Official FMS 1400mm P-51D V8 Thread

[Flying Squirrel]

OK << JUST GOT MY FMS 1450mm P-51's V8, ? zip tie mods, will you be able to see an increase in speed once it its donnan are there anymore mods available ???

[Dewey H Lee]

Thank-you so much for the concern Daryl. It's been tough. Finally got power back on Wednesday but being in construction I hadn't had a chance to work on the plane yet. Alot of people that really got hit by the hurricane have had need of my trade. My heart really goes out to these people. It does something to you when your totting out all of there life's possitions throwing it away in a dumpster and then rip there house apart and start rebuilding it. Got an order in for a new sequencer and some extensions to get it out from under the board. I'll definitely post what I find next and really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. Enjoy that milkshake. I think I'm going to grab a Miller beer. Cheers🍻.

[wrongroad]

G'day Dewey,
That Hurricane has been all over our news here.
That is bad news indeed. I hope you and all your family are safe.
It is what happens with gear. There is always a bad one floating around and I thought that I was the only one who got them:rolleyes:
I often get the one built at five to five on a Friday before a long weekend!
The V8 sequencer seems to be fine and the earlier bigger version of the six second unit have never missed a beat. Just that awful blue one. It seems to get lost in transit somewhere.
Stay safe and dry, mate.
I'll have a milkshake for you!
Regards and respect
Daryl

[Dewey H Lee]

Thanks Daryl. This thing is really frustrating. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if new parts that you purchase could be trusted but that's they way of the hobby I guess. I'll order another sequencer and get a couple of servo extension and get the sequencer out from under the board. Looking at Dan's in the picture I see that he had a different connector than I do. His is the older one. The one in the Snoot is the latest addition of the connector. I'm also going to remove 2 of the plywood spacers to get a little more room to slide the battery tray in and out. What version do you have in your planes. I have played with the tx with no luck. As soon as I can get another sequencer in I'll put it in and see what happens. I was just wondering if anyone could give me a procedure to check the voltage through the sequencer. The reason is I feel that through the rx it might not be getting enough voltage to operate the retracts where as with the servo tester it does. We had a hurricane come through this weekend and so my local hobby shop has been closed so I hadn't been able to get some extensions I need to localize the retracts,doors and sequencer. Plus the power has been down since mid day Saturday. Hopefully I can get at least the extensions today and then I'll at least report back the results from the retracts straight to the rx. Thanks again everyone.

[wrongroad]

G'day Dewey,
Throw the blue sequencer as far as you can and do not look for it.:angel:
Mine was a shocker and I had to cycle the gear in quick succession for the thing to be even half reliable and it often would only deploy the doors. It became part of my pre flight to do this every flight.
Viper gives good tip and I just checked my EPA [Futaba 8J] and the retract is set at + 120%. On both up and down and I have a feeling that all my FMS birdies have at least + 100% configuration dialed in for the landing gear.
I have the later green sequencer and it has given me no issues but you may well have a dead one on your hands. It does happen.:@
I went back to an old six second unit that I had in my spare parts stock and guess what? This is fitted in the Shangri LA while the other two,Duchess Arlene and BBD run with the green.
It does not miss a beat. I think I purchased this about three years ago or at least just after the six second units came out as I swapped all the three second units in my three Mustangs and two Trojans [main gear only]. I also ordered a couple of spares in case. [RC Castle]
If you are worried about shorting out on the exposed pins, a couple of layers of insulation tape will sort that problem out and it will not hurt the cooling in any way. After all, it is wrapped in a fairly heavy heat shrink to start with.:p
Best way to run a test is to pull the sequencer out and test each system individually.
I mount my sequencer in the upper fuselage. There are several little nooks and crannies that the sequencer, receiver and sound module can slip into without interfering with the battery tray. Just look and you will find them, trust me. I did and if I can find a hole to hide these things in, anyone can A bit of blutac to help secure them and things should be cool.
I use use blutac to secure the aerials as well. Good stuff that blutac.

Make sure nothing is binding either. I know you have looked at that but it is just a thought, for just in case!
The final tip, once you have sorted out celebrate with an ice cold beer.;)
Regards and respect
Daryl

[Dewey H Lee]

Just one last thing to think about if it makes any since. When under power either the gear door servos or the gear itself is making an intermittent noise . Almost like a servo being bumped but not actuated. Almost a twitching noise. Boy I'm tired. Thanks for all the help so far guys. You just don't know how much I appreciate it.

[Dewey H Lee]

Thanks Dan. I really appreciate it. Just got finished messing with this thing some more. Double checking everything and still no go. It still works with a servo tester perfect but not on the rx. Had it hooked up to 2 different new spectrum reciever and 2 new tactic receivers and still no joy. Tomorrow I guess I'll try to figure out how to do away with the connector all together. Just too frustrated tonight and tired thanks again I'll review the vid again tomorrow when I'm not wore out and see again what you did.

[Grossman56]

https://youtu.be/bpZuv4ClMDI

Hey Dewey,I just shot this video of what I did to Shangrila to make it work without that plug. The connector box is held in place with some velcro, no cutting on the foam, guess you could though...

Grossman56

[Dewey H Lee]

I have a tactic 8 channel reciever in this plane using a tactic 850 tx. Both are brand new and I will try what your speaking of. I just know that it's got to be something as simple as a pimple on your face and when it's settled I feel like I'm going to be embarrassed. I still really think I should get the sequencer out from under that board though. There is alot of sharp edges there. What do you think. There's no room for something between them to isolate it from the board. And I can't raise the board because then I can't get the battery tray in and out.😵

[xviper]

Thank-you for the input XViper. I'll take the board totally out of the picture and see what happens. It just seems funny that when I remove the gear lead from the rx with the other leads still in the board I can hook a servo tester to the gear lead that was hooked to the rx and it never misses a cycle. Both doors open and the gear deploys and then the doors close. I've even thought that maybe the pins sticking out of the bottom of the board might be piercing the heat shrink on the sequencer because it is a tight fit under the board and the ends of the pins are quite sharp. I'm sure that after awhile there would have to be penetration after a while. No matter how well the prop is balanced to prevent vibration.

Try playing with "servo sub-trim" on the gear channel. I have a Dynam plane where the retract doesn't work well on the pre-existing settings. I had to go into the travel menu and alter the % sub-trim for open and close to make the retracts work better. If you look at the "monitor", you'll see the representation of the travel limits in numbers. I think it's something like -100 to +100. Play with those limits to see if something good happens.

[Dewey H Lee]

Dan I was just reviewing your pictures again and it looks like your board is sitting lower than mine. I was just wondering if you modified it to sit lower. I can barely get the battery tray in mine and then your still dragging wires already flatten at the back of there plugs.

[Dewey H Lee]

Thank-you for the input XViper. I'll take the board totally out of the picture and see what happens. It just seems funny that when I remove the gear lead from the rx with the other leads still in the board I can hook a servo tester to the gear lead that was hooked to the rx and it never misses a cycle. Both doors open and the gear deploys and then the doors close. I've even thought that maybe the pins sticking out of the bottom of the board might be piercing the heat shrink on the sequencer because it is a tight fit under the board and the ends of the pins are quite sharp. I'm sure that after awhile there would have to be penetration after a while. No matter how well the prop is balanced to prevent vibration.

[Dewey H Lee]

Yes I've seen that many times. I think I've looked at every video on YouTube on the connectors. I have the one that is plywood mounted. It came already glued to the floor of the plane and really don't like the crimp that it puts on the wires that are plugged on top when removing and installing the battery tray. Also the sequencer is stuffed underneath where the sharp edges of the pins in the board can pierce the heat shrink on the sequencer. That just seems wrong. Extreme bends in wires top and bottom right at the plugs.

[xviper]

Shangrila came with this....thing that I never did figure out, I posted it and asked the guys if they could explain. In the end, I opened up Big Beautiful Doll and copied what I had in her and relegated this to the spare parts bin, the gear on Shangrila works great

Grossman56

That's the very thing that's still in my BBD and working as it should. I believe the blue thing is the sequencer. The rest is some sort of mult-connector. Mult-connectors use common grounds for several servos and when testing individual servos on the bench via a tester, some or all of the other servos (ones not being tested) will act very strangely, so one must ignore what they are doing. It's when everything is hooked up and running together via the TX and RX, that it all sorts itself out. I think the trouble with these kinds of common ground multi-plugs, all it takes is for one solder to be a bit "off" and it can become a nightmare. I had to by-pass the multi-connector on another plane as the one servo simply didn't work at all.
Best thing is to eliminate the multi-plug, isolate the sequencer and the two retracts and doors and test them alone. That will weed out a bad sequencer or a bad multi-plug.

[Grossman56]

Shangrila came with this....thing that I never did figure out, I posted it and asked the guys if they could explain. In the end, I opened up Big Beautiful Doll and copied what I had in her and relegated this to the spare parts bin, the gear on Shangrila works great

Grossman56

[Dewey H Lee]

Wow when I checked after the post they didn't show on my phone. I'm very sorry guys.

[F106DeltaDart]

They are showing up fine for me in all 3 posts.

[Dewey H Lee]

still trying to load.

[Dewey H Lee]

Something happened and my pictures didn't load. I'll try again.

[Dewey H Lee]

Thank-you OV10 for jumping in on this. I have taken pictures of the sequencers that I have. The blue one came in the plane. It is the one that cycles the doors only. The light green one is the one I ordered for a spare. The picture is taken on the original package it came in. It is also the one that does nothing. Matt had sent me the wing connection board thinking that there could be solder flash somewhere in the board causing the problem. After installing the board the retracts operated fine that evening. I put everything up because it was getting late and have not been able to get back to it until recently. I powered the plane up to make sure the servos were still centered so I could finish the plane and tried the retracts and it was doing the same thing it was doing before the board replacement. The plane had set for almost a month with no one touching it. I really hope you can lead me in the right direction. Thank-you again.