ReadyToGo

hi,
i'm a beginner and i have bad luck.
i have a esky lama v4 that i bought 6 weeks ago.
since the beginning i found it hard to pirouette and fly high.
the heli wouldn't respond well to the radio.
because of that, i flew it into the wall and the heli crashed to the floor with a big thud.
after that, the receiver didn't work properly anymore. i could control the servos but couldn't make the motors run.
then i bought a new receiver, installed it and flew wonderfully 2 or 3 times.
on the 4th time, after a few seconds in the air, i noticed the heli wasn't responding properly to my radio.
all of a sudden i lost complete control of it.
the heli hit the ceiling and started spinning like a hell, and finally crashed to the floor.
the receiver started to smoke and smell.
the receiver can bind and everything works except one motor. it seems the output to one motor is definitely fried.
are esky receivers just like this? lousy? trash? garbage?
does things like this happen frequently with esky stuff?
what could be wrong, please?
if I had inverted the polarity of one of the motor wires when I plugged it to the receiver, would the receiver output burn out only during the 4th flight?
Why did the heli stop responding to the radio while hovering? It happens since I bought the heli but this time it was really ugly.
I have an Eflite CX3 and it never happens to it.
Thanks.

pgroom_68

Hey again RTG,

To your Q's: Changing the polarity of the motors will only make them run the other direction.............[8D]
Yes, Esky is junk - but not that bad - when I read your post I was thinking that you hadn't shut down the motors upon crashing into a wall (stopping the rotors turning), as this is the main cause of burning out your 3in1. I own seven Esky coaxs ATM and have NEVER heard of this before......
Have you thought of the possibility that it could be your Tx glitching??

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]
P.S. Try binding it with your Eflite Tx - I think this is possible.....[sm=72_72.gif]

karlik

Yeah - sounds like you blew the mosfet which is part of the speed controller. If you know it's gonna hit something kill the throttle. When your blades can't spin because of a wall, fence, etc the motors will draw a huge amount of current and blow the speed controller. I've had my Lama 4 for over a year and only thing I've broken is blades.

ReadyToGo

Hi guys,

I'm a beginner and I'm very dumb. Please, be kind.

I replaced my 3in1 for the 3rd time. I also replaced the servos because I was told it could be drawing too much energy from the 3in1 and causing it to restart. And it, in turn, would cause a loss of signal.

I put everything back, except the fuselage and blades. With the helicopter attached to the ground, I tested the signal many and many times and the motors and servos responded greatly.

Then, I put the blades and fuselage on and, to my surprise, I had a loss of signal again. Fortunately the helicopter was taped to the ground and nothing bad happened, but it was unable to bind the TX anymore.

After many hours trying to figure out what had happened, I noticed I was using a different battery from my previous test. I changed the battery for a just charged one and the helicopter bound immediately.

Coincidentally or not, in this case, the loss of signal had happened because I was using a bad battery.

I also noticed my Tx batteries were about to die. I replaced them and wandered within the house with my Tx, trying to make the loss of signal happen again, but I couldn't. Then, I put the set of bad batteries back to the Tx and wandered again, and the signal was lost again.

Is it possible that part of this sad story is caused only by bad batteries? Could it be that a depleted battery in the helicopter, combined with a set of batteries that needed to be replaced in the TX are the cause of this problem with the signal?

The Tx that came along with this helicopter works with 8(!!) AA batteries. It's a good bunch of batteries. Does it mean that it requires a lot of energy to send a decent signal to the helicopter, and that any small decrease in the amount of energy can interfere in the radio signal?

Thanks.

pgroom_68

Hey again RTG,

Did you order and install [link=https://www.ushobbysupply.com/product_info.php?products_id=519]over current[/link] [link=http://www.miracle-mart.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2220&zenid=5da206ccf7a0790efdbd8e861c7c3289]protection fuses[/link] to save your 4in1 if it happens again? It is a smart thing to do as you seem to be going through the electronics quickly (and that is an expensive direction )
I can't definitively answer your Q - sorry - but it is one of the pre-flight checks that I automatically do: check my Tx power LEDs. When getting low, I change the AAs to eliminate any potential problems with range My Tx differs from yours, in that I have a Tx that only needs 4xAAs. It is still an original Esky - slightly modified!

Peter[sm=shades_smile.gif]
P.S. In case you are wondering: I opened up the Tx from the rear and carefully pried it open. Undid the screw holding the rachet arm half way and slipped a piece of fuel tubing onto it (and re-tightened everything again). [link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD727&P=7]Fuel tubing[/link] is the opaque small silicon tubing that is used as canopy shoring also. This procedure removed the racheting action from the throttle - making it smooth and somehow a little tighter when raising the throttle[sm=49_49.gif]

ReadyToGo

hi,
i've ordered the fuses but i don't have it yet.
the seller told me not to have great expectations from those fuses.
i'm now using full charged batteries in the tx and rx.
i flew ok this morning, expecting that the problem with the radio signal was over.
then i did a stunt with the heli and landed to take some breath.
when i looked at it, i saw that the 3in1 was restarting again.
so, unfortunately i don't think i got rid of the problem yet.
if the 3in1 had restarted airborne, i'd have had a very expensive crash again.
regards.

PS. i wonder if someone knows a good RC store in the London (UK) area. I'm looking for a real store, not an online one. Thanks.

pgroom_68

PM [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9536763]Simon ( sgbfly )[/link],

He may know......I know he lives in Nottinghamshire - but at least he is in the correct country

crashexpert

you are really unlucky, it' s good to share to other beginner as me.

erdnuckel2

Hi RtG,

I have to agree with Peter, I also have a lot of Esky helis, but havent had your problem once yet! Part of the answer to your question you already gave yourself - bad batteries are for sure playing a part in your problem ... I just had this with my Nine Eagles Free Spirit: despite still showing one green bar on the Tx, the signal got lost if Imoved the Tx more than a few inches away from the RX ... new batteries in the TX cured this ...
Also to suspect a brown out is very common ... but as you now replaced your servos and are on the 3rd 3in1, this would in my book rule this possibility out ...

First, do your 3in1 still have the 2.4G antennas? (this is usually not a problem if you fly inside a big room in your house, but for sure once you get outside!) Also, I heard a rumour, that some (in particular the very new 4in1s from Esky will not bind with all TX without problem anymore ... may somebody else can confirm this or made similar experiences ...??)

But on top of all that, I would expect some other type of mechanical problem in your case as well, some binding that gets caused in certain circumstances and helps draw too much "juice"... or some of your contacts/plugs dont work properly anymore ... do any of the wires get noticeably hot (also valid for plugs - if a plug gets hot, something is not right) Also check if maybe any of the wires has a damaged insulation that can cause contact to metal or short something ...

There are so many other possibilities .... unfortunately ...

HTH

ReadyToGo

hi,

yes, i think it is true. the 2nd and 3rd 4in1 i bought were definitely different from the original one. the original used to bind in 2 seconds meanwhile the others would take 30 seconds in average to do it.

actually i gave up my Comanche.

i couldn't have a decent flight with it even after sending it to a guy whose profession is to repair those helis.

i have a lama v4 that i don't like either. the problem with it is the flight time. i can't fly longer than 3.5 minutes.

the heli simply descend and can't lift anymore. i have to stop and let the 4in1 cool a little.

to me, those esky coax definitely have a problem. bad ESC, in my opinion.

maybe it gets too hot during the flight and loses the ability to deliver power to the motors.

i know those esky helis aren't good - my opinion - because i have 4 eflite coax that are wonderful and have never had any of the problems my eskys had.

i use on my cx3 the very same battery that i use on my lama v4 and cx3 flies easily 5.5 minutes, instead of the 3.5 that lama did.

the main problem with eflite coaxs is TBE, caused due to the upper rotor head design.

eflite head is not open and is prone to binding. esky's is like a fork and because of that the flybar will never have any kind of binding.

other than that, eflite coax are great and, in my humble opinion, superior to the ones from esky.

despite of my bad experience with esky, i bought a belt cp v2 and i'm trying again.

hope this time I'll have some fun with those little Chinese.

thanks.