of respect for those who can fly without it.

www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3676146

×SlappY×

no i havent, i just got my heli, and i wont upgrade untill a while, i want to get good at flying the sucker first, then im probably going to get lipo batteries aand a decent charger.

jason.leesb

Hi SL4,

I am also flying a DF4 for a while now, it takes a while to get use to it. You might want to get a few extra blade as the tends to "explode" upon impact.

(Tips: Do not throw away your broken blade. Most of of the blades can be join back using some tape or glue ).


SkyHigh : You flown both version before DF4 & DF5 ? I was wondering if it worth to upgrade.

RCFunattics

I have the DF5 and with the Thermal Inteligence it operates almost hands free once all trims are set nice and every thing is balanced with no wind.
When you turn off the TI it automatically looses the hands free ability and starts flying vary unstable like a normal heli.
DF5 w/TI = 10 hrs practice
DF4 no/TI = 100 or more hrs practice
This is just my take on the practice time needed. Each individual will vary in practice needed.
turn off the TI then I become a n instant amateur
I rarely crash unless I turn off TI .[&:]

WILDFX

Tail ? Main rotor ?
How many rotor blades does your Heli have ?

yvesOttawa

That is really bad advice. Ti won't help you to just hover around at below 10 feet and espescially indoors. Practice is key. It it tilts left then it is more likely a trimming or unlevelled motor mount. Make sure trim sliders are centered first, then using one of those small plastic carpenter's bubble set on the main gear, loosen bolt and level the main gear. Do this for each rotor.

You should not have to "upgrade" to a version 5 to simply hover. Come on. Practice..practice..practice. Indoors is easiest, then try it outside and if >20 feet high, then you can fiddle with Ti. Make sure you calibrate Ti first though. FYI, I've flown my DF without Ti up to 200 feet. If for some reason Ti fails (and yes it sometimes goes nuts and oscillates until it flips over) you need to recover it yourself.

Just my .02 cents worth

yvesOttawa

Also, you have snow in Brossard. Ti doesn't work when the ground is covered with snow. Very little temperature variations between the earth and sky in Canada's winter. I am lucky when 1 green led is on, so I just don't use it.

Learning to fly it yourself is 90% of the fun. Just flipping a switch to make it autolevel is just too risky for me. I like control. But then again, I've got a Trex 450 as a second heli so my stick time is more than most.

Sky High

It's not necessarily BAD advice and it's just an opinion. I've had much better results with Ti than without. I have never flown without Ti but have accidentally hit the switch on the transmitter and damn near crashed because of it. And yes it does work at 10 ft or less, in fact it works at 6 inches or higher. I never said it worked indoors because it does not as it is not designed to. I have made it clear in other posts but admittedly did not mention it in the one you quoted that my application is for smooth medium to high altitude flight for video recording, not aggressive or trick flying. I would love to see someone achieve nice, smooth video shot without Ti and without stabilization software.

I totally agree that you shouldn't have to upgrade to be able to hover but it sure does make it a whole lot easier. You yourself must be an advanced user and as I stated, I really respect those who can fly in control without Ti. Using Ti makes it easier for the beginners to hover therefore the learning curve and time to learn to fly and hover is significantly reduced. I needed to learn to fly this thing with stability and accuracy in a short amount of time and I was able to do it because of Ti. I have had very few crashes while using Ti. Any that I have had were because of me trying something I shouldn't have as described in other posts.

Sky High

DFI shows video of it flying with Ti just fine over snow. Did you try it with blue sky or with clouds? It will get tempermental with clouds indicating 1 or no LED(s). That aggravates the hell out of me not being able to fly with Ti just because it's cloudy! [:@]

I agree with you there, but I'm not doing it just for fun as I stated earlier. It is very fun to fly but when I'm carrying $700 worth of video gear on it, I'm all about 99.9% stability maintained by the machine. Think of trying to frame usable video while maintaining a level hover and then add a slight wind. Ti allows me stable flight and an almost autonomous hover once I reach a good POV. Once there, all I have to do slightly adjust pitch, roll or yaw to reframe and the helo does the rest.

Activating Ti is NOT full auto level and it should NOT be thought of as an [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3686137/tm.htm]Easy Button[/link] . While using Ti, you will have to make very minimal adjustments to the trim and axes once you gain altitude but they are minimal.

yvesOttawa

6 inches?? I don't know which version of the DF you ended up with but mine certainly doesn't work in Ti mode at 6 inches. How can the sensors "see" the horizon at 6 inches?. Yours must be special.

I've seen your videos, even with Ti on I wouldn't really advertise that your stuff is "smooth and controlled". You want smooth and controlled, the new rctoys.com videos are exactly that. But then again Zenon is using a Mac and stabilization software to record/edit those.

yvesOttawa

Cloudy. Most days are cloudy here in winter. I always wondered about that "free falling" video. Can't really tell in it if it's blue sky. Then again, the TX smash one he does say it is cloudy but he is out in a field. I have a million houses near me when I fly in my neighborhood. Horizon is at least 50 feet from the ground (height of rooftops).

Sky High

My point is that I am able to hover from 6" and up while Ti is activated. I don't know if Ti is doing it or if it's just my subtle corrections. I just know that it does it. I must say that it is not a 100% rock steady, no drift hover and it is usually not longer than 20-30 seconds because I like to fly high but it stays there in one place.

Believe me, I'm not advertising that crap as high quality video images or shooting ability! [sm=lol.gif]. Unless you count RCU as advertising. When I said smooth and controlled, I was mostly speaking of the flying, not shooting. I posted those videos just because it's something other than text and stills and because there hasn't been that much video posted shot by the DF V Ti Pro. That's just what I used while training because it's not as expensive to replace or lose if I have a fatal crash, which I have had due to frame strikes with no damage to the camera. Those videos were my very first recordings and other than the image quality aren't too bad for the first time. The high frequency vibration is what made them look so crappy not to mention that they are CMOS. Those were shot without ANY frame reference like viewing a monitor while flying, just random flight. I hope to get video eyewear soon. I now have the higher end 3 CCD camera system with the new isolator camera mount. I would like to but I can't discuss any of it's details right now. Let's just say it produces results like 1video1man's demo.

yvesOttawa

Oh ok. That's vibration from the mount then causing the image to bounce around. Got it.

Really?? 3 CCD camera system for the DF? Wow.

Sky High

The standard Eyecam mount allows vibration to travel to the camera even with the isolation padding that you see in the post below. The image is already a little soft because of the CMOS chip camera and then it is softened even further by the vibration. I need to wrap the lens barrel with the foam to see if that dampens it any more.

My Isolation Mount
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3619343

Sky High

I need to make a correction. It was compared to a 3 CCD camera and I mistook it for actually being that. It's not a 3 CCD camera but a very high quality CCD camera that looks VERY much like the quality of DV. This new camera can also be white balanced for accurate color reproduction. In other words, the difference in the CMOS and this new one is like night and day!

WILDFX

Call me blind but I dont see your DF4 in this picture ????