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Over the Easter weekend I was pleased to have both my 550 and 450 up and flying courtesy of Skookum. Everything was going well until Sunday when the 450 woud not initialise properly, just showing flashing red on the SK720. I took it home, could not find anything wrong, rebound the transmitter and it woud then initialise and I had one short flight with it with no issues.
The next day I had exactly the same problem with the 550. Rebound and it would give a green light. I flew it and it did not feel quite right, I kept having to apply right aileron to keep her level. So I brought her back to a hover and watched. For a few seconds everything seemed normal and then it just started twitching both ways on the roll axi, and it was getting worse by the second. I hit TH and landed, but only just avoided a blade strike.
On investigation i discovered that my DX8 had developed a problem with (I assume) the aileron pot. It was glitching and would not hold 0% at mid stick. It was varying all the time by anything from 5-15% and occasionally as high as 23%.
The reason (I think) that the SK720 would not initialise was that it was not seeing a neutral stick position because of this fault on the Tx. I had initially assumed that it had to be something wrong on the heli itself, a loose connection or something like that. That could have been (another) expensive mistake.
Looking through the DX8 threads it does seem that plenty of people have had similar problems; mainly on the aileron and rudder channels, so presumably there is something about the horizontal potentiometer installation. Tx sent back to Horizon this morning and I am sure that they will do their usual wonderful job and send back a fully functional Tx with everything polished and updated.
So beware if you have a DX8. If your SK720 flashes red it could be that you have the same problem with your Tx. Check it by going to the Tx Monitor screen and watching the channel values. It is obvious if you have a problem as the value on the faulty channel may not be 0% and could well be changing continuously. If your rudder or aileron channels look OK you are probably fine but do also try moving the elevator and throttle sticks to check that your rudder and aileron channels stay solid at 0%.
By the way, I have had no indication whatsoever of this problem before, this developed quite suddenly for no reason that I can think of. The previous day I had flow both helis about four times each with no sign of anything wrong.
The next day I had exactly the same problem with the 550. Rebound and it would give a green light. I flew it and it did not feel quite right, I kept having to apply right aileron to keep her level. So I brought her back to a hover and watched. For a few seconds everything seemed normal and then it just started twitching both ways on the roll axi, and it was getting worse by the second. I hit TH and landed, but only just avoided a blade strike.
On investigation i discovered that my DX8 had developed a problem with (I assume) the aileron pot. It was glitching and would not hold 0% at mid stick. It was varying all the time by anything from 5-15% and occasionally as high as 23%.
The reason (I think) that the SK720 would not initialise was that it was not seeing a neutral stick position because of this fault on the Tx. I had initially assumed that it had to be something wrong on the heli itself, a loose connection or something like that. That could have been (another) expensive mistake.
Looking through the DX8 threads it does seem that plenty of people have had similar problems; mainly on the aileron and rudder channels, so presumably there is something about the horizontal potentiometer installation. Tx sent back to Horizon this morning and I am sure that they will do their usual wonderful job and send back a fully functional Tx with everything polished and updated.
So beware if you have a DX8. If your SK720 flashes red it could be that you have the same problem with your Tx. Check it by going to the Tx Monitor screen and watching the channel values. It is obvious if you have a problem as the value on the faulty channel may not be 0% and could well be changing continuously. If your rudder or aileron channels look OK you are probably fine but do also try moving the elevator and throttle sticks to check that your rudder and aileron channels stay solid at 0%.
By the way, I have had no indication whatsoever of this problem before, this developed quite suddenly for no reason that I can think of. The previous day I had flow both helis about four times each with no sign of anything wrong.
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