Hi.
I posted this message at the Walkera forum as well, but since it is somewhat general, I thought I could find some interesting answers here as well.
I am new to micro helicopters. I have only flown big nitro birds and some .30 nitro machines. I just got a dragonfly 60 micro, and am waiting for hobby-lobby's falcon 3d. However, I couldn't find a reference for an initial setup for the heli, and have a few questions (actually, after bulding and flying quite a few helicopters, I was surprised that someone would sell a helicopter without this information):
1. If there is an advanced flyer who is flying the dragonfly 60, I would love to get a good setup. I run it with walkera's 180 motor and 20A ESC. I would love to know pinion setting, size of blades, and pitch settings for normal and aerobatic flights. Also, I would like a good throws setup for the flybar paddles. This would be the best for me to start with.
2. It seems like mini electric run a much higher head RPM than nitro machines. What RPM should I generally aim at? The heli came stock with a brushed motor which is practically useless, but still head RPM was quite high (very unlike my x-cell gasser, with it's low RPM and giant torque). I could not tell by hearing if this was right, but the heli was stable (and without noticable vibrations) When I put the brushless motor on, RPM has increased even further. Somehow it does not seem right. My intuition says to put larger blades, to keep the head RPM as before. It must also be related to power consumtion and flight time. Last, I realize these motors get hot during flight. I guess setting the right RPM should consider that as well. Any thoughts about that?
3. Are there "governors" for the electric motors to keep constant RPM, or should I stick to throttle/pitch mixing? (I have a futaba 8UAH. It's old, but still a perfect tansmitter, so all the mixers are there.)
I know it's all newbies questions, but that's what these forums are here for right...?
Thanks,
Avi.

Hey Avi, welcome to electric! (I myself am kinda slowly leaving the nitro scene)
I can't answer alot but I think in general it seems that alot of electrics run a head speed close to 2000rpm. I run a T-rex 450xl, not sure of the headspeed, but I do some neighborhood hovering at about 6deg pitch. I use the hov. pitch function on my radio to adjust necessary headspeed to keep electronics as cool as possible. A good guide line (if your just doing light flying like forward or hovering) is a warm battery, warmer esc, and a motor thats getting close to hot but you should be able to keep your fingers on it. Those are my guide lines and in general I've found that it works for all flying once I've got hover figured out. And yes, there are ESCs with governor functions on them. Here's a 20amp esc from telebee that you might look at ($26 for a 20amp and $28 for a 25amp at helihobby.)

Hi Avi:

So good to see communications coming thru, considering.

Since you're experienced with Heli's, the basics are really the same. I fly the Trex 450SE & Sceadu 30 and really have similar set-ups.

In the electrics, you're looking for a head speed around 2000-2500 for stability. The ESC's do have GOV settings, but they're really no bargain... Gov's for the Nitro's are far better. I have a Phoenix35 and use "normal" flight setting which works perfectly. In reality, as with Nitros without Gov's, Properly set up Throttle & Pitch curves will give a fairly constant RPM anyway.

Why not try www.trextuning.com and set up your Heli by the Trex book. Then modify as necessary.

Good Luck.

Lloyd

Thanks for your reply. I'll aim at around 2200 RPM to start with, and go on from there.
I'll stick to programming proper pitch and throttle curves, and not buy a governor yet.
I test flew the heli and had some disturbing observations...
While I figured that the transmitter is way to simple in order to fly a heli properly, I was suprised that the rest of the electronics is poor as well.
The servos are way to slow and weak, and take agaes to center.
The gyro is hard to evaluate, as the servo is really poor, and whatever good performance the gyro might be giving, the servo is the bottleneck.
For the finalle, they rolled the antena over the antena tube, in about the only manner an antena should not be placed. That causes glitches, and I guess that's why others have suffered glitches with these machines.
HOWEVER, mechanically, the heli is sound, and is rather cute. Metal is used where needed, and the swashplate and rotorhead assemply are smooth and moreover very precise, without un-needed play. It's a 120 deg ccpm swashplate, which minimized the load on the servos.
I ordered gws servos (I keep the budget of digital servos to the nitro birds...), and with the Futaba receiver and transmitter, I expect it to fly really nice.
Which leads me to another question: Is the Telebe HH gyro any good? It's rather cheap (around $55), but with electronics that could be tricky...

Thanks for the information, always good to hear other flyers' opinions.
Avi.

Avi:

As with Nitros, electronics are critical----Servos have to be snappy with good centering. Not necessarily Digital, but they can't 'drag'. For the Trex, I'm using HS 65's, and the 9650 Digital for the tail. Best Gyro is the 401, but expensive.

Antenna is more critical than Nitro's because of the ESC & Motor & other sources of interference. I use a base loaded Deans which is tiny & neat, very inexpensive & gets rid of excessive dangling Ant wires. Agree the ant set up you described is terrible.

As for RPM, if you have a Tach, fine. However, Set up your curves and look for a good hover around mid throttle with about 6 deg Pitch. As with Nitro's, you'll 'see' & feel it when it's right for you.

Lloyd