Solid red light

[omerco]

What is your low V alarm in SK set for? (first tab).

[247rememberme]

Originally Posted by omerco

What is your low V alarm in SK set for? (first tab).

I have just left that at default as i wasn`t sure what was needed?

Last night i went through the whole set up again,redid every wizard.Also included a re-bind with that.

Only thing i noticed/changed was my cyclic pitch was reading 11 and my tail wasn`t as centred as i thought it was.

I changed the cyclic pitch to 10 and centered the tail accurately.

After exiting the set up wizards and unplugging the usb the solid GREEN light came on pretty quickly(after approx 20 sec`s).

I then unplugged and plugged the batt back in and same result,approx 20 sec`s and then solid GREEN light.

This morning i did the same with the same result and test hovered again in garden,all seemed fine.

I am going to the field shortly for the first flights on this heli,i will let you all know how it went.

Still no reply from Skookum to my email asking for help/advice.Not great at customer service then

[omerco]

could it be you place your Tx maybe too close to the heli when you power it? Tx needs to be at least 30 cm from the sats.

[247rememberme]

Went to the field this afternoon,plugged the batt into the heli and waited for the solid red light to turn green.
Still waiting,,,,,still waiting,,,,,aaaahhhhh!!!!!! The red light wouldn`t go green
This is after nothing at all had been done to the heli,just taken to the field after a hover in my garden this morning.
I tried a few times in the space of a few hours at the field and still only solid red light showing.
I took my laptop to the field and the reason for the solid red light was the gyro motion sensors were again all saying INIT with a yellow background.Nothing i did at the field would make the gyro motion work,went through wizards and no difference.
Then when i came home and read what omerco says about tx being at least 30cms from the heli i try that in my garage and hey presto!!
Solid GREEN light again

The sat`s were showing solid lights at the field but i will have been plugging heli in with the tx nearer than 30cms at the field.
So is this just with Skookum units this applies as i have no trouble where the tx is placed when powering 3G,3GX and BeastX heli`s?

[247rememberme]

I have just plugged the batt into the heli with the tx right next to it and solid green followed shortly after!
I have no idea what the hell is going on with my SK540,goes green in my garage/garden but at the field today only showed red

[omerco]

Originally Posted by 247rememberme

Went to the field this afternoon,plugged the batt into the heli and waited for the solid red light to turn green.
Still waiting,,,,,still waiting,,,,,aaaahhhhh!!!!!! The red light wouldn`t go green
This is after nothing at all had been done to the heli,just taken to the field after a hover in my garden this morning.
I tried a few times in the space of a few hours at the field and still only solid red light showing.
I took my laptop to the field and the reason for the solid red light was the gyro motion sensors were again all saying INIT with a yellow background.Nothing i did at the field would make the gyro motion work,went through wizards and no difference.
Then when i came home and read what omerco says about tx being at least 30cms from the heli i try that in my garage and hey presto!!
Solid GREEN light again

The sat`s were showing solid lights at the field but i will have been plugging heli in with the tx nearer than 30cms at the field.
So is this just with Skookum units this applies as i have no trouble where the tx is placed when powering 3G,3GX and BeastX heli`s?

I know about this since the 3GX days. its inconsistent but might cause troubles and relevant to satellites regardless of the gyro.

One more thing you can try is disconnect one satellite at a time to see if it maybe comes from one of them but it sound like a SK problem. i would just eliminate whatever i can before i send it back.

[SpeedTape]

Originally Posted by 247rememberme

I have just plugged the batt into the heli with the tx right next to it and solid green followed shortly after!
I have no idea what the hell is going on with my SK540,goes green in my garage/garden but at the field today only showed red

I probably sound like a broken record to anyone who might be listening, but sadly I don't think that includes very many people...

It sounds to me like your 540 has a problem with noisy gyros. It is the gyro's LED that is stuck on solid red and not the satellite Rx's. The 540 doesn't care if there's a signal from the receiver before it sets its LED green. Try it yourself with no Rx connected. It will go solid green whether there's a receiver connected or not.

Maybe the noisy sensor problem on your 540 only manifests itself when the gyro is in cold and damp conditions? That sums up typical UK weather conditions, doesn't it? Presumably it isn't typical of UK indoor conditions though, so that might explain why it doesn't happen inside? Maybe it worked for you when you flew it in your front garden because it was still warm and dry from being inside? And maybe the EMI from your transmitter changes the electrical characteristics enough that the noise ib your unit's marginal gyro sensors is aggravated or attenuated? Or maybe it is just a red herring?

Regardless, I don't think you can extrapolate your experience with this gyro to all 540s. Yours sounds like a dud. Maybe you just need to exchange it?

[Digger1973]

Do you let it acclimate? We fly sk540's here in canada in very cold and often damp weather here on the atlantic coast. I have had mine take a bit longer to go green but the only time it wouldn't was a setup issue on my end. Winter here so far is a mixture of rain and snow depending on which side of 0 it is. We range from -40 celcius up to 40+ so I don't think it is weather related. You could be getting condensation on the inside of it.

[omerco]

Originally Posted by SpeedTape

The 540 doesn't care if there's a signal from the receiver before it sets its LED green. Try it yourself with no Rx connected. It will go solid green whether there's a receiver connected or not.

That is correct but incomplete: when THERE IS Tx signal + 2 satellites are connected but one is manifesting problems it will not go green, and will not bump the swash. I had this with a problematic sat wire.

I agree the fact the sats were solid at the field + the fact it looks like temperature has an effect points to something in the gyro, but i would expect the relevant failure message to appear if you connect it to the computer while its happening.

[SpeedTape]

Originally Posted by omerco

That is correct but incomplete: when THERE IS Tx signal + 2 satellites are connected but one is manifesting problems it will not go green, and will not bump the swash. I had this with a problematic sat wire.

Then how about this: Disconnect all sat receivers and see if it makes a difference. If it still fails to null, it points to the gyro. If it nulls just fine with no receivers connected, then we've found the smoking gun.

[omerco]

nice thought. I'm not completely sure that the init of the unit might be different between the 2 modes. could be not, but could also be diff. therefore it might not say much if it will go green. if it stays red then we are sure its the gyro.

But for the same thought i wrote to disconnect one sat at a time while the problem occurs. we can extend it to disconnect one at a time and if that doesn't work - disconnect both.

[247rememberme]

This morning (in garage)i plugged the batt into the heli with the tx sat at the side of it.Waited approx 2 min`s and solid red light the whole time.

Then moved the tx well over 30cms away and hey presto! Almost immediate solid GREEN light!!

Then unplugged and again sat tx next to heli,plugged in again and solid GREEN almost immediately!

Always turning tx off before reconnecting too(just in case anybody asks)so I am now thinking it is rx/tx issues?Sat`s are always showing solid lights though.

Maybe if yesterday at the field I had moved the tx over 30cms away before plugging in i could have flown it?

The weather is pretty poor here today but i am hoping to get to the field to at least try to plug the batt in and see what happens?

I have thought about plugging in before taking it out of the car,can`t do any harm and won`t have acclimatisation problem then?

[247rememberme]

If i do have problems at the field i will try the disconnect/reconnect satellite scenario.

Still haven`t ranged checked the heli either,who knows what will happen then?

[SpeedTape]

Originally Posted by 247rememberme

I have thought about plugging in before taking it out of the car,can`t do any harm and won`t have acclimatisation problem then?

If I understand you correctly (your post is a bit unclear about what you plugged/unplugged), the 540 nulls just fine when you disconnect the sat Rxs, even if the Tx is right beside the heli. That's a pretty clear indication that it isn't a problem with your 540 or an acclimatization problem (unless your sat Rxs are susceptible to cold and moisture).

Omer is right. I forgot that the 540 will try to protect you from taking off with a bad radio link by refusing to null. It sounds like you may have one bad sat or a bad sat Rx wire. Maybe record a log and post it up? We can look at it in the data viewer. It will show how many packets you're loosing. (Trouble is, it only starts recording after the LED goes green and you need to let it run for at least 30 seconds or so after that.)

[247rememberme]

Took it to the field today and after plugging a batt into the heli the green light showed solid within seconds.

I then range checked the heli and that was great,well over 40 paces with no issues at all.

Spooled up and completed my first proper flight,i was a little nervous on the sticks but all went well.

After approx 5 min`s i plugged another batt into the heli and the red light issue struck again!

I unplugged one sat` at a time with no change to the red light and then unplugged both sat`s.Red light showed the whole time.

Tried plugging/unplugging the batt a few times but that made no difference.

Then i plugged the 540 into my laptop and it was again showing INIT with a yellow background(same as yesterday)in the Gyro Motion blocks.

Nothing i did with the laptop or heli could get the INIT off,everything else showing/working fine in set up screen.

So i`m now thinking it isn`t a tx/rx issue,once i got green light the range check was perfect and the flight was problem free.

If there is anyway i can show details from my flight today to show you guys i will do it,not sure how to though?

I am going to again email Skookum and enclose my heli's current setup file.Still haven`t had a reply to my first email so i`m not too hopeful of getting a reply.

[247rememberme]

I have been home approx 30min`s now and again plugged the heli into the laptop.

Almost immediately the Gyro Motion blocks turned from INIT to now showing their normal 0 numbers.

At the field i couldn`t get that to happen though

[omerco]

Sound like you need to replace the unit.
I would be happy to see the flight log - it was on the SK drive when you connect it to the pc you can find it under my computer but you need to have logging on in the first tab.

anyway once you plugged it at home it erases the log usually if it lacks room on the drive. see if you have a 400+ log there maybe still.

[247rememberme]

Got a reply back from Skookum today and they think the problem might be with condensation.

I am now going to send the unit to Skookum so they can re-do the internal moisture protection.

Sending from the UK though so i`m not expecting to be flying with the unit until the beginning of next year now.

I would again like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE for the help and advice.I know it must have been a little tricky to keep up with my problem so many thanks for showing patience and taking the time.

I`d also like to thank the Skookum customer services,i was a little harsh at first but they have come through good for me now