KDS Innova Series: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[Jeff_Barrett]

Guys, I'd love to hear more on these new KDS Innova models ... the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I'm looking for an entry level line of product - so please be completely honest. Cheers!

[rebeltrousers]

Ok well...
550:
Looks great, flies great. Plenty of power and very stable with ebar or beastX.
Had tail pushrod come apart in a hover. Pays to check factory glue!
Kit is cheap if you get it from the right place.
Parts are cheap.
Flys like a big Heli.

[masokist]

Here is my KDS 550 FBL in one of its first few flights before I gained confidence with it.
I have replace the KDS 120HV ESC with HobbyWing 150A-220A OPTO ESC.

Original ESC burned after short time, while helicopter was running on the ground
after landing.

Also, the blades I got with it had manufacturing defects and were very unbalanced beyond any possibility to fix. eplaced it with ALIGN 550 blades which are perfect.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCJc_yAb6nM[/ame]

Now I fly it more aggresively and sure has a lot of power and increddible speed.

More problem I found:
KDS servo bolts that hold servo arm did not fit.
The bolts that fix the blades (both main and tail) to grip started geting rust after few flights.
It never happened to me with my other machine or to anyone else tat i know.

[spackermen]

The part that sucks really bad right now, Jeff is parts availability. The 450's are widely available, the 550's are a little more rare, the 600's more still, and the 700's, there's probably only 3 warehouses in the entire world, that's right WORLD that have parts for them right now. And it sucks, because I have had a couple problems with a new 700 kit that I bought, and the distributor has had parts on order for 3 months. It's just a waiting game at this point for the bigger helis. And I know that the distributors feel my pain on it because they have people barking about needing parts and I am not sure if they can't get them, or it just takes a lot of time or what.

HOWEVER...

They are a little less expensive to buy (especially the FBL setup's that are a complete package are way less than other brands) and I feel like they have some very good potential, but they just have got to get on top of the parts situation before they can grow their brand.

I have not flown any KDS models, but the word on the street is that the E-Bar is a great FBL gyro, and the models fly really well.

[Adventurer]

What I don't like is that there are no thrust bearings in the tail, and it shows. Quite a lot of latteral play on the grips.

[rebeltrousers]

All Innovas have thrust bearings in the tail grips don't they?
On my Innova 550 there was a little bit of play (like on many align helis) but KDS has since revised the size of the thrust bearings (making them slightly deeper) so I bought new tail grips and now there is no play.

[Adventurer]

Originally Posted by rebeltrousers

All Innovas have thrust bearings in the tail grips don't they?.

I've no idea. Certainly mine does not have any.

[spackermen]

Originally Posted by Adventurer

What I don't like is that there are no thrust bearings in the tail, and it shows. Quite a lot of latteral play on the grips.

Many many MANY people complain about this in the Compass helicopters, and yes, they are very loose on the ground, however in the air, they perform solid. I see this as a non issue, and yes, they do have thrust bearings, at least the 700 does. And the 700, 600, and 550 share the same grips they all have them.

[Ghostflyer1]

Any Idea when they are going to come out with the new metal tail pulley that sits above the main gear... I too have only had mine in the air twice to hover. I have eaten 2 of the KDS 120HV esc's with a 5020-450KV motor going into idle up... I have been thinking about dropping in a 4035-510Kv on it...

[rebeltrousers]

I replaced my grips because of this specific problem. The original grips had thrust bearings that were too thin. The updated version of the grips for the 550 have slightly thicker thrust bearings with no play and fit very well. I ordered them as soon as I knew there was an update. It was a little annoying that the bearings weren't available seperately.
I don't like the standard ones that seem loose. I'm sure they work fine but I wasn't happy with them.

[Madryan]

good and cheap
some bad parts


over all very good entry level but due to some sloppy manufacturing on some parts you need to have a bit of experience building helis to iron out some minor build issues.. the blade and tail grips on all three kits i bought ( one of each size ) are sloppy and out of tolerance for teh bearings..I had to replace the head dampers..genuine align ones fit straight in as KDS ones were diff sizes. over all its pretty good for the money thought.

teh servos have play in teh housings which means teh play transposes into the head control arms etc.. servos are a bit graunchy but very strong..and theyre brushed !! grrrrr

Ebar was a pig to setup but it flies ok ...tail gain seems to be an issue....

honestly it isnt really a good beginner heli... better off spending bit more on an align kit just as you can build it right out of teh box and know there will be no isses and it will fly... i found with KDS i spent a lot of time tweking bits to complete it..

The ESC is just no good..and my motor / ESC diead after three flights..

thats my honest opinion...any more questions let me know

cheers

[Ghostflyer1]

Dropped to a 4035-500KV, on the second flight the plastic autorotation pulley fractured in mid air... a piece of the center section gave way resulting in the main shaft going straight up which induces a full negative pitch on the blades.... There is no recovering from this. it slammed the ground so hard we felt it in our feet 15' away. The only thing that survived was the mainframe. It may just go in the trash.... depending on what KDS does or does not do. If you are still flying the plastic autorotation pulley ground it until you get a metal one...

[Adventurer]

Originally Posted by Ghostflyer1

Dropped to a 4035-500KV, on the second flight the plastic autorotation pulley fractured in mid air... a piece of the center section gave way resulting in the main shaft going straight up which induces a full negative pitch on the blades.... There is no recovering from this. it slammed the ground so hard we felt it in our feet 15' away. The only thing that survived was the mainframe. It may just go in the trash.... depending on what KDS does or does not do. If you are still flying the plastic autorotation pulley ground it until you get a metal one...

Sorry to hear.

I had that pulley break once - luckily only 3" off the deck. I then went and did the collar mod as well as putting a Logo pulley in rather than the KDS one. May I suggest that you do the same.

The pulley for the Logo 500 is a drop-in replacement. The collar mod involves replacing the spacer that's above the pulley with a collar like the one that's is above the top bearing. So you then have a collar above and below the top main bearing, so the shaft cannot move up if the pulley breaks again.

[Adventurer]

I'm finding it more and more difficult to get Innova spares. The last known supplier is loosing interest in this line, leaving us without a supplier.

Buyer beware.

[Ghostflyer1]

I meant to post an update. KDS was kind enough to take care of my origional kit and updated mine to a V2 kit which met me at IRCHA. Thanks Nicki, Chris and all the folks who helped make that happend. The new V2 has turned out to be the Ferrari of my fleet, and is wickedly responsive

HobbyKing is now carrying the Innova Parts....
I just ordered a ton of spares from them to have on hand.

[LaDon]

We have the 700 v2. The problems we have with the heli are this. 1 the little alum pieces that hold the canopy brackets are way too soft. I replaced mine with carbon ones from an outrage 50 and that solved that. 2 the belt sucks! Tore that into two pieces on the 11th flight. Replaced that with a mikado 600 belt and problem solved. All in all the heli flies awesome and is a good heli. I would like to see a couple of changes made to it like a torque tube and a wall between the battery compartment and the tail servo. For the price it is a good heli. Tolerances could be a little better to but is worth the tinkering. It is light and nice looking and parts can be gotten at helicopter hobbies.com

[Adventurer]

At last a reliable parts supplier. Now we can talk about the qualities of the bird and not the parts supply. Helicopter Hobbies had nothing that I needed in stock two weeks ago.

I have a 550, and apart from the front belt pulley, have had no issues with it. It out-flies my meager skills every time I take it up.

[Ghostflyer1]

I have a number of different Helis, however the my Innova V2 is like a Ferrari compaired to the rest.

[LaDon]

Well unfortunately we had another thing show up. The little adjusters on the dfc head broke in the middle of elevator tic tocs. Heli was about 10 ft off the ground when it happened and the blades went into a big flutter and it crashed. Didn't hurt it too bad but still sucks. We have found a few weak spots now and I will modify this so it will be durable. I will tr y to remember to take a pic of my fix.

[mrmarc]

Since I am considering the Innova 550 (DFC) as a potential "next heli," and I was wondering if anyone could comment on the current one from HK. I'm concerned that these problems would warrant dropping it from the list of considerations, or are these problems with the "V1"?