Disaster!

Yesterday evening (17th May 2011) I received my two spare batteries, so after charging them up I was looking forward to an extended flying session. The first battery was used up without any major ’events’; hovering practice still, slowly improving. During the second battery I tried to do a circuit of our garden, running before I can walk I think they call it! Anyway the poor thing got away from me and ended up going into a rose bush quite hard. After retrieving it and checking it over, everything looked fine so I spun it up and took off. Maybe 15-30 seconds into this flight the main rotor stopped causing it to drop like a stone. When I say stopped I mean stopped instantly, not like the LVC slowdown. After righting it and checking it over again I found that whilst the tail rotor spins when I apply power, however the main rotor doesnt move :( Right, hmm, ok, some diagnostics then.

• Main rotor seems fine, rotates by hand ok and so does the motor. No sign of any damage.
• Tried with two freshly charged batteries, same problem.
• Rebound with the TX, same problem.
• Then I grabbed the multimeter; when throttling up there is no voltage at the main motor contacts.
• I also tried this at the back of the 5in1 PCB, where the motor wires are soldered on, no voltage.

It is at this point that I’m thinking I’ve killed the ESC bit of the 5in1. The servos work fine, as does the Gyro by the looks of it and of course the RX bit must be working because signals are being processed.

Bugger, the most expensive component and I’ve stuffed it :(

The new one is on order, but I thought while I wait I’d take a couple of snaps of the dead one so I have something to compare the new one too. There is what looks like a missing component, something to look out for on the new one.

Update June 2011

The new board arrived and I was correct, there is a little resistor where I had two solder pads. All working now though!

• May 19th 2011