How did you know your stock pinion had gone?

[rdlohr]

Not sure what has happened to the rest of you, but my heli just lost power for no apparent reason. It spun up, flew about 30 seconds, then spun down on its own. Its just slowly lost power and came down almost like a normal auto.

I looked it over and it looked OK so I though maybe it was something strange with the ESC not initializing correctly. I cycled power and flew through two packs without issue.

Next day, I spun it up, did two figure eights, then as I went inverted to do an inverted figure eight it just spun down again. I looked it over and still didn't see anything so I started thinking my ESC was going bad. Went to spin it up again and this time my belt jumped off.

Now I could see that the pinion had shifted up and started eating through the plastic y bracket that holds the pinion in place, and the OWB was locked. I had to pry it off the shaft.

I ordered a solid pinion and an upgrade Lynx Y bracket.

Did it act similar for you guys?

Rick

[dr dremel]

When you say "lost power", did you hear the motor rpm go up? That would usually be the sign for the OWB in the pinion giving up (or the pinion cracking) and releasing the motor from the load of the drive system.

But you say the pinion was locked to the motor shaft and the pinion eating the plastic, so my guess would be the esc got into over current or temp protection because of to much load. Was the motor or esc overly hot after the incidents? Any error beeps from the YGE?

Anyway, it´s clear that there were mechanical problems, so the Lynx parts should have that covered. Just make sure to align the shaft support so that there is no binding between the bearing in the support and the motor shaft.

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by dr dremel

When you say "lost power", did you hear the motor rpm go up? That would usually be the sign for the OWB in the pinion giving up (or the pinion cracking) and releasing the motor from the load of the drive system.

But you say the pinion was locked to the motor shaft and the pinion eating the plastic, so my guess would be the esc got into over current or temp protection because of to much load. Was the motor or esc overly hot after the incidents? Any error beeps from the YGE?

Anyway, it´s clear that there were mechanical problems, so the Lynx parts should have that covered. Just make sure to align the shaft support so that there is no binding between the bearing in the support and the motor shaft.

Now that you mention it, the first time the RPM did go up. It must have over heated then locked the whole works on to the shaft. From then on must have been when it ate into the plastic. I didn't notice the ESC or motor being hot or beeps, but they must have been in an overcurrent condition and shut off.

I'll be careful when lining up the shaft support. My Rush has a similar assembly so I'm familiar with how they line up.
Rick

I was just wondering what other people saw so new guys know what to look for.

Rick

[waxman]

I've had mine slip a couple of times, mainly when colective managment gets a bit sloppy and it boggs it down quickly it has let go. Most times I have got away with going to zero pitch and it has recovered enough headspeed to avoid the ground,

What I noticed is it made a bit of a squawk and then no power, I have a steel pinion on there now so I will see how it holds up but going to order a lynx pinion.

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by waxman

I've had mine slip a couple of times, mainly when colective managment gets a bit sloppy and it boggs it down quickly it has let go. Most times I have got away with going to zero pitch and it has recovered enough headspeed to avoid the ground,

What I noticed is it made a bit of a squawk and then no power, I have a steel pinion on there now so I will see how it holds up but going to order a lynx pinion.

Thanks for that. I had it lose power again today. I don't remember hearing the motor pick up RPM, it just seemed to cut out. The belt had slipped off and I noticed it was too loose so I tightened it but I'm not convinced I'm to the root of the problem yet. Running it on the bench tonight all seemed fine and neither the ESC or motor got warm. I'll spend the next battery hovering fairly low to see if it cuts out again. I'll listen closely to see if I can get any more data points if it does go.

Rick

[dr dremel]

Was that already with the Lynx pinion? If its still the old pinion my guess would be that without load the OWB still holds.

To take things out of the mix it´s maybe a good idea to redo throttle end points in the esc, especially if you use a FBL based gov.

Other than that connection problems (motor-esc/esc-FBL) could also cause a temoporarily loss of power.

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by dr dremel

Was that already with the Lynx pinion? If its still the old pinion my guess would be that without load the OWB still holds.

To take things out of the mix it´s maybe a good idea to redo throttle end points in the esc, especially if you use a FBL based gov.

Other than that connection problems (motor-esc/esc-FBL) could also cause a temoporarily loss of power.

New pinion. Connections seem solid. Flew the hovering pack today without incident. I'll try more tomorrow.

Rick

[rdlohr]

Good news. I flew two packs without incident. Heli is officially off probation.

Rick