Honey Bee King 2 Gyro Help

[woomera]

I'm hoping someone can help me with some brand new, straight out of the box questions regarding the Honey Bee King 2. Having just bought one, I charged up the battery, checked that everything was correctly plugged in and performed the usual pre-flight checks. After ensuring the throttle and trim were fully down, I turned on the transmitter. Then I plugged in the battery on the helo. The instructions say that the LED on the gyro should go red, then flash red as the gyro perfoms its checks, then turn green when it's ready for flight. My gyro just keeps flashing red. All the controls are normal, I can throttle up and down, etc. but the gyro just keeps flashing red. Any thoughts?

Also as I've just upgraded from a TWS Dragonfly to a HBK2 things are a little more complex, so please forgive the next question if it sounds dumb. The rudder servo (mounted on the tail boom) is connected to the gyro and the gyro to channel 4 on the receiver. In the instruction book, the left stick controls the rudder, no matter whether you're in mode 1 or 2. When I move the left stick left and right, absolutely nothing happens. The servo is dead. Could this be a problem with the gyro that's causing this and hence the reason the gyro keeps flashing red?

Thanks heaps

[PDK]

Hi,

What Gyro are you using. You have to make sure you do not move anything while the Gyro is doing the checks (heli or TX). Have you plugged the servo directly into the channel 4 and checked that the servo works (and that channel 4 is your rudder channel)?

Phil

[woomera]

Hi Phil,

The gyro is the bog standard EK2-0704 that came with the Honey Bee. While it was doing the checks I let it sit and didn't touch anything. I'll check that the servo is in channel 4, I'm almost certain it is. The rudder servo hasn't worked yet and if I move the left stick from right to left, I get nothing out of it. But I'll do the checks you suggest and see where it gets me.

Thanks for the advice

James.

[woomera]

Hi again Phil,

I ended up reversing the rudder switch and now the rudder servo works fine. However, I've still got the same problem with the stupid gyro. I ensure the throttle and trim are all the way down and turn on the Tx. I plug in the battery to the King and the gyro LED glows red momentarily before it starts flashing, and flashing, and flashing... I just don't know what it could be. Everything functions normally (not that it's left the ground yet), but I just can't get a green light from the gyro.

James.

[woomera]

Hi Phil,

You're not going to believe this. I feel like the biggest idiot of all time. You're right about the LED on the gyro, it only glows red (do not believe the instructions). However the HUGE tip to anyone who has just bought an Esky King V2, make sure you FULLY extend the Tx antenna before you turn on your helo. If you don't the gyro will not calibrate properly for flight.

So thanks to you Eric and a few others along the way, here are the big tips for anyone with a new V2. Make sure:

The throttle and trim are set to zero on your Tx.
The antenna is fully extended on your Tx.
The rudder swith is set to 'reverse' on your Tx.
The gyro is plugged in to Channel 4 on the receiver.

Hope that helps someone else.

James.

[geebeedreamer]

Just got my hbk2 yesterday...my first cp heli.
I ran into the same problem.
Simply moving the rudder trim to the center stopped the gyro blinking and turned solid red.
Did anyone have parts missing?
I was missing the antenna tube and 4 AA batteries.
No big deal...was just curious.
Another issue was the flybar was off center by .150 inch.
I centered it by loosening the two inner collar set screws but I'm sure I also moved the arms from the orginal location.
Another thing...the swash plate seems to bind when the cyclic is moved too far in any direction...the first half of the travel is ok but any more and it gets bumpy as I turn the head assembly with the main rotors removed from the grips.
Is this normal? doesnt seem right.
Any set up tips on the head?
Have any of you guys flown it with the stock radio...if so how does she fly?
Please provide a flight report on your bird when ya get some time...would like to hear others experiences and will report back when I get mine in the air.
Thanks guys! :badair:

[gtr]

I have the same blinking problem. I'll try everythign tomorrow and see if it works.

[gtr]

Wow it worked :D

Antenna pulled out
Tail trim centered.
Throttle trim lowered to the bottom.

Strange.

[SonGunnar]

My King 2 came with the gyro tail servo in channel 5. It does not work in channel 4.

The instruction sheet shows it in ch 4 and ch 5 elswhere, and also shows an 8 channel receiver.

It works fine the way it was sent to me though. Blades were tracking correctly. Almost everything was tight and the only adjustment needed was moving the tail servo toward the nose about an 1/8" to center the tail.

Must be Gremlins. I wonder if upgrading the receiver would improve anything? I need to set my computer radio up for it, so I may need to change it anyhow.

I still think that this is a good bird for learning and should be very fast with a brushless motor.

I put 2 heatsinks on the brushed motor leaving the vent on the motor uncovered, and added heatsink goop to make the sinks work well. It runs much cooler and is quite a peppy brushed motor, especially in idle up mode.

[fezzyg]

antenna tube in top of box under instruction manuals. dont come with aa batteries :)

[Al P]

Almost everything was tight and the only adjustment needed was moving the tail servo toward the nose about an 1/8" to center the tail.



When you say "to center the tail" do you mean center the pitch slider or for the tail to hold ?

I had to move my tail servo in order to get the tail to stay put while hovering. Even with the gain turned up til it wagged then backed off. Now the tail holds, but the tail pitch slider is left of center and it's difficult making left hand turns.

[SonGunnar]

Al P,

When I said Center I meant that the distance of travel between full right rudder, and full left rudder at the tail slider was not centered when the servo horn was set perpendicular after gyro initialization.

There are quirks with this gyro. I have had to plug and unplug the battery to get the gyro LED to stop flashing and set the servo. Had to spin up, work the sticks, throttle off and then unplug the battery and plug it back in before it would init. Also have to readjust where the tail servo is to get the rudder to perform equally left and right. Fixed that by monkeying with horn hole placement and tail linkage lengthening at the pitch ball links. Used longer rods from nut screw linkage collection.

Another problem has been belt stretch changing the way the tail acts. Should be tight but not too tight. Same with pinion to large gear. Any slop seems to change how everything else acts.

Has anyone bought all the aluminum upgrades. I have also had head binding issues, when getting to scared or squirrely. I am wondering if it is worth the dough?

I am new to this also so I am thinking that upgrading to a AVCS (angular velocity) gyro and faster digital tail servo might make a big difference with this heli.

What is the largest lipo that can be run with the 3100 KV Brushless? I expect that too many milliamps is just as bad as too many volts?

[mavric99]

Quick bit of info on the king 2 for you as I own 2 and ran into every problem under the sun,lol. TO set the tail, travel isnt necessarily even on these. basically, your servo should be centered at 90 degrees. Then make sure your rudder trim is 0. Arm the heli and let the gyro arm, usually take a few seconds (stock TX is crap, if you spend the money on a good transimitter, you be happy you did, learned that one fast) spool it up and get in the air, if the tail moves one way or the other on its own, do not adjust with trim, use you rudder input to hold the tail in one place so you can land. IF tail is drift to the right (when facing back of heli) move your servo mounts foward slightly, tail going left, move them back just slightly. You will have to wait till a perfectly calm day to do this properly but you want the tail to stay straight without any trim. This will save you big headaches alter if you go to a heading lock gyro. As for the way the heli itself drifts, trim it out only a notch at a time till its centered. With collective pitch you will always be moving the stick to stay in one place, it will NEVER stay on its own for more than a couple seconds. also the controls are a bit touchy, only VERY SMALL movements to compensate for drift while hovering.

For the binding and aluminum parts, I still run plastic heads, no problems, just make sure nothing is binding, use lube on EVERYTHING THAT HAS METAL INVOLVED, the brass tends to corrode and try to bind. IF you want tail control, servo may help, but main thing is change the tail baldes to carbon fiber, that makes a huge difference, stock tail blades flex to much. Plus if you have gyro set too tight, tail will be slow to react.

FOr battery size, 1350mah 15C battery is plenty for the 3100kv motor, gives you really good flight time and doesnt over heat if using a 10 tooth pinion. (guys use 11 tooth but they also think its ok for the pack to get so hot it puffs up, VERY BAD thing to have happen, that is a fire waiting to happen).

If have a ton of knowledge on these helis so let me know if i can cover anythign else.

[john339]

Not so, the milliamp is just how much water is in the jar you are using.
The height of the jar is the voltage.
Higher jar, voltage, is 11 or so. Raise the jar and the water will flow faster, more voltage, over 11 or so.
The amount of water in the jar, milliamps, doesn't change the voltage but it means you have more water, milliamps, to use. So, more milliamps means longer running and maybe larger servos can be used.
Less milliamps means shorter running time, maybe lighter weight, will run out sooner then more milliamps.
Hope that helps.