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100 Class Electric Helicopters 100 Class Electric Helicopters manufactured by Align, Tarot, SYMA, Airhog, Chaos, HK and similar. |
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07-12-2016, 02:04 PM | #1 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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XK K100 - Review
Gearbest gave me the opportunity to test and review the XK Falcon K100 helicopter. A few years back I've flown an mcpx but nowadays I only fly bigger helis, ranging from an Oxy 3 to a goblin 700. You could say the micros are new to me so I was very curious what this thing was capable of.
This is a 100 size helicopter swinging 105 mm blades with a total diameter of 24.5 cm. The motor is coreless/brushed and is powered by a 1cell 250 mAh lipo battery. Some information from the gearbest website: http://www.gearbest.com/rc-helicopters/pp_226502.html Brand: XK Model: K100 - B Motor: Coreless 8520 motor Control Distance: 120 meters Charging Time: 60 minutes Flying Time: 7 minutes Battery Details: 3.7V, 250mAh 25C (included) Rotor Diameter: 24.5cm Length: 24.5cm Height: 7.7cm Weight: 45.5g The kit is available with a transmitter but I received the kit without one. I can use my own Futaba 14SG with it using the FHSS protocol and the internal receiver. The cool thing about it is that it has 2 modes: 3D mode (which is basically like any collective pitch helicopter) and 6G stabilized mode. This means the heli will self level when you let go of the sticks. The movements are also limited, this is ideal for beginners. First some unboxing pictures: The heli came in a small box but was well protected nonetheless. The first thing you see when opening the box is the manual, more about that later on. Then of course the helicopter itself, which is prebuilt and ready to fly. Some spare blades and main gear also come with the kit as well as a little screwdriver and hex tool The batteries are charged with the supplied USB charger. You can charge 2 batteries at the same time which will take ~45 minutes I was surprised by what was under the hood. The circuit board has a built-in FHSS receiver and ports to connect the motor and servos to. No soldering is required which makes changing a motor or servo easy. I can imagine that these components might have to be replaced sometime after a few crashes or so. Everything looks really clean and repairing something looks relatively easy and accessible. The bottom side contains the battery. The canopy can be left on when installing the battery. So far i am impressed. Then for the manual. It is obviously translated from Chinese and sometimes it is hard to understand. It contains some basic information about the machine, how to charge the battery, binding procedure and gyroscope calibration. The setup is pretty simple providing you have some experience with your transmitter. As far as I know the transmitter that comes with the kit is already setup properly and is ready to fly. First I made a new model with FHSS protocol in my transmitter. The type is set to H-1. This is not mentioned in the manual, luckily I have some experience with setting up helis The binding procedure is properly described though: - All switches must be in their off-position, throttle must be at 0 - Turn on the transmitter and power up the helicopter - Press the little button on the circuit board for 1 second - Binding is complete when the blue led is lit I assigned my idle up switch to the 3D/6G function which is controlled by the gyro channel (also, this is poorly described). I used AVCS 80% for stabilized 6G mode and norm 80% for 3D mode (you can hear a slight twitch in the servos if it changes modes) The last thing i wanted was some expo, I used 30% on all controls. It is now ready to fly. |
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07-12-2016, 02:05 PM | #2 (permalink) |
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Since the weather in the netherlands isn't always that great I decided to give it a go in my living room. I used around 60% throttle with a lineair pitch curve.
First for the stabilized 6G mode: The first flight was without expo, it was quite nervous so i set up 30% The stabilized mode does a good job, it is quite easily controlled in a small space. I did some small circuits but the living room was a bit too small so I waited for a calm day once outside it is far more easy to control. Stabilized mode is pretty easy and this could be used for beginners. I have some experience so I switched to 3d mode pretty soon: Although it's still nervous (it's very light) it's easy to control. I did a few circuits and fast passes. It bounces on the wind but other than that it's stable. One thing i noted was the precision of the swash. As far as I can remember the MCPX was not as precise, the normal servos instead of the lineair are probably responsible for this. next thing to try were some flips. I was surprised by this, it's possible once your collective management is OK. The motor has a tough time though and the RPM's drop pretty easily. I tried some more and got the hang of it. Next stop: piroflips: BOOM YEAH, even that's possible . This thing is fun The tail is, as with every tailmotor driven heli, a weak point. If your collective is a bit off during a flip or fast maneuver it will blow out. If you take it slow and steady it's OK. 5 minute flights are easily possible which is great. I've even flown in relatively high winds and even that's fun. The tail is having a hard time though. Oh and blade scraping is also cool Crashing is inevitable with machines this small and light and so did I. If you crash in (high) grass there is no problem, I haven't tried to smack it on the tarmac You just remove all the grass and continue flying. The canopy is thin so there is a small crack in it, nothing a little bit of tape can't fix Overall this is a fun little helicopter which is a nice addition to my bigger choppers. For this price I would buy one good things: - Fun! - Crashes well - long flight times - relatively cheap - clean build, probably easy to repair bad things: - lacks some power (the k110 has brushless motors so it will be more powerful) - tail is weak (again, k110 should be even better) - unclear manual I will try to add a video but i will need a buddy with a decent camera |
07-13-2016, 08:27 AM | #3 (permalink) | |
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Quote:
K100: ideal for beginners K110: beginner to intermediate pilots K120: intermediate to advanced
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Compass Atom 5.5; Oxy 2/3/4 XK K110 K120 |
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07-13-2016, 08:31 AM | #4 (permalink) |
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Thanks,
that's another way to look at it. Now that i think of it, i don't want to spool up an HCP 100s in the living room |
12-16-2016, 11:46 AM | #5 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Aug 2014
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I have 2 of these little heli's and im doing the live version of ArchmageAU's
"from tail in to all 8s and funnels" alternating the heli's so the motors can cool down and in 3 axis mode .It's alot more challenging than the sim and fun too. These xk Heli's are well worth the money .
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Align 470LP, ALZRC 450Rigid ,ALZRC D380,Oxy2FE,Blade 230s,Blade 180cfx,XK-K110 |
12-16-2016, 02:13 PM | #6 (permalink) |
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They sure are worth it.
After about 30-40 flights the heli lost it's power. I presume the motor is dead. It's only 5 bucks, so i'll replace it and it should be good after that. 40 flights is pretty quick though... |
12-17-2016, 12:15 PM | #7 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Aug 2008
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After flying (trying to fly?) a MCPX until it just quit working, I am really impressed with the XK100 as it really has good power for a brushed motor. I have a K110 now as well as a HCP 100S and for some reason the gyro in the 110 doesn't seem to work as well as the one in the 100 does. Still it flies very well indeed.
And as most know the 100S has that tail problem.
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Please don't confuse my experience with pessimism! Protos 500, HCP100S, Raptor 50, many more! |
12-19-2016, 07:56 AM | #8 (permalink) |
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That tail problem keeps me away from the 100s
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Align 470LP, ALZRC 450Rigid ,ALZRC D380,Oxy2FE,Blade 230s,Blade 180cfx,XK-K110 |
12-20-2016, 12:58 PM | #9 (permalink) | |
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Quote:
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Compass Atom 5.5; Oxy 2/3/4 XK K110 K120 |
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12-20-2016, 07:07 PM | #10 (permalink) |
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It has never been crashed or landed hard. The gryo calibration is way off as it wants to fly forwards all of the time and the swash is level when checked on the bench. i haven't tried the calibration routine yet.
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Please don't confuse my experience with pessimism! Protos 500, HCP100S, Raptor 50, many more! |
12-21-2016, 03:07 AM | #11 (permalink) |
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Gyro values
--------------------------------- Anybody out there using a Futaba 6J to control the K100? If so, which values do you use in GYRO in order to switch between 3D and 6G? Thanks.
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Align T6 (=Futaba 6J), HT8, Devo 7E Deviation. T-Rex 150, XK K123, XK K110, XK K100, XK X100, Blade Nano CP S |
12-21-2016, 08:02 AM | #12 (permalink) | |
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Quote:
Dave |
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12-21-2016, 08:41 AM | #13 (permalink) |
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I'm using a Futaba 6J on a K110, which should be pretty similar. I use +50 for 6G, and -34 for 3D.
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Chris Boultinghouse |
12-21-2016, 08:55 AM | #14 (permalink) |
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For exactly the same pair I use +75 for 6G and +25 for 3D (not that I ever tried 3D); this according to an experienced guy's advice on a K110 forum in RCGroups.
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Align T6 (=Futaba 6J), HT8, Devo 7E Deviation. T-Rex 150, XK K123, XK K110, XK K100, XK X100, Blade Nano CP S |
12-21-2016, 10:39 AM | #15 (permalink) |
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For the record, I have messed around with various values and it doesn't affect the way it flies to any degree I have been able to determine. I think it's basically an "on/off" switch and any value within a very wide range will flip it from stable to 3D mode.
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Chris Boultinghouse |
12-21-2016, 01:03 PM | #16 (permalink) | |
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Quote:
__________________
Align T6 (=Futaba 6J), HT8, Devo 7E Deviation. T-Rex 150, XK K123, XK K110, XK K100, XK X100, Blade Nano CP S |
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12-24-2016, 05:47 PM | #17 (permalink) | |
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Quote:
other than that the switch has no other influence on the heli ..and dont forget like i did coming from spektrum , on futaba radios we need to go minus on the expo instead of plus if we want to add expo .
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Align 470LP, ALZRC 450Rigid ,ALZRC D380,Oxy2FE,Blade 230s,Blade 180cfx,XK-K110 |
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12-24-2016, 07:45 PM | #18 (permalink) | ||
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I may have to take back what I said about the GYRO menu not having much effect. It seems that channel may not only flip from 6G to 3D, but also adjust the tail gain settings. Today I noticed the tail felt a bit "loose" with it set at 50, so I dialed up the setting to 75, then I actually got some slight wag with the wind gusts, I dialed it back, settling on 65 as a setting that gave good tail feel without it trying to wag with wind gusts.
Here's a bit of flying I did today:
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Chris Boultinghouse |
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02-21-2018, 04:27 AM | #19 (permalink) |
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Calibrating G6 in XK K100
I recently got the XK K100 RTF.
The K100 did not fly out of the box. I had to adjust the servo links and set the servos using the Trav Adjust The G6 does not work at all. The 3D mode (not idle up) works great. I found threads and Youtube discussing the issues but for the K110 or K120 I tried on the RTF it did not affect the G6 flight which was unstable. I tried to calibrate the according to the manual procedure I also have a BNF which flies with no problem in 3D and G6. The question have any of you come accross this problem? Can anyone help? Thanx |
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