General tail movement

[bweber]

hate to start a new thread for such a easily answered question but i know tony had a video of which way the tail should move with a given input if the gyro is in HH mode. Just cant for the life me remember what video that was so if any one knows what video that is in or if you could just explain it to me that would be great. Thanks

 

[Tony]

I think you are talking about the video below. Let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVRHJSQGKfs

 

[zenmetsu]

The trick that I was taught was to have the tail rotor hub vertical, and then fold the blade on top forwards. Once in this position, the folded blade will point in the direction that the nose will be moved. If you yaw the aircraft left and right while in rate/HH mode, the blade should look like it is trying to hold heading, if that makes sense... in other words, if you rotate the heli CCW, the blade should swing CW.

The slider method that Tony mentions is probably easier, but it can be hard to see the slider move if the travel is minimal. Using the length of the tail blade increases the apparent motion.

 

[Tony]

This is a great point, and yes the slider can be a little hard to see. Just make sure you are folding the blades the right way. If you fold them the wrong way, it will show the reverse of what you are trying to see.

 

[Tony]

Also, when checking the slider movement, if in Rate mode, put it on 0, if in HH mode, put it on 100. This will make the slider move more and is easier to see. Just don't forget to reduce the gain after your done

 

[zenmetsu]

I cannot imagine any way of getting the rudder reversed in HH vs. rate mode, so you can probably just test it in HH mode. HH is useful for seeing motion since the motion is cumulative and the gyro tries harder and harder to return to the previous heading as you move further away. Probably don't need to mess with the gain in the receiver, just position the heli, flip the gyro to Rate and then back to HH so that it "zeroes" to the current heading, then rotate the airframe until you see obvious motion of the slider or tail blades. Then re-zero the gyro by toggling it to rate mode and back to HH and rotate the airframe the other direction.

This will also let you see just how much travel the servo will go through as a result of gyro (not stick) input. The GY401 has a limit setting and I used this trick to see just how far the gyro would push the servo.

 

[Tony]

You know, I never thought about flipping it into Rate then back to HH mode to center it. But it would work, thank you. I have always told people to put it in rate mode while testing because not only can they center the servo, but it always centers it's self. But, any more videos I do from now on, will have your idea in it. Thanks again.