Originally Posted by zeezee

I want to stabilize ailerons. Anything I need to be aware of at first flight with gyro? I want it in rate, correct? Can I adjust gain from my DX6i? I ordered the Detrum GY48V this a.m. Will my gear switch turn it on and off? Not that I want it off. It all seems so simple it has me worried, LOL..Dave

Before your first flight with the gyro, make sure you've read through the entire gyro tutorial and understand it properly. After that, you need to spend some time playing around with it on the bench to make sure it's operating exactly as expected. Only then can you test fly it.

On the dx6i you should be able to adjust anything and everything. The positives will prob be HH mode, while the negatives are rate mode, but it may be the other way round. For off, you want it set as close to 0% as it can be WITHOUT going into HH mode. Either set it to 1%, or adjust your subtrim to make sure it's not in HH mode at 0%.

Yeah you want it in rate mode, for your first flight try 30%. Remember to set your travels at the gyro, and set your channel throws on the transmitter to 100%. :-)

Originally Posted by Dillzio

Thanks for the info Melnic, you really are the gyro guru!

I thought that Invensense gyros are MEMS gyros? Yes, they are much cheaper than the others, but they are still MEMS aren't they? Afterall the company strapline is "Innovation in MEMS"!

Originally Posted by Davee1

I thought that Invensense gyros are MEMS gyros? Yes, they are much cheaper than the others, but they are still MEMS aren't they? Afterall the company strapline is "Innovation in MEMS"!

yeah, the GY100 is MEMS

Originally Posted by zeezee

I want to stabilize ailerons. Anything I need to be aware of at first flight with gyro? I want it in rate, correct? Can I adjust gain from my DX6i? I ordered the Detrum GY48V this a.m. Will my gear switch turn it on and off? Not that I want it off. It all seems so simple it has me worried, LOL..Dave

Watch the videos and read the pages
http://www.mycoolrc.com/gyro/indexnew.html

Originally Posted by Melnic

EDIT:
(I was not the first to do this, I saw someone do this before me in a 1/4 scale SR22 back in 1992)

NOTE: This first post is several years old and contained some out dated information. Before asking questions, PLEASE check out this
HOW TO page:
INSTALLING GYROS IN AN AIRPLANE
OK, on to some of the original post ....

I want to start a thread on how to use an Electronic Gyro for stabilizing an RC airplane. I've used Gyros now on and off since 1994. My first attempt was when I wanted to fly my Midwest Aerostar Trainer in high winds. I had been flying Helicopters for 2-3 years at that point and airplanes for about 5 years and had a spare mechanical rate gyro. Being a somewhat knowledgable Helicopter pilot at the time, I felt I knew how to get it working w/ no help so I put it on the ailerons of my trainer that had one servo for the ailerons. Aligned the gyro w/ the roll axis and was off and running. I set a somewhat low gain of 30% and the airplane was SOO much more stable in the wind. I would plug the gyro inline w/ the aileron servo ONLY when the winds were 15mph or higher. Up to that point, the wind never bothered me. It also helped training my wife so the airplane would not have unwanted roll movements in the wind. After a 8 year pause in the hobby, In 2008 I got a foamie Electric (Sapac Extra 330L foamie). It did not do well in the wind being so light. I placed a spare GWS rate gyro that I had on it and voila, very stable in the winds. Here is a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCdZtDB3LAo

I flew this gyro on this plane all that summer and some during the winter. I was constantly quizzed at how stable the plane was in the wind when others w/ .40 and .60 sized nitros decided not to fly due to the wind. 15-20mph was not that bad for a .40-.60 plane in my opinion but I can see how some of the less experianced pilots get intimidated by it fearing the wing tiping over on landing.

I have spent some time messing w/ all the gyros I had from my helicopters recently and came up w/ some information I want to pass along:

Video of the gyro movement on the bench:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2emCEp0R2A

If you have questions, please post.
If you have run a gyro before PLEASE PLEASE post any info you have for others to learn from your experiance!

Gyro on a HawkSKy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T00kILPOppU

Will a Esky EK2-0704B Lock Head Gyro work in a Hawk Sky?

Originally Posted by Dakine48

Will a Esky EK2-0704B Lock Head Gyro work in a Hawk Sky?

not without the gain wire attached and in rate mode(0-50%)

how about switching from single gyros to single kk board?

yes you take a step backwards for a while to peizo gyros but.... im thinking once you wire it up you will love peizo gyros that are being told what to do while your not flying and better still the jump from kk board to multiwii board is tiny then we can introduce magnetometer into the mix for true heading hold on your rudder acc controlled gyros baro? no idea how that would work out on a plane sorry but they are just working on gps

but start off with a cheap ebay kk board there is software for single motor craft already

or get an arduino pro mini and a wii motion plus and build a 3axis mems gyro setup with pid tuning for around £25 last time i looked secondhand wm+ was £8 from cex delivered to uk (google) and an arduino pro mini is anywhere from £10 to £18 delivered to uk

with the above arduino combo you could in effect use ppm-sum from the battery port of the v2 6ch hobbyking 2.4ghz rx to control 8x channels from 1 signal wire meaning only one servo wire would be needed to connect your rx to your flight controller and from your flight controller send out signal to aileron elevator throttle rudder mode (switch on acc baro mag) cam pan and tilt

theres flying wing code in the mutliwii just select

//#define FLYING_WING //experimental

in the code just checked

Multiwii Flying Wing test (1 min 0 sec)

Maxi Swift with MultiWii (2 min 30 sec)

Learned alot from ya'll's information. Now I'm thinking that putting a gyro on my elevator as well would make landing with flaps alot simpler for a new flap guy like me. My plane wants to go up when I deploy flaps. Gyro would level it out quick, right. Loved the video with the servo gauges. Hell, why not 3 gyros...Dave

Originally Posted by zeezee

Learned alot from ya'll's information. Now I'm thinking that putting a gyro on my elevator as well would make landing with flaps alot simpler for a new flap guy like me. My plane wants to go up when I deploy flaps. Gyro would level it out quick, right. Loved the video with the servo gauges. Hell, why not 3 gyros...Dave

Flaps making the plane want to nose up is totally normal. Most people mix in a bit of down elevator with their flaps switch to compensate. When I drop the flaps on my cub, even with elevator mixed it, it still makes the cub gain nose up and gain altitude until it slows down a bit more - it's totally normal. I actually find it quite useful because I can judge how fast it's going by how much lift it has.

A gyro in rate mode will not correct for pitch adjustments caused by the flaps. It will slow them down a bit, but only a good HH gyro would be able to compensate and hold the nose where it was, but you usually don't use HH mode on airplanes

I have a HK 401b Gyro. Experimenting with it on my STM Blaze "Hotliner", try to use it on the Ailerons. The Gyro have two switches: one "Delay", ranging from 0 to 100. And one "Limit" going from 60 to 140.
Any idea where to set those switches? Or do I have to try, until I get it right. Never tried a Gyro before, so sorry for newbie questions, but the instructions I have found on the net. Only explain the set up. Not the adjustment.
The downside of using the gyro on the Ailerons, is that I can't use the Spoilerons iI have programmed for the model on my DX6i. Looks like I need one Gyro for each Aileron if i want dual operating Ailerons. Or is it a way around?

It will not work with the HK401b. I have plugged the servo plug to the Aileron port on my AR6001e with an y plug to the ailerons. And the yellow plug to the gear. I have light on my gyro. But no reaction, when I move the stick or gyro. Is there any way I can make my gyro work with the Ailerons?

I made it work. But sluggish and brutal. Think I need to fine tune.

Originally Posted by n3m1s1s

how about switching from single gyros to single kk board?

yes you take a step backwards for a while to peizo gyros but.... im thinking once you wire it up you will love peizo gyros that are being told what to do while your not flying and better still the jump from kk board to multiwii board is tiny then we can introduce magnetometer into the mix for true heading hold on your rudder acc controlled gyros baro? no idea how that would work out on a plane sorry but they are just working on gps

but start off with a cheap ebay kk board there is software for single motor craft already

or get an arduino pro mini and a wii motion plus and build a 3axis mems gyro setup with pid tuning for around £25 last time i looked secondhand wm+ was £8 from cex delivered to uk (google) and an arduino pro mini is anywhere from £10 to £18 delivered to uk

with the above arduino combo you could in effect use ppm-sum from the battery port of the v2 6ch hobbyking 2.4ghz rx to control 8x channels from 1 signal wire meaning only one servo wire would be needed to connect your rx to your flight controller and from your flight controller send out signal to aileron elevator throttle rudder mode (switch on acc baro mag) cam pan and tilt

theres flying wing code in the mutliwii just select

//#define FLYING_WING //experimental

in the code just checked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aP1kXDGEow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO_6N...eature=related

Have you checked out the Openpilot product? Www.openpilot.org

I just wanted to say that I am amazed at HPZ's shipping. I ordered a Detrum gyro Thursday and just got it in the mail..Sat. Quess I'll be gyro flying in a bit, let ya'll know. I will be doing more business with HPZ, 2 day shipping, WOW!!! Thanks RCGroups for turning me on to this information, great stuff! Dave :cool O.K. I have hooked everything up and got it working in the plane. I couldn't get off and on going on gear switch so put it on the flap switch on a DX6i. I hooked it up so I only have rate mode and off. Being able to turn it off is important to me. LOL...Got all my trims done mechanicly with all my radio trim and sub-trim at 0. Alright, test time, wish me luck. Going flyin...Dave

Originally Posted by Silverexpress

Have you checked out the Openpilot product? Www.openpilot.org

no couldnt get hold of a board but if you like that you might like this too?

Auto Pilot UAV Multi Rotor Helicopter Plane Flight Controllers explained Drone Zone N3M1S1S (16 min 19 sec)