I ordered another cheap gyro.

[swatson144]

It has always been my opinion that spending 40-60$ on a gyro is foolish. That money is better spent put towards buying a real gyro that just works. My theory is that at the first trouble with the tail you'll be replacing it with something reputable anyhow. Not even for a newbie just learning to hover. The last thing they need to deal with is tail drifting and such. I still maintain that attitude and firmly believe it.

Yesterday I was shopping for some bits and bobs and ran across This (http://hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10113) for 14$. I gotta try it! It's getting good reviews as an actual tail gyro but even if it proves to be too fiddly (most likely)for a tail there has to be a lot of uses for a 14$ HH gyro.

Mount it sideways (elevator axis) and control the H stabs on a Huey?

Tracking gun turret/ camera/ searchlight?

Another couple weeks and I should be playing with it. I think I'll stick it on a 450 and see how that goes. I seldom fly 450s and I need the GY401 off mine to go on the .30 UH-1 so I really don't care if it gets dinged up because of the gyro. It'd either be sitting around with no gyro or sitting around with a 14$ gyrolol

Started the review with post #10


Steve

[BSD]

I was looking at that gyro as well, cant wait to see your review!!!!!

[FlyGuy]

Yeah, keep us in the loop.
For $14 like you say, it could have several uses.

[don_m8856]

Buy cheep get cheep lol but hey it might just pan out :D

[Skytrek]

I can't wait to see Steve(O) fly a 450, as he holds them in such high regard. lollollol

This Gyro might work out just fine or it might not. However, warning to all you newbies out there. Steve seems to like it when he has technical issues while flying and has been seen maneuvering heli's without tail control rods and blindfolded. Although not at the same time.lollollol Never seen the dude crash, go figure.

Seriously, an expert pilot experimenting while throwing hundreds of dollars in the air is one thing but we who are still learning will wait for the verdict.:D

[don_m8856]

Yep I agree with Barry Steve just loves them 450's lol I am surprised he is even spending the 14 dollars on it lol lol lol

[FlyGuy]

$14 gyros? No tail control arms? No crashes?
Maybe we could alll learn from this as well huh?

[BobinNJ]

If it gets good reviews from you guys, I'll get one for those crash and burns I do so well. Spent a lot more then that on my 401

[swatson144]

It was all kinda blown out of proportion. I was on the down wind leg on a windy day with the xero-G and about the time I went to turn upwind it turned itself and the tail control rod was hanging down from the heli. The arm had fallen off the tail gearbox so the whole cf tube and all was hanging down. It was simply a matter of flying it upwind and letting it weathervane while inbound for a NI landing.

I expect this to be no substitute for a GY-401 and I'll be putting it on a heli that don't owe me any money. I'm no longer a fledgling pilot so I should be tolerant of a little bit of tail shenanigans. Beginners should spend the money and get a "no surprises" gyro like the GY-401 or better. Time has proven they'll be money ahead. The last thing a person trying to learn to tail in hover needs is to be suddenly practicing NI hovering :). I'd not be spending the money to put a good gyro on this heli as I really don't like the 450 size helis. With the exception of 1 or 2 flights it has hung on the wall for over a year. Now it's gy-401 is in my .30 sized Huey.

I just got an email that it is shipped and now I only have to wait on the postal systems of 2 countries.

I'll keep you updated, and I have enough spares for the little heli to give it a couple goes. The last cheap gyro I tried on it was an eflite 90? (one before the one (110?) that is shiping on the B400) it held pretty well until I pushed it a little and it just cut loose.

Steve

[swatson144]

Here is the review. If I seem a little nit picky it's because I just want to point out what I see. I'll leave the defending the faults for the price point to the reader.

The HK401B "CYRO" arrived in a box with air pillows. Contained in a plastic bag, it came with nothing else. No instructions, tape, little plastic screwdriver, Nada nothing. Manual is here (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uploads/HK401B_manual.pdf) .

Weight is 18.7G vice 27G listed on the HobbyKing site (and the actual weight of the GY-401)

The Connectors aren't universal, so you'll need to trim the tab off your Futaba servo. They really aren't even JR so you won't have to scrape out the angled keys. They are gold plated and crimped well. The fit is OK. Wires seemed surprisingly good.

The DS/DR switches still had the wash protection tape on them. You can still work them but you don't get a warm fuzzy feeling that they changed when moved. Mine were crooked. Since I took it apart for pictures(and a look at the sensor) I removed the tape.

The internal soldering was OK

The lettering shows up much better in the pictures. In person trying to read what is what will tear your eyes out.

The gaps between the case and controls are pretty big. It'd probably be a good idea to cover the top with tape after adjustments (good Idea with a Gy-401 too).

There will be a flight review soon. It is already mounted on an X400.

Steve

[swatson144]

I'm pretty impressed with this cheap gyro.

I mounted it on an X400 (450 size heli) and set it up just like I would a GY-401 connected to an S3153 servo. In fact I found that I had copied my setting for the X400 from the 9c so it was indeed using the same settings. Delay at 0%, digi enabled and the limits set.

The settings in the TX were at 27% AVCS in GY mode. the 1st flight yesterday the tail was very soft so I turned the gain up for todays session and found it much better at 40% (roughly 70% in non GY mode for you jr guys).

The test flight was in my side yard over a blanket of snow so I was getting the squints. Since I had pulled the heli out of a yellow shark body which required cutting the canopy mounts it was without canopy so it was all very sedate just some figure 8s and circuits.

There was a 35F temp difference between inside and outside temps and I just carried the thing out, plugged in and went through a pack. There was very little temperature drift. Just a tiny tad of left stick needed. Not holding L stick resulted in about a 30 degree drift in about 1/2 min. Almost nothing at all. Flying either direction across the breeze made no difference and I probably could have added a click of left trim and been fine. Very impressive, all of the other cheap gyros I have tried (numerous), had pretty wild temperature drifts unless you set them down and waited for them to become ambient temp before plugging in on a cold day.

I've now had two flights with it and I just have to say it works very well in normal flight. I can't say how it'll do with 3d. It's not as smooth as a high end gyro and slow piros are kinda jerky, like about a 15 degree swing very brief stop and then on for 15 degrees. fast piros with hard stops cause some bounce so I may need to add a little delay. Main thing is it works!

Personally I couldn't imagine putting one of these on a high end heli of any size since we still have no idea about the reliability, but it can certainly be recommended to bring some old helis off the shelf. I'm needing another for a Hornet2 now:D.

Seems pretty funny, a fellow could buy a 6 pack of clones, 6 of these gyros, cheap ESCs, servos etc and have some Backyard fence bouncers. It could be much fun at HeliInvasion imagine 6 of us on one flight station with cheap clones equiped with Estarters 99 cent vidcam find on each. The carnage! I'll have to see how cheaply a 450 clone can be kitted out for.

I am looking forward to getting it out to the field for some stick time and see how it does with some wind and some rough sticking.

Steve

[swatson144]

Another couple flights. I had turned the gain up a little and it was hunting a little on flight, I figured I'd turn the gain down a bit on landing it was so very slight. Did a fast piro to the Right and all was fine...Fast piro to the Left and the festivities commenced, serious hunting and I thought it was never gonna quit. went to make a Left turn and it started all over again hovered low and auto'd in. Reset and it flew fine. May be some setup issues to look out for. I had a G90 do the same kind of thing but much worse it'd sometimes stop a piro and start fast piro in the oposite direction.

Steve