Steve Colman Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 An absolutely beautiful day for flying today; the best so far this year in fact. Clear blue sky, almost zero wind and temperatures a tad under 20c. So, in anticipation of a great morning of flying ahead I spent around 90 minutes at the field this morning carefully completeing the final set up of the control throws of my newly completed HK Avios Grand Tundra. including low, medium and high rates. Happy with everything, I then rebound the Rx to my DX8 and moved onto the CG and got that sorted. At this stage everything is moving forward smoothly and with the help of a friend a range test is the final order of the day before committing to flight. So with the flight battery plugged in and a brief check that all surfaces are moving, and the motor functions, my friend watches over the model while I walk the 30 paces or so wiggling the sticks as I go although not yet pressing the range check button and all seems to be OK. I stop at a reasonable distance and do the range check proper and get absolutely no response from the model; in fact it just emits a steady beep. This process was repeated a few more times with the same result. Upon a more detailed inspection the LED of the Rx was not lit, indicating no voltage from the ESC. What I don't understand is that the ESC was supplying volts to the Rx for the duration of my earlier set-up routine and the problem only manifested itself when doing the range check. I've followed this procedure many times with a variety of models and ESC's and Rx's and have never had this outcome before. There was much head scratching among us but no satisfactory solution was forthcoming. Unfortunately, I didn't have an alternative ESC to try so still have no idea whether it's the ESC or the Rx that's the problem. The Rx is a Spektrum DMSX compatible (Admirable) from Motion RC which I bought after reading some good reviews. The next opportunity I have to go to the field I'll take a spare ESC to try. If I get the same result then it's most probably the Rx I guess. So, what started off as a day of anticipation and excitement ended in dejection and disappointment and a perfect day for flying wasted. However, if it were not for the fact that I carried out the range test, things could have been much, much worse! If anyone has any ideas re the problem I'll be very pleased to hear from you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marsh Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Well, obviously you are not in UK, I've only flown twice since July last year. This weekend has had two months of rain and 70mph winds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerman Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Blimey where does Steve live .Like Paul I have hardly flown this year with all these storms, fog and God knows what else .I have a model to maiden and I can not see and end to all this crap weather .Next week is bad again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 You are not getting all the crap weather. I'm a thousand kilometres south of Reading. 4th flood of the winter passed through last weekend. I know the distance. A nearby town has a signpost and compass. Moscow is a long way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 A check with a spare Rx nicad pack instead of ESC power would be worthwhile. It could be the ESC just failed at that point. I had a new ESC fail on a maiden flight yet went OK again after everything was inspected. A 'soak' test later on the bench revealed an intermittant glitch that caused a loss of power for a few moments and then righted itself. Took many minutes running OK then did it again. Scrapped the ESC! A check that type of Rx actually does /should actually light the LED under normal conditions and also under range check is perhaps the first step. Perhaps that type of Rx has a different LED arrangement. In any case sort it out at home and don't wait until getting to the field - no temptation to just see if it will fly! Edited By kc on 16/02/2020 17:37:33 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis Watkins Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Posted by Don Fry on 16/02/2020 16:35:01: You are not getting all the crap weather. I'm a thousand kilometres south of Reading. 4th flood of the winter passed through last weekend. I know the distance. A nearby town has a signpost and compass. Moscow is a long way. There is a big big swathe of rain heading your way Don, at this time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Colman Posted February 16, 2020 Author Share Posted February 16, 2020 Thanks for the replies everyone. given me a few ideas to check out. Tigerman, I live in Northern Spain. It's just occured to me that in all my setting up this morning I didn't actually get round to calibrating the ESC for throttle range. Could it be going into program mode ?. This might explain the beeps after the range check failure. Edited By Steve Colman on 16/02/2020 19:25:56 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 steve, the only consideration of a maiden, is to take a reasonably undamaged airframe home. Take your time. Dennis, cheers, half an inch, drought conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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