I should probably be wearing a helmet

[Rodney Kirstine]

I went to fly my E7 at lunch today.  First battery pack was sweeeeeeeet.  I swap out the battery pack, plug the ESC in, and install the canopy.  As I'm installing the canopy I notice that one of the servo wires is about to come out of the receiver.  I start trying to get it plugged back in correctly and I end up unplugging the throttle connector and plugging it right back in.  So... the ESC decides that it's time to rock and roll.  Throttle hold is already on and it's not doing anything.  I bulldog the helicopter and hang onto it for dear life so I don't get chopped up.  I'm trying desperately with one hand to get the canopy off (RC Booya mounts on all four posts) and I'm not having much luck.  Luckily, the ESC decided to just go ahead and go up in flames, saving me the trouble of needing to unplug it, at that point.  I put the helicopter on the ground and get the fire put out.  It looks like the only real damage is the ESC but I'm not sure yet.

I have shoe goo on my other helicopters to make sure the servo connectors all stay in place but, for some reason, I hadn't done that on the E7 yet.  My own dang fault but I really hope that at some point I will quit giving myself all of these expensive lessons.

Rodney

[Chris Sexton]

Wow!  First off, are you hurt? I have never seen anyone able to hang on while a heli tried to spool up.

Sucks about the esc. I have had one spin up I unexpectedly and it sucks!!

I hope everything else is ok.


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[steffgiguere]

I hope you are OK....wow want a battle holding on to an electric heli while it's spooling up. You are right getting the batteries unplugged while battling a heli is impossible, some electrical engineer will have to find something for this.

[Brandon Bartolomucci]

Wow that is something else. At least you're here to tell the tale to the rest of us.


Regards,
Brandon Bartolomucci
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[Rodney Kirstine]

Thanks guys, yeah, I'm okay.  The FETs got so hot on the ESC that it de-soldered all three motor phase wires from the PCB.  I think I probably ripped my canopy up some more, too.  It's still out in the trunk of my car and I'm not really wanting to go look at it yet since I'm already bummed about frying the ESC.  I just hope the SK540 survived.  I do have a CC 120A I will probably hook up to check everything out once I get all the soot cleaned off of the front of the frame and the motor.

[flyalan]

Wow Rodney!  Glad to hear that YOU weren't harmed (at least physically).

Question?  Was the ESC armed prior to the removal of the servo lead?

The reason I ask is that I have always set up my electrics so that the ESC doesn't arm until I take it out of throttle hold that first time. I am on throttle hold when I connect the ESC battery.  My throttle hold point is slightly above zero throttle.   So until I come out of throttle hold with zero throttle on the collective stick the ESC doesn't arm.  I usually don't do that until the Heli is on the line and ready to fly.

This is the same setup used for Auto Bailout on the Castle ESC's.

No sure if this would have prevented this mishap but this is something you might want to look at if this is not your current setup.

[Rodney Kirstine]

Yes, the ESC was armed.  I have my throttle hold set at zero and the ESC arms when I plug it in.  I hadn't heard of setting it up like you describe.  So, how much above zero can you have the throttle before the ESC will start spinning the motor?  I don't know if setting up like you do would have prevented this but sure may have.  I am definitely going to check out setting it up like you've described.

Thanks,
Rodney

[flyalan]

I will check my actual settings on the radio and post.  May vary depending in your radio.
One way to so this is to slide the motor back so it doesn't engage. Then add throttle (straight line throttle curve). Note the throttle % where it starts up. A radio with a servo monitor feature is helpful.  Make your throttle hold point just a bit less than that point.
Again if you ever want to activate autorotation bailout on the castle ESC's this is the same procedure. Be warned if you do activate bailout it spools up much quicker when coming off throttle hold.  Have to be careful of that!

Cheers
Alan


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[Rodney Kirstine]

I got it all back together tonight and got ready to calibrate the throttle endpoints on the CC ESC and as soon as I plugged the ESC into the battery pack, the motor started arcing to the  motor mount.  So, looks like it's time to figure out what I'm going to do about the motor.  Oh well...

[flyalan]

Rodney.
Maybe I can help.  Emailed you...

Alan

[Rodney Kirstine]

Rodney.
Maybe I can help.  Emailed you...

Alan

Freaking sweet!  Alan is my new best friend this week. 

Seriously, thank you Alan.  This is the second time that someone from the Synergy family has reached out to me when I've had a catastrophic event.  You guys are awesome!

Rodney

[Chris Sexton]

Great news! Hope you have it back in the air soon!


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[flyalan]

No problem Rodney. I am glad I could help out.  Emailed you a tracking number...

Cheers
Alan


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[Rodney Kirstine]

This is just turning into the never ending cluster****.  I received the motor on Saturday (Yeah!) that I didn't think I would get it until today.  I was getting everything put back together and wired up so I could fly.  I needed to make some changes to the SK540 and when I plugged in the USB cable, it wouldn't connect.  My stupid USB cable had a pin sticking out and it pushed in one of the pins on the USB connector in the controller.    I'm going to try to either fix or replace the USB connector today in our board repair lab.

[flyalan]

We all have days like those 
Will keep my fingers crossed that you can resolve the USB problem.

Cheers
Alan