Drops like a rock -Tx or Rx?

[alee75]

I have a problem which has bothered me for quite some time. My pic suffers from the tail and main motor cutting out (at seperate times). I had one picoboard go bad -this was confirmed by the induvidual I sold it to (yes, they knew before buying it). I was surprised when my NEW picoboard started doing it too. -I was even more suprised when it STILL did it after installing seperates with brushless motor and a HH gyro. The tail is all over the place. Before, it wold just piruette uncontrollably till hitting the ground. I have gone though 3 tail motors, 2 of them pro motors, just to rule that much out.
The ONLY thing I have not replaced is one servo, the Tx, and a few mechanical bits. I tried using another Futaba Tx that I had, instead of my regular Hitec, but it doesn't seem to be compatible with the GWS single conversion Rx I am using (which was also replaced earlier on -neither receiver has worked with it). I have paid close attention to placement of components, antenna, flying location, binding, loose wires EVERYTHING! Nothing makes a difference. I have no glitching in my servos, on the ground, in the air, never. I have held it while spinning up to flight RPM just to check. Only the throttle and tail channels mess up. ...What the heck do I do now -get a priest to do an exercism?
Oh, one last thing, some days it will fly almost perfectly, some days it will fly for a short time before dropping to the ground, and some days it screws up so bad I can't even leave the ground.
What do I replaced next?

Have you tried either replacing that 'one servo' or just leaving that channel empty? I had one servo that was causing all hell to break loose with my Pic ... replaced it and all was hunky dory again! It turned out the servo driver circuit was drawing too much current, which dropped the voltage of the BEC circuit far too low screwing up everything connected to the Rx [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[alee75]

I have an spare servo. Never really thought about that, because it isn't buzzing or acting up at all. It's worth a try.
-BUT if it was a servo driver, it seems that would be a consistent problem, not an intermittent one. How did yours act when it was screwing up, Hogster? (I'm currently at work and not able to perform a check on it)

[alee75]

Thanks for the input Turco, but my Tx has good Nicds in it (no PPM mode either), and those micro deans connectors are exactly what I am currently using for the battery connection.

You said you tried everything but one servo and the Tx so I'm assuming you have tried different esc for both main and tail motors. What about your settings for the Phoenix 10 especially "current limiting" option 9.2

[alee75]

Well, as far as trying different Esc's for the tail and main, no -but it was doing the exact same thing when I had the piccoboard in it. The tail would cut out for a second, or occasionally the main motor would. I thought it was another bad piccoboard so I went seperates to get away from them.
It is still doing the same thing. As far as set up for the Phoenix 10, I programed it exactly as you reccomended in the following post.

http://www.ikarus-modellbau.de/ubbth...rue#Post266651

[alee75]

Hogster, I tried the new servo Saturday morning. I was so excited when I lifted off prblem free, and just hovered perfectly stable. Oh how awesome. I was so excited that I landed and called Radd to tell him the good news (waking him up -whoops, time difference)
Unfortunatly, when I went back out to the garage to resume my flight, well ...the tail started glitching so bad again that I couldn't get it off the stinkin ground. When I finally did manage to get it airborn my main motor cut and it fell about 4 feet. It bounced pretty good, but stayed on the skids and in one piece.

-Anybody else care to wager a guess before I break down and buy a new Tx AND Rx. (Figure if I only buy one, it will end up being the other.) Having the upcoming week off, I am too impatient to wait for the mail, and Nashville is too long a drive to make back to back.

Dead tail motor maybe? How many hours that tail motor has had on it do you reckon?

[alee75]

Third tail motor I've tried total ...MAYBE has 1.5 hours on it, IF that much. Brand-new brushless is cutting out too, just like the Piccoboard controlled 310 that was in before it. -I went totally seperates, all new stuff. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
Only the Tx has not been replaced. (Rx was replaced earlier, but maybe it is having problems? -My GWS Rx DEFINATLY will not work correctly with my Futaba Tx). Figure if I get a Hitec feather, maybe even if the Rx isn't my problem, at least I can replace the Hitec Laser5 TX that I am currently using with my Futaba 6A.

[edarter]

you said you are using Deans connectors for the battery - but do you have connectors for either of the motors to the ESC's ? I used to use 2mm gold ones but these gave me no end of problems, tail twitching and main motor power loss (albeit not enough to crash - just glitches). I traced it back to these connectors purely by chance. Had the head off on the bench one day working on it, fired up the main motor and happened to knock one of the connectors, a noticable glitch in power to the motor happened which immediately had me examining the connectors. Ripped all the connectors off (also qute a nice weight saving) figuring I only need to disconnect once in a blue moon and haven't looked back since - no more twitches !