Unofficial Blade mSR Troubleshooting Guide!

[briangp]

Here is a crude guide I just prepared for basic troubleshooting of the Blade mSR. Please feel free to add anything, as I'm sure I've missed something. If you feel any information is ill advised, please speak up. This guide is for reference only and I assume no responsibility for damage caused. Parts of this guide ask for the use of a multimeter, be careful not to short any wires on your 5 in 1 with the leads. The PCB of this helicopter is very fragile unlike the rest of itand you could easily damage it if not careful. If in doubt, don't risk it. Thank you to everyone in this forum who has unknowingly contributed to this troubleshooting guide.


A.
1. Does it fly good?
Yes? Then why the heck are you reading this thread?
No? Proceed to step 2

2. Does it fly at all?
Yes? Proceed to step 3
No? Proceed to section B

3. Will the tail hold steady without drifting?
Yes? Proceed to step 4
No? Inspect your tail motor carefully. Look for distorted tail rotor, broken tail rotor, hairs wrapped in the bearing. Adjust your rudder trim against the direction of the tail drift. If your already at the trim stops, its probably about time to get a new tail motor. Stop operation and order one, you could run the risk of overcurrent and fry your 5 in 1.

4. Does it have a tendency to 'Toilet Bowl'?
Yes? Use the swashplate calibration tool as directed in the owners manual. If this does not fix it, check for flybar dissymetry, blade dissymetry, or a bent main shaft. Also thoroughly inspect the blade grips for any cracks. Inspect your swashplate guide pin and ensure it isn't pushed all the way down in the swash guide.
No? Check out the 'Other Symptoms' at the bottom. Read through the rest of this guide and see if anything fits your symptoms. If not, create a new post, surely one of us freaks can help you.











B. So it won't even lift off the ground.... What seems to be the problem?

The tail motor doesn't work, and the heli spins out of control. Proceed to Step 5A

The main motor won't spin up, and the heli spins out of control. Proceed to step 5B.

When I plug in the battery, the heli just flashes the light at me. Proceed to step 6

When I plug in the battery, everything seems normal, but once I try to fly it, the whole thing just dies. Proceed to step 7.


5A. With your finger, check to make sure the tail rotor spins freely with no power applied. If it is stiff, this is a sure sign of a tail motor failure. Replace it immediately. Also check to make sure the cap on the back side of the motor has not come loose. If it still spins freely, check the connections and wires leading up to the 5 in 1 board. Make sure there are no breaks in the wires, and ensure they are still coated with their 'tinned color' insulation. Reseat the tail rotor connection onto the main board and try to spin up your mSR again. If it still fails, get a multi-meter, or find a friend with one and measure the resistance of the wires leading to the tail motor. An indication of 0 or 1 means your motor has failed. An extreme number in the ten's of thousands will also indicate a failure, usually do to bad brushes. If someone can get me the actual numbers for a good motor, I would really appreciate it.

5B. Same process as step 11A. The connector for the main motor is on the front side of the 5in1 board. These wires are fully insulated and less likely to have breaks, however you should still check them.


6. So your mSR is flashing at you.
If you are using a sophisticated TX such as a Dx6i, check to ensure you are on the correct model. If all is well, make sure your throttle settings are at the lowest, including sub-trim options and trim options, reset battery and try again. If this fails, try rebinding according to your manual. Ensure your transmitter is at least 2-3 feet away when you install the battery or the signal can overpower the bind process. Sometimes binding can take multiple attempts, it can be frustrating at times. If you still cannot bind it successfully... test your transmitter by binding it to another model. If you don't have one, try going to your local hobby shop and asking if you can bind to one of their demo DSM2 capable aircraft. If you can succesfully, then the problem is in your 5in1. Expect to be calling Horizon on this one if the unit is new.


7. If your mSR shuts itself down, chances are one of your motors are bad. Please do not confuse this with a Low-Voltage Cut-off. LVCO's are generally soft and the heli still maintains enough power to fall without damage. If your heli is dropping dead, first ensure your battery connector is on solid. You should not be able to wiggle it lose. Outrage packs can cause this, pay attention. If the connection is solid, unplug either the tail motor, or main motor, one at a time. Plug in the battery, allow the gyro to stabilize. Once the blue light comes on, hold the helicopter in your hand, away from your face and spin it up slowly to full throttle, give it about 5 seconds at full throttle, if the problem doesn't present itself again, then the motor you disconnected is the culprit. Time to get a new one. If the problem still presents itself, disconnect battery, hook up the disconnected motor, and disconnect the opposite motor. Repeat process. If disconnecting a motor solves the problem, assume that motor is bad. If, with both motors disconnected, the problem still presents itself, I would assume the 5 in 1 is bad, though I have yet to hear of this issue on HF so far.

Other issues:

8. My mSR lifts off the ground, but I can't control it correctly.

Check your servo gears. After a crash, the small rubber grommets holding the servo shaft in place(extras included when you bought it) can come loose, allowing the servo gears to fall out of place. Inspect the two gears just forward of the battery tray and make sure they are engaged with the servo motor gear directly inboard. If not, carefully slide them back up while taking a pen to slide the rubber grommet on the top side of the gear shaft down. If they are missing, look in your 'care package' that came with your mSR. New ones are included.

[BEELZEBOB]

one thing not mentioned that happened to me is i let a budd try and fly, and when he crashed, he didnt throttle down.

the main motor would noit spool up. we checked the wires, switched the tail and main motors etc, and what ever was plugged into the 5in1 port for the main motor, would not work.

As a last ditch effort, i rebound the thing, and it work as new.

cant tell ya why, but thats what happend and how i fixed it lol

[fessel]

The anti rotation collar " pins " can spread apart or bend up or down causing play in cyclic system. I was able to gently bend them back in alignment and get a much smoother flying heli. https://www.helifreak.com/attachment...1&d=1254191848

[Freezebyte]

There supposed to be like that?

[mediclavina]

Originally Posted by BEELZEBOB

one thing not mentioned that happened to me is i let a budd try and fly, and when he crashed, he didnt throttle down....

I made that same mistake of letting somebody (with no prior rc heli experience) try my SRB Quark. I almost cried when he crashed it and just continued throttling it up, making it do the *chicken dance*.

[briangp]

Thanks for all the additions. I'll add them into the guide a little bit later. Please feel free to keep adding more. Hopefully a mod can come in and sticky this please.

[widower]

One of the biggest problems I have is after a crash the heli seems to be way out of trim. It ends up the swash pin jumps out of the anti-rotation bracket.

[linac]

Originally Posted by mediclavina

I made that same mistake of letting somebody (with no prior rc heli experience) try my SRB Quark. I almost cried when he crashed it and just continued throttling it up, making it do the *chicken dance*.

Hi mediclavina:

Sorry to hear about your Quark. For myself, I would not have anyone without RC heli experience try out my Quark - I think it would be too much of a handful for them. I know this is OT but what damage did your Quark sustain in the "chicken dance"? Thanks.

-Linac

[mediclavina]

Originally Posted by linac

Hi mediclavina:

Sorry to hear about your Quark. For myself, I would not have anyone without RC heli experience try out my Quark - I think it would be too much of a handful for them. I know this is OT but what damage did your Quark sustain in the "chicken dance"? Thanks.

-Linac

Good thing the only parts broken where the main blades and the tail blades (very much expected)....and I just had to re-align the center hub blade holder for correct phasing.

[briangp]

ttt

[Cailid]

Excellent trouble shooting guide. Should be the forums first sticky

[Laurens]

Now it is;-)

[DebianDog]

You should also add "Did you let the gyro set"

You would think I would know better I was trying to "fix" that tail for quite a while till I figured that out.:o

[briangp]

Hey thanks Laurens... I will be updating this soon with all your inputs. Hopefully we can cover all issues and make it a complete guide!

[FlyAndFix]

If msr needs full reverse cyclic to hover without forward flight. Check that your main gear has not slipped down on the shaft.

[BEELZEBOB]

There are 10 screws (microscopic screws mind you) attaching the servos and the frame, to the 5in1.

with that said, have you crashed your mSR?

Have you hovered with it battery after battey marveling at your pilot skills?

have you noticed that the longer you have your Heli, the more trim you have to dial in to keep it in a steady hands off hover? does it have an elusive case of minor TBE>

them lil screws holdin the servos to the board, come loose. so you gotta tighten them down (there are 4 per servo.)

then, make sure the 2 larger screws connecting the board to the fram are tight as well.

good as new.

now your cyclic movements are at a strong solid hold with no imput. when the screws are loose, there is a great deal of play in the whole system

[KCMike]

Originally Posted by DebianDog

You should also add "Did you let the gyro set"

You would think I would know better I was trying to "fix" that tail for quite a while till I figured that out.:o

Heh -- Same here. I was cussin' the little guy, when all along it was my fault. Talk about an Epic Fail.

[Phil H]

A maintenance issue that I have had with the MSR has been with a stuck aileron servo that made it tricky to control.

A friend found the problem for me using high magnification with a digital camera. There appeared to be plastic swarf stuck in one tooth of the larger gear. Since my problem occured at the time of purchase I believe it was a defect with the original sero.

The servo only seemed to hit this point close to the limit of full left stick. It would hold at this point. Until more left stick was applied it would not come free.

I ended up replacing the whole servo and the problem disappeared .... and Yes I probably could have simply pully off the gear tooth and replaced that rather than going to the trouble of pulling the entire servo off the 5in1 unit. However, that idea came to me afterwards!!!

[briangp]

Well I guess this forum won't allow me to edit the original post once its been posted, so hopefully the smart ones will figure out theres more below the guide.

[Laurens]

You don't have the EDIT button?