X9303 Internal Wire Chafing Issue IMPORTANT

[mearlin]

Radio purchased in April of 2008. The wires look longer and are routed downward going in between the PCB board and the side of the gimbal housing.

No chaffing.

[WillJames]

Originally Posted by Finless

Carson, with as much as you fly they probably replaced the pots on your sticks and recalibrated! Good on them they did this for sure! Usually after a recalibration like that you do have to recenter servos and such.

Bob

Ni kidding Bob, I think Carson must have flown at least 50 flights are IRCHA. Nice flying Carson!! He is going to be GOOD.

[snjbird]

Originally Posted by fireup

Hate to say it but the worst was the guy that had a failure while flying in the first place.

I found mine in the same shape as most chaffing but not to terrible! I sure am glad that there is a place like this to save the day!! Thanks to Bob, Kevin, and all the rest who have contributed so much! I took photos; but they are relatively unclear compared to what I have seen here, my camera has no good macro mode

[franky92]

Is the DX7 concerned?

[cudaboy_71]

Q: Is the [insert any other radio other than the X9303] radio concerned? (just to head off any other 'me too' questions)

A: No.

[Mike_117]

JR sent me an email about this issue. I checked mine, and it had a small chaffing on the wire.

[Efliernz]

I've had my "DSX9" for nearly 7 months but it was ok. It doesn't travel much. I have pushed a little foam in the end anyway...

[bullaculla]

Same here. Mine was hardly scuffed. Being a mostly AP pilot, my sticks dont move much, or quickly
I still rounded over the offending edges with some fine sandpaper anyway.

[Super_Si]

Just checked my DSX9, it had just finished munching through the insulation so caught it just in time.
Thanks for the heads up!

[chacy]

OK, as you know from my post earlier in this thread, I had to send my radio in to JR for repair due to the chafing on the aileron wiring bundle. I received it back from them today. Turn around was 9 business days from the day they received it (counting the day they received it and the day they shipped it back out to me). Shipping time depends on how fast you want to get it to them and get it back. You will pay for 2nd Day or other expedited shipping, etc. I was told when I called to check on it last week that there was about a 7 - 10 business day turn around from the day they received it until they shipped back out. So, they were exactly in the time frame they stated. Not too bad for the most part.

I read the Invoice/Work Order included with it and it stated that the technician had "replaced the chafed aileron wiring bundle and re-routed the wires" and "repaired the yellow wire I mentioned in my letter" (the yellow wire was referring to the one on my LH trim lever on the side of the Tx that had a bare spot on it).

I had to see that it was to my satisfaction, so I opened my radio up to take a look.
As for what I saw, I was VERY PLEASED. The tech had removed the aileron wiring bundle and replaced it. When he replaced it, he did not route it back through the little hole in the side of the gimbal. He instead used what looked like a brownish hot glue or goop like substance to fasten the bundle to a spot just above where that hole was, but keeping it to the "inside" area of the gimbal. He then routed the wire straight up from that point to the top of the gimbal while leaving some slack in it and "SURPRISE", has moved the original metal wire keeper that had the screw in it to this new location on top of the gimbal where it was now secured and then put the same glue like substance on it there all over the bundle and wire keeper and screw to hold it in place (you can see this well on pic02 at the top right and pic06 at the bottom right). It was then routed from that point on the top right side of the gimbal to straight down toward the face or inside of the radio way out of the way and under the board to the bottom of the gimbal where the wires are actually attached (see pic01, pic02, and pic03).

It is EXCELLENT. I inspected it over and over and deflected the aileron/elevator stick every way possible over and over and over and there is ZERO issue (pic04 and pic05). I inspected the back of the radio cover and looked at where the voltage regulator is again and I held the cover up as close as possible to being installed leaving only a small enough gap as to see down into the area and there is no way possible for the aileron wiring bundle to get to the regulator to chafe, no matter what position the stick is in. It is nowhere near it with it fixed like this. The only part of the aileron wiring bundle that is even out in the open is the part between glue attachments on the gimbal and as far as the back cover going on, this is where there is nothing but a flat plastic surface out to the side of the board that the regulator is on, well clear of anything to chafe on (see pic08). Also, there is not enough slack in the bundle for it to go anywhere other than that area, and since it is attached to the gimbal, there is no pulling, stretching, or putting the wires in a bind when full deflection is made with the aileron/elevator stick (pic04 and pic05 again). This is the way it should have been designed to start with.
Hopefully, production is doing this now.

As far as you fixing yours without sending it in to the service center, I recommend the fix posted on RCU by ultimate1 on page 4 of the thread on this. Because anything you do that would allow you to get the bundle out of that hole in the side of the gimbal so you could re-route it as mentioned above will void your warranty. You'd have to either cut the gimbal there to pull them out or you'd have to do some soldering to disconnect them or cut the wires and reconnect them.
The "wrap around the post" method that is given by JR seems to be good and bad. It may clear the regulator, but I've seen a situation with wire pulling and binding with the gimbal at full deflection. Some have had this issue and some haven't, so I guess it depends on how yours does when you try it. You'd think that the amount of slack would be the same on all of these, but apparently there's some reason for this to be inconsistent.

The tech fixed the yellow "trim lever" wire as well. (Mentioned in my previous post on this)

I give them an A+ for quality of repair.

Again, pic01, pic02, and pic03 are basically the same, just slightly different angles and zoom.
Pic04 and pic05 are showing full deflection in both directions.
Pic06 and pic07 are just different shots from the side views.
Pic08 is showing the black plastic area that the wire is in now, instead of being over close to the voltage regulator. The gimbal and wiring is pretty much centered in this area when the backplate is installed.

[chacy]

Another interesting note also,
I read where someone had purchased an X9303 earlier in the year, before all of this came out on the forums, and after the issue showed up, they opened their radio to inspect and the wires were run down under the board away from the voltage regulator.
SO, apparently JR knew something about this and had changed production on it, BEFORE THIS HIT THE FORUMS.
I purchased my Radio in April and I'm wondering if Horizon had a good stock and it was built in the latter part of 07' for instance and I didn't get a "newly manufactured" (meaning very recently) radio and the guy I am referring to actually did, so his was "fixed" from production.
Sounds like JR fixed it before this hit the forums, but there were so many already made that were being sold. Looks like they would have addressed it before it got so bad.
JUST A THOUGHT!

[invertmast]

i checked me 2 weeks ago, no problems. but it had the old style wire routing. i purchased it in march i believe.

[Jason Bell]

Horizons fix to my radio. Should be problem free.

[LoveMyTrex]

does the DX7 have this problem, and if so which ones have it, is it just the recent ones, or all of them?

[sonofcar]

Originally Posted by LoveMyTrex

does the DX7 have this problem, and if so which ones have it, is it just the recent ones, or all of them?

No. only the 9303 2,4 radio.

[rccardude04]

I just thought I'd mention... I was working on a heli for a lady with an X9303, and since I had the problem, I pulled hers open to check. Sure enough, it was doing it too. Here's the kicker though. The wires had already been rerouted per JR's mod instructions. I had to pull them around and put some shoe goo on the little springy wire keeper so that it wouldn't wander back over to the regulator.

I say EVERYONE needs to at least check theirs. I actually figured it out on mine because it would pop when going from full forward cyclic to full back cyclic. I pulled it open to see a ilttle bit of copper showing. I covered it in shoe goo then asked a friend about it. I hadn't seen the JR info on it yet, but my mod was almost identical to what they said to do.

-Eric

[sonofcar]

well crap because i dont use dual rates and was quick to get my radio back and flying again. Well when i did get it back i had to readjust my swash. It was off my a flew degrees(need to fly so didnt think). Will only thing i noticed is that my throw was not even(left full stick was not full). Then last weekend i want to work on some hovering stuff and started programing dual rates, and found out that if i flip into a dual rate my swash moves over. which means when they had my radio they installed my gimbal wrong. Shoot and then i opened my case up to find the repair of the wire placement has not worked, the wire was being rubbed again I am not to happy right now haha so i guess i will send it in and hopefully they can fix both(free or else) without messing somthing else up

[Finless]

Carson, if you havent sent it in already, PM me as I know how to fix it if you like. I can walk you through it over the phone.

Bob

[T-Reximus]

I just bought my 9303 last week and checked it out to find that the wire was routed incorrectly and would have chaffed with use. With the help of the pics from the link I rerouted the wire and should have no issues.

[snjbird]

Follow up post, did my fix in Sept and checked it again in Dec. no more damage done, the fix is holding fine.