kev_79

I have had two different rx crystal mess up. One was after a pretty hard smack on my trainer, but the other was this morning on my spad. I did wreck it once, but it messed up 5 flights later after a landing. It was rather soft, but no landing gear on this model, so maybe it was the last straw.

Is this a known problem? I only have JR stuff, and I really like it, but I would be reluctant to keep buying JR if the crystals were so intermitten. I do realize they have been in crashes, but they were foamed up, and everybody crashes. Futaba people I have talked to have never heard of a rx crystal messing up in such a way.

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

tailheavy

How is it you are so sure it is the crystal messing up? The entire Rx is subject to possible problems after a high impact crash. If you put the suspect crystal in another non crashed working Rx does it work?

kev_79

On the first one, I did install it into my other r700 slimline, and it had the same problems. On the second, I installed my buddy's rx crystal since he was right beside me, and I didn't have my other rx handy. When his was installed, and his Tx was on, things worked. That was proof enough for me.

do you have any answers?

Kevin

larryflew

My Feedback: (13)

Have flown and crashed a lot in the last 25 years and have never had to replace a JR crystal yet. Currently 12 planes and 2 helis with JR and have never used anything but JR on air freqencies. Hope it works better for you in the future.

tailheavy

What are the symptoms of the failed crystal(s)?

It seems to me a crystal either works or it doesn't. A crystal can crack due to excessive vibration or impact (won't work at all). It can have a separated lead from the crystal also due to impact or mishandling of the crystal itself (won't work at all). There might be a possibility of the crystal leads not making good contact into the receiver but that's unlikely. As you said both your crystals were in crashes so if they were slightly damaged in the crash the normal use and vibration involved in flying could have finished them off but again not very likely. The crystals we use in r/c are very robust and I am amazed that you are having this type of problem. If you have one more crystal go bad I would start looking at getting a new receiver w/new crystal. Why? Maybe the receiver is taking out crystals over a period of time. See if your friend will let you use his crystals in your receiver for a while. In any case my guess is you'll never have another problem with the JR crystals as long as you don't crash.

jtholley03

My Feedback: (4)

I had a non-JR crystal problem just as you describe. I accidentally dropped the crystal on my workbench - thought no big deal. I put it in Ulta Stick. Rolled that one into the ground - soft crash if there is such a thing. Put same setup in new Ultra Stick. Seemed like I was getting hits. Ran antenna outside and that fixed it for one flight. Next flight about 10 minutes into it I came down the runway and pulled up to make a turn and lost all control. Watched the plane pull up and turn full throttle into asphalt. If you are having issues a $10 crystal is a lot cheaper than $100's worth of equipment. It is good practice to replace the crystal after a crash.

kev_79

Tailheavy, I agree, if I don't crash, I probably won't have any problems with crystals...but. I come to the field to crash. I don't usually go to take off at half throttle and do a few circles and land, but occationally it happens.

Right now, I playing with this Saturday night Special SPAD and when I go out, I fly wide open right in front of me, and keep getting closer to the ground till I'm shaking to badly to fly or I crash, and for some reason that's fun to me

A friend did let me borrow one of his crystals, and it was the second to go bad. The first was one that was in my trainer. It still works intermittenly and his just doesn't work. By intermittenly, I can thump the receiver and it will work. Thump it again, and it quits. It does this in both my receivers (r700s).

At least I know they can go bad now, before everyone told me that they have never heard of it, and have had many many crashes on the same crystal.

Thanks for the advice, and I will probably send one of my receivers back to horizon since I'm too broke to just go buy one. Maybe they can see what's wrong with it.

if anyone has had this problem or one simialar, please post

Kevin

MO_Radio_Tech

This is not a JR problem. Everybody's crystals are made the same way. It may fail if I crash the plane, drop the crystal on the floor, or subject the crystal to high vibration for too long.