Bad Day at the Field

[mhanley]

Here's what happens when a receiver battery goes bad on you in mid flight. Anyone know where I can get DS8417 replacement horns?

[whytlotus]

Oh man...maxi bummer. So sorry to see this. I have seen the Align round horns being used. For 3 or 4 bucks they might be worth a try and probably more readily available then the JR horns. I hope your pack is still under the 50% crash replacement. Those 6s packs are a chunk of change.

[John Cook]

ouch

good reason to run a BEC maybe?

Frames look pretty well taco'd :(

[mhanley]

Oh man...maxi bummer. So sorry to see this. I have seen the Align round horns being used. For 3 or 4 bucks they might be worth a try and probably more readily available then the JR horns. I hope your pack is still under the 50% crash replacement. Those 6s packs are a chunk of change.
Not sure about the battery, bought it new, but it was from a seller on ebay

[ckoelliker]

I feel your pain. What happened to the receiver battery, was it in the wiring?

The flight battery still might be allright. Mine looked about like that after my crash and it is doing fine.

[DominicD]

Sorry to see that happen to you bud :( How did it land ?

[mhanley]

I wouldn't trust the flight battery given its appearance. HFG, I can tell you I landed very hard. It was coming down from about 40ft nose first, rolled over slightly on the side. It pretty much exploded, definitly the worst crash I have had. I know there were some comments on the canopy quality, mine hit hard and landed about 8ft from the rest of the Heli with the battery still in it, but came out still useable, doesn't look to good.

[DominicD]

I wonder if plastic bolts connecting the skids to the base plate would have helped any.

[ov10mech]

I am confused on how a BEC would have helped this situation?

ouch

good reason to run a BEC maybe?

Frames look pretty well taco'd :(

[ov10mech]

Never mind. I have had my head into too many nitor birds lately :oops:

But now I am curious why you were running a different rx pack in the first place?


I am confused on how a BEC would have helped this situation?

[terrybeb]

Sorry to see that happen to you bud :( How did it land ?

Not Well?.........

Sorry could not resist. ;)

[flag8r77]

"I am confused on how a BEC would have helped this situation?"

I think he's suggesting you run the heli only on the main lipo and a BEC. I would think main lipo failures are pretty rare.

[mhanley]

I am still trying to find some replacement servo arms for my DS8417's. The JR replacement arms I have ordered so far are quite a bit bigger than the stock arms. The stock arms are 34mm long and using the outside hole provides the 29.5mm spacing. Anyone have any ideas?

[DominicD]

You do not HAVE to be 29.5mm. You can use a shorter distance and trade off some servo speed for higher precision and more torque.

[ckoelliker]

Have you tried the Align servo wheels. They make them to fit the jr servo.

[mhanley]

I will check into to those.

[billyd]

I am not running a rx pack anymore. But when I do I always use some form of lipo monitor that let's me know the status of the rx pack when the heli is armed. The charge on a rx pack typically lasts 3-6 flights depending on battery size and flight patterns, so sometimes it's hard to remember to charge it when it's time to.

Joe at Tech-mp sells a really nice 2-3s lipo monitor that flashes bright green when the lipo is at a good voltage, flashes yellow when it's time to charge and red when it's land or die time. You can easily see the light and color from a long distance during flight. Saved me more than once that I can tell you.

Pretty much a must have if you run a seperate pack.

Sorry about your crash.

[mhanley]

In my case this was a freshly charged battery that went totally dead. Not sure if a cell went out or if it was something with the internal wiring. It's also possible that my regulator went bad. I will test when I get the 550 built back up.

[JaggedEdge]

On a multi cell pack you can have 1 cell show a complete charge (4.2V) but have almost no capacity.

When under load that particular cell will almost immediately lose its voltage. Total pack voltage goes down and a huge amount of load is put on the remaining cell(s).

[billyd]

In my case this was a freshly charged battery that went totally dead. Not sure if a cell went out or if it was something with the internal wiring. It's also possible that my regulator went bad. I will test when I get the 550 built back up.


Fair enough but the lipo monitor would show red immediately too. Maybe a split second of a difference to hit throttle hold and maybe get it on the ground in one piece. It's very important in my opinion to have a lipo monitor on your rx pack.