Piccboard Plus Problem......

Hi there,

I recently bought a Piccoboard Plus and installed it yesterday... when everything is connected, I connect the battery and then the servos swing out of place and the tail rotor goes crazy. I then uplugged everything and according to the instructions plugged everything in ... waited 9 sec. by then the tail rotor was going crazy again. If I make any movements with the Radio control... NOTHING.

I then too the crystal out and pluged it into another plane of mine and everything works just fine....

Enyone got ideas???

(GERMAN VERSION)

ich habe ein Piccoboard Plus bestellt und gestern installiert... wenn man es alles einschaltet zittert alles und dann dreht der Heckrotor durch...

wenn ich mit der Fehrnsteurung links order rechts gehe.. passiert nichts.

ich habe alles wieder ausgesteckt und sicher gemacht das richtig eingesteckt ist und wenn ich es wieder einstecke, spinnt es schon wieder.

Jetzt bin ich ratlos.

Hasst jemand vielleicht Ideen??

[MRP]

Hi,

just a couple of basic checks - so that the real experts can answer your question.

Did the board initialise - ie did the red light actually come on ?

Are you using a single or dual conversion Rx crystal ?

It might be worth posting your setup - radio, crystals etc. just in case there are any specifics.

Good luck
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Hi there,

Yes the board did initialise.. (red light came on) and I have a 75Mhz Piccoboard Plus (Fatuba) and using a Futaba 6XAS Radio. The wierd thing is that as soon as the board initialises, the servo arms almost swing out of place... and don't stop twitching.

[soundman]

Firstly - have you got all the channels plugged right?

You haven't said what TX you're using.....I started with a Futaba, now I'm on a JR.....the channel layout is significantly different between the 2 - & might be able to cause the problem that you're describing.

I'd say to unplug both motors - & turn on the piccoboard to check to see if the servos are plugged in the right place.....I kind of suspect that they're not.

Then add the tail motor - & check to see if the right channel is controlling it......then finally add the main motor.

This is going to be the easiest method to find out whats going on. You won't be as freaked out either without the motors plugged in. Try & take it in logical steps....you may even want to try using 1 servo, & plug it into each piccoboard output - to find out which channel is which.

You may also have some of the channels reversed on your Tx.

Give this ago....if it still doesn't work out - give us some more info & we'll try & help out.

Hope this helps

Soundman

[pgoelz]

It sounds like the receiver is either not on your transmitter frequency or is configured for the wrong shift. The crazy servo movement is in response to random noise.

Are you sure that the receiver packaged with the Piccoboard is the correct one for A) Futaba, and B) 75 MHz?

And what about the receiver crystal? Are you SURE it is the right one? Unless the other receiver you mentioned is a single conversion receiver, Piccolo crystals will not work in other receivers.

If you had the receiver plugged into the wrong receiver channels, the servos and motors would possibly not respond but they would not move randomly.

See my web site under Hints and Tips, in the radio and electronics section.

Oh, almost forgot.... the Piccoboard WILL initialize if there is no signal from the receiver. It is one of the things I have discovered while reverse engineering the board. The initialization LED seems to indicate successful gyro setup, and is independant of the receiver signal. However, if the gyro setup fails, the outputs are inhibited. So if you have a bad or missing receiver signal the board could still initialize.

[LoefflerHans]

If all your servos go crazy it has nothing to do with the piccoboard itself, it is the receiver or crystal - has to be single conversion. Another possibilty is wrong transmitter setup - PCM versus PPM. If that is the case, put your radio to PPM, and then you turn it off and on again.
Viel Erfolg bei der Fehlersuche.

Hi there,

I am using the Crystal that came with my Radio (Futaba 6XAS 72MHz), I guess it is the a Dual Conversion. I'll have to check it tonight.

I am however sure that the product that Ikarus sent me is the Piccoboard Plus 72MHz. I'll also play around with the jumpers (JR and Futaba)

Thanks for the tips..

[MRP]

Futaba Xtals have an Orange stripe on the frequency label if they are Dual conversion - plain white label if they are single.

Hope that is your problem - at least that one is easy to fix [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[LoefflerHans]

TX doesn't matter - RX has to be single conversion for the Receiver supplied from Ikarus. Had the same problem, caused a headache for 2 hrs.....

[pgoelz]

Just checking.... you said in an earlier post that the transmitter was 75 MHz, but later you said 72 MHz. The two frequency ranges are of course not compatible. Just checking...

And as far as I know, Futaba does not make a single conversion receiver, so it is likely that the crystal you have is dual conversion. That will cause your exact symptoms.