I am sure most of you heard by now that Futaba has finally hit the “Flybarless” market with their announcment of their new product, the CGY750 Flybarless System. Matt Botos being a long time Futaba pilot has had the oppurtunity to partake in a lot of testing and R&D on the unit over the past couple weeks. Read on for his thoughts and opinions about Futaba’s newest product!
Matt:
As many of you know, I was one of the early adopters of flybarless electronics back in 2006, helping manufacturers to sort out many of the strange tendencies flybarless systems can inherently posses. If you’ve ever spoken to me in person about flybarless electronics you know that I am very particular about the way they fly. I used to despise the unpredictable feeling of many flybarless systems especially during pirouetting maneuvers. Since then, I’ve been back and forth between flybar and flybarless until now. Many flybarless systems have improved drastically in the last four years, but the Futaba CGY750 is the first flybarless system that feels exactly like a flybar with all of amazing benefits of not having a flybar.
New to flybarless or not familiar with the benefits? A good test is to use a Castle Creations ICE controller on a flybar helicopter, look closely at the peak amp draw, total mah used, and peak controller temperature within the ICE data logging feature as well as the battery temperature (use a temp gun). Now convert the same helicopter to flybarless and watch all of those numbers drop drastically! Nitro helicopters will run longer on a single tank and more efficiently as well! Last but not least flybarless electronics opens a whole new world of potential maneuvers due to extreme cyclic speeds available.
The CGY750 allows you to change all the gyro gains within your radio(dedicated gyro menus, not ATV values!) as well as the aileron and elevator speed. All of the expert adjustments (swash travel, etc) are accessible with a push of a button on the unit itself. When I received the CGY750, it took me no more than 30 minutes from the setup bench to in the air. This is in part due to the fact that the CGY750 is S.BUS compatible which means only one wire from the receiver to the CGY750. There is no longer a need to bring a laptop to the field as the CGY750 is completely programmable through the on board OLED display. The sensor is about the same size as the GY520, maybe a little bit smaller, and comes with a long cord for those helicopters which require distant sensor mounting. The CGY750 is not only a three axis flybarless system, it also contains a head speed governor which can govern anywhere between 1000-3000; this makes the CGY750 perfect for 50 sized helicopters which run higher head speeds.
Vibrations on nitro machines? This is not an issue, take a look at the tape Futaba includes with the unit! It’s paper thin which means they did their homework on vibration resistant sensors and isolation mounting within the case itself.
I will try to post some more videos of each helicopter I own with the CGY750. Right now I am testing on the Synergy N5 with excellent results! I have over 70 N5 flights with the CGY750 right now. Here are some pictures of the prototype unit, the gyro case is white because rapid prototyping material (3D Printing) was used to make the prototype case. The Amplifier box says GY701 but you can see that all of the ports are labeled with their corresponding control surface. The production unit will look like the one in the last picture.
Source: Matt Botos / Mattbotos.com
Related posts:
- BREAKING: Futaba CGY750 receiver compatability announced
- BREAKING: Futaba releases info for the CGY750
- NEW: Synergy 50 Size Flybarless Head Testing by Matt Botos
- Matt Botos tries the new Futaba 701!
- ADDITIONAL INFO: More CGY750 details released on Futaba’s website
What’s the price range for it?