Is my 3-in-1 dead?

[ACITceva]

I've been dealing with numerous mechanical issues the last few weeks - some of my own making from crash damage and some from regular wear and tear. Worn bearings, stripped gears, stripped main shaft etc.

I've finally got everything back together and had it out for a test flight yesterday afternoon and everything seemed fine. Was pretty satisfied with myself that I had done such significant repair work successfully.

Brought it home last night and wanted to adjust the tail servo placement a little bit. So I powered up the helicopter and slid the tail servo mount back down the boom a little, re-tightened it and tested the rudder.

Nothing. Then I tested the other servos. Nothing from them either. Unplugged the tail servo. Still nothing.

I've tried everything I can think of including rebinding. When I connect the battery the helicopter powers up as normal, the 3-in-1 gets the solid blue light. Throttle works fine. But nothing from ANY of the servos.

It's possible when I adjusted the servo mount that I might have touched the tail servo with the screwdriver. But surely that wouldn't have fried everything?

Is there something I'm missing or is the 3-in-1 likely done?

[helibus]

Unfortunately, shorting out the right points on the tail servo could in fact explain this.

On the 3-in-1, the servo output power is independent from the motor ESC output. Failure modes that involve the motor working fine but nothing from the servos is a symptom of the 3-in-1 BEC output being bad.

If your screwdriver happened to short the servo supply voltage to ground, that short would have been applied to the BEC output. Especially with non-upgraded BEC output transistors, the BEC isn't very tolerant of that.

If you want to try and verify that the BEC is bad, this post in the predominant thread on BEC failures and repair has info on how to check the BEC output voltage at the tail servo. If you don't measure somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.6 to 3.8V, well, now you know. https://www.helifreak.com/showpost.php?p=5224365&postcount=47

[ACITceva]

Thanks for the insight. Live and learn I guess - I wasn't even thinking that it was dangerous to stick tools in there while it was powered up. If nothing else I've learned a lot about RC while working on and repairing this thing and the flying was a whole lotta fun as well.

I'm thinking that with the new lower price on the 130X I'm probably just going to buy another one and use the old one for parts - instead of repairing or replacing the 3-in-1.

[wsntme]

Originally Posted by ACITceva

Thanks for the insight. Live and learn I guess - I wasn't even thinking that it was dangerous to stick tools in there while it was powered up. If nothing else I've learned a lot about RC while working on and repairing this thing and the flying was a whole lotta fun as well.

I'm thinking that with the new lower price on the 130X I'm probably just going to buy another one and use the old one for parts - instead of repairing or replacing the 3-in-1.

If you're going to start down the road of multiple 130s....then IMO you may as well go ahead and get that board repaired! It's like $25 from Kevin at MegasMicro.....and then you'll have a "spare" or more likely you'll have a board you can use to built a second "can I make another flying heli outta these spares" 130x.

[ACITceva]

Originally Posted by wsntme

If you're going to start down the road of multiple 130s....then IMO you may as well go ahead and get that board repaired! It's like $25 from Kevin at MegasMicro.....and then you'll have a "spare" or more likely you'll have a board you can use to built a second "can I make another flying heli outta these spares" 130x.

Good idea! I was actually looking at MegasMicro site earlier this morning. I was considering repairing it INSTEAD of buying a second 130x but by the time I ship it both ways across the border it probably almost costs as much as a new 3-in-1 and the time frame involved pretty much eats up the rest of my good summer flying season.

But you're right - depending on the cost involved it might be a good option for a "spare". (Just a note - not trying to devalue Kevin's work - $25 is a steal and I respect that. But I suspect it could cost as much as $20 each direction for shipping)

Edit: Just checked the Canadian Online hobby stores and looks like the 3-in-1 generally sells for $95 here. So I guess a repair even worst case shipping scenario is still a good deal

[wsntme]

I definitely overlooked that you were up north! It's small and light thought so I don't think you'll get dinged too hard for shipping . Best of luck!

[kingmeow]

Try creating a new model in an empty slot on your Tx and bind from that slot. I once had a very similar situation with my 130x. Never did find out what caused it. It just "woke up" one day and seems to have lost all control but the blue light was steady.

By chance I delete the slot and created a new one and that worked. You can't edit the existing one. You need to create a new one.

Apparently it looks like that one time the model slot was scrambled. Never happened again.

[ACITceva]

Originally Posted by wsntme

I definitely overlooked that you were up north! It's small and light thought so I don't think you'll get dinged too hard for shipping . Best of luck!

Looks like I can ship there for $10 and Mega quotes $20 to return ship. So about $55 all in which isn't too bad at all! I think I'll give it some serious thought for a spare.

[ACITceva]

Originally Posted by kingmeow

Try creating a new model in an empty slot on your Tx and bind from that slot.

Thanks - I gave that a go just in case but no luck. So I concluded the 3-in-1 is dead. I went ahead and purchased a second 130x and looking forward to flying it next week.

I haven't decided yet whether I'll get the old 3-in-1 fixed or just use the old helicopter for parts as I need them.

Any guesses as to whether or not I likely also fried the servo that I touched?