Marksw

I didnt like the sounds of working inside a plastic bag! so I took the controller back to the shop where I bought it from and asked if they offer a service of swapping the modes over. The model shop in Crossgates, Leeds swapped it over free of charge and it took them just a few minutes, so a big thanks to the model shop for a good after sales service.

Does anyone know if it is possible to change the mode of the new Futaba 2.4 6EX controller from mode 2 to mode 1? If so would it be easy enough for the instructions to be given here? Thanks for your help. Mark

Nicholas Things went way off the mark with this forum so I was going to leave it but I cannot resist replying to you. I havent tried what you suggested but will be in the future of electric flying even though I have replaced the electric motor with an IC motor for this particlar plane that I have replaced. HOWEVER I have found the problem. When throttling right back to an almost stop (found this on my test rig) the engine cuts out. It will not kick back in for a further 15 seconds. The servos are ok but bearing in mind I am inexperienced, the plane was going quite quick downwind(for me) I tucked the plane into a tight turn and as I opened the throttle during the turn there was nothing there and down came my plane. I have spoken to the shop and they say that none of these ESCs have been returned even though it would suggest that it is the ESC that is at fault, but they have agreed to replace it if faulty once they have seen the symptoms themselves.

Ok ok you lot, enough of the car and floyd business, even wifey's looking over my shoulder admiring the car! She'll have me selling the next plane before I even get it in the air so we can buy another blessed car!! To all.............. I have appreciated everyones input and I have learnt quite a bit. Downwind leg during extreemly windy conditions causing it to spiral out of control is the cause I like and not pilot error, so this will be the cause I shall stick to!! (Hmmm wonder if that in itself was pilot error!) Anyway, onwards and upwards and I'll attempt to remember the lessons learnt. Thank you.

Maybe I got a little carried away with the 'burst in flames'! The Li-Po went bang with quite a bang which was followed with a plume of smoke and when I got to the 'crash site' there was quite a deal of scorched wood around the nose cone!! However even after all this the receiver was still showing a green light and when I got back to the pits another flyer connected a voltage meter to the Li-Po which showed 7v. The ESC will hopefully be shown below:

Richard I am led to believe that if the Li-Po was to die, displayed by no more engine power there should still be enough power to power the receiver and servos. So I am led to believe as it should be a design feature. However the crash had followed a refuel (brand new fully charged Li-Po) to which the plane had flown for less than a minute on. Every suggested angle seems to leave me stumped! But thanks for the input. Mark

The components (scorched and muddy) are laid out in front of me at the moment being inspected which I'll come back to. Moments before it fell out of the sky the plane was being flown in large rectangles over the field. It all went wrong during one of the turns. It was a turn it had performed before but as it should have started to pull out of the turn it turned towards earth. It was at quite a hight when it turned earthwards and it fell at a hell of a speed but during the fall the plane was not responding to any commands. Nothing at all. When we got to the plane there was still enough power left in the damaged Li-Po to power the receiver as the green LED was still illuminated and was connected/communicating to the transmitter. I should also point out that as it fell the display was still showing on the transmitter so it wasn’t as though the power had failed there. Before I install any of the electronics in my new plane (when it arrives) I am going to see if I can build a test rig from the crashed components to see if any anomalies can be replicated. My big frustration is not knowing the cause so I don’t know how to even attempt to avoid it happening again. PS: 1. I hadn’t used fuel tubing on the clevises but that was picked up at the field when it was checked and was therefore rectified. 2. I am glad you knew what i meant by my Harry Carry (Hara Kiri) thanks for the correction. My spelling is not as good as what it should be!

I would stick to 'proper' engines if life were so simple and you could guarantee that this couldnt happen to an IC. But funnily enough I witnessed an IC plane meet its maker at the weekend too. Not sure whos hands it was in though when it decided to commit Harry Carry!! However I am going to clutch at a straw and replace the ESC with a different one and run the servos from Ni-Cads next time. Mark

After quite a long drawn out build of my ARTF plane I took it for its maiden flight yesterday. Bearing in mind I had never flown either so I had recruited some expert help to fly the plane for me. At the field I received some kind compliments on how well my Thunder Tiger Trainer OBL had been put together and choice of components which included: Futaba 2.4Ghz controller and Receiver Thunder Tiger Ripper 36 motor FlightPower Evo 25 11.1v 2700 Li-Po Following lots of checks, particularly build quality/stability checks my friend and extremely experienced flyer launched my plane. To see my hard work fly was just amazing especially considering it was quite windy. He spent a few minutes trimming the controller until he was happy where he pronounced the plane to be quite a delight to fly as well as being easy to fly. Stood extremely close he handed me the controller where I flew a few rectangles before handing it back for its landing. It landed perfectly and I was elated!! Following a battery swap and a discussion he took the plane to the air again, but this time whilst taking the third turn of the rectangle the plane turned quite quickly towards to earth and down it came. It was at quite a hight at this stage so the nose buried itself when it ploughed into the earth, then the Li-Po went up with a quick flame and lots of smoke, even though I had built up some foam on the firewall protruding screws. An airbag wouldn't have protected the Li-Po it hit the ground so hard! Once we got to the plane the Li-Po fire had gone out, quickly, which had not caused much damage, but the plane was destroyed. My friend and others at the field were quite amazed at what had happened. How could a 2.4Ghz controlled plane be 'shot' out of the sky because that is how they described the behaviour, even though we know that this should be almost impossible. No one at the field could give me any answers other condolences. Can anyone here suggest what may have caused this accident? I didn’t use separate Ni-Cads for the receiver which pulled its power from the Li-Po via the ESC which was a Ulso DL 60A+ 2-3 Lixxx. Could the ESC have caused a power 'glitch' to the receiver which caused it to loose the controller? Should I look at sending the controller and receiver back to Futaba, even if it is just to request they give it a clean bill of health? I would love some ideas even if they are guesses as to what might have gone wrong, even if it is to give me a little confidence in my second build. I wont be put off by this and went hunting for another T T Trainer OBL which I have found and ordered but I desperately don’t want the same thing to happen again. (My wife and bank balance wont allow it!) so if there are any ideas please let me know. Thanks Mark

Guys Your help has been great and I have severely over complicated the issue. As I would expect you have been completely right and it is now behaving normal when power is applied from the LiPo battery. The plane will hopefully go on its maiden flight this weekend (not in my hands of course, just yet) so please keep your fingers crossed. Mark

Timbo It seems to be the only way I can power the servos down without unplugging the LiPo. I know this isnt much hassle but I wanted to have the servos and motor switched. I hope this makes sense! Please tell me if you think I have gone down the wrong path, bearing in mind my very badly described original problem was that as soon as I connected the LiPo to the ESC, the Reciever (which I incorrectly called the TX/RX) powered up supplying power to the servos, irrespective of the small on/off switch which I had installed and connected to port 6 on the receiver. Mark

I appreciate the help. I have been told that the ESC is designed to do this so that the LiPo can be used to power the servos but if I dont want this to be the case all I have to do is remove the middle pin on the ESC connector which connects to the receiver. (masking it up correctly so it cant short out) I have done this and the behavour is now what I would epect. Mark

The image above (if you can view it) is a basic wiring diagram of the four main components where I have an issue. I have the motor (Thuder Tiger Ripper 36 series, without prop - thanks for the advice) connected to the ESC (Pulso DL60) which in turn is connected to my LiPo battery (Evo 25 3s) When I plug the ESC into the receiver on port 3 it powers up showing initally a red LED then going green. This is providing power to the two servos i currently have connected and power to the motor. Surely this shouldnt happen without the plane being switched on yet, or am I wrong? Please help again.

Thanks for the replies so far. I will be working on my plane on Sunday so will let you know how successful I have been following your instructions. The prop will most definately stay off! I do hope it is operator error and I can find the error of my ways. Thanks again. Mark

Hi, I am completely new to model flying and building so my selection of plane and equipment was difficult. After many visits to the model shop and four months worth of buying RCM/E I purchased a Thunger Tiger Trainer OBL electric. After reading all the hype regarding controllers I bought the Futaba 2.4Ghz. I am now quite close to finishing the build (some would have completed the build in a night but it has taken me some weeks!) but I now have a dilema that I dont want to second guess. I bought a Pulso dl 60 amp ESC which the model shop me to connect to the 3rd port on the TX/RX, however when I do this it powers up the TX/RX even with the power switch set to off. I haven't charged the Lipo battery yet but it was connected but regardless of the throttle setting the motor did not spin. Could someone please tell me what could be wrong and why the TX/RX is powering up, maybe even tell me what i have done wrong. Any help is appreciated. Mark