Torque/Sensitivity values

[shersha]

It's been a while since I posted and mostly it's because a lot of things have happened. I got my plane painted, which took a little longer than projected, and I had some weather issues here in Ohio to deal with before coming up with a final word on the servo fix. Final word.... the fix Dynon came up with seems to have worked out. Pitch sensitivity set at 7 works for me. Altitude varies +- 20 feet in smooth air, +- about 40 feet in rough air. Roll servo sensitivity set at 5 results in no 'wing wag' and does a slightly more stable lateral control in TRK or NAV. When flying next to Jon Thocker with his Dynon autopilot in HDG or TRK and Altitude hold, we seem to parallel courses better in NAV or TRK and altitude variations, which are pronounced in loose formation are about 15 feet - looks worse next to somebody than it really is. I'd say eliminating the slop from the torque shear screw, which is what the fix on the early servos did, made the autopilot an acceptable performer. And the AP74 is what makes it exceptional. Being able to dial in your HDG/TRK or an altitude with the twist of a knob that is depicted on your EFIS, and then being able to select a mode with the push of a dedicated button is what makes this system very user friendly. I look forward to future products from Dynon and appreciate their upgrade policy. We all like to tinker with our finished airplanes. I also appreciate their support, especially for Mike and Lawrence, and feel completely comfortable with their products.

Scott
RV-8 Fastback, painted and flying....

 

[rvmills]

Scott,

Nice report. My experience has been very similar to yours. Serviced the pitch servo arm per the instructions, and my results are nearly identical to what you describe. ALT +/- 10-20 feet (smooth air), HDG +/- 2-3 degrees, with slightly better performance feel in NAV and TRK (over heading...and I have run the compass cal routine with good results). Sensitivities are at 6 for roll, and 13-15 for pitch (with just an occasional pitch correction that can be felt as a slight bump...I may try lower on pitch again to see how it does after reading your post).

Concur with you on the AP and the AP-74...very nice piece of gear!

Cheers,
Bob

 

[dynonsupport]

Hi all,

We're for folks that have autopilots installed and flying, particularly D10/D100 series customers, who are running the latest firmware (5.3 currently), and have tried everything they can to dial in the autopilot - particularly in pitch - but aren't quite seeing the performance they would like. If this is you and:
-you're fairly technical - you understand how to use the Dynon Support Program to load firmware into your unit and you're comfortable with that process
-you're available to fly and iterate firmware and report back at least a few times over the coming weeks and months
-you're patient and fault-tolerant, and understand that testing "beta" firmware is an experimental thing

...then we want to hear from you. Please email betatest at dynonavionics dot com with the following information:
-airplane type
-dynon equipment, particularly, which servos you have
-roll axis setup:
servo type
short description of mounting method
all settings from the roll axis page in the ap setup menu
your performance notes/issues (in turbulence and smooth air if they're different)
what you've done so far (settings tweaked, results,etc) to try to dial it in
-pitch axis setup:
servo type
short description of mounting method
all settings from the roll axis page in the ap setup menu
your performance notes/issues (in turbulence and smooth air if they're different)
what you've done so far (settings tweaked, results,etc) to try to dial it in

Thanks!