Hi all, I connected my Jazz 40-6-18 to my heli today for a 'trial spool up'(without blades connected).
I had already programed it a few days eairler as per the manual and everything seems
to be programed correctly.
Today when I spooled it up using a liner curve ranging from 0% to 100% (just for
testing), I noticed that the motor (Align 430L) did not start until I reached about half stick
(about 50% throttle); is this normal? If so how should my 'normal throttle 'curve' look ie.
my origional plan was for it to be 0% at low stick and something like 85% at 1/4 1/2 3/4 and high as
I'm still in the learning stages and might need to cut throttle in case of a crash.
The manual says that it should not be used under 85% throttle but since the low to 1/4 stick positions
would be used for 'Starting' and 'stopping' the rotors rather than governing them I assumed it would be OK.

ANY help will be greatly appreciated.......THANK YOU....ICE

PS: I use a Hitec Eclipse 7 QPCM Transmitter.

Try using your Sub Trim on your Throttle to get it to start when it is suppost to. IE put your stick on one click and then go to the Sub Trim for your Throttle and bump it up until it kicks the motor on. This way you can use your standard Throttle / Pitch curves with out having to do some crazy higher level math Good luck

If you have a Jazz, you should be running in governor mode with a flat throttle curve. If you have programmed mode 4 and your trying to use a throttle curve, your gonna have trouble.

NVSFlyer - thanks I was going to try that only my TX (Eclipse 7) only allows negative trim on the throttle channel. To do that i would need of A LOT of positive trim (around 50% of the entire throttle range.[] Any more suggestions?

Motions - yeah, I'm only using the 0, 25, 50, 75, 100 curve to program the Jazz and so as i can find the correct throttle-RPM setting.
The plan was then to use a 0, XX, XX, XX, XX 'curve' (XX being the throttle % that equates to my desired RPM) for NORMAL hovering mode. Are you saying that pilots that use a GOV always fly in IDLE UP 1 minimum ie. never in NORMAL, which would mean that they always land with a 2500+ head speed[X(]? As I said in my previous post, I'm still in the 'learning' stages which leads me to be a bit apprehensive of landing/crashing at 2500+ RPM. I'd much prefer to beable to cut throttle instantly with the stick. I hope i'm making sense to you.

Thanks guys..........Keep em comin'..........really appreciate the help.........ICE

Normally, when using a governor, idle-up is set to a flat percentage which is your desired headspeed (80-80-80-80-80). Normal mode is usually something like (0-60-60-60-60) where it gives throttle off at low stick and a constant headspeed above that. Yes, that would mean your landing under power but not as high as idle-up. You could set normal mode a little lower for landing and use idle-up for flying. There's a lot of people that don't use normal mode at all and use throttle hold to manage the motor on/off function.

You shouldn't try to set a throttle curve and run governor at the same time.

Almost forgot... You NEED to learn not to use the stick to cut the motor in a panic. You should try to start using the throttle hold switch for that. Slamming the stick down is a very bad thing and is something you'll learn from experience.

"Normal mode is usually something like (0-60-60-60-60) where it gives throttle off at low stick and a constant headspeed above that. Yes, that would mean your landing under power but not as high as idle-up."

Thats exactly what my plan was/is.

I have no experience with kontronik speed controllers, but depending on the make, some kick in on the throttle much later and more abruptly than others (mostly becuase many are designed for airplanes and not helicopters). This is why many helicopter specific speed controllers have a soft or slow start option, to avoid damage. My Align ESC on my X400 spools up nice and slow, but the Jeti 40-3P on my Eco-8 doesn't "start" untill near mid stick, and when it does start, it's very abrupt, so much so that I usually spin my rotors beforehand to ease the strain on the gears. I've never stripped a tooth, even from a stand still as the eco-8 gears are pretty robust, but why take the chance.

I've just now looked up the specs on the Jazz ESC and it has lots of programmable features (really nice ESC by the looks of it ). Make sure you've got soft-start enabled. Also as stated, make sure you don't have a wierd throttle curve if you're using the governor on the ESC or it'll mess with your setup.

On the Jazz, you only need to set program mode 4 and 9 and that's it. The Jazz has the smoothest spool up of any other ESC made.

Credence - It's a good one. only trouble is (as you may have noticed) the setting up of the throttle curves as it's a bit of a 'Black Art'.

My ESC is in mode 4 and mode 9.

any more suggestions on the 50% throttle issue?
Thanks.....ICE

Why are you using throttle curves when your using gov mode?

Motions - let me explain. when i say throttle 'curves' i an not literally referring to curves, thats why i write the word in ' '. The apostrophes indicate that the enclosed word is not to be taken literally.

when I say 'curves' i mean either a flat line using equal values within the throttle curve function of my transmitter OR in the case of NORMAL mode which would be 0% at low stick followed by a flat line using equal values via the remaining four points.
In my previous post i have referred to this flat line as a 'curve' . This flat line is what the ESC uses to determine the speed at which the motor should be Governed.


thanks again.........ICE

PS: sorry, i forgot to add the ' ' in the post you quoted