kiwibob72

Re the comments on the gyros, I put an Align GP750 in my 50 size nitro heli, and that thing is stable as a rock with this setup, all I can say is it is a really great gyro for anyone looking for one (at a fantastic rate ex helikraft.com for the combo too).
Being it can be programed for a 450 size heli as well, if I was going to upgrade my belt's gyro, I'd be looking at the newer Align GP780 combo based on what I'm finding re how my 750 performs, really simple and efficient!

Odd thing, the guys at the (nitro) flying field all point out just how good these gyros are without any prompting, so the word and/or understanding is getting around I guess!!

dlschell5

I know I have seen this in one of the threads, but I need to change the tail shaft on my CP, any tips?

Tinkman

It's pretty straight forward. You'll need to loosen each of the tube clamps (servo mounts, pushrod guides andhorozontal fin mount), remove one end of the pushrod, remove the verticle fin, loosen the tail box and the boom clamps (four screw on left rear of heli). Then split the tail box to remove the drive belt. Everything should slip off from there.
Installation is pretty much the opposite with the exception of tensioning the drive belt and setting the mechanical tail rotor trim.

Joaquin

warpnine

Make sure you don't get any extra twists in the new belt when you put the tail boom back together. It is possible to do that so it looks like everything is moving the right direction, but if there is an extra twist in the belt it will wear it out much more quickly. Also obviously check that the tail is rotating the correct direction by hand before you tighten everything back up too.

Good luck!
Dave

Tinkman

I installed my Futaba 520 gyro yesterday. All I can say is wow. I guess you don't realize how nice flying can be until you get really nice equipment. Switching from rate to HH is seamless. With my stock gyro I could never get rete mode trim matchHH trim. With the 520 you simply set the trim in rate mode, then switch back and forth from rate to HH three times and the gyro resets neutral trim to match rate mode. Really sweet.

Joaquin

Tinkman

I've got a question for everyone:
How are you ballancing your Belt CPs? Mine is tail heavy, even with the battery as far forward as I can get it. Normally I just trim it out anddeal with it, but I'm trying to learn piros and the offset CG is causing problems. Any ideas?

Joaquin

Disney1

Afternoon Tinkman:
I use lead fishing sinkers 1/4oz in the nose of the canopy glue it in with epoxy
You can also get lead balance tape at your local hobby shop it has double side tape on the back.
I have also used a hammer to flatten a 1/4 oz sinler and secured it with foam double side tape

Ron Sr

Tinkman

Hey Ron,
That was kind of the direction I was heading but wasn't sure about weighing down the canopy.
Thanks for the tip.

Joaquin

warpnine

A couple of years ago, I had the same type of balance problems with my stock HBK2, and got flamed a lot in this forum for doing what Ron suggested - adding nose weight to make it balance. Despite the criticism from many of the old timers back then, I did it anyway - since there is no way it will fly at all if it isn't balanced! I used big (2 inch) washers zip tied to the underside of the front of the frame. It worked O.K., since it became pretty obvious that there was no way to balance it without doing that, as long as the stock RTF battery was installed. It is just too light to balance it!

The better long term solution for me was to get a bigger battery (1800 mah instead of the stock 1000 mah) which seems to balance both the HBK2 and Belt CP just about perfectly. Power wise, this size works pretty well for both birds, since they have the same 3900kv brushless motor in them! I guess E-Sky gives you a smaller battery in the RTF kits to save money, but I'd like to see how they expect you to make the helicopter balance with it - without weights!

Cheers,
Dave

Disney1

Just a note for you.
I do not do 3D you might consider putting the weight in the frame if your doing 3D
Ron

Tinkman

Good Morning Ron,
Thanks again. I'm not up to doing 3D with my birdyet, but I'm practicing allot on ClearView. I'm sure you're right. The extra Gs would probably cause some stress on the canopy. Now to find a good spot to add weight.
I'm fairly comfortable with loops and barrel rolls, and small amounts of inverted flight on the sim, but I don't have the guts to try it with my CP yet. I'm afraid it won't react the same as the sim and I'll have to bring my bird home in a bag.

Joaquin

osceolaflyer

I have seen another lighted heli pad out there I like even more. It can be found here at rc universe or you can go to http://www.anything-rc.com /heli-pads.html to check them out. There must be 6 or more pads there that look really cool and at a good price. I highly recommend you check these out.

warpnine

I recently adapted the Belt CP model for ClearView to be for a HH gyro. This is pretty simple to do, just by changing the GyroGain parameter to something like 77.5 in the model's parameters.txt file. I usually make a separate copy of the model's directory (named differently) before I do this, so I can load different models to fly it with or without the HH gyro being active.

I have never had much luck with the guy who wrote ClearView, in getting him to fully document all the helicopter parameters (as well as he has documented the airplane parameters) or adding a flight timer to the program. It seems like this is not as critical for an airplane pilot, especially since most airplane models are probably gas powered anyway - and airplanes can glide pretty well?

Despite these minor issues, I think ClearView has great bang for the buck! Yoiu have to have a USB controller though, since trying to fly it with just the keyboard isn't the same thing... I use the cheap E-Sky 0905A USB controller that works great.

Cheers,
Dave

Disney1

Holy S$1T $220 for a heli pad!!! You gott be kidding. I could buy another Belt CP and a second RX for my DX6i for that.

GuessI will stick to my sheet of 1/4 inch plywood painted white with a blue H

Cost less than $20 and works perfectly.

Pics on You tube. http://www.youtube.com/user/pattr007.../0/KvdNB40ny9Q

Tinkman

I'm hearing you Ron. That is allot of money. I'm thinking I'll go with the plywood too.

Joaquin

Tinkman

Warpnine,
I'd be interested to try your modification. Although I've found that the Belt CP in Clear View doesn't fly like mine. It seems really sluggish, especially in thetail authority. I usually practice with theRaptor90. Even though it's supposed to be much bigger, it seems to fly more like my Belt in reality.
Joaquin

warpnine

That's interesting Joaquin, the Belt CP model certinally is much more sluggish than the HBK2 model I have in ClearView - and much easier to fly as a result. It takes nearly full throttle to get it off the ground, where as the HBK2 model is headed into orbit if you give it that much throttle! I've never gotten my real Belt CP off the ground yet, pending applying a ton of upgrades to the stock RTF kit - so nothing to compare it to. The HBK2 model seems reasonably close to the real helicopter, much more "twitchy" than the Belt CP model.

You can probably play around with the parameter file, to see if you can get it to fly closer to the real thing - but as mentioned earlier, the program's author has never really documented many of the helicopter specific parameters - so some guess work may be necessary. Let me know if you tune the ClearView model to fly closer to your real Belt, since I'd like to see that.

Cheers,
Dave

Tinkman

Good Morning Dave,
I tried looking at the parameters once and had no clue where to begin. There seem to behundreds of parameters to set, any one of which could cripple the model. Any information you may have on what I should be looking for would be appreciated. I would really like to be able to dial in my bird's chacteristics to matchthe upgrades I have.

Joaquin

warpnine

Hey Joaquin! I just spent a few minutes tinkering with the modified Heading Hold Belt CP model in ClearView, to see if I could effect:

1) the sluggish throttle response

and

2) the lack of tail authority that you mentioned

I don't know how successful I was, but both os these flight parameters seem a little bit better to me after my tinkering! Here are the parameters I changed:

cyclicPower 60.0 (up from 50.0)
gyroGain 77.5 (as previously mentiond, up from 25 to simulate the HH gyro)
gyroTailPowerCoef 60.0 (up from 50.0)
pitchCurve1 -5.0 -2.0 0.0 7.0 10 (up from -5.0 -2.0 0.0 5.0 7.5)
pitchCurve2 -5.0 -2.0 0.0 7.0 10
tailPitchCurve1 -0.5 -0.25 0.0 0.25 0.5 (up from 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 - this may suggest that you could even make my new number higher)
tailRotorPower 40.0 (up from 30.0)
throtCurve1 0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.7 (up from 0.0 0.3 0.5 0.8 1.0)

Attached is my complete modified Belt CP parameter.txt file.

Save your original model sub-directory and then try the new file. See if it seems any better to you and then try changing some of these parameters some more if it doesn't. I think the throttle/pitch curve definitely gets it into the air faster, but had a harder time assessing the tail authority. If at first you don't succeed - keep messing with it!

Let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Dave


Read more: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_64...#ixzz0o8coh7Z3

Tinkman

Hey Dave,
That seems pretty damn close. I'll need to spend the next week on the sim with this profile so it's behaviour sinks in, then I'll be able to tell how close it is, but from first impressions this seems much better than before. Thanks for the effort you put into this.
Here's something I wish Clear View would do: have the ability to turn the HH on and off with a keystroke, or even through the TX. I just installed a nice gyro on my bird, and for the first time I can fly with HH off if the wind isn't too bad. It's a much smoother flight, close to an airplane during foward motion.
Thanks again Dave,
Joaquin

petey3

So I just got out my CP, it has been out up for a while. I had been having problems with the tail. It would go into an uncontrollable spin whenever I start it up. This time I got smart and built a turntable for it so at least I do not crash it while trying to fix it. While running it I noticed that when I was turning the pitch of the tail blades hard either way it was binding and stopping the rotation of the tail blades. Right now it has a microheli aluminium tail with the original slider and control arm. It appears that there was some rubbing going on so I filed away until there was no more rubbing. When I spun it up again I noticed that the tail wasn't spinning as much as I thought is should. The pulley? that is on the tail shaft seems to be spinning. So to make a long question shorter I think that perhaps the tail shaft assembly might be set up incorrectly. Does anyone have any directions on setting up the tail properly and perhaps a photo as well? I am overseas and cannot just go into a local hobby shop to ask questions. BTW I did order new cnc parts from US Hobby, I just want to make sure that I do it right this time. Thanks in advance for your help.

Disney1

Evening:
I will help if I can.
First make sure thet the tail belt is tight, slippage will cause a loss in tail rotor RPM and waer out your belt.
You said that the heli spins rapidly when spooling up, try reversing the switch on the gyro, I am assuming it is a stock gyro, Is it Rate og HH?
You have changed the tail gear box did you get the tail rotor rotation correct??
It should rotate so thet is is advancing with up into the Main rotor wash.
Make sure that these things are correct and let me know what the results are.
Ron Sr

petey3

Thanks for your help Disney. Although the answer to my problem wasn't in your post it did cause me to recognise the problem. The problem was that the original owner who was never able to get this thing flying set up the tail and used a feathering shaft instead of a tail shaft. The length of the shaft is what was causing the problems. Fortunately he kept the original tail and tailshaft. After replacing that and getting it installed properly all I have to do is get it dialed in. I put it on my turntable and I can hold it steady with very little or no effort. Now that I have it this far I now need to set up my gyro (telebee gr302-ad). I sould be flying this bird in the next day or two weather permitting of course. Thanks for the help.

Disney1

Glad The fix was that easy.
Since you have it already dialed in in the Rate mode you should only have to flip to HH mode and do the last bit with the gain knob.
Ron

Hornet05

Has anyone had anny experience with the Esky HH, any problems or fix's to report?