Hey all,
This might be covered here somewhere so my apologies if it has but is it possible to set the failsafe on the Spirit to do a non acro rescue followed by a steady state auto?

So if signal was lost the Spirit would flip the heli to horizontal the right way up for say 1 second or so and then cut the power and at the same time set the pitch to about -4 degrees then keep the heli horizontal until erm.......impact ?

If this is not currently possible would it be something possible to add ?

it could be a really useful feature.

Cheers
D

I don’t think this is currently possible. I assume you are concerned about losing radio signal?
It would be an interesting option to flip (rescue) on signal lost but you want on other step after failsafe and that is to initiate an auto...hmmm interesting, where did you get this idea?

I was just thinking about how FBL units in general handle failsafe depending on how they get info from the various RX types. if you use sats, the only way to set the failsafe for throttle is using an output from the FLB, that set me thinking about it. That and also I love doing autos!

I could be VERY wrong about this but I imagine it would be fairly simple to have a basic sequence of events all performed by the Spirit when it detected loss of RC signal?
Since auto leveling, power and blade pitch can all be controlled by the Spirit (in this configuration) theoretically it could initiate a steady state auto on signal loss.
How cool would that be!!!

It probably would not be so useful on anything smaller than about a 550 size heli but the way I see it, every little bit helps and it could be the difference between a few bucks and a new kit!
If it worked well it could be a unique selling point for Spirit and a free Spirit 2 for the person who suggested it (Tomas )
Cheers
D

It's not possible because you can only choose rescue values from 0% pitch and up.

If you could select negative values it would be somewhat, but not entirely possible, the best bet would be to have a bank dedicated for this set to rescue acro and a tiny bit of negative pitch to somewhat slow the descent. A full upright flip would eat too much headspeed and there is no way to have a delay in the motor shut off, and you certainly wouldn't want it running at all if you lost signal.

You could always set failsafe to a bank with
'stabilization' mode enabled so that it goes down level at 0 pitch but know that it could eat a lot of the headspeed to get it to level once the motor is off, and also to maintain level as it goes down, but who knows, it might be better off than dropping face or tail first.

On the other hand it could create a dangerous situation because if the heli has momentum moving towards people, where it would have originally hit the ground sideways or whatever other way before, it could level itself and drift into people or property uncontrolled.

I didn't think it was currently possible as it stands and you've confirmed that, thank you.
"Theoretically" then if "failsafe rescue to auto" was added as a new feature, you could have the Spirit continue to power the heli until it was level and even have it wait to de-power it until the blades were at 0 degrees on their way through to -4 degrees. Remembering that this would all happen likely inside half a second or so, I doubt the heli would have a chance to get very far from the point of signal drop by this time?

The potential danger of which you speak is of course a possibility but I've seen quite a few helis go in and it happens every which way. I suspect the chance of it coming towards people would be the same in either case but a steady state auto is a much slower rate of descent than any crash I've ever witnessed so people might actually have a better chance to dive for cover?

If we make the assumption of a sensible pilot flying at a club field or similar they should be flying over open ground which does not mean there will be nobody to hit but hopefully not so many people.

Cheers
D

Well I think it's a neat idea. With the GPS unit there could be a way to keep the helicopter stationary as well, or maybe failsafe could be set to 'return to home' for geolink users. Technically you could already set it to return to home as failsafe but then you'd have no way to cut off the motor once it lands.

However it is always dangerous to have a fully autonomous machine swinging deadly blades, so sometimes letting the helicopter go in is the best option.

if you are using Jeti you could check the possibilities of Jeti failsafe... something like that should be possible. rescue 1" after signal loss and -3° collective plus motor off and the rest to neutral after 2.5"... this would make it more or less?

BUT: do you really want your heli to "autopilot" on signal loss... ?

_________________
cheers
Michael

Yeah, agreed. Apparently one of our members had an issue setting the home point and when he flicked the RTH switch the heli was set to depart the field and head off back to the guys house!!

I did have a bit ponder on the extra functionality the Geo could provide but figured it was best to keep the idea simple.
I'd imagine a Geo equipped heli could RTH then stop at say 2 meters altitude then chop the power to auto down, this is all presuming the radio link was not re-established as the heli got nearer the TX again. Lots of possibilities with the Geo I'd think. Perhaps others will chime in on that one.

Cheers
D

Unfortunately I don't fly Jeti. The idea that the Spirit could do it would make it accessible to a lot more people.
As far as wanting auto pilot on signal loss, as discussed above, as an unpowered steady state auto, my answer would be most probably, yes.
I've been in the hobby for 30 years and have seen many helis go in and for all sorts of reasons, the way they go in, how far away they get, what damage they do etc seems as random as it's possible to get.
The chicken dance, the side slide, the dead sailor, the dropping stone, the flyaway. I'm sure these descriptions will ring true for many of us.
The idea of a slower more controlled return to earth seems a better proposition to me than most of the stuff I've witnessed.
Imagine a scenario where you were flying over a group of people (for the sake of illustration only, obviously!) if you had radio link failure, based on my past observations, in most cases somebody would get hurt before you had a chance to warn them. A steady state auto might at least give you 5-10 seconds, depending on height, to warn people to get out of the way?
This would need to be tested of course since I presume it's not been attempted before and any number of things might actually happen but "in theory" I'd imagine it would be preferable.

Cheers
D

... i am perfectly with you... similar experience as you and similar ideas... and as i am on Jeti since some 1-2 weeks i really had the idea too... but then one scenario came into my mind: what happens if the heli falls of the sky and the link is re-established... and the motor will (depending on setting) spool-up slow or fast - this could be a bad one. or with intermittent link loss... on/off... what would it do. so i put the idea aside for the moment (!).

the same thing: failsafe motor to 0 or bailout... i have 100 ideas pro/con for both

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cheers
Michael