Bing Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I recently had an model aircraft that I lost signal to that crashed. This aircraft had flown many times without any problems. The radio used was a Spektrum DX7 with a AR 7000 receiver. The battery used was a 2000 mah 6volt on the receiver and 2400mah on the transmitter all fully charged on that day. plugged into the receiver was an eco-cam as well as the normal aircraft controls. The aircraft took off ok and had been flying for about 8mins when the engine went to low revs( which I assume was fail safe) and none of the controls functioned resulting in a slow glide to crashing, I looked at the receiver voltage at the time and it was 11volts. I have tried to replicate this with the radio at home as it still works despite the crash and cannot find fault with it, the only way it will do this is to switch off the trannie. Any ideas out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 was it the eco cam drawing too much juice once the esc had gone into fail safe.might be an idea to run the cam on a separate battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 No way should the receiver voltage be 11 Volts - is that a typo?Besides, it doesnt sound like a voltage issue ( brown out ) more like a signal loss, which is an entirely different thing.Now , as to the cause, well here we go again......Any number of things could be responsible, such as signal swamped by unknown transmission, rx aerial poorly located, damaged, or masked by engine etc, transmitter power output low, tx aerial damaged, loose connection inside, faulty RF board, faulty receiver, signal lost through obstruction to line of sight, etc etc etc.Unfortunately, these things can and do happen, and no radio gear is completely guaranteed against such things. I suggest the best course of action is to return the tx and rx to HH and ask them to thoroughly check it over. They wont confirm it was duff ( if it was ) but it should give you some peace of mind for future use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Posted by tony bennett on 30/08/2011 11:30:21: was it the eco cam drawing too much juice once the esc had gone into fail safe.might be an idea to run the cam on a separate battery. Engine was mentioned, so I am assumnng an IC model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I agree, the implication is an IC model and it looks like a classic case of signal loss. I don't know about Spektrum but on Futaba gear the rx light goes red if there has been a signal loss - if this is the same with the AR7000 did you happen to notice if it was the case? (Assuming you left your Tx on whilst retrieving the model!) Tim's right, best to get it throughly checked over. If not, the only other thing I can suggest is an extended, multi-point, range check. The problem is there are so many reasons that this could happen. BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Mackey Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Nope, the LED (orange) on the AR7000 has three modes as follows. 1) rapid flashing = rx is in bind mode2) solid = rx is locked to Tx3) slow flashing = has suffered brown out ( POWER drop only - NOT signal related ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Posted September 2, 2011 Author Share Posted September 2, 2011 Thanks everyone for posting your comments, I will be conducting some tests myself over the coming days and maybe flying a small foam model to see what happens. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Posted October 5, 2011 Author Share Posted October 5, 2011 Hi everyone, thought I'd keep you posted about the radio problem.I've flown a small aircraft with the same transmitter with a different receiver, no problems at all. I then rebuild the plane that crashed and installed the same receiver and battery as before but no eco-cam. Did a 360 degree range check to see if things still operated and have flown the plane six times with no clitches of any kind so I can only say there was some kind of interference from the eco- cam or a fault in the electronics of the eco- cam. Cheers all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Ah well - alls well that ends well! You'll just have to put it down to "one of those things" BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jenkins Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Ah - reminds me of the loss of my Wind 110 which suddenly pitched nose down at 150 ft and would not subsequently answer any control inputs from the Tranny! Both the Rx (AR6200) and Tx (JR DSX9) got clean bills of health from HHUK and MacGregor. Subsequently, I replaced the completely reliable AR6200 in my Capiche with my JR RD921 and have not had a problem with the all JR set-up. I also bought a Spectrum data logger (£20 or so) and installed that in the Capiche. This small gadget checks Rx aerial performance, data frame losses and holds (I take this to mean the Rx has lost signal). After my first flight with the data logger the indications were aerial glitches in the high 80s, but no frame losses or holds. Every time I have checked the logger has also produced very similar results i.e. no frame losses and no holds. This has given me some peace of mind and I would suggest you invest in a data logger to check out your Rx performance. However, you must check the data logger before you turn off Rx power and the lead must be plugged into the data port. Consequently, the logger only functions with 7 Channel and above Rxs which is a shame as I cannot check the AR6200 and AR500 that I have and which I am now very wary of fitting to any precious airframe - aren't they all though! Anyone else used the Spectrum data logger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazygit Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Posted by Bing on 05/10/2011 10:49:57: ................... as before but no eco-cam. Did a 360 degree range check to see if things still operated and have flown the plane six times with no clitches of any kind so I can only say there was some kind of interference from the eco- cam or a fault in the electronics of the eco- cam. Cheers all No, you can say that only if you tried it again with the eco-cam, and the fault reappeared. Anything else is guessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Posted April 19, 2014 Author Share Posted April 19, 2014 I had excactly the same thing that happened to me in fact I could have written the same report. I had the Eco-Cam connected at the time, I asked the 'Forum' at the time they couldn't come up with why?.I never used the Eco-Cam again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 Unless I'm very much mistaken, you DID write the same report, Bing - you are the OP of this thread. Is this deja vu or are we just in a time-warp? Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ashby - Moderator Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 I want whatever Bing's on Edited By David Ashby - RCME on 19/04/2014 17:39:12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bing Posted April 20, 2014 Author Share Posted April 20, 2014 It's a touch of the sun, by the way thanks for the prezzie its was a welcome surprise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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