The key to solve this problem is to reproduce the issue. If something is wrong, then it must occur again.

As I said earlier, I believe that the unit itself is OK. There is no possibility that it can be caused by any kind of hardware issue. So replacing the unit is worthless.
If the unit is faulty, then there is only one condition - it does not work at all. Memory in the unit uses technology that does not allow to rewrite/reset only one piece of the settings. If there is something really wrong, everything is lost.

If we can reproduce it then we can verify it with more units. Thus verification with more units will mean, that your unit is really OK.

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Spirit System developer

While I don't believe it to be the unit directly, I do believe something is going on that changes settings. This has happened to me twice now. Only during initial build. Once it is set up and it is working, I have no concerns.

I have maidened the Spirit twice now. Both times settings work on the bench and both times I make sure to save settings. But then both times I had wrong gyro settings when taking off first time causing a blade strike.

First time was on my Mostro. I had two others check my gyro and piro comp and all 3 of us agreed it was good. Made some other setting changes with android BT (can't remember what but know I wasn't in the servo direction screen). Go to take off and aileron was reversed and destroyed main and tails. Piro comp was also wrong. A friend had spares and I was able to reverse settings in BT and it flew fine. Kept checking gyro before every flight for awhile and never an issue again.

Now I just moved the Spirit to my HD Cell 500. Set it up on PC just like Mostro. Made sure bench was correct and saved. I was all the more cautious remembering Mostro. I clearly remembered I reversed the ele channel to make it work right. Log in with BT before maiden to change some advanced settings and gains. Go to take off and immediately crash destroying mains and tails. I check settings with BT and ele was no longer reversed.

In both cases the mistake I made was not re-checking the gyro before taking off after connecting the battery before the first flight.

To me the reoccurring theme is the BT module. Both times I logged in with it and made gain or advanced setting changes before my maiden. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe the android app is made by the Spirit team? At least that is what I gather from the donation prompt on it that he does not benefit from the sales of Spirit. I'm also very familiar with PC FBL setup as I use 3SX. I understand the importance of saving and the screens aren't foreign to me.

Morale of post: Always re-check before first flight and after first use of connecting with BT. After that I've never had an issue with settings and fully trust Spirit. As I said to my flying buddies, Spirit and I may not agree on how to setup, but after we work out our differences we get along great

Interesting.
Try to reproduce the issue, that will help greatly to get it solved if any.

Unfortunately a hard thing to do. I don't plan any new builds soon and I'm not going to re-program to find out

Thanks for your report.

We are investingating the issue intensively and found one possible reason, thanks to one user.

If you are playing with Factory Settings and immediately tuning your helicopter, then there can occur situation in some cases, that will happen that reverses you can see in the software are not corresponding to what is really set.
But after power replug is done, all factory settings are applied and everything work as it should.

We have fixed the issue, so it can't happen anymore with the next update. We are very sorry if it is the reason for your troubles, yet it can happen only while resetting unit to the Factory Settings.

I hope it can help you.

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Spirit System developer

If I understand you correctly, you are saying if you do a factory reset and then begin a new setup there is a situation where the device may still have the old gyro settings but shows them all as off. So when you disconnect battery and reconnect, the ones you changed in the wizard are actually opposite of what you thought.

I did a factory reset and went through wizard without a restart on the HD. With Mostro I just went through wizard.

Interesting...
Due to jrwalte's experiences, I went through my setup about 5 times before I actually took the heli up.

Fortunately there is nobody else with similar experience as jrwalte, interestingly only with his Mostro.

If you check Sensor compensation before the flight as in normal pre-flight control, anything can't go wrong.

jrwalte: you are nearly right, but if you restart the power after Factory reset everything is OK.

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Spirit System developer

To clarify, the Mostro issue I couldn't resolve is unrelated to the setup problems I've had. This was back when the Spirit was working fine on the Mostro.

I am glad to see Spirit does admit if something is wrong.
This bug can add some risk for Spirit users.
Good to know it is solved with the next update.

But if the governor takes a few more months, maybe make a point release for just this fix?
For safety's sake?