horizon carbon s + trottle error

[RozoRozic]

Hi there,

I bought horizon carbon s + and today I took it out for a flight. In beginning, all seem to be ok, while suddenly the throttle started to behave strangely. It was totally unresponsive and it went from min to max on its own mind...it was totally strange, when I almost managed to land, the throttle again went to max and I was not able to land. The throttle cut also didn't work.

Eventually, I crashed into the tree and while the plane is still able to bly it got stretched very badly.

This is really frustrating since the problems emerged mid-flight and I have no way of testing it on the ground, and it that happens to me again, I will probably break the plane for good.

Does anyone has any idea. The support of Horizon is not responding.....

Thanks in advance.

[xviper]

Did you do a proper range test before going up? If, for whatever reason, the RX doesn't have proper range and intermittently loses signal, you might see what you saw. How far out were you when this happened? When you do a range test, you should do it with the plane oriented from all directions. This may show an improperly placed antenna. What type of RX?

[RozoRozic]

Thanks, I haven't done a range test and I think the trouble was occurring regardless o of what the distance was, as far as I remember. Also all other commands seem to work well. I will perform the range test for sure.

Do you see any way of troubleshooting this behavior pre-flight?

A lot of people are advising me to unplug the GPS and since I know how to land an airplane, especially with some gyro assistance, I would be totally ok to having only Gyro help.

[xviper]

So, does this mean these odd throttle issues happen while you are taxiing on the ground? Read your TX manual to see what is involved with a proper range test.
A GPS, you say? Many of these Eflite planes with GPS has been troublesome and glitchy. A few have even lost signal and flown away, never to be seen again. Take the advice of those people and remove the GPS (properly) and re-bind. Best to get rid of anything that the GPS system might do for (and to) the plane ............ ie, geofencing, auto-land, etc. if your plane has any of this). Keep AS3X and SAFE if you can. See if the owner's manual tells you how to remove or disable the GPS.
As for trouble shooting on the ground, that would be difficult as your issues likely have something to do with the GPS intervention while flying. A few guys at my field has had nothing but trouble with such planes. They said the plane went "crazy" in the air and they were lucky to get the things back down in one piece. After removing the GPS, their planes flew great.
Another thing you should probably do is to calibrate the throttle. You can find this common procedure on YouTube.

[mshagg]

That's kind of how the carbon s+ behaves when you haven't set the home position on the GPS. I E. When you're first taxiing out, you will notice the motor kind of pulses and won't go to full throttle until you run through the procedure to set the home position.

I wonder if it has suffered some sort of brown out in the air and the flight controller has reset, and needs the home position reset?

Disabling the GPS functionality can also be done with a stick command every flight if you don't want to physically disable it. You should master this procedure if you continue to fly with the GPS enabled - if it tries to flyaway you will want to be able to do it quickly!

But yeah, I would disconnect the GPS module if you don't plan on using the holding pattern or virtual fence functionality. It's just a problem waiting to happen and unnecessary risk if you're not using it. SAFE and AS3X will keep working just fine.

[RozoRozic]

Thanks for all the answers! Yes I guess I will try two things, first make a proper range test and remove the GPS.

One thing I didi forget to mention is that I do not use the Specter transmitter, but use Orange X10. I don't know if that can be a problem. I also have a receiver form Orange, which should for sure work with the Orange transmitter, but I didn't want to change the transmitter in the plane, since I ma not sure how to install AS3X. AS3X probably works only with the Spectre original receiver?

If there would be a way for me to make that AS3X work also with the Ornage receiver, I would be happy to replace that as well.

Thanks in advanced,

Uroš

[xviper]

Yes, AS3X and SAFE is a feature of Spektrum RXs. However, there are Orange RXs that have similar attributes. You should check the one you have to see if it's one of those. I remember the early days of Orange (almost a decade ago) where their RXs were very unreliable. I can't comment on their TXs but I think they've come a long way since then and both their TXs and RXs should be quite decent these days.
PS. I see that the Carbon S uses a serial RX. An standard Orange RX may not work as it likely won't hook up to the flight controller.

[RozoRozic]

Hi there, so I decided to phisically unplug the GPS, but I cant seem to find the elegant way to do that without cutting the cables.

Does anyone have an idea of how to do that with cutting cable?

[xviper]

Does it look like this? https://www.horizonhobby.com/product.../SPMA3173.html
If so, can't you just unplug it from that white connector?
However, before you start cutting wires, are you sure you even have a GPS module? The GPS module is an optional add-on. It doesn't come with it in either BNF or RTF versions. You have to buy and install it yourself.

[mshagg]

If it was the original carbon cub s+ it came with GPS. The one they're currently selling was a re-release.

The GPS just unplugs from the flight controller. It's glued in so pry it out and you'll have access to everything you need.

[RozoRozic]

Yes, I managed, it was hard to access it but in the end, it worked. thanks for the help. Bind it again and it seems to work as it should. I will do the range test tomorrow and give it another go. Fingers crossed I dint end up in tree again =)

[xviper]

[RozoRozic]

Just wanted to let you know that I have taken the plane out for a flight with the GPS unplugged and it seems to work well. I was able to perform 4 successful takeoffs and landings.

All in all, I am really pleased all went without any crashes. In the Beginner mode, all seem to work fine, only that the plane is constantly pointed upwards slightly. I am not sure if that is suppose to be like that in order to keep you off the ground, but it does make it a bit annoying to land since you are constantly gaining height in a neutral position. I also switched to the Intermmiditae mode, where the plane seems to be steering towards the right side. I am not sure why that would happen, since it does not seem to be doing that in the Beginners mode.

Other than that all seems to be working well. Thanks to all fo help.

PS: Because of the unfortunate crash yesterday, I have a few scratches on the plane's body and wings, and since it is a brand new plane I would like to keep it like that as long as possible, so if you have any suggestions on some kind of repair kit for a foam plane, I would highly appreciate.

Thanks, URoš

[RozoRozic]

Hi, I took the plane out for another flight his afternoon and it seems that in the Advanced and Expert mode, something is wrong. While it is leveled out nicely now in the Beginner mode, when switched in the Intermediate, the plane stairs to the right and point downwards. It is more of the same situation with the Expert mode.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zgx9yw1EAcgjC5Gu7

I attached the video when changing between the modes while on the ground and it can clearly be seen that the elevator and the Aileron change position when switched between the modes. This seems strange to me. When defining the modes in the transmitter, basically I just change the mount of max and min travel and that is all. Actually, the travel for all the commands in Beginner and Advanced mode is actually the same, so something has to be wrong with the GYRO I guess.

Any thoughts?

[xviper]

From your last 2 posts. Some things to consider. Most of these models that have some sort of stabilizer, will try to compensate for "out of trim" conditions when stabilization is aggressive, as in when it's in beginner mode. IE, the stabilizer (AS3X) has a heavy influence on trying to make the plane fly straight and level even though the trim is not neutral. In the intermediate and "expert" modes, the AS3X does NOT intervene nearly as much, if at all.
First, whenever you plug the power into the plane, it should be as level as possible as quickly as possible. IE, on the bench, the plane needs to be put on it's wheels ASAP and the tail propped up so the plane is level like it would be in level flight. This must be done quickly, before the flight controller completes its initialization, during which time, the plane should not be moved. Having done that, once the plane is in the air and flying up high, put it in expert mode where the stabilizer is more or less OFF. Now you must trim it so it flies level and straight. You may need to adjust the trim on all 3 control surfaces. Read the manual to see if you need to go "hands off" for about 3 to 4 seconds after any trim tabs are moved. Perhaps a more seasoned flyer should do this for you. Once it's flying straight and level, hands off, you can go back to the other modes if you desire. However, upon landing, don't power it off and put it level on the bench and put it back to expert mode. (USE throttle cut!) Take a picture of the control surfaces so you have a reference point. Now, remove all the trim you put in when flying so the tabs are at their middle positions. Next, manually adjust ALL control rods so that the control surfaces look like what they look like in the pictures you took. Power off and the next flight, the plane should fly more or less straight and level in all modes (assuming you don't have wind gusts to push it out of level). All such planes with stabilizers should be set up this way in the beginning.
PS. Best to do the in flight trimming going INTO the wind straight on. You may need a few circuits to complete the trimming.