Troubleshooting receiver help

| I am pretty new at this stuff, so I'm not sure how to troubleshoot | yet. | I have a (4) channel Hytec radio & receiver. Suddenly (3) channels are | not responding. Only the brushless motor is working cosistently.

Suddenly? Does that mean they used to work properly?

If you plug the ESC into a different channel, does it still work, but just on a different stick? (Take the prop off to be safe. We don't want your plane taking off in your garage.)

| If the plane sits for a while, one or two of the channels start to | show 1/2 power.

| This gives me the impression that the battery is low, but the motor | seems to be working great.

The BEC in your ESC may be shot. Do you have any 4 cell receiver packs? If so, remove the ESC from the receiver and plug the receiver pack in instead, and see if the servos work.

| I have a (3) cell 11.1 LI 340 mah battery. I charge it with a 2020 | charger. The charger settings are (3) cells (11.1 V) and 250 | mah. The next setting is 500 mah so I selected the smaller value.

The charger settings are probably mA, not mAh. 250 mA is appropriate for a 340 mAh pack.

If the motor runs well, then it's not your battery. The motor uses much more power than the receiver and servos. However, the power that the receiver and servos use goes through the BEC -- which is usually just a voltage regulator. They can put out a lot of heat, because they're dropping your 12 volts to 5 volts, with the difference going into heat. They can burn up if you have too many servos or servos that are binding. But obviously it's not completely burned up, or the receiver would get no power and nothing would work ... perhaps there's a weak connection somewhere?

Definately, get a receiver pack. If you have a glow plane or glow R/C car, you could use it from that.

1. Last good flight had a hard landing? ESC, RX or RX crystal could be damaged. Process of elimination: Try a new RX crystal making sure it is single conversion if a 4 ch RX. Disconnect ESC and try RX and servos by themselves with a 4.8V rx battery. In need then swap out RX and each servo - one damaged servo or lead could give faulty feedback and upset the others.
2. If a programmable ESC, user setting may have be upset. ESC have many different "safe start" start up procedures. Usual is to turn TX on first with throttle above 30%, bring throttle down to zero for a few seconds then increase throttle and motor should start. Others have to be reset with throttle trim at 50%.

regards Alan T. Alan's Hobby, Model & RC Web Links

Yes, It used to work fine. I was playing with mixing settings, then puff :-(

This change did not have any effect.

That is correct.

One servo appears to be dead no matter what I try.

You are obsiously correct on this. I wrote down what the charger label said. It is printed 250 mah. That's so dummys like me don't get confused.

Is a receiver pack a new receiver?

Status: At the monent if I leave the dead servo un plugged, it looks like the balance is working as expected. Can I assume that a bad servo can play havoc with the system? I need to play with it a little to ensure that it is consistent.

Thanks, Gary...

----------------------------------------------- Gary Kahrau - snipped-for-privacy@monair.com

-----------------------------------------------

| >| I have a (4) channel Hytec radio & receiver. Suddenly (3) channels are | >| not responding. Only the brushless motor is working cosistently. | >

| >Suddenly? Does that mean they used to work properly? | | Yes, It used to work fine. I was playing with mixing settings, then | puff :-(

Puff? Did something smoke?

(Letting the magic smoke out is bad.)

| >| This gives me the impression that the battery is low, but the motor | >| seems to be working great. | >

| >The BEC in your ESC may be shot. Do you have any 4 cell receiver | >packs? If so, remove the ESC from the receiver and plug the receiver | >pack in instead, and see if the servos work. | One servo appears to be dead no matter what I try.

Sounds like that servo is bad then. Take it back to where you got it, or have another modeler try it in their receiver to make certain.

| >The charger settings are probably mA, not mAh. 250 mA is appropriate | >for a 340 mAh pack. | You are obsiously correct on this. I wrote down what the charger label | said. It is printed 250 mah. That's so dummys like me don't get | confused.

Well, the chargers are often made by people who don't speak English well, and the manuals often appear to be translated from Japanese into German into Spanish into English via bablefish and not proofread any further :)

| >Definately, get a receiver pack. If you have a glow plane or glow R/C | >car, you could use it from that. | Is a receiver pack a new receiver?

I was referring to just the battery part, 4.8 to 6.0 volts.

| At the monent if I leave the dead servo un plugged, it looks like the | balance is working as expected. | Can I assume that a bad servo can play havoc with the system?

If it's shorted out somehow, sure.