Taranis X9D+ SE Setup for Chrysalis E-Lite 2M

[Dana Hager]

I just purchased a Taranis X9D+ SE and User Manual from Aloft and can not be more pleased. I am a new OpenTX user and would like to know if what I have programmed has anything grossly wrong. I will be changing the throttle safety to something more robust but for now I want to understand the programming and not just copy and paste. A somewhat steep learning curve coming from Spektrum but it has been very rewarding. I have done this in Companion 2.3 and also on the radio so it is starting to sink in.

Everything is moving in the correct direction on the sailplane, I would appreciate your comments, Thanks.

The sailplane is a DJ Aerotech Chrysalis E-Lite 2M and I am using a FrSky G-RX6 Vario RX.
- 20% expo on the elevons
- Throttle arming switch with a warning beep - Switch SF
- Two position throttle switch, 30% / 100% power - Switch SE
- Two position Spoiler switch, 30 degree / 90 degree - Switch SB
- Elevator mixed into the Spoiler
- Vario - Switch SG

 

[HENNY]

Hi Dana
A couple of suggestions.
Setup page.
1. Internal module if you don't need 16 channel set 16 to 8 channels. The frame reset rate will be faster.
2. You have not set your fail safe. Select receiver in failsafe option and once you get your trims set and throttle set at zero short press the FS button on the RX Leds will flash indicating failsafe is complete.
3. Input looks fine. Never use negative Weight values on the input page as this will cause the trims to operate backwards.
4. Mix page . Not sure why you have put the throttle weights on a switch. ??
5. Ele / rud mixing looks fine at 50% but not sure why you have 2 extra mixes with switch SB ??
6. Output menu. The normal way to arm the motor is to use SF down arrow. disarm SF up arrow. You have used the inverse, inverted Up arrow. Scroll up the menu its there.
7. You can reset your Alt on the G-RX6 when you arm the motor with the following.
See Alt reset PDF. LO3. This creates a momentary reset pulse using edge triggering when the switch is moved to down arrow position.. Then in the special function page on a new line select LO3 (next box) reset (next box) Tele5:Alt ( meaning the 5th line on the telemetry screen, might be different on your telemetry page) lastly tick the box on. So when you arm your motor the Alt is reset to zero.

One more suggestion you can use the A2 terminal on the G-RX6 with a suitable voltage divider to give you battery voltage values with spoken low bat warnings. You can run ACCESS protocols with this receiver if you want.

Good flying

 

[Wayne]

OK - looks pretty good.

Like Henny pointed out, reduce the number of channels down to 8 or less. If you are inly using 4, then set it to 4. (Keep in mind later on if you need to add a channel to increase the channel count. That got me recently. LOL) When you select 16, the response time will be a little longer. * and below keeps it fast.

On the inputs screen looks good, but if you want triple rates, this would be the place to add them.

Mixes - Are you feeding rudder into your spoiler mix? This is a little different than what I do, but I think it will work. I like to dial in a GVAR for compensation mixes, and I then make it so my throttle trim switch can be used to adjust the GVAR. This allows me to adjust the mix via the throttle trim and have a nicely dialed in mix for the first flight. (As an added bonus, I have found that elevator compensation for large flaps needs to be adjusted if you fly at very high altitudes. It is nice to adjust this on those RARE days when I fly at 10,000 foot slopes in the mountains.) I should share my "simple" way of working with GVARS.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Dana Hager]

Thank you Henny and Wayne for your input and programming suggestions. I am thoroughly enjoying the radio but I am not sure if I am having more fun with the radio or the new sailplane.

Here is the maiden flight video, one minute thirty seconds of just the important stuff...

Maiden Flight with a 2S 600mAh Lipo -

 

[HENNY]

Thank you Henny and Wayne for your input and programming suggestions. I am thoroughly enjoying the radio but I am not sure if I am having more fun with the radio or the new sailplane.

Here is the maiden flight video, one minute thirty seconds of just the important stuff...

Maiden Flight with a 2S 600mAh Lipo -

Nice flight and beautiful flying field.

 

[Wayne]

Very nice!! Glad she is working out so well for you.

 

[Konrad]

Dana, I just noticed your Avatar. Are you still flying that nice looking Chrysalis Lite?

All the best,
Konrad

 

[Dana Hager]

Thank you! Sadly that one was sacrificed to the thermal gods. I do have a really nice video of it spiraling into a forest far, far away but I was never able to recover it. I plan to build another but currently I am working on a Yellow Jacket for the 2021 season. I do miss that one.

Honest, it was only 399 feet...

.

Kind Regards,
Dana

 

[Konrad]

Oh, I'm so sorry to learn of this.
If it isn't too painful can you tell us how it happened, loss of battery, range, or just not enough mass to fly out? As you had an electric glider I thought it was possible to power tangent to the boomer and find the the sink feeding the thermal.

And yes officer that is still under 400 feet. Shaquille O'Neal's feet, of course.

 

[Dana Hager]

Konrad,

I never thought to power it home, that is a brilliant idea.

I suspect that I overloaded the v-tail in some fashion during my poor attempt to get out of the lift. It's not a complaint, as those of us who have flown them know how nice they are but that tail sure is, um, not very robust... I don't believe it was the wing but I couldn't rule that out as I was never able to locate or recover it.

 

[Konrad]

Thank you. I just started flight tests on my conversion of a Chrysalis Lite from an F3-RES to an F5-RESt. With the diagonally braced balsa tail I did a 60° dive test to terminal velocity(as fast as she will on gravity) found no flutter! I also never found any flutter with the original basswood V-tail on the high start. As the servo gears (Dymond D4.7) wear things might change.

Another brilliant idea (not mine) is to open up the prop blades just above idle. This adds more drag than the spoiler being fully open.