Is any one still flying HBK2 ?

[abhiemb]

Hi All,

I am very much new to RC heli world. To begin with one of my friend advised my to go for Esky for learning. I bought Esky HBK2(with stock gyro EK2-704, stock tx/rx, stock servos, CNC metal upgrades etc...) and started to fly without reading anything about RC Helis, well as expected I crashed badly. The feathering shaft, main rotor blade and one of the screws came out. It was out of control because of 6 degree of freedom. After fixing new feathering shaft(not sure if this was the problem!) I tried to fly again but all in vain. I think something had happened very bad and tail won't stop spinning counter clockwise,
I gave up and bought two more HBK2 from ebay on bid each worth 100 pounds (one was in good condition and other one was for parts). Both of them I got it with stock RX/TX but with metal upgrades. I got it checked with one of my friends and he said its well balanced and ready to fly. I started to learn with training legs, but I tried too early for lift off the ground without much learning and crashed again. This time only rotor blades had broken. I replaced new rotor blades and checked everything it looked alright to me. After this crash I started browsing through websites and started reading all forums etc....
I hope I ended up at the right place and first time I am in one of RC forums.
If someone could help me in setting up my HBK2, it will be great help to me. I have following questions at the moment, please forgive me for asking very silly questions.

1) I am trying to make the tail setup good so that it stays stable. I have read about the Gyros little bit that there are two types of Gyro mode head lock and rate modes. I have Buzzflyers head lock Gyro. It is configured as Reverse and Gain is "~30%". Which mode should I use to learn HH or rate mode ? I feel that HH mode will be better because it will keep the tail stable when compared to rate mode, but I might be wrong. Kindly let me know your suggestions.

2) I am not sure of mechanical set up of the tail assembly, I tried understanding but couldn't grasp the behaviour of the tail. I made the servo horn 90 degrees and observed the tail slider, it looked fine as described in other forums i.e. it was at the centre. But when I power up the heli the horn moved bit away from tail and the slider moved to left. I am not sure if this is the right thing because I assumed that the servo horn will stay at 90 degrees! All this time the Gyro.SW on the stock Tx was off i.e. away from me. I have attached pictures of tail assembly, both when powered Off and On. I have attached settings of Tx as well for your reference. I have checked the belt slip on the tail gear which seems to be fine as I didn't hear any slipping sound when I rotated main rotor blades.

I need your input in order to start flying again, and any guidance will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance and apologies for silly questions.

Abhiemb

[Slyster]

They are very old and horrible helis. More people quit the hobby from them. I would get the Blade 130x. Its a great little cp heli that will not get damaged in most crashes if you fly over grass. Also I recommend a simulator like Phoenix.

[TowPilot]

Ask the guys flying them here if you like:


King II/III/IV and CP 2/3
https://www.helifreak.com/forumdisplay.php?f=114


Mike

[Slyster]

Considering there have been 9 posts since Since June 1st I'd say the answer is a resounding no.

[Dylan Hudock]

I used to fly a hbk2, and when I first got it i had the exact same problem as you, spinning in circles. I traced it down to the tail pitch slider not getting full travel, so there wasnt enough pitch to counter the torque of the main blades. Once i got that fixed it was a nice heli to learn the basics on because parts are cheap.

[exblade]

Hey Abhiemb,

If you have confirmed that your gyro reverse switch is in the correct position, meaning with it powered up move the tail left and the trailing edge of the tail blades move toward the left, trying to pull the tail back the to where it was. That is a common problem.

Also from one of the pictures, it looks like your tail blade holder is not all the way at the end of the shaft, or possibly loose. That will limit how much pitch you can get causing the spin you describe also.

A couple of upgrades you can do is use Trex 450 tail blades which are bigger giving more power. Also Extreme used to make a 43 tooth tail drive pulley and belt that we all used. I have not tried it, but a King 3 pulley may fit and it has more teeth also giving more speed. Maybe 39 instead of 33. I never had a King 3.

Other than that, the tail geometry looked about right. You might want to move the servo around until you get the servo horn verticle with power up and about 8 degrees of tail pitch. I still fly my flybarless King 2 as it take less room than my others and flies really well. Only limited by the tail design, but not bad.I hope this helps. BTW, if you get a blinking gyro light on the stock gyro and can't get it to spin up that is usually the rudder trim not being centered. I think we all tripped on that at some point.

I hope this helps.

Terry

[abhiemb]

Hi Exblade,
Million thanks for your reply, I thought I will not get any help in this forum!
I am trying to make the tail servo's horn at 90 degrees, below are the steps I am trying.
Let me know if I am doing something wrong!

1) Turn Off the power.
2) Connect Servo to Rx terminals(4 in my case) i.e. bypass the Gyro.
2) I center the tail slider so that the pitch is almost zero. (Now I will try to keep the pitch at 8 degrees as you have recommended).
3) Move the servo so that servo's horn is perpendicular or 90 degrees.
4) Power up, but as soon as I power up the servo horn moves towards heli's nose or away from tail blade. No matter how much ever I try it moves to left if facing towards me. This makes the tail blade to push air towards right. Basically after power up the servo horn is not at 90 degrees.

Am I doing something wrong or is this right ?
Thanks in advance for helping me.

Regards
Abhiemb

Originally Posted by exblade

Hey Abhiemb,

If you have confirmed that your gyro reverse switch is in the correct position, meaning with it powered up move the tail left and the trailing edge of the tail blades move toward the left, trying to pull the tail back the to where it was. That is a common problem.

Also from one of the pictures, it looks like your tail blade holder is not all the way at the end of the shaft, or possibly loose. That will limit how much pitch you can get causing the spin you describe also.

A couple of upgrades you can do is use Trex 450 tail blades which are bigger giving more power. Also Extreme used to make a 43 tooth tail drive pulley and belt that we all used. I have not tried it, but a King 3 pulley may fit and it has more teeth also giving more speed. Maybe 39 instead of 33. I never had a King 3.

Other than that, the tail geometry looked about right. You might want to move the servo around until you get the servo horn verticle with power up and about 8 degrees of tail pitch. I still fly my flybarless King 2 as it take less room than my others and flies really well. Only limited by the tail design, but not bad.I hope this helps. BTW, if you get a blinking gyro light on the stock gyro and can't get it to spin up that is usually the rudder trim not being centered. I think we all tripped on that at some point.

I hope this helps.

Terry

[Wrench 54]

Tail authority on a stock K2 was always poor, most of us went with the 43T front pulley to get the tail speed up to where it would work, as the K2 has gotten older the update pulley has been very hard to find, also a good HH gyro was a must, I've never had a Buzz flier gyro but there is forum members that have used it with good success, 450 tail lades will help some, you may have to sand the area where they go into the grips down so they will fit right, my K2 had been modded so much that little is left Esky, with a Extreme carbon frame, 450 head, 450 tail boom and tail assembly, 450 canopy, Hitec 65 servos on the head, Align 420 tail servo, GY401 gyro, Turnigy motor, I don't even call it a K2 any more but a K9 ( K2 X 450=K9), I don't fly it as much as I once did, as the fleet has grown to other bigger helio's, still it was the one that got me started in this wonderful hobby, good luck and ask all the questions you want on here, we all have been where you are now------ Fly Tight------Wrench

[abhiemb]

I was able to adjust the tail in such a way that it seems to be holding. I achieved this through bypassing Gyro and then moving servo front and back on the tail boom.
I connected servo with the tail servo and it seems to hold right in rate mode. I haven't fiddled around with gain yet.

The second part is blade tracking and it seems to be fine but I guess its my view not sure if it really is!
I am facing one more problem, when I try to be light on the skid the heli try to move left and a little backwards, i.e. diagonally left/backwards. Could somebody help me analysing this problem ?
Is the blade tracking bad or do I have to improve on my skills (hope this is the case)?

Thanks in advance.

Regards
Abhiemb

[exblade]

To get the tail servo horn to 90 or there abouts you need to try different settings on the horn on the servo. The servo should be centered with the power on and rudder trim at center and rudder stick also at center. Be sure to UNPLUG the MOTOR so you don't get cut by the blades on an accidental spin up. Get it as close to 90 as possible. Finless Bob says he gets extra horns and tries them until he gets one that makes 90 deg with the particular servo. Kind of overkill when starting out.

On the latest issue, you need to have your swash plate level. Search out the finless Bob video no that. Basically you adjust the servo links to get it to fly level. Although, don't expect it to sit there even with a perfect setup. It will be all overthe place from ground effect. You have to control it with the sticks once you start spinning the blades.

One thing you can do to tame the King 2 quite a bit is to put some flybar weights on out by the paddles. I used to use 3 3/32" Du-Bro plated brass wheel collets per side.

Enjoy,

Terry

[abhiemb]

Million thanks, I have set all as you have suggested. Now I have to start improving my skills. Hope it goes well !

Abhiemb

Originally Posted by exblade

To get the tail servo horn to 90 or there abouts you need to try different settings on the horn on the servo. The servo should be centered with the power on and rudder trim at center and rudder stick also at center. Be sure to UNPLUG the MOTOR so you don't get cut by the blades on an accidental spin up. Get it as close to 90 as possible. Finless Bob says he gets extra horns and tries them until he gets one that makes 90 deg with the particular servo. Kind of overkill when starting out.

On the latest issue, you need to have your swash plate level. Search out the finless Bob video no that. Basically you adjust the servo links to get it to fly level. Although, don't expect it to sit there even with a perfect setup. It will be all overthe place from ground effect. You have to control it with the sticks once you start spinning the blades.

One thing you can do to tame the King 2 quite a bit is to put some flybar weights on out by the paddles. I used to use 3 3/32" Du-Bro plated brass wheel collets per side.

Enjoy,

Terry

[abhiemb]

Hi All,

After gruesome tweaking and adjusting rotor blades I have found one thing which I am unable to get to root of the cause. Kindly provide me some inputs so that I can solve the problem.

Below are the steps:

1) I have setup stock Tx to idle up (by turning on left switch).
2) Left hand control is centered.
3) I set up both the blades to 0 degree, with the help of pitch gauge and referencing to flybar.

When I try to move the throttle up and observe the pitch of the blades, one of the blade is not moving as much as the other one. I tried to check all the links, servo horns if they are moving to right distance but still I am unable to find out the problem. With the power off I can change the pitch by hand to min and max.
I checked swash plate and its perfectly leveled, I might be wrong but let me know if this is causing the problem!

Kindly help me in finding out the problems with one of the blades and thanks in advance.

Best Regards
Abhiemb

[exblade]

It sounds like your transmitter dip switches are set for airplane or something not cppm. Do some searches as I have no clue.Or you plugged a servo in the wrong receiver plug.

If the swash is going up and down level, then you have a bent feathering shaft or blade grip if it is metal.

[abhiemb]

I found the problem, the problem was the ball link. I guess it was expanded so much that none of the link would be smooth on it, finally I had to change the link to new ball link which held the link nicely and it was free on it.

So now I will try to hover, lets see if I can do that !

Thanks
Abhiemb

[abhiemb]

Hi All,
Well, I don't think I can learn about heli without Helifreaks's help. I need your help in finding out another problem which I am facing recently while trying to hover.

I am not an expert in flying yet, just trying to hover but I am still struggling though.

1) When I give throttle more than 50%, sometimes suddenly power gets cut off ! The power is off for fraction of seconds and it comes back again.
2) I thought it might be transmitter or receiver (I am using stock 35MHz Esky's TX and RX), so I changed to a new one but still the problem is prevailing.
3) Another observation is that when power gets cut off the Gyro (Buzzflyer Head Lock, using in rate mode) gets reset and I don't have any control on tail. I have to pull the throttle down and restart it again to gain control on tail. This is very annoying that I loose control on tail every time this happens.
4) I have changed the battery to new one but still I am facing this problem.

When I test it on bench with motor not plugged in then it works perfectly fine and there is no power cut off at all.
Do I have to change the ESC ? Is there any other way to diagnose this problem ?

Thanks in advance for your help

Regards
Abhi

[exblade]

It sounds like you are losing your receiver power (BEC) under motor power. The Esky esc's are notoriously bad. Try a Hobbywing 30 amp with at least 3 amp BEC. They are reasonably good and not too expensive. Same as a Turnigy "Plush 30a" which is a Hobbywing. If you have another esc form your other King, try that one.

Terry

[abhiemb]

Hi Terry,

You were absolutely right, I changed the ESC (Turnigy from other heli) and its working fine without any power cutouts.

Thanks again for your help.

Best Regards
Abhi

[MRCL]

Thread resurrection ftw!
Anyways yeah I have one of those. Cheap off fleabay. Flies okay tough, and was my first "big" heli. Unfortunately my monster skills were too much for it and it somehow drilled itself in the ground. Resulting in many broken pieces. Altough I still suspect the limited 35mHz range for the sudden loss of control, but I am not entirely innocent.

However after a month or so of it being dismantled on the workbench I finally got around rebuilding it, or rather am in the process of it. Parts should come today I hope. Needless to say not many sources for HBK2 parts in Switzerland, in fact only one that still has flybars in stock. What I've also done is fitting it with a Spektrum receiver I don't need otherwise (those that came bundled in the dx6i bonus pack). Maybe it will behave a bit better with a decent remote with non-ancient radio technology. Especially since 35mHz technology is soon to be outlawed for pirvate people here, since the military apparently got interested in flying RC helis. We need to have a new drone anyways and our military is always 20 years behind times.

But I digress. I still have faith in the bee and I actually want it to fly. Kudos to some German guy who wrote a huge Wiki about it explaining just about everything including fixes.

[abhiemb]

Hi,
I am still trying to learn to hover. My brain is still not well trained for orientation.
I recently crashed and carbon tail boom is broken now, I have to spend now many hours to fix the tail. Will let you know once I have done (well this is life).

Now I am planing to buy a small range Blade Mcpx V2 with Spectrum Tx/Rx in order to learn proper orientation and transfer the skill to bigger helis.

Thanks.
Abhi

[Sweetfrost]

Hiya all.

Im still flying my HBK II. I just recently got it back from my dad. I gave it to him so he could learn to fly helis. But he had to upgrade it a bit to make it flyable.

The version i have is the carbon frame version with metal mainrotor and tailrotor. Still flying with the brushless motor and the fiber blades it came with.

The first upgrade was the belt-pulley - replaced with a 43 tooth and a longer belt.

Second upgrade was the gyro - i replaced the stock Esky HH with a KDS 800 HH AVCS gyro.

Third upgrade was getting better servos. I went for some with metal gears and a digital tail servo.

I have made some testflights with it and it just flies great now and the tail is holding. Cant wait to test it inverted.

Now the only thing i need now is to upgrade the ESC. The built in BEC is a linear BEC and get hot and to prevent it form bursting into flames im gonna find a suitable replacement.

I use the DX8 and a Spektrum Rx and it was fairly easy to bring this old bird back to life.

If anyone should have problems finding spareparts you can try this shop:

www.buzzflyer.co.uk


regards