Official E-flite 650mm Convergence VTOL Thread

[Brandon Moon]

I noticed that....bad advertising on their part

[xviper]

Well, the programming is quite elementary, so having a file would have only helped the inexperienced and this plane isn't meant for that level of pilot. Any "fiddling" I've done to the travel limits would not have been in the file anyway as it's considered "fine tuning" and personal taste.

[Brandon Moon]

I agree. I've been flying quads and tri's for many years now....it's a whole different world ;)

I've been doing the same fine tuning this evening. the linkage is got some bad slop in it. I will be changing that out

[Brandon Moon]

Just finished hooking up all the FPV gear....she's now FPV ready :)

[bmizell]

I have flown mine a few times and it flies good. I have some concern about the time and distance it takes to transition to flight. As soon as the flutter stops I start a bank to turn it around, but its out there for my old eyes. Any suggestions? Also if you change the up elevator throw to stop forward drift, will that affect the forward flight in airplane mode?

[starcop]

Wow, that is amazing to see it in operation. I would have never guessed that would be so cool. I might have to get one, just looks like a challenge to fly; which I like! Thanks for the information guys! Matt C/S Motion RC

[xviper]

I have flown mine a few times and it flies good. I have some concern about the time and distance it takes to transition to flight. As soon as the flutter stops I start a bank to turn it around, but its out there for my old eyes. Any suggestions? Also if you change the up elevator throw to stop forward drift, will that affect the forward flight in airplane mode?

It can get going pretty fast. I try to transition starting very close to me or doing a hovering fly-by from one side to the other and do the transition just before it goes by me. Also, I try not to give it too much throttle just at the time of transition because the flight controller adds more throttle for the change. I also will reduce throttle just about the time the transition is complete so it doesn't continue to speed up. If you're still in stability mode, use of hard rudder will help reduce the size of the arc for the turn. Once in airplane mode, this plane can fly quite slowly but you'll need to be in "agility" mode (non-limited). This will get you much better response at lower speeds, but it can be twitchy. That's where flipping to lower rates and higher expo will help.
I change the end limit for UP elevator in the servo travel menu to get more "reverse" capability. This will result in a more sensitive UP elevator in airplane mode but again, flip the switch to lower rate/higher expo on your elevator (and aileron if desired). Yes, that's a lot of switches to operate, but like anything, you get used to it.
I'm also trying to make the nacelles more level in airplane mode and this is done by increasing the end travel of the transition switch in airplane mode. I'm trying to get closer to how the Delta Ray is set up in terms of motor thrust angle and CG for airplane flight. The Delta Ray actually has good glide characteristics, power off. I'm getting there with the Convergence but still have some adjusting to do to make it glide even better.

[xviper]

Here's a video of clips from 2 flights. I've successfully flown this plane many times now. This day, I was experimenting with various combinations of the available modes. Starting off and staying in "acro" mode gives more control but it can be a bit touchy at first. Transition to and from airplane flight forces a switch to "stability" mode and when the transition is done, it will suddenly go back to "acro", which can make it very jittery till you realize what just happened. At my skill level, I find it best to be in "stability" mode prior to any transitions. I believe this helps to settle the plane down a bit in preparation for the change and makes the transition go much more smoothly.
I now feel the plane is not as fast as it first seemed to be. I wish it had more "poop". It needs a good run at it to do a big loop. Still, it's a very interesting machine and I'm glad I got one. So far, I have not encountered any of the problems that have been reported by those in the other forum.

[Teeks]

So tempted to get one of these.

[Twowingtj]

Got mine all set up. When I started throttle up, all it wanted to do was flip over left to right. I found out that I had a very slight vibration in the airframe that had the FC board upset. I had previosly balanced all three props, two including the three blade had to be balanced. So wasn't sure where the vibration was coming from.

Upon closer inspection, I found that the was a pretty fair amount of play between the two blade prop hubs and their prop shafts. The three blade seemed to be fine. This resulted in the props being a bit off center. You couldn't hear the vibration but could feel it. I put a piece of shrink tube on the prop shafts and that took out the play and eliminated the vibration.

Next attempt at lift off and hover was perfect. Now if the weather would just get better.....

[StormyDog1962]

Lots of great info--Looking forward to getting mine next year!

[jimemacmillan]

Just signed up so that I can share my (BNF) Convergence experience.

Unboxed mine yesterday only to find out that the tail motor and its foam housing became separated in transit. I did a web-chat with Horizon and they advised that I return it to the hobby store. Wasn't very happy with that after waiting over a month for it to arrive. Nonetheless the hobby store took a look at it and felt that it had simply worked its way loose. I let them re-glue it and all seems nice and tight now.

Has anyone else noticed that the Styrofoam packaging as been scraped away where the edge of the wings meet the packaging? I think it was done at the factory because I could not find any loose foam in the box. I'm sure it was a shipping concern just seem kind of amateurish to.

In multi-rotor mode I cannot get it to stand still, even with the elevator on my (DX6) RC all the way back. Fortunately it isn't going to fast forward when I land otherwise it could have been disastrous. I've seen other post (me included) on the HH site regarding the reverse issue. I hope they offer some feedback soon. I'm afraid to transition to forward until this is resolved.

[xviper]

Just signed up so that I can share my (BNF) Convergence experience.

Unboxed mine yesterday only to find out that the tail motor and its foam housing became separated in transit. I did a web-chat with Horizon and they advised that I return it to the hobby store. Wasn't very happy with that after waiting over a month for it to arrive. Nonetheless the hobby store took a look at it and felt that it had simply worked its way loose. I let them re-glue it and all seems nice and tight now.

Has anyone else noticed that the Styrofoam packaging as been scraped away where the edge of the wings meet the packaging? I think it was done at the factory because I could not find any loose foam in the box. I'm sure it was a shipping concern just seem kind of amateurish to.

In multi-rotor mode I cannot get it to stand still, even with the elevator on my (DX6) RC all the way back. Fortunately it isn't going to fast forward when I land otherwise it could have been disastrous. I've seen other post (me included) on the HH site regarding the reverse issue. I hope they offer some feedback soon. I'm afraid to transition to forward until this is resolved.

After my buddy's Convergence crashed, that rear motor pod was found unglued. We don't know if that caused the crash or if the crash casued the break. Nevertheless, I wicked in some CA, applied Blenderm tape to all the seams. These are the sorts of things that all hobbyists need to do regardless of what model or manufacturer it is. It's just part of the set-up process. Gluing doesn't seem to be HH's manufacturer's forte. This was a major problem with their latest Radian XL. It's just easier to do the reinforcement ourselves.
As for the reverse movement (or lack thereof), realize that in stability mode, this is pretty common. I believe a little forward creep was designed into this model for safety and orientation purposes. Also know that when pulling full back on the right stick, you must expect some lag time. Keep it held back for a couple to a few seconds and it should hold position and even reverse. Mine had adequate reverse, even against the wind when it was brand new but I wanted more back up ability. Read some of my posts earlier in this thread and you will see how to make reverse a bit more responsive by increasing servo travel on UP elevator. Of course, when you get to the point of hovering in acro mode, reverse will not be a problem. It will be VERY responsive in every direction. I think it was designed this way (limited reverse action in stabilizer mode) because going backwards too quickly can be a very scary thing when you're not expecting it. When you try it in acro mode, you'll know what I mean. Stability mode numbs and limits all stick responses. If you've flown quads or helicopters, you will know very well that without GPS stabilized flight, the craft will wander in any direction. Having it purposely creep forwards is far better than not knowing where it could go at any moment.
I did not take note of the styrofoam packaging as you described. I was more concerned about packing and shipping damage to the model itself. With mine, there was none.

[Alpha]

Welcome to Hobbysquawk, Jimemacmillan, and thank you for posting your experiences with your Convergence.

I agree with Xviper about the forward creep --especially the lag between aft elevator input and the actual action, and also his thoughts about the packaging.

[Brandon Moon]

Mine is pretty solid And with a little fine tuning I have it set to hoover in about a 3ft Rad. In Fwd flight this thing is pretty quick and very snappy....

I love flying it FPV

[bmizell]

My convergence flew fine for about eight or ten flights, then the worst happened. Upon transitioning back to rotor mode for landing . it lost control and crashed. blew he whole left side and motor off. If I try to fix it it will be ugly. Upon exam I found that the screw that holds the servo arm for the motor came out and the arm worked off the spline. I have contacted support, sent pictures and now they want it sent back for review. The arm nor the servo splines were damaged, so I know that is what happened, but I now have to convince support

[Twowingtj]

Welcome to Hobby Squawk jimemacmillan. A lot of great folks on this forum. Mine also had an agressive drift foward as well.

It took two things to fix mine.

First thing to check is the length of your control rod from the servo arm to the nacelle control arm. Measure between where the center of the Z bend goes into the servo arm to the very center of the ball on the ball link. It should be exactly 50mm. Mine was 48mm resulting in the motors being tipped more forward than they should be. They will still be tilted forward some. That is by design. If you need to adjust the rod length, it's just like you do for a CP Heli.

The second is the servo travel in the servo set up menu. I set mine at 110% for "up" elevator.

[80gPilot]

Got this plane a few days before Christmas, can't get it to bind to my Spectrum 9503? Tried everything the book said. it never goes orange???

[xviper]

Got this plane a few days before Christmas, can't get it to bind to my Spectrum 9503? Tried everything the book said. it never goes orange???

I don't have any experience with this Rx. In fact, I can't even find it listed in Horizon Hobby. Do you mean AR9350?

http://www.horizonhobby.com/radios/aircraft-receivers/ar9350-9-channel-as3x-receiver-spmar9350

Have you programmed anything into the Rx yet? I can see a couple things that might prevent this from working.
1. You have put in some programming already and this is interfering with the flight controller. It may not be possible for this Rx to talk to the flight controller because it's already got its own AS3X type of programming. It's like 2 different AS3X systems where one is trying to control the other. (I've tried something like this with the Radian XL. Adding a flight controller to the stock AS3X Rx doesn't work well. One confuses the other. There is a work around but it's not easy.)
2. The Convergence seems to require a long time to initialize (5 to 10 seconds) before you hit the bind button and turn on the TX. Have you allowed enough time for the nacelles to complete their pre-bind cycle? Are they in the vertical position before attempting to bind? This is how you can tell that the FC is ready to try for a bind.
Also, are all the patch cables between the Rx and the FC correct. There should be 6 of them.
Try a simple 6-ch Spektrum Rx like an AR610 and see if this works. If it does, then it's the 9350. If it doesn't, then it could be the cable connections or not waiting long enough for full initialization.

[Brandon Moon]

Almost lost mine today as one of the ball links on the pivot arm connected to the motor broke off.....the quality of the connection used here has been less than impressive and very disappointing in fact. The actual shaft for the ball broke off and the push rod went spinning off...leaving no directional control to the motor pivot

Good thing I was only about two feet off the ground when it happened ....or it would have been fatally disastrous!!!