viperdude

Long story short, i bought a Futaba 6EXA radio about 6 years ago, kept the servos and receiver in the box, and paired the transmitter with the micro receiver in my park flyer. For christmas this year, my father got me a beautiful Zlin-50 .46 size model, and im about ready to start building it. Just to verify that everything was working right, i pulled out the futaba reciever and servos that were in the box, un-used, and bench tested them. Lucky i did, because ive run into some problems.

With the antenna in the down position, i walk about 20 feet away, and already the servos are shuddering some, 50 feet away, and they are going nuts. With the antenna up, i can get about 100' away before they shudder, and at 250', the servos are unresponsive. Obviously, there is a problem somewhere.

I pulled out the receiver from the old park flyer that i had, and found it to be broken, so i have no way of telling if its the receiver or the radio. The only other receiver i have is a Futaba 4ch receiver thats about 20 years old, It works with its specific transmitter, but i doubt that it and the 6ch receiver will recognize eachother.


Since im a bit of computer techie guy, so i popped the transmitter open looking for any problems, and the only thing that i found was that the plastic bracket that holds the antenna had snapped, however the antenna was still properly connected to the wire. A bit of glue, and that problem was fixed. I havent tested it since then, but i doubt that it will change anything.


Any ideas?

Greg Wright

My Feedback: (6)

viperdude, first question i have is, did you unwrop the antenna on the receiver before you did your testing. If the antenna on the receiver was still all coiled up then that would be your problem with the range check. As for the four channel receiver you have it woukd work with that radio as long as it is on the same frequency.

___________________________________

Greg Wright

Not a JR Rep / But would love to be one!!!!!!

viperdude

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, i did unwrap the antenna, and laid it out on the table i was testing with.


I tried getting my 4ch receiver to work, but it was totally unresponsive, even with correct frequency crystal in it. Powered up, the servos centered, and did nothing.

Greg Wright

My Feedback: (6)

viperdude, All i can say is that you might have to send it in to get retuned, or just go get yourself a new 2.4 ghz radio that they have out now.

_______________________

Greg Wright

Not a JR Rep/ But would love to be one.

Crash Campbell

Hi Viperdude,

May be a silly question but are the batteries fully charged both Tx and Rx? If they are try plugging and unplugging the connectors a few times there may be some corrosion. Next point of call is the switch. If all checks out ok it's time to send the Tx and Rx away to a radio tech.

Happy New Year,

Colin

jester_s1

If you have a multimeter see what voltage you are getting at the receiver. 6 year old batteries may be your culprit.

Wonder

My Feedback: (7)

Also check that your antenna wire is not laying next to the battery wire.

ppkk

You mentioned you unwrapped and laid it out on the table. Not sure what the material of the table is or what's around it, but you may want to move the receiver somewhere else and try it again.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Do your range checks outside and away from metal buildings like sheds and the like.

viperdude

Yea, my testing was a small wood table on the sidewalk, and i took a stroll down the road a ways.. So there was no interference. Ive tried other batteries that i know are operational, and no go.

I really hate to have to send it off to Futaba, everytime i send some piece of electronics out, it usually takes a month or two to get back to me. But it looks like i dont have much of a choice.


Thanks for your help guys.

delman

Does your transmitter have the capability to do PCM modulation as well as PPM modulation? If so see if it was inadvertently switched over. That could explain why it is not working.

jester_s1

Futaba's service is pretty quick. I sent a transmitter in for a frequency change and got it back in a week.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

I would almost go with a bad battery pack. It needs to be cycled to see if it is any good. A voltmeter reading is not very useful unless it puts a load on the battery as well. Good Luck, Dave