Which RC Helicopter Gyro
The RC heli gyro or Radio controlled Helicopters gyroscope is an electro-mechanical device which is used to stop the body of the helicopter from revolving or rotate around its own axis.
It is usually fitted between the tail rotor and the receiver and senses any change in the rotational movement and compensates the force moving the angle of the rotor hence creating a force in the opposite direction nullifying the effect.
There are a variety of rc heli gyro's available in the commercial market and price of each differs from each another. The price of the gyro depends upon the features it has. The more the advance an RC heli gyro is, the more will be the cost.
But mostly all gyro's provide the basic functionality of controlling the axial rotation of the helicopter.
If you are a beginner then a constant heading hold would be a nice option to start with. The constant heading hold feature lets you control the side to side and backward to forward of the RC helicopter while keeping the tail still. This feature is very useful as it lets the beginner have full control of the RC helicopter without worrying about the tail rotor.
The common brands of RC heli gyro's available in the market are Futaba and JR, Futaba being the most popular and is available in many models.
Futaba produces a wide range of RC heli gyros with advanced features like Active Angular Velocity Control System or commonly known as AVCS and Silicon Micro Machine components. These advance features makes the gyro more stable and with a high accuracy of functioning.
Just follow the instruction and you should not have any problems with it.
What is the difference between heading hold (hh) and standard rate (non-hh).
In non-hh mode the gyro just dampens unwanted movements of the tail. To keep things simple lets say you are hovering and a constant wind hits the helicopter from the side, the gyro will keep the helicopter from suddenly swinging nose into the wind, but the helicopter will eventually drift nose into the wind. All the gyro does is to prevent any jerk type reaction.
In hh mode the gyro will keep the nose pointed in the same place until you tell it to move. You can fly sideways with the rudder stick in the center and the nose will remain pointed in the same direction.
If you have not used heading hold before then you will notice in fast forward flight that when you make a turn, the tail will not follow the helicopter, you have to give some rudder in your turns. Another thing is that you'll notice the rudder stick feels different. In heading hold, the amount you move the rudder stick from center tells the gyro how many degrees per second that you want the helicopter to rotate. The gyro moves the rudder servo however much it needs to obtain the requested rotation rate. With a standard rate gyro if you did a slow pirouette (one rotation) with the wind then to keep the helicopter spinning at the same rate you would have to move the rudder stick more as the tail is going upwind and less as the tail goes downwind. But with a heading hold gyro, it will tell the rudder servo to move more or less to maintain the constant rate, you just keep the rudder stick in one place.
Due to typical marketing ploys you will see many names for heading hold. They all are just different names for the same thing. The different names are just because each company wants to make it seem like their version is more special then another companies.
AVCS = Tail Lock = Smart Lock = Heading Hold
In hh mode the gyro will keep the nose pointed in the same place until you tell it to move. You can fly sideways with the rudder stick in the center and the nose will remain pointed in the same direction.
If you have not used heading hold before then you will notice in fast forward flight that when you make a turn, the tail will not follow the helicopter, you have to give some rudder in your turns. Another thing is that you'll notice the rudder stick feels different. In heading hold, the amount you move the rudder stick from center tells the gyro how many degrees per second that you want the helicopter to rotate. The gyro moves the rudder servo however much it needs to obtain the requested rotation rate. With a standard rate gyro if you did a slow pirouette (one rotation) with the wind then to keep the helicopter spinning at the same rate you would have to move the rudder stick more as the tail is going upwind and less as the tail goes downwind. But with a heading hold gyro, it will tell the rudder servo to move more or less to maintain the constant rate, you just keep the rudder stick in one place.
Due to typical marketing ploys you will see many names for heading hold. They all are just different names for the same thing. The different names are just because each company wants to make it seem like their version is more special then another companies.
AVCS = Tail Lock = Smart Lock = Heading Hold
