Why does my helicopter wobble? (Minimum viable advanced heli)

[DITW]

I've tried to make the minimum viable helicopter:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1865442093

It can fly, but it wobbles the whole time.
Don't know how to troubleshoot it.

Seen various discussions about "Too much RPS", which is not my case: RPS is limited to 15 RPS and it just barely lifts off. Much higher, and I start to have issues where the gyro freaks out and flips the whole thing.

Seen some discussions about fuel sloshing around between tanks, which shouldn't be my case: I have 1 small tank mounted vertically.

Seen some discussions about huge helicopters being doomed to always wobble, which is not my case: this thing is tiny.

Seen some discussions about the main rotor and tail rotor colliding with each other, which is not my case: moving the tail rotor back makes no difference.

Seen some discussion about auto-level just being useless, which is not my case: it wobbles the same with or without auto-level on.

Seen some discussions about the gyroscope just generally being worthless, and how you have to make your own microcontroller to make any helicopter not suck. Is that truly the case?

Only time the helicopter isn't wobbling is when it's flat on the ground ready for takeoff, or when it's falling due to giving a negative collective on the pilot controls.

[m4d50r3n]

From what I've experienced, the gyro component doesn't seem to be able to adjust the torque it uses based on the axis it is trying to adjust. There is more meat lengthwise on the helicopter than there is on the sides, so the gyro is using the same level of torque to roll as it is to pitch which causes it to overshoot massively. The gyro also tends to wobble when the rps is too high like you said, but it's more due to the force the rotors produce at that speed. I wouldn't worry about wobble from too much force though, as the heli is still controllable and you'd climb too fast if you breathe on the collective. I mention this because the heli will likely wobble a little under high stress, but it should recover quickly.

An easy fix would be to make arms that extend from the side of the heli with some mass at the ends of the arms. This would increase the torque requirement to roll, so it would be closer to the torque required to pitch. Doing this doesn't negatively impact maneuverability since your roll rate will be close to your pitch rate.

If aesthetics are important, you can also use a multiply logic block. This might require some tech to be unlocked, I'd have to check.

To do this, connect a constant number block to one of the multiply block's nodes.
Connect the stabilized roll output of the gyro to the other node on the multiply block.
Connect the output of the multiply block to the main rotor's roll node.

Now you can adjust the constant number block to adjust how strong the torque will be from the gyro. A value of 0.5 corresponds to 50% torque. This method also does not negatively impact maneuverability either.

I too was working on a tiny heli, and I spent around 6 hours troubleshooting and searching online without luck. Hope I can save you that time

[Delle(DK)]

tip..: I tried you heli and yes it does wobble, and i find it strange..

I notise on top of the tail rotor your have installed a "small electric engine.. " i think this is the wrong part, and maybe you should install an electrig generator instead. ;-)

Els I tried to rebuild your heli in differetn ways and it wobble all the time.
BUT
When i delete the gyro and rewire the electrics and controls to go directly to the pilot seat directly to the rotor then i could take off and it did not wobble anymore.
BUT it became impossible to control.

I think the problem have something to do with the gyro.
Try to flip the gyro arround so it is not upside down, maybe that will work.

But in general i think its very strange the heli wobble, but maybe your helicopter is to light so that it become very sensitive to vibration.. maybe try to add a few weight blocks and see if that help as well.

Maybe also try to flip the yaw rotor so it sit on the other side of the heli.. maybe the gyro is confused and think it should be the other way arround.

[Tampa Powers]

What's worse is each time you get up the main rotor shredders you to bits, I think that is a more important problem to consider frankly xD

[DITW]

m4d50r3n: "... multiply logic block ... roll node ..."
That is an excellent idea! I was dreading having to wire up an entire logic unit, but that's a really clever way to just tune the gyro output. I'll try that out.

Delle: "... too light ... weight blocks ..."
I'd considered this, but haven't tested it yet. If that is the case, I like m4d50r3n's idea to tune the gyro down for lighter craft.

Delle: "... small electric engine ..."
Whoops! I don't think that's related to my problem, but that is a good catch. I would've been awfully confused when I ran out of battery power.

Tampa: "... main rotor shredders you ..."
You just got to be patient and wait for it to spin down : )
Please remain seated until the captain has turned off the fasten seatbelt sign.


The design is my first helicopter attempt, so I can make the absolute minimum viable helicopter, and then when I add things to it that cause problems, I've got a very simple baseline to reference.

Eventually I gotta build a submersible helicarrier, so I've got a lot of systems I need to test in isolation before I tackle something that monstrous.

[Tampa Powers]

Originally posted by DITW:

Eventually I gotta build a submersible helicarrier, so I've got a lot of systems I need to test in isolation before I tackle something that monstrous.

Engineering philosophies don't really work in the game, somethings gonna come up. Also a helicarrier on diesel power is currently not viable. :)

[Mysteriousbeaver]

something that worked for me is dividing the width of the helicopter by the length and putting the answer as a percentange in the gyro.

My helicopter is ~13 blocks wide
and ~60 blocks long
if you divide 13/60 then you get 0.2111111

I then set the roll on my gyro to 21% and the yaw to 42%, at 90RPS it seemed to help a lot

[Captain]

Why are you responding to a 5+ year old post?

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.