MX400 Setup Help

[Kaw1000]

Hi fellas...I have some major problems with my electronics on my mx 400 build
3110 futaba servos
alin 35 amp esc
401 gyro
futaba 7 channel rx and tx
vampower 2200 11.0 v 3s lipo
mega brushless motor
I hooked up all these things together and I the only thing I hear is a beep from the esc....the servos and gyro do not work at all......I set my radio up for heli use.....also I took rx out of its housing and wrapped it with foam because it would not fit in frame with the housing on.
Also there are 3 wires that come out of motor ...they are all black....I've switched them around cause I dont know what wire goes to the colored wires on esc...that did'nt help anything.
my servos are hooked up as follows
channel 1....left servo(roll)
2....front back servo(pitch)
3... throttle or esc wire to rx
4....gyro control.....tail servo hooks to gyro
5....gyro sensitivity(yello wire from 401 gyro
6...right servo(roll)
really need help here...thanks for any help u all can give!!

[Kaw1000]

ooppss

[eddiemoth]

Hi Kaw1000,
wha do you mean ooppss? Has the problem resolved? If not.

Check the channel hook up as follow.

Channel 1 is usually used for aileron (roll) – cyclic lateral. You move the cyclic stick on your Transmitter horizontally to tilt the swashplate left and right to get your helicopter move side way.

Channel 2 is usually used for elevator – cyclic pitch. You move the cyclic stick on your Transmitter vertically to tilt the entire swashplate fore (front) and aft (back) and change the angle of the attack to bring the nose of the helicopter up or down.

Channel 3 is usually used for throttle. You move the throttle stick vertically to increase or decrease power to your helicopter motor or engine. This function is done in conjunction of collective pitch change.

Channel 4 is usually used for rudder (tail). You move the rudder stick (the same as throttle stick) horizontally to change the angle of tail blade. For motor driven tail fixed pitch blade, moving the rudder stick left and right to increase or decrease the power to the tail motor.

Channel 5 is usually a spared channel and available to be programmed for other purposes.

Channel 6 is usually used for collective pitch. You move the collective stick (the throttle stick) vertically up and down to change the pitch (angle of attack) of the rotor blades.

Are you OK with your wiring from the battery to Esc? Do you have pictures on how your wire the servos and ESC. Let's try to get your servos to move and set pitch correctly and everything then take care of the motor last.

[Kaw1000]

no, opps I hit wrong button and replyed to myself...ok heres what ill do....ill take some pics and post them.......I will redo the rx in the fashion you told me to here and try it.....thanks soooo much!
So the tail servo is connected to 401 and 401 wire is to go to channel 4?
and the 1 single yellow wire from 401 goes to channel 5??

[eddiemoth]

Kaw1000,
I think yes but I sent a PM to Steve for him to confirm that as I don't have a 401 - I use 240 for my MX400. the 401 is even better.

[Kaw1000]

Pictures of my wiring and rest of heli....excuse the lousy pictures

[Kaw1000]

another picture

[Kaw1000]

1 more

[Kaw1000]

1 more

[Kaw1000]

Also the rx has a bb on it for a rx battery...I've been told that the esc....alin 35amp send power to the rx...is this true?

[swatson144]

I just cronked a lengthy post. sucks sometimes to be me.

You have good taste in gear!

I don't know what the GY-401 would have to do with the problem

I'd make it easy by dis'n everything (motor too!). Hook the ESC to chan 3 (compare against the RX manual or rx case markings for polarity) connect any convient servo to chan 1. If it responds to the R stick moving L/R then we are making progress. No?

The three wires from the motor can connect in any manner to the proper 3 wires from the ESC. Worst case is it runs backwards and changing any 2 wires will fix the diredtion.

I do know your ESC has an onboard BEC (unless it is an opto) and will supply 4.8V to the rx. I'm a CC guy and have slight experience with align ESCs.

I'll check again in the AM but I have an early fly in.

Steve (sorry but the first post was less rushed)

[Kaw1000]

Good news....I changed the way I hookd wires to rx.....I reversed them all....the esc is sending out a new sound that means its rdy to be programed...The tail servo is now working along with gyro......the bad news......other three servos not working and motor not working!
Thanks for all your help so far....we almost have it.....just need to figure out why these other servos r not working.....and motor!!

[swatson144]

Progress is made. I hope you didn't smoke anything with the reversed polarity. Some servos will smoke and some not when plugged in wrong.

Smart thing to do before any other messing around is to remove the pinion from the motor so we have no accidents.

Sounds like you need to reverse the throttle chan. so the ESC arms and will run the motor.

I'd unplug the gyro and plug a servo into the rudder chan and see that it works. Since we know the rudder chan works testing each servo in it should tell us that they still work or not. While plugging the rudder servo (known to work) into each of the rx ports will tell us that the rx is still good.

I'm hoping you'll be setting up TC/PC when I get back.

Steve

[swatson144]

BTW that's probably the worst location for a gyro as the blades/flybar can get there in a crash. Many people have had their gyro opened up by a bent flybar. I run mine there until I get the delay/direction sorted out on the tail servo and then it goes aft in the frame. Those being the only settings you need to touch on the gyro itself.

Steve

[Kaw1000]

I tryed the servo in the gyro slot nothing happened....I gotta tell ya that there is a fimilar smell comming from rx......a smell I've smelled before on my cx 4in 1 I cooked it 1 time and it had a burnt electrical smell....I looked closely at the rx and dont see any burn marks....gotta get to work....thanks

[eddiemoth]

Hmm...your wiring looks correct to me from the picture. Futaba RX has number labels so it is hard to miss connect wires. Now, you do not get any response when switched servos and with the smell from the RX, it is kind of make things cloudy. But it is kind of odd to have two defective servos and a ESC! But everything is possible. I still hope that it is something else - not the servos or the ESC.

I posted links for your electronic owner manuals here so you access these from one place.

Gy401 manual
http://www.futaba-rc.com/manuals/futm0807-manual.pdf

Futaba 7 TX manual
http://www.futaba-rc.com/manuals/7c-manual.pdf
Futaba 7 TX manual addendum
http://www.futaba-rc.com/manuals/7c-addendum.pdf

Align 35 A ESC manual
http://www.align.com.tw/html/en/assembly/rce-bl25ge.htm

Pic of the FP-R138DP
http://www.futabarc.com/radioaccys/futl0802.jpg

[Kaw1000]

Hey thanks again ........Is there anyway to test the rx with volt meter???....do you think that maybe there is a setting on tx that I may be missing??

[eddiemoth]

When you connected the ESC to the battery, did you hear 3 beeps?

Did you buy the your heli and these electronics from a LHS close by? If yes, it may be easier to bring the whole kit in to see if they can test the rx for you. They have other rx and servos that they can just swap it and test.

I don't think it is related but have you programmed your ESC already with your TX stick already? Are you going to use the default settings? Check the ESC manual attached to see if you just want to keep the default settings then you don't have to do anything. If you are gonna do that, set up your throttle curve to 0 25 50 75 100 for a radio with a five point curve. Setting up the ESC is done by using the stick position to select the settings you want during programming. Check the SEC manual and make up your mind as to what options of the Break, Timming and Battery Protection options. I use Hyperion 30A ESC. I keep all default settings and I did not have to program it.

Whatever you do, like Steve said, it is good not to install the motor pipion yet - just to be safe.

[G-MRM]

Well...... you say the gyro and tail servo is working, try the other servos into the gyro, they should work the same. If they do you know they are Ok.

Next with a tested working servo try that in the other ports of the Rx, remember black wire to outside !!

Smells are not good from electrical gear !!

See what you find with the above please..... I Don't think you can test this gear with a volt meter, swap out items till you find the bad one is the only way. :( :( :(

[Kaw1000]

well Ive tryed all combinations trying toget three of the servos to work......the gyro and tail servo work good...I even plugged tail servo to rx itself instead of to the gyro...it worked.....when I plug the other three servos to the tail servo I get nothing......wonder if these three servos are bad...I bought them off of e-bay used with mx 400 parts...any way to check servos??
Also Are you guys sure there is not a setting on the tx that I'm missing?? I've read the manuel and find nothing that I can see

[G-MRM]

I think you can say the 3 servos are dead !!!

You have seen yourself that when plugged into a working gyro they don't move. Treat yourself at your LHS to 3 nice new ones. Sometimes you can be lucky on e bay but also you did have them all connected wrong in the Rx.

( P.S. I have connected Futaba servos wrong for a very short time and had no problems! )

[Kaw1000]

Well heck......Guess Ill order 3 new ones......how do you explain the motor not working.....do you think I need to program esc to make it work??...this was also a E-bay buy that came with the used Servos. Agian thanks so much for your help!!!

[G-MRM]

Not so sure, what ESC is it Align ?

If so with the sick full throttle on turn on you get the setup bleeps, follow instructions, you must then power off and on with stick in low and it should work. Make sure the motor is OUT OF MESH with the main gear while you do all this and let us know !!

[swatson144]

It sounded to me as if the throttle chan is reversed (or needs to be reversed). I think he is getting the programming beeps and not the arming beeps.

I'd just dis connect the pinion and plug in at max throttle and trim. Wait until it is done beeping and lower the throttle a little if the motor starts to turn. The throttle chan needs to be reversed in the TX.

Or just reverse it and see if it works as expected. Be carefull I have dodged a couple run away helis from people messing with throttle reverse. Usually caused by nothing happening and then they move it WOT and then back to bottom, by the time the thing arms the stick is at the bottom (if it's reversed that is WOT) and the excitement commences. A friends micro took of like a huey from a hot LZ and stuffed itself perfectly in an upper corner in in his garage. "Oh the humanity"!

If 1 servo works in 1 chan and you plug each servo in that chan, then plug the servo you know works in and it still works. It's a fair bet the ones that didn't work are bad. The 3110s are great servos don't throw them away as the gearsets are still good if any are bad. Futaba is pretty proud of their gear sets. I have never plugged a 3110 in backwards so I can't comment on their survivability. It all depends on the electronics of that particular brand/model. There is also the variable of not just the servos were reversed but also the 5V from the bec. i think it best not to experiment with that :shock: . Though I have a couple RXs and servos I probably should then maybe see if they'll work on 120V. :)

Having done that you can plug the known working servo into each chan and see if the rx has become a 2 chan or not.

I doubt if you hurt the ESC as the analog reg circuit is a pretty well protected unit with good thermal protection. It just turns off when it gets hot, though in a dead short it may not have time.

If you want to get fancier Astro Flight makes a nice little servo tester for about 20$ I have one and it is wonderful. When I get the chance to change gears from one of my abrupt unexpected landings, I like to use my meter and see if everything is about right before I install it. http://www.astroflight.com/store/store-type-tem.html?item=products:af-105&sid=0001Z6Zo61a6Vucp849q5o8 it also will put a 1/2 amp load on for testing your bec. Just hold plug in a spare chan or Y and titillate all the servos (in TH) while holding the button. Esky has one also though I have never seen it.

Steve.

[Kaw1000]

Yeee Haww the motor is now working!!!! I reversed it!!! it worked!!!...working on other 3 servos will keep ya updated!!

Also......I pluged did the servo switch thing and the tail servo works in the 1 6 and channel(the channel that the 3 servos are connected to)....so......It looks like the 3 front servos are cooked...gotta be it cause rx is working fine.......Agian thanks again huge help!!...wish I could buy you all a cold beer!!

[swatson144]

8) Go Team! Wishing the best.

Steve

[Kaw1000]

btw thanks to bob who has a video out on how to program alinesc....I have the esc programed!!...another question.....when I give her full throttle, it stops right away when I lower throttle all the way down the rotor stops fast...kinda like brake is on. I guess I have something to tight.

[eddiemoth]

Yes, Bob is a great guy. If you are registered with Helifreak you can watch Bob' s videos from here http://helitown.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=38 too.

How is your motor pinion and main gear mesh? Check it to see if it is too tight but also make sure it is not too loose either. Put a piece of paper between the pinion and the gear and secure your motor position.

Come on you are getting close to flying now

[G-MRM]

It sounds like the brake is still set on in the ESC, when you power on the bleeps tell you what setting you have, look at the paperwork and follow the bleeps and see in the brake is off or on.

As for cutting out on spool up, is this just the motor or do you have it in mesh with the main gear with the blades on?

If it is just the motor spinning is your battery fully charged? Maybe as your pulling power by moving the stick up fast the volts are dropping and ESC cuts out.

Same is true if you do have the blades on, as Eddie said is the gear mesh too tight, is the head easy to turn without the motor connected ??

Can you tell us what setting you have for the ESC, that may help if you have not worked it out yet.
:lol: Martin

[Kaw1000]

the esc has a setting of soft meduim and hard...I have it set to soft...I wish there was a option to turn brake off altogether!
the rotor does not free spin when I turn it.....it is kinda stiff.....I think I have the pinon to tight or maybe the shaft colar stops maybe to close to frame...Ill do some work on it and keep ya updated. I'm doing all my teasting with blades off
Btw ordered new 3110 servos yesterday...the should be here by the end of the week!! Thanks again!

also the motor is not cutting out at all....sorry if I typed it to sound that way.....motor runs strong no cut outs

[eddiemoth]

Hi Kaw1000,
Yes- according to the ESC manual, the brake off is the default setting. So when get to the part where to have to move the stick to set up the brake option, keep the stick at the lowest level so the brake off option is selected. I also don't use brake option.

[G-MRM]

You never need the brake on with a heli, as for the head speeding down quick, I am not sure how fast it would spin down without the blades giving it momentum.

It should be free when the motor is not in mesh, no binding, but is is turning the tail etc.

Yes, I read it wrong, thought the ESC was cutting out. I thought most ESC had the option to turn the brake off, however soft will be Ok.

Bet you can't wait to get the servos in, the fun can start !! :lol: :lol:

[Kaw1000]

No servos yet eeeerrrrrrrrr

[G-MRM]

Are they making them for you !! LHS tomorrow then or ordered and paid for already! ?

[Kaw1000]

Hi guys...Just wanted you to know that I have had other things that have come up and I have not been able to work on the MX....Hope you guys will be around to help in a few weeks!! Thanks

[eddiemoth]

Kaw1000,
We are not going anywhere. We are waiting to help you get that MX400 fly.