Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

[stevepmcg]

Probably a silly question but I like the idea of using my Taranis without having to use an external orange module to get Gyro stabilization (plus I have read a few places about occasional issues with the orange modules). Has anyone used the Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance and the FrSky X8R and do they think its a good combo to get the stabilization and, for me a plus, the SAFE style modes available to it?

Steve

[wirehead70]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Probably a silly question but I like the idea of using my Taranis without having to use an external orange module to get Gyro stabilization (plus I have read a few places about occasional issues with the orange modules). Has anyone used the Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance and the FrSky X8R and do they think its a good combo to get the stabilization and, for me a plus, the SAFE style modes available to it?

Steve

Steve have you had any luck with that setup?I also have a taranis.

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Have not bought one and tried it yet. May bite the bullet start of next month.

Steve

[Pheonix]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

I have the gyro but have not used it yet. Not sure which plane I will this one in.  I mostly use Eagle Tree, since the programming is so easily done with a PC.  I have one "Orange receiver" and this one works just fine.  I originally purchased two, but only one worked.  I have had the working one for quite a long time without issues.  I would not use one in an expensive plane though.  Look for the reviews on-line and see what you find.

[wirehead70]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Steve I will know by the end of the week cause I just ordered one.

[stitch]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

i got one going to return it the hover don,t work right,when i flip switch rudder kicks to the right tried everything no good,if they had instructions that may help!

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Steve I will know by the end of the week cause I just ordered one.

I like the idea of something available to prevent me doing something stupid *LOL*

[Davy101]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

I fly the Taranis X9D, X8R receiver and HE A3 gyro in my FMS P-51D and FW-190. The gyro performs very well.

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

cool good to know, still hoping to get one soon. How good is the "panic" option does it return it to even flight (similar to the SAFE panic?)

[Davy101]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Steve,
I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you. When I said the gyro worked great, I was referring to the "normal" mode. It is wonderful keeping my planes tracking straight and smoothing out the bumps. I honestly hadn't messed with the self leveling (Hobby Eagle calls it wing leveling) until today. In order to better answer your question I decided to take my FMS P-51D up for a few flights and test the wing leveling effectiveness. It wasn't very successful and nearly crashed my plane! Let me explain my setup. I fly the Taranis Plus and have a X8R in the plane with the HE A3. I have the gyro function selection set up on a 3-position switch, as mode 2. That is switch up = normal gyro function, switch centered = gyro off and switch down = wing leveling. I took the Mustang up high and rolled it over on its back and switched to wing leveling. At that point nothing happened. The plane flew on, a little nose down and I found I had very little stick control, maybe equal to 30% on dual rates. I had to quickly switch back to normal gyro function and save the plane. I went high for another test, this time with the wings verticle in a shallow turn and again, nothing happened when I went to wing leveling. I had the same lack of effective control until I switched back to normal.

I do think I have the gyro set up correctly; I performed the leveling calibration and the vertical (vertical shouldn't be needed though unless you use auto hover). I always power up the gyro with the plane level, not sitting on its tail wheel, so it initializes at level. At this point I will not use auto level again unless I am 5 mistakes high and no one else is around. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if the unit is defective. I hope this helps.

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Davy - Good to know. Still havent picked one up but I have a bird I may get one and test on (pull out the orange and plop in the X8R and the A3.

[Davy101]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

I've been messing with the gains and whatnot and still can't get wing leveling to work in the air. I have the same setup in a P51 and a Trojan (both FMS 1400) and neither one will auto level like it is supposed to. One the bench it appears to try to correct but when I am up flying the plane doesn't correct. Very strange.

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

have you talked to the guys at Motion? perhaps they can help you out. Worst case they can point you in a good location for someone that can

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Davy, bit the bullet and ordered the A3 yesterday. When I get it in and get it configured I will let you know how it goes and if the "safe" works as expected. reading the blurb it may help with the takeoff issue I had with this plane (800MM FMS P40). Realized went to far too fast and went back to a sport cub s *LOL*

[Davy101]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Steve,
I've noticed that the A3 messes up the servo travel of my Frsky/Taranis setup. If I have the gyro in Normal mode, the control surfaces move through their full range of motion with less than half the possible stick movement. That leaves at least half the stick movement as dead space. If I flip the switch to turn the gyro off, the throws/movement return to normal. I'm thinking this is tied to either the "gains" pots on the gyro being turned up high or the servo frequency setting in the gyro setup. I need to experiment more but haven't had the time lately. Good luck with your setup.

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Davy,

Ok I can confirm my Taranis and X8R are doing the exact same in relation to stick distance. My servos are full on by the time I am at about half stick. I know with Spektrum controllers I need to drop the distance from -100 through 100 to -80 through 80. I just went in to the Taranis and changed the input for the aileron from 100 down to (with testing) 40. At 40 it does the full throw as expected. but you then turn it off and you only get 40% of the servo throw. I think I am going to throw a question to the Motion guys (and hobby eagle) and see what they say
[hr]
I would also LOVE for someone to translate this from HobbyEagles documentation/site becasue I feel stupid reading this!!!!!!!

When the gyro is activated, you might see that the range of movement of the servo become much larger than before when moving the sticks. This is normal but not a problem because a rotation rate set point has been applied to the outputs by the gyro. The sticks are not only used to control the movement of the surface, but also the rotation rate of the plane in that axis. Anyway the controller will not change the settings of dual rate or expo in your transmitter. The settings will always work in any flight mode.

[Davy101]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

I agree, that is confusing. It seems an exponential variable is applied by the gyro to stick movement?

Here is what I did to make it usable. I wired in the GAIN to channel 8 and assigned the right slider on my Tx. Using the slider I can reduce the gyro's gain and get the control surface movement to not be too exaggerated on high rates. I can fly on low rates with the gain sensativity high though high gain and high rates is still problematic.

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Yeah Im waiting for another M-2m servo cable to connect the remote master gain. But I dont think it should be this extreme. The fact I had to set it to 40% input to get it to work correct with the sticks is crazy. It means one way or other you have an option that does not work right. You get the gyro feature right then off is useless. you get normal ok then gyro is useless (of course get it working then in theory will never be off *LOL*). BTW I emailed both Motion support to see what they think as well as HobbyEagle (not holding my breath with hobby eagle as we will have a translation issue I think)

[stevepmcg]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

Davy,

I just received an email from Motion Support and if the response was meant for me they are sending another, Gyro so if it does ship I will test it out (I say if its meant for me as It says Hi Marvin, Since my name is Steve you can understand being unsure *LOL*) - perhaps its a faulty Gyro and we have not had the luck (I dont think so - to specific - Taranis X8R and A3). Hey it IS an A3 you have or an A3L?

Steve

[Davy101]

RE: Hobby Eagle A3 6 Axis Airplane Gyro w/ Auto Balance & FrSky x8R

My problem is with two A3 gyro's in different planes, a P51D and a Trojan (both 1400 FMS). If both mine exhibit this behavior and so does yours it seems like it is not a malfunction, but an unintended function. If it is a problem with a certain batch of gyros, I'm screwed as MRC only honors exchanges for 30 days. I spent that time, and extra, trying to fix what I thought was a configuration problem.