Gordon Bushell Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Hello all, I had my first flights (and lessons) with an e-flite apprentice today. It is second hand, and has had a bit of life before I got it. The first flight was fine, no problems encountered in around 10 minutes, and used around 1000mAh from the standard battery pack. I then recharged the battery, while awaiting the second flight. On flight two, everything went well for a couple of minutes, and then the plane performed an unexpected (and uncommanded) roll, before coming back under command. After a 180 turn to get back to the field (the instructor took control) another roll was performed, again uncontrolled. We landed the plane, and checked the battery, controls, and range tested, but all seemed fine. We relaunched, and again after a few moments had an uncontrolled roll. All the rolls were from straight and level flight, with the plane trimmed for hands off flying. I have since discovered the DSMX recall, and it seems my transmitter is included - are these the symptons you would expect? Obviously, the transmitter will now be going away (I've had it for over a year, but circumstances delayed my learning to fly - the transmitter has been on the shelf). If not, where else would you look? The ESC is the standard one for the plane, and all the servos appear to operate smoothly and correctly. All in all, I was glad to be taking the thing home in one piece! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Gordon are you able to set it all up, switch it all on and then turn the Tx off, to see what the ailerons do? If you do, take the propeller off first for safety reasons If turning the Tx off makes the ailerons move enough for that roll, then it sounds like it went into failsafe - i.e. lost Tx signal. However i don't think that Rx has presettable failsafe sot it is unlikely it will. Next. With the Tx off, power up the plane, and let us know where the ailerons go to then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bushell Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Chris, Thanks for the reply. I saw a model unexpectedly remove itself from the field during radio programming (throttle channel reversal) yesterday - that hadn't had the prop removed, sadly, and slightly scarily. Once all is up and running, turning the tx off results in the throttle closing and all other controls remaining at last command (though the ailerons relax slightly if they are at the extents of their travel) . This is as I understand the failsafe to operate, from reading the book. The second test requires a trip to the garage, so will have to wait until tomorrow. From memory I believe the servos were all going to neutral with the tx off on initial power up before the flights. They certainly were NOT going to extremes of travel. I did not look at the LED on the rx to check for brown out, though if the servos were at last command, then they should have been pretty close to straight and level. I think from the rate of roll that there must have been a fair amount of control deflection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Sounds like your thinking is already ahead of me Gordon. Try the test when you get chance just to eleminate the brownout/ Rx reset. It sounds more like an uncommanded servo movement to me. All can think of here is a faulty Rx or servo, or a dodgy connection somewhere between servo and Rx.. Although there is the chance of interference getting into the servo leads. This has to be very strong though to get in that way. Do any servo wires run close to the power wiring or ESC? If so, there's a possibility. Best practice is to separate these as much as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 There were some issues with early DSMx Tx's with DSM2 Rx's, a club collegue lost a couple of planes with his Dx8 when flying DSM2 planes and the planes did unexpected things much like you describe. His Dx8 went back to Horizon who reflashed the firmware and since it's been fine, I'd send your Tx back to Horizon with a note asking them to check it out, even if they don't find a fault they should update the firmware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Sounds like good advice from Frank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVID CLIFFORD Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Gordon, send your Tx back to horizon along with the Rx. They will update the firmware on both free of charge and not charge postage back. They had issues with AR500's losing bind and they solved this with the update. I sent all mine back as i had 9 at the time and got them all back in 3 days, two of them having been replaced with new ones. Horizon are great with customer support. go to the website first and give them a call they are real nice people and will help you as much as they can. It is worth it not losing a model or hurting someone with an out of control one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I concur with Frank and David's recommendation. The symptoms aren't far removed from the incidents I had before my DX8 went back for the DSMX/DSM2 firmware fix - I was fortunate to get away with a soft landing of my E-Flite Sea Fury - inverted! Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bushell Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 Thank you all. The plane powers up tx off with neutral controls. I've arranged to send the tx and rx back for checking/updating. Hopefully that'll sort it. In the meantime I'll go over all the other electrics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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