tdr1919

I fly electric fixed wing, and had an ECO-8 heli a few years back. I just picked up the AXE this morning. I was hovering in the street in dead air about 3 ft off the ground when the heli just dropped down, lost power (freshly charged pack)
. This doesnt happen all the time, but it appears there maybe motor/ esc interference.
Have any of you had any symptons like this?
Thanks,

Tom

Shadow99

Glitches ARE a common occurance on the AXE CP using the stock 72mhz FM radio, interference can come from many outdoor sources, lightpoles, high-tension power lines, etc. I had a BAD glitch in the begining of December, I was hovering at about 15 ft, when the radio glitched into what seemed like IDLE-UP mode. The throttle was below mid-stick, which cause my AXE CP to POWER-SLAM itself into the driveway (wasn't a pretty sight). Several other within this forum have had glitches without even touching the TX that cause a good amount of damage to there heli.
Some of us have replaced the stock radio system with something else, I myself upgraded to a DX7, and it's been smooth flying ever since.

Rick

joecarbery

there is always stray rf..radio frequency..light poles do not really cause glitches,,you could try puttin a ferrite bead around youre reciver wirring and on the xervos..that will help to..and radios you can tweek youre frequency to the exact frequency if you know how to use a counter,,and then you trim youre anntenna wire on youre reciever in very small increments to to put youre radio in perfect llignment..i know this because i am an expert on radio frequency and just about all two way and ultra band radios,,been doing it for 29 years,,i have 2 axe cps and out of them only had one that glitched,,so i installed ferrite beads on my machine and everything was fine,,one thing to remember is out side powerlines will not usually cause stray rf usually ony the high voltagf lines will..the main colprit is usually garage door openers as they have alternanting frequencies when on ..(plugged in)and one more thing i noticed anout most hobbiest is they dont understand that the main interferences are caused by cb raDIO LINEAR AMPLIFIERS,,I WAS IN COMPETITION WITH THE CBS A WHILE AGO ABD QUIT THAT HOBBY AS MY SUBURBAN KEPT BURNING UP PEOPLES CADILLAC IGNITION MODULES,, my suburban was a diesel powered truck and was running 3- 450 amp leece neville alternantors and 32 car batteries...and all the local model fields were hatting me ....so thats some food for thought guys..you could get a frequency tracker ..but the one i have cost 1200.00 so that isnt in everyones budget,,the trackers that are sold localy dont pick up the stray rf that usualy causes interference..those are for only telling you if someones else is using youre frequency..but is only limited to say around 1000 feet..but will not pick up rf from the real colprit..,,well be good guys and stay flying..

MMatheny

Also (and probably most important!) the Axe RX is SINGLE conversion!

tdr1919

Mike, I was just going to ask if the axe was single conversion, we have actually restricted single conversion planes at our (fixed wing) evens.
Thanks,
Tom

besthobbie

Hey there. I have an axe cp l as well. I have had the same problem with glitching. Which in turn bent my boom and broke my rear motor off. I replaced everything and said it must have been me. Tried everything all over and boom the same thing happened, the heli was going crazy for no reason like transformers. Took back to my lhs to send back. While i dont like waiting i purchased a blade 400 which has a dx6i radio which i can now control my axe with. It will hold 10 different models. I think this is a factory problem and should consult with your local store first. Which i did and at first it worked good for them and then it started glitching.[:@]

PSXBatou

How difficult was it to swap out to a DX7? Is it basically plug and play?

I haven't noticed much glitching and I am in a rather urban area. I usually fly at a park across the street from my house, or the school yard that is at the other end of the park. I do want to change to a spectrum radio though as I am tired of having to wait for freq at the local field when i go.

Shadow99

Hooking up the servos to the RX wasn't a big deal, but figuring out the thottle & pitch curves took the longest. It was a trial by fire with the T & P curves, input some values & go test it outside, didn't like that response, change the values & test again. I've got it where I'm happy with it in NORMAL MODE, ST1 & ST2, are almost the same other than ST1 is 70% throttle & ST2 is 100% throttle.

Rick

r_william

tdr1919 (Tom),

I have posted this earlier but about the same time you started this subject thread I experienced the same problem (sudden, unexplained, unwelcome shut-down). Since I had only had my Axe for about 2 weeks at that time, I was(am) not very experienced and thus not as high off the ground as you described. But the bird just shut down. While examining the bird, looking for burnt, smoking, or hot components, I heard the servos reinitialize and then repeat again while I was moving it around. Bottom line...while disconnecting the battery for safety, the battery connector (Deans???) on the ESC side had come loose and separated from the wires, both terminals. When I removed the heat-shrink it was obvious the solder conection was poorly done and only at the tips of the wire and connector pins. Very fragile. After correcting this I have had no problems since. Again to be clear, this was on the heli side of the battery connection.

RWW

PSXBatou

This same thing happened to me, the solder from the deans plug on the ESC side came off. Luckily it was on the ground when i made the discovery but I took the time to re solder all of the deans from the ESC just to be sure.

PSXBatou

Rick,

Do you mind sharing what you used for the Throttle and Pitch curves, or better yet your full DX model settings? I have a DX6i that I was thinking to use with the Axe CP. I figure I can pick up a Specktrum module for $70 or so.