Spirit System

I spent some time this weekend starting to tune the Spirit on my Gaui X3. Before starting, I spent some time reading posts on this forum and over on Helifreak. These resources were all very helpful, but I was still confused about what procedure to use and how to do it. Most of the information I found explained what the various tuning parameters were, but in most cases used phrases I do not understand (like "connected" and "nonlinear feel").

I'm a new pilot and have never tuned an FBL before. I am skilled enough to fly upright and inverted circuits and do some sloppy flips, loops and rolls. In other words, I think I can fly the maneuvers needed to tune a FBL. I just don't know what to do.

In my searches I came across the BeastX V3 Tuning Guide, located here:
http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=279967

What I found extremely useful about this guide is that it told me step by step the order I should follow, what maneuver to fly, what behavior to watch for, and what parameter to adjust to get the desired behavior. Unfortunately, the BeastX uses different parameters so I'm not sure how to use this guide to tune the Spirit.

Is there something like this tuning guide for the Spirit? If not, could some of our resident experts assemble something like this? I am delighted with the quality, performance and support for the Spirit, and I think that the number of users can only continue to grow. Consequently, a well-written and understandable tuning guide would be a huge service to this community. I would me more than willing to help by reviewing the writing and serve as a test subject.

Thank you very much.

It is good idea, I will create it as soon as possible.

Fortunately Microbeast's parameters are very similar, nearly same with Spirit. There are only differences in names.

For example, POT1 is equal to Cyclic gain, POT2 is equal with Cyclic Feed Forward, POT3 is equal with Rudder dynamic.
Parameter D is equal with Piro consistency.
Parameter B is missing since Spirit has no built-in Expo, you can always use Expo from your transmitter.
Flight Style is parameter which is missing in Microbeast, also rotation rates are little bit different, because you can configure it in the software while for Microbeast you should do it with TX.

There are also different ranges so for example 50% value is different between both.

While this is not as in depth as the beastx one it may be a good start?

Jman841: yes, these are very good videos! Thanks again.

I thought btheli checked it, but maybe I am wrong.

You are correct, I have watched the videos Jman841 made several times, and I should have credited him for those. The videos describe the various parameters and what they do, but they do not step through the recommended process for tuning this FBL. This is not a criticism of the videos, but rather an explanation of why I think additional guidance would be helpful. This is something I think that only you, Tomas, can do because only you fully understand the details behind the various feedback control loops, parameters, etc. In short, like I mentioned, something like the BeastX tuning guide is exactly what I (and probably others) are looking for.

I am very serious about my offer to help with the writing. I have what I believe are some rather unique qualifications for doing this, so please PM me if you are interested. I seek no credit or pay, just an opportunity to give back to those who have helped me so much.

I Make you right here, I used to use the GT5.1 unit and it was OK ish, I then found an article written by a TT pilot that explained everything, it had a walk through to use at the field, the guide was excellent, adjust this fly it and look for that, if it does that adjust this then on to the next stage etc, after a day of tuning it felt like a completely different heli it flew awesome. I know the spirit can fly like a beastx or vbar. I am not after that, I want it to fly like a spirit. A guide of what to change and what to expect would be good. Its not a moan, its an awesome controller but I for one would really appreciate a walk through.

I too think such a guide would be an *excellent* idea and would be happy to write for it, with the caveat that my Spirit experience is still growing, I'm by no means an expert in the Spirit system itself.

I am enjoying my experience with the Spirit so far. I'd like to see it gain more traction in the community, and a guide such as this would be an excellent way to make it easier for pilots in all skill levels to adopt.

It doesn't have to be a "bible", but even a recommended series of parameters to tune, reasons and moves/what-to-look for's would be a huge start.

I've taken a quick stab at this for two parameters, based on my limited experience across a few types of FBL unit and five helis. I've tried to speak in "Spirit Terms". If this would be better put elsewhere, or there's a better place to contribute this kind of content, please let me know.

------- example of two params, head / tail gains ------------

Cyclic Gain (aka: Head Gain)

The first thing we want to do is make sure the heli feels “reasonable” to fly. By “reasonable” we mean:
- Able to be flown comfortably. Not too fast (i.e: it doesn’t react too fast for you) and not sluggish (i.e: you the pilot have sufficient control and feel OK flying it).

We want this so that the remainder of tuning is possible, and so it doesn’t fall out of the sky

Steps:
1) As per manual set main gain to 55%.
2) Lift into a hover and try some basic aileron and elevator movements.

Moves to try:
- General flying
- Aileron stabs
- Elevator stabs
- Rolls / Flips

What to look for:
- Oscillation: if the heli “wobbles” when you stop one of these moves, the gain may be too high. If this is the case, lower gain by 10% and try again.
- <not sure? input needed>



Tail Gain

Now the heli is generally flying OK from an aileron / elevator perspective, we want to ensure the tail responds well. This is defined as:
- When you ask the heli to rotate (via rudder), it does so in a timely manner
- When you return the stick to centre, the heli stops crisply without “sliding” to the stop, and without bouncing at the stop.

First:
- Set Rudder Common Gain to 1.0x
- Set Rudder Gain to 50%
- Ensure Rudder Gain can be changed via Gyro Channel (set under “General” tab of the Spirit software) or if you have no Gyro Channel assigned, setup bank switching, or finally just land and set via Spirit software.

Steps:
- Get into the air, and into a hover, tail in.
- Perform both left & right piro 360 deg stops. Rotate the heli 360 degrees around using the rudder, and finish up back where you started, with the tail facing you again. Try to make the 'stop' as controlled but as fast as possible, but don’t let the rudder “bounce” back to neutral by letting go of the stick, you’ll see false ‘bounce’ behaviour on the tail if you do that.
- Performing both left & right stops is important because you want to ensure you see the SAME behaviour in both directions.


What to look for:
When you quickly return to the rudder neutral position,
- “Slide on stop”: the tail sort of slowly comes to a stop. It slides into place. As though it were moving through a dense liquid. In this case Piro Consistency needs to be increased. Do so in increments of 5 (up to a limit of 190 - at which point stop). If you need > 190 you probably have a mechanical issue that needs sorting out first.
- “Bounce”: the tail bounces before coming to a stop. <help needed here, I haven’t had this happen on Spirit for me yet>

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Excellent start hopefully the experts can build on this

Agreed, excellent start. This is exactly the type of document that I think would be very useful for new folks like myself, and also experienced pilots who are unfamiliar with some of the Spirit parameters.

On setting the cyclic gain you gave a starting value, some flying instructions, and a behavior to watch for. Perfect! You said if you see the head wobble (we should describe that in a little more detail...might not make sense to everyone), then lower the gain and try again. My question: What if the head does not wobble? Should you keep increasing the gain until it does and then back off a little bit? (This is just a rhetorical question.)

On setting the tail gain you recommend hovering piros to look at "sliding on stop" and "bounce" behavior but never tell me how to adjust the tail gain. Instead you recommend I make an adjustment to piro consistency. This is a little confusing to me, and as you say, it is incomplete and needs to be finished. You did do a very nice job of explaining what these behaviors look like...very nice. Also, I have read others say that the Spirit is not like other FBLs in that the tail gain needs to be set based on (wagging) behaviors in fast backwards flight and hurricanes. I have not heard the developers weight in on this however.

Don't take my comments critically. The style of what you did is absolutely perfect...a "walk through" or procedure that we can follow to get the many adjustable parameters tuned in. Thanks for doing this. Hopefully the developers can help make progress with this soon (my tail is still misbehaving!).

While I am no expert, I will do my best to add to this next week. Going on a cruise for a week so no Helis or Internet till then! Very nice start!