500 update 3GX v5

[holtneil]

Hi guys well good news ,i did a test flight to night of my align 500 pro , the strange tail kick or wag i had from the firmware v5 is fixed , to keep along story short flashed the 3GX with v5 then had a strange kick from tail,so i re-flashed then kick went but was left with a wag , after a chat with a friend that runs align.co.uk at his shop told me to flash with V3.1
Well it fixed the problem no wag no kick , tail holds really well and heli is very smooth in forward flight , so i dont know why V5 was giving me problems but as i found older firmware worked very well for me , all settings are as Tony did in the 3GX videos the only change that was made was to the pots that were at 12oclock are now lower to 1/4 above half past , glad i have a nice flying heli at last

 

[Tony]

3.1 is GREAT... Once you get it in the air. The issue with it was on the ground. 4.0 was great on the ground, but sucked in the air. I need to do a lot more work on 5.0, but I will get there.

 

[Derek]

I have v5.0 on my 450. I've had 13 flights on the helicopter since updating to v5.0. It seems very solid on the ground while spooling up and it's rock solid in the air. Fast circuits are no problem. Flips and rolls are no problem. Inverted hover....no problem. I'm liking this!!!

 

[holtneil]

Hi Derek , v5 is very good but it didnt like my 3GX unit i dont know why the tail wagged or kicked and the kick was a hard kick the helis tail would jump 3 inches to the side and return in a second , i find v3.1 ok for me as i dont do 3d just scale , i just re-levelled the swash as v3.1 was a little unstable on the ground but i dont sit on the ground for long tho , i really want to use v5 as it as so stable in the air and on the ground but i cant fix this problem i hope align brings out a v6 soon so i can try that one
There are a few guys that have this problem on v5 but there is not enough of us for align to write new firmware at the moment ,i also updated my DX9 and all is working well ( fingers crossed) OMG what a nice transmitter will do so much like you can slow servos down if used for retacts etc or one keep getting a head of the others the only thing i need to do is get a lipo for it the battery it comes with dont last very long

 

[Derek]

Something that I found out was that I needed to, after the update, plug the 450 into the 3GX software on my laptop and go to "Settings Display". In there, under Rudder Gain, I saw that the setting there was already set to 48. That number, on top of the Gyro setting in my DX8 (being 32) made for a nasty tail wagging, too. Since then, I've lowered the Rudder Gain in the software and I'm back to 33 in the DX8 (I think it's 33, I'd have to look again).

Anyway..my point is that I had to make some changes in the software also.

 

[holtneil]

Hi Derek i did to mate , a friend of mine has lots of align helis 500 and above and he also has a wag on the 700 couldnt stop the wag so fitted a v bar wag gone , his 450 pro works well on 3gx the 550 is ok if you fly hard does not like gentle flying , his 500 pro had problems that would come and go with flashing v5 , its very strange how you flash v5 and get one problem then re-flash and that first problem goes and a new one starts , i am very happy with the 3gx now its no 3.1 its really nice and smooth , shame i cant get v5 to work but she fly as she is ,so i cant moan

 

[Derek]

it's unfortunate that 5.0 isn't working for you...but at least you understand the issues with 3.1 and you are happy with it. Flying with 3.1 is better than no flying at all.

 

[Tony]

As I stated, 3.1 is amazingly stable in the air. I loved it. You just have to get that sucker up off the ground pretty quickly.

I did just go out and do some testing with my 450 3GX V5.0 and it's working wonderfully. No wag, I'm at 40% gain in my DX8 and she is flying as stable as I could hope for. Getting close to time to start shooting more videos with it.

 

[Derek]

Yes, Tony! No doubt....I had the same experiences, once I got more familiar with the 450. 3.1 was very good to me, once I got it off the ground. I had some exciting and scary/spooky take-offs due to the fact that it wanted to tip over every now and then but in the air, 3.1 was great.

After a few changes to the software, 5.0 is super smooth for me and I'm loving it.

 

[holtneil]

Hi guys you make me want v5 back so bad 3.1 when i land heli is on one skid so i have the give a little cyclic to get both skids down , another strange thing v5 was doing was fly one battery and the wag would be small , then put another battery on and take off and all of a sudden the wag would get really bad so bad you could hear a strange sound from tail rotor blades and the only way to stop it was land , i would reduce gyro from 45% which it was happy at last battery to 27% to stop wag then tail would not hold , next battery you could bring gain back up to 45% and have the small wag or tail kick , i wish i knew what was the problem when v5 had the kick the rest of the flight was so smooth and stable , any ideas guys

 

[Derek]

That's just nuts!! I have no idea on that one.

 

[murankar]

Sounds like my t shirt idea is coming true.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Forum Runner

 

[holtneil]

Its been driving me mad , i hear so many good things about 3GX v5 , but i can get it to work ,i will have a chat with my mate at align.co.uk and see what he thinks, by going back to v3.1 its proved the servo and 3gx is working ok it just does not like v5
Derek what you said about tail gyro gain in software higher than the transmitter set to ,may be i will put v5 back on and look at the tail gain again i may had miss some thing

 

[Tony]

I have to ask this. When you are plugging in your battery, you are letting it sit still and not move until the swash jumps up and down, right?

 

[holtneil]

Hi Tony yes mate i dont even put canopy on till its set up ready , i dont touch sticks , Tony have you got a 500 that you can put the 3GX on and let me know what your set up is , i know its a tall wish , i set it up as you did on the video of the 450 and it flys well apart form the wag or kick , may be Derek is right and i am missing some thing in the setting , I have been thinking about it today ,i have an idea tell me if you think this will work, if i go into 3.1 and write all the setting down from gyro as it is now , then put on v5 and then match the settings from 3.1 to the v5 , also i take it the red pointers are default setting on the software
i have my Dx9 set on the tail gyro to +45% second is +40% and last is -37% But Derek said check the tail gain in the software to be honest i cant remember if i did that or not i changed settings and re-flashed so many times i can now remember word for word the set up you did lol

I love this forum its a really nice friendly place and you dont feel stupid asking questions i have set up and flown loads of 450 and 250 and this is the first problem i have had with a gyro not behaving

 

[Tony]

I don't have a 500 that I can do a setup on. If I did, I would definitely put my setup on here. However, I think I might know your problem. You are going off of a 450 setup, which is set to a small helicopter. The 500 and larger helicopters need to be set on the Large Helicopter setting! This will make a WORLD of difference.

 

[holtneil]

Hi Tony on the video you say on rudder delay on 500 use large is this what your talking about , i did put rudder to large and zero delay , or is there more setting i need to change

 

[Tony]

In the photo below, when your 3GX is connected up, should say Large.

 

[holtneil]

HI Tony yes it does my friend and rudder delay is zero , so do you think me matching the 3.1 settings on the v5 software and give it a try may work 3.1 flys well no wag from tail , i just dont like landing right skid first and then having to give it cyclic to get left skid down

 

[Tony]

It's worth a shot. When you get V5 put back on the 3GX, post up some screen shots of all of your settings and let us have a look at them. Maybe we can see something that is amiss.