Official Freewing T-33 Shooting Star 80mm EDF Thread

[WarPug]

Wow!! Okay, so I’m not the only one having issues. It’s really a shame to lose these beautiful birds. I could have sold a ton of these at my field. It flew absolutely fantastic! I would like to do another but with too many unknowns with the Freewing equipment I just don’t know if I’m willing to risk another $400.

[Chilly Bear]

Hey guys, finally had the chance to maiden today. On the second flight turning base to final I had no response from the controls and in a shallow descending turn it went straight in. Battery still had 30%, using an Admiral Carbon 5100mah with a Admiral receiver. Do you think it could have been the blue box? Anyway, this plane was incredible to fly. I’ll definitely buy another, maybe I won’t use the blue box or use spektrum. Has anyone had an issue like this?

I lost a brand new Bae Hawk high performance a few weeks ago with an admiral RX700T on the maiden flight. The receiver stopped talking to the transmitter on the takeoff roll. The aircraft subsequently went airborne, rolled inverted and crashed. I then bought a new T-33 and another RX700T with a satellite antenna. Today I went out to maiden it and had someone look at it to make sure it was fine just for another pair of eyes. Then I did a range check at maybe 150ft which worked fine. I then taxied it down to the end of the runway and almost at the end, I lost communication with the receiver. There is a 2 ft high hedge that runs parallel to the runway. One of the guys said raise your transmitter, which I did and when my arms were parallel to the ground, comm was re-established. I taxied to the other end of the runway with the same results. This was completely unacceptable to me and I wasn't about to fly the airplane. I came home and then drove 2 hours round trip to buy 2 Spektrum receivers. One for this airplane and one for the Bae Hawk I purchased to replace the lost Hawk. I'm completely off Admiral until they get it together. Really wanted them to work, but just cannot trust them at all at this point.

[Turbinefancy]

Agree with Even D that receiver and antenna placement could be the cause of loss of control issues. Looking at the rats nest of wires in my T-33 and the big battery up front, metallic interference are a plenty inside the relatively compact fuselage. I orient my long range receiver antannae one down the side of intake wall and the other pointed back along wire channel going back to the tail - far from metallic influences. And range checked great even at twice recommend distance.

Wishing everyone safe flying and Happy Independence Day!

[Evan D]

Sorry, I was saying that the bold is them, not you, trying to sell a product. I understand the need for a separate BEC for Opto set ups and I do feel that the CC BEC is a good product.


In my T-33 I pulled out the wing interconnection cables and plugs and wired everything directly to the receiver except retracts and lights that went to the MCBe. While I think some issues are with the blue boxes, the MCBe has proven better than older BB's. I still see a lot of people with receiver issues at my field (all brands) due to receiver or antennae placement. Many never do range checks, Some don't even know how.

I don't think the ESC is the reason for these crashes and agree it would be great to know why people are crashing especially if the crash was not the pilots fault.

Hello

No I'm not try to sell anything.
I just thinking along about issues regarding this T33, I saw that on MRC and it makes me wonder that this was mentioned over there....
I use 2 of these CC10A bec in my planes and had never an issue with them, I have them set on 5,5 volts.
With OPTO ESC you have to use a separate BEC so that's why I have them installed in my plane and in my gas plane I use also one.
Hopefully those guys that lost there T33 find problem, BLEUBOX ore RCVR.
Would be great to know what problem is.

Regards Hans

[timmybeetle]

Your text in bold is there to sell a product, nothing more. The Hobbywing ESCs in these planes have proven excellent. I actually think the CC BECs have had a worse failure rate than the Hobbywing ESCs. Also the ESC has a 5A BEC and the Castle is 10A peak, 5A continuous (with proper ventilation).

While some think that having a separate BEC is a good safety margin, they are separate circuits in the ESC and, in my opinion, adding a separate BEC is more dangerous due to added wiring and connections. My opinion.

Hello

No I'm not try to sell anything.
I just thinking along about issues regarding this T33, I saw that on MRC and it makes me wonder that this was mentioned over there....
I use 2 of these CC10A bec in my planes and had never an issue with them, I have them set on 5,5 volts.
With OPTO ESC you have to use a separate BEC so that's why I have them installed in my plane and in my gas plane I also use one.
Hopefully those guys that lost there T33 find problem, BLEUBOX RCVR, ore BEC from ESC???.
Would be great to know what problem is.

Regards Hans

[Evan D]

Your text in bold is there to sell a product, nothing more. The Hobbywing ESCs in these planes have proven excellent. I actually think the CC BECs have had a worse failure rate than the Hobbywing ESCs. Also the ESC has a 5A BEC and the Castle is 10A peak, 5A continuous (with proper ventilation).

While some think that having a separate BEC is a good safety margin, they are separate circuits in the ESC and, in my opinion, adding a separate BEC is more dangerous due to added wiring and connections. My opinion.

About loosing control.

Well It is a strange ongoing story what is the cause of this happening to yours T33 ore other planes loosing control.
Is the BLUEBOX at fault.... I don't know at this moment. I still flying mine with it...
Maybe I will put elevator and front gear direct to my RCVR, I fly Taranis Frsky.

About BEC (UBEC,SBEC or liniar BEC)
I was reading on MRC website CC BEC10A.
See explanation below form site.

Castle Creations 10A Switched BEC - 010-0004-00


The Castle 10A BEC is a staple in RC and makes the perfect upgrade to the OEM equipment found in any plane. Some find it wise to disable the low amp BEC included with some planes (by remove the center wire from the ESC) and use an external switched BEC such as this 10A Castle BEC. This will ensure you have plenty of power for your servos, retracts, and receiver. A Proper setup using this Castle 10A BEC will help prevent brown outs which some popular receiver brands are prone to. With this BEC you have the option to use the flight battery pack or a separate battery pack to power the servos, lights, retracts, and receiver. The BEC includes a JR connector to connect to the receiver and bare wires on the other side. Please see diagram or instructions for proper connection.

Well this make may day confusing........

Just thinking along to keep us flying save and not loosing any planes due to mystery lost of control....

Regards Hans

[timmybeetle]

Yes, it’s a great flying jet. The RXs I tried after the crash are fine. It’s not the receivers I was using for testing. I might consider another one but at $400 a pop it’s a little hard to swallow.

Did you check yours ESC BEC voltage...was it OK?

grts Hans

[timmybeetle]

About loosing control.

Well It is a strange ongoing story what is the cause of this happening to yours T33 ore other planes loosing control.
Is the BLUEBOX at fault.... I don't know at this moment. I still flying mine with it...
Maybe I will put elevator and front gear direct to my RCVR, I fly Taranis Frsky.

About BEC (UBEC,SBEC or liniar BEC)
I was reading on MRC website CC BEC10A.
See explanation below form site.

Castle Creations 10A Switched BEC - 010-0004-00


The Castle 10A BEC is a staple in RC and makes the perfect upgrade to the OEM equipment found in any plane. Some find it wise to disable the low amp BEC included with some planes (by remove the center wire from the ESC) and use an external switched BEC such as this 10A Castle BEC. This will ensure you have plenty of power for your servos, retracts, and receiver. A Proper setup using this Castle 10A BEC will help prevent brown outs which some popular receiver brands are prone to. With this BEC you have the option to use the flight battery pack or a separate battery pack to power the servos, lights, retracts, and receiver. The BEC includes a JR connector to connect to the receiver and bare wires on the other side. Please see diagram or instructions for proper connection.

Well this make may day confusing........

Just thinking along to keep us flying save and not loosing any planes due to mystery lost of control....

Regards Hans

[WarPug]

Yes, it’s a great flying jet. The RXs I tried after the crash are fine. It’s not the receivers I was using for testing. I might consider another one but at $400 a pop it’s a little hard to swallow.

[Ry680AS]

I’m sorry Warpug, just lost mine the exact same way a couple days ago. 2nd flight, I loved it. I’ll be getting another one, I loved it so much. Which type of rx were you using?

[xviper]

That's a shame! Maybe a blue box that finally reared its ugly head? Anyway, not being able to bind to 3 different RXs may only be relevant to that particular plane. You can bind a RX outside a plane by powering it with an external BEC plugged into it. I typically bind my RX long before it ever goes into the plane. I would suggest you take another look at the BEC. It may very well not be sending any "proper" power to the RX. So don't throw away those RXs just yet. It's likely there's nothing wrong with them.

[WarPug]

Well..... I loved my T-33 and so did all the guys at the field but she was lost last week :( After 10 great flights I lost everything and that was it. No issues prior, but for some reason I lost all control. After picking up the wreckage and bringing it home I could not get it to bind to three different receivers. The ESC and EDF were untouched from the crash. I could of sold a hundred of those little jets at my field before that happened lol. I guess I’ll stick with my turbines but she was fun while it lasted.

[flyinhigh042]

I can’t say for sure it’s prevented any brownout issues in my case. But I haven’t had any noticeable receiver problems while using the capacitors. Not to mention I’m running the factory blue box in my T-33, Aura 8 with two remote DSMX receivers. And I absolutely agree one would think an 8A BEC should carry the load. But the little capacitors are cheap insurance especially when using a gyro. I also forgot to mention installing a capacitor on my F-5 with an Aura 8 removed an aileron servo jitter I was getting while extending flaps. They are also good for smoothing things out a little.

https://www.motionrc.com/products/ho...plug-capacitor

MRC has the same thing for $1.99. I imagine it should've been considered a "clue" for me when the new A3L V2 Gyros from Hobby Eagle ship with one of these caps. included that there are potential issues with these gyros causing brown outs.

Regardless if an 8A BEC should be able to handle the servo load with room to spare, something about them is spiking the voltage.

I had one of these plug-in caps. on the Mirage. It won't prevent a full brown out unfortunately, that I can attest to, but also learned that newer receivers recover faster than my old Lemon as the software has them searching on the channel they shut down on first, before cycling through other options. A capacitor like this may have prevented the "light" brown outs my F-22 had though, given the separate BEC brought power back within a second or two. That combined with the new receiver protocol gives a little measure of security, but not as much as a separate power source like a receiver pack.

[Mizer67]

I’m running Spektrum remote receivers with an Aura 8 on three of my Freewing EDF’s. I always install one of these little gems for insurance. Never had a single issue.
https://www.spektrumrc.com/Products/...ProdID=SPM1600

https://www.motionrc.com/products/hobbyeagle-16v-ez-plug-capacitor

MRC has the same thing for $1.99. I imagine it should've been considered a "clue" for me when the new A3L V2 Gyros from Hobby Eagle ship with one of these caps. included that there are potential issues with these gyros causing brown outs.

Regardless if an 8A BEC should be able to handle the servo load with room to spare, something about them is spiking the voltage.

I had one of these plug-in caps. on the Mirage. It won't prevent a full brown out unfortunately, that I can attest to, but also learned that newer receivers recover faster than my old Lemon as the software has them searching on the channel they shut down on first, before cycling through other options. A capacitor like this may have prevented the "light" brown outs my F-22 had though, given the separate BEC brought power back within a second or two. That combined with the new receiver protocol gives a little measure of security, but not as much as a separate power source like a receiver pack.

[flyinhigh042]

I’m running Spektrum remote receivers with an Aura 8 on three of my Freewing EDF’s. I always install one of these little gems for insurance. Never had a single issue.

https://www.spektrumrc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=SPM1600

[MikeT]

Unless I am missing some thing Nobody said Admiral rec. were made by Spektrum . To be more Specific And to the point the first three Admiral receiver I have ever used Were involved in the crash all three planes that I put them in follow all recommendations and antenna placement, or it may have been a combination of the rec. and the Blue MCB these three planes I mentioned in an early post are the only three planes I have lost in over five years. The planes I have mentioned are the only three planes I have lost due to Mysterious signal loss In all my 40 some years of flying. Nobody likes loosing a plane no matter how it happened. The the three lost were with the same trans. There is nothing wrong with it I have been flying many other planes numerous times since with no issue. The Admiral rec. are supposed to be compatible with spectrum Transmitter's but after loosing three planes I have my doubts on that

He mentioned Spektrum.
Mike

[Ry680AS]

Thank You for the info Mizer, that was very helpful.

[Wild Man]

'I won’t use the blue box or use [B]spektrum'[/B
Admiral receivers are not made by Spectrum. Why blame them?

Mike

Unless I am missing some thing Nobody said Admiral rec. were made by Spektrum . To be more Specific And to the point the first three Admiral receiver I have ever used Were involved in the crash all three planes that I put them in follow all recommendations and antenna placement, or it may have been a combination of the rec. and the Blue MCB these three planes I mentioned in an early post are the only three planes I have lost in over five years. The planes I have mentioned are the only three planes I have lost due to Mysterious signal loss In all my 40 some years of flying. Nobody likes loosing a plane no matter how it happened. The the three lost were with the same trans. There is nothing wrong with it I have been flying many other planes numerous times since with no issue. The Admiral rec. are supposed to be compatible with spectrum Transmitter's but after loosing three planes I have my doubts on that

[Mizer67]

I don't have the T-33, but I had two "light" brown outs with a new F-22 using the Admiral 6 Channel RX600SP DSMX Compatible Receiver with the built-in gyro. and the blue box, so thought I'd chime in. I was fortunate to get the plane back both times shortly after losing power and control, particularly the second time where it went into a full-deflection downward spin.

I pulled the receiver and am sending it back to MRC for analysis (and a refund). But after pulling the receiver, I tested everything and installed a new Spektrum AR620. No frame losses >20 and no holds - receiver voltage never drops below 4.9V and then only momentarily (vs. 5V BEC setting). I've flown with that receiver six times without a glitch now (no gyro) so I'm fairly confident it was the receiver that caused the issue. I checked every connection in the plane and purchased the Spektrum flight log to help diagnose the problem, but everything tests fine with the new receiver.

I think something is dropping the voltage to the Admiral Receiver far enough to cause a momentary brown out on mine, likely due to the gyro. I left it on factory setting for gains and all those servos moving were too much for it I think. Perhaps my mounting didn't isolate enough vibration as well, who knows.

The only other brown out I've had (sadly) was on my Mirage 2000. That one was a Lemon receiver, but I put in an FMS EDF that was pushing the boundaries of what the ESC can handle, so have only myself to blame on that one. I have learned I want a separate BEC or receiver power source though. I think a high number of these issues are due to a lack of sufficient, stable and clean power to the receiver, if only momentarily.

[tab28682]

With the Spektrum/Lemon/Admiral related losses, were any of the RXs still getting power on the ground after the crash? Blinking lights?