Just got the X-3D 3 piezo gyro upgrade from Germany for the X-UFO for around $250 ... 1st impressions ...
The class hardware is all surface mount and those new piezos are tiny compared to the plott-mod.
The installation was very straight forward and instructions were clear. Uninstalled the Plott-Mod first and proceeded to install it into my naked X-UFO. They added a nice fool-proof bottom connector to the main board to prevent any pin miss-alignment connections. Three plastic risers are fitted to support the X-3D over the main board ... these are screwed in from above the X-3D and from below the main board (in the same holes used for the old gyro board). There is also serial connector that connects from the X-3D to the main board. I had a bit of a challenge getting this connected to the main board since I had some components (capacitors in the path and a slight miss-alignment of the pins on the main board. The connector is keyed to plug in only a certain way (but look at the picture of the correct connection in the manual ... I had to swivel the connector 180 degrees from its normal path to match the picture). Very tight quarters and aligning the 4 exposed upright pins to the connector without a guide took a bit of patience without bending anything. This is as snug as it gets with the surrounding capacitors.
The X-3D has three LEDs (red,yellow,green) on it to indicate status ... The X-3D performs a sensor calibration on power up ... so there is no need to do a gyro reset anymore! ... I powered it up and it went through the bootup sequence and gave me the green light ... so the initial functional test and hookup checks out.
I went back and read [link]http://forum.xufo.net/bb/babelframe.php?trurl=http://forum.xufo.net%2Fbb%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D2432[/link]
And also found [link]http://forum.xufo.net/bb/babelframe.php?trurl=http://forum.xufo.net%2Fbb%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D2528[/link]
I couldn't go to sleep without at least testing this bad boy out ... so out went the two cars and in went the X-UFO.
I used the Standard X-3D Default Beginners (no jumpers) setting to initially try it out on a 900mAh run. Standard Default assumes EPP frame and stock battery weight. I didn't tweek any parameters via the USB to fine tune the fact that it was frameless with a lipo ... I'll play with that later.
Leaning to fly the Plott-Mod definitely helps in flying the X-3D since it gets you used to the balancing the marble principle of going in one direction and then blip in the opposite direction to compensate. No pendulum effect and on harder landings, no reset is necessary ... simply throttle up back into the air.
Even with the default weight in beginners setting, the X-UFO lifted straight up and was pretty rock solid in hover with slight adjustments in pitch and roll ... mech-gyro??? ... what was that??? ... this doesn't self-level, but with the slight adjustments, it stays very level event with "hands off the controls"
This thing can now take off a lot faster in a direction and hold that direction until you compensate or nose-in steer. With the Heading Hold, it is much easier to control direction since there is no longer yaw drift. Quite easy to control while flying slow in a confined area of the garage ... but this thing can also take off like a rocket ... something I'll have to try outdoors in a sports field or somewhere big.
With the X-3D combined with my upgraded Futaba 9CHPS Super Tx, the X-UFO is no longer a toy ... but a professional hobby grade flying machine!!! Exactly what I was looking for when I first saw the Roswell Flyer (precursor to the Draganflyer) and dreamed of getting that type of flight performance. The Futaba definitely adds precision and I'll have to wait for an outdoor test for range.
No crashes nor rotor strikes in the garage ... the X-3D control is a joy ... the Alu-Tweety cage and Andy Coolies didn't affect performance nor motor sound. The red accents on the front and rotors reflected quite well in the light and visibility from a far shouldn't be a problem.
--Eric--