u)

SO,

I just had my first hover with my Trex 450SEv2 and it was pretty nerve racking but I made it through . I have flown a blade cx2 for a little over a year and been logging quite a few hours on the G4.5 Sim...... (my wallets best friend ) lol. So I brought it out in the garage and spooled it up, checked everything out, blade tracking is a hair off ....need to take care of that. I lifted off to about 2 feet or so and was hovering for about 25-30 seconds and the motor starting going faster, slower, faster, slower, faster, slower, ever so slightly just enough to make the gyro notice it and the tail twitch with it to keep the heli straight . So I set it down but left it spooled up and it was still doing it even on the ground. Even if I cut the throttle completly and let the blades stop and spool it up again it still does it. the only way it stops is if I unplug battery and completely restart everthing. AND..... Even so after restarting everything it will start again 25-30 seconds into the next hover.

Any Ideas?????

Heres what I have............

Spektrum DX7
AR7000 Receiver
Futaba GY401 Gyro with 9257 tail servo
3 Hitec HS-5065 Digital's on the cyclic

Align motor and ESC.

THANK YOU AHEAD OF TIME FOR ANY IDEAS OR HELP, IT WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

au_wozza

Hi
It could be a couple of things which all relate to the ESC setup
You might have the battery protection set to high which will cause the warning pulses to come in early,basically when the voltage drops to a certain level the esc warns you by pulsing the motor.This can also happen if your lipo isnt up to the current draw.
The other is you have the esc set for governor on with a normal throttle curve this will cause the motor to pulse,the align 450 esc are renowned for not being the greatest in gov mode even when setup right.If you want to fly in gov mode your normal TX throttle settings will be something like 0 90 90 90 90
Cheers
Wozza

u)

Well thank you very much! That sounds lije my problem ill look into it tomorow after work (6pm eastern time about 18 hours from now) and let u know if that was the problem because I never did anything with the ESC, so that's likely it. Yes the motor "pulses" I couldn't think of a good word to describe it. Lol.

Again thank you,
Troy

Skarn

Yep, that motor pulsing is definitely the ESC Low Voltage Cutoff (LVC).

Other than programming your ESC, it can also be caused by a bad or weak battery. Always charge your battery fully before each flight.

Skarn

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

Also, ESC could be faulty. Let's hope that is not the case.

u)

Yeah that would be bad! Everything is brand new never flown before so I dont know and the battery is the stock align battery that came with it.

noobflyer01

hey i have the same problem with my align motor. it pulses just like that and it was only used for 6 weeks. my bet is the align motor is garbage. since i've replaced the motor with a JGF 450F i've never had that problem again. try a different motor and i'll bet you'll be good to go.

u)

Also the battery was fully charged so i dont think a low battery would be the problem but maybe the programing of the esc so i am going to check that out right now.

exeter_acres

My Feedback: (2)

THe motor is fine....

It is the LVC...had the exact same thing....

need to set the voltage to Med.. If I remember.....

to do this you need to switch it over to airplane mode first.......

still works fine

u)

Well I did get the blades tracking PERFECT. Which is awesome, and i also programed the ESC and set the Low Voltage Cutoff to Medium. So far so good! This time the motor pulsing started when all 3 cells were down to about 3.67 volts each....does that sound about right since the LVC is set to medium???

About how many minutes of hovering should i expect???


Thanks again for all your help!

Troy

500 lb. koolaid man

I've got a similar problem. My throttle will randomly cut out for about one second, then comes back on. It does this fairly frequently, falls straight to the ground. And I know it's not the low voltage cutoff because I have experienced that and it works well. I also don't believe it's my battery since it does this at random times during flight, including the beginning of 15 minute flights with a balanced lipo.

I'm going to try and disable the esc's governor mode this weekend following the finless align esc setup video, and I'm also going to change to his recommended throttle curve. Any other suggestions about my throttle problem are welcome. Thanks.

u)

I followed the same finless video and MANY others of his to set up my bird.

500 lb. koolaid man

Great videos, aren't they.

Nice wiring BTW

Is your frame carbon fiber or fiberglass? Looks identical to my fiberglass frame.

u)

Yeah they are! And Thank you very much!


Silver Carbon Fiber Frame...

(I used to install car audio at my store, plus im a neat freak..... so u put the two together and you get nice, clean installs )

u)

exeter_acres Also i didnt have to switch to airplane mode.... left it in heli mode and it seemed to work just fine

u)

.............This time the motor pulsing started when all 3 cells were down to about 3.67 volts each....does that sound about right since the LVC is set to medium???

About how many minutes of hovering should i expect???

Any Ideas?

au_wozza

Hi
From memory the middle battery protection comes in when 1 of the cell reaches 2.9 volts
If you have a dodgy battery one of the cells could be dipping under the 2.9volts under load but come back up when no load
have you got another batt? if it happens at the same time on a number of different bats then the probs elsewhere.Also did you check if you had the governor mode off?
Cheers
Wozza

u)

Yes the governor mode is off and and im using just soft start by its self. I checked the battery not under load and it said all 3 cells were @ 3.67V each. Maybe the battery is garbage, not really nice enough to fly outside any ways yet. Its still only about 40 degrees every day by me.

Skarn

3.6v is fine...it's what I have mine set at.

And noobflyer, the Align motor is a great motor! I've never had an issue with it.

Skarn

u)

Skarn...

SO...... It was normal last time that the LVC pulsing kicked in at or around 3.6v? yes?

exeter_acres

My Feedback: (2)

sounds it...40 is a bit cool for Lipo packs...

What is your headspeed and how long were the flight times?

Skarn

Yes since you set it to mid.

I actually have mine set to high and it cuts at 3.2v per cell...

Skarn

u)

OK. Im going to charge it agian fully tonight and see how long of a hover i get before the LVC kicks in.

Skarn

Most people will tell you not to rely on the LVC and to time all of your flights. That is sound advice for sure. But I personally haven't had any issues letting the LVC kick in.

Skarn

Ybenjulkay2x

Also it's not good to run your batteries down, waiting till it pulsait, time it like 7 minutes, here in Vallejo where some pilot fly their heli advice me also to fly it 7 minutes, before I fly mine 10 minute on hover ans still have plenty of power, but still taking a risk on the batteries, align motor are good as I have that on my 450 sa and 450 flasher, but align esc does have poor quality as 3 of my align esc goes out, doesn't know what reason, it's not burn, the third one producing glitch start at quarter throttle, i'm glad I have some esc from hobby king as spare and cheap.