eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

what does the throttle hold switch do and when do you use it

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

Hey Bob. The throttle HOLD switch does a couple of things. Firstly it will cut power to the motor. The other aspect is that it will also move the swash plate to full negative assuming the throttle stick is at zero (down). You will still get full movement of the swash plate as if you are in Stunt mode (full positive and full negative pitch) but no power.

HOLD should be used when you are changing batteries as a fail safe for example. Other times to use throttle hold are for auto-rotation practice or if you are about to crash!! If you can flip the HOLD switch quickly you remove the motor tension from the main gear and might save a few things!! You have to be quick though. :D

HOLD tends to be used a lot on the bench for setting up pitch angles etc. For example at mid-stick (50%) on the throttle you can set your zero pitch angle when in HOLD. CAUTION though... if you switch hold off when still at mid-stick the blades will spin up. Most of us do this set up in Stunt Mode (referred to as Idle Up) with at least two motor wires disconnected.

I hope that helps.

Jon

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

I use Hold all the time for takeoffs and landings, really never fly in Normal anymore.

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

I use HOLD whenever I turn on the transmitter and before I connect the battery in the helicopter. I test the stick movement, and check all the switches on my transmitter before turning off HOLD mode and startup the helicopter. A few months ago, this was all new to me, and I remember quickly taking the HOLD switch off, and didn't notice that the STUNT switch was on, probably as I bent to connect the battery. I learned my lesson as the heli crashed before taking off that time [:o]. Lesson learned. I don't think I would be fast enough to turn on HOLD before a crash. I would probably try to recover to save it.

Gilles

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

+1 to what all the others have said.... I do the same, I always have the throttle hold switch engaged even before I plug in the battery to the heli as a safety net. Carrying the heli around with the power on, etc. etc. Because in case you bump the throttle stick, bad things can happen whether you have soft start enabled or not... :D Working on the heli for some set-ups is great also.

Mainly its very nice to use the throttle hold stick for if something goes terribly wrong in flight. In one case for an example for my T-450 I lost all tail control and so when that happens there's nothing you can do but hit the throttle hold to cut the power to the craft, resulting in the main blades losing there momentum and causing less damage to the head components and other areas of the heli. Stripped main gears etc, etc...

Here you see me use the throttle hold switch when I lost control awhile back. The damage was about $10.00 worth, and throttle hold helped greatly as from that bounce it could have been more :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Tg4BvX79o

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Tg4BvX79o[/youtube]


The other great thing for throttle hold is hitting the switch, cutting the power, and floating the heli to a landing doing an Autorotation... This is a good practice, so that if you lost power to the craft, you'd still be able to land without power for instance. I've been practicing myself with them and trying to get it down in case that ever happens to me :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O71UyWum08k

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O71UyWum08k[/youtube]

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

Thought of another thing, My blades wont line up to go into the blade holder unless I am at zero pitch or close to it. So I have to use hold to get the swash there then unplug the battery.

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

How do you use the HOLD for take Off's? Are you referring to the Flight Mode switch (idle up)?

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

This is shown also Jon in my Autorotation video that I know you've already seen but you can possibly see or hear the diffs as I'am using Throttle hold upon take-off... What I do, is I turn my throttle hold on... Then I flip into one of my idle up modes... Then I flick the throttle hold off, and the heli engages its soft start, spools up, and is already in idle up... So when I'am doing my Auto's and cutting the power in the air using Throttle hold, the heli lands, I wait a second, and then turn throttle hold back off and take off again repeating the process... Soft start makes it nice however, so you don't have a violent spool up. I think your Gaui 550's soft start should be adequate but just guessing... :D

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

Yep - I see what you mean now Jeff. However - when I have done auto practice (you've seen those god-awful attempts :eek: ) I have switched the hold off and it HAS spun up violently. But I do have soft start on that ESC on the Blade.

I have also had occasion when the Gaui has spun up when idle up is switched to Pos 1. This is generally when the blades haven't quite stopped spinning...

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

Soft start may be disabled until the motor is completely stopped for 3 seconds (read that in my ESC manual). I quote from the Thunder Power manual:

http://www.rctoys.com/pdf/thunder-po...esc-manual.pdf

'The initial speeds of Soft and Very-Soft mode are very slow, usually it takes about 1 second (Soft startup) or 2 seconds (Very-Soft startup) from startup to full speed. But if throttle is closed (throttle stick moved to bottom) and opened again (throttle stick moved up) within 3 seconds after the first startup, the restart-up will be temporarily changed to normal mode to lesson the chances of crash caused by slow throttle response in aerobatic flying.'

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

That's good info there g1mo2! Apologies for the misunderstanding.

Please refer to my signature. [:o]

RE: eflite 400 throttle hold switch
 

Yes sorry for the confusion but J-Michael cleared it up, I turn on TX and switch on Hold, then tun on Idle1. Move stick to center and plug in heli, when I am ready to fly turn off hold and the soft start spools up the heli. When I am back on the ground after landing I am at center stick, blades still spinning at full RPM at zero pitch and turn on Hold.