Eagle A3 Super 3 Instruction Manual

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A3 SUPER 3

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

For Firmware Version 1.0, Data Version 1.0

Aug 1, 2017 Revision

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CONTENTS

IMPORTANT NOTES ……..……………………………………………………………………….…………..3

1. Introduction …….…………..……………………………………………………………….……………..4

2. Setup Procedure Overview ………………………………………………………………….…………..5

3. Installation …………………………………………………………………………………….…………..6

4. Receiver & Servos Connection …………………………………………………………….………….8

4.1. Port Description ……………..…………………………………………………………….…………..8

4.2. Supported Wing Type …….……………………………………………………………….………...8

4.3. Using Pass-through Function of [A2] & [E2] …..………………………………………….………..9

4.4. Standard Receiver Connection (for Electric Planes) ………………………………….………..10

4.5. Standard Receiver Connection (for Nitro/Gas Planes) ………………………………….……….11

4.6. PPM, S.Bus Single-line Receiver Connection ………………………………………….……….12

5. Flight Mode ……………………………………………………………………………………….…….. 14

5.1. 3-Position Mode Switching ………………………………………………………………….……..15

5.2. 6-Position Mode Switching ………………………………………………………………….……..15

6. Gyro Direction …………………………………………………………………………….……………..15

7. Gain Settings …………………………………………………………………………………………….17

8. LED Descriptions ………………………....……………………………………………..……………..18

9. Config Software ………………………………………………………………………………………....18

9.1. Install the USB Driver ………………………..………….………………………………………..19

9.2. Overview of the Software ……………………………….………………………………………..20

9.3. Flight Mode ……………………………………………………………………………………...…21

9.4. Wing Type ………………………………………………………………………………………….21

9.5. Mount Orientation …………………………………………………………………………………22

9.6. Gyro Settings ………………………………………………………………………………………22

9.7. Radio Settings …………..…………………………………………………………………………23

9.7.1. Transmitter Calibration .…………..…………………………………………………………23

9.8. Servo Settings …………………………………………………………………………………..…24

9.8.1. Servo Trimming ………………….…………………………………………………………25

9.8.2. Travel Limiting …………………………………………………..…………………………...26

9.9. Sensor Monitor ………………………………………………………………….…………………27

9.9.1. Level Calibration …..………………………………………………………………………...28

9.9.2. Hover Calibration .…………………………………………………………………………...29

9.9.3. Accelerometer Calibration ..………………………………………………………………...30

9.10. Advanced Settings …..……………………………………………………………………………34

10. Program Card …..………………………………………………………………………………………..35

10.1. Buttons ..……………………………………………………………………………………………35

10.2. Method of Use …..…………………………………………………………………………………35

10.3. Language Selection ………………………………………………………………………………35

10.4. Menu Operation …...………………………………………………………………………………35

10.5. Option Selection …..………………………………………………………………………………35

10.6. Value Modification …………………………………………………………………………………36

10.7. Function List (v3.5) …………………………...…….………………………………………………36

11. Specifications …………………………………………………………………………………………...38

* Voltage Protector …………………………………………………………………………………….…...38

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IMPORTANT NOTES

IMPORTANT NOTES

IMPORTANT NOTES

IMPORTANT NOTES

IMPORTANT NOTES

IMPORTANT NOTES

IMPORTANT NOTES

Radio controlled (R/C) models are not toys! The propellers rotate at high speed and pose potential

risk. They may cause severe injury due to improper usage. It is necessary to observe common

safety rules for R/C models and the local law. Read the following instructions thoroughly before the

first use of your A3 Super 3 and setup the gyro carefully according to this manual. We also

recommend that you seek the assistance of an experienced pilot before attempting to fly with our

gyros for the first time.

Always turn on the transmitter before power on the plane and the gyro. After Power on, A3 Super 3

needs to perform an initialization which includes the gyroscope calibration and stick centering.

Keep the plane still and wait for the gyro to initialize, the initialization will take about 2 seconds and

the LED will blink blue several times. Don’t move the plane and keep all the sticks in their original

position until the initialization is done. After a successful initialization, the aileron servo(s) will give

you a short up and down move. If the LED retains solid blue, stop moving the plane then the

initialization will start automatically.

Always check the gyro direction for each channel before takeoff. An opposite reaction of the gyro

could lead to losing control or crash during flight!

Never use a very small setting of basic gain, attitude gain and master gain when flying with the

gyro in Trainer mode, or it will lead to a weak control or even losing control of the plane.

When flying, you can fine tune the surfaces by turning the trimming buttons on the transmitter as

before, this is allowed. However, we still recommend that always adjust the center position of the

servos by using the “servo trimming” function provided by A3 Super 3 if possible.

When connecting the gyro to the PC or the program card, the external LED will always light in solid

Violet, and can no longer be used to display the status of the gyro, this is normal.

When connecting the gyro to the PC, the gyro will get power from the USB but it will not pass the

power to the servos and the receiver. This is designed to protect the USB port and the internal

power IC of the gyro. For this reason, you have to connect the battery for your plane if the radio

system is needed while setting up the gyro.

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1. INTRODUCTION

Thank you for purchasing our products.

A3 Super 3 (hereinafter referred to as A3S3) is a high-performance and functional 6-axis gyro and

stabilizer designed for R/C airplanes. This gyro can be used with nearly any size and type of R/C airplanes

and it will make the flying even easier and comfortable.

Features

1. 32-bit MCU, high-precision 6-axis MEMS sensor, improved hardware platform and new firmware

solution provide more reliable performance.

2. 6 flight modes, including Gyro-Off mode, Normal mode, Trainer mode, Atti-Lock mode, Auto-Level

mode and Auto-Hover mode.

3. 6-position flight mode switching supported.

4. Compatible with most standard receivers, standard PPM single-line receivers and Futaba’s S.Bus

and S.Bus 2 receivers.

5. 7 wing types, dual aileron, dual elevator, delta-wing and v-tail supported.

6. External LED module, integrated with data interface, flat or upright various mounting orientations

supported.

7. Sub trim and travel limit settings for servos, separate stick Rate and EXP settings for each mode.

8. Pass-through function for [A2] and [E2] channels.

9. Customizable hardware and software low pass filters for gyroscope and accelerometer, enable you to

optimize the performance of the gyro as you wish.

10. Quick setup supported by using the programming card while flying outside.

Thank you for your confidence and wish you fun and great flights with A3S3!

WWW.HOBBYEAGLE.COM

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2. SETUP PROCEDURE OVERVIEW

The procedure below will show you how to install and setup the A3S3 step by step.

1. PREPARING YOUR PLANE

Before installing the gyro, make sure that the plane is well installed, connect all the control surfaces to the servos

and make them center by adjusting the linkages. Install the receiver and bind it to the transmitter in advance.

2. PREPARING YOUR TRANSMITTER

Create a new fixed-wing model in your transmitter. Disable all mixing functions on the output channels. Each control

function must exactly control one output channel. Activate the second aileron or second elevator channel if you need.

Assign a 3-position (or 6-position) toggle switch for flight mode control. Assign a knob or slider for remote master

gain control if needed. Keep all the sticks in their middle positions (the throttle stick should be in the lowest).

3. INSTALLING THE GYRO

Mount the A3S2 on the plane, connect the receiver and servos to the gyro carefully. See Page 6 “3.Installation” and

Page 8 “4. Receiver & Servos Connection”.

4. POWER ON AND INITIALIZATION

Power on the plane, keep the plane still and wait for the gyro to initialize. The initialization will take about 2 seconds

and the LED will blink blue several times. Don’t move the plane and keep all sticks in their original positions until the

initialization is done. After a successful initialization, it does a short move of the aileron servo(s). If the LED retains

solid blue, stop moving the plane then the initialization will start automatically.

5. BASIC SETUP

When the gyro is ready, connect it to the PC or the program card to complete the basic setups, such as flight mode,

mounting orientation, wing type and receiver type, etc. If a PPM or S.Bus single-line receiver is used, change the

receiver type now and restart the gyro to make the new setting take effect.

6. TRANSMITTER CALIBRATION

Go to the Radio tap of the software, move the sticks, mode switch and gain control knob (or slider) and check if all of

the input channels work correctly using the channel monitor of the software. Reverse the sticks or reassign the

channels if needed. Adjust the servo travel or end-point setting of the transmitter to make the progress bar be in the

right position of +100% or -100% when moving the stick, switch and knob (or slider) to the full left or full right position

for each channel. For more details of transmitter calibration, see Page 23 “9.7.1.

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7. CHECKING FOR GYRO DIRECTIONS

Switch to normal mode, check the gyro direction for each channel one by one, and reverse it if the gyro reacts in the

wrong direction on the Gyro tab of the software. This procedure is extremely important because an opposite reaction

of the gyro could lead to losing control or even crash after takeoff! See Page 15 “6. Gyro Direction”.

8. SERVO TRIMMING AND TRAVEL LIMITING

Go to the Servo tab of the software, click the “Servo Trimming” and “Travel Limiting” buttons to adjust the center

position and travel limits of the servos using your transmitter. See Page 25 “9.8.1.Servo Trimming” and Page 26

“9.8.2.Travel Limiting”.

9. ATTITUDE CALIBRATION

If you are going to fly with the gyro in Trainer mode or Auto-Level mode, you are suggested to perform a level

calibration to offset the angle deviation caused by installation. See Page 28 “9.9.1.Level Calibration”. In the same

way, a hover calibration is recommended to perform if the Auto-Hover mode will be used in the future. See Page 29

“9.9.2.Hover Calibration”.

10. TEST FLIGHT

Up to now, you have basically finished the installation and settings of the A3S3. It’s ready for first flight and the gyro

gains should be fine-tuned during the flight.

3. INSTALLATION

Use one of the supplied 3M pads to attach the gyro to your plane firmly. For best performance the gyro should be mounted

as close to the C.G. as possible, and the housing edges must be aligned exactly parallel to all three rotation axis of the

plane. The gyro can be attached flat or upright, and even upside down, however, you have to ensure the arrow on the

sticker always point to the heading direction, otherwise the gyro will not work normally when operating it in Trainer mode,

Auto-Level and Auto-Hover modes.

The external LED module is designed for intuitively displaying the system status and easier connecting to the PC and

program card. You can attach it wherever you like and connect it with the main controller using the supplied 4-pin wire.

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Flat: face up, socket pointing to rear. Flat Inverted: face down, socket pointing to rear.

Upright: [DATA] up, socket pointing to rear. Upright Inverted: [DATA] down, socket pointing to rear.

1. You need only one piece of the tapes each time, a soft or thick mounting may probably impact the

performance of the gyro.

2. Never use the hot-melt glue or nylon ties to fix the gyro onto the plane!

3. The gyro is a sensing device, please make enough space around it and keep as far away from other

electronic devices or wires as possible.

CAUTION

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Standard Wing Type

4. RECEIVER & SERVOS CONNECTION

A3S3 has 7 separate input channels which used to connect to the receiver and 5 output channels for servos, and supports

standard receivers and PPM or Futaba’s S.BUS(or S.BUS 2) single-line receivers. There are 7 different wing type available

for airplane. The connection for servos will vary depending on the wing type selected. However, [A] Aileron, [E] Elevator and

[R] Rudder should always be connected to the receiver in most cases. [PPM/Bus/M] is used to switch the flight mode,

even if you don’t want to change the flight mode during flight, you still need to connect it to a free receiver port to get power

supply for the gyro. [G] is used to adjust the master gain, connecting this channel is not a must if you don’t want to change

the gain by the transmitter. [A2] and [E2] are used for the second aileron and second elevator control channels. If the wing

type currently selected contains only one aileron or elevator servo, [A2] or [E2] will become a pass-through channel

automatically, it means that the input signal applied to [A2] or [E2] will directly be passed to the output channel [OUT4] or

[OUT5] when [A2] or [E2] is unused. It is possible to use them as any other purpose, e.g. throttle, gear or flap.

4.1. PORT DESCRIPTION

Input Channel Description Output Channel Description

A

To Aileron channel of the receiver

OUT1

To aileron servo

E

To Elevator channel of the receiver

OUT2

To elevator servo

R

To Rudder channel of the receiver

OUT3

To rudder servo

A2

To Aileron 2 channel of the receiver

OUT4

To the second aileron servo

E2

To Elevator 2 channel of the receiver

OUT5

To the second elevator servo

G

Remote master gain control

PPM/SBus/M

Flight mode switch channel, PPM or S.BUS input channel, power supply port of the gyro.

4.2. SUPPORTED WING TYPE

A3S3 supports standard fixed-wing, flying-wing(delta-wing) and v-tail and provides 7 different wing types for you. The

following illustration gives the connection of the servos for each type.

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Flying-Wing (Delta-wing)

V Tail

1. Again make sure that there are no mixing functions active on your transmitter. Have a look at the radio’s servo

monitor and verify that each stick controls only one output channel (except for aileron stick which controls

aileron and aileron 2 if dual aileron is used, or elevator stick which controls elevator and elevator 2 if dual

elevator is used).

2. If dual aileron wing type is selected, [A] is used to control the servo connected at [OUT1], [A2] is used to

control the servo connected at [OUT4], in this case if [A2] is disconnected, [OUT1] and [OUT4] will be switched

to be controlled by [A] simultaneously, just as using a Y-extension cable on aileron.

3. If dual elevator wing type is selected, [E] is used to control the servo connected at [OUT2], [E2] is used to

control the servo connected at [OUT5], in this case if [E2] is disconnected, [OUT2] and [OUT5] will be switched

to be controlled by [E] simultaneously.

4. Most flying-wings have no rudder, in this case, [R] is unnecessary to connect.

5. [OUT4] and [OUT5] will become pass-through channels when they are unused.

4.3. USING PASS-THROUGH FUNCTION OF [A2] & [E2]

For most planes, the second aileron and second elevator channels are not used, in this case, [A2] and [E2] can be used as

any other purpose, it means that the input signal applied to [A2] and [E2] will directly be passed to the output channel

[OUT4] and [OUT5] automatically. It will be useful in some cases, for an example, if your receiver provides only one

single-line output channel without any separate outputs for you to connect the ESC or throttle servo, you can connect the

ESC or the throttle servo at [OUT4] or [OUT5] by assigning the throttle channel number to [A2] or [E2] in the software .

Besides being used as throttle, [A2] and [E2] can be also used as gear, flap or other channels as you need.

CAUTION

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The pass-through function of [A2] and [E2] are also available when using a standard receiver. For example, if

2AIL+1ELE+1RUD type is selected, the [E2] is free so you can connect it to the throttle channel of the receiver and get the

ESC or throttle servo connected at [OUT5], it is just the same as connecting the ESC or throttle servo directly to the receiver.

But sometimes it will be more convenient for wiring. As another example, when 1AIL+1ELE+1RUD type is using, both [A2]

and [E2] are free. You can connect [A2] to the throttle channel and [E2] to the gear channel of your receiver, then connect

the ESC or throttle servo to [OUT4] and the gear servo to [OUT5].

The wing type currently selected determines when the pass-through function of [A2] and [E2] will come into effect. In the
following table ● indicates pass-through function of [A2] is activated and ● indicates pass-throught function of [E2] is

activated.

Channels

Wing Type

Input (Receiver) Output (Servos)

A E R A2 E2 OUT1 OUT2 OUT3 OUT4 OUT5

1AIL+1ELE+1RUD ● ● ● ●

2AIL+1ELE+1RUD ● ●

1AIL+2ELE+1RUD ● ●

2AIL+2ELE+1RUD

Flying-wing (Delta) ● ● ● ●

1AIL+VTAIL ● ● ● ●

2AIL+VTAIL ● ●

4.4.

If you are using the A3S3 on an electric plane, the following illustration shows you how to connect the gyro to your receiver.

This illustration is only intended as an example for 2AIL+2ELE+1RUD wing type. In practice, you may need to adjust the

wiring to meet your need.

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1. Pay attention to the polarity of the plugs. The orange signal line must always be on the top and the brown on

the bottom.

2. Check all the connectors and make sure that all of them are firmly connected to the sockets.

3. Please refer to the instructions of your transmitter for setting up the 3-position switch for flight mode control,

and the knob (or slider) for remote master gain control.

4. You have to restart the gyro after you change the receiver type to make the new setting take effect.

4.5.

Using the A3S3 on a nitro/gas plane is similar to electric planes, follow the below illustration to complete connection

between the gyro and receiver.

CAUTION

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4.6. PPM, S.BUS SINGLE-LINE RECEIVER CONNECTION

Using a single-line receiver (e.g. PPM receiver or Futaba’s S.Bus receiver) all channels are transferred by one single wire

which connected to [PPM/Bus/M]. When a single-line receiver type has been selected, A3S3 will load the default channel

assignment to recognize the channels from receiver. The default assignment is: CH1=Aileron, CH2=Elevator, CH3=Throttle,

CH4=Rudder, CH5=Flight Mode, CH6=Aileron 2, CH7=Elevator 2, CH8=Master Gain. You may program a different channel

assignment manually in case the default assignment does not work with your transmitter’s function layout. A3S3 supports a

maximum of 14 channels when using a single-line receiver. When programing the channel mapping, select “None” for those

channels you don’t want to use.