General Align APS or some other AP

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xokia

Active Member
I was looking at the Align APS as a way to regain control if I lost control of the helicopter. I think it would be a cool way to learn much quicker.

Problem I see is that it works for some people and others seem to report problems with it. I was also looking at the helicommand HC3-SX. General consensus seems to be that the helicommand is a good unit with the best bailout. Would the helicommand completely replace the 3GX unit or work with it? The other issue I saw was its size. I dont think the helicommand would fit nicely on a 450 size helicopter.

The APS unit seems cool because it has the return to home feature and is GPS based. But the bailout feature they haven't seem to have gotten right yet.

I was thinking of also taking the wait and see route and see if they come out with an improved APS unit next year. Its raining here so much anyway right now that I wont get much flight time in.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
The videos i saw make it look very impressive. But there is another alternative just released this week with bailout feature. The Ikon from MSH. It looks very good and the price is almost at a point of buy it just to try it. I think its going to retail around $250.

:EDIT: $225 with built in Gov and auto level Not bad :)
 
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X

xokia

Active Member
Lee said:
The videos i saw make it look very impressive. But there is another alternative just released this week with bailout feature. The Ikon from MSH. It looks very good and the price is almost at a point of buy it just to try it. I think its going to retail around $250.

:EDIT: $225 with built in Gov and auto level Not bad :)
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Ya seems pretty reasonable but very little information about it.

I guess what I liked about the APS unit is it was GPS based. Meaning it knew where home is and if I was flying out at a great distance for some reason not only could it recover but could fly back home on its own. But the Align unit seems to be buggy and have caused a number of crashes and the bailout isn't very good from what I have been able to piece together from reviews on the internet.

I hope in the next year or so more of these units come out and we have some competition to drive prices down. These could save newbs like me a ton of money in the long run. Even at $700 I see the align unit as cost efficient if it saves me from a couple of crashes.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
Its an exciting time in the Hobby. Many new thing coming onto the market and older ones being refined. Before you know it, they'll be flying themselves, well the almost are anyway. If you want some more info, last weeks RC Heli Nation Ep58 podcast, goes into more detail about this exact topic, and the safety aspect of it.
 
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xokia

Active Member
Tony said:
Actually they are flying themselves now. Remember the swarm of mini quads?
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Do any of you have experience with these Auto Pilot units? That can give a decent review of how good they are?
I really would like to see Align put one out that works well. Some of the others seem large and a little clunky.
 
X

xokia

Active Member
Lee said:
Not yet. If i get another hell, I think i'll try the Ikon Unit.
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There is a new one put out by DJI it's called Naza-H GPS based and looks reasonably priced and GPS based.
Although they dont show it doing the bail out routine nor the "beginner" mode.
 
Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
Heres another new one that look very interesting.
[video=vimeo;53440057]http://vimeo.com/53440057[/video]
 
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