richb1492

My Feedback: (4)

I know most of us have had a crash in our lifetime.
What do most if you do with the equipment after a crash.

Engines and servos I think you know if they are god or not.
but radios are a bit scary...

1)Do you trash the battery and receiver?
2) Send the receiver in for service?
3) Get a new receiver?
I have noticed a lot of guys sell the receiver and buy new one after a crash.

Kinda seems to me unless you have a very expensive receiver its better too just get a new replacement. Cheaper I mean

gvetter

Im interested in this as well. I have reused receivers that have been drilled into the ground at mach 2 without incident so I really never thought much about this.

pilotrc

Put it into your freezer overnight..In the morning pull it out and try it...If it works, GREAT ,if not send it to the MFG for testing. the cold will contract the conections to FAIL OR NOT... Jim.

richb1492

My Feedback: (4)

I was looking on line and saw that you can get one checked for 25 dollars but it takes 2 weeks turn around so thats a long time to be down. On the other Hand you can get a new hobbico receiver with crystal for 49. I had a receiver that was crashed and It range tested perfect but I was just too scared to fly it so into the box - o - parts it went

flap

After 30 crashes, I send the rx's back to JR for service weather they need it or not.
Expect 2 to come home next week.

flicka5

My Feedback: (2)

Lost a big 1/4 scale model at a meet when model started to go funny. Sent the receiver in for check up at a service center and was told that receiver was "out of tune". So paid for the retuning and postage. Used one or two years and again lost a nice biplane at a meet when it also went funny. Guess I will stomp on that one!!

KJohn

Actually every part should be suspect after a crash. In otherwords assume every part has been damaged in some way unless proven otherwise. Precautions before the crash would be to wrap the receiver and the battery pack in the correct type of shock absorbing foam rubber. Also place the battery in front of the receiver so it does not act as a battering ram against the receiver during a crash.

One local repair facility fellow showed me a thin metal tray he built that would be used to hold one component at a time and he would actuate the component while changing the severity and frequency of vibration of the tray to give him confidence that the components will not act up when reinstalled in a fuselage that will vibrate due to engine vibration. He tested each component and the switch harness one at a time then all together. He stated he has been able to detect most problems using this testing method. Bad or weakened crystals, intermittant battery, broken component leads, bad solder connections, switch and servo wire connections, servo motor problems, broken or cracked servo gears are all possible problems. It was quite interesting. Stripped gears in servos and partially cut wires were always a possibility.

As far as what to do with each I guess it depends on the cost of replacement versus the cost of service of the item. The objective is to eliminate the possibility of yet another crash. If the equipment involved in a plane crash was later used in some type of R/C car (that remains on the ground) the severity of a future crash would most likely be lower than that of another crash of a plane. So if the equipment is kept it could be used in a lower risk, ground based application, at least until you were convinced it is operating to your satisfaction. And it could possibly be used to set up a new equipment installation on the bench but removed before the first flight and replaced with a component group that was never involved in a crash.

Ruralflyer

typically I use velcro to secure mine to the body of the plane and that acts as a simple shock absorber. Because it's not securely attached, im fairly certain that a crash won't hurt it. But, its a featherlight and most likely it would be difficult to harm one of those becuase it wouldn't have the momentum to bang itself around. Still, that freezer idea is a good tip.

richb1492

My Feedback: (4)

Would you trust a receiver you bought used or send it in to be checked first?

jmulder

My Feedback: (6)

I pack mine very well in foam rubber and then tape them up. After a crash I range check it and go again...............John

4*60

My Feedback: (41)

I've trusted receivers I've bought used and they've been good. I've trusted receivers I have crashed, but the crashes haven't ever been total wipeouts, and they have been good.
I've had repairs or checks on other items and they have been bad after checking out OK, according to the service.

If they range check, running, not running, etc. they should be good.

BruceLBarner

Geesh, I had a new receiver go out on it's first flight.....

I have never had a used, crashed receiver go bad while in flight yet. Course that doesn't mean I don't check it out before reusing it.
Ya don't throw the baby out with the bath water just because the water is dirty......

GRANT ED

I wrap my receiver in foam an attach it to the model with velcro. The receiver's i use mostly now (JR R700) are very light. It would require a monumental crash to damage it. Most of the components inside are surface mount any weigh virtually nothing. This means they have very little momentum forces acting on them in a crash. If you get the opportunity, try to pull a component off an old board. You will probably be surprised by how much force it takes. I have used receivers that have been in a crash before. I usually have them running on the bench and knock them around a bit to try to make them fail. If they pass (they always have so far) then its flying time.

Bill Vargas

My Feedback: (5)

Using crashed equipment from totaled out airplanes is a " Bad" idea!

"You mean to tell me",,, thats a crashed Rx in your brand new plane? ( I'll let you finish that one )

The chances of your new plane or the backup plane surviving the next flight are perty slim.

Spend the petty bucks,,, send it in and have it checked out.


BV
some just have to learn the hard way.

pinball-RCU

I agree with Grant Ed, that receivers are probably pretty hard to damage these days. If the case is not damaged in any way, I just fly. The chances of an internal injury that is so invisible it only shows up in a range check strikes me as extremely unlikely, particularly compared to a lot of other things that can happen to models that few people check. Do you think you can damage a transistor radio without damaging the case? I doubt it.

vtol_guy

my reciever has never once been range checked, even after about 5-7 crashes and 10 heavy landings, then again, i know that in each case it wasnt the fault of the reciever :stupid:

i have one Rx between 5 models lol, its such a pain changing it other between flights but guess what!!?? i'm getting my first new reciever on thursday!!!

i hope to get another new one shortly too, one each for my 3 main planes

krayzc-RCU

My Feedback: (31)

i have never had a receiver go bad that did not give me a warning 1st. IN my 3 years of flying only one receiver had needed to have the thing that holds the chyrstal intalled as the other one was starting to let the chip wooble.....

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I've crashed several planes and was able to reuse the receiver with no service, with one exception. The antenna wire pulled out and case was broken. Sent it in to Airtronics and they replaced it for $50.

Other than that I've had no problems with reusing the rx. If the crash is bad enough to damage the components, it's probably bad enough to damage the outside of the case. IMHO if the the case and rx looks good, it's probably good enough to fly.

Just my 2 cents worth

Kitbasher

I once bought a new radio out fit that had the receiver bad out of the box . I sent it back for warranty and when I got it back it still did not work. Then I sent it to a radio repair shop. When I got it back I diced not to risk it in a real plane so I run it in a SPAD .

rfw1953

My Feedback: (2)

After reading the responses to this thread I was honestly surprised by the number of people who fly with rx's after a crash without testing.

I recently lost a 1/4 scale Giles due to a Rx going nuts-so on me. The crash wasn't that horrific, but the plane was totaled. Meaning, I just didn't want to rebuild it after the crash. I sent the receiver in for testing. Cost 25.00. Two ceramic filters were cracked. The Mfg. said it was the results of a hard landing.

Did the filters crack before or after the crash?? The Rx was well padded in foam and the airplane and Rx were both fairly new. I did have one hard landing, but after minor repairs the airplane flew fine without incident for multiple flights. Prior to the crash I had completed a range check before the flight and everything checked out. The takeoff roll was perfect. Shortly after takeoff, IMHO, vibration, which could not have been detected by simply doing a range check, caused the receiver to malfunction. There was no physical damage to the receiver box before or after the crash. Had I used the Rx again, without having it checked out, I would have had the same results. In this example there would have been no way of knowing there was a problem without having the Rx properly tested.

Just my 2 cents, but seems like a game of chance to not test. In this one example I would have lost had I used the logic of doing a range check and looking for Rx box damage only.

tiggerinmk

I've not had any problems yet with my 'proper' receivers but then I've not had a real crash yet.

My JR R700 receiver that went through two trees in my Superstar 60 is currently flying around quite happily in an LT-40.

HOWEVER, I also have a GWS Tiger Moth that dropped out of the sky from about 100ft up due to running out of range. It fell into some bushes and may have hit trees on the way down. The plane was totally undamaged, with no apparent damage to the radio equipment either. When I got to the plane after the crash, the servos were twitching a lot. This continued to happen at home after a recharge.

As it happened there just happened to be a radio expert at the shop when I went to the LHS to get a 2nd opinion. Apparently, the crystal driver circuit is sensitive to vibration and the usual method of just sticking the receiver into this type of plan doesn't provide much in the way of protection from shock or vibration.
Sure enough, placing my crystal into a new GWS receiver restored the radio system back to life.

Maybe a decent full sized receiver wrapped in foam is resilient enough to stand a crash but a cheap park receiver might not be.

My new GWS receiver is just wedged into the TM fuse in the original rubbery foam from the box. I'm still not sure that I would trust it though if it had another similar crash.

richb1492

My Feedback: (4)

Cost of a having a receiver checked 25.00 Cost of a new receiver 50.00 Cost to repair or replace a plane Priceless

puffmaru-RCU

I decided to use a Rx from one of my crashed planes in a new plane. Why not? It range checked just fine. After I was airborne on a normal looking flight the plane suddenly did what looked like a continous lomchevak (Sp?) manuever into the ground. I removed the case from the Rx and examined the printed circuit board with a 10X jewlers loupe. Sure enough, there was a hairline crack in the ground return trace for all the servos. When this crack openeed all servos went full travel and stayed there, causing a spectacular crash. I soldered in a short wire bridge across the crack and the Rx has worked fine ever since. My point is that crash damage can be very subtle, and you should get the Rx checked out before using it again.
Puff

4*60

My Feedback: (41)

"Two ceramic filters were cracked. The Mfg. said it was the results of a hard landing. "

My point exactly. Were they there when the hard landing took place or when you dropped it on the garage concrete floor or the engine vibration caused the crack? How do they know what the cause is/was? I have worked with over confident clueless techs who were sure of everything(including the fix that doesn't fix it), and with knowledgable, excellent techs that were never sure of the cause because of many possibilities, but knew what the problem was and fixed it.

Bill Vargas

My Feedback: (5)

I just have to ask,,, Why do you guys put Crashed Rx's back into your Planes? Are you guys that impatient and can t wait to get back into the sky,,, only to lose another one?

You've spent hundreds on your new project and the time spent putting it together,,, and your gonna put a Crashed Rx into that new plane of yours?



BV