Zephyr ZII - Highs and Lows…..

[mjc1970]

Back in the air and this time a 20 minute maiden FPV flight.  Very pleased with the endurance. With two 4S 3300's, I still came back with 42% left in each battery pack. I wasn't really belting it however, I was just getting the feel of it flying around on 50% throttle. Here's a short clip with the highlights.

Ritewing Zephyr II ZII - Maiden FPV Flight - Leicestershire UK GoPro Hero 2

Still not convinced with the FY31AP/Hornet OSD. I'll upload an OSD video later for comment. The gains have been turned down on both elevator and aileron, gyro reset and flashed the firmware to 1.20 again, but I'm still nervy about trying it again!

[mjc1970]

Here's a video from the Hornet OSD.  The artificial horizon seems very laggy to me and doesn't always show a true representation to the actual horizon.  As can be seen from the AER reading, I'm not getting too much vibration. Given the slight fluctuations, do the values shown represent a potential issue?

Ritewing Zephyr II ZII - Maiden FPV Flight Hornet OSD View - Leicestershire UK

[pk-surfing]

Coyote will reply better as he has this same kit (I have the earlier FY21AP etc) but I'd definitely be trimming the wing for hands of level flight and then doing the recalibrate dip switch thingy as that artificial horizon is a dead give away that something isn't calibrated correctly.

PK

[c0nners]

Back in the air and this time a 20 minute maiden FPV flight.

Looking good Matt. I'm iching to get a nice FPV flight now.
Do you know what CoG I need to gain on mine?

Ta, Conners

[Coyote]

There is something wrong still, its showing banked right turns when your level at times, then not reacting at all. I think a re-flash, then level calibrate first. Then set neutrals again and see how that is. Your values in AER are pretty low still, I presume your wires are slack too it.

When you boot up the FY does the FY31AP red LED keep flashing or go out ?

[mjc1970]

I've had another session with the ZII this evening and having backed the gains right down I think I'm about there with the FY31AP. Unlike previous flights where I was getting a lot of oscillating when feeding in elevator as I banked around, I was no longer getting that having back the elevator gain to a minimum. Applying ABM mode when taking the fingers off the sticks having applied either sharp aileron or elevator pretty well stabilised it. I say pretty well, as it was just going into a very slight dive.  I landed and switched dip 4 back up to re-level it once again in the air.  Having trimmed it out for level flying on just over 50% throttle, a then set the ABM switch to save the setting. Landed again, new batteries in but unfortunately on the next launch didn't get her away (no wind) and ended up ripping one of the side fins off (end of flying for today) and hence unable to test again!  :-[

I feel a lot happier now though and fingers crossed I hope it's about there now. There was far too much gain previously.  The artificial horizon seemed to behave a lot better too although I was concentrating on other things and didn't record the OSD footage this time.

[mjc1970]

There is something wrong still, its showing banked right turns when your level at times, then not reacting at all. I think a re-flash, then level calibrate first.

Then set neutrals again and see how that is. Your values in AER are pretty low still, I presume your wires are slack too it.

When you boot up the FY does the FY31AP red LED keep flashing or go out ?

That's good that the AER values are pretty low. The red LED light goes out when I boot up I believe, it's just the blue one which stays on.

[Coyote]

Good to see its improved. I found with the X8 the other day I still had to trim via radio in ABM mode, it would slightly dive and turn to the left. I then trimmed the plane in ABM mode to get it to hold, once it was it was like flying on rails. This contradicted the rc level flight trim I had set, but when I came out of ABM it was still flying level ??? Work that one out hehe 

[mjc1970]

Back in the air and this time a 20 minute maiden FPV flight.

Looking good Matt. I'm iching to get a nice FPV flight now.
Do you know what CoG I need to gain on mine?

Ta, Conners

My CoG is pretty well as the build instructions suggest. Can't recall what it is without referring to the instructions, I think 9 inches from the nose.

Good luck with your FPV flight. Great when you get them up there, but buggers to get them away!  I have the Hacker A30 10XL V2 motor / X-55 SB Pro ESC combo and despite the ESC being set for a fast pickup, there is a second or so delay which is pain in the arse!  Not sure if there is anyway around this other than changing the ESC for something else?  I seem to recall reading on RC Groups others having similar issues with this same ESC.

Look forward to see some footage anyway Conners if you manage to record.

[mjc1970]

Good to see its improved. I found with the X8 the other day I still had to trim via radio in ABM mode, it would slightly dive and turn to the left. I then trimmed the plane in ABM mode to get it to hold, once it was it was like flying on rails. This contradicted the rc level flight trim I had set, but when I came out of ABM it was still flying level ??? Work that one out hehe

Bizarre!  I didn't even think of trimming it in ABM mode!  Having had another touch and go flight with it when ABM was engaged the other day, I was very close to ripping the thing out and listing on eBay or posting on the classified section on here!  Fingers crossed I hope it should be fine now.

Cheers.

[mjc1970]

Here's a video from yesterday evening of further testing of the FY31AP in ABM mode on the ZII. Not oscillating this time thanks to backing the gains right down to next to nothing.   Few more tweaks and I'll test the RTL.  :o

http://youtu.be/XvSzCJBOyuU

[Coyote]

Nice 1 Matt, not bad at all :) Having your gains that low would suggest too much alieron travel ? I tuned my aileron gain using RTH first, if it snaked instead of holding straight at home I turned aileron gain down, once it stopped that was ailerons set

[mjc1970]

Maybe. The ailerons are set at 38% on the end points with 100 D/R and - 15% Expo on my Futaba 9C. Very little movement, but you don't need much and you can see from the video even at these settings how sensitive it is. I may dial in a little more expo.

I think it's getting there now though. Thanks for your feedback Coyote, it's appreciated.

[Asomaro]

Matt,,

Good to see the progress,  nice flight mate.

Cheers,