wingster

My Feedback: (26)

I recently had a problem on my fairly new 12FGA. It would neither turn on or take a charge. Has anybody had a similar problem?

I hadn't used the transmitter in about a month. I turned it on and got nothing. I turned the transmitter on/off several times - still nothing. I then opened the transmitter comparted and disconnected/connected the battery several times and jiggled the wire/connector around - still nothing. I thought the battery might be dead so I hooked it up to the charger. The light on the charger would not come on.

I then turned the switch on/off and the transmitter finally turned on. When turned off the battery would now charge.

I turned the switch on and off(not in rapid succesion) a bunch more times and duplicated the problem. Since then I have not been able to repeat the problem. I sent it into Futaba for service and they found nothing wrong.

The 12fga will also not turn on if I turn it off and then turn it back on before the system boots down. I assume this to be normal. Can anyone confirm this?

Campgems

I'm not sure about the rest of your problem, but the charge jack is disconnected when the switch is on. This prevents feeding unfiltered DC to the electronics. Only charging when the switch off is normal for almost anything with a charge jack.

My guess on your last question is that it is normal. If you check closely in the manual it should reference this I would think.

Don

summerwind

you may have an intermittent switch, although highly uncommon these days. when i was i kid in the late sixties, this exact phenomenon would drive the guys who crashed nutz as the switch that caused the problem would suddenly start funtioning perfectly again.
frustrating i know, but if you can duplicate this after you get the Tx back, then be persistant and have Futaba service replace the switch.

wingster

My Feedback: (26)

Campgens

I know you can't charge with the switch on. I couldn't charge with the switch off!

Flying Geezer

My Feedback: (14)

My guess is that you left the transmitter on and fully discharged the battery. Then the transmitter would not come on, when you actuated the switch, because the battery pack was dead.

You probably left the switch on. Then connected to the charger, which could make connection because the switche was in the on position.

At some point you were about to give up, turned the switch to the off position. Then you decided to give it one more try and plugged the charger up to again, and wallah, it started charging.

Does this sound feasable?

wingster

My Feedback: (26)

Flying Geezer

When the transmitter finally woke up it was at about 7.5-7.7volts. Its only a 6 cell pack, so the battery was fine.

Flying Geezer

My Feedback: (14)

There goes my theory. I hate to say it, but those connectors need to be carefully checked, along with the battery leads. If you don't find the problem, you need to send it in for service.

I hope it's something simple, like a bad connector.

Campgems

Sorry, i guess I missunderstod this "I then turned the switch on/off and the transmitter finally turned on. When turned off the battery would now charge."

I've got to agree with Flying Geezer. If it wouldn't feed voltage to the Tx with the switch on, or feed the charge jack to the battery with the switch off, there is something other than a switch issue. Switches don't fail that way. The on/off is either a DPDT or SPDT switch, probalby the first so both sides of the charge are isolated from the electronics when the switch is off.

Failure modes would be something like this if it were the switch. You couldn't charge, but you could turn on. Or You could turn on but not charge. The fact that when it started working right, both sides of the switch worked, leads to the proababliyt the battery connections to the switch is bad, or the battery it's self is intermentent.

One other possibility, and your comment "The 12fga will also not turn on if I turn it off and then turn it back on before the system boots down" leads me to believe that there may be a relay, mechanical or solid state, that is intermentent. I would send the Tx back to futaba one more time and ask for the tech to talk to you before they send it back. A tech doing a quick read of the problem may not have understood it as I didn't. If you can't find an issue with the battery lead, or the socket the battery plugs into, Futaba needs to have another look.

Don

Flying Geezer

My Feedback: (14)

I am sure the switch works this way. Turn it on and the switch itself actuates a latching circuit that holds the power on by a solid state device. Turning the switch off interupts or actuates a circuit that commands the processor to save data, etc., and then the processor shuts transmitter down. Much like windows on a computer. When you click on shut down, you're not throwing a switching, your notifying the processor to do so.

However, I am sure the off switch position mechanically connect the battery pack to the charge jack.

Campgems

Sounds right. Keeps going back the the battery/wirning doesn't it..

Don

wingster

My Feedback: (26)

I just talked to mike at Futaba technical support. he had never seen this problem before.

I'm leaning more towards a bugaboo in the software/electronics. When you shut the 12fga down they take a few seconds to turn off while the system boots down, so I doubt there's a direct connection from the battery to the switch. I'm going to give it a try in a smaller plane.

Campgems

Is Mike going to take a close look at it??

If Flying Geezer is correct about the charge side of the switch being a mechanical conect to the charge jack, and I expect he is, that would still point to a battery/battery cable/or socket connection in the TX.

I'd get that puppy in Mikes hands and hope he can find the problem. I worked large mainframe computer repair for 30 years and one thing I know for sure, if it failed once and you didn't find the problem, it's going to come back and bite you. They are easy to fix when solid, but can be extreamly difficult for an intermentent like you have. For someone without detailed knowledge of the product, difficult can be changed to impossible.

Let us know, and if you do send it in, let us know what they found.

Good luck.

Don