Hello all,

Have been trying to set up a new build heli, Trex 700 electric with Spirit Pro and Geo link.

I'm in Canada and my first test today, its -20 degrees C . having a few problems and thinking its just too cold for the electronics to work.

It seems ok for about 30 or so seconds and then gyro is erratic.

Tried putting heli outside for 10 minutes before test with no better results.

Tried putting heli outside for 25 minuets, tried to fly and the heli hovered for maybe 20 seconds and then when landing it all locked up and I had 0 control, had to wait for batteries to drain while rotors continued to turn just above idle. Still had telemetry showing good voltage to receiver but no control at all to anything.

All brand new electronics and batteries..

After batteries drained I inspected the heli and no connections are loose or disconnected. Upon connecting a charged battery after worm up in shop all is working again.

Be interested if anyone has successfully flown at these temps or any other suggestions. I have flown older technology heli at and below this temperature before and mostly it was ok if I let the heli cool down before flying,

Thank you for any advice. Cal

Hello,

all Spirit units should work well in any temperature, in normal flight it should never render any erratic behavior. We are testing often in -25°C, but for many servos this is problematic because grease inside is very tight. Some servos could even lockup and cause excess current draw.
So I am afraid something could be wrong with either Spirit Pro, some servo or other electronics that has issue after warming up.

Is this problem visible only when flying?

Have you tried spooling up the model without blades and observing the servos?

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Spirit System developer

Thanks for your reply.

That's good to know, -25 is cold enough for flying. After that its no fun. Only useful for testing.

I have another brand new Spirit pro and another brand new receiver so I will change out both and try again. Not worth risking the heli.

Will update in time.