One of my axioms in life is to never take myself too seriously. We've all done really dumb things. I thought that it'd be fun and interesting to tell stories on ourselves. What have you done in model aviation that was really, really dumb or careless? I'll start...
I'm in the process of building a Freewing Mosquito. Since it has twin engines and ESCs, I decided to disconnect both 5v power lines that run back to the RX and install a UBEC to supply the bus voltage to the RX. I'd been working on the build for about a day and a half, getting everything mechanically and structurally connected. I'd already tested each servo with a homemade servo tester. I was ready to hook everything up to perform my first end-to-end electro-mechanical test. To supply battery power to the UBEC, I had installed a Deans connector, which tee'd off a JST connector to be connected to the UBEC.
Well, it was late in the evening, and I was tired. There was a mess of cables, control modules, Y harnesses, UBEC, etc, hanging out of the electronics bay. In 20/20 hindsight, I should have quit for the night and come back to the system test in the morning, but I just had to have that gratification of running the Mossie with my radio before I quit for the night. Well, the JST connector from the battery jumper (which was supposed to connect to the UBEC) fits into the 5V and ground pins for a channel on the RX. So, I totally forgot to actually hook up the UBEC and ran 14v directly into the RX. Ouch! When I heard the racket from the servos and gear motors, I knew instantly what I'd done and quickly disconnected the battery... but not quickly enough. I burned out both retract servos, the elevator servo, one of the gear door servos, and the landing light channel in the LED controller. Every thing else tested okay. Even though the RX seems to be okay (LemonRX Diversity 6-channel), I'm going to replace it, too. One small step forward, one week back. Replacement parts (which weren't already on hand) are all on order, and the only long-term damage is to my fragile male ego...
I'm in the process of building a Freewing Mosquito. Since it has twin engines and ESCs, I decided to disconnect both 5v power lines that run back to the RX and install a UBEC to supply the bus voltage to the RX. I'd been working on the build for about a day and a half, getting everything mechanically and structurally connected. I'd already tested each servo with a homemade servo tester. I was ready to hook everything up to perform my first end-to-end electro-mechanical test. To supply battery power to the UBEC, I had installed a Deans connector, which tee'd off a JST connector to be connected to the UBEC.
Well, it was late in the evening, and I was tired. There was a mess of cables, control modules, Y harnesses, UBEC, etc, hanging out of the electronics bay. In 20/20 hindsight, I should have quit for the night and come back to the system test in the morning, but I just had to have that gratification of running the Mossie with my radio before I quit for the night. Well, the JST connector from the battery jumper (which was supposed to connect to the UBEC) fits into the 5V and ground pins for a channel on the RX. So, I totally forgot to actually hook up the UBEC and ran 14v directly into the RX. Ouch! When I heard the racket from the servos and gear motors, I knew instantly what I'd done and quickly disconnected the battery... but not quickly enough. I burned out both retract servos, the elevator servo, one of the gear door servos, and the landing light channel in the LED controller. Every thing else tested okay. Even though the RX seems to be okay (LemonRX Diversity 6-channel), I'm going to replace it, too. One small step forward, one week back. Replacement parts (which weren't already on hand) are all on order, and the only long-term damage is to my fragile male ego...
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