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Electronic failure/malfunction... help needed

Rich B

50cc
While flying a plane I have flown all summer I had a failure that I am at a loss to figure out. While attemptinging a Pop Top all the surfaces locked in full deflection and no motor response. I retrieved the plane and starting looking to see what happened. The battery was still hooked up and the all the servo’s were still "locked" at full deflection… any attempt to manual move them just resulted in them buzzing at me telling me they were not budging lol, and still no throttle response from the motor. I disconnected the Lipo pack and tested the voltage, all was good there and still had 37% charge on the pack. I run 4 AA brand name batteries in my transmitter and I set my warning alarm for 4.8v, voltage check on the transmitter was 5.0-5.1v at the time. So after going through the hardware I decided to see what happened if I plugged the Lipo pack back in the plane? You guess it, everything worked just fine… minus the wreckage, Grrrrrr!!!!

Here is a list of hardware I was using.
Transmitter: Tactic TTX650
Receiver: Tactic TR624
Servo’s: Savox SH-0255MG
Motor: Hacker A30-14L w/13 x 6.5 prop
ESC: Castle Ice Lite 50
3s 2200 30c

If anyone knows of or has heard of any issues with these components listed, or can just tell me what the heck happened I would greatly appreciate it. Do not want to watch another plane come spiraling down and crash like that.

Rich B.
 

gyro

GSN Contributor
I personally suspect one of two things (based on my own experience with small electrics - and similar mishaps)

1- your castle ice 50 internal BEC was unable to supply enough current during your full deflection pop top, which resulted in a rx brownout band lockout.

2- your rx lost signal and wasn't able to reconnect, causing it to "fail safe". I'm more inclined to think it was the cause above though.
 

Rich B

50cc
The esc has a 5 amp bec. What do you recommend for external bec amperage? Weight is a concern with such a small plane 48". I just figured as many flights this plane has on it the problem would have arrised soon then later. I am no electrical person by any means... Just trying to understand why this happened on the last flight. Thanks for the information.
 

gyro

GSN Contributor
The esc has a 5 amp bec. What do you recommend for external bec amperage? Weight is a concern with such a small plane 48". I just figured as many flights this plane has on it the problem would have arrised soon then later. I am no electrical person by any means... Just trying to understand why this happened on the last flight. Thanks for the information.

It isn't necessarily that the 5A BEC isn't capable normally, but rather that going to full deflection could have caused some binding that led to excessive current draw.

Do you hear any buzzing when the controls are fully deflected?
 

Rich B

50cc
The only time a servo would buzz was when I was trying to move them from full deflection they were stuck in. In normal operation the servo do not make any over stressing buzzing sounds. After reading your post I wonder with the servos aging if they are a little more stiffer than they were new?
 

gyro

GSN Contributor
The only time a servo would buzz was when I was trying to move them from full deflection they were stuck in. In normal operation the servo do not make any over stressing buzzing sounds. After reading your post I wonder with the servos aging if they are a little more stiffer than they were new?

Nah, don't think age would be a big factor, but any binding could be.

Wonder if you could put a wattmeter between ESC and battery, then move all servos to full deflection and note the amperage?
 

Rich B

50cc
I will do that this weekend while repairing the plane and see what the readings are. On a side note receiver signal loss wise I was only maybe a 100 feet high and just to my left when the "Oh no!!" happened.
 

Rich B

50cc
I repaired the plane and hooked the wattmeter between the esc and battery. It doesn't seem to do a very good job with reading low current. The highest peak I observed was 2.4 watts and .5 amps when fully deflecting all the surfaces at one time. I did this in all directions of travel. Well I just hope this doesn't happen again down the road.
 

Rich B

50cc
The above problem with the plane made itself known finally. After flying I was carrying my plane back to the staging area when one of the capacitors from the ESC fell out of the plane and onto the ground. So, that explains a lot. Just thought I would post this in case someone else ever has this happen and can check for broken or cracked capacitor leads. Take care!
 
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