martin18152

I'm putting a futaba GY401 in my fixed wing plane, I'm not trying to improve my 3d or flying ability, I just like playing around with electronic gadgets, and experimenting. I noticed that all futaba gyros have specs with the upper voltage at 6.0. Tower hobbies have a warning on some of the gyros about only using only a 4 cell pack, but they don't have a warning on the 401; however, the spec sheet has the same 6 volt upper voltage. I know a little about electronic equipment and in most cases over voltage only heats up the regulator, over voltage input has minimal affect on over all circuit voltages, too high, and you burn out the regulator, but you can get away with a few tenths over the ratting with out problems. My question is does anyone use the 401 with a 5 cell pack, NiMh specifically, and are there any failure problems? It doesn’t take long for a NiMh to settle to 6 volts under load, or left alone for a day or so, so I plan on not running the gyro right after charging the pack, or not charging to peak. I have read some post with the 401 having unpredicted hard over tail rotor swings on helicopters.

Thanks for any advice.