Hi Tomas;

Yes, EX Bus to the Spirit.

I have an AddCap on the Receiver now, I will also ground run extensively with my static grounding system in place (it makes a huge difference!).

I'll let you know how that goes.

cheers & thanks,

ed

Hi CDN791M

Just for inform you that I was able to reproduce the problem, I used a piezo igniter to make a controlled spark at specific point on the circuit. I was able to completely frozen the Pro with some sparks on a cyclic servo.

So I'm pretty sure the problem was a static hit somewhere.

Note: I did some test on the Red but it didn't fail, I broken the igniter so I will have to buy another one and make some more testing later.

Wow, MRNETS, thank you for that testing - I really hope nothing was damaged!!!

When you tested it with the piezo hit - how long did it take for it to recover? Or did you have to power off to restore normal function? If it takes a long time for the system to un-freeze, that is extremely concerning.

Would having Rescue set up and functional be of use here? Or Failsafe? Not sure if they use a different programming loop, one that wouldn't be affected by a static hit.

Interesting that the plastic housing didn't show the same problem. Tomas, is the aluminium housing on the Spirit Pro grounded?

Based on my static survey of the helicopter, I'm in agreement that this was most likely a static hit that scrambled the Spirit's brain for a few moments.

Apart from the new grounding system on my helicopter, I'm going to move the electronics to a less dangerous location forward of the main shaft.

cheers & thank you,

Ed

Actually trying to perform static discharges is not too good for electronics and can easily permanently damage it.
Basically any electronics can at least cause unexpected behavior. Instead of 3V you are feeding it with thousands of volts. So unfortunately this is nothing strange.
It only depends on what is connected to the unit and how the cables are routed. Then it is more or less susceptible. For example if receiver is close to the belt then high voltage can be carried directly to the unit.
For this reason proper grounding and belt tension is always important.

_________________
Spirit System developer

Well, Boris has had his return to flight yesterday.

No log recorded from the Spirit... so it seems like we're okay.

Discovered that the static charges were most likely jumping from the axle bolt of the forward tail belt pulley to the metal case of one of my servos - about a 1mm air gap - but that still equates to about 3000V to jump that.

Covered that servo housing with electrical tape, and added a jumper line from the axle's bearing to the grounding system. Radiated ESD is now almost non-existent on the helicopter.

Avionics were moved forward to a new, custom made radio tray forward of the mast in a much 'quieter' location.

Now, just need to figure out how to get the position hold of this unit better. Running flight style 4, Normal Stab at 3 and Cyclic Gain at 75%... still not as stable in the hover as I'd like... We'll get there!

Hello,

good job, you can run the motor for a few minutes on the ground without blades. Then you can observe flight log and check if there is some error.

Could you take a picture how the module is mounted? This is important for the precision too.
Usually what is causing imprecision is module calibration.

It can be helpful to make it outside (where you are flying). Then precision can be improved a lot.
If you can observe that model is not hovering stable but flying in circles then the problem is only compass calibration.

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Spirit System developer