asinla

Help! - Seperates..nothing works!!! HELP!!

Hello all.

I finally decided to go seperates on my Walkera 22E using electronics I have had for a while. I have the following..

Century 6ch Universal rx
Walkera Brushless ESC
GWS ICS50 E Brushed ESC for tail motor
GWS PG-03 Gyro
Airtronics RD 6000 Super TX

The heli was flying great already with the built in 4 in1.

You can see my connections in the pics attached.

I connected the batt sides of the 2 ESC together and soldered onto the Deans. I made the relevant connections to the 2 motors. I plugged the Elev servo (Front) into ch 1, Left Aileron servo (Rear Left) into ch 2, Main motor esc into channel 3, gyro into channel 4 and right Aileron Servo into channel 5.

I turned on the transmitter and then plugged connected the batt (11.1v 1200mah Lipo)

The gyro light came on and seems to be working but NOTHING else happens. No power to servo's or motors. The Main motor ESC did not beep like it used to. The tail rotor ESC got a little warm but thats it. I called Heli World who supplied the Radio and rx and they were less than helpful.

Any ideas?

I have tried reversing the polarity to all the connections. At one point during my trying different things one of the servo's moved briefly, the gyro light did not go on and then there was the faint smell of burning. i quickly disconnected the batt. After that I tried a few other connections and the gyro was woking fine again but nothing else.

The crystals are the ones supplied with the radio. Single Conv 72mhz.

Please help! I hate not having a working bird especially now that I have some time to fly!

Thanks in advance!

jdb000001

Well, the burning smell is bad news.

First I would try just the receiver and servos with no ESC's or gyro connected to see if they are working ok (use a regular flight battery to power the receiver).
Also try just the main rotor ESC and receiver to see if that will work independently - you may have to adjust the throttle settings to get it to arm itself. The tail rotor ESC will probably also need to be brought to its minimum to arm it.

You should probably disable the BEC on the tail rotor ESC - the Gyro probably doesn't need power coming into its servo output.

There is also the possibility that the main motor ESC cannot supply enough current to power the gyro, receiver, and servos.

asinla

Thanks jdb.

I have tried just the main motor ESC and servo's. Does not work. Servo's twitch once on battery connect then nothing. I do not have a rx batt to power the rx by itself and try the servo's only.

I just tried only the main motor ESC. Nothing happens will not arm. The last time it armed was when I held down the Trainer button.

Any other ideas??

jdb000001

Do you have a voltmeter? If so, measure the voltage at the battery connector to make sure the battery polarity is correct, then measure the voltage off the BEC to see if you are getting power to the receiver.

You may have to lower the trim on the throttle to get the ESC to arm - sometimes low throttle is just not low enough. Not sure about the RD6000, but on my Futaba radio, the throttle trim only works at one end of the throttle travel - it is programmable to be at either the top or bottom of the stick movement.

Are you using a Century brand crystal in the receiver? Using the wrong brand crystal may not work.

Doesn't look like the RD6000 will do PCM, so should not be a problem with that being set wrong.

Since you smelled something burning, you probably have at least one component that is not going to work (by Murphy's law, it will be the most expensive, and hardest to replace).

If nothing else, try plugging just the tail rotor ESC into the throttle channel, and see if that will work - will at least tell you that the receiver works. The ICS50 may not be able to handle the 11.1V LiPO - its rated for 5-8 Nicads.

asinla

Thanks again jdb for these things to try.

I did not measure the voltage but I am sure that the polarity is correct as when I connect the batt, the servo's do their usual twitch once thing.
I tried lowering the trim on the throttle. I really thought that one would work!! But alas..no worky!

I am using MPI crystals which are sold by Century for their products so I am sure the crystals are right.

The RD6000 does PPM, PPM Rev, PCM 1 and PCM 2. I have tried all of those. Nothing.


I believe the ICS50 can handle up to 3 lipo's but I could be wrong. I remember checking on that when I got it. I tried plugging it in but nothing worked again.

So tomorrow I am off to Hobby People..my LHS..to try another rx and see whether it is the rx or tx that is the problem. I hope they will help out even if I didn't buy my stuff from them. If their rx works tho, I will buy it from them.

Thanks again for your help. I'll post my findings here for general info.

Have a good weekend.

asinla