450 Trex 450 Pro (Non DFC) V2 (with 3gx) setup with dx8

[gr82av8]

Bought this kit a few years ago and am just getting around to putting it together. I assembled it with no problems (thanks to Tony's video) and got through the "Adjustments for gyro and tail neutral settings" in the manual but had no luck getting the swash leveled as the servos seemed to have a mind of their own. I decided to start back from ground zero and re 90 the servos and work my way back up from that. I also deleted my current settings from my DX8 just in case I had something wrong there and started back setting that up also. Originally, I had my satellite connected to the 3gx and I had power to the servos.

I decided that, since I was starting over, I wanted to incorporate the telemetry module, so I added the AR8000 receiver and TM1000 module and wired up everything as in the attached picture. Now, I am wanting to 90 the servos and begin again. My issue is, when I go to bind the system (placing the bind plug in the AR8000 and following the binding procedure), the 3gx makes the audible beeps, but no lights are activated and it appears to be dead. The AR8000 has a solid orange light, and the TM1000 has a solid orange light, the satellite (plugged into the AR8000) does not have any orange light. And, of course, no servos are moving or anything else. I unplugged the AR8000 and tried to bind the 3gx as the receiver (with the satellite plugged into the 3gx) as I had limited success with that configuration before. Again, the audible beeps were heard, but no flashing lights or movement of servos.

With the AR8000 added, I have the ESC/BEC running to the throttle position of the 3gx (as before I began using the AR8000), all the servo wires hooked up to the same location on the 3gx (after double checking to make sure they were connected to the proper posts), the colored servo wires running from the receiver to the 3gx to the proper terminals, and the power wires for the AR8000 running from the sbus bind port on the 3gx to Aux 2 in the AR8000.

Everything appears to be plugged in correctly.

I have been flying a MCPXV2 for the last two years, but I am a complete noob at putting one together and I have been reading so many posts over the last two weeks on how to set this up, I have thoroughly confused myself. If you can help, please type slowly so that I can try to follow (LOL.) I have a headache.


View attachment 12365

 

[Tony]

When you have the TM1000 plugged in, it should be done so in the batt/bind port. Then you will use the button on the side of the TM module to bind the system.

If you didn't remove the bind plug after binding, this is why the 3GX didn't turn on. The bind plug must be removed.

Reupload the picture. Yours didn't come through for some reason.

 

[gr82av8]

Sorry for the dumb questions, but this is new to me.
1) do I need to bind the 3gx before I bind the AR8000
2)do I bind the AR8000 and then plug in the TM1000 and bind it
3)I tried to bind the 3gx and then tried to bind the AR8000. In both cases, I unplugged the bind plug after binding. In either case, all I get from the 3gx is an audible sound when I first plug in the battery, but I get no lights on the 3gx. On another video I was watching on how to bind the 3gx to a dx8, the 3gx lights blink during the binding process. Mine does nothing except beep. On my first try binding when I had only the 3gx hooked to a sat, the lights came on during the biding process if I remember correctly.
4)I'll try to attach the picture again, but I don't think I'm attaching properly. If you click on the picture link and the bottom of the first post, it will pop up (at least it does for me). Let me know how I can do this correctly
5)could my dx8 configuration be causing any of this?

 

[Tony]

You will plug everything up as you would when you are ready to fly, then you will push and hold hte bind button on the TM module to bind the system. If those signal wires are at the top of that AR8000, then there is your issue. The signal wire needs to be on the bottom with teh negative towards the label.

 

[gr82av8]

Tony, you were correct. I rotated the connector at Aux 2 on the AR8000 180 degrees and I am now seeing the 3gx lights as I did before. Thanks for your assistance! I will continue on with the setup. So now I need to bind and re-90 the servos.

On my dx8, I enabled the gyro function and set normal at -60, stunt 1 at 65 and stunt 2 at 65 and hold at 72. Channel is gear and switch is f-mode. Is this correct?

 

[Tony]

In the gyro menu, those numbers will depend where the switch is placed. I always set my switch to Gyro so that I can change it independently of the flight mode. So for me, I set it to the gyro switch, you are correct on the channel since you are running the AR8000 Rx, but I would put your numbers something like 0=55 1=60 2=65 and set hold to 55 as well. ALL positive. A negative number is Rate mode. However, in my Tx, I have 0=40 1=-35 2=0. And the reason I do that is so I can have all 3 to set the helicopter up. 0 is for flying. 1 is for checking to make sure my tail push rod is set correctly and 2 is so I can set everything up without a gyro messing with me.

Wow, that was a wall-O-text lmao.

I hope this helps. If I were you, I would put the switch on Gyro until you are used to the helicopter and where you need you numbers, then I would switch it over to F-Mode if you wish.

 

[gr82av8]

Something is still wrong with the 3gx. It came to life once and I had servo movement, but I had to run an errand so I could not finish binding and I unplugged the battery. I came back to it about an hour ago (have not touched any of the wiring since the successful attempt) and I have tried 20 times and get no lights on the 3gx, just sound. Tried to bind the TM1000 and got a solid red light on it, the orange light on the AR8000 goes from orange to off and no light on the satellite but the 3gx does not light up and I have no servo movement.. Any idea what I may be doing wrong? Do I need to bind the AR8000 also?

 

[Tony]

When you hold that button on the TM1000, with the TM plugged into the bat/bind port on the 8000, you are effectively putting a bind plug in the batt port on the 8000. So it will bind both at the same time. Just remember, ALL of your wires in the picture above are plugged in the wrong way. You will need to reverse all of them.

 

[gr82av8]

OK, I switched all the AR8000 wires around and I plugged in the Tm1000 to the bind port on the AR8000. I am still getting power by being plugged into the sbus port on the 3gx with the black wire towards to outside. See picture... is this correct now?

 

[Tony]

Looking at the power wire from the 3GX to the 8000, the wire is in backwards in the 3GX. Take a look at the image below and make sure your 3GX is wired up like this.

 

[gr82av8]

I've made it through the DIR/GOV set up per Tony's 3gx setup videos, and everything seemed to go well. When I began the rudder setup the next day, when I powered up I noticed the swash was no longer level. At normal mode 0 throttle (linear pitch used at set up), the elevator servo arm is now raised slightly. The pitch/aileron arms are at 90 degrees. The pitch at this setting is about 4 degrees and when I move the throttle all the way up the pitch goes to 19 degrees. This can't be correct, can it? I went ahead and set the rudder, etc per Tony's Part 3 rudder vid thinking that may have some effect, but it didn't. Any ideas?