My Newbee Question

I'm attempting to connect my AR6100e receiver to the EXI Squadron servos. I'm not sure which servos connect to which chanels on the receiver. This is what I have connected right now.

Looking from the rear (tail) of the EXI Squadron. (Servos are mounted like Mark has in the videos)

AR6100e:

AUX1 - OPEN
GEAR - OPEN
RUDD - TAIL SERVO
ELEV - FRONT SERVO?
ALE - LEFT SIDE SERVO
THRO - ESC (Esc has BEC)
BATT - OPEN

My question is which channel does the servo on the right side connect to? If the above is correct I guess it connects to either the AUX1 or GEAR channels. I think that the gyro will actually connect to the RUDD eventually (when I have it installed). Then the tail servo connects to the gyro, right?

If anyone can make heads or tails out of my description above, can you give me some guidance.

Thanks, Curt

I got this from watching the DX6i vid at Nuttcaze website. On that the servo on right would be your pitch servo and connects to AUX1. And yes you are right about the gyro. Go to Nuttcaze.com and look at the DX6i videos, and also go to youtube and type in "upgrading to the DX6i". Both arte very helpfull.

Donnie D

Someone chime in here, I don't want to steer him wrong.

yea right servo can go to AUX1 and the gear spot is for the gyro gain wire.
the Aeleron, Elevator and pitch go to ELEV, ALE and AUX1. In the end there seems to be a constant argument about the order lol. They can all be changed about in the swash settup. Nuttcaze will hopefully junp in here somewhere and give us all a lesson lol

I think he said he'd be out of town till Sunday.

Donnie D

You guys are the best. I'll give that receiver configuration a try. I don't have the energy after a long day, and we just got back from the new Star Trek movie. It was really pretty good.

Time to get some sleep and give it another go tomorrow.

Thanks again guys.

Curt

I think I have the servo connection issue straight. When I mount the servo arm on the pitch servo, with the ball on the inside of the arm, the ball is hitting the head of a mounting screw for the mainshaft upper bearing block.

Have you guys seen this and what has been the solution? I think I have seen in the Finless videos where he has machined off the post on the ball in this kind of situation. I really would prefer if I could find another solution. My big sausage fingers have a hell of a time handeling some of these tiny parts! It would be difficult holding the ball, without damaging it, to machine off the post.

Maybe I missed Mark discussing this issue in the videos but, I don't recall seeing it.

I'll wear out the videos again! They really are invaluable.

Thanks, Curt

I didn't see anything about it in Marcs vid either but finless Bobs trick of using a toothpick to hold the ball and cutting through the ball shaft and toothpick works really well. I cot the stubby finger problem too and had to cut down all the balls for my CP2. Works great.

After pondering the question I think I came up with a simpler solution than trimming the ball post. I removed the black plastic washer, that was under the head of the offending screw, and reinstalled the screw. Seem to have good clearance now. Glad I didn't have to start cutting on the ball, I had a vision of that not going well!

Now on to leveling the swashplate with the three unequal length rods. Anyone have the dimensions they ended up with for the length of the rods? (I don't ask for much do I!) Now I see why I wanted to buy that fixture for leveling the swashplate.

Baby Steps, Baby Steps,

Curt

sorry bud. Can't help you with link lenght. I think it's something your gunna have to work out. Just remember when you get it lvl. Make sure it centered top and bottom so it doesn't bind through it's full range of movement.

I'm back OMG, what a trip, 17hrs each way, total trip was just over 2200 miles. With my mom, sister and lil brother, it was an experience to say the least, lol

Anyways, you seem to have the connections work out, one thing to remember is it doesn't matter which servo is the pitch and aileron, they can be either the left side or right side because they move together at all times so it doesn't matter which is which.

As far as the ball links hitting the servos, I haven't run into that problem with and of my servos yet, I do remeber seeing a vid from Finless about shortening the ball links but I don't remember much about it.

I'll pop my links of my EXI's tomorrow and measure them so you'll have a good idea of the approximate length they should be. Although, I've found on the 4 that I've set up, the links are generally close to being the right length right from the factory.

What's that old pilots saying? Any landing you live through is a good landing! Sounds like you had one of those kind of experiences with your trip.

You don't have to go to the trouble of measureing your linkages, unless you really want to. I'm working the setup of the head out, with the videos that you have made and also Finless Bobs, sometimes I have to put the setup aside and think about it for a while before it makes sense.

I'm enjoying the building process and I am learning a ton about helis. I'm trying to go slow and make sure I understand what I'm doing at each step of the setup. I carefully connected the motor wires yesterday, just to make sure that the ESC/motor were working. I understand your comment earlier about the sound of the EXI 450, holly crap, it's scary sounding at 1/3 throttle! I didn't even have the main blades on yet.

Welcome back! Curt

Between all of us here we have a really broad range of helis. Maybe we could all pitch in with the different birds we have and make up some sort of quick referance guide for setups. Something that contains some pics of the assembled heli with some closeups of anything confusing. It can also contain a list of linkage lenghts, servo placement, RX wiring, basix TX settings, pinion size and any other relevent info. Submit them to a moderator to be organised and posted on a locked sticky so they don't become a jumbled mess of posts. Just an idea that I think would be an asset to the forum.

Just a thought

Darrel

I was also thinking of making up a spreadsheet like form for radio setup data. That way we could share our final setups and also our setup starting points in a format that may be easier to follow than just watching the videos. It would have to be radio specific so there may be some translation needed when people are using different radios. Terminology questions may also be easier to understand, I'm still trying to figgure out some terms like rate mode, stunt mode, etc.

Curt

I think both of you have great ideas. They both would be extremely helpfull and would be something I don't think you will find on any of the other forums.

Donnie D

I'll work on something a little later today, some kind of standardized form so it'd be easy to see what everyone is using.

Sorry Nuttcaze, just realized that we are just creating more work for you

nah, its all good, when it helps others I don't mind, I'm a complete "RC Heli Addict"

I have everything setup. I think! But I ran into a couple of questions.

Is it possible the 4 small screws that you identified in the initial video go into the skid supports to fix the skids in them. I noticed that there are 4 holes on the inside of the skid supports and that my skids are pretty loose in the supports. I don't think there are holes in the skids but I have that technology, if that's where they go.

Secondly, the blades are very tight in the blade holders. I know that you mentioned in the videos about blade tightness. I had to pry the blade holders apart to get the blades in them.

Any thoughts on these two issues guys?

I still have to do some final wire tying and I also have to mount the receiver.

Very close to spinning the blades for the first time!

Curt

oh yeah, I never went back and editied my vid to say that the 4 small screws are for the skids, I'll make sure I point it out in my new vid about the squadron


My blade grips are really tight too but after a while the blade roots wear in a bit and then they loosen up, but I keep my blades fairly tight on my 450's.