SoloGood HOBBYEAGLE A3 Super 4 6-Axle Airplane Gyro Flight Controller Stabilizer RC Plane Gyro Stabilizer for RC Fixed-Wing Airplane Model Plane FPV

I've been using standalone stabilizers on fixed wing aircraft for as long as they've existed, from basic single axis rate gyros adapted from helis, to expensive dedicated fixed wing models from Germany, to the likes of the Eagletree Guardian 2D/3D and more lately various flight controllers (ET Vector and iNav on F4 and F7 boards). I use em on my FPV aircraft and for Dynamic Soaring sailplanes in rough conditions. Some are good, but they all have one or more annoying flaws.Of all I've used this one works the best. The challenge with fixed wing aircraft is that they may operate over a very wide range of air speeds and thus the effectiveness of the stabilizer varies with the air speed. What you usually need aggressive stabilization at low air speeds (especially at launch and landing) and much less so at high air speeds.All stabilizers use some combination of P I D and FF terms in their inner stabilization loop.P reacts in direct proportion to the rate of change from desiredI reacts in direct proportion to the integrated rate of change (the measured angle) from desiredD reacts to the derivative of the rate of change and is mostly used to dampen out P's responseFF or feed forward is a direct override of the stabilization loop with pilot input.The old style "rate gyro" was just P+FF.So how to handle the wide airspeed range problem.1. The stabilizer *must* have on-the-fly adjustable master gain, so that you can set it up for max stabilization at launch/landing, and simply dial it down when you're running at full speed in bumpy air. iNav can only tie the master rate to the throttle, which makes it useless in a fast power off dive, or for higher performance soaring.2. It must be able to let the I-term do most of the work. P-term will react to any bump it sees but that means if you tune it to work well at lower airspeeds it will starts to overreact at higher airspeeds until it begins to oscillate (sometimes violently). And while P-term will the edge off bumps, it can't by itself return the aircraft to original desired attitude. I-term windup represents the angle from desired so its response will always return the aircraft to original attitude.But some stabilizers (like iNav) limit the magnitude of I-term windup so they may work for smallbumps but come completely unglued when they encounter rougher air. Some stabilizers get confused when you make really aggressive inputs with the I-term windup fighting user inputs, or bouncing back too much when you let go of the stick after a fast roll, or again just coming completely unglued (aggressive inputs nullify I-term windup).With I-term response implemented correctly you can run a small P-term just to take the edge off the bumps, and very large I-term to hold the aircraft attitude and this combination will work across a very wide speed range with little or no change to the master gain required.The A3 series (including A3 Super 3) has remote adjustable gain, and implements I-term response correctly.It works well on my FPV aircraft, and DS sailplanes alike.My preferred mode is called Atti-lock + R/R (Rate Response) which for those familiar with theold Eagletree products would be called 3DH and for any iNav FC would be ACRO (at least in principle).This is a fly by wire mode where stick inputs represent a request to rotate at a given rate(with a little FF to get it started or reversed), and the stabilization can hold the attitude ofthe aircraft against any bump that could throw the aircraft off axis. With A3 in this mode, flying straight and level hands off, turbulent air can knock the plane off angle anywhere from about -35 to +35 degrees on pitch or roll (don't use this mode on yaw axis except for 3D planes), and it will return to original attitude on its own. And with R/R enabled it can it can still do this in the middle of a roll, or pitching up or down as well. With one plane I can launch it pointed straight up, and it'll just stay in that attitude.Several stabilizers have an equivalent mode but because all stick input represents a requestedchange in attitude, they usually add a dead zone near center stick so they don't react to jitter or double centering in the gimbal pots. Unfortunately though this means if you use dual or triple rates in the transmitte (for very fast aircraft), as the rates go down, the effective size of the dead zone gets bigger and bigger and they provide no way to adjust the size of the dead zone.The A3 Super 3 is the only stabilizer I've seen that lets you change the true size of the dead zone, so I canactually match it perfectly to the true jitter in the pots (maybe only 1-2uS). The aircraft holds perfectly still with sticks at center, and reacts instantly when I move the stick off center.Again because all stick input away from "zero" represents a request to roll/pitch/yaw manystabilizers force you to keep your transmitters trims at zero (every channel only outputs 1500uS at center).For that type, if your aircraft needs trim, it must be done mechanically by adjusting linkage lengths.If your foam aircraft flexes a bit during transport in your hot car.. Too bad. It's just out of trim everytime you fly it.ET Guardian and Vector allowed you to trim, then "incorporate trims" either on the flyor after a restart and the new trim center became zero for stabilized modes.iNav does it backwards. It forces you to fly the aircraft straight and level in a stabilized modeand then trigger auto-trim and it adds trim offsets to every surface for you to use in the manual mode,but Tx trims must still never be used.A3 Super 3 lets you trim from the Tx normally in manual mode, and incorporate trims at restart.But it also has it's own sub-trim menu which means after a day of flying with off centertrims, you can measure the offset of all your surfaces, recenter your Tx trims and thenuse A3's sub-trims to move the surfaces to the measured offsets. Much easier thanmoving linkages, and avoids accumulating a bunch of weird trims in your Tx.There are two ways to setup the A3 Super 3.1. Connect it to the computer, and use their configuration software.I like this one because it can be used while powered up with RC Rx connected so you cansee your flight modes, and RC inputs, directions and ranges. It's the best way to do initial setup.2. Use their little field programmer box. I highly recommend this as well. You don't get the livedisplay, but you can adjust every setting that's in the PC software. I use it to tweak sub-trimsand individual P I D FF rate and R/R settings, as well as to re-calibrate level for auto-level modes.Its auto-level mode is nothing special. It's not a flight controller so it doesn't have the ability to know when it's flying straight and level. All accelerometers can be confused by G-loading during sustained turns, which means if you fly a fast circle and then trigger auto level it will stay banked for a while. It lacks the "2DH" mode that ET Guardian and Vector had which used a simple trick to level the wings based on the rate of change of the yaw gyro which allows the aircraft to fly perfectly straight even when the IMU's accelerometers are confused. If they'd add that feature, it would be close to perfect for my purposes.I fly 99% of my time in Atti-lock + R/R and that it does exceptionally well.Its core stabilization works so much better than iNav, I actually have FPV aircraft where I've chained the two together.iNav can show me a nice OSD and handles emergency RTH, but is a straight pass thru to the A3 Super 3for all pilot controlled modes (Atti-lock+RR / Manual / Auto-level). Need an F7 board for this trick (so it can output SBUS) but otherwise is pretty simple.

Lightyears ahead of AS3X!Using ELRS and crossfire on this gyro, super happy with it. Full adjustable, easy to set up, works great. Will buy more.

Sometimes some added stability is needed on our model planes.. this is an affordable option that does work.

If you're like me with mediocre pilot skills, but for building cool aircraft and you don't want to immediately turn them into lawn darts that took two months to build...These things are the way to goThe programming card option. You definitely want to use a computer to do your set up. It's super easy they really do keep the plane stable for newbie or anyone I guess not wanting to waste 500 bucks crashing a planeI have 5 of these now - crashed planes with spektrum FC many times, speedy bee crashes... with this installed no crashes yet

Bought to install in my Avanti EDF after installing with my 6 channel reciever it became apparent that I was 2 channels short of being functional. By the time you buy this then buy a 8 or 10 channel reciever. You might as well buy a AR10360T about the same money and you have the other 4 channels available. I’m not knocking the product it’s probably good. I just put mine back in the box and ordered a AR10360T

I have 2 others and they work as promised in my rc planes with 6 modes of flight on a 6 position switch.

The media could not be loaded.

Having multiple troubles with the previous version (A3S3) I still decided to get a chance to this one - A3S4. Unfortunately, it's all the same: after 15 minutes of the flight, the plane started flying like a drunk, slowly yawing, delaying its reaction to my commands, and even getting stuck in some position totally ignoring the commands. I succeed to land it and found that the reaction of the sensor in ANGLE, NORMAL, and LEVEL modes are totally opposite, while they were equal in before.Actually, I had absolutely the same issues with the previous version of this gyro. I have two HobbyEagle A3 Super 3 gyros installed in two different RC plane models: Conscendo Evolution (1.6m wingspan, 3S 2200 LiPo) and VolantexRC Ranger 2000 (2m wingspan, 4S 5200 LiPo). Both planes got practically the same types of issues: everything works fine first 10-15 minutes of the flight, but then the behavior of the plane becomes weird. The plane starts flying like a drunk, slowly yawing, delaying its reaction to my commands, and even getting stuck in some position totally ignoring the commands. Once Conscendo abruptly pitched down to the ground like a kamikaze. Another time it stalled ignoring any commands. Furthermore, in one case when Volantex fell down due to such weird yawing, I found ailerons getting stuck in their up/down limits, and I could turn them back to the neutral position only after switching gyro modes a few times.Analyzing all these cases I became suspicious concerning the level of power, thinking this weird behavior starts when there is a lack of power. So I made a test flying Volantex at minimal motor speed with flaps down trying to spend power very slowly. But within 15 minutes of the flight, the plane started yawing again. It was very hard to control the plane while landing and it almost crashed. When I checked the battery, it had 4V on each cell (77% of power). Also, I remember when I got the same issues after 10 min of the flight, after changing to the fully charged battery.Today's flight with A3S4 confirmed all the issues I got before: 15 min of flight, 68% of the battery, gyro sensor lost its orientation.As a result, I'm planning to return this unit and look for a better gyro because I've been tired of spending weeks repairing my planes after every "strange" landing because of this gyro's bugs.