thailazer

About a month ago, I had my T6EXAP transmitter potentiometer on the elevator channel get noisy with only a little over a year's use of the transmitter flying about once a week. The LHS where I bought it sprayed some cleaner in the unit and it worked okay until today when I had a heck of a time landing the airplane. The problem is much worse now.

I talked to the major Futaba importer in Thailand today and he said I had bought a "low cost" unit and it would be too costly to repair.... better to buy a new one. So is that it for Futaba quality these days? Only one year out of one of their products? I've owned a lot of other brands and have never had a unit flake out so soon. I would appreciate hearing about what other brands have better reliability out there right now as I am really turned off on Futaba. The last Airtronics unit I had, a cheap 6 channel system, lasted 8 years of very intense flying.

I have two airplanes (separate receivers) flying on this transmitter and I am thinking I will convert to another brand. All advice appreciated. I am unable to fly now until I get a solution in place, and the last thing I want to think about is RC system reliability. That should be a given.

Wrend

Well, these things happen from time to time, unfortunately. I have a 2.4GHz 6EX that has worked just fine for a few years now, though for this last year I've been using my 8FG and have more or less retired my 6EX.

It's been my experience that Futaba radios are fairly reliable as radios go. You'll find some people that have had problems with them, like anything, but I think that the majority of users have confidence in their equipment.

thailazer

It's good to NOT see an outpouring of people with problems, as I'll probably end up having to stay with Futaba based on the limited availability of equipment here. My unit here is obviously a dud.

Do you know if the higher end Futaba stuff has optical encoders on the sticks rather than potentiometers? That should be a lot more reliable than mechanically variable resistors.

Wrend

As far as I know they just use potentiometers. I wonder how the optical ones would affect resolution, and how they center themselves, to know what middle is, for example. They would last longer, but it seems that they could become uncalibrated rather easily. Of course if you could calibrate them yourself it might not be much of an issue.

I'm kind of supprised that you can't find a replacement potentiometer for significantly less than the cost of a new Tx. But then I guess you'd have to be able to recalibrate it too, which means you'd most likely have to send it in, and so on.

Makes you wonder...

thailazer

Wrend, I took the transmitter apart and the pots look to be rather special. Going to unsolder it tomorrow and see if I might be able to rig something up. I've cleaned pots on my old Heathkit and ACE gear and the calibration there was pretty simple. The Futaba unit calibration looks to be guaranteed by design as there is no obvious way to move/offset the pot to adjust center like there was with the Heathkit gear.

Surprising to think that all transmitter still use pots. I've been involved in high tech engineering all my life and putting in optical encoders makes more sense to me than all the complications of spread spectrum links. For position-sensing, you have to use more than one optical sensor, but it is possible. Some of the position sensors I have seen in avionics actually have an 8 bit word for a given point, so the processor just reads that.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

Here, in the U.S. a stick pot is:

HSP79149 2M41A06801 XV09411N15FF693Z5K- 1 US$2.93

Our labor cost to change one out would cost less than $40.00, which would include recalibrating the transmitter. We'd not know why you would wind up being charged nearly the cost of a transmitter, unless the unit is being sent to Futaba, in Japan, and the shipping charges are what would "kill" you. Then, we can see how costs would mount up.

karl hibbs

My Feedback: (6)

you might want to send it in to futaba, it can't cost that much and who knows they might fix it for free

thailazer

Bill, That sounds reasonable and it is what I would expect. Not the case over here however for some reason.

I'll send you an email as I am hoping you could send me a couple of pots. The transmitter is of no use to me right now the way it is so any help I can get would be appreciated. I can easily install them myself.

thailazer

Just an update on the Transmitter. Talked to Bangkok Hobby, Thailand's Futaba importer and largest seller, and they sent me a new transmitter minus crystals and battery for a super low cost. Great people. They'll get my business from now on!

Joystick TX

The rudder pot on my T6EX failed in two months ago and the bill from Futaba was $52.92, $40 for labor, $9.99 for shippingand $2.93 for the pot. My shipping cost was close to $10 and my transmitter was gone for almost a month. Now the throttle pot is noisy and I don't want to spend another $60 to replace a $3 part and lose the use of my transmitter for another month. I think there is a trend startinghere and I can see that replacing the pots one at a time at $60 each can cost more than a new transmitter.

Can I get some pots from Futabaso I can replace them myself?

thailazer

Yes you can. Go up to post # 5 and you will see a post from Bill Baxter. Unfortunately, the international handling charge was so much, I could not go that route and the company would not budge on it. The new transmitter at cost ended up being cheaper. I would get several of the pots to have as spares.

K-Bob

My Feedback: (1)

Glad to see you got your situation resolved to your satisfaction. Honestly though, you had a component failure on a fairly low level transmitter. That happens, no matter the brand. Then you took the advice of your LHS guy as fact when he was clearly wrong. You could have, and ultimately did, come here and got your answer and a part number in short order. By the way, using contact spray is at best a band-aid nad can actually shorten the life of the component.

Joystick TX

Sawadee krap - Thanks for the info, I used to fly RC at NKP in the early 70's, so I understand your problem with shipping. Will send Bill a message to see if I can get the pots. They are not listed on the parts list on the Futaba site.

BTW -This is the third failure on my transmitter in a little overa year.

pilotpete2

Steve,
Check with Radio South for parts.
http://www.radiosouthrc.com/
Good luck,
Pete

Joystick TX

Since my TX was out of warranty and I have a lot of electronics and repair experience, I bought four pots from Futaba and did the replacement myself. It is not hard or complex, but you should know how to solder well.

Took battery out of the TX,the four screws off the back, and the three screws holding the gimbal off the front. The gimbal assy has a lot of small wires so movement of it is limited to gain access to the pots and you need to be very careful not to break them. I used my razor saw to cut the legs from the pot that hold it to the circuit board then removed the pins with a vacuum solder sucker (this was the tricky part). Removed the clip ring holding the pot assy from the gimbal and replaced the pot and reinstalled the assy. Soldered the pot pins to the circuit board and reassembled the TX.

Everything worked out okay and I have three extra pots. I have the feeling I'll need them soon.