General I need help with the Align Trex 450 DFC pro 3gx setup

[crazyg4m3r]

Alright, Well... First off let me start by saying that this is my first 450 heli, I have had a few blade heli's the cx2, 120sr, msr and that was about it. I bought my heli used from a guy that was big into quad copters. He had it all set up but was on firmware version 2.1 So I Downloaded to version 5.0 and now I cant figure out a stinking thing. I am doing a complete new setup with a dx6i on an ar6100e. I went through the Youtube videos on how to set it up for the first time. Plug in the battery, hit the button on the 3gx and I did the same things as the guy in the video which led me to this site. after I was done with the setup my swash plate looked like a complete mess. but when I was in setup mode it appeared to be perfect. As soon as I unplugged the battery and plugged it back in when I was done setting up the 3gx nothing moves the way it should and all the controls are messed up. What am I missing here? I am new to these 450s and flybarless all together but I went through the setup 3 times and when it was in setup mode everything went great until I unplugged the battery and plugged it back in. any ideas?

 

[Tony]

Is there any way you can post a video of teh controls and how the swash is moving?

And by the way, I'm "the guy" in the videos

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Is there any way you can post a video of teh controls and how the swash is moving?

And by the way, I'm "the guy" in the videos

Awesome, just the guy I was looking for. I have my Swash set to CCPM 120 currently if that matters. I had to Reverse Pitch and Rudder on the dx6i and I had to set Swash mixes to even get anything to move. Currently Aile is at -50 Elev is -50 and pitch is +60 in the swash mixes I have not done anything else on the controller besides these things. Also do you have a guide or anything that could help me setup the gyro rates and everything in the 3gx computer setup that would help me with a beginner setup on the gyro side?

The video is what the controls do which isn't much.

 

[Tony]

All of your controls look pretty good actually. Looks like everything is moving in the correct direction. As for the swash tilting when adding collective, that could be the elevator pre-comp. All that does is tries to keep the tail boom level when you are doing hard pitch pumps. IMO, once you get the gyro completely setup (which I think it's close now), take it out for a test hover. The only thing you didn't show is the gyro correction directions. Make sure those are correct as well or the take-off is going to get really interesting really fast.

As for a video on the computer side, I have just the thing.

http://www.rc-help.com/content.php?378-3GX-Setup-Guide-Part-5-Flight-Mode-Settings-On-The-Computer

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Let me try to get a better video for you. to me the blade arms are not doing what they should. and you couldn't really tell in that last video. So I'm going to try to get a close up of the movements.

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Alright, Here is a much better of the movements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_KnYxtrlZY

Please let me know what you think.

 

[crazyg4m3r]

And as for gyro corrections, There really does not seem to be any. In Dir Setup mode. tilting the heli forward and back did not move the swash for ward back and forth. it actually moved the aileron side to side for some apparent reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N0lP3StkYw

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate a few thing to check , are the right servos plugged in to the right pins of the 3GX on the align pitch is the left servo if looking from the tail, when in DIR mode at mid stick are servo arms 90 degs and swash level if yes go to full throttle is swash still level if not you need to adjust servo travel for that servo to level swash , then do the same at zero throttle swash must be level at zero /mid/full throttle , once this is right do the rest of the set up if the gyro is wrong as you said it was, it sounds like the servos are plugged in wrong this will put out the set up big time

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Alright, I had to move a few servo arms and after hours of watching tony on his how to videos I believe I have most of it setup. i did a power up to mid stick and found the tail dragging right. The more throttle I gave it from 20-50% the faster the tail would drag, How do i adjust tail drag? Do I do the gain on the gyro itself?

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Do I need to have my swash type ar 120 3 servo or 90 1 servo? This may be what is causing my tail to wag/take a hard right?

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate on the 3GX you need to set up 3 servo 120 deg swash ( I think this may be one of the only FBL gyros that you do that setting ) if your in Head hold mode the tail will be strange if you put an input in the tail will stay like that as its waiting for the heli to move, so your best to set tail up in rate mode , get the heli to hover with no drift by adjusting the servo rod ,once it will hover with No or very little drift put into head hold mode , also check in monitor screen that gyro changes as you adjust the gain ,your transmitter may be on wrong channel I had this on a DX9 default is gear and 3GX on the DX9 uses aux2
So now tail is right in rate if she wags fast in HH mode reduce to about 51/60%and see if it stops , if the tail bounces after input you need to change the I gain
see how it goes and let us know

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Im Using a dx6i to set this up so naturally the tail servo is plugged into the gear channel and I do not see anywhere on the dx6i where I can adjust tail gain

 

[holtneil]

If I remember right its an aux channel that does the gyro gain channel 5, its been a long time back I had the dx6i
Just look at the 3GX manual when connected to a standard receiver channel 5 is gain channel and that plugs into the second set of pins looking right to left , Tony did a video on how to wire the 3 GX

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Can I even fly this helicopter with the dx6i or do I need something else? I cannot seem to fix the tail wag on this heli

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate yes you can , I also found version 3.1 best , its not very stable on the floor so get it in the air, but once its flying its nice , make sure channel 5 of the receiver is pugged in to the right pins on the 3GX, as you look at the back of the 3GX look at the right hand side pins its not the last set its the ones just before ( 2nd set of pins counting from right to left) this will let you adjust the gyro gain, on the main screen of the set up you will be able to see the gain move as you adjust it in the transmitter
You can set up a switch on the front of the transmitter so you can flick from HH ot rate mode

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Alright, the best thing for me to do is take it all apart and check all the connections again, I am using the 3gx with an ar6100e mounted up top and it looks like the aux on the receiver is plugged into the middle left pin facing the 2 3 port connectors on the 3gx

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate the servo pins are starting at the top and go down ,so 3 pins each servo , the pins at the bottom that go across are Sbus and batt /bind so forget them , I was reading back through the post , In the dx6i there is a setting for gyro and on that screen you can set up different values for the switch position and what channel you want to control the gyro gain look at page 15 of the manual I wonder if the gyro is off and is running on default,
So set up 2 setting position 1 set to over 55% then lower if it wags in flight or up it if tail does not hold then position 2 set to about 40% this is rate mode
Also are you using the Sbus lead to connect to the 3GX from the receiver this lead has single wires , you really need male to male servo leads , but is may be ok but the single wire is a signal wire so if its on the middle pin it will not be doing anything as this is the power pin
Servo wire have 3 wires red power wire this is middle pin on the plug then earth Black wire bottom pin , then signal wire which is always the lightest colour of the 3 wires this is top
Signal pin on the 3GX is the top pin this may be why its not working right its not getting a signal from the receiver as its plugged into the middle pin of the 3GX
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...=FOkNY4ukV160eDTkMdPA6g&bvm=bv.93990622,d.d24

 

[crazyg4m3r]

Alright. So I decided to go out to see If I could get it to hover. I checked everything and everything was hooked up right. I adjusted my gain settings to 65% and 45% on the gyro switch. I spooled it up in HH mode and noticed that it wanted to dip hard nose first to the left, Luckily I have good training gear on it. But what did happen is the bolts holding the feathering shaft tight to the blade grips came loose and split the feathering shaft and sending the blades flying out.

I bought the helicopter used. and this just tells me I need to take the entire thing apart and thread-lock it because the guy I got it from didn't. Luckily I just need the links holding the blade grip shafts to the swash plate because they bent when the feathering shaft went flying off.

What would cause this thing to go nose left? And I saw what you were saying when you start to throttle up the tail evens itself out a bit.

 

[Tony]

Hey holtneil, thanks for helping out on this thread bro!

Any time I purchase anything new, or anything that is put together (as seen in my "how to properly build a clone" video), I take it completely apart and clean everything with alcohol then apply blue thread lock to everything metal to metal.

In DIR mode, there is a setting in there (after pushing the button a couple times I think, I"m not home so I"m not sure) where you can set your correction directions for the gyro. It's one of the setup menu's in there. It sounds to me like these settings may not be correct if it's wanting to nose forward violently.

 

[holtneil]

Hi mate Tony is right SORRY i didnt know that you had not stripped and checked it , OK now is the time to do it and we can do a full set up from the start, I dont know what version you are running if its 5.0 I would re-flash with 3.1 its nice to fly on V 5.0 can be very hit and miss
Get a swash level tool if you dont have one ,ok this is what we need to do , set throttle and pitch to a linear curve 0,25,50,75,100
power up and get 3gx in DIR mode , now put transmitter to mid stick , the servo arms should be 90 degs and swash level use level tool to make sure, if the swash is out adjust links to make it level, once its level at mid stick put to full throttle and make sure swash is still level ,if its out go into transmitter servo travel and adjust the end points so the swash is level, Now go to zero throttle do the same thing swash must be level adjust if needed
Now swash travel is level bottom/middle/and top, refit the rotor head , now check you have zero pitch at mid stick adjust links from blade grips to swash to get zero pitch, once this is right check pitch range at zero and full throttle should be -12 and +12 if its out it means swash is to high or to low ,Watch Tonys Video this will help

Ok lets say thats all right you can now set up the 3GX again follow Tonys videos to set up take your time check all the setting are right before you move to the next setting
Do a quick test hover if all is ok put gyro into rate mode hover the heli and see if tail drifts if it does adjust rod lengh to stop the drift ( the way to find out which way to adjust remember which way you have to move rudder to stop drift in flight ) now while heli is on the floor move rudder the same way and see if rod pushes or pulls to stop drift now adjust the rod the same way it needs to go , take your time to get this right if you can get NO drift in rate mode the tail will be rock solid in HH mode

Now fly in HH mode and fine tune the 3GX to make the heli yours so it flys the way you want it too, If you need help we are all here, sorry its a long reply I normally do this over video chat if you want to get togther on skype just let me know