I have just completed the construction and programming of my new Hunter 500 V-tail. The test flights have been a great success and I’m happy to announce that I still have my machine. This has been my first quad build and the first time I have ever used a controller that required so much effort from the user. I am experienced with FBL heli’s and fly from micro to 700 sized birds. I find the FBL units are easier for me to understand, I think they are more polished for the general audience to use. This has been a fantastic learning experience! However, I could use some help dialing in the Yaw axis.
My set-up is as follows;
Hi-max HC2808-0980 motors
Castle Creations 25amp quad pack
Flip MWC 1.5 controller
Spektrum AR7600 Rx
JR 9303 Tx
Hyperion 4S, 2500mAh battery
APC 9x4.5 MR prop set
weight RTF, 2lbs. 5.5oz.
power output is in the 650 watt range and my run time is a solid 6 mins of aerobatics with 25% left in the pack.
My goal is sport/aerobatic flying. However, I will be mounting a Go-Pro on the front for some pics. I will not be flying with the camera all the time, just when I want some pics/video.
Here’s the Q. The quad fly’s awesome in two of the three axis’. My forward speed must be approaching 60mph, the flip and roll rate is great. Doing multiple back flips while keeping most of the forward speed is something to see. And the Flip 1.5 is having no trouble keeping up at all with TONS of stability. But my yaw authority is horribly lacking. I am positive that the controller is seeing 1500 as the mid and 1000/2000 as the end points. I have set the Rate to 136 and the expo to .30, but these values seem to be for pitch/roll only. I have run the P down to 1.6, I down to .005 and the D down to 0 and I still can’t seem to get the tail movement I want. I have run the rudder ch in the Tx up to 125% and the expo up to +60, to no avail. I have tried running the mtrs in both directions. Right now the mtrs are running Lt/Fr CCW, Rt/Fr CW, Lt/Rr CW, Rt/Rr CCW. I know this is mirrored from what most of the info about this machine says. I built it running the mtrs as instructed and thought I would try this to see if I could increase the Yaw response. I am sure the design of this machine is working to use thrust to help control Yaw and not just counter torque, but I am having a hard time wrapping my head around which mtr pair is doing the work.
I sure hope I don’t have to write a whole program for this board, I don’t know much about computers and needed a bit of help just downloading the pre-written code into the Flip. (Who knew new laptops didn’t come with WinZip anymore?)
Thanks for any advice. And Thanks to Eric for helping me a few weeks ago and doing a great job with this machine, it truly looks badass in the air!
Very nice review of your experience with the VTail and the Flip.
Yes most of the FBL are more polished than the Flip but this is not dedicated to the flip as all the MultiWii flight controller. Since the software is open source and very adaptative (Many Many options…)
Ok… so for your Yaw, if it is just not fast/strong enough for your taste there is a setting in the GUI that you might want to increase it’s the “RATE” near the PID settings. This increase the reaction to the user input.
Eric, Thank You for the quick response. I sure hope you like what you do 'cause I’m sure you are very busy. You had my answer before I got up this morning!
First, I sat down and with the help some masking tape I got my head around what mtrs should be doing what to get the best yaw action. I have seen both rotation schemes listed and I thought that if the tail mtr that went vertical during a banking turn was accelerating to create the yaw, that higher trust would work to cancel the yaw. As I have the mtrs now, in relation to the desired yaw I have the outside front mtr and the inside rear mtr (the mtr that rotates horizontal) accelerating. This seems to work great.
Next, I visited the rate setting as you suggested. I was going to try a value of 1.00 but noticed the window seemed to need a few swipes of the mouse to increase the value. I settled on trying a value of .5 and…WOOHOO!!! I now have a yaw rate of about 360deg/sec. And it very nicely matches the rates of the pitch and roll action. What a machine! I should be able to do my final settings soon and will post a screenshot of my settings for those interested in aerobatics.
Once Again, Thank You Eric for excellent service and advise!
