Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Well; it's windier than good ole Maxine over here, but I'm still fly'n!
My 450 is dialed in great so I can fly in the wind with a bit more confidence now.
However,,,(oh boy, here it comes),, a couple of days ago I noticed the LED on the AR8000's satellite receiver would start blinking and indicating a brown out event has occurred.. At the time I didn't notice that only the satellite receiver was blinking, not the main receiver.
The aircraft continues to fly perfect,, (well, as perfect as I can make it) Sooooo,,,,,, I whip up a test harness and plug it into channel 8 in my receiver. I also want to note that the lypos I'm running are those el cheapo ching chong china jobs. How cheapo you ask? Well I got 43 flights on'um and they started to puff at flight #5;,, el cheapo ching chong china babee!! (HK Zippy POS's ha!)
Anyway I need to find out why the satellite receiver is browning out. I figure its time for a power check. First thing I do is power up and load the swash and tail servo. Telemetry indicates the voltage is 5.6/5.5 with a lypo at 3.77 volts per cell . Nope no brown outs occur..
Ok time to double check the telemetries voltage reading with a multi-meter. I have no Idea if I could believe it because I've never worked with telemetry before. Heck, I've haven't worked with any of this stuff before some years ago.
The picture below clearly shows the telemetry reading is dead balls on! Ok, now I know, it's time to move forward. I check the two harness plugs that connect the satellite receiver to the main receiver. BOOM!! The plug that goes into the satellite receiver is hanging halfway out. When I touched the wires, the receiver went black. AH HAAAAA!!! There's the problem right there! I must not have plugged it back in all the way last time I was in that area working on the gyro harness; DOH!!
One thing I noticed was that after the satellite receiver failed completely, the main receiver was still on and functioning fine. Then I just plug back in the satellite receiver and she resets without further problems...
Today I went back out in the wind and flew four packs. No more brown outs my friends! I can only imagine what would've happened if the power failed to the main receiver. Maybe I should create a loud beeper that I could trigger with channel eight, if the chopper goes down in that jungle behind the house here...
What do you guys think?
Is there anything else I should know about this AR8000 receiver?
The manuals aren't so complete sometimes. That's why I'll be posting up soon and asking how to setup some of the other telemetry features like the RPM and altitude sensors.
Thanks and see you on the flight line...
Well; it's windier than good ole Maxine over here, but I'm still fly'n!
My 450 is dialed in great so I can fly in the wind with a bit more confidence now.
However,,,(oh boy, here it comes),, a couple of days ago I noticed the LED on the AR8000's satellite receiver would start blinking and indicating a brown out event has occurred.. At the time I didn't notice that only the satellite receiver was blinking, not the main receiver.
The aircraft continues to fly perfect,, (well, as perfect as I can make it) Sooooo,,,,,, I whip up a test harness and plug it into channel 8 in my receiver. I also want to note that the lypos I'm running are those el cheapo ching chong china jobs. How cheapo you ask? Well I got 43 flights on'um and they started to puff at flight #5;,, el cheapo ching chong china babee!! (HK Zippy POS's ha!)
Anyway I need to find out why the satellite receiver is browning out. I figure its time for a power check. First thing I do is power up and load the swash and tail servo. Telemetry indicates the voltage is 5.6/5.5 with a lypo at 3.77 volts per cell . Nope no brown outs occur..
Ok time to double check the telemetries voltage reading with a multi-meter. I have no Idea if I could believe it because I've never worked with telemetry before. Heck, I've haven't worked with any of this stuff before some years ago.
The picture below clearly shows the telemetry reading is dead balls on! Ok, now I know, it's time to move forward. I check the two harness plugs that connect the satellite receiver to the main receiver. BOOM!! The plug that goes into the satellite receiver is hanging halfway out. When I touched the wires, the receiver went black. AH HAAAAA!!! There's the problem right there! I must not have plugged it back in all the way last time I was in that area working on the gyro harness; DOH!!
One thing I noticed was that after the satellite receiver failed completely, the main receiver was still on and functioning fine. Then I just plug back in the satellite receiver and she resets without further problems...
Today I went back out in the wind and flew four packs. No more brown outs my friends! I can only imagine what would've happened if the power failed to the main receiver. Maybe I should create a loud beeper that I could trigger with channel eight, if the chopper goes down in that jungle behind the house here...
What do you guys think?
Is there anything else I should know about this AR8000 receiver?
The manuals aren't so complete sometimes. That's why I'll be posting up soon and asking how to setup some of the other telemetry features like the RPM and altitude sensors.
Thanks and see you on the flight line...