Compass 7hv Wiring Tips
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Text of the manual
Keep all wires as short as possible. Avoid unnecessary extensions and connections, but use extensions if a
wire is almost to short to avoid mechanical tension in the wiring. Never tighten a wire to much. Be sure that
nothing pulls at a wire. It is very important to have zero tension between wires, plugs and RC-Components.
Wiring Tips
Tip: Cut open a piece of fuel line to cover sharp edges.
You can also use fuel lines to cover zip ties to
prevent them from damaging the wires.
Never use RC-components with damaged
wires. Check all wires for damaged isolation
and breakage. Control all servo connectors for
a tight fit and be sure no wire is loose in the
connector.
All wires must be protected against damage
through sharp edges of the carbon frame and
metal parts. Zip ties can also cause damage to
the wires.
Carbon fibre and metal parts are
conductive . Open wires, contacts and
open gaps between two contacts
touching the frame can cause a short
curcuit and damage to the RC-Equipment.
the RC-Equipment.
Tip: The best way to protect your wires is to use
braiding sleeve such as those used for
computer wiring or casemodding. Seal the
ends of the sleeve with heat shrink to prevent
them from unraveling. You can also you use
heat shrink to protect wires where zip ties
overlie.
Be careful when heating heatshrink on wires,
don´t heat it up to long or with to much heat
or it may damage the isolation.
Keep all wires away from rotating parts,
linkages and servo arms.
Tip: Secure connectors with heat glue at the receiver and
FBL-Unit. Avoid contact of the glue with stickers and
the wires. The glue is easy to remove.
Do not fold any wire, place them in curves.
Tip: Use a plier to bend zip ties before you use
them. It wil be easier to get them around a corner.
Do not pull out connectors by pulling at the
wires!
Control all wires and connections regularly to discover hidden damages and defective
contacts early. Never go flying if any failure occurs!
to ESC (male)
EC5 Connector
to Battery 1 (female)
EC5 Connector
to Battery 2 (female)
Tape and zip tie
for strain relief
to protect solder joints
Main Battery Connector
Main Batteries to ESC
Receiver Pack Connector
Battery to Receiver
One 1 Ohm, 1 Watt Resistor, or
Two 2 Ohm, 1 Watt Resistors
5.5mm Bullet Connector
Unplugged when you initially plug in batteries
Plug in after ESC beeps
Spark Arrestor
Circuit
The spark arrestor portion of the circuit prevents a large spark from arcing on initial plug in.
Saves connector ends from being damaged from repeated plug in.
Some ESCs have built in arrestor circuit, making this unnecessary.
This connector has TWO servo connectors on it because this 22 gauge wire isn’t designed to carry enough current for a 700 sized heli.
So we feed two of them from the battery to the combination receiver / flybarless controller.
Connector of Choice
I use a different connector
from main battery packs to
avoid accidentally connecting
wrong battery into wrong connector
“Heavy Duty” Servo Extension Wires
With other end cut off to enable
them to plug into battery connector
I folded back the lightest
color wire. This is
a signal wire, and
un-necessary just
to provide power.
Wiring Tips - Batteries
I found these night vision goggle cases on eBay were a good size to hold the batteries
on the trays once some of the foam had been removed.
This is how I wired and set up my batteries to minimize total wire length from battery to ESC.
Keeping this short (less than a foot) is important to keep ripple voltage well under 2 volts.
Otherwise bad stuff can happen.
If you have vibrations it is better to find the source than using a softer tape. All wiring to the FBL-Unit must be
done without tension and not to stiff. If you use some kind of cover to protect the wires, please remove it on the
last 3-5cm to make sure that vibrations can’t be carried to the unit – which will cause strange behaviour like
unwanted movements of the helicopter.
Remove all kind of grease and oil from the radio tray and the bottom of the FBL-Unit with alcohol or something
similar.
Please place your FBL-Unit extremely carefully in your helicopter. It is important that the unit is in a perfect 90°
angle to all axes to get best performance. A wrong mounted unit can cause a wobble during piro-manouvers.
FBL Setup Tips
Tip: For easy measurement of the pitch angles
during the setup, please use something long
and straight (like a flybar or CF-Tube) and put it
on the upper servo mount behind the servorods.
With this trick you can easily use the pitchgauge
to check the collective and cyclic angles.
Tip: All servo horns must be at 90° (horizontally). Try all
possible positions of the servo horn to get as close as
possible to 90° at neutral servo position. Keep all
swashplate linkages at exactly the same length. Level
the swashplate horizontally in all directions, therefore
read the manual of your FBL-Unit and follow the
instructions!
Please read the manual for the current
software version of your FBL-Unit carefully
and follow all instructions. We can't give
you any specific tips because most brands
of FBL-Units change their software from
time to time and your setup depends on
many other factors like used blades and
servos. Please check our website to find
some setups from our Teampilots.
A perfect CG (Center of Gravity) is very important to get a perfect flying model. The CG must be
exactly under the mainshaft. Adjust the CG by positioning the battery to the front or to the rear on
the battery tray. You can also change the position of the battery tray with the three mounting holes
in the side frames. The CG should be measured with all parts including the canopy.
Tip: There are two methods to find out where the CG is. The first method is to hold the model under the main
blade grips and look if it tilts forwards or backwards.
You can also hold the model at the main blade grips and fixed main rotor blades with the main shaft
leveled horizontally. Look with the canopy facing to the right and then facing to the left (due to the free
wheel) if the nose or tail tilts down.
If the nose tilts down, you have to put the battery more to the rear, do the opposite when the tail tilts
downwards.
Tip:
On the AR7200 or Microbeast FBL Controller, I am currently running:
Dial 1 +2 lines above 0
Dial 2 +2 lines above 0 (makes tick-tocks much better)
Dial 3 0 (stock setting)
FBL Setup Tips 2
Double check the gyro directions of your fbl unit!
Incorrect gyro directions will cause a crash!
Checking the swasplate and tail gyro
directions is a part of the preflight check!
Tilt the helicopter forwards as shown in the
picture. The swashplate must tilt backwards.
Tilt the helicopter backwards as shown in
the picture. The swashplate must tilt forwards.
Tilt the helicopter to the left, the swashplate
must tilt to the right as shown in the picture.
Tilt the helicopter to the right, the swashplate
must tilt to the left as shown in the picture.
Look at the helicopter from the side to test
the
gyro direction.
elevator
Watch the helicopter from the front/canopy
to test the
aileron gyro direction.
Use AB Glue
A
B
A
B
0
10
20
30
40
0
9
Canopy
Place the canopy onto the frames
and mark the right position of the
canopy insert. Mark the positions
of the holes in the anopy on the
Insert for drilling. Use a 2mm drill
and drill straight through the
insert. Use AB glue to fix the insert
and screw it from the outside into
the canopy.
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Pos
Description
Qty
1
M2.5x8 Self Tapping Bolt
2
1
Canopy nI se tr
2
3
M3x8 Socket Head Bolt
2
2
Thumb S rc ew
4
5
Canopy Rubber Grommets
2
A
B
A
B
0
10
20
30
40
0
10
Grounding
Belt-driven tailrotors can produce a high amount of electricity.
The discharge can cause a blockage of the radio signal and the
RC-Components. If you have transmission problems and/or
problems like hard tail kicks and lockouts during flight, you have
to ground the tail. We recommend to ground each helicopter for
safety reasons if you are not sure if everything works without
failures.
To ground the helicopter, use a piece of fine sandpaper to remove a little bit of
the black anodizing between the two tail boom clamps in the frame with care. Do
not modify the tailboom behind the tail boom clamps! Use a piece of silicon wire
with a diameter of at least 1mm² and skin one end. Attach the open end to the tail
boom with one or two zip ties. Lay the wire to the motor, skin the other end and
attach the wire to one motor screw by jamming the open end under the screw.
Do not use a file, rasp, knife or
coarse sandpaper to remove the
anodizing. Deep scratches will
damage the structure of the tail
boom and can cause a breakage
of the tail boom!
The new, magnetic canopy mount requires
a hole just over 10mm in diameter. To
minimize risk of damage to the canopy,
I started with a smaller bit and worked up.
It’s pretty odd drilling a hole in a new canopy
when the manual doesn’t say to do so.
Then slip the rubber ring off the mount, insert
ring into canopy, then slide in metal mount.
It was recently pointed out to
me that since the inside of the
carbon fiber frames is conductive,
in most cases you can attach the
other end of the ground to almost
any side frame screw and there
will be an electrical path to the
motor. I still run my wire to the
motor screw, but feel free to use
the frame to complete the circuit
if you need to.
Note - One side of this piece is
larger than the other. Install large side out
to allow canopy to slide onto post easily.
Rotor Direction & Blades
When the main rotor spins clockwise the tail blades should
turn clockwise as well watching the tail rotor from the tail fin
side. If not, the belt is twisted and has to be corrected.
Be sure that the main rotor and tail rotor blades are installed in
the right direction. The leading edge has to show into the rotor
directions.
Do not overtighten the blades. The main rotor blades should not be able to retract when you hold the
helicopter sideways with the mainshaft and both blades horizontally. Do not thighten the blades much
stronger than this and use the washers delivered with the blades.
0
10
20
30
40
0
12
Blade Tracking
The get a helicopter without vibration issues and, perfect flight abilities and low power consumption, you
have to track the main rotor blades. The first step is to have identical lengths from the end of the ball link
on the plastic drive tube to the metal arm.
In most cases, the blade tracking will be fine after doing this. To check it during the flight, get the help of
an other pilot for safety reasons. Get in a hover and ask him to watch the rotor disk. Both blades must be
in one line. If there are two disks or the blades appear thicker than they are, you have to readjust the
blade tracking by turning in and out the ball links in the plastic drive tubes. Mark one blade or blade grip
and turn in or turn out the ball link of this blade by one turn. Remember the direction. Hover the
helicopter again, if it gets worse, turn back the ball link and rotate it one turn in. If it get´s better but is not
perfect, turn the ball link of the other blade out by one turn and hover again. The blade tracking should
be perfect now. If not, an issue with the rotor blades is likely. Do not fly with these blades. Also check all
linkages, balls, ball links and the swashplate links for clearance.
Do not check the blade tracking
on the ground alone or with
negative pitch.
Do not fix the helicopter to the
ground or any object.
Keep some distance to the
model and do not test this
indoors!
Do not grind the blades if they
don´t fit. Ask the manufacturer
for other washers.
Use the same amount of washers
with the same thickness over
and under the blades!
Read the following pages before
you go to test this!
My kit came with Compass blades.
They came with two 2mm thick spacers to put between the blades & the blade grips.
They are too thick and you need four spacers, not just two, so you can follow this.
Instead, you need FOUR 1mm thick spacers so you can keep the blade perfectly centered.
Inside the blade grip you should have a sandwich of spacer - blade - spacer.
Fortunately, my Edge blades came with the spacers I needed. Do not run uncentered!
I am still dialing this in, but... Right now I am running my Castle Creations ICE2 HV 160 ESC:
Throttle Type
Governor - Fixed RPM
Initial Spool Up
6
Head Spd Chg
18
Governor Gain
9
(I may run this as high as 12 later, but too high a setting can damage
batteries by pulling too much current, so I’m easing up to it.)
Pinion
13
(These are for the stock slant gear setup)
Main Gear
127
Number of Poles 10
(For Scorpion 4525-520 Ultimate)
PWM
8 or 12 khz - I prefer 12. ESC warms slightly, but motor runs much cooler
Timing
1
KV
520
Target Head Spd 1900; 2000; 2050 (2100 is magic, but doesn’t leave room for governor)
Settings should all be the same for the ICE2 HV 120, as well. I run 160 to have extra margin.
Now ... Here’s the tricky part. The instructions for this ESC are not compatible with the Spektrum
AR7200BX receiver / flybarless controller. And the addendum posted on the Castle website is
currently also not compatible. Thanks to Clint at Castle for taking my call while he was at a fun
fly and sharing with me that the way to make these two devices work together is:
** Always make sure the blades are off the model or the pinion and main gear are securely disengaged**
1.) Initialize the 7200 with the RX pack plugged in and the endpoints at 100-100 and the throttle pulled to the
bottom... ( Make sure that you don't have 2 Becs plugged in at the same time )
If you are using a BEC plugged into the main lead with the ESC you must remove the throttle wire while the 7200
initializes with the throttle endpoint set at 100-100 and the throttle stick at the bottom.
2.) Once the 7200 initializes change the endpoints to 30-30 and move the stick to the top... Plug in the main power to
the ESC.
3.) The Cell count will count up if you have auto -liPo detection set and then once this is done you want to increase the
High endpoint until the ESC tones at 100% throttle calibration and then add 2 clicks...
4.) Pull the throttle stick down... and increase the low stick endpoint until the ESC arms... Add 2 more clicks and you
are done.
** It is recommended to calibrate the throttle when you upgrade firmware, or go from either GOV mode to Fixed End-
point mode or Fixed to GOV... Also if you enable or disable the auto enabled feature.**
With the 7200 I would also think after calibrating the -0- throttle you would probably want to re-bind and reset the
failsafe for the throttle so you can set it at -0-.
Tail Pitch Plate
Pitch Check
Swash Plate
Ascent
Descent
Slide left
Slide Right
The picuture below shows how the swashplate has to move in mode 1 or mode 2.
8
Control Check
Now that I have three R/C helicopters, I wanted a way to transport them more safely such that
they wouldn’t collide into each other or slide around the vehicle.
I purchased a 2 x 4 foot hardboard from Home Depot. On top of that I stuck plastic wiring clips
(about $3 for 4) that latch to secure the helicopter skids. Some day, when I find the right clips,
I will replace these with simple clips that don’t need to be individually secured, but rather I can
just “pop” the heli in and “pop” it out.
The timing of this purchase was fortuitous - the very next week a deer decided to leap in front
of my car while I was going 65 mph. The car has $6,000 in damage, but the helis stayed perfect-
ly in place and have not a scratch on them.