Help please

[Fatman]

I have the Sukhoi MM 29, that has hardly flown five minutes. I'm very new to this but got pretty good with the Carbon Cub RTF. I am very aware the Sukhoi purchase was a mistake, and I was not ready for this plane, but it's in the fleet so I'd like to be able to fly it.
I've since added the PT17 and Cessna, tho I don't dare fly the PT17 yet

Questions are
1 The Sukhoi has had two very hard crashes, both the crashes broke the nose clean off. Since then I have only been able to put the receiver in bind mode one time. That one time, I flew and had a soft crash, after that crash, it seemed to lose bind with my TX. Also in this crash, I forgot to kill the throttle and some weeds got tangled into the prop. Now, I put the bind plug in and hook up a battery but can't get the flashing light on the receiver. I get the tone then three beeps, but no flashing light on the receiver. Any ideas why?

2. I did the same thing to my cub, forgot to kill the motor. Smelled like it fried the motor and wouldn't work. I bought a new motor, the same motor it came with. Now it seems to not have the power it did before. It'll barely get off the ground That's disappointing as this plane used to do loops and rolls, there's no way now

Any help is greatly appreciated

[hotrod23t]

lack of power maybe either bad esc or you need too reset throttle range on your esc also sometimes thay wont bind becuase your throttle is trimmed up try triming back throttle a little
:Confused:

[hotrod23t]

if your getting three beeps and its a 3cell set up its bound up light usually only flashes when in bind mode.should only need bind plug the first time you bind up

[fhhuber]

Sounding like issues that need some in-person guidance.

Most RC clubs have someone (or several) who will help out a beginner trying to solve issues like these.

If in USA, go to modelaircraft.org and use the club finder to locate the nearest club (other countries' similar organizations should also have club finder available) Contact the club and ask. Worst they can say is no. But helping a "random" beginner is a good way to show the value a club offers to its members.

People like me have all sort of test equipment to determine exactly what is going on with your electronics that don't seem to be working properly. Maybe its an easy fix... maybe the RX and/or ESC are ruined.

[Fatman]

How do I reset the throttle range on the ESC? I'd like to at least try this before purchasing a new WAS

The receiver I'm talking about, won't go into bind mode, when using a bind plug in the Sukhoi. I put the plug in, hook up a battery, but don't get the flashing light, telling me it's in bind mode, so I can't bind it to my TX. IS THE receiver damaged cause of the crashes?

[Hemidoo]

You would need a working RX thats bound to your TX to reset the throttle on your esc . Like the post above says ,or have the proper test equipment or programing card .

https://www.horizonhobby.com/pdf/EFLA1040LB_Manual.pdf

[xviper]

How do you know it's "losing" its bind? You shouldn't have to bind it more than once. Each subsequent time you power it up, do the controls work? Does the motor work? Maybe after the crash the Rx was damaged but maybe it's still working in spite of the light not doing what you think it's doing. If the controls work and the motor fires up, you don't need to bind again. If that's the case, do the throttle calibration. If not, try a known good Rx and bind it to that. You haven't told us which Rx and what Tx you are using, so can't comment on those and that may be important to this discussion. If it's the Sukhoi I'm thinking you have, it likely won't fly with a different Rx but it will bind to it, assuming that all the other parameters are good (ie, not too high of trim on the throttle, ESC good, motor good, etc.) A bad motor may not give the beeps you need to hear.
PS, If it's the same Sukhoi that I understand it to be, yes you are right, that is the worst starter plane to get. Even brand new, two friends of mine had that one and neither flew more than a few times before they either crashed or the owner gave up on it. It flew weird right out of the box. In the hands of one of our resident "expert" 3D pilots, it barely did what it was supposed to do as a 3D plane. Flying it as a "normal" plane, they were twitchy, unpredictable and responded very strangely. Both planes were abandoned by their owners and one was given away to that same expert and he has not flown it since. The programming in that Rx was very proprietary and trying to change it or tweak it was very difficult if not impossible.

[fhhuber]

You can cause the RX to lose bind in a few ways. Its all operator error, but in person is the way to find out if he's doing it.

[Fatman]

I'm not sure how or why it lost bind. I crashed it, not hard at all, into some soft weeds. It lost bind after that soft crash, and the receiver hasn't or won't go into bind mode ever since. I put the bind plug in, hook up a battery and get nothing, no flashing light, no nothing. It's definitely not still bound to the TX, because nothing works. Controls do nothing, and motor doesn't run. The receiver just will not go into bind mode. I've tried putting different bind plugs in, tried it backwards, forwards, I can not get it to go into bind mode at all

It has a Spectrum AR636 receiver, that came with the plane, bought it as a BFN, and I have a Spectrum DX6E ,transmitter

[JFandL]

I hate to say it but if you can't find local help self the

Sukhoi MM 29 for awhile. Slow and steady wins every time. Bad thing about not being right there with you is you can be doing to many things both good and bad. It's a lot easier to be standing next to you and show you or tell you when you make a mistake in real time. The 29 may have you 2nd guessing your flying skills and that's not a good thing. Please try and find someone local to you.

[xviper]

I'm not sure how or why it lost bind. I crashed it, not hard at all, into some soft weeds. It lost bind after that soft crash, and the receiver hasn't or won't go into bind mode ever since. I put the bind plug in, hook up a battery and get nothing, no flashing light, no nothing. It's definitely not still bound to the TX, because nothing works. Controls do nothing, and motor doesn't run. The receiver just will not go into bind mode. I've tried putting different bind plugs in, tried it backwards, forwards, I can not get it to go into bind mode at all

It has a Spectrum AR636 receiver, that came with the plane, bought it as a BFN, and I have a Spectrum DX6E ,transmitter

Thanks for the detail. That AR636A in the Sukhoi is unique in the programming for that plane. Some have been able to go in and alter it but on the most part, it's locked. The 636A is in many planes besides the Sukhoi but with different programming and open to fairly easy alterations. However, some of them have also been known to be very susceptible to "rough handling" as in "heavy" landings that jar the plane. We've had a couple of 636A's in Radian XL's that have acted very oddly after a couple of hard landings (read: crashes). One even failed mid-flight for no apparent reason and the plane was lost. The other had intermittent loss of signal even at close range. Yet another one just stopped working after a crash and could not be brought back to life. You may have one of those. But as has been said, you need to have someone with some experience with these things take a look at it to see what's actually going on.
PS, I was the recipient of 2 Sukhoi Rx's and one from an XL. The Sukhoi ones, I gave up on trying to make them work in other planes. The one from the XL I was able to reprogram and it's still working in one of my planes that fly to this day.

[fhhuber]

I'd want to inspect the RX circuit board under a magnifying glass to see if there's a crack breaking the trace for the bind plug.

Usually the RX plastic case breaks before the board is damaged, but not always.

[silver182]

Please tell me about the normal polarity of bullet plugs...ie...how should I solder 5,5 mm Castel bullets on batteries...so when I daisy chain them my negative & positive is correct for any high amp speed controller.... I would assume bullet plugs have an industry standard positive / negative / male / female alignment?

[fhhuber]

Please tell me about the normal polarity of bullet plugs...ie...how should I solder 5,5 mm Castel bullets on batteries...so when I daisy chain them my negative & positive is correct for any high amp speed controller.... I would assume bullet plugs have an industry standard positive / negative / male / female alignment?

Nope...

EC3 and EC 5 have female bullets on both wires of the battery. Same for XT60 and XT90. You need an adapter plug/harness to put the batteries in series or parallel if installing the plugs like the instructions say.
The way the plugs are made, you can't easily daisy chain the batteries even by changing the bullet arrangements if you use the plastic housings.

The 4 mm bullets in red plastic housing have female on the + wire of the battery and male on the - wire. This made chaining batteries to put them in series easy. (just cut the "web" holding the + to - apart)

I don't have any of the Castle connectors... so I'm not sure how they say to do it between battery and ESC. I've only seen the packages for their bullets intended for use between motor and ESC.

If you decide to set up an abnormal arrangement and delete the plastic housing, using heat shrink instead (I have done that before) use the female bullet on the battery + lead and extend heat shrink tube just a little past the end. I would also extend heat shrink tube (not shrunk in the area that makes connection) past the end of the male bullets. (I mainly use this on motor to ESC connections to prevent arcing between the 3 leads)

[silver182]

Nope...

EC3 and EC 5 have female bullets on both wires of the battery. Same for XT60 and XT90. You need an adapter plug/harness to put the batteries in series or parallel if installing the plugs like the instructions say.
The way the plugs are made, you can't easily daisy chain the batteries even by changing the bullet arrangements if you use the plastic housings.

The 4 mm bullets in red plastic housing have female on the + wire of the battery and male on the - wire. This made chaining batteries to put them in series easy. (just cut the "web" holding the + to - apart)

I don't have any of the Castle connectors... so I'm not sure how they say to do it between battery and ESC. I've only seen the packages for their bullets intended for use between motor and ESC.

If you decide to set up an abnormal arrangement and delete the plastic housing, using heat shrink instead (I have done that before) use the female bullet on the battery + lead and extend heat shrink tube just a little past the end. I would also extend heat shrink tube (not shrunk in the area that makes connection) past the end of the male bullets. (I mainly use this on motor to ESC connections to prevent arcing between the 3 leads)

Nope is what I had "not" expected........

Shoot....my local Hobby shop owner made up two sets of three 3 cell batteries...he said the negative battery lead should have the Male bullet (the Castle 5.5 mm bullets I'm using require the heat shrink) the positive battery lead should have the female receiving bullet. OK that sounded logical.. I had never used bullet only setup before....and hadn't checked the polarity of the 160 amp controller that came with my New RC-Lander Mig-17. Oooops.. "The daisy chain hookup system sounded like a fine idea to me", and the Mig-17 nose is set up to receive (3) 3 cell bat. as they say the sweet spot ...requires a 9 cell setup...therefore the separate bullet leads..not plastic covered types would be the way to go.

Well you guessed it I get back home go to my shop...and to my puzzlement I discover the controller pre-wired by RC-Lander is yep you guessed it backwards to receiving male negatively polarized battery bullets. The RED power wire (no one would ever wire a controller RED as negative would they?)..... any way the RED wire on the controller is female...great for batteries but backwards per this part of the world......WHAT AM I MISSING HELP!

or Does anyone have a quick fix for my dilemma......maybe create a polarity reverser bullet type plug for the controller?

And the obvious question has anyone ever encountered this situation using large bullet connectors? This is my first try at 5.5 bullet setups....

[xviper]

I have encountered those large "naked" bullet connectors before on some planes. These planes are "usually" high cell count systems (6 cell or more). I simply make an adapter to take it from those to the more typical EC5 or XT90 (or larger) since those are what's on 4 and 6 cells batteries (and larger). Remember that battery connectors are female and smaller so they can fit inside the larger male connector on the plane. On these connectors, there is a round side, which is negative and a side with a flat side (positive). Here are some pictures showing something like what you've got.
The first picture shows my plane (F/A-18 that came with similar bullet plugs like yours, although not exactly the same but it gives you the idea). Like yours, mine has the external BEC wired into those connectors.
The second picture shows you the end of my adapter that I made from the "mates" of those plugs. These were included in the plane's parts bag. The blue end is the EC5, larger male end. Note the color of the wires and the flat side of the connector.
The third picture shows you the typical battery that I use on this plane. It's a 5000mah, 6s with a smaller female EC5. Again note the color of the wires and the flat side.
Of course, what connector you decide to use will depend on what's on the end of the battery you will be using.

Another option is to cut those connectors off and solder a new EC5 connector into the plane a connect those BEC wires to the wires going into the EC5. However, if you're not good at soldering, this is not a task that you wish to take on. A bad solder can down your plane faster than "dumb thumbs".

Your hobby shop guy didn't do it wrong per se, but he did make it harder for you to understand what's going on and how to get it to all work in your plane. I would have done the adapter on the plane, then have simple EC3 connectors on those 3 cell batteries and make a serial adapter to hook all the batteries together before connecting to the plane. I take it that he's using 3 X 2cell batteries to make a 6 cell battery?

[fhhuber]

I've gone to EC5, standard (female bullets both sides on the battery) and I use the EC5 series adapter sold by several places, including MotionRC for 2X3S to make 6S

When I get the 12S planes back in operation (need new LiPos and some work on the planes) I'll make up the 4 pack in series adapters.

[silver182]

Well this Mig-17 is going to operate on a 9 cell setup. Everyone I've talked to says the daisy chain hook up is the easiest best way to go. I'll only know after I've flown it several times the all heat shrink bullet connector system is a first for me....we will see.
Thanks everyone for insight and ideas.