AR7210BX Review

[tdf1946]

Well since there's not much information that I could find in the subject, I decided to give my .02 cents on this unit. But first let me say this is my opinion from what I have done thus far and has nothing to do Horizon Hobby,and its Affiliates.....
Now when they announced a 6 Axis Beast X I said great, since I been using the AR7200BX solely on all my Heli's, and I must admit that a rescue would've saved me a few times...
OK I got the unit and since I'm already familiar with the set up it took me only 20 minutes to fully set up the unit on my Goblin 500 or should I say test subject...test flew it all went well.. So it took me another 2 hr's to fully set up and test fly it with the SAFE Technology :ie Bail Out. I thought it was great timing since they're Overly Technical explanation of how this should work. Now let me say that in my opinion it is not for a beginner at all due to the complexity of the unit..A newby will crash before the heli is ready for constant use,a intermediate thru advanced level is best. The reason why I say that is because of the panic factor when a pilot activates the bail out...
Ive Tested ---Recovery Mode w/o pitch control
---3D Recovery w/o pitch control
---Trainer Mode....I will test the rest tomorrow because it was just to dark., but I must say it works, my only gripe is that it took me 4 packs to fully trim my unit in recovery mode.. When I first hit the switch I had assigned to it the heli shot off to the left that I thought it had a rocket attached to it, I tried to bring it back right and it fought me tooth and nail, so when I turned it off it was if I braked torqued my Mustang. It gave me back the controls and I wasn't ready for it.. for that reason I say its not for a newby. Now once trimmed its great, but Trainer Mode was too controlling it wouldn't let me move the Heli like I liked to..it fought me as well....Now this is only pt.1 of my review. pt. 2 will come tomorrow when I test the Bail Out w Pitch Control....

[peteski]

Originally Posted by tdf1946

When I first hit the switch I had assigned to it the heli shot off to the left that I thought it had a rocket attached to it

I'm presuming the rescue on this unit is the same as my Microbeast Plus Pro. Mine didn't have this issue out of the box, it was nearly perfect with just a mild left drift and just needed fine trimming to counter the tail rotor thrust as suggested in the user manual. How many degrees did you need to trim yours?

I found 3D rescue with pitch control is the most efficient mode to get you out of trouble. I run it with rescue gain at 60% (Oxy 3, so a small heli) and around 70% pitch to get a decent climb out.

From your comments it sounds like your rescue gain could be set way too high. When I tried going much higher than 60% it did become unstable. On a bigger heli, the gain needs to be generally lower too. The user manual suggests starting with around 40% rescue gain (menu-LED G lights up when activated).

[sutty]

I haven't got one of these units, just good old fashiond MBs, but I would have thought it would be relatively easy to test for appropriate rescue behaviour on the bench, at least to give you an idea.

If all the appropriate modes are all set, and you flick the switch, if your swash tilts to the left, when your heli is level, as it most likely would have done from your description of its behaviour in flight, then something is wrong, and you can fix it. Trim it, I suppose, as you described. If level on the bench, and you flick the rescue switch, and the swash does nothing, then surely it is trimmed? If you have the heli tilted 45 degrees to the left, and hit the switch, and it inputs significant right aileron, until you level it, then you know it works, especially if your swash is again level when the heli is level.

You could then spool up without blades, to get some vibration, and repeat the tests.

You could then also simulate some 3D, for a couple of minutes, and then try flicking it at various odd attitudes, to see what it does, and if it makes appropriate corrections to the swash, and if you manually move it to follow the swash to level and onto its skids, and the swash is level, then you know the system works.

If you can't run tests like this, for some reason that is unclear to me, then it would make me far more hesitant to deploy this system for real.

Like I say, I haven't got one, but that's what I'd do if I did.

Cheers

Sutty

[peteski]

Yes, you can bench test rescue to make sure the swash is responding in the right direction to movement. But it would be very hard to trim on the bench as the heli will not be perfectly level in a hover. Plus if the static heli on the bench is not perfectly level according to the rescue system it will instantly go to full deflection on the swash in a vain effort to move the heli. It all happens pretty quick and you have to hold the heli by hand and correct it to level to see how the system might respond. It's very sensitive and unless you move the heli perfectly in phase with the swash movements it just becomes unstable.

[tdf1946]

I'm not a bench test kind of guy my gain for the rescue was started at 60 then dropped to 42, but mind you I entered this test as a new by would do. Today I will fully test the attributes of this unit.. I only had to trim 2 or 3 degrees to get it to hover by itself hands off

[peteski]

Originally Posted by tdf1946

I'm not a bench test kind of guy my gain for the rescue was started at 60 then dropped to 42, but mind you I entered this test as a new by would do. Today I will fully test the attributes of this unit.. I only had to trim 2 or 3 degrees to get it to hover by itself hands off

In that case it was probably the gain being too high that made it shoot off to the left initially. Mine needed a similar amount of trim, just fine tuning really. It's been really consistent over 150 flights and I always test it every session.

[tdf1946]

150 flights that's great I wonder what took Spektrum so long to do this

[peteski]

Originally Posted by tdf1946

150 flights that's great I wonder what took Spektrum so long to do this

Probably licensing agreements with BeastX. For a while it looked like the relationship between Spektrum and BeastX was coming to an end. But clearly not the case now.

[tdf1946]

Well rescue didn't rescue..I don't know what happened but I was in a hurricane when I wanted to test it. The results are this

[peteski]

That's not good! What rescue settings did you have?

[tdf1946]

3D w/o pitch control, but that's ok the test will continue

[tdf1946]

Well Heli is back together I must remember to let go of the right stick before I hit the switch

[Helmet]

To be sure you don't interfere with the rescue action, make a mix that neutralizes all cyclic input when you hit the button.

[Smoggie]

Cant you set 'stick priority' in the software?
I've got a Spirit and that lets you adjust the effectiveness of the sticks during rescue. With a simple slider bar you can set stick priority anywhere between having the stick input totally disabled to normal response. Somewhere in-between is nice because it allows some degree of control during but not enough to stop rescue being effective.

It's a big missing if not available IMHO. You can probably fudge it with mixes in the Tx but you shouldn't have to.

[peteski]

Originally Posted by Grumpy_Old_Man

Cant you set 'stick priority' in the software?

Yes you can disable cyclic stick during rescue. It's a check box in the "Expert Settings - SAFE Technology" in Studio X.

[tdf1946]

That's great to know I must look into that

[OrbitalGolem]

Sorry to hear about the crash - hoping the rest of the test goes well. I just configured several iKON units (like you, I've flown only AR7200BX) and the number of horror stories I've read about iKON's self-level is discouraging at times. Haven't tried SL on the iKON yet.

I'm curious about the 3D flight characteristics of the AR7210BX. Does it fly significantly differently from the AR7200BX?

[tdf1946]

No the unit itself flies the same the sl just needs tweaking. The crash was my fault but so far so good it will upright the heli just release the right stick before you use the sl

[tdf1946]

Well I tested it today fully and it works after trial and error I have it dialed in. Not like Ikon I really had to tweak it. So anyone who gets the AR7210BX be aware that you must tweak the attitude control to your liking......but other than that I give it a thumbs up

[aero_nz]

How does it fly compared with original AR7200bx and other FBL?