FBL Gyro Need information on the Align APS Lite Or better Bail out type system.

Ken Jackson

Ken Jackson

Active Member
Does anyone have the Align APS Lite system, or knowledge of it. I fly the 3GX and am considering going with this system. Is the Ikon comparable? And please cast your vote here for what you all think is the best. I am not going to keep crashing and fixing if I can spend the money and avoid a crash or two. Last crash something gave out and it wouldn't have helped. But as I am getting crazier and trying more difficult stunts I am looking to a bail out system. Not interested in programming way points, just return home and bail out.

Thanks you your input!

Ken

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I've recently heard of the Co-Pilot II which is another product that I believe you set a hard deck and the heli can't go below it and it stabilizes at the hard deck if your say falling from the sky in chaos.

Anyone have or heard of this one?
 
I used to have a Copilot 2 system installed on a Dynam Erasor 450 helicopter. Because there were all kinds of problems with the helicopter, the system was never fully tested.

I set it up so that the system would normally be in the OFF position and only activated when I hit the panic switch.

I was also looking at the hard-deck module, which has to be integrated to the CoPilot 2 to work. It sounds good in theory. However, it would be hard for me to see above 50 ft, the minimum 'hard-deck' you can set.


However, you might have better luck with this. It would be awesome if it works for you.
 
Lee said:
Here is another i'd like to try. HeliCommand - X-Series / High performance FBL controller
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Thanks Lee, What are you using now?
Ken

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helicc16 said:
I used to have a Copilot 2 system installed on a Dynam Erasor 450 helicopter. Because there were all kinds of problems with the helicopter, the system was never fully tested.

I set it up so that the system would normally be in the OFF position and only activated when I hit the panic switch.

I was also looking at the hard-deck module, which has to be integrated to the CoPilot 2 to work. It sounds good in theory. However, it would be hard for me to see above 50 ft, the minimum 'hard-deck' you can set.


However, you might have better luck with this. It would be awesome if it works for you.
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Yeah 50' is a little high for my vision as well. If you have at least a 700 but anything smaller then a 600 would be hard to see at that height. Thanks for you input.

Hope to make a decision and purchase within the next couple weeks.

Ken
 
Most of us with ikons are using one or two satellight Rx's. depends on the size bird. My 700 I use two.
 
breeze400 said:
Most of us with ikons are using one or two satellight Rx's. depends on the size bird. My 700 I use two.
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I have two receivers on my 3GX. Is the ikon also a receiver like the3GX. I thought with the ikon you still have to have a separate receiver. Tech sheet says it has dual spectrum ports DSM2 and DSMX so that tells me I need still need a spektrum receiver.
 
kenjack said:
I have two receivers on my 3GX. Is the ikon also a receiver like the3GX. I thought with the ikon you still have to have a separate receiver. Tech sheet says it has dual spectrum ports DSM2 and DSMX so that tells me I need still need a spektrum receiver.
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Yes It us set up is similar to the. 3gx no rx is needed. Safelight RX's are what plug into the ikon. You could use a rx if you wanted too. Download the ikon program and run it in demo mode. You will. See on the rx setup page that there area my ways to set it up!
 
Ordered the Ikon last night. With all the 500 parts I have laying around I decided to build another 500. Ordered an HK flybarless, TT kit. I'll toss my 3GX on that. Damn forgot to order 2 satellite's, Lol there's always one more part.
Ken
 
I think so too. I bought another 500 so I'll have something to put my 3GX on,Lol. My friend wants me to buy his 600 but I like the 500 and I have a lot of parts for it already.

Ken
 
I think so too. I bought another 500 so I'll have something to put my 3GX on,Lol. My friend wants me to buy his 600 but I like the 500 and I have a lot of parts for it already.

Ken
 
You guys that have Ikons how stable is it on bigger heli's? I'm having a heck of time with it on my 300x. My intent was to put it through its paces on the 300x before I trust it on one of my bigger helis. Have you guys done more with it then just flipping from inverted to right side up? That's kind of the easiest thing to do. Have you actually used it to save your heli when you lost orientation or dumb sticked?

I've found so far on the 300x its a nice gimick that ocassionaly works but not something I would trust flipping that switch and saving my heli. It's one of those things that you want to be high enough up and prepared BEFORE you flip the switch. Which IMO makes it useless for a bailout feature. I am hoping you guys are having better luck on the bigger heli's and its more stable and predicatable when you flip that switch. So what kind of results are you guys seeing?

At turning the heli into a coaxial it does pretty good as a training aid. But as a bailout so far its a failure in my book. Just not reliable enough to trust.
 
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On the website I watched the video and read the review. What I do remember very clearly is that pitch is not part of the bailout. So you need to still worry about your elevation. In the video the pro flipped it on close to the ground and I thought it was gonna touch the ground and he commented that you have to expect that in the bailout.

I asked this question in another thread but is Self Level and Bail Out two different functions?

Ken
 
kenjack said:
I asked this question in another thread but is Self Level and Bail Out two different functions?

Ken
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That is a hard question to answer I think they might be blurred or maybe one of the manufacturers has copyrighted the term bailout.

SelfLevel retuns the helicopter to the nuetral position when you release the cyclic kinda like a coaxial helicopter. You can also set it up so that you can only tilt a certain amount of degrees in any direction. Further limiting the capabilities of the helicopter. This makes flying a collective pitch helicopter super easy. This is flipped on shortly after take off and you fly around with it activated.

BailOut to me the helicopter always know the the correct action to satablizie itself and do whatever it needs to to get itself away from the ground which includes applying the right amount of pitch. Such as the helicommand modules. If the quickest way to stabilize itself it to go inverted its gonna do that and apply the correct amount of pitch to get away from the ground. this is flipped on when you lose orientation and flipped off after you regain orientation.

The ikon is somewhere in the middle. It knows how to right itself and is always going to end up right side up. It doesn't know how to apply pitch you have to do that which is easy enough. It also has another problem it uses accelerometers while in SL mode which are more sensitive to vibrations. This can cause the helicopter to make the wrong adjustment and do the wrong thing making it unstable when it tries to do that function. In normal mode the Ikon doesnt have this problem and flies rock solid. Where as the helicommand doesnt use accelerometers from what I am told and isnt effected by minor vibrations. Just to give an example on my 300x I flipped inverted 4 times and flipped the self level switch it correctly flipped itself back over. The 5th time I was inverted I flipped SL switch it flipped itself back over but ended up in a hard forward to the right dive with the tail pointed to the side. Now the next problem was in SL mode I had it limited to 45 degree angles so when I pulled back on the cyclic it didnt allow enough collective adjustment for me to make enough of a correction and it ended up in the dirt. I probably could have switched the SL off and regained control but it happed so fast and I was trying to correct the incorrect SL that I didnt have time to flick the switch off.

The 300x is like flying a ford fiesta though, it's not an elegant helicopter. You can buy the 300x new for $250 and the beastx alone retails for $230. So you can imagine this thing is built pretty cheap. But that was the reason for me starting out on the 300x. I wanted to learn what this Ikon SL feature is actually capable of without risking an expensive heli. So maybe some of the others have had better luck on better machines. That is what I was asking. For me flipping over from inverted is kinda like a parler trick its not really that telling of what the Ikon is capable of as far as a BailOut feature goes. I'd like to know other peoples experiences in hard 3D manuevers where oreintation is easily lost or the Ikon gets fooled and does the wrong thing.

So its a hard question to answer and will depend on the end users definition of the two terms. IMO for what I have seen so far I would not trust the Ikon as a bail out feature.
 
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Its seems that vibration is the most common cause of this effect. Sometimes working, sometimes not.
Try using a gel based pad under the unit. Align sell them.

Some guys have added collective pitch by mixing it in using there DX8s. The guys at Ikon are working on making it an add on to the next firmware, with a slider to add as much pitch as you want.
 
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Lee said:
Its seems that vibration is the most common cause of this effect. Sometimes working, sometimes not.
Try using a gel based pad under the unit. Align sell them..
Click to expand...

It comes with a gel based 3m tape. It didn't help. I'm trying mounting it on the side of the heli. So the frame doesn't touch it and I am trying the beastx foam tape. Still need to fix my main shaft.

20511ED8-0C59-4B95-9A9C-62EFD15DA2FE-4757-000002554914165A_zps171fc749.jpg
 
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