Reciever Question
 

Recently my trainer dived nose first into a dirt road. Everything was destroyed, except for some servos, the reciever and the tail. The wing has not been found yet. My question is now I have a Pulse XT 40 waiting to maiden this weekend, but I want to know if my reciever will be okay.
The antenna broke in the middle of the wire, so I soldered that back together and used some electrical tape for protection.
It was wrapped in foam, and it only suffered a few scratches on the casing.
I want to know that I do the range test and make sure every thing functions, responds, etc. that the reciever will be flight ready, I removed the casing to look for any obvious damage (I have taken apart other electronics before) and nothing different than before. It looks good, and I am hoping that the reciever will not fail. Anyone want to give me advice on knowing when something goes wrong while testing it on the ground?
Thanks. :)
EDIT: New problem, I tryed it after charging the battery for awhile, turned on the transmitter, plugged in the battery, the surfaces moved a little, but didn't do anything when I gave an imput.[&o]
Man, with all these problems I am having, this hobby is absolutely no fun.:(

RE: Reciever Question
 

I would think that generally when you re-use equipment that has suffered a crash you would be increasing the risk of RX failure. I know those things cost money so heres what I would do.
first, that antenne wire that you soldered back together should be shrink wrapped instead of using electrical tape. next, you could do a long range test by starting your engine and tieing down your plane, then going out a good distance to check your throttle responce. I am talking like a football field legnth or more. if nothing funky happens and the throttle seems to be smooth, then give it a go. just hope that the only damage to the RX was cosmetic. good luck!

RE: Reciever Question
 

The best practice after a crash would be to send your receiver in to be checked by a technician for crash damage.

From a practicle standpoint, the whole purpose of a range check is to determine if your radio system is functioning like it's supposed to. If the range check goes off without any issues, the plane should fly fine.

The repair job you did to the antenna is good. It's your Pulse XT, however, and only you can judge how cautious you want to be when maidening your new plane.

I'd like to say that I'd send my receiver in to get checked out before I flew with it again. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

RE: Reciever Question
 

I really don't want to send it in, but if I find problems in the range test, then I will probably just buy a new reciever, problem is they are pricey, I have a Futaba 7C PCM transmitter and the reciever it came with is $100, and it was $300 for the Pulse PNP.

RE: Reciever Question
 

You don't have to buy a Futaba receiver, I use Hitec receivers alot with my Futaba transmitter.$40
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXKYK3&P=7

RE: Reciever Question
 

You could use a regular FM RX with that TX if you aare willing to downgrade slightly. Either a Futaba RX or appropriate aftermarket RX will work. But for PCM it MUST be a Futaba RX. Be sure to change the TX modulation mode to PPM if you do this. Futaba does repairs at a reasonable price sometimes just giving you a NEW RX if they think it needs it. Cheaper for them than investing the repair labor time plus parts.

Check out their repair info: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1131517/tm.htm

RE: Reciever Question
 

He does if he wants PCM.

RE: Reciever Question
 

My God, this never stops does it, I have put in enough money into this hobby to buy 50 Cadilacs. (sarcasm)

RE: Reciever Question
 

No, it only gets worse :(:D:):)

RE: Reciever Question
 

At least it's not $50 per round of golf.[:@]

RE: Reciever Question
 

Seriously, I try and get the highest quality components, and they still malfunction, anyone have any clue on what could be wrong? Is their any members here who are an expert on these things?

RE: Reciever Question
 

I don't know, could it be because it was in a crash?
Send it in to Futaba and have them look at it. They are very reasonable on their repairs if it is not trashed too bad.
I have one that is the same way. Crashed, everything looked ok but when I picked up the receiver I didn't realise I was standing on the antena, ripped it out. I soldered the antena back in and it range checked OK but when I started the engine I lost all control of the airplane. The vibration obviously brought out another problem.

RE: Reciever Question
 

I will send it in, but for the time being I will get a new one, only because I am sick and tired of all these problems. Please continue helping me, thanks.

RE: Reciever Question
 

F-15, I have to ask, are you a beginner trying this on your own? If so, please find someone local who is knowledgeable and get some help, or you'll be in for a lot more misery.

RE: Reciever Question
 

I have been flying a trainer and I am moving up to my second plane (the Pulse). Most of this stuff is familiar to me except for this, but I decided just to go get a new reciever and take the old one with me on Sunday to see if anyone knows whats wrong with it. The new one will be another Futaba PCM dual conversion, pricey, but its all I can do, and I will transfer the crystal over to the new one. But I have a new question, could the problem be because of the programming of the transmitter? I have no error messages coming up, and it looks normal, but I want to know.

RE: Reciever Question
 

That would suck if you bought a new 168DP rx for a 100 bones, an it turned out to be the 12$ crystal your going to be switching over to the new Rx.

I had to learn this the hard way. 40$ will get you an 8ch rx w/crystal from tower.An on the back of it says 168DF. Which is just like what you just bought but its PPM(FM)

An it comes with a crystal.

Just my 2 cents

RE: Reciever Question
 

I am curious, why do you say it is all you can do?
I have never had any problem at all using PPM receivers, I am just curious why you opt for the $100 PCM receivers?

RE: Reciever Question
 

And at least replace the crystal. They are the most delicate piece and cheap too. From experience, I dropped a new one just as I was removing it from it's package and the 4' fall and impact with the floor was all it took to render it useless.

RE: Reciever Question
 

Man in planes that get hit and problems as described above it is only a money saving deal to go to SPEKTRUM and not worry about the crystals at all. If you lose one plane because of this then the investment would have saved you. The recievers are comparible to others such as Futaba. PCM .
for a 7channel AR7000 is 100.00,. AR6100 69.99 and a AR6000 is about the same. It is just one more thing not to have to worry about while flying. Cause at the flying field i have this yr. alone seen 5 crashes all due to being hit. I have a Futaba 6x that i fly one plane on just cause i have not gotten a reciver as of yet. It was my first radio and has been hit once. Once i had wrong plane (luck was on my side that time) forgot antena had to be raised once. All just part of flying with a crystal.
The Spektrum radio's take all that away. No getting wrong plane as it will not pick it up. No crystal's to go bad. No antenas to forget to pull out. Lots of advantages and not that much more in $$$$ for recivers and such. If you get into 9 channels and stuff then no matter what brand they are high lol.

RE: Reciever Question
 

The reciever was not the cause of the crash. What happened was the wing ripped off the fuselage and the model dove straith into the ground. The aftermath was a destroyed everything, although the reciever and servos looked to be in good shape. So is it possibly the crystal that could be causing all these problems? I hope it is, because then I only have to spend like 5 bucks for a new one.

RE: Reciever Question
 

I asked this because I had the feeling you might think because you have a PCM transmitter and it won't work with a PPM receiver.
You are complaining about spending $100 for another PCM but you don't have too.
PPM receiver WILL work with your radio at half the price.
Futaba does not make a PCM only transmitter. They are PCM or PPM switchable in the programming.

RE: Reciever Question
 

When you crash a reciever, the two things that are most apt ot go wrong is a cracked crystal. Note: there are two crystals in most receivers, the one that you can change and one that is soldered into the PC board and not readily replacable. Both are quite fragile and easily damaged if given a hard shock or bump. If you receiver acts up under vibration, chances are that one or both of these crystals are fractured.

RE: Reciever Question
 

Well I just ordered a new reciever crystal, should be maidening the Pulse next weekend.:D Hope this goes well.

RE: Reciever Question
 

Any receiver, even the 2.4 ghz. have a crystal somewhere in them. The difference is that you can't change them. Any receiver, synthesized or 2.4, has to have a crystal to generate a reference frequency.

RE: Reciever Question
 

Do your range check with the engine running at mid-range. I have a futaba rec. that only fails under vibration. It is not the crystal!