I think I fixed the crappy heli. It turns out the gyro was on the default 1520us/70Hz. I hate going through the gyro settings since they are a pain, one too many little things. This is the reason I like to have the same type so I don't have to remember so many different settings. I looked at the one that's been working fine and I have it at 1520us/333Hz on the HK orange digital. I can't remember the correct specs since they don't have them on the site, but this works so far. May I'll try the 1520us/250Hz, but I'll wait and see, I have no idea what these orange servos are. So I just matched the good one. I marked them and it looks like both gyros are red labels. Now I just tested the gyro and it looks to be working okay now. But I still had the problem with the tail not turning right. I noticed that the arm wasn't turning enough to one side and then noticed the servo was mounted right next to the mount. I have the good heli with the servo back a bit so I moved the servo back, put the trim to 0 and move the arm forward one notch. Then tested and now I seem to get the correct amount left and right and just need to trim it out. So I think these are tiny but very important things you should know if you're having the same issue. They both look like they're working fine now. Just have to go back out and try not to mess them up again.

I finally decided to fix that heli that's been my trainer. It got a new boom, main shaft, feathering shaft, gear, tail housing with new belt and fiberglass blades. I bent the tail part that holds the fin and the hole for the screw was bent so now my tail was not working straight which messed things up. Needless to say things work much better when straight as you all know. I just needed to tweak the gyro to get my tail to stay straight. While tweaking the tail on like the third of fourth hover I noticed something wasn't right, my tail wasn't reacting like before, but this time I had all new parts...hmmm. then it hit me, check to see if the tail moves when I move my arm left and right...bingo, nothing! This is when I realized I needed to bump up the gyro rate mode and sure enough it started reacting to my movement. So I decided to do the same for HH mode and thought I try it out on a slow hover and I finally got a taste for how each one really feels. Unfortunately I don't think I bumped it enough on HH mode because I crashed the heli again and couldn't get the thing to move fast enough. However I like the way it feels now that I got things working again. Slowly but surely. Once I can figure out how to keep the darn thing straight I'll try some more crazy stuff. I guess the key is to find the sweet spot on everything.

I just added some buddy codes for some 250 parts. I can never find any when I need them so I thought I let you guys know so you can at least save a few cents since I think they only let us use 3 codes now. Dumb, but what can we do.
http://www.buddyprice.fr.nf/index.php

NEW, MUCH "LOWER PRICE" FOR GIANT 250GT PARTS PACKAGE.......!!!! http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1730393

wow! that's super cheap!

Originally Posted by pitchp

wow! that's super cheap!

yes, its less than half of what i paid....!!!

Just got a new canopy for her. Unfortunately, I have to ream 2 holes to fit it in and now I can put 3S 1000maH Turnigy Nanotech battery without an issue

Recently working some mod on all my aging flybar HK250, things went smooth and its flies very much better than before.
Replace with Align original swash plate & metal tail control arm with tail pitch assembly.
I never like the HK flybar seesaw holder, its having too much slop using copper bushing.
Flying is like roller coaster with HK original seesaw, also caused unbalance head & vibration on high rpm during idle up.
After removing the copper bush, I replaced with 1.4x4x1.2 bearing and it is direct fit into seesaw holder no slop at all.
Change new bearings for tail rotor & main shaft.
It flies smoothly very stable/accurate no vibration on idle up and most importantly no more roller coaster riding.
The cost for upgrade of swashplate & tail assembly is same price for HK250 kit......LOL
I'm impress how well it flies after the upgrades.

I'm either lucky or I don't know any better... But my flybar 250 with GY401/Ino-Lab HG201 and eflite cyclic servos is flying great!

Originally Posted by daddoo

Just got a new canopy for her. Unfortunately, I have to ream 2 holes to fit it in and now I can put 3S 1000maH Turnigy Nanotech battery without an issue

very nice

Originally Posted by efx

I just added some buddy codes for some 250 parts. I can never find any when I need them so I thought I let you guys know so you can at least save a few cents since I think they only let us use 3 codes now. Dumb, but what can we do.
http://www.buddyprice.fr.nf/index.php

3 codes? I always get a error message when i try to use more then 1

Btw, if one were to build a FBL 250. Would it be possible to reuse everything later for a FBL 450? Or you would need to get new servos/motors/ecs?

Originally Posted by pitchp

very nice

Thank you, pitchp. In fact, I was impressed with your white Align canopy but somehow I ended up with this because the white one was out of stock.

I started getting the 3 limit a while back which really sucks so I hardly even look or buy anything there unless I really need it. As for your question, you can't use 250 parts on a 450 unless you are talking about the receiver/gyro/ or flybarless unit. That's all your can use on either that I can think, but even some of these parts are too big for the 250 so unless you buy these items specifically for the 250 you may be able to use them on the 450. I will assume you meant another 250, and yes if you got a flybared 250 whatever parts you are left with can be used as replacement parts, but you don't break those that easy. So far I have only managed to break usually the feathering shaft, every now and then the main shaft, landing gear. The one piece landing gears are very brittle so if you hit just right they may break. I have also managed to break the big tail fin when I crashed with the tail and of course the flybar. I just change the gear and tail case on one due to broken teeth and I crashed on the tail so it had to be changed to keep the thing straight. Oh yeah, tail boom too. I think it will depend on your experience and how much you want to venture out when flying. Either way this is what I like about the 250, it's not as bad as the 450 when you crash since it's lighter.

Originally Posted by Xermalk

3 codes? I always get a error message when i try to use more then 1

Btw, if one were to build a FBL 250. Would it be possible to reuse everything later for a FBL 450? Or you would need to get new servos/motors/ecs?

Originally Posted by efx

I started getting the 3 limit a while back which really sucks so I hardly even look or buy anything there unless I really need it. As for your question, you can't use 250 parts on a 450 unless you are talking about the receiver/gyro/ or flybarless unit. That's all your can use on either that I can think, but even some of these parts are too big for the 250 so unless you buy these items specifically for the 250 you may be able to use them on the 450. I will assume you meant another 250, and yes if you got a flybared 250 whatever parts you are left with can be used as replacement parts, but you don't break those that easy. So far I have only managed to break usually the feathering shaft, every now and then the main shaft, landing gear. The one piece landing gears are very brittle so if you hit just right they may break. I have also managed to break the big tail fin when I crashed with the tail and of course the flybar. I just change the gear and tail case on one due to broken teeth and I crashed on the tail so it had to be changed to keep the thing straight. Oh yeah, tail boom too. I think it will depend on your experience and how much you want to venture out when flying. Either way this is what I like about the 250, it's not as bad as the 450 when you crash since it's lighter.

Im currently considering building a FBL 250 , either a CopterX CX 250SES Flybarless or a HK250GT, and potentially later a 450 size.

Now as a complete beginner is there somewhere i can read up on whats needed to build/maintain one of these? Electronics/Motors/Tools.

So far my only experience is with v911's and a Mini cp currently waiting for a new rx board. The current rx board has a damaged solder joint somewhere causing the servos to jump/lock to the endpoints randomly when it vibrates.

I'm not sure there is one single place to read everything, but over time you can find the information on here and all over the net I'm sure. As for the 250 since you're just starting, the hk 250 is not bad for the price. I would recommend no more than two kits because later you just want to get the parts as I think is what you'll need anyway. I think one kit will be fine and then just get parts you need so you don't spend too much and the parts for them from hk are not that bad. But you'll be crashing and I have prett much broken those parts I mentioned so you don't want to spend too much on other parts that you don't change that often, specially on the 250. It's just a good start and will keep your cost low. I use the cheapest orange servos as I'm still learning and now I'm not breaking them as much, later on you can move up to other parts if you like, but keep it simple at the beginning since you will be crashing if you don't know how to fly.

I started looking at the videos from finless bob just like everyone else , and they were helpful too. There are many more on youtube now so you can check those out.

There was not much info posted on the radios when I started so I started my own blog on here so you can find information on that. Just click on the name and you can read stuff on there that I think will be helpful. There are many good people on here that will also help so just post and someone I'm sure will be able to help. You will get many different suggestion, but I just went with it and tried what I was comfortable with. I like to sometimes learn by doing so I never used a simulator, but did crash a lot. But eventually I got off the ground. We all learn in different ways. Just start slow and don't try to learn it all at once, you will get frustrated. It does take time, well at least for me it has, but eventually you'll figure it out. Believe me if I did, so can anyone.

Now back to the heli, I would try the heli stock beause it will take time to figure out what works and doesn't work on the heli. I'm still learning but it gets easier as long as you can get a little bit of flying in. When you feel like throwing that thing out the window, just put it down and take a break, then go back to it when you're calm. There are times when the helis will do this if you are new at this stuff. It's a lot to learn, but keep trying and you'll see. FYI, a 450 is much easier to fly than a 250 though, but crashing the 450 sucks more than a 250. Literally and figuratively. Right now I do feel more comfortable trowing the 250 around than the 450. Bigger blades still kind of scares me a bit. So before anything, safety first. Try to figure out your components on the bench without blades first just to be safe. Remember even those tiny blades are dangerous if they hit you just right.

Originally Posted by Xermalk

Im currently considering building a FBL 250 , either a CopterX CX 250SES Flybarless or a HK250GT, and potentially later a 450 size.

Now as a complete beginner is there somewhere i can read up on whats needed to build/maintain one of these? Electronics/Motors/Tools.

So far my only experience is with v911's and a Mini cp currently waiting for a new rx board. The current rx board has a damaged solder joint somewhere causing the servos to jump/lock to the endpoints randomly when it vibrates.