warlock1174

My Feedback: (23)

Captain1:

As I stated previously, you want to recalibrate when the weather changes, or if you turn the rx off. Period. Once you turn off the rx, the stored calibration settings are lost. (If you have your doubts & would like to test this, go right ahead... Don't say I didn't warn you!)

To answer your second question: Bear in mind that the number you get is an indication of how precise the CP wil function. 1 being the extreme lowest, and 10 being the extreme highest. It is not recommended that you fly with only a reading of 1, and I also don't suggest flying with a reading of 10 either...
Generally, I found that performance was better when I had a reading of 5 to 9.

If you get a "10" every time you calibrate, then it's possible you have the sensor pointed directly at the sun. Try to avoid that. If, after several attempts you still get a reading of 10, then you should be able to fly no problem, but a weather change may have a dramatic effect on your heli....(For example, a sudden cloud cover, etc...)

Turning the sensitivity pot will have no affect on the accuracy of the co-pilot, only the sensitivity.

captain1

Warlock,

Below is an email I received from FMA support. They seem to conflict with what you say. I tried not calibrating the co-pilot between flights and it seems to work just fine.

Sorry I dont want to get into any argument here and I am not trying to put you down in any way.


> Gooday,
>
> I purchased a Co-Pilot from your Australian agents last week and have two
> questions, I have teh co-pilot on a helicopter:
>
> 1. If I do three flights at the field and switch the radio off between
flights do I have to
> do the field calibration again. Your instructions seem to indicate that
this is not
> necesasary, however the "guru's" tell me it is. Turning the chopper on
it's side every
> time is a bit of a pain.
> 2. On the weekend every time I used the co-pilot during the calibration I
got a value of
> calibration value of '10' every time. The instructions say that this is
unacceptable.
> How caould I get this value down?
>
> Thanks in advance

Dear Sir,

You should only have to recalibrate if you have had a severe weather
change.
The manual does not say that a 10 is unacceptable. It says that a 10 is
rare but that depends on where you live. A 10 is the best reading.

Sincerely,

Howard G. Matos
Technical Support

FMA, Inc.
5716A Industry Lane
Frederick, MD 21704
301-668-7615 x18

pistole

Actually , I have flown , with and without recalibration , and , really , have not seen any difference in how the heli behaves.

Then again , I have the CP gain set at about 5% ..... so maybe with that gain level , I can't really discern any difference.

elmote

Warlock et al

Ive been away for awhile. New job.

Warlock, I sent my troublesome CP into FMA, got it back last week. They found that the P eyes were not responding properly and replaced them. Now it seems to work as advertised. Unfortunately, while on my first flight with the CP functioning (gain up %100) I was trying to get the thing trimmed out. The sudden self righting of the CP made me overdrive the elevator and I tipped her tail into the tarmac. A boomstrike followed. One of the victims was your mount on it's first trial run. The tab that bends down to accept the bolt broke on one side. Cie La Vie!
I'm going to use a metal tailfin mount with the disc from your mount screwed to it next time

Elmo TE

warlock1174

My Feedback: (23)

Damn, dude....

You have the worst luck I have ever seen!!!

Well, I no longer make the mounts, (for now), so your idea might work okay...

Let the CP do it's job!!!!!

-Derrick

pistole

Ouch !

Sorry to hear Elmote.

Hope you have better luck next time. That and don't have the gain up to 100 percent , about 60 will do.

Cheers.

warlock1174

My Feedback: (23)

The comment regarding the repeated reading of 10 is correct. If you get that reading continually, then great, you have an ideal flight situation....

I think you may have misinterpreted my advice....

If you turn off the rx, and then go home for the day, then go out again the next day, you should recalibrate...

If you turn off the rx for more than 15 minutes to half an hour, you should recalibrate.

An ounce of prevention, etc....

scouse

Check out ur co-pilot

Havent had much of a chance l8ty to do any flying so i aint been able to check out how good the co-pilot is.
BUT i was having a look over the heli today an ive noticed that if i move the elevator forward slowly when it gets to the end of its travel the servo jumps thens starts glitching causing the aileron servo to glitch also[X(]
Didnt notice this b4 because i had the atv's set to 95% and i was only when i set them back to 100% that i had problems.Ive changed the servo thinking it was that but it aint its deffo the co-pilot.
Do u think i need 1 of those buffers? id imagine so but would like to hear any comments first if possible.
The radio i am using is the Sanwa/Airtronics RD8000, so if u have 1 of these check it out.
Also posting this on the other rival site just as a bit of a warning.

Thanks

scouse

No-one else having this problem then?

Aerosplat

My Feedback: (12)

Sorry,
Never mind.........

nazwan78

Hi.. Warlock, i'm still new in this hobby and recently bought a new RaptorV2 with Futaba6XHs Tx. After I heard many advantage of using CP, i'm also interested to have one.. but I have some question, hope u can answer it..

1) What is CCPM?

2) If I use CP, can I fly inverted or learning others 3D manuever?

3) Is it ok if i put CP on stabilizer fin?

4) In my place, its hard to find a field that really-really clear from trees and houses. There are some grass field but have several tress. My question is, if there have a tree or building, what is the minimum range (or radius) of that tree from my heli during calibrating or flying.

Thanks..

captain1

CCPM is when the collective and the cyclic are mixed by the electonics. Typically you have three servos directly conected to the swashplate. When you apply more colllective they all move up together. When you apply cyclic the move independatly so that the swashplate tilts.

The raptor does not have CCPM unless you do some serious modifications to it so you can use the CP.

Yes apparently it does work inverted (have not tried myself though)

Yeah it should work but the horizontal stabilizer is quiet a long way back so you would need a longer sensor cable. Also I suspect it would work better the closer it is to the pivoting axis.

During the week I fly in a field that is a football field in a valley. The trees start at the edges of this field so it is pretty tight. I have found that when I get to about 15meters from teh trees the co-pilot will bank slightly away from them. There is also a clubhouse that it really does not like. Then again I fly with the co-pilot off all teh time (switch it on when I am disorientated). Also I have set the sensitivity right down. On my first flight at that field when I switched it on the co-pilot wanted it bank away from that clubhouse (I was about 20 m from it) real hard. So much so that I had almost full cyclic just to keep it level.

pistole

It does work inverted ...................

nazwan78

Thanks a lot..

flyerdarren

New to helis, but i have a Cp i used when learning on fixed wings, my question is do you need to have an HH gyro, or any other kind of gyro, or does the CP handle this as well?

Wright Flyer

You still need a gyro. The CP will add stability to the fore/aft and left/right of the heli but the gyro adds stability to the rotation of the tail which is completely separate from the CP. However, with a CP and an HH gyro you do then have almost complete "auto pilot" in every axis and the heli will fly "hands off" (though it's still subject to drift caused by breezes).

Cliff

thejster

Hi,

I just got my copilot and installed it on my heli. I have not used it yet because where I hover there are too many trees and buildings. I did calibrate it to see if the servos moved correctly, and they do.

I did notice that when I turn the sensitivity all the way down with it switched off from the transmitter, I can hear the pitch servo kinda humming. It is as if it is trimming in that axis. It should be off. It only does this after I move the heli in the pitch axis from the transmitter and then I hear it constantly ever so slightly twitching. I can't see any movement. When I switch everything off and then back on, it only starts to make that sound after I put in a pitch input. Is this normal?

I have a Futaba Super 7 Radio and I am using the digital buffer. I also use channel 5 to switch it on and off.

Thanks in advance for you help.....jj
p.s. I can't wait to try it.

Wlouigene

My Feedback: (66)

I’m also new to heli, I have an hawk Sport with a JR 6 channel radio. My question is will co-pilot works with a 6 channel radio

scott36

My Feedback: (54)

yes it will work with the 662 but you will only beable to set the thro manule,

sherif

will the co-pilot work with a 4 ch aerohawk electric heli.
i ve read alot about it and it sounds very helpful. i just started with the electric aerohawk and have major problems.
i will get one. regarding mount, which one for the aerohawk by smartech??and what else do i need?
thanks

sherif

astrocyl glad you posted, i have an aerhawk and a litter battery, does the co-pilot work well.
what else do you need to install the copilot on the aerohawk.
pls help out, iam about to buy one.

scott36

My Feedback: (54)

Ok folks i just got my servo buffer for my c-p and it has no directions or pix as how to hook this up also need to know witch servo to plug the buffer into,thanks fp any help,scott

thejster

Hi,

It plugs into the pitch (elevator) channel. There are two places to plug into mine. My directions tell you to plug into the bumpy side. Make sure that the wires line up. The white wire plugs into the white wire...etc. If you place it the other way, it will make the servo go full throw one way (at least that is what mine did).

I have the factory manual it you have any other questions.

Good luck.......jj

scott36

My Feedback: (54)

THANKS .SCOTT

Wakko0o

My Feedback: (1)

Well i have read every single post in here and i find it a GREAT device to get thxs.... alot... by the way am a newbeeee