Governor

1 Preparation

The governor from the Spirit unit (so called External governor) can be used with all single line digital receiver connections. This mean that for PWM and PPM it cannot be used. To make it work, you will need to get a RPM Sensor which can supply the unit with current RPM data.

For usage of this governor it is necessary to connect the throttle (ESC or the Throttle servo) to the following port:

• Spirit and μSpirit units - AUX port
• Spirit Pro and Spirit 2 - AUX1 port
• Spirit RS - THR port

2 List of tested sensors

To make the governor work well it is very important to choose an appropriate RPM sensor. RPM sensor can be external or built-in in the ESC.

Cable that carry RPM signal must be always connected when Governor is used.

Connect RPM signal cable to the pin of the unit:

• Spirit and μSpirit units - PIT pin - pin in the middle of ELE/PIT/AIL port
• Spirit Pro and Spirit 2 - PIT pin - pin in the middle of ELE/PIT/AIL port
• Spirit RS - RPM pin - pin in the middle of EXT/RPM/E2 port

The following are known to work well.

Electric Motors

• HobbyWing Platinum ESC v3/v4 RPM output
• YGE ESC RPM output
• CC Phoenix Edge RPM output
• Scorpion Commander V RPM output
• HobbyWing RPM Sensor
• Hyperion RPM Sensor
• Orange RPM Sensor

Nitro and Gasser Motors

• Align HE50H22 RPM Sensor
• Spartan SRC-RPM RPM Sensor

3 Autorotation Bailout

For those pilots that are performing autorotations the Bailout feature can be usefull. This feature allows to spin-up the motor to the flight RPM quickly when needed. You can change the Autorotation Bailout rate in the Advanced/Expert settings.

In order to make it work you only have to set your transmitter.

• When doing autorotation do not engage the Throttle Hold.
• Use an assigned switch instead, that will set the Throttle Curve to somewhere between 12 - 50%.

If Throttle Curve will drop under 12% the spoolup will be normal.

4 Throttle Hold for Autorotation (optional)

In case that you want to use only Throttle Hold for autorotation, please perform the following steps:

1. Set the Throttle Curve for Hold to 12%. (This will spin-up the motor)
2. Decrease General/Governor/Throttle Range - Min. until the motor will stop completely.
3. Increase the Spoolup Rampup until you will get immediate spoolup when Hold is disarmed.

5 Troubleshooting

• A delay between disarming Throttle Hold and motor rotation - motor will start to spin after a short time.

Make sure that your Throttle Range was configured correctly. Did you calibrated the throttle range with the Spirit connected?

We recommend to put the ESC into the Factory settings. In the most cases the default range is matching with preconfigured range in the unit (1100μs - 1900μs).

In case that the range is configured correctly, but there is still a noticeable delay, please increase the Spoolup Rampup parameter until the motor will start to spin instantly after disarming the Hold switch.

• Motor will kick after disarming the Hold switch causing unwanted rotation of the model.

Decrease the Spoolup Rampup parameter until the kick will disappear. If you will notice a delay before spooling, the value is too low now and other solution must be used. In this case the problem cannot be solved by any settings of the Spirit unit.

Check if the ESC supports a Spoolup Power parameter. If it is supported, then try to decrease the power and observe if it will help you. In some cases a different Timing or PWM frequency can help, but always make sure that the settings are valid for your motor.

• After demanding maneuvers the head speed is maintained at higher RPM for prolonged period.

Verify that the Throttle Range of your ESC or Throttle servo is configured properly. Usually the problem is caused by exceeded limit for the full throttle defined by Throttle Range - Max. value. For example, if the top limit in the ESC is programmed to 1800μs but the unit has configured 1900μs, then the unit will be 100μs over the real limit. Thus during a high load it could take a few seconds until the value will drop under 1800μs in this case.

Correct solution is to reconfigure the Throttle Range either in the ESC or in the unit.

• There is often "RPM Sensor data are too noisy" event in the flight log.

Make sure that the connection of the RPM Sensor output is good. If the RPM Sensor is separated from the ESC, please connect its power supply (especially the grounding wire) as close as possible to the RPM signal wire in the unit. Usage of a ferrite rings for the power supply could reduce a noise as well. Verify operating voltage requirements for the sensor. Some sensors require 3.5V or more so they can't be powered from the Spektrum port of the unit. In some cases it is caused by too high Governor Response value, because motor will start to jitter.

• Governor is not switching between different throttle curves.

Your Throttle Range in the ESC is calibrated incorrectly - range that unit is programmed for is not matching range of the ESC. Correct calibration of the range will solve the problem.

• RPM signal was lost.

If Governor will loose the signal, it will detect the event within 2 seconds. Governor will still work, but with worsened performance - similarly as with a V-curve. This event can happen, if the signal cable connection will fail. For this reason we highly recommend to use a hot glue or other way for securing the connections.