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bmw330i
06-19-2007, 04:42 PM
Hey all,

Something very odd happened today flying my new MiniTitan E325. BTW, it's so easily the best Heli I have. Seems miles more "connected" and "stable" while flying than my t-rex 450se. Same electronics for the most part in both (i.e. same servos, rx, gyro, tail servo).

So, here's what happened....flew one pack (Apex 2200mah 15c) for about 10min, landed. About 10min later put the 2nd pack on (same brand/type), set it down, throttled to about 45% then hit the Idle-Up...then punched it...sweet!! it shot up like a rocket (to me anyways it seemed like it)....then at the top I went to hover and noticed no power...hey!!!! The motor isn't running....

...and down to earth if fell...

Now in the simulator I have been practicing autos so it wasn't as bad as it could have been...but my inexperience hurt the Heli...at the top of the punch-out I used up most of the rotor speed just figuring out that the motor was off...so by the time I went to negative pitch to try and gather up rotor speed again it was dropping pretty fast...so my flare out was pretty sad and it hit hard...fortunately flat and bounced up then down then on it's side...

Total damage seems to be a cracked stock tail skid and broken landing gear....

When I got to it all the controls were working, I checked them all out and everything was working fine but the motor. Gave it power and nothing...

I am running an external BEC so the electronics working wasn't such a surprise...

Now, here's my thought...did my punch out draw so much current that the voltage in the Apex pack dropped by the magic number in my Castle Creations 45A ESC...so it cut off the motor??? I think it's stock programming out of the box on the CC45A.

Or...what do you think happened. I am going to later plug the ESC in again (I had to go back to work) so I have not tested if the ESC re-arms and works fine again...i.e. if my hypothesis is correct the ESC is fine it's just the "hard" cut-off needs to be disabled.

LITHIUMSTATIC
06-19-2007, 07:02 PM
What BEC & RX are you using?

bmw330i
06-19-2007, 07:09 PM
What BEC & RX are you using?
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/ParkBEC.htm and R606FS (Futaba FAAST 2.4ghz).

LITHIUMSTATIC
06-19-2007, 07:24 PM
It could be a few things.

1. You have a hard cutoff set in your ESC like you stated earlier. (I'm using a PHX 35 so I'm not sure of the TT ESC settings)

2. When you punched-out it could have overloaded the ESC and it fried.

A 15C pack doesn't seem like enough if your going to be flying hard. The extra resistance could have caused the ESC to over heat from the previous flight. Thus on your second flight the ESC was on the verge of taking a dump and did so during the punch-out. If it's your ESC that's bad you may want to upgrade it to a Phoenix 35 and go with a 25C pack. Keep the BEC or upgrade it too if you want to a Medusa Potencia. I don't think the ParBEC is that great but I don't feel that was the cause of this failer.

bmw330i
06-19-2007, 09:16 PM
It could be a few things.

1. You have a hard cutoff set in your ESC like you stated earlier. (I'm using a PHX 35 so I'm not sure of the TT ESC settings)

2. When you punched-out it could have overloaded the ESC and it fried.

A 15C pack doesn't seem like enough if your going to be flying hard. The extra resistance could have caused the ESC to over heat from the previous flight. Thus on your second flight the ESC was on the verge of taking a dump and did so during the punch-out. If it's your ESC that's bad you may want to upgrade it to a Phoenix 35 and go with a 25C pack. Keep the BEC or upgrade it too if you want to a Medusa Potencia. I don't think the ParBEC is that great but I don't feel that was the cause of this failer.

Thanks Lith for the help...just not quite sure we're on the same page...

Upgrade to a Pheonix 35 from a Pheonix 45??

I think we have a disconnect on my setup...see above my setup...I'm open to anything but I don't think the Phoenix 35 is rated higher than the Pheonix 45...

I have TP 25c eXtreme packs...I was just goofing around with the Apex to get warmed up then was going to put on an Xtreme...

I guess the answer is out there. I need to just plug it in and check if the ESC is working 1st.

LITHIUMSTATIC
06-19-2007, 09:33 PM
LOL!!! Sorry.... :oops: I miss read it. Man must be a long day huh.

Well, man I'm really not sure what happened to your heli. Check the cutoff in your PHX 45. I do know they run kind of toasty but I've never heard of one failing. I would like to know what you find out when you get a chance to trouble shoot it.

bmw330i
06-20-2007, 01:25 AM
Ya, it was nutty, just I'm pretty new to all this and have more hours in the simulator than actual flying...thankfully I practice autos on the simulator all the time...but I just want not ready for this one that's for sure...I'm going to be pretty paranoid for a while after this...and practice more autos ;]

fire_paramedic
06-20-2007, 10:25 PM
I have the castle 45 also. i think the esc should have been flashing bfore its unplugged to let you know why it shut down. these are the codes for the lastest firmware 1.56
1 flash: Start Failure (The motor was jammed or locked)
2 flashes: Low Voltage Cutoff (Your batteries are likely discharged. Check that batteries are fully charged and that your Phoenix detects the proper number of cells at power-up)
3 flashes: Over Current (Current draw exceeded the safe capacity of the controller)
4 flashes: Prop Strike Detected (Your motor stopped spinning freely. Check for proper operation of motor)
5 flashes: Poor Radio Signal (Signal from your receiver is corrupt or non-existent, check transmitter and receiver)

also make sure its set to insensitive for the over current shut down.

unless there was another problem.

bmw330i
06-22-2007, 06:30 PM
Hey, thanks fire_paramedic,
I am relatively sure it was as I thought, cheap Apex Pack was fully charged, CC45 was in Stock Airplane programming with Hard Cut-Off...spooled it up and did a punch-out right off...ESC shutdown the motor and down it came.
ESC and motor work fine so that's the only thing that makes sense, however, I tried programming it (using USB/software) and had another issue. I didn't set fixed-endpoints for throttle (it was on "low") and the headspeed was so low it got into a hover and as soon as I went to bring it down the motor almost stopped tail had no control and it spun around and down it came...DOH!!
Re-read the online doc when you download the firmware and it says to use the "fixed endpoints" until the headspeed is setup ...