Originally Posted by
Len Todd
I typically put the plane on the stand and test the brakes by hand many times before taking the plane to the field. That being said, ...
When you apply the brakes, do the Brake LED sequences on the LGC15 show that the power is being applied to at least 80%? When the LGC15 shows the power being applied, are the brakes actually working? What are your LGC15 Brake Limit settings? That is an additional sub-menu from the Brake setting menu. Some folks miss that. I usually start out around 80% and adjust from there.
If you are using older JP Gear, there were permanent magnets in the hub that held the disks back from the electro-magnets and it took a lot of brake power to get the disks off the permanent magnets and then the brakes would lock up on lighter planes. If your Brake Limit level was not high enough, the brakes did not work consistently. JP also has a set of brakes/ style that have no disks. They work more reliably but they may not work well enough on very heavy planes. They do work well on my 34# plane though.
If the LGC15 shows on the LEDs that power is being applied and the brakes are not reliably working, then the issue is in either the wiring down to the brakes or the brakes themselves! Did you clean the brakes when they were installed? If you did, did they go back together correctly? One does NOT use lube on electric brakes. Could there be an intermittent wiring issue?
What type of gear are you using? What are the current Brake power level settings? If there is a metal disk involved, it can become magnetized itself and initially work intermittently. Once you work the brakes a couple times, the effect of the magnetized disk is minimized. The effect is more noticeable on lighter planes. But that is NOT a controller issue. The resulting locking up can be minimized by use of the ant-lock and individual power level adjustments.
Below is a list of the settings that I initially start out with for my typical builds. Once everything is working correctly on the bench, I go to the field and run a bunch of taxi tests to fine tune the Brake, Steering (e.g. Gyro) settings.
Thanks for your thorough reply! The brakes work all the time when on the ground and the LED lights on the LG15 shows that brake is being applied, please see screen shots.
The brake limits are set at 100%, please see screen shots. Should I lower them to 80%?
The Pilot RC F-16 I have is a brand new model, I think Pilot-RC uses rebranded JP retracts because the controllers that came with the jet look identical to JP so do the retracts. On the wheel, it says JP. I have not disassembled the brakes, they do work 100% of the time on the ground, the LED shows brake being applied and the brakes engage.
Originally Posted by
Afterburners
When you say "failed to engage completely" what exactly do you mean?
Sorry, I mean that the brakes do not engage and they don't stop the jet after landing. I have 5 flights on it so far and twice, brakes didn't work at all.
