Other VControl Setup info

[murankar]

The purpose for this thread is to help me remember all the things I have done to get this radio the way I want it. will also be adding videos shortly. I have to solve yet another problem.



I went into castle link and decided to some fishing around. I turned off fixed end points, heli governor and updated the gear ratio information. I then set the target head speeds at the bottom. I used 2700 3000 3200. Now castle did its thing with my numbers and told me to use 30%, 70%, 100%. I then went back and set fixed end points, external governor with auto rotation bail out turned off. I also put auto cut off to custom and set the cut off voltage to 3.4.


I then went into the Vcontrol and rest my esc output numbers to 30 50 70 percent. SO I hope this will gives me better results and actually shows the head speed on the radio. It supposed to show the head speed through telemetry, which I have activated on the radio. This should help make sense of what I did and then revert back to. My head speed changes with the banks like it should but I am not seeing the head speed through telemetry.

According to Vstabi this is what your Castle ESC should look like for use with the NEO governor:

 

[trainrider06]

You have your voltage set at 3.6 cut off? Isn't that low?

 

[Smoggie]

Uri,

Are you using the Neo governor or the Castle ESC internal governor? If you are using the Castle governor in 'set RPM' mode then the throttle % you need to activate your three preset headspeeds are 30%, 70% and 100% (not 30, 50 and 70).

Also 3.4V per cell is a bit on the high side and is likely to give you LVC tripping in early. The default on 3.2V per cell works fine in almost all circumstances.

The other thing that's worth playing with is PWM frequency. In most if not all cases the motor will run a bit cooler if you increase frequency to it's maximum value (24KHz for the Castle ESC). This may mean the ESC itself gets a little warmer but unless you are pushing the ESC to it's limits that's not an issue. I know Scorpion advise 8KHz but that's somewhat out of date info based on older ESC's that couldn't do anything higher. My motors (including Scorpions) all run better and cooler at higher PWM frequencies.

To get RPM telemetry working (or to use the neo governor) you would need to have and RMP sensor input feeding back into the Neo. The Castle Edge ESC has RPM out via the white 'auxiliary' wire but you need to enable it in the Castle link software, like this:

 

[murankar]

Using the Neo Governor. That's why the aux wire is set to RPM Out. The whole goal of this is to see what get the RPM info showing on my screen. I know it has this in telemetry. I read it with my own eyes on Mikados web site. Today I will test and see if this is working like it should. My Bad I didnt have all the screen shots up. I missed the "Other Tab", its updated. I want to use the VBar gov along with the telemetry for the gov. So lets see If I have any progress.


As for 3.4v yes it is low but if I have a voltage sag thats 3.5 volts the esc wont go into soft cut. I will post up my current settings here in a minute.

 

[murankar]

This is how things stand as of right now the 16th of April.

 

[Tony]

If you are still getting shorter than normal flight times, try going to 3.2vpc. But I think this should work unless you are putting it under a lot of load.

 

[murankar]

One thing I found is that Castle ESCs can operate under 50% throttle while in governor mode without much issue. In my TX I had the gov set to 60 70 80. I have dropped that down to 30 40 50. we will see how that does. RIght now I am trying to build a fuel table on my charger and its taking forever.

 

[Tony]

Why so close? I would do 40 60 80 if not 30 55 80. Still leaves you plenty of overhead.

 

[murankar]

I dont want a lot of head speed. I am not going to Venlo over here. I want to learn a flowing style right now. Plus lower head speed forces you to learn how to fly. Well not as much as it did with flybars but its still the same concept. Less stability at lower head speed plus you have to work the collective just right.

 

[murankar]

Strictly for informational purposes only. This is just what I am starting out with. I have yet to get heavy into the tuning yet. All I have done really is got the tail locked in for now so it can fly. I am going to be playing around with most of the settings once I solve the governor deal.


Here is the main screen nothing fancy here:


Here are the main rotor head settings. These are just my starting points.



Same goes with this screen also. These are just my starting points. Real quick comment on the Rate setting. This is degrees per minute not dual rates. Also know that 110 does not necessarily mean 110 degrees either.



This is worth talking about a bit. Right now the only way I can get the Castle to respond to the governor is through fixed end points. Because of this I can not program what I want for a head speed. It would be so much easier if all I had to do was program what I want. Instead I have to work with percentages of throttle. I have not figured out any other way to do this. I have tried and failed, this is the only way I could get it work. I will need to dial in what it is i want.

 

[Smoggie]

I may be wrong here because I know nothing about the Neo governor..
But if i read it right you are not actually using governor. You are simply using three fixed ESC PWM duty cycle % outputs (30%, 40& and 50%) this is just like a flat line throttle curve in a conventional non-governed system. The way the Vbar (and I assume Neo) governor works is to program in an actual head speed (those are the RPM numbers under the 'headspeed line on the last screen you attached). but there is a line through headspeed on your screen so I assume it must be disabled. You can also see that that 'governor gain' has a line through meaning there is no governor gain (i.e. no governor).

I'm guessing that the Neo is not reading the RPM input from the ESC so isn't allowing you to set the governor, this also explains why you dont see RPM in the telemetry. I can't help much on that score because I've no experience of setting the Neo governor. You could just use the castle governor as a temporary fix until you figure it out.

 

[murankar]

I dont know whats going on. All I know is that if you setup a Hobbywing with Gov store the Neo will report the info back. This current setup is the only way I can get the "gov" to work. Last night I did however go into the ESC and set it up like I was doing a heli gov setup in the esc. I set all the gearing info, battery info and motor info. Then went and switched back to fixed end points. I am wondering if its the fixed end points that messing me up.


I just checked because I am using External Governor Mode the only option I have is fixed end points.

 

[murankar]

her is my newest home screen for helicopters. This is something I made on Mikados Vcontrol page. Since I own one I can make my own screens for my models. This is to see what tags do what in the screen. Ill have to screen cast this so that you can see what I am talking about. Every item on the screen is a drag and drop item. So you can build the screen item by item.

 

[murankar]

Actually I like this one better.