Polk Seeker II issues

Over a year ago I bought 4 Seeker II receivers from Polk Hobbies. I kept two and gave one each to a couple of friends. Two of us installed them and began flying. Oddly enough those two were both involved in loss of control incidents that destroyed airplanes. Then the third guy discovered a problem in the software used in those receivers that appeared to be resetting them which would cause a loss of control if it occurred in flight. One of the guys who lost an airplane started a conversation with Polk Hobbies, and the fellow who found the problem took it over. I shipped all of the receivers back to Polk Hobbies once and they were returned and showed the same problem when we tested them. Then my friend spent some time on the phone with Polk and different things began to happen.

Currently we have one receiver that seems to test well and Polk Hobbies is trying to tell us that the other three which were returned a second time after careful testing have no problems. Here is an update that may or may not be important to you if you happen to use Polk Seeker II receivers. Read on. This is part of what I saw on RCU. Here is the link:

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Jim Branaum

AMA 1428

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Oh do I have some information for all of you. According to Polk Hobby, there were no problems with the 4 seeker II (8channel) radios my friends and I bought over a year ago. Both of my friends lost airplanes with these radios. I was setting up a new airplane, when I notice the "servo glitching" problems you all have described. I am able to reliably reproduce the problem at will.

I have talked to Polk Hobbies many times and it seems like they do not like to listen to customer problems. They asked me to send in my transmitter and the receiver in question. I also sent them a brief write up on how to reproduce the problem. Once they saw the problem, they admitted that there was a problem. They also said they would fix the problem, which they did. They sent back the transmitter and receiver. The problem was no longer there. That was 4 months ago. At that time I asked Polk Hobbies what were they going to do to remedy the problem with the rest of their 6000 installed base. They told me that they would update the radios as users would send them in, but they were not going to issue a recall. I thought this was a bit irresponsible, so I contacted my District AMA VP. He referred the matter to someone in Muncie, but I never heard anything since. I just recently sent in the other 3 receivers for them to "fix" the glitch problem in their firmware. I just got a call today from their technician asking me what problems I was having with the receivers, since they could not find anything wrong with them. I told them to go talk to their sales manager that he would know what I was talking about. To my surprise, he did not remember anything about the problem. After a few minutes of going back and forth, I finally jogged his brain. He remembered (and his engineers also remembered at the same time) the issue and the fix. They told me they would update my receivers and that was the end of the conversation.

The following is a write-up on how to reproduce the problem. The problem only exists on negative shift radios (i.e. futaba, hitec, etc) and according to Polk Hobbies the problem does not exist on the higher end of these brands (i.e. 9, 12 and 14 channel futaba transmitters).

Sorry for the delay. I have boxed up one of my transmitters (Futaba super >7) with a connected transmitter battery, one of the Polk seeker II >8-channel receivers >and a charger. To see the problems, do the following: >

>1. Hook up at least 4 servos. More would allow you to see all what all the >channels are doing, but the effect can be seen with four. The problem can >also be >seen without the servos if you watch the signal LED on the >receiver, but the full effect comes with the servos. > >2. Turn on Transmitter. > >3. Plug in a receiver pack to the receiver. > >4. Move both sticks to full upper/right locations. One or more of the >servos will begin to twitch and the others will not hold position (but will >return to the >position if moved). If this for some reason is not >happening, check the gear switch (channel 5, on the left side above the >trainer switch) toggling it should make >the problem happen. > >5. Once you have observe the problem, try the following (all while holding >the two sticks to the upper/right corners): > >a. Moving switch 5 on and off. The problem should go and come as you toggle >the switch. > >b. Leave switch 5 in the "problem" position and move the flap dial (on the >left of the display) again the problem should go and come and also will >attenuate >the point at which the sticks need to be moved for the problem >to begin. > >c. Leave switch 5 and dial 6 in the original problem locations and move the >channel 7 dial, again as with the channel 6 dial, the problem will appear >and >disappear depending on the dial position. > >6. If you have any problems reproducing the problem, please call me on my >cell phone XXXXXX any time of day. > >Keep in mind that I have reproduced this problem using several different (3 >or more) negative shift radios on different channels. I have also tested >this on 8 >different Polk seeker II (8-channel) receivers with the same >results.

Make sure that all servos are moving in the same direction (channels 1 thru

6 or 7) and I believe it is counter clockwise, but that may be different depending on the brand of servo. They tried to tell me that it could be the servo causing the problem. Notice how the servos are glitching and then look at the LED on the receiver, notice anything? Well, unplug all the servos and put the sticks back into the position that produces the problem and you will notice that the LED still flashes in the same manner it did with the servos connected.

If you have crashed while using a seeker II radio, you may want to contact AMA and then Polk Hobbies. They will deny any problems. If you have crashed while flying seeker II radios and a negative shift transmitter and caused property damage or injured someone (whether you have been sued or not) you NEED to contact AMA about this issue. Polk claims that there are no issues reported with their receivers, but it took more time to register to search this forum than it did to find this thread.