Hello,

a few weeks ago i had a crash of my Goblin Fireball due to loose of control. I wanted to find the reason for the problem and inspected the logs of my Jeti and of the Spirit and got confused. Maybe you can help me to find the reason.

My configuration:
- Jeti DS-12 with SW-Version 5.06
- Spirit RS with SW-Version 3.4.3 (updated to this version about two weeks ago; before I had version 3.3.3)
- Goblin Fireball with all components from the kit
- SLS 6S 1400mA

Description of the flight:
It was the second flight with the model at this day. After Start I was flying around on our flying field with some hovering in between. After about 2:20 min:sec I was flying away from me in a distance auf about 20 to 30 m and wanted to turn right. Suddenly the Heli rolled to the left; I tried to correct with roll to the right and switched to autorotation. The Heli didn’t react and I tried to switch off the motor (I programmed a motor stop switch on my Jeti). The Heli crashed into the ground and the motor did not stop for about 5 seconds. Caused by this the damage was little bit greater.

No other rc pilot was flying on our flying field. So there was no other signal source.

I loaded the log from my Jeti (see enclosed file 12-55-07.log) and saw that at about 2:30 all the telemetry info from the spirit are missing. The telemetry infos from the receiver part are present until I stopped the timer and pulled the battery.
For comparison I include the log from the flight before (file 12-30-38.log). As you can see there are all telemetry info until I stopped the timer (telemetry logging is tied to the timer).

I connected the Spirit RS to my PC and load the log (file spirit-log-2022-12-31-162513.pdf). As you can see there is a lose of receiver signal at 6:10. But I got no information of signal problems in the log of my Jeti.

With this information I was not able to determine the reason for the lose of control. Would you please be so kind to have a look on my logs and see if you can find any information.

Hint: The kit ESC (a hobbywing esc branded for SAB) does not send Voltage, Current and Capacity; so this values are always 0. The battery was 70% full after the crash.

I have two other Heli with Spirit (GT) which are running version 3.3.3. In the moment I am unsure if I can safely update them.

Regards
Gerhard

_________________
Kind regards
Gerhard

Hello,

that is very sad. Thank you for all the details.

Can you verify that there is nothing connected to E2 pin?
This is very important and could cause such behavior.

_________________
Spirit System developer

Hello,

here are the connections:

SYS: About 10cm of cable to get access for updates and configuration via pc
CH1: Cyclic Servo
CH2: Cyclic Servo
CH3: Cyclic Servo
CH4: Tail Servo
AUX: nothing connected
THR: ESC (Stock ESC - hobbywing branded for SAB)
E1: nothing connected
EXT/RPM/E2: nothing connected

SAT1: Telmetry from ESC
SAT2: nothing connected

In the meantime i have updated the spirit RS to Version 3.4.4 but could not do any flight tests due to a missing replacement part.

If you need any more information please let me know.

Thank you
Gerhard

_________________
Kind regards
Gerhard

I can say a thing?
While configuring the spirit rs connected with the usb cable to port sys the spirit no longer responds after a few minutes.
But it's ok It's not a problem why don't you fly.
But while I did the calibration of the compass of the geolink the servants they didn't answer anymore.
Now I hope that during the flight the same thing doesn't happen, because it's a crash to the 100%.
Every time I set the spirit I try to move before he no longer responds.
Then turn it off and on again and everything works again.
i use the rpm port for speed sensor of the governor (center pin only)
The port e1 i use + and - for electronic power supply of the speed sensor

Hello Franz88,

thank you for your reply. Maybe i don't unterstand you, but my problem is not that the spirit does not respond while connected via usb to the pc. That works fine all the time. My problem is, that i had a loose of control during flight. Because of that i first want to understand the problem and make sure it does not occur once more before going flying.

Regards
Gerhard

_________________
Kind regards
Gerhard

Thank you for the details.
I can see that there is something connected to EXT/RPM/E2 - there are white, red and black wires.
Can you tell me what cable it is?

If something is connected in the upper pin just like the white wire, then it will cause random loss of control.

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Spirit System developer

Hello,

it is difficult to take pictures in this tight space. the angle of the picture is not very helpful.
There ist nothing connected to EXT/RPM/E2.
The white, red, black cable is the connection to the ESC. It is connected to the THR port of the spirit.

The connections are as i listed in my answer.
I will try to take a better picture in the evening.

If it helps you i can remove the Spirit from its pad an than tacke the picture.

_________________
Kind regards
Gerhard

only with PC connected my spirit rs disconnect.
With spirit gt it's always good.
The gt has the registration of the logs the rs no.
The rs has only the logs most important you with the gt you could record radio data.
But listen the people of the forum they are more experienced than me.
Test the model on the ground for a long time moving the servos if it happens it does it on the bench.
But you are sure that it is not simply the low battery?

Hello,

no the battery could not be the problem. It is a SLS XTRON 6S 1300 mAh with only 14 cycles (i document every flight with a app).
The battery was full before flight and had 73% after the crash (measured with a lipo checker).

The crash occured after 2:20 min. and i disconnected the battery about 30 secs later.

Normally i fly 5 minutes with about 20-30% left in the battery.
Also the log shows no drop in the receiver voltage that would lead to a restart of the Spirit.

_________________
Kind regards
Gerhard

I think the only problem could happen due to electrostatic discharges.
Please make sure that tail boom is conductive from the end to the motor plate.

Do you remember if the problem happened during more demanding maneuver such as Tic Toc or Rescue activation?
If no, then it was not a BEC issue. In a rare cases very sharp but short voltage drop is not registered by telemetry. Telemetry is sensing only at a certain frequency so a very short drops might be not visible. But if your model will pass BEC tester safely then this is not the case.
I think stock ESC is good enough.

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Spirit System developer