When transmitter died, heli fired up!

[poboy62]

Can someone please explain what happened to my heli? Is this what they call fail safe? I happen to land by coincidence and powered if down. All of a sudden it started to spool up. I looked down and my transmitter was dead, guess it was the battery, but I don't remember it being low. The heli was spinning about 50% which is fast and it was just sitting there, guess the pitch was neg or neutral, cause thank the good lord it wasn't taking off. There was nothing I could do, it was very scary. The remote wouldn't turn back on and the heli was just running, it was almost run down, but I got a LONG stick and managed to turn off the thing on the side with the switch, just can't remember what its called, guess its the bec. Anyway, if this situation doesnt sound scary, nothing should. I can't imagine what would have happened if it was in the air??Even if I was far away from people, it could have just flown off and dropped like a weapon. Man, I don't want this to happen again, so I'm trying to learn about it. I know I'll make sure my tx is fully charged for sure.. Thanks in advance.

[blueviewlaguna]

Originally Posted by poboy62

Can someone please explain what happened to my heli? Is this what they call fail safe? I happen to land by coincidence and powered if down. All of a sudden it started to spool up. I looked down and my transmitter was dead, guess it was the battery, but I don't remember it being low. The heli was spinning about 50% which is fast and it was just sitting there, guess the pitch was neg or neutral, cause thank the good lord it wasn't taking off. There was nothing I could do, it was very scary. The remote wouldn't turn back on and the heli was just running, it was almost run down, but I got a LONG stick and managed to turn off the thing on the side with the switch, just can't remember what its called, guess its the bec. Anyway, if this situation doesnt sound scary, nothing should. I can't imagine what would have happened if it was in the air??Even if I was far away from people, it could have just flown off and dropped like a weapon. Man, I don't want this to happen again, so I'm trying to learn about it. I know I'll make sure my tx is fully charged for sure.. Thanks in advance.

You must manually set the failsafe positions during setup - mid-stick (0 degrees) and mid elevator/aileron. For throttle, the failsafe position is 0%. If you do not set these during setup, the default settings could be anywhere, including 100% throttle. Test the failsafe by removing the main gear and switching the TX off with the RX still on and confirm no throttle and mid-positions everywhere else.

[corona007]

Would it not be safer for the motor and himself to just disconnect the ESC from the motor.

[blueviewlaguna]

Originally Posted by corona007

Would it not be safer for the motor and himself to just disconnect the ESC from the motor.

How could you confirm 0% throttle during failsafe with the motor disconnected?

[corona007]

My ESC will not arm until it sees negative servo input. I think they all have that at least.

[poboy62]

Thanks, for some reason, thought I had 0 throttle at failsafe. wow. what an eye opener. that could have been so bad.

[blueviewlaguna]

Originally Posted by corona007

My ESC will not arm until it sees negative servo input. I think they all have that at least.

But how can you tell if it armed (or did not arm) with the motor disconnected? - the beeps are from the motor windings....

[corona007]

They all have an LED that blinks when it's not armed and solid when it is.
CC 45, CC 45 HV, CC 85 HV.
I actually have to click negative 4-5 click to get it to arm too.
Should of asked what make of esc he had first. Maybe Align doesn't have that built in safety feature. But from what I could remember if you where at high stick or mid stick that was part of the programming and would not arm when it would detect a positive signal.

[blueviewlaguna]

Originally Posted by corona007

They all have an LED that blinks when it's not armed and solid when it is.
CC 45, CC 45 HV, CC 85 HV.
I actually have to click negative 4-5 click to get it to arm too.
Should of asked what make of esc he had first. Maybe Align doesn't have that built in safety feature. But from what I could remember if you where at high stick or mid stick that was part of the programming and would not arm when it would detect a positive signal.

Why bother with LED blinks and possible mis-interpretation of what is 0% throttle with the motor disconnected (then discovering that 0% wasn't 0% when reconnecting the ESC), when you can just remove the main gear?

My suggestion stands at removing the main gear. Your method may be different.

[corona007]

I didn't say to do anything! I was just asking myself, If it would be safer for himself and his motor. Sorry I made a suggestion, Didn't mean to question your expertise.
Just trying to help the guy out.

[blueviewlaguna]

Originally Posted by corona007

I didn't say to do anything! I was just asking myself, If it would be safer for himself and his motor. Sorry I made a suggestion, Didn't mean to question your expertise.
Just trying to help the guy out.

Yes, me too - I just don't want him to be looking for LED flashes and gaining a false sense of security about a failsafe solution only to hurt himself/others/lose his heli when reconnecting the ESC. He actually just PM'd me and I helped him on some 10S questions there as well......