It Went Down !

[R-4-L]

Had this setup for a while in testing stages and when finally got things going, on my very first video paid job, as I was on the end of the whole-day of shooting , on the last planned scene .. where I was going on a higher altitude to take a broad shot of the whole farm... Motor Quits !

Quickly flipped the landing gear (HCS MarkIV), pitched down, but that thing was falling like a Rock !

My MJ2 and Mount and Camera splattered everywhere!

Helicam Motor Cut-Off (0 min 27 sec)

setup WAS:

MJ2, Pletti motor, Schulze ESC, running on 12S 7400mah (4x 3700mah OutrageRC packs), HCS MarkIV, Panasonic SD5 AVCHD cam.

good thing the SD card in the cam survived !, and when i saw the last few seconds of the heli's life, just when I pitched down to attempt an autorotation and pitched alittle up , the motor tried to spool up again, indicating it was a safety motor-cutoff.

temperatures weren't at the extremes, and that flight lasted only 3 minutes..

only conclusion i currently have is that it was a problem with an amp draw or overload (whole rig was about 11-12kg)

oh well, I think im going to rig up the Trex600 to put me back on my feet for now

[cbergen]

Hmmm, That's interesting. I have now had 3 cutouts in the last 3 days with my E-Observer, using the Blue Pletti, also on 12s (2 ea 6s2p 7400Mah), and at about 24 Lbs RTF. But I'm using the CC HV 110 ESC.

The first one I attributed to a low battery cutout, just had not seen it before.....As it was an unexpected auto, I was slow getting my negative in and botched the landing, breaking my landing gear and bending my head axle and flybar.

Tried another set of batteries, happened again. No damage this time, however. OK maybe these batteries were low also.

Charged them up, flew again, same thing....Made a sliding auto out of this one as I was in FFF and fairly low.

Temps here are cooler than they were in Tx at the AP Conference where I had no problem at all as far as motor cutouts, so I do not think it's a temp thing.

I'll install the Eagletree datalogger to see if I'm overamping, but why would it start now?...

[makiedog]

Sounds like an ESC problem. I also use CC110HV on my Maxi Joker, I've never had a cut out problem. Even when fully loaded, my amp draw never exceeded 35 amp. I'm using 10s 8000 mah and 5000 mah lipos. My voltage cut-off is set at 3.0 v/cell on the CC110HV.

[jrohland]

I had motor cutouts on my 450 a few times. In my case it turned out to be a broken antenna wire inside the Spektrum receiver. This was causing failsafes whenever I made a hard left turn.

So, my point is, don't always assume it is the power system.

jrohland

[cbergen]

In my case, I still had full control to complete the auto (even the bad one... ) so it wasn't a lock out...

Certainly could be an ESC problem, I also noticed that my gov mode is now not working.....

[iflybyu77]

Looks from the video like you expected power and gave it full pitch and the blades pretty much came to a stop, even after the slight power up. Unfortunately when you can't hear what is going on, this is a common occurence. I was listening for a tapering of power, which you could hear slightly. Tough to tell if that was from climbing or from the motor effeciency dropping.

One tip I'd have for these situations is to carry diagnostic equipment with you always, including a thermal probe. You may have been able to diagnose some issues by immediately checking temps, battery voltages etc. After my own near mishaps, I've learned that immediate diagnosis is prudent, both for your machine and your peace of mind in the future. Nothing worse than a "dunno what happened" flight.

Any pictures of the machine?

[iflybyu77]

Chris - curious what AUW was on your setup? I've run my Pletty and Schulze Future at 21-22 lbs and came back with near ambient temps. I'm on 10s however. Not sure what to expect from 12s.

I thought you were going to run some different motors? I recall you telling me at IRCHA that maybe a Neu or Scorpion was in the works? Not a Pletty??

[jascamera]

I have seen a few scary cut off when my friend fly his heli with CC 85. It was due to esc cut off because it was at default setting, which cut off engage at a pretty high voltage setting.

I alway manual select the lowest voltage setting, so voltage cut off won't engage till the battery almost fully depleted. Heli is more important than battery.

Don't know if this is your cause, if so go in there and make sure set the voltage cut off to the lowest.

I set my CC110 to a 12v cutoff, meaning for the cutoff to engage, each cell have to be at 1V, which will never happen.

[R-4-L]

Thanks for your inputs guys, I should give a very short history of my setup, i started with Pleti and Jeti Spin Opto99 ESC, on a 12S and stock Pinion (14t), the heli used to hover for about 3.5 minutes and quits, ambient temperature was very high about 40C, so the motor was reaching 95C and above (ESC's cutoff is 100C), it was way too high.

I changed to a 10s 5000mah battery pack, and i was about to fly till battery drained out with very good temperature readings , so it was about 6-7 minutes. and i used that to take my first photo shots.

I ordered schulze, 12T pinion, and used the 12S 7400mah setup again, hovered for 12 minutes, at 1400rpm , temperatures were fine and it looked like it was good to go.

the day of the crash, the ambient temperature was alot lower and i was checking temperatures after every flight. and after the crash i did check and it was in the range of 60C on the motor, 55C on the ESC, 46C on the batteries... all seemed well within the ranges. plus it was kinda windy so heat dissipation was better (also i always fly without canopy).

my only deduction from this is amp draw, and true i had no means of measuring that (at least the jeti box would u that reading IF you manage to push the throttle to max).

during that crash YES i lowered the stick to absolute minimum, but gave it alittle throttle and the engine TRIED to spoolup again, but still it was sensing that error that caused it to cut anyways..

i couldn't measure battery voltages coz they were Squashed ! at least the ones on the right side , on the left side they seemed ok with about 60% of capacity.

so far it seems Me and Chris are experiencing the same issues, and both with 12S setup. chris if you could measure the amp draw it could lead to something...

good thing that 90% of my electronics weren't damaged by the crash... so they are reusable.

[cbergen]

I hope to try it today with the data logger, I'll let you know what I find.

My AUW is appx 24 Lbs RTF with the E-Observer, including ballast on the camera mount for CG.

I have been trying to give the Pletti an honest test, as a lot of the Maxi guys swear by this motor. I will probably swap with the Scorpion 4035-560KV out of the Tazer 800.

Oh, be careful with crashed electronics, especially in a cameraship....

[iflybyu77]

Good tip Chris on the electronics. Those are wise words.

[R-4-L]

chris thank bro, after ur post i went to the pile of electronics and checked every thing's operation... I will be installing the Helicommand on the Trex600 today to confirm its all working as it should.

[rroback]

I was never impressed by the big blue. I've still got one laying on the shelf, the actro 32-4 always out guns it in my book. Gain of flight time, and the motor is luke warm. I used to run 12s, 5000mah packs, fly for 8 minutes, and take out 3k mah, and the motor was just barely above ambient. On 12s2p a123, it gets warm, but not super hot. the pletti was quite warm....

[R-4-L]

rroback, interestingly i was thinking of trying the actro, but since i don't have one pletti but TWO on the shelf, one with scortched shaft due to tight fit of pinion, and another that crashed and seems to have its upper fan warped..

Heat is extremely important to me as I live in a generally Hellish area, in the summer it can get up to 60C in the shade , winters aren't that cold. the double-fan feature of the pletti was the main reason that got me into buying it. at 12S 7400mah with the Jeti Spin 99 controller, the temperature of the motor easily gets to 100C !! which is a killer.

[rroback]

well, you live in a much hotter place then I, but I still live in a very warm place, and I've flown at 40c, which isn't cold.... I think the best option is an actro 32-4, and have a computer fan right near it. when I have to do back to back flight, I have a computer fan, and a 3s a123 pack I put on the helicopter, while switching batteries, and it helps cool everything off a few degrees.