Hello anyone;

I'm looking for some help.
Today while flying, I started the 2 horizontal rolls and the rolls were twice as fast as normal. Later in the sequence, the ailerons locked for a second. What do you think the trouble could be ?
My set up is:
Futaba T8FG TX, 6 months old
Futaba R6208SB RX
JR 8411's in the wing and rudder
Futaba BLS 153's in the elev's.

These are the things I'm going to do:
1. Change the Regulator, its old and all I know about it is that it's 6 volts. I recently bought a Jaccio 6 volt regulator (shameless plug eh Jim ?).
2. Change the RX, I have the same RX in another plane.
3. Make sure I'm using a fresh RX battery.

The aileron lock has happened before. When I put in a new RX battery and it seemed to be OK. Not very scientific. These batteries are fairly new but may have been discharged to a voltage that they will not recover from?


Obviously I'll be doing these things one at a time.


Thanks in advance,
Randy

Just the ailerons? Are you sure of that?
Either way you answer, it's a clue.
What's your failsafe setting?

Can't say for sure if it's just ailerons.
Went through the failsafes and elev 2 and aileron 2 (page 2) were off, so now they are on at 0%

Does that also mean the Tx is going to failsafe, so it needs a new battery ?

When you say locked, does that mean they failed to respond for a short time? It so, that sounds like an RF transmission problem. You need to fly with the transmitter and receiver in your old junk test airplane. Every pattern guy needs one of these. Or borrow a known good receiver and transmitter and start isolating the problem.

That doesn't explain the fast roll rate. That would suggest the servos traveled further than normal. The only way that could happen is if the transmitter told the receiver to drive them further.

Bottom line, test all the components one at a time in a test airplane with known good components.

Jim O

It probably was the regulator. Joke.

Correct, they failed to respond for a second.

As I think about it, another strange thing has happened: I have the roll rate so I push the stick all the way over to the lock and sometimes when I give the down input while inverted the roll rate changes.....

I'llfly my other plane for a while and see if anything similar happens..that will eliminate the Tx.

Could be a broken wire on your aileron stick pot.
Exercise your system by applying elevator with aileron at the stop. See if you get any twitches.

Consider the possibility of a bad Tx stick pot?

Andre Bouchard

Seems OK

I'm going to fly my other plane and see if anything similar happens. I have the new Jaccio regulator in that plane, that will eliminate two items, Tx and regulator.

How old/used are the servos?

Also check all the internal connections (servos to RX, extensions, etc.).

How old is the TX and when was the last time it was sent in for a check up?

Check the antennas on the RX. Make sue both ar OK (not frayed, kinked, possibly broken - you can also open it up and take a look to make sure neither one has come loose from the board.)

Set your failsafe to something besides "hold". On pattern planes I set mine to drop the throttle and bring everything else back to center. This is intended to allow you to know with a higher degree of certainty that you had a hold.

Aso recheck the receiver antenna geometry. Make sure that they are fairly close to 90 degrees at the end from each other and in a position that minimizes the potential for stuff to get in the way. I run straight back on the radio tray and the other one vertically inside the plane.

As far as power issues go, the Futaba radios has an intern battery failsafe on the RX that activates at 3.8 volts. You generally need to set it up. It is designed to drop the throttle to low and center the other stuff. Check confirm that this is the case. This is NOT the same thing as the actual failsafe, it is a separate feature. JR digital servos will generally stop moving at 3.0 volts, the RX will keep working down to about 2. volts. However that RX re-boots virtually instantaneously.

Hope that helps. We can talk more at the field.

<ul>[*]The servo's are new in the elev's., slightly used in the ailerons and rudder[*]I took the receiver out to open it up so the connections will be double checked in pre-flight[*]The Tx is 13 months old and has not been in for check up[*]Took the back off the Tx and everything look good in there, receiver too[*]Receiver antenna geometry is good[*]I don't know where the internal failsafe is set up, maybe you can show me at the field. I'll try to find it in the manual[*]I checked the system battery after every flight and I don't let it get under about 7.5 volts[*]I have all my failsafe's set to 0 exceet for a little right rudder[/list]Thanks Bill

Randy<br type="_moz" />

I had a TX elevator pot go bad in one flight ... didn't know it until it was too late .. and lost a great pattern ship.