General New Findings on the Align 3GX 3.0 upgrade..

[xokia]

Thanks!! So you got it settled?

Fly safe!! have fun!

yes and no not entirely sure.
On 2.1 I remember having my aileron and elevator reversed in the 3GX because its mounted upside down. I saved screen shots of my setting before I upgraded.

Now in order to get the swash to react correctly these dont need to be reversed.

I have elevator and rudder reversed in my remote everything else set to normal. So I am confused!!

 

[coolgabsi]

I would recommend Un reversing everything and starting form scratch.. the 2.1 settings probably wont work very well on your 3.0 now.

So forget what you had..

 

[xokia]

I would recommend Un reversing everything and starting form scratch.. the 2.1 settings probably wont work very well on your 3.0 now.

So forget what you had..

I'm wondering if you need to do the upgrade with the unit right side up? So to get a correct 0. Pots need to be at 12 before you do the upgrade so maybe the unit needs to be rightside up also.

I dont know why these would magically change because the unit didnt move locations.

*edit*
Orientation of 3GX during flash made no difference

 

[coolgabsi]

I was gonna say. It doesnt matter what orientation you are sitting in, cause you need to tell it which way is which anywaz.

 

[xokia]

So I took it out and flew it a little bit and it did ok.
Flying tail in my tail creeps to the right. -> I think I need to 0 my rudder servo link to fix this?
If i go from mid stick then just go full stick the tail blows out to the right, same direction as the creep. -> increase gyro gain? I'm at 32 now on my DX8.

 

[coolgabsi]

Increase the rudder lock gain the software first before your transmitter gain.. It's got a different effect (don't ask me why lol I m trying to figure that out)


You are getting creeps: you need to do that I told you about rate mode hover and adjust tail linkage to make it not creep in rate mode and then redo tail limits

Fly safe!! have fun!

 

[xokia]

Increase the rudder lock gain the software first before your transmitter gain.. It's got a different effect (don't ask me why lol I m trying to figure that out)


You are getting creeps: you need to do that I told you about rate mode hover and adjust tail linkage to make it not creep in rate mode and then redo tail limits

Fly safe!! have fun!

I tried bumping that up to 75 and got wierd oscillations I backed that back to default and raised my gyro on the transmitter from 30 -> 50 and now I dont lose the tail as much. Still needs to be dialed in some more cause I still lose it some but not anywhere near as much. I might play with the gyro some more and see how high I can raise it without getting tail wag.

*edit* figured out wierd oscilations indicates the battery is getting low. New feature in V3.0? It pulses the motor so the tail twitches a tiny bit and the head speed you can tell something is happening. I think I preferred just the head spead slowing down like in V2.1 Fresh battery and all goes away so I might play with the rudder lock again. I'm up to 68 on the gyro on my remote.

*edit* I moved the rudder lock from 70->72. I still lose the tail some in normal mode with enough pitch. In Idle up the tail is rock solid. Pitch pumps on this thing are a little bit silly compared to my other helicopters dang thing changes direction on a dime haha! I puffed one of my nano-techs I wasn't expecting that. Wasnt hot just warm but noticeably puffed. I'll probably still play with this some more I like how it flies and I know I'll be tossing this thing inverted any day now.

 

[xokia]

As some of you know I have been having some troubles with my 130x. The mcpx bores me for 3D so I took the 450 out today and decided to try and flip it. After dialing in the settings on v3.0 of the 3GX I decided to try my luck. I gained some altitude fliped to idle up and flipped it over and flew inverted!!!! This is the first time I have tried anything like this on the 450. I went through 6 packs of batteries just doing simple flips and hovering inverted. The snappiness is hard to get used to the thing responds instantly.

What D/R's are you running for 3D on elevator and aileron? I think I need to bump mine up or set them up on a switch to increase them I think I have mine set to 55. Takes to much altitude to do a flip.

 

[murankar]

Yeah, d/r could go lower. Something around 35 to get started. Then make adjustments as needed.

 

[coolgabsi]

As some of you know I have been having some troubles with my 130x. The mcpx bores me for 3D so I took the 450 out today and decided to try and flip it. After dialing in the settings on v3.0 of the 3GX I decided to try my luck. I gained some altitude fliped to idle up and flipped it over and flew inverted!!!! This is the first time I have tried anything like this on the 450. I went through 6 packs of batteries just doing simple flips and hovering inverted. The snappiness is hard to get used to the thing responds instantly.

What D/R's are you running for 3D on elevator and aileron? I think I need to bump mine up or set them up on a switch to increase them I think I have mine set to 55. Takes to much altitude to do a flip.

To be honest I never use any D/R ... I never have. It's at a full 100 percent. I use expo at about 30-35 percent for softening its response in the center of the stick.. But apart from that ESP if I am going to be in idle up, that just restricts my travel which in high wind or bail out condition I might need every bit of oomph I got to take it out of the dive / fall.

If its too snappy, then you can add expo. Or adjust the aileron and elevator roll rates to a bit lower so it doesn't just go inverted as soon as you touch the sticks

Even while learning to fly, I kept my d/r at 100. Just helps knowing the full potential of the bird, it's limits and all.. But that's just how I did it.

Fly safe!! have fun!

 

[xokia]

Even while learning to fly, I kept my d/r at 100. Just helps knowing the full potential of the bird, it's limits and all.. But that's just how I did it.

Fly safe!! have fun!

Yea I'm thinking of using the aileron and elevator switches for this. Just plug in 100% for position1&2 of these switches.
55 makes it fly pretty nice for normal mode. I may change my mind and just go 100% for every mode. Expo I think I am only running 20 and was going to drop that down some maybe 15.

But what you mentioned is what I experienced. It took a lot of air space to do a flip. For how snappy this thing is I would just expect it to flip right over.

 

[coolgabsi]

if you go 100percent on D/R .. be sure to fly it and feel it first.. and then reduce or increase expo as you may like.

My expo is IDLEup2>Idleup1>Normal mode.. more the head speed, more expo to get the same feel.. 30 - 35 is max.. with these FBL controllers. With Flybarred.. 30-35 is too much.. as you see too big of a dead band then around the mid stick..

 

[xokia]

if you go 100percent on D/R .. be sure to fly it and feel it first.. and then reduce or increase expo as you may like.

My expo is IDLEup2>Idleup1>Normal mode.. more the head speed, more expo to get the same feel.. 30 - 35 is max.. with these FBL controllers. With Flybarred.. 30-35 is too much.. as you see too big of a dead band then around the mid stick..

Do you get a wierd twitch when it nears LVC? I would think this would be a function of the ESC. But on mine the motor speed will increase,decrease,increase,decrease. And just keep cycling like that, it causes the tail to twitch slightly back and fourth. It will only do this if I fly past the 6 min timer so I can tell its near the LVC. It did not do this with V2.1 so I'm kinda wondering if V3.0 implemented a different warning.

 

[coolgabsi]

No that always happened to my motor and esc Even when I was flybarred.

So did you by chance change your esc programming?

It is normal for it to do that.. But I am just wondering.

Fly safe!! have fun!

 

[xokia]

No that always happened to my motor and esc Even when I was flybarred.

So did you by chance change your esc programming?

It is normal for it to do that.. But I am just wondering.

Fly safe!! have fun!

Nope not even sure that's possible with the Align ESC. My helicopter didn't do this before the upgrade. Before it would just lose head speed and you could tell it was near LVC. You would bring it down and then it would shut the ESC down and prevent it from starting back up. That's why I was surprised when I saw the tail twitching back and forth.

 

[coolgabsi]

Yeah you can program the align esc. I have the saw power setup as you

I never had mine do that shutdown. But anywaz. Nothing to worry about. I would set your timer at 5.45 so you don't just loose power in the air .. My batteries I run for 4.5 minutes max .. don't wanna stress them anymore

Fly safe!! have fun!

 

[murankar]

I have my scorpion programed to pulsate at the lvc. I also have my lvc set to a slightly higher cut off point. My batteries are at 3.8 volts with approximately 1300 mah being replace when it does pulsate. The only thing that sucks is that the bird is hard to land when it kicks in.

 

[Westy]

just tweaked mine ..... it was very low..... 69 and 78 from memory. set it up to 105 on each Ail and Elev pots and it sits nice and stable and is very very crisp in cyclic responses (which is how I like it) so my swash acceleration and dampening are a lot different.

Rechecked my main and tail blades for CG and balance (Tony planted the seed of doubt Lol ... ) and perfect as the day I first CG and Balanced them


Here is the vid I just quickly threw together on how to do it!

Hope it helps some of you guys and gals that do not like to read too much!
LIKE ME!!! LOL - Nah just kidding (about hte me part)

 

[xokia]

just tweaked mine ..... it was very low..... 69 and 78 from memory. set it up to 105 on each Ail and Elev pots and it sits nice and stable and is very very crisp in cyclic responses (which is how I like it) so my swash acceleration and dampening are a lot different.

Rechecked my main and tail blades for CG and balance (Tony planted the seed of doubt Lol ... ) and perfect as the day I first CG and Balanced them


Here is the vid I just quickly threw together on how to do it!

Hope it helps some of you guys and gals that do not like to read too much!
LIKE ME!!! LOL - Nah just kidding (about hte me part)

Westy can you check one thing? What was your DR for elevator and Aileron when you did step 3?
The reason I ask is your Aileron travel limits and Elevator travel limits seem low. I made a similiar mistake which was my DR for Aileron and Elevator were not set to 100% before I did the DIR setup.

This is a step I think a lot of people will miss. Aileron and Elevator should be set to 100% and 0 expo before doing the DIR setup.

 

[Westy]

on my TX? All my Radio settings are 0 trims, 0 sub trims and 100% on all my limits. and all DR are 100% on all channels and all Expo are 0% on all channels (as happens with a new model config).

Is this what you mean? ..... I think the setting you are reffering to is in the swash on Ail and Ele and I set that s I was getting 8 degrees in DIR mode and matched both AIL and Ele once I have the pitch set up for the Ele (does not matter which one you do first as long as you are at mid stick). then latter once in flight mode you can set the max angle of attack in ele and ail limits in the 3Gx