UPDATED: Here's what the 230S instructions left out!

[The_Norwegian]

Great write up Bill_Van

I vote for sticky!

[teepeedoubleyou]

Hey Bill_Van, thanks very much for this guide. I found my 230 doing the usual forward/left drift in stability and was able to cure it after a single trim flight.

It might be worth updating your post for us mode 1 radio users: to enter trim mode it's left stick upper left, right stick lower left. If you try the mode 2 stick combo on a mode 1 Tx the heli will spool up violently.

[MrHux]

Originally Posted by tdriedger

I took my 230 S out for the second time this morning. Earlier in the week, I struggled with the first couple of flights. The helicopter consistently wanted to pull left and forward in self-leveling (Normal) flight mode. I used trims once in the air (not the right solution) to get it level and could then fly around in Normal and Stunt modes. Obviously, landing the helicopter and changing the battery reset the trims and I'd have to repeat the whole exercise for the next flight.

I came here to HeliFreak looking for help and found my way to the "230 S Advanced Settings Addendum" posted on Horizon's product page.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/pdf/BLH1...ndum_Multi.pdf

This morning I went out and carefully worked my way through checking the servo neutral positions (no changes needed), swash level (again, no changes needed) and then a trim flight.

The trim flight appeared to work initially. I followed the instructions, swash wiggle to enter trim flight mode, solid 60 second hover in calm conditions, gentle landing and swash bump to save settings. I then proceeded to a test flight. Everything seemed fine in all three flight modes, TX trims all set to zero, panic mode working properly.

However, after changing the battery and proceeding to second flight the helicopter again pulled left and forward.

Unless someone can point to another issue, it is my belief that although the trim flight does work as designed. There may be either a firmware or hardware issue with writing the trim flight values to non-volatile memory in the controller. That could explain the units passing QC at the factory but many of us having poor out-of-box experiences.

I am open to any ideas or suggestions.

Tim

Hi Guys,

I had my 230 delivered last Thursday, what a nice piece of kit. It responds exactly as Tim's, constantly drifts forward and left, and at pace, even in normal mode. Does need a lot of cyclic to just get it in the air but once there its as smooth as silk. I have done several trim flights but none of them stick. I have tried all the methods suggested here and gone through all the advanced settings to check everything. I have even got one of the pro's from the heli club to double check everything as well.

I contacted the store I got it from and they have sent me a returns label so its on its way back now. One thing the support guy said was that I should have some trim set-up on my Tx (DX6 - new black one). Please correct me if i'm wrong here, but that's what the trim flight is for, right? I don't think I have read anywhere on here that I should add trim to the Tx.

Also, the telemetry setting on the DX6, do I leave it alone as default, or do i need to go in there and switch stuff on?

The way i have understood this heli from the beginning is that I program the Tx as per the book, fly it, do a trim flight if necessary and that's it.

Am i missing something obvious guy's

Thoughts, help, anything please.

Best Regards
Mark

[Bill_Van]

Originally Posted by MrHux

Hi Guys,

I had my 230 delivered last Thursday, what a nice piece of kit. It responds exactly as Tim's, constantly drifts forward and left, and at pace, even in normal mode. Does need a lot of cyclic to just get it in the air but once there its as smooth as silk. I have done several trim flights but none of them stick. I have tried all the methods suggested here and gone through all the advanced settings to check everything. I have even got one of the pro's from the heli club to double check everything as well.

I contacted the store I got it from and they have sent me a returns label so its on its way back now. One thing the support guy said was that I should have some trim set-up on my Tx (DX6 - new black one). Please correct me if i'm wrong here, but that's what the trim flight is for, right? I don't think I have read anywhere on here that I should add trim to the Tx.

Also, the telemetry setting on the DX6, do I leave it alone as default, or do i need to go in there and switch stuff on?

The way i have understood this heli from the beginning is that I program the Tx as per the book, fly it, do a trim flight if necessary and that's it.

Am i missing something obvious guy's

Thoughts, help, anything please.

Best Regards
Mark

Hi Mark!

I believe you have been told some incorrect info regarding "trim" on the transmitter. Prior to performing the trim flight, all trims should be set at the "center" position on the DX6. And you are right, that's the purpose of the trim flight! The trim controls are to be used in flight for very minor adjustments. A properly set-up heli will need very little if any trim added. Sometimes a click or 2 is all you need to correct a little turn or drift. IMHO trims from the transmitter are in no way a substitute for a trim flight and proper setup.

Regarding the telemetry.... the DX6 has limited telemetry when in the gain setting modes. Anything more and you will need to purchase the Telemetry Module which will allow for more sensors to be installed on the heli. When in gain mode on the DX6, you can see which parameter you are working with and how much or little gain you are adjusting. Unless you get the module, leave the telemetry set to "inh" (inhibit) or off.

I had to return my second 230S to HH for evaluation yesterday. It along with my first 230 looses all cyclic and rudder control about 1-2 minutes into flight. I have other helis to fly but I finally got both to hover hands off and now this new issue is discovered! The price we pay for being early adopters!

[MrHux]

Thanks Bill for the prompt reply and productive frreback. Dissapointed to hear you have had further issues with both your 230's, I'll be curious to see if others report simular symptoms.

Presently my heli is on its way back to the store, but it will be interesting to see if HH uk get all the feedback and solutions from HH US.

Regards Mark

[stevehastings]

Originally Posted by teepeedoubleyou

Hey Bill_Van, thanks very much for this guide. I found my 230 doing the usual forward/left drift in stability and was able to cure it after a single trim flight.

It might be worth updating your post for us mode 1 radio users: to enter trim mode it's left stick upper left, right stick lower left. If you try the mode 2 stick combo on a mode 1 Tx the heli will spool up violently.

X2, there are mode 1 people out there lol.
And on a FUNNY note I thought throttle hold on the rtf was to hold the throttle were you wanted. So I was up in the air and flicked the throttle hold on, and yeah she stopped and started falling. Flicked it back on before hitting the deck with full throttle and up she came

[aram]

Hi all,

Roughly a mont ago I received my Blade 230 s. I would also like to say that I am completely new to helis, never flown anything before. Maybe not a very good idea to start with this model, but ...

It also had drifting issue and during trim flights it went too much forward and I could not hold it and, well, crashed it. I sent it back and couple of days ago I received a new replacement bird. Meanwhile, I bought the Blade Inductrix to fly it a bit before the big bird arrives.

Unfortunately it also had drifting issues. Doing several trim flight did not help. I also tried to disconnect and main motor and try it that way, it also did not help.

So, I did it in another way, I did hold the heli in my hand directly under the main shaft, spooled up to roughly 3/4 of the throttle. It tilted strongly forward. I levelled it with the cyclic, so that i have a feeling that it pushed only vertically up, kept that way for a minute and spooled down. I roughly followed Bill_Van's procedure for the trim flight. Disconnected the battery and initialised again.

And it worked, now I have extremely small left drift, but I do not want to touch it again for now. It flies nicely in stability mode.

I hope this could help to those for whom normal trim flights do not work.

Aram

[SamCSx]

With the throttle/collective stick needing to be fairly high during a trim flight and the heli getting "way up there", wouldn't it make sense just to temporarily bump the pitch curve down from 100% at full up stick? Lowering the top half of the pitch curve enough would easily let you hover with throttle above 75% and not have it climb away from you.

[Bill_Van]

Originally Posted by SamCSx

With the throttle/collective stick needing to be fairly high during a trim flight and the heli getting "way up there", wouldn't it make sense just to temporarily bump the pitch curve down from 100% at full up stick? Lowering the top half of the pitch curve enough would easily let you hover with throttle above 75% and not have it climb away from you.

Yes, you can do that and it should work without issue. I'm kind of silly about tuning..... I don't want to alter anything during the process, I do want to mimic actual flight conditions whenever possible. Will it make any difference? Who knows! It shouldn't but we all have our ways of doing things!

Thank you for offering the suggestion for those that don't want to "get way up there!"

[SamCSx]

It wouldn't alter anything important. You just need to hold a zero drift hover and collective is independent of lateral drift. You also need to get the throttle to a fairly high setting. Collective is independent of that, too. Therefore, lowering collective settings in the pitch curves so it doesn't fly up and away won't affect anything.

[MrHux]

Originally Posted by MrHux

Hi Guys,

I had my 230 delivered last Thursday, what a nice piece of kit. It responds exactly as Tim's, constantly drifts forward and left, and at pace, even in normal mode. Does need a lot of cyclic to just get it in the air but once there its as smooth as silk. I have done several trim flights but none of them stick. I have tried all the methods suggested here and gone through all the advanced settings to check everything. I have even got one of the pro's from the heli club to double check everything as well.

I contacted the store I got it from and they have sent me a returns label so its on its way back now. One thing the support guy said was that I should have some trim set-up on my Tx (DX6 - new black one). Please correct me if i'm wrong here, but that's what the trim flight is for, right? I don't think I have read anywhere on here that I should add trim to the Tx.

Also, the telemetry setting on the DX6, do I leave it alone as default, or do i need to go in there and switch stuff on?

The way i have understood this heli from the beginning is that I program the Tx as per the book, fly it, do a trim flight if necessary and that's it.

Am i missing something obvious guy's

Thoughts, help, anything please.

Best Regards
Mark

UPDATE!!

Hi Guys, thought i'd update you on my little 230s story. I've got it back from the store Wednesday. The store and HH uk have had long chats about my heli and all the other 230s's that are in stock at the store, they all displayed the same issues. HH insisted that there are no issues with the heli's and after long dialogue have resolved the problem with mine, so i believe. Unfortunately i don't have all the info that they discussed about except to say that the gain settings had to be adjusted to help the flight trim to work better. So there is no way in Gods earth have all these heli's have been factory tested.

Here are my new gain values, from 1 to 8 taken from my DX6 when in gain adjustment mode. Quiet what they do i don't know, so maybe you guys may know.

91,100,91,100,100,100,69,0

I have yet to take it up the flying site due to work and the good old British weather getting in the way, but i have managed to spool up and hover it it the garden last night. In short, it will now take off vertically with no cyclic input, so that in itself is a massive improvement. Again once airborne it sounds and sits super smooth, again with very little cyclic input. The only thing i don't like is once it starts to leave the ground it rotates CW about 60 degrees then holds rudder position. I suspect one of those gain settings is responsible for that behaviour.

lets see what tonight brings, cross everything please.

Best regards to you all
Mark

[stevehastings]

OMG just brought a cable, 194 km round trip to nearest hobby shop, got home updated the 230s and had a short hover inside as very windy out, I could go hands free, thanks HH for fixing your mistake but still costing me many hundreds of kms and a cable.

[stevehastings]

I thought bugger it went outside, still very windy. Faced it into the wind and spooled it up, now it does spool up different so the caught me out lol.

But in the wind was only holding it against the wind no more forward and left, now I think I will sell my srx 200 to help pay for the fat shark FPV set I got while at the LHS lol, cheers Steve.

[Termite]

This may be a funny question but how is one supposed to "spool up slow" when the heli keeps trying to tip over prior to take-off? I have to put in constant cyclic to get it off the ground and take off pretty quickly.

[Bill_Van]

Originally Posted by Termite

This may be a funny question but how is one supposed to "spool up slow" when the heli keeps trying to tip over prior to take-off? I have to put in constant cyclic to get it off the ground and take off pretty quickly.

You know, I've been wondering if I have some special skill since I read all the time about having to "pop" it off the ground. Unless I want to make a statement of launch, I'm able to spool and take off at any speed I choose! With the 230S, there is a little "jerk" when first spooling, but once there is momentum on the blades,I just back it off and lift-off slow and smooth. For those paying attention, I do this in high rates which are set at 100%.

I do fly scale (when not being silly) which might be one reason I have this control. Something about making it respond like a real heli that I really enjoy..... now once off the ground and warmed up, I enjoy flying like a hummingbird on crack!

In all seriousness, I'm nothing special.... I did stay at a Holiday Inn once though!

[Termite]

Well, mine literally tries to tip over to the left when I spool it up and I want to get it into the air before I get anymore grass stains on the blades

[Bill_Van]

Originally Posted by Termite

Well, mine literally tries to tip over to the left when I spool it up and I want to get it into the air before I get anymore grass stains on the blades

Have you done the Firmware updates? I believe this is supposed to resolve the issue you are having.

[Termite]

Originally Posted by Bill_Van

Have you done the Firmware updates? I believe this is supposed to resolve the issue you are having.

hmmmmmmm........no, how do I do that? (I'm going to try to look it up)

[zimmerdesignz]

Originally Posted by Termite

hmmmmmmm........no, how do I do that? (I'm going to try to look it up)

Blade 230 s how to update AR636 (5 min 50 sec)

[tdriedger]

Originally Posted by tdriedger

HH did replace my original 230S. I just received the replacement today. I'll let you know if the out-of-box experience is any better this time!

Finally got out to put some flights on the new (replacement) heli today. Very nice. I'm impressed with this machine.

I did run the firmware update, calibration and trim flight to be safe. Self leveling works great. Bail out works fine too.

Looking forward to many more flights!