mschulz531

Wireless,

Sorry to hear about the loss of your Beloved Raptor...it is always painful to watch a cherished airframe tear itself apart and feel powerless to stop it from happening. What exact failure were you referring to? I went back and read the last few pages of this thread and a number of issues were talked about...perhaps you can provide more specific details about what happened in your case, and then we might be able to learn as a group what may have happened/what we may be able to do as users of this radio to prevent it from happening in the future. Again, sorry for your loss.

-Mike

Wireless

Apologies Mike, I should have been clearer. My failure was that of an orange wire connecting to the back of the gimbal for the right-hand stick in my RDS8000 Tx.

I just spoke to Airtronics in California who confirmed that a small number of early radios are affected by this problem. This rings true as I pre-ordered my RDS8000 combo through Tower Hobbies before they were released so it's an early unit for sure.

I popped the back off my Tx and took this photo. I highlighted the offending wire.

Kind Regards,

Rup

parpar1

Sorry about your bird going in. I was almost bitten by this bug.
Just wanted to drop you note on fixing it. Replace the wire with servo extension(s). Notice that the little dap of goop placed as a strain relief is very hard. I believe this cuts the wire like a knife in the radios that have the tight wire issue. Anyways if you do not replace all the gimble wires be sure to put some silicone or other soft adhisive on there to function as the strain relief so it has some give.
Or do what i did go get SD10.

Again sorry that you lost your heli.

Glad no one gothit/hurt

Wireless

Thanks for the info parpar1,

I might well replace the wire myself. I guess I am going to be down for a good month plus if I send my radio back to Aitronics in CA for repair as I live in Switzerland. I am a proficient and experienced solderer so no problem replacing the wires for me. I see what you mean about the strain relief. I'll modify that to ensure it doesn't happen again.

I'll look into this - I guess my repair will be every bit as good as that of Airtronics.

Rup

hy flyr

My Feedback: (27)

After seeing that picture I pulled the back off my tx and checked my wires. They all have a strain relief with a blob of silicone or sometning to keep it from pulling free. On another note, I realized that since I'm using duel elevator mixing, I can't get my left elevator to work on the fail safe function. That's not good at all. No way do I want to go back to a y-harness.

Flight Risk

My Feedback: (1)

All radios have strain relief and some silicone type stuff, but that isn't keeping them from failing. You may still want to add a tad more flexible silicone up the wires a bit. And still keep a close eye on it. IMO.

RS

parpar1

If the strain relief is not to keep the wires from failing / pulling free, then what is it there for?

Flight Risk

My Feedback: (1)

The strain relief keeps the wires from pulling lose, but not from failing. Look at this photo of my Tx. It looks like the wire is sliced just beyond the glue. It's difficult to imagine how this happens, but I think a tool used during assembly cracks the sub-standard wire. Airtronics should have issued a recall or at least a notice on this problem. It can affect any wire on either side.

RDS

parpar1

Thanks for the photo. That is the first one i have seen where it looks like the wire stripper tool bit thru it. Ya i would replace all of them if you are going to do it. AS you have probably read, servo extensions are great replacements.

They are not going to recall. Not enough bad ones.

tewitt1949

My 72 mg(8000) airtronics radio did exactually the same thing. The wire, about 1/2 inch from the silicone type stuff looked like someone cut the wire with a nail clipper. I think during assembly the wire stripper cut the insulation then recut it again. Thats why its such a clean break/cut.

jcvt

My Feedback: (2)

Was this problem fixed in the new models SD-6g and SD-10? or still using same wires?

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

I've never heard of the problem in the SD-10 after lots and lots of flights.

Pippin

SD5/6G radios have different gimbals with no moving wires. In fact, both radios have got the VG400/600 gimbals.

http://globalservices.globalhobby.com/part/RP0006.asp

The SD-10G gimbals are one of the best available today. These are new designs featuring ball bearings.

jcvt

My Feedback: (2)

Great!! What about sd-10.?

jcvt

My Feedback: (2)

Answered , thank you.

tewitt1949

I can fix the wire problem so that don't bother me all that much. I wish Airtronics would fix the black screen and sun problem. That I can't fix. If they would fix that black screen problem I'd probably upgrade and buy a new one.

The Juice

My Feedback: (1)

C-mix question. I am trying to set up my thrust vectoring using the c-mix. I have the left to right servo mixed with the rudder, and the up down vectoring servo mixed with the elevator. When I turn on the mix with the switch only one servo comes to life and it moves to almost full throw in one direction but does seem to match the rudder. The other servo doesn't respond at all. How much compensation do I want to put in, full 100% in each direction? Is there anything I am missing?

animan2008

I have a different issue with my RDS800 antenna. The metal pins go thru 2 plastic Y's which allow the antenna to fold up and down. Those have split apart, so I can now easily lift the antenna plastic outer shield off at any time. Glue will not work on it because of the forces involved.

The idea shown with the fuel tubing concerns me because the 2.4 GHz antenna wire is supposed to move freely as the antenna is rotated. If it binds on the friction of the silicone tube, you will eventually wear out the ground shield and possibly break the antenna center conduction lead. I think that is why airtronics kept it so wide open.