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E-Flight Commander receiver problems.

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  • E-Flight Commander receiver problems.

    Last month I purchased the E-Flight Commander mPd from my local hobby shop.

    I’ve had 10 or so good flights with it, it’s a great flying plane!

    Tonight I got to the model field and charged batteries.

    I put a battery into the plane and the flaps deployed maybe 5 – 10 mm and there were no beeps or sounds from the ESC. No control surfaces would move.

    I tired two more batteries with the same results.

    I tried rebinding my DX9 to the plane, the receiver lit up and went into bind mode. I was able to rebind the plane but then it went dead, nothing worked.

    Any ideas on what I should try next?

  • #2
    You didn't accidentally re-program it by chance, did you? You can do this with the programming cable and smart phone or through a series of light flashes (similar to programming an ESC via the beeps) by messing with the throttle position and binding sequence. The current generation of Spektrum AS3X receivers seem to be problematic from time to time. We have a Commander and 4 Timbers and one of the Timbers will NOT bind in SAFE mode no matter what. I think this hearkens back to the days when the AR8000 was first introduced. There have been several reports of planes being lost due to glitches in that receiver.
    Failing to find a solution, my only suggestion is to .............................
    1. Remove from plane.
    2. Find the nearest garbage can.
    3. Deposit in same garbage can.
    4. Replace with Lemon stabilized Rx.
    But seriously, I'd contact Horizon and tell them the story. They may have other reports of similar situations and do something for you.

    Comment


    • #3
      I've got the plane with me at work today. I stepped out to the parking lot for lunch to test some different things. I have a spare ESC (with BEC), spare receiver and a way to directly power the current receiver.

      Before I did anything I powered on the transmitter and then put the battery in the plane and the darn thing bound and was ready to fly. I removed the battery and did this three more times, it worked as expected each time.

      I wonder if temperature has anything to do with it, it was 58 degrees last night with some wind. Seems odd that 58 degree temperature would play a factor in this, if was was 0 degrees I could see it.

      I'm a little nervous that is the ESC or receiver are flaky and that I'll loose the plane in flight.

      I called Horizon and after describing yesterdays problem and that it working today he immediately said I'll send you a new ESC. He said I did not need to send the old one back.

      Some have suggested that the EC3 connector could be the cause. I'm going to snip it off and replace it with a deans since that what all my batteries use. I did test the adapter and it seems fine.

      When the replacement ESC comes it'll be getting a deans right away.

      Comment


      • #4
        After having trouble with the electronics in my commander I simply put in a 75 amp esc along with the 770kv FMS motor out of my Roc Hobby Corsair. Couldn't be happier with any plane I have ever owned I do plan on a servo upgrade to metal gears in the near future. Great Sport plane with the speed it desearves I used the four bladed prop that came with the Coursair due to the fit on the front of the FMS motor.(square nut on shaft). Will be tring new props today. I'll let you know what kind of speed I get this baby up to, right now I can say she's fast with great pick-up but no where near 100 MPH.

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        • #5
          Reading Mug Flier's post made me realize I never came back and updated the thread.

          The new ESC showed up but I did not use it as I tried a Lemon receiver thinking that there is no way the ESC could not likely cause the problem that I was seeing. With the Lemon receiver in the plane everything worked fine and reliably. After calling Horizon a second time the guy I was talking too didn't want to troubleshoot anything and just sent me a new receiver.

          Before it arrived I did some more experimentation and found that if I had the plane on the mains with the nose touching the ground (so the tail is up in the air) the receiver will not arm. I was able to repeat this behavior. When I called the third time to explain what I had found and that I didn't need the receiver or ESC they told me to just keep them both. I explained that both were still in the original packaging and had not been opened. I was told they don't have a mechanism in place to take returns on parts like this so I could keep them.

          Comment


          • #6
            Thanks for the update. The current generation of AS3X receivers will not arm until the plane is flat and level. This helps with planes like the Timber where the battery compartment is on the bottom of the plane. I like the safety of this since the motor does not arm as you are trying to put the battery into the plane. When you are done and put the plane on level ground, the gyro/receiver then senses this and calibrates itself and arms the motor. This is not a pure safety feature. In the past there was a simple timer in the AS3X receiver which would calibrate the control surfaces after the timer expired or when you hit the throttle. The plane needs to be perfectly parallel to the ground when the calibration is done each time you put a battery in the plane or the AS3X will not function properly. When the calibration was tied to throttle or a timer, the planes were not always level when calibrated leading to crashes. The new method takes the human element out of the calibration process and in theory makes them more reliable. That said, we just had a E-Flite BNF plane go CRAZY here at Motion RC. We were doing a routine check for a customer before shipping a brand new plane. The plane went to full throttle on its own and nothing we did on the radio could stop it. One of our guys required a few stitches so please be safe and make sure you remove your prop when setting up a new plane. We now require all props to be removed when we test planes at Motion RC.

            Comment


            • #7
              Thanks Tom for the info... I was taught from the start to not put the prop on until the plane is done and ready to fly. Depending on what kind of maintenance I am doing to the plane I will remove the prop until I am done. I've seen too many pictures of people that got bit by a prop, some in my own club.

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