Ikon Governor issues

[Grees01]

Hey guys. Working on a few last things on the E5, I have some weird governor behavior that I need help with. Castle Talon 120hv speed control, hobby wing rpm sensor, Ikon FBL. Ok so per Chris's video went into the castle link software, selected muti-rotor / fixed end points, suggested settings for cutoff, correct settings for motor. Exited that. Ikon software governor tab, set ratio, 119 main gear, 13 pinion, and performed the throttle end points set up 1120 min is just below where the motor will start to turn and the esc arms. 1930 on the other side is the fastest the motor will turn, one step higher no change, one step lower drops rpm. Set speeds of 2100, 2200, and 2300. Set transmitter to normal mode 40% flat line, IU1 60%, IU2 100%. Set throttle hold on, plug in battery, ikon initializes, esc arms. Flip off throttle hold into normal mode and no soft start, immediately goes to 2550 according to the ikon software, the first speed setting is highlighted. IU1 takes me to 2730, and IU2 takes me to 2920. All desired speeds are highlighted in software. The box at the bottom does not show governor engaged. I changed the setting in Castle Link to external governor / fixed end points and I do get a soft start, but the speed is still incorrect, and the box for governor engaged is still not checked. I can change the values of the throttle curve while running in any mode and it changes the rpm on the motor. Seems like it's running in fixed endpoint mode with no governing? I'm a little lost and need some assistance please. 

[Mike Dipalo]

Sounds as if the iKon is passing the throttle signal directly through. The only time this should happen when gov mode is selected in a flight mode is if the unit is not receiving a parseable rpm signal.

Do you ever see a checkbox in the gov detected box near the gov engaged box while running?

As for soft start, multi rotor means a direct pass through where the castle will not engage any slow or bail out settings. 100% reliant on the iKon and allows very violent changes in esc duty cycle.

External gov employs soft and auto bailout start ramps, but then defers  control to the FBL.

[Grees01]

I made a stupid mistake, and forgot to check the boxes in the flight modes to indicate that I wanted to use governor. Works now, man I must be tired. Sorry guys.

[Cliff Chmiel]

We all been there

[cml001]

Yep.. And find ourselves back for a visit from time to time too! Lol

[Mike Spano]

Lol at clay! Yes, we do.....

[Grees01]

  Hmmm....  Ok, today was the first maiden flight, everything worked fairly well, a little wobble at 2100, better at 2200 and 2300. A little tail wag, but not much, pretty good so far. Flew four of five packs, went to fly again, flipped out of throttle hold into normal mode, no soft start, spooled up to full speed right now, heli spun around on the grass, I hit hold, spooled back down, never fell over amazingly. Checked for damage, folded the blades and nicked both near the root, from the blade grips, other than that I don't really see any damage. Gears seem ok, WTF? Scary!!!!!. Pulled the blades off and tried it on the bench several times, soft start seems to be working fine. Even hitting throttle hold while motor is running returns me to soft start. Boy I would hate for it to be something stupid on my part again like the first time, this time, I'm not tired, can't blame it on that. Thoughts fellas? Boy that has to be really hard on the gears, motor, esc, ect ect. Don't want that to happen again.

[Chris Sexton]

That was a close one! Thank goodness it didn't tip over!

Question,  Did you leave the RX system powered up while swapping packs by chance?

Also check the firmware of that unit, there was a bug in the iKON/Brain firmware there for a while that allowed for random hot starts. 

[Grees01]

  Hi Chris, hoping that you would chime in on this one. Almost 100% positive that radio was off during battery change, that is how my flight timer gets reset. With regard to the firmware, I can plug the unit in and check, but I remember that in the past if the firmware was outdated, you got a prompt to update firmware, for your computer as well as the Ikon. I hope we can isolate the cause of the issue. Let me plug the unit in and check.

[Grees01]

1.0.018 is the latest software for the computer that I have. Firmware is 1.3.083 for the Ikon. Looks like the most current to me. Looking at the firmware history, I see where a number of revisions back they had an update for random hot starts with some ESC's. Hmmmm..... Not good for me, what else could we take a look at?

[Chris Sexton]

Check the bailout timer isn't set for a crazy long period of time. Also I highly recommend that you don't have use bailout turned on for your normal/take off/landing bank. That way even if the bailout timer hasn't expired cycling to a bank that doesn't use bailout will cancel it out.


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[Grees01]

Thanks Chris. 99.9% sure that bailout is not enabled for any flight bank. I never really understood how to correctly set that up anyway. But i will double check the settings when we get home from dinner. In the absence of a problem there, what else can be the cause? Problem with the Ikon? Or ESC maybe?

[Chris Sexton]

Well if the esc is in multi rotor mode it has no soft start. Rely on the ikon to do it. So sounds like if all else is checked. They may still have a bug


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[Chris Sexton]

If you're not going to do auto rotation therefore do not need to worry about bailout put the speed controller back in external gov mode that will give you the ESC soft start every time. Little insurance policy


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[Grees01]

I sent a email to Ikon, describing the problem, I'll wait for a reply. I did a little comparison too. My Goblin 570 has the exact same setup, speed controller, FBL, well not exactly, the motor is not the same, Quantum in the Goblin, and Scorpion in the E5, but other than that they are the same. I took the blades off both, hooked up both to the computer and spooled them up. They both work and govern speeds the same 2100 2200 2300. The one thing that is different is that on the Goblin the little led inside the speed control turns green when the governed speed is reached, works on all 3 flight modes. On the Synergy, no green light in any of the flight modes. Reaches and controls the same speeds but no green light. What does that tell me??? I have no idea,,,,,, yet!