[hifly2104]

Ok so what is the best way to set up the servos on an Electric helis. Use an external power supply so you don't need to hook up the ESC and motor ,when centering the servos. Or just unplug one lead to the motor. Second question a little unrelated,but I am using a FMA Co Pilot which has an 8 channel receiver .It came with a crystal marked cp in a paint type marking . There are some very small letters on the other side but need magnifying glass to read. I need to know what channel the crystal is anyone have a hintor should I just replace it

[cervelott]

Excellent question HiFly, I was wondering the exact same thing and question if there is any difference for fixed wing aircraft.

[kwm]

You can just hit your throttle hold if you want so the motor won't turn when you want to make adjustments but the best way is to run a BEC with an external battery for the servos so you aren't drawing from your motor battery to run the servos. This way if something happens like motor battery dies or ESC fries in flight you will still have control over all your servos.

[Kopter]

Unplug the motor, since if you need to ask you need to be cautious. When you want to set up the motor plug it in after pulling it completely out of gear mesh.

kopter

[Cougar429]

In the case of unplugging a brushless motor, you always want to unplug at least 2 out of the 3 wires to prevent any current flow at all.

You have several choices to power the radio system without activating the motor.

One of the easiest ways is to use 3 Alkaline or 4 Nicad or NiMH batteries. This will give you 4.5V for the alkaline and approx 5V for NiCad and NiMH. You can grab a 3 or 4 cell holder from The Source. The requirement here would be an extra servo end to adapt that power to the receiver. If you only have a 6 Channel receiver with no extra ports you can unplug the ESC from Channel #3 and plug the power source in there.

NOTE: The reason I suggest this power range is that most equipment will work fine with this voltage when setting up. Some, such as gyros and digital servos, are limited and you do not want to push them higher in any case. Always check the specs of your system before powering it up. It's too late when you let the magic smoke leak out of the devices to find you did something wrong!(Been there. Don't Ask!!!!).

Another option would be to grab a spare brushed ESC, (it likely has an integral BEC circuit) or UBEC. Either can be had very inexpensively, ($5-10) and would already come with the plugs for the battery and radio attached.

My only other warning would be that the ESC and UBEC options mentioned may be low current sources, so if you are using digital servos with high current demands, (especially if you run them to the limit when first turning on the system and before you get the radio dialed in) you can exceed the supply.

p.s. I replied in your other thread regarding the crystal.

[Vulcan1]

I pulled the crystal on my co-pilot and the top number on the side for mine is RXQTM-46. That corresponds to channel 46 which is what I am on. Hope that helps.
John

[hifly2104]

Ok so I decided to use a flight pack battery from one of my planes and hook it up to the FMA co-pilot . have the correct channel dialed into my radio and the co pilot receiver works. Now I thought the next step should be to set the four servos in the helis at center point. I have run into a small snag and hope someone can help cure it. I have a Hitec Eclipse radio that I have set up to helis on model 2. When I turn on the radio it says Idle On in the sreen and won't let me do anything. If I go into the programing I can change things with out a problem but this Idle On screen won't go away under normal flying mode. Is there some setting I am missing like Idle Off

[hifly2104]

Originally Posted by hifly2104

Ok so I decided to use a flight pack battery from one of my planes and hook it up to the FMA co-pilot . have the correct channel dialed into my radio and the co pilot receiver works. Now I thought the next step should be to set the four servos in the helis at center point. I have run into a small snag and hope someone can help cure it. I have a Hitec Eclipse radio that I have set up to helis on model 2. When I turn on the radio it says Idle On in the sreen and won't let me do anything. If I go into the programing I can change things with out a problem but this Idle On screen won't go away under normal flying mode. Is there some setting I am missing like Idle Off

Google is good. In this case I googled my problem and its a flight mode switch display . Move the flight mode switch Idle up is gone. So tomorrow I will hook up the servos from the Helis and remove the servos arms from the servos and center thse servos ,then reconnect the arms.Some one said about removing the motor from the frame so it can't connect with the large gears I can then set up and check the motor direction(which way should motor Rotate )

[Cougar429]

Motor direction will depend on the mounting method, ie. either from above or below the main gear. you want it to drive the main gear, and therefore the head, clockwise when looking at it from directly above. This has the main blades advancing on the left side of the heli and retreating on the right, (all positions are as they would be if you are sitting in the pilots seat).

If I remember one of your earlier posts, this rig is installed in a 450. Is that correct? Do you have your channel assignments for the receiver? Let me know and I'll try and help out as much as I can.

[moo]

You can find setup guides for almost every 450 heli here:

http://www.heliguy.com/Forum/

I set up my Belp CP on my Futaba 7c, quite the learning experience.

First things first: centre servos and set linkage lengths, balance everything