Is the eSky King 2 suitable ?

[solutech]

Ok so most of these DX6I's are just a Tx and reciever , What else would need to be upgraded in order to swap it over ?

[cambs flyer]

I'll be honest bud' it would save you heaps of time & money if you went for the Blade 400 to begin with, if your seriously thinking of buying the DX6i as well, two birds as it were.

Hang on, E-sky have upgraded there range to the 2.4ghz system, I know the stock controller isn't half as good as the DX6i in function and build but thats another route.

OK to your question, say you've just purchased a standard 35mhz HBK2 system and you wanted to use the DX6i to control her, some way (as I don't know for sure 100% how it's performed on that heli) you'd need to swap the Rx, which is the digital receiver that fly's with the heli that also comes with the Dx6i controller, and bind it to the Dx6i using the bind plug, easy to do, you just attach the bind plug to the batt terminal on the HBK and hold a button on the rear of the Tx (Dx6i) until the light stops flashing, then the controller and Rx on the HBK has a unique communication bond, then it's a case of trimming it out using the new controller.

It might be a bit of a hand full when you start learning, as you'll have loads to learn, (all fun though) but do give it a little thought, if it takes a few extra weeks to save, and I say that with respect as it isn't cheap by far, it'll be well worth it mate.

[solutech]

Think I get it . So the servos etc will be fine as is . It was I noticed the 6i's dont seem to come with servos . Sheez the last time I bought any rc gear kit it was a 2ch jobby for a rc car and you got the lot in the box lol . I like the sound of the 2.4 gear as aforementioned car met an untimely demise when someone jammed my gear by not checking mast flags and sent the whole lot skidding out of the car park and under the No 72 bus that was going past . That didnt end well lol .

[cambs flyer]

OK mate lets talk servos.

No the DX6i doesn't come with servos, but it does come with a cracking Rx, mine has just arrived within the last five minutes and I'm very impressed.

Firstly the better the servo the better she'll fly, it can make a huge difference in control.

The Blade 400 comes with a nice set of servo motors, but like all plastic toothed servo gears (cheap end of the servo market that is) they do break easily as all the force travels down the linkage arms and depending on the severity of the crash you may get away or you may not.

At the moment I'm using Hitec HS55's there got excellent control at my current level, but they do have plastic gears and I've bust loads since starting, but replacement gears cost under a £2 so its a cheap repair.

I have eight in total but I'll be upgrading my main machine with Hitec 65MG's which are a superior servo with metal gears, and as my rota head is completely alloy they don't stand a chance now, as with plastic wash out arms or control leavers on a standard plastic rota head assembly mostly they break and can save the servos.

The 65MG's are £20 each, and I'll be changing all mine over very soon and the spare 55's will be used on my current build 450 which is my side line project right now.

The Blade 400 will break servo teeth, so will the HBK2 depending what direction you decide on, but I would say when funds allow buy the odd 65MG when you can, and once you have all three swap the lot, but we can go over the change over later, as there's an easy way to do it without causing headaches

You can't fly with different models of servos for controlling rota head, they have to be all the same or it causes serious probs.

I can't comment on the HBK2's servos as I haven't seen her fly only the once that is, but the chap had been practicing for some while and I don't know if he'd upgraded the servos or not.

But basically upgrading the Blades servos to better ones will make her even more of a joy to fly.

I'm jumping the gun here but when I was talking about taming down the flight surfaces, and don't take this on board now as you've enough right now mate, but you can adjust a thing called the DR, I have mine set at 80%, which means the stick around the center makes for some very smooth control with the cyclic, throttle - rudder stick, this is one way of doing the taming, I just wanted to add that, as just one of the few reasons why the Blade 400 as a complete kit would be a fine machine to start with, or it may be all the heli your ever need, once a few parts have been upgraded, but that's not important to begin with.

Is it starting to look a little less confusing, there's so much to take in first off it can be mind blowing, but as you've access to guys at your local club that will be the best route to take and the guys here too will head you straight, but like someone said, keep the 400 in the box to begin with until you've amassed plenty of practice on Phoenix.

Theres no middle ground, I know flying on the PC doesn't sound as exciting as the real thing, but you'll be surprised when you start, and to attempt a take off without any knowledge or someone there to guide you will end in deep disappointment.

[solutech]

Definately some serious food for thought in there . I shall have a good think at the various options .

[Pipistrelli]

Just my 2 pennies worth:

The HBK2 is a good heli and flies quite well (esp indoors), but and there is usually a big BUT, I have 2 club members who bought HBK2 thinking that this was the low cost way of getting into model helis!

No! Let me tell you now that if you go this route you will end up spending as much money on it as it would cost to buy a Blade 400, or kit out a Trex. Both members have had to upgrade the original brushed motors and speed controllers in order to get any decent power output. The servo's on both models didn't last long (with CCPM you need 3 matching servo's, so additional cost). The gyro's were hit and miss, sometimes fine, sometimes awful, so along with a decent gyro, you might as well have a decent tail servo. On top of that they both had DX7 Tx's, so swapped the original radio gear for Spektrum.

Total cost I hear you ask, £150 on top of the original purchase price. Thats basically the same as a Blade 400 with everything you need to get going, or even a well kitted out Trex 450S. Both are much superior machines to the HBK2.

As one of out other members often says, buy once, buy right! I can't emphasise this point enough really, you have been warned!

[cambs flyer]

I'm pleased it's given you some thought, space is what U need now to choose your best options, I've giving you the best advice I know of, and please guys if I've made a mistake anywhere helping him please correct me.

When I joined this forum before I understood the bigger picture I thought there was just bias towards anything other than the expensive equipment, I didn't understand about crappy servos, gyros, sloop in the rota head (this causes you to make stick inputs and where there parts are so loose (crap) there moving all over the show and nothing happens, then you add more aggressive stick input and the obligatory crash is inevitable)

As then you trying to recover a poorly made machine with crappy servos, see how it mountains to a disaster, luckily now theres some super ARTF's or RTF's on the market whereas back last year there really wasn't, to my knowledge anyway

There are some great indoor flyer's like the Dragon flies, etc, no use in the wind but in a gym there fantastic, I know I've seen them and flown one.

But the main points if I may add a little more on the thinking table

You want to buy a heli that's -

1, Good from the start, with plenty of users who can vouch for its quality
2, Has a good line in upgradeable parts, be it own brand or third party parts.
3, A good TX, so to be able to alter and smooth out the moving parts, and not ****ing about undoing linkage arms in servo horns
4, fly's pretty much out of the box if a RTF is your route, after the necessary practice on a quality Sim such as Phoenix.

And to be honest the Blade 400 fits the bill very nicely, also remember in say a year if you fancy building something like a Trex you'll already have an ace Tx you can use for it, as the DX6i can hold up to 10 models, plank or rotaheaded.

I've just taken stock of my DX6i and apart from reading the manual how to bind her to my BCX2 as a member kindly offering the settings, I've navigated the menus without using the manual, of course I'll be reading the manual but the point I'm making here is you want something easy to operate, OK I've used the DX6 for a while but the menus and settings are far more user friendly for the beginner, with helpful graphics so to teach you pitch and throttle curves, (later my friend, that's on the to learn list but not at this point. )

My CX2 now performs with control the likes of I've never seen before, fantastic precise stick control, so guess what I'll be doing this afternoon.

Just come back if you'd like more advise, as I know the others can offer better than I.

[pDidd]

Hi Solutech, I bought a King 2 a couple of weeks ago & am a complete novice flyer. I spent about six hours on FMS (Free simulator) using my PS3 controller to learn the basics. Took it out in the garden for the first flight and hopped/hovered briefly a few times, had a few crashes and caused a little bit of damage but not too much (blades/feathering shaft/tail boom). A few spare parts and up and running again.

I am now following Radd's school of Rotary Flight http://www.dream-models.com/eco/flying-index.html which I think is really useful. I have also purchased a Lama v4 for under £60.00 which is great for learing to hover.

Im happy with the king, I know its going to be hard work to learn to fly it but thats half the fun.

You can get a King 2 barebones kit from buzzzflyer for £45 which has everything but the electronics to start off your spares kit, it works out cheaper than buying all the head parts etc etc on their own. After that I just purchase blades & feathering shafts.

Go to youtube and search for bee king setup there are 7 -8 video's from a guy called subzerooo, I found these really useful.

Hope the above is useful, remember I am only a novice though.

[jboweruk]

For what it's worth, even a coax will inevitably crash, I know you love the look of a King 2, they are nice looking, but I'll be honest, jumping from a 2ch picooz to that will be one major leap, sort of like going from a radio control car to a real 18 wheel truck. I started like you on a 2ch heli, got hooked and bought a 3ch. Now I have 3 4ch helis (all coax) and am looking towards getting a Blade 400.

Please think long and hard, if you jump in too deep you will regret it, and those things can kill if left to their own devices, so you lose control it's gonna hurt (big time).

The CX2 will cost you as much as a King2 nearly sure, but at least if it hits you it won't hurt nearly so much, and will be cheaper to repair. For what it's worth the Blade 400 comes with a DX6i which is a fantastic controller. You might not think so to see some of my posts, and my sig but I was unlucky. I do love it, it's made the world of difference to my little helis ( the 2 it's connected to), and tbh I'm glad I never even considered a 400 class first off. I think I would've dropped the hobby ages ago.

[cambs flyer]

BTW JB thanks for the info link mate, I've tried to find the original thread but couldn't, the BCX2 flys fantastically with the DX6i, what an incredible improvement, a little trim and she was cooking, I had to tame down the gain as she was well stressed first time, now I've got her to bite fast without the side to side wag.

Oh yes I can vouch for it hurting, and my 450 wasn't even up to quarter power, once I'd replaced the main and feathering shaft yesterday, and the thread lock had dried I done a (held down throttle test, and I'll tell you at half throttle it's a bit hairy being close, even though all was under control had something broke with me that close it could have been fatal, if not a serious A+E job.

Massive respect needs to be given with these machines, and now mine has alloy blade grips only human flesh would stop her, whereas a plastic blade grip would properly break.

But caution and safe practice by learning on the Sims has been well documented in this thread, but only being close to one do you realise just what your unleashing, well at least on the 450 I do!