Thank you DX6i for teaching me to do a full preflight, EVERY flight

[Foamboy]

I got my 600/700 stretch super dialed in in the backyard this morning, blade tracking perfect with the new blades, almost hands off hover stability. I finally headed up to the local private airport (which is closed on Saturdays) to truly test out the 700 stretch with some real flying! Plugged it in, all seemed well. Servos were alive and going in the right direction gyro had initialized, it was go time! I started to spool up, the normal spool up vibes were shaking it, but i figured i would let it sit at mid stick for a few seconds to let the blades straighten out. I started to push a little farther, and INSTANTLY the thing tipped over (high speed tip) and carbon chunks were a flyin! Hit the throttle hold and managed to stand it back up, just chipping the blade tips severely, and breaking a swash linkage. I could not tell what had happened, it flew great just an hour before, but now I noticed that my collective, was only moving the pitch servo, not my ele or ail (but I still could do aile and ele by themselves no problem)... So I thought, hmm, maybe I accidentally changed the swash mix or something. I went into my menu, and decided to check the swash mix first. When I entered the SM set up, i got the "Inhibit" message, but it wouldn't even let me change it. When trying to scroll to it to activate it, the cursor would stay on "list" in the top right corner, not even letting me set up a swash mix
Then I thought, "Oh no, i changed the model to airplane in the set up list somehow by mistake... Nope. Still heli." So basically, I am unable to enter my swash mix setup. This makes me not trust my TX for pylon racing tomorrow (I really wouldn't want to have a failure and hit someone,) and my brand new blades are straight trashed.
I will call Horizon when they open, and see if they will do anything, but I doubt i will get any compensation for my blades. And yes, my DX6i was of the recalled batch, however I sent it in and got the new firmware and new gimbals put on.

[Wildcards]

Thats why I always check that all my servos are operating properly before clicking off throttle hold.

[755 robert]

That really stinks,but it is a reminder to us all to ALWAYS do a pre flight check...May be Horizon will send you a new radio next time..

[Slyster]

I can't quite decipher what actually happened.. and whose fault it was.. but ALWAYS wiggle the sticks for a quickie preflight.

[PTcaflyer]

...Me too...I always do the swash wiggle and sometimes, will hold at the limits to see if it has any twitch or Buzz...
PT

[Mixmaster Pilot]

So I'm gathering your heli is a flybar heli, and the DX6i reset some of your settings, one of which is resetting the swash to INH mode? Because otherwise if you run a FBL setup, you want the swash to be in INH mode.

Yeah that sucks if so, I had my dx6i reset itself before, so I upgraded the TX when I got my 700 for safety reasons. Not to be harsh, but you should have caught this in a pre-flight check, although I can understand your excitement to get flying and thinking nothing should have changed from an hour before.

[Foamboy]

I did a quick preflight cylic circle, and saw that all servos were moving in the right direction as well as my tail servo. The one thing I didn't check, was collective... Bit me on the ass that time.

The radio didn't just reset, but it is actually glitched or something. Check this video, It won't even let me put any swash mix in there... http://youtu.be/JfWGPukKfcc

I have no idea how this happened, or how I'm gonna fix the TX... I already tried taking the batteries out, still nada. So up next is setting up a new model, but I will have to pick something to delete.

[Foamboy]

Also, what it says on the screen is "Inhibit." Not just the usual INH... Something is really whack with this one...

[Mr.Andersen]

What about deleting the current model?
Does the swash mix work with the other models in your list?

[B2Y3K8]

Check the swash type setting. Should be 120 degree setting.

[fletch83]

Sounds like you somehow changed the swash type to one servo/mechanical mixing. Would explain why you cant get into the swash mix settings and only the pitch servo moving on collective.

[Mr.Andersen]

One thing that comes to mind.
If your swash type is 90 degree 1 servos the swash mix menu in the DX6i is INH, its just how it is.
Check that!
But isnt you using V-bar becouse if you are swash type is supose to be set to 90 degree 1 servo where the V-bar does the mixing.

[SQRT(-2)]

Ouch! It's sad when you can't trust something to perform like it is programmed. Well, live and learn I guess.

[shreddedpaper]

If you are using an fbl system, and the swash is set to 90 degree single servo, it will say INH in the mix setting and that is correct for most FBL applications. There is no mixing with most fbl setups. Sounds like there is another issue not related to the TX. But nevertheless, sorry to hear about your crash.
You can go into the "settings" menu and change the swash type back to 120ccpm and then the inh will go away and allow you to change the mixing in the "swash mix" menu

[jimmanyk]

My none dsmx 6i will brainfart and lose/reset or reverse settings. The reversed setting is still flagged as being correct. The lost/reset settings only retain model name. I have the model backed up in a spare slot so when it all goes wrong I can reset model and copy back. The dsmx 6i the elevator pot failed with only a few hours use!. Got lucky preflight finds brainfart, in the case of the pot fail model was erratic and failed on the bench.

[mrultralite]

Twice mine got reversed somehow when setting up FBL, works fine now.

[McKrackin]

Not FBL...

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=405855

[Foamboy]

I'm not FBL, im still running the flybar. But i went into the swash type, and it had changed itself from 120 to 90 degree. I realize that we can bump a trim tab, or accidentally adjust something, but swash type is pretty deep in the menu to accidentally click. Especially since I hadn't done any adjusting in the TX all morning. I believe the the radio changed itself, which still has me worried. Im glad something like that didn't happen while I was flying though.

[OnTheSnap]

Have kids? They love playing with radios.

[heli-cuzz]

Originally Posted by OnTheSnap

Have kids? They love playing with radios.

They love breaking radios, atleast mine do.
Oh boy I know that feeling.

I have a DX6i and I would never trust it or even fly a model with it. Mine is strictly used as a trainer TX on the sim for my kids.