E Flite 400 3D goes haywire!
12-29-2012, 04:13 PM
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E Flite 400 3D goes haywire!
Well this was scary.. 
I have almost no heli experience, but about 15 yrs on airplanes and a brief stint with ground vehicles. A friend of mine gave me his E Flite 400 and Spektrum Tx, which he hasn't flown for years. I've been fooling with it for about a week, going over the exercises on rchelicopterfun.com. Today I had 3 hovering flights in the driveway with no issue, and put it away. Later in the day I took it out for another practice run and here's what it did:
Tx switched on, showing 6.0 v. Fresh charge on the heli batt. Plugged the heli battery in, and the esc did a series of double beeps and didn't stop beeping, so something was wrong. But I don't know heli's and didn't know what it was telling me. The swash plate would move, but it seemed slower than I remember. It would not spool up. So I put it away for a bit and then decided to trouble shoot it in my basement a little later. Same beeping from of the esc, only this time the heli spooled up on its own! With the Tx on and throttle at zero. It actually lifted off, and I quite literally ran out of the room until it hit the wall and broke the rotors.
If it was naive of me to plug in the battery when I knew there were Rx issues, then so be it. Chastise me. But I read in the Spektrum manual this week about fail safe programming in trouble conditions, so I didn't know the risk. I sure as hell do now.
Can anyone tell me what I should do next? New rotors are in order, obviously, but what does constant double-beeping mean? Why would it spool up like that? I found no troubleshooting guide in the manual. Any help appreciated, because I was actually gaining confidence in hovering, but this was scary as hell and right now I don't trust the thing. Thoughts?
I have almost no heli experience, but about 15 yrs on airplanes and a brief stint with ground vehicles. A friend of mine gave me his E Flite 400 and Spektrum Tx, which he hasn't flown for years. I've been fooling with it for about a week, going over the exercises on rchelicopterfun.com. Today I had 3 hovering flights in the driveway with no issue, and put it away. Later in the day I took it out for another practice run and here's what it did:
Tx switched on, showing 6.0 v. Fresh charge on the heli batt. Plugged the heli battery in, and the esc did a series of double beeps and didn't stop beeping, so something was wrong. But I don't know heli's and didn't know what it was telling me. The swash plate would move, but it seemed slower than I remember. It would not spool up. So I put it away for a bit and then decided to trouble shoot it in my basement a little later. Same beeping from of the esc, only this time the heli spooled up on its own! With the Tx on and throttle at zero. It actually lifted off, and I quite literally ran out of the room until it hit the wall and broke the rotors.
If it was naive of me to plug in the battery when I knew there were Rx issues, then so be it. Chastise me. But I read in the Spektrum manual this week about fail safe programming in trouble conditions, so I didn't know the risk. I sure as hell do now.
Can anyone tell me what I should do next? New rotors are in order, obviously, but what does constant double-beeping mean? Why would it spool up like that? I found no troubleshooting guide in the manual. Any help appreciated, because I was actually gaining confidence in hovering, but this was scary as hell and right now I don't trust the thing. Thoughts?
12-30-2012, 02:40 PM
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RE: E Flite 400 3D goes haywire!
Double beeps mean that there is no throttle signal from the transmitter. Either that or it was receiving a signal that was not zero throttle.
About the servos moving slowly, I am not so sure about this. The sign of a low battery is usually your headspeed dropping.
Upon reading your paragraph when it spooled up by itself, I think it may be a faulty ESC. What spektrum Rx does it have?
About the servos moving slowly, I am not so sure about this. The sign of a low battery is usually your headspeed dropping.
Upon reading your paragraph when it spooled up by itself, I think it may be a faulty ESC. What spektrum Rx does it have?
12-31-2012, 12:21 PM
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RE: E Flite 400 3D goes haywire!
Don't suppose the Tx was in idle up or something?
In the future either remove your blades, disconnect the bullet connectors to the motor, or strap it to a bench. I really feel for you, that had to be extremely scary and upsetting at the same time...but try to take a positive view if possible, I'm sure you'll have a lot more respect for the little guy from now on!
I once had an unexpected spool up when messing with my radio or something on my living room floor. Scared the hell out of me but I managed to reach under the mains and unplug it before they picked up speed. I consider myself a pretty capable pilot and I'm still kind of terrified of helis haha.
In the future either remove your blades, disconnect the bullet connectors to the motor, or strap it to a bench. I really feel for you, that had to be extremely scary and upsetting at the same time...but try to take a positive view if possible, I'm sure you'll have a lot more respect for the little guy from now on!
I once had an unexpected spool up when messing with my radio or something on my living room floor. Scared the hell out of me but I managed to reach under the mains and unplug it before they picked up speed. I consider myself a pretty capable pilot and I'm still kind of terrified of helis haha.
01-01-2013, 01:05 AM
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RE: E Flite 400 3D goes haywire!
Tx switched on, showing 6.0 v.
01-02-2013, 04:03 PM
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RE: E Flite 400 3D goes haywire!
ORIGINAL: Bosch232
Well this was scary..
I have almost no heli experience, but about 15 yrs on airplanes and a brief stint with ground vehicles. A friend of mine gave me his E Flite 400 and Spektrum Tx, which he hasn't flown for years. I've been fooling with it for about a week, going over the exercises on rchelicopterfun.com. Today I had 3 hovering flights in the driveway with no issue, and put it away. Later in the day I took it out for another practice run and here's what it did:
Tx switched on, showing 6.0 v. Fresh charge on the heli batt. Plugged the heli battery in, and the esc did a series of double beeps and didn't stop beeping, so something was wrong. But I don't know heli's and didn't know what it was telling me. The swash plate would move, but it seemed slower than I remember. It would not spool up. So I put it away for a bit and then decided to trouble shoot it in my basement a little later. Same beeping from of the esc, only this time the heli spooled up on its own! With the Tx on and throttle at zero. It actually lifted off, and I quite literally ran out of the room until it hit the wall and broke the rotors.
If it was naive of me to plug in the battery when I knew there were Rx issues, then so be it. Chastise me. But I read in the Spektrum manual this week about fail safe programming in trouble conditions, so I didn't know the risk. I sure as hell do now.
Can anyone tell me what I should do next? New rotors are in order, obviously, but what does constant double-beeping mean? Why would it spool up like that? I found no troubleshooting guide in the manual. Any help appreciated, because I was actually gaining confidence in hovering, but this was scary as hell and right now I don't trust the thing. Thoughts?
Well this was scary..
I have almost no heli experience, but about 15 yrs on airplanes and a brief stint with ground vehicles. A friend of mine gave me his E Flite 400 and Spektrum Tx, which he hasn't flown for years. I've been fooling with it for about a week, going over the exercises on rchelicopterfun.com. Today I had 3 hovering flights in the driveway with no issue, and put it away. Later in the day I took it out for another practice run and here's what it did:
Tx switched on, showing 6.0 v. Fresh charge on the heli batt. Plugged the heli battery in, and the esc did a series of double beeps and didn't stop beeping, so something was wrong. But I don't know heli's and didn't know what it was telling me. The swash plate would move, but it seemed slower than I remember. It would not spool up. So I put it away for a bit and then decided to trouble shoot it in my basement a little later. Same beeping from of the esc, only this time the heli spooled up on its own! With the Tx on and throttle at zero. It actually lifted off, and I quite literally ran out of the room until it hit the wall and broke the rotors.
If it was naive of me to plug in the battery when I knew there were Rx issues, then so be it. Chastise me. But I read in the Spektrum manual this week about fail safe programming in trouble conditions, so I didn't know the risk. I sure as hell do now.
Can anyone tell me what I should do next? New rotors are in order, obviously, but what does constant double-beeping mean? Why would it spool up like that? I found no troubleshooting guide in the manual. Any help appreciated, because I was actually gaining confidence in hovering, but this was scary as hell and right now I don't trust the thing. Thoughts?
DX 7 uses a 9.6v battery, I think, and 6v is obviously too low.
If it is a newer Spek. radio, like DX6i, DX8, etc, they use 4.8 4-cells, and don't charge past about 5.6 or so on a fresh charge.
So, if it is a DX7 at 6v, then that could trigger a failsafe. For what you describe, the heli would have to be bound (binded?) at a throttle/pitch setting at above 1/2 stick, assuming
the heli is set up like most. At zero throttle, there should be no positive pitch in the blades, in fact there should be a few degrees negative, and the heli should not be able to lift off at all.
The only scenario I can think of is that while flying earlier, you were extremely lucky, and the tx. batt. had just enough juice to transmit.
When you went to test it later, you had just enough voltage to arm the esc, then the voltage dropped off and caused the failsafe, which is set improperly.
Set the failsafe, (rebind the helicopter), with throttle at zero.
Edited to add:
Check the tx battery. I've had some last for several years, and some last only a few months.
01-12-2013, 12:44 AM
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RE: E Flite 400 3D goes haywire!
The Tx that came with the RTF version was a DX6i. If the batteries are alkaline, then 6 volts would be full. I don't see that as the problem. Assuming of course, it's a DX6i.
I would definitely set up the failsafe and rebind. The double beeping is probably theTx warning that throttle hold is on, which might cause it to "spool up on its own". After the Tx is on, make sure the throttle hold is OFF, and the throttle is at the bottom, then hook up the battery. Once the Rx connects, throttle hold should be safe to use, if it's set to "0" in the "hold" settings, which are under throttle curves. Throttle hold HAS to be OFF when hooking up the battery to the model.
And, of course, the general rule, for those who don't know, ALWAYS turn on the Tx first, hook up battery, fly, unhook battery, and turn off Tx last.
I would definitely set up the failsafe and rebind. The double beeping is probably theTx warning that throttle hold is on, which might cause it to "spool up on its own". After the Tx is on, make sure the throttle hold is OFF, and the throttle is at the bottom, then hook up the battery. Once the Rx connects, throttle hold should be safe to use, if it's set to "0" in the "hold" settings, which are under throttle curves. Throttle hold HAS to be OFF when hooking up the battery to the model.
And, of course, the general rule, for those who don't know, ALWAYS turn on the Tx first, hook up battery, fly, unhook battery, and turn off Tx last.
