Solved++Looking for suggestions on AR6100 blinking light

[dpinvidic]

What do you guys think about this. Today while flying my balde-400 (ar6100 Rx), I noticed the led was blinking on the first spin-up. Everything seemed fine, so I flew four batteries without problems....except the light would always be blinking when I landed.

Yes...I was turning the Tx off in between each flight.

Brought it home, and removed the main gear. It turns out that the light is solid as soon as It initializes after connecting the battery. But as soon as I give it just enough throttle to start the motor, the led starts to blink. Hmm...thought it might be the ESC.
So I grabed another 6100 Rx, and only connected the motor to it. This configuration works fine...I can spin up the motor, and the LED is solid.

Has anyone heard of the LED flashing like this for something other than a brown out??

Thanks,

Dan

[matthewcornell]

I don't have a suggestion other than to try rebinding.

[dpinvidic]

Fixed....turns out is was a weak BEC in the ESC. Putting in a new AR6100 which was only connected to the motor seemed to work OK...but as soon as I connected all the servos back, the LED would start to blink as soon as the motor started.
Looks like the combined load of the servos (even though they were static) and the starting of the motor caused the 5v to dip enough to trip the brown out detector.

At least it got fixed before a serious crash.

Later,

Dan

[fox74]

Thanks looks like I have the same problem, time for new ESC

[aerocal]

Originally Posted by fox74

Thanks looks like I have the same problem, time for new ESC

Or an external BEC.Most internal BECs are notoriously overrated.This is IMO likely the root cause of most claims of "loss of signal".Consider yourselves lucky that you found it before you got in the middle of the flight and fell out of the sky with no control.For the most part when this happens the claim is that signal was lost and the radio is to blame.Many who start using telemetry or have done data logging of some kind have found how precariously close to disaster they are.Most that end up with a smokin hole in the ground and no data simply blame the radio and swear it was working fine before the incident.They have no idea how electricity works and dont know where to start to find out or dont care to.I call this Plug and Pray.

I found this to be true myself when I started using a data logger to setup my stuff.Internal BECs were notoriously weaker than I imagined based on the published specs.
When many switched to the DX8 the same thing started happening.It made the system in the model work ever so slightly harder.It pushed some over the edge and they failed.Again the radios got the blame.There were some random issues but the majority IMO were simply power related when they were pushed over the edge.For the most part it seems that many have wised up to power related issues and have learned how to assure they dont get ugly.

"Knock on wood" but since I started using the DX7(original) soon after it was released Ive never had a loss of control with any of my radios.I did find on several over the years that simply plugging in an internal BEC didnt cut it.You need to test that the power is adequate.
There are too many variables.Testing what it is doing preferably inflight when it is actually loaded up is the only way to have a reasonable assurance that a setup is going to work.