Well, let's see, he damages a servo, takes off and flies into a bystander. Sounds like he just did something to someone. That is my point. It is rare that a person actually flies a plane into oneself. You see it coming and move, BUT what about a kid in the parking area that doesn't hear or care about the guy screaming that he doesn't "got it" anymore?
Jim
Jim
Jim, ahdofu is not the original poster who I agree is going to ruin servos. ahdofu is using pcm and failsafe(according to him) Do you think he can ruin a servo by having a pcm Rx in failsafe? If this is true I have to agree with you. One of us doesn't understand something here and I am Polish. :) One of the reasons I'm here is to be enlightened. mk
First off, failsafe is NOT fool proof. Wanna' bet your life on the 100% reliability of someone's firmware? It is just what the name implies, a fail safe. It is not intended to be some sort of frequency control detector. Secondly, what he has said has happened in the past is that another guy using PCM has been detected by him turning on his receiver first and seeing his servos move under control of the other guy's radio. Not a good practice to get in the habit of. Lastly, bad habits have a tendency to propagate through a population, just due to observation. Say some newbie sees what he does, does not understand the full implications of what he is seeing, and begins to emulate the action. If you think what he is doing is OK then you need to read through your radio's manual. PCM, PPM, failsafe, whatever, things are done in a certain order for a reason.
Jim
Well, I guess that it is obvious that *I* am WAY out of step with you guys. I have been shot down more than once and always when *I* had the pin. That being said, I have found several others making errors and using the wrong flag by turning my RX on before my TX. I insist on turning my RX on before my TX just to insure that the channel I have the frequency flag for really is clear. This procedure has saved aircraft more than once, and to date not cost any servo problems but I DO watch out carefully for servo travel.
Well I wouldn't say you're alone in your practise as I follow a similar procedure with my PCM receivers only. Although some folks believe this is quite the wrong thing to do, my data thus far, just like yours, says that it has been an OK thing to do. I was about to buy Hobbico's frequency checker. In talking with a fellow modeler and per his experience at our flying field, I have learned that this unit is not neccessarily accurate all the time as he has incurred signal problems even when the frequeny checker has told him all is well. So now I'm waiting for the next/better version of the frequency checker but in the mean time I keep using my procedure.
Just to clarify, there's a reason I turned the receiver on first for all this time and didn't realize it was the wrong thing to do. Until the incident which I originally asked about in this thread, I'd *never once* had random servo movements before the transmitter was turned on. I'd turn on the receiver, and the servos would jiggle right as the power came on and then immediately stop. Maybe the servos were being damaged or running the risk of being damaged, but I didn't see any evidence for that. Which is why, when it happened all of a sudden, I had no idea what was going on and assumed there was something wrong.
Changes in technology make some old habits obsolete, or at least questionable for those with newer technology products.
The old axiom of "always turn on the transmitter first and the receiver off first" isn't as written in stone as it once was.
One can argue that the perceived advantage of turning on the PCM receiver first is worth the risk of damaging a servo. Servos do not cost as dearly as they once did, at least not for the majority of flyers using "stock" servos that came with the R/C system.
Ed Cregger
I can see how that happened. The only reason I ever know what to do was I read RCM training book. To me it's just that it's my model and I'm reasponsible for it and I need to have control of it at all times.(those that have seen me fly are laughing right now) You simply do not have control if you don't turn the TX first. This group did just what you came here for, it taught you something. Your doing fine, keep comming back. mk
>From Ed C.:
But there are some instances where changing a servo would be a major undertaking, and costly in terms of the work involved. oc
I agree. It would depend upon the circumstances.
Ed Cregger
Also, what if the servo isn't obviously damaged until you are in flight and place a load on it. Not the best place to notice.
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