So what's the longest you've spent looking for an HK-51 component?

Finished it with my Sentinel. I didn't keep track of how long they all took me, but it was quite a while. Luckily I had a group every time.

SnowyAngel--the pieces obtained on Coruscant and Dromund Kaas are "bind to legacy." You can locate a mailbox, type in your Republic toon's name, and send the item from Dromund Kaas to them.

And to answer the OP, almost all of them took <5 minutes. Except Kaas, where I had a devil of a time because others kept finding it and were too far away for me to get there each time. I gave up after 10 minutes, went back the next day, got it in 2 scans.

Tips on getting the thing: Look at where everyone else is scanning and don't scan there, but scan near there. They are likely near a part, and if they find it, a giant beam will shoot out. So might as well cover more area by scanning a little way away Also...group up!

8 hrs and still counting! Not yet finished. For a paying subscriber can the HK-51 be sold in the Cartel Market. That way I won't be so cranky. Grouping up is good but very time consuming. Be sure you don't have to work tomorrow or you'll have to have some caffeine injections to stay awake.

You can buy him as a legacy perk. 350 CC per character on a server where you've already unlocked him. He's great on my level 1 trooper and JK.

Oh thank you! That's great news! Now I can get some sleep. Heard also that the Marauder's HK-51 comes not fully loaded. Maybe they'll fix it in tonight's maintenance. Here's to hoping!

I had relatively good luck.
Coruscant: 20 minutes, made a group, got it strangely were I started.
Taris: 30 minutes. Our group was competing with another. The piece ended up under a wall.
Dromund kaas: I came here twice on my alts, first time I didn't know I needed the scanner. About 20 minutes, did some instance swapping though.
Hoth was the most fun (fun fact: the "ambris's fury" is the place you got HK in the beta); as soon as we got here, we found about 25 meters (sounds like everyone had this). We were competing with a Sith, and eventually his 2 friends. Eventually, the Sith marauder dug it up. We grabbed it, and then the 5 of us, I a guardian, my friend a commando, a Sith marauder, a Sith sorcerer, and a sniper, had some good old fashion open-world PvP. We won.

Hmm I guess Hoth, which probably took over an hour, but that was because I was looking in the wrong area. I thought it was the huge ship in the graveyard, but apparently it was not ^^

Hoth: 7 hours.

Got so angry I almost unsubbed.

I've been looking all around the ship. Where did you find it?

You need an Alt on the other faction to complete the quest.