Blade 400 3D gyro/tail servo setup Part 1

[toddwadefindlay1]

Hey Sokal bought some carbon fiber rotor blades, new monster foam tape for the 401 and wala perfect tail hold. Thanks for the vids.

[toddwadefindlay1]

Hey Sokal my blade with a 401 wont hold, nose drifts right? I can't get it to hold solid I followed your vids to a T, still drifts? Any ideas on a cure? Thanks Todd e- mail is wadefindlay@aol.com. Your the best.

[sokal11]

@toddwadefindlay1 adjust by moving the servo up or down the boom to get that lil amount of tail pitch out or adj in servo control rod a 1/2 turn at a time

[Rknaub420]

Great videos, couldn't have set it up without your help. Thanks a million!

[sokal11]

i had the 401 and the jr 3400g did create a lil more demand on the system so i put BEC in to let the esc deal with motor only. the castle 35A is my best recomendation it will do well with stock motor and give room for later upgrades. and thanks

[myvidedits]

Hi sokal,

Video was a great help. everything went perfect except I had to drop the gain to about 57 to stop the tail wagging?! And after half a battery the ESC went pop. I think its just a dud stock ESC not sure if the 401 and digital tail servo would put that much extra demand on the ESC. Would you recommend upgrading the ESC?cheers

[CrazyHeliDude]

I like this video. great shooting.

[98CiViC0301]

i just bought a used feda dragonfly and when i give it throttle it spins to the counter clockwise i have the trim alway to the right also to prevent it but its not enough it still spins. is anything wrong or am i doin something wrong?

[donzx10]

I have a stock blade 400 that i think i have setup pretty good thanks to Sokal's videos (Mahalo Brudder). All i can really do is hover, but when hovering the tail creeps around the axis counterclock wise causing me to give it right rudder or right trim...is this normal or should the gyro lock the nose on heading? I know wind/ other factors can cause drift, but i am talking in zero wind/ minimal stick movement...Mahalo!

[Flyingtitanic]

Sokal,

Thanks very much for all your work on these videos?I've followed your setup for a standard Blade 400 -so 'hold' pitch set linear 0-100%, gyro '1' to 45. To centre the servo horn the best I could do was 50 of sub trim after fiddling with the physical horn position. Then set push rod to put the tail rotor slider in the centre of its travel. Continued

[Flyingtitanic]

continued (too many characters)

This, however, doesn't set the rotor blades to zero pitch (quite a bit of R rudder). Of course there's no adjustment to set pitch to zero at this position. Now I've got a setup where in 'rate' mode the servo arm is centred but the blades have a fair bit of R rudder. If I flick to 0 (HH) mode the blades feather to what looks close to 0° pitch.

Does this make sense and it it correct?

[erwin15erwin]

Hello, Just watched you video setup and thank you cause it helped me set things up.... But now I'm getting the servo glitch...... I just posed a video response just wondering if you could take a look at it and share a little light on my problem??

Thanks in advanced....

[Senegal01]

Been going over this video number of times. Have 3500G/401. Been causing problems. ended up R gyro in reverse on radio. now servo works fine, but in HH light does not come on? light off in regular mode at setting of 49.0 on gyro. Any ideas, you can send a PM. Maybe I need to take helicopter to VA Beach for a vacation. LOL (they will be going to sun FL soon tho!)

[sokal11]

make sure your not running 6v with the 3500g

but check your gyro direction in the reverse menu should be N anything a bove 51 is HH mode

[Senegal01]

sokal11, First, are you deployed, hate to ask question if you have other stuff going on.

Ok, 6v? v would be from receiver, so is 6v possible, not sure I understand this.

In HH is the servo suppose to self center, cause if I set R for rudder in reverse then it appears to work fine, but no light in HH? This is a shell game, try to find under what shell everything works together. LOL

[nwjt]

PS I was joking about the no gyro, but its crazy what it costs to make this thing fly decent.

[nwjt]

You have a gyro that cost as much as the heli? Man.. The stock gyro is good enough and a good pilot can fly without a gyro. Just use some revo mixing and you're good.

People are crazy!

[sokal11]

yes i can fly with out the gyro but sure makes its easier when demanding torque on the main rotor system to so tic tocs and knife edge

[jauchiu]

@nwjt Put a video were your mouth is! Sokal11 has some very good flight vids, The gyro that comes with the Blade 400 is junk. The insides are loose. Its hard to fly when your gyro has your tail waging all over the place. So lets see you fly the 400 without a gyro.

[ZdenekJindra]

@nwjt The gyro obviously costs less than the heli (both new) and you can buy a copy of 401 for $14 - dealextreme .20020

The stock gyro would work if only it didn't have that huge temp drift!

Revo mixing is poor and might only be good with almost constant rotor speeds which I am not really going for.

[celo456celo]

Sokal - thanx for the vid. I have a 110 stock gyro and I cant seem to place it in rate mode. I have my sensitivity below 50 in 1 setting and above 50 in 0 setting but when I flip the switch - it stays in head holding mode (the light stays on ) Any suggestions? Thanks again

[sokal11]

for the g110 the light will stay on

how you will know if your in rate is that the tail slider will return to center when you release the rudder stick

[celo456celo]

The reason I asked about Rate mode on the 110 gyro is because in your vid U say that 1 must be in rate mode in order to center the tail servo- correct? so I guess my question should have been ... what are the proper steps to center the stock servo so that I can 90 degree the arm. Thanx again. Appreciate all of your help

[sokal11]

just make sure subtrimand trim is center

and set the gyro gain rate to 45% or so this will center the servo just besure not to move the heli to much as the gyro will stil compensate but not will use the center of the gyro range as it return point

[Duxasblt]

aw fuck... you know, at first i created a car, with my own controller i made out from a ps2 joystick and a remote control, now i see that if i aim for a helicopter ill must buy this thingy controler... in my country the prices are wild, so frickin unfair <:[

[Maniac96744]

HI sokal

I'm new to the hobby. I don't quite understand this gyro set up with my jr 9303. My gyro is plugged into the "gear" section on my rx. When I flip the gear swith on the tx, the tail rotor has no response at all. When I flip the gear switch to the other direction it works fine, but the light on the gyro is off. I just started flying the other day but I dont think my gyro is operating as it should. Any advice? Do you still live in Kailua? I live in Kaneohe.

Thanks

[jordanfernandes07]

helo, i folowed all the instrustion, went and flown it without no trim or sub trim and when im hovering and give it all stik the tali terns and kicks to one side, and i trid moving the ajustment and its stil the same, help!!!!!!

[sokal11]

sounds like your belt is skipping or the gain setting is to low or slider is sticking

what tail servo are you useing?

[jordanfernandes07]

i am using hs 5065mg all round

[sokal11]

well that servo is not a tail specific but is good enough for the 400

check belt tention and gain

[jordanfernandes07]

i have and its all ok???

[darryl5150]

this video was a great help for setting up the stock gyro and servo thanks a million. -DWOMP

[BIGMARK313]

Thank you for your help i apprecaite it and what should i use to shave out the frame

[sokal11]

a file or a hobby knife its really not much

just enough for the servo to slide in with ease

[macdaddy1600]

hey sokal new gyro works fine but when i put the heli in idle up it spun out. one one guy told me the gyro setting in radio needs to be the same setting in stunt and normal what do you say thanks

[sokal11]

it all depends

with a constant head speed the gyro has to work less than if it was in normal

but i keep mine set to 70-72 i never fly in normal

sounds to be like the belt was skipping

with the added rpm jump if belt is too loose it will skip

[sokal11]

if your in heading hold mode than thats normal

rate mode with about 45% gain it will center nicly with out creeping

if gyro reverse settingin the TX is N then heading hold mode is 51-100% gain

51% is lowest

rate mode is 49-0%

49% being the lowest

[macdaddy1600]

hey im not to happy with the stock gyro if i get the one that you have the futaba gyro for the blade 400 just u nplug the old and plug in the new one.  and man you are awsome at flying the blade how long you been flying thanks and your videos are the best.

[sokal11]

the 290g is a tail spacific servo and is about $37 and is a perfect upgrade from stock. its just a watered down 3400/3500g

[macdaddy1600]

i hey sokal here is my problem i got a new hitec hs-65mg servo for the tail . the guy at the shop told me this servo would make the tail very stable then stock servo. anyway not sure where i start with the install i have it mounted then what do i need to do to get my blade 400 working love your videos thanks

[sokal11]

just install make sure you keep the gyro set to normal not digital

make sure slider moves opposit of stick input (reverse in TX)

and make sure gyro moves slider opposit of the tail movement (reverse on gyro)

raise gyro gain till wag starts then lower .5-1 %

[macdaddy1600]

Hi sokal great videos it seems to me that the stock gyro on the blade 400 is not the best. i think i will get the futaba does the new gyro hook to the same plugs as the old one thanks keep up the great info

[sokal11]

yes same input as the stock

and works well

[cyclemandavid]

thanks alot sokal11 ,just put the 401 on my blade 400 today,i have the 9650 on the tail, witch seams to work fine.the stock gyro just wouldnt hold very well.

[leezaal]

Hi sokal,

did you have to upgrade the esc to use the 401 & 3400g, i have heard the stock 25A esc shuts off sometimes from overheating. wonder if i should change the esc when i upgrade the gyro etc

[sokal11]

with the JR285,3400g and 401

iv ran it that way for 9 months before i bought a BEC

never had any issuse with this setup

now iv saw a trend in the HS65 servos with the 401 and 3400 seems the HS servos suck more amps than the digital JR servos

now thats just the trend iv seen some claim to have no issues

[styndal]

Thanks sokal! Very helpful video, I got my GY401 and 9257 setup through following your video. I appreciate you spending the time to do this.

[skl1cent]

Hi, i have a problem w. my blade 400 and i hope you could help me. Basically what hhappens is, everything is working good on my heli it initializes and all. Then after a few seconds my tail servo goes all the way in and jams. then the servo starts to heat up and I cant control it at all.

[sokal11]

what servo and gyro are you using

[Thrashaero]

do you know how the 3400g compares to the s9257?

[sokal11]

some say 3400g holds better

but i dont think they differ that much

[Thrashaero]

whats the best way to deal with that pile of wire that the gy401 gives?

i have a beam and there's really not a good place to put it in a bundle, very easy to see through frame, opposed to the b400.

[plateebba]

its always the yanks that do the instructional videos,cos their shit at...

[sokal11]

well hey thanks friend not sure what a yank is

but thanks for your input

[HeliMix]

Ignore to goobers Sokal! They are all over the place.  lol

[KicKsterTreX]

great stuff ! However, i cant seem to find a 3400G on this side of the pond for love nor money, i can get a 3500G for around 80 of your bucks , would this be a good choice ?

[sokal11]

the servo is designed for the tail rotor application very strong and fast

i do recomend it and worth the price

[TechnexLOL]

Hello, I fly the Dragonus 450 with a Logictech 2100T gyro.

Planning on purchasing the JR 3400G tail servo.

Could you create another setup video with the Logictech 2100T/3400G?

Your flying is amazing! Very good work, some of the best I've seen!

[TechnexLOL]

Oh, I thought this was related to Jamie Robertson's vid, sorry my mistake.

[sokal11]

not a prob the jamie guy is quite a rc hobbyest wish i could help

[besthobbie]

Great videos. My eflight gyro finally went and i put the 401 on and the s9257 servo on and it is amazing. Better than the eflight one. Thanks for the help. Keep them coming...

[makaluch]

Very good information on a very good mod!

The GY401/3400 combo will dramatically improve this heli's performance capabilities. He's using the ds285 servos which will also improve this bird. If you use a higher quality battery (2200Mah/20C+) and stiffer blades (FRP, Carbons) you will have an amazing 3D performance machine.

Don't forget to practice with your simulator! Do it 100 times there before ever trying things in real life. The sim will pay for itself in parts within the first month.

[videocruzer]

sorry that is with a flight power 3 cell

with the stock battery it is 634g

[videocruzer]

looks like you changed the servos also

how many grams is the heli now after the mods without the battery

stock is 622g

[dand100]

good instructional video

[sokal11]

part 2 in vid response