9CHP going into failsafe

[Seeker]

My radio went into failsafe 2 times today. The second time it was in failsafe long enough to pull the throttle down (dang scary right along the treeline). :bomb:

Seems random... I cant see anything that is common from occurrence to occurrence. This started a week ago and doesnt happen every flight.

Landed it (free heli today :D ) and made a stop at D&M Electronics (great guy Dave). He said the RX was out a little and so was the TX but not enough to cause failsafe (ranged check fine over 150 feet with the TX ant down).

Any other ideas for me to look at? I'm gonna fly it tomorrow to see but I feel like I'm sitten on a time bomb here!

[BarracudaHockey]

Sounds like you are getting noise from somewhere, a bad bearing, metal to metal rubbing maybe.

Has the reciever been smacked?

[Seeker]

The RX has been in a crash (boom strike while auto practice) but it didn't take any impact. It's been rapped in foam and "floats" pretty well the way I have it installed.

I hope to get a few flights in this weekend to see if any differance comes from the changes Dave made but the weather is starting to turn bad here this weekend :(

I'll look real good to see if I can find anything rubbing. Any methods to try to track a bad bearing?

Thanks.

[BarracudaHockey]

You didnt say which receiver but the 149dp is known to be a bit of the fragile side, I had the crystal filter go bad on 2 of mine after dinging the heli.

If I were you I'd send the reciever to the factory or Radio South for a check out and start looking at things like main shaft and start shaft bearings, pull the bearing and spin it with your finger, if it feels like sand then replace it. I also lube all bearings with a tool called the Greaser, Ricks stocks them.

If you got a local guy there thats looking at things with an O-Scope what I would use is an etcher with a pencil eraser on the tip to induce vibration and see if that causes problems, thats how we found my bad one because it would range check fine but with the motor up to speed it would start to act up.

[Seeker]

You didnt say which receiver but the 149dp is known to be a bit of the fragile side, I had the crystal filter go bad on 2 of mine after dinging the heli.

That was the first thing he thought of too, it is the 149.


If I were you I'd send the reciever to the factory or Radio South for a check out and start looking at things like main shaft and start shaft bearings, pull the bearing and spin it with your finger, if it feels like sand then replace it. I also lube all bearings with a tool called the Greaser, Ricks stocks them.

Prolly a dumb question.. do you pull the bearings out to grease them with that?

If you got a local guy there thats looking at things with an O-Scope what I would use is an etcher with a pencil eraser on the tip to induce vibration and see if that causes problems, thats how we found my bad one because it would range check fine but with the motor up to speed it would start to act up.

That's a good idea... he had a scope on it... maybe I'll take it back to him along with an etcher.

Thanks!

[BarracudaHockey]

I have had good luck with them except in crashes, some of the airplane guys call them the 149DeadPlane though

Yes you pull the bearings, drop them in a cup looking thing and push on them with the other half of the tool, it forces the old grease out and the new grease in. Give it a spin and see how it feels, if its questionable replace it.

http://www.ronlund.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=heli&Product_Code=GREASER&Category_Code=

[Seeker]

Well I took it down and looked at it.. lubed the 1 way bearing.. lubed the thrust washers in the grips... oiled the bearings (they all seemed fine) and made some slight changes to the ant routing.

One thing I figured out was it started when I bought a new canopy. I also think it's always been around the same orientation when it locks out (hence the ant re-route). There's not many options to ant. routing in a raptor so it exits the heli at the same place. The canopy has fiber around all the inside in the glass itself.

I took the new canopy off and replaced it with the stock bleach bottle canopy. No lockouts in 3 flights.

Think it's the canopy?

[Jafa]

The RD149 Receiver will close the throttle when the battery voltage reaches a specific low value (can't remember what that value is) - this has caught many people out - just another thing to consider

[DavidH]

What is 'battery failsafe'? What does this mean? How does it work?
Battery failsafe is an automatic safety function of the 9Z computer radio. When the receiver's battery voltage drops below a predetermined cut off (approximately 3.8v) and remains there for more than a set amount of time (several seconds — this allows for occasional hard drains caused by violent maneuvers such as snaps which immediately returns the voltage back to above 3.8v), the receiver recognizes that you are in a dangerous condition, and brings your throttle servo to a high idle. This is a warning that you must safely retrieve the model (land for aircraft/helicopters), as you are reaching a point where there will not be sufficient voltage to operate the receiver.

As an additional safety of this feature, you can pull your throttle stick to idle and readvance it, allowing you to use power to return the model to you, and you will have throttle control for approximately 30 seconds before the feature reactivates, returning the throttle to high idle. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU LAND OR OTHERWISE RETRIEVE YOUR MODEL IMMEDIATELY BEFORE LOSING CONTROL OF THE MODEL ALTOGETHER.

[Seeker]

I'm sure it's not from low voltage (9C anyhow).

Has anyone seen a canopy be a cause for lockouts?