E500 fell out of the sky?

spoonerrw · Hopping Maniac Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 29

hello everyone, i am new here and this site was recommended to me by Firedude52 Smile

ok... i built an esky E500 from spare parts about a month ago. originally, it would spin out of control every now and then while making a left banking turn, and drop to the ground. i do a lot of night flying with my Big Lama, so i sat this one up with the turnigy light system to fly at night as well. what i found on the last crash was that the rx antenna had bowed down and was mixed in with the lighting wires, particullarly the fast flashing green beacon. each time it did this, the bottom blades were twithing, like the second hand of a clock with a dead battery, but oddly enough, it was twitching in sequence with the flashing green beacon. i figured, ok, there is the problem... signal interference? i bent the antenna wire up, and flattened the wires to the lights down and taped them, and changed the flashing beacon to a steady one. for three weeks now, i have flown this heli day and night without any problems, and it has flown beautifully... until today! i was flying low at first doing some casual slow flying and went to make a left turn then land, and it spun out of control just like it did originally and landed on its skids thankfully? i checked it out and found nothing wrong. i just couldnt believe that this was happening again after all these weeks of flying, so i popped in another battery and went at it again. it was doing great, so i took it up about 20 feet for some moderate flying which it seemed to be fine. all of a sudden, on a left turn once again... it lost power to both motors and just dropped out of the air. yeah... not pretty from 20 feet up. it landed upside down and needless to say, i have spent a few hours now replacing both shafts and all four blades, re-setting tracking and visually inspecting everything right down to the last solder point. also, on these last two incidents... the blades were not twitching like they did a few weeks ago. it is back together now, without the body, and i have hovered it in my living room. the gain suddenly was way out which i had to decrease a lot to correct, but it is hovering smoothly. every time it has done this, it always spooled back up once i un-plugged the battery then plugged it back in. it isnt a binding issue, i dont think anyway but i also use the same tx for both the E500 and the Lama. i know the tx is fine as i flew the Lama right after and had no issues.
has anyone ever experienced something like this? i am at a loss to explain what is happening or how to prevent it from occuring in the future? is it safe to say that either the rx or the esc, one or both, are going bad? they are new (a month old) but this is the second set. the first set came from a different supplier and one of them was definitely bad. any advice or insight on this would be most greatly appreciated!

edit:
i also forgot to mention... when i put the heli back together and plugged in the battery, the swashplate was all out of whack? i fly it with it slightly tilted forward... but it was far more tilted forward than i originally set it up as? cant explaing that one, but if it were so far forward that it was binding up one or both of the servo's, could this have possibly caused what happened? on top of this, the gain was suddenly way off as well, and i had to decrease it by quite a bit to get the violent shaking to smooth out? this is just flat out strange???

carr52 · Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:17 pm Post subject:

Sorry I'm not much help but I do want to say welcome. Theres bound to be someone in here that can help. I'm better at crashing than fixing. I did find that when trying to make a hard left banking turn the blades are going to strike if you don't slow it down. I use the extended inner shaft and some times mine still strike each other in a hard left turn. And when theres a bit of wind you really have to slow down your movements. Again welcome to the forum.

Tom

spoonerrw · Hopping Maniac Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 29

thanks for the welcome carr Smile

. no, was just casual flying at a slow pace when it happened. both of my co-axials have the extended shaft, so no issues there. i am going to replace the rx and esc and go from there as i have eliminated everything else. we are going through some very high temperatures and humidity right now which is believed to have overheated the rx/esc or both and caused this. it will hover, but its tail turns slowly a little left and pauses, then turns a little right then pauses and does this the all the time it is hovering. its not a gain issue... it is likely that i damaged the esc flying in this heat. will update once the new electronics are in.

carr52 · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 12:35 am Post subject:

Howdy from SC. Ya I know what ya mean when you say its been hot and humid. Here in South Carolina its been brutal hot. I think it got 107 one day last week end. I just ordered another Big Lama so when I have company we can both play. Not that I eve have any company. I live out in the woods sorta hermit like. But thats the way I prefer it. Spent enough time in the Army going from place to place. Good luck with the heli and sorry I couldn't help. I usually just fly em till they drop and get a new one.

Tom

spoonerrw · Hopping Maniac Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 29

carr52 · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:34 am Post subject:

The E-500 has all the same parts as the Big Lama. My Lama use to be a E-500 just changed the canopy. Not sure what the heat index was that was the actual temp. Spent a little time in the desert and that what it reminded me of minus the humidity but still hotter than hooters.

Tom

spoonerrw · Hopping Maniac Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 29

yeah, i was in arizona for a couple years in the air force and remember it being so hot that the wax would melt off my boots, but yet i never broke a sweat. here... you step out the door right now and the humidity just nails ya within seconds!