Oopps - It went bang!

[Philsy]

Hi There,

I hope I am not the first person to do this but I feel an idiot at the moment.

I have just accidently connected my receiver battery to my brand new 6100E park fly 2.4 receiver, all £40 of it. This was fresh out of the box and I think I have blown it up. The reason being, I am an oily head and I forgot that I am no longer using a 4.8v nicad pack but, as this is an electric model I plugged in the battery to the receiver . . you guessed it 11.1v of li-po from the new 3s pack.

Yes, I read the instructions and it DID mention using the ESC to connect it to the receiver (voltage regulator would have lowered the volts) but my brain was not engaged and away I went . . . . I am mortified.

Still I guess I should put it down to experience. My club mates (after smothering their laughter) think it unlikely there is anything that can be done but I live in hope and have contacted Horizon who have offered to check it out.

Ah the pitfalls of converting to electric . . . still, its quiet.

[CHELLIE]

Hi Philsy and Welcome to Wattflyers We have all done silly things like that, I am no Exception You wont do it again I bet Welcome to the Best E Power forum in the World Lots of Super nice people here, Take care and have fun, Chellie

[Philsy]

Hi Chellie,
Thanks - I'm feeling better already!

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by Philsy

Hi Chellie,
Thanks - I'm feeling better already!

LOL when i first started out with E power, i was hooking up 11.1 volts to a brush motor they did not last very long direct drive, but worked with a gear box LOL, I have learned a lot here, at first i thought I could fly a 25 size arf piper cub with a geared GWS brush motor and a heavy car NI Cad battery the plane rolled real fast, thats about all I learned, Take care, Chellie

[superd333]

expensive mistake. but its part of the learning curve.

i forgot to check the propeller angle (it was face down) my first time wit a plane. i learnt pretty quick that "extremely durable" planes from banana hobby, aren't so durable.

point is, every one has made a few mistakes.

good luck with getting some new parts!

hope it willl fly for you.

[Matt Kirsch]

Philsy,

I'm curious as to how you came to make this mistake.

Normally the power connector on your typical 11.1V LiPoly battery is a two-pin Deans Ultra, Anderson Power Pole, EC3, or bullet connector. The connector on the receiver is a standard three-pin servo connector with .1" spacing.

In order to plug the LiPoly battery directly into the receiver, you would have had to spend considerable time soldering up an adapter.

The only other way to make them fit together involves a hammer, and if you went that route, I think the hammer wrecked the receiver long before the LiPoly battery had a chance to do its worst.

[Philsy]

Hi Matt,
Nope - I had this chat with the guys at the field. The receiver as you know is a 3 pin standard spacing connector, the connector on the li-po was not a deans type but the small red connector carrying black / red straight from the pack. Even as I lined the connector up the thought went through my mind . . . hmmm, different style but it seems to fit well . . . bang!
Yes - The idiot banner works for me

Phil.

[Philsy]

Matt,
To clarify, I have just remembered that the 6100e receiver has exposed pins and not the enclosed type which would explain your comments. Had they been in an internal moulded case then as you say I would need a hammer.

[slipstick]

Ah, yet another disadvantage of those horrible little red JST/BEC connectors. Unless it's a VERY low powered electric model you might want to change that connector anyway. They're no good for more than about 4-5A.

But congratulations, you've found one of the very few daft errors that I don't think I've made myself. I've done loads of other silly things but I've missed that one .

Steve

[superd333]

Originally Posted by Philsy

Hi Matt,
Nope - I had this chat with the guys at the field. The receiver as you know is a 3 pin standard spacing connector, the connector on the li-po was not a deans type but the small red connector carrying black / red straight from the pack. Even as I lined the connector up the thought went through my mind . . . hmmm, different style but it seems to fit well . . . bang!
Yes - The idiot banner works for me

Phil.

hmm... i wouldn't think that the charge would jump that far, seeing as it is not the right connection. well you learn something every day.

[Matt Kirsch]

Well, that makes sense... The little red JSTs do have the same .1" spacing as a standard servo connector, so they would line up and plug in.

[RobertG]

Hi Philsy,

One morning I accidentally hand-launched my Parkzone Su-26m upside down. I win the moronic R/C pilot competition. I make you look clever. Fortunately that plane is very durable and it was immediately ready for a right-side up launch.

In a less-stupid yet still stupid incident, I received a replacement DX5e. I neglected to check the aileron control polarity on the transmitter. I launched the same plane mentioned above and I crashed it promptly. I launched again, and crashed again. Then I noticed the polarity switcheroo. The plane was undamaged.

I should really send a thank-you note to Parkzone for producing a product that can tolerate me.

Bye for now,

Bob

[Walt Thyng]

My latest "learning experience" cost me $100.00 (US). I was doing the "switch any two wires to reverse the motor" thing, but was too lazy to undo the tie wraps keeping the wiring nice and neat. I plugged two wires from the ESC together and turned on the power: FLASH! One dead ESC. In the future I will color code motor and/or esc leads.
Walt

[Nitro Blast]

Now thats a new on one me... how did you plug the ESC together? They should have all been FEMALE plug ends....

Argh.. costly mistake, sorry.

[Walt Thyng]

I use Power Poles. It's their one weakness as far as I'm concerned. I usually put all red shells on the ESC and all black on the motor, but I had run out of red ones and used black on the ESC. I also usually tape the motor leads with blue tape, but --haste makes waste )-:
Walt

[Hughes500Bob]

Ah .... You paid the "Stupid Tax". We all do it eventually.

[Walt Thyng]

the trouble is that the Stupid Tax is graduated --every time I pay it the cost is higher (-:
WT

[wrather1]

I think any of us with any experience at all in this hobby has had a "stupid" moment of one kind or another at least once!

In my case, I had a newly-assembled large powered glider on my workbench sitting on top of a pile of assembly drawings and related papers and decided to test the motor direction without relocating the plane to a less-congested area. Shortly after connecting the battery, the motor suddenly went to full-throttle and the spinning prop sucked up half the papers and shredded them, with the prop-wash blowing the fresh confetti all over the workshop.

Wotta mess!

Fortunately, the tough plastic prop was undamaged...

[Walt Thyng]

Dave, I can relate to that! One of the good things about e-power is that you can test them in your shop. One of the bad things about e-power is that you can test them in your dusty and cluttered shop (-:
Walt

[Philsy]

Hi Guys, Just wanted to thank you all for making me realise that others can do the same in a weak moment. I am feeling so much better!
As a post script, Horizon have just returned the original receiver in full working order and get this, no charge - not even postage - what a great team!

Rather1 - I am now encouraged to relate a similar experiance with my electric glider (hope this is not considered off topic). On a recent sunny day I took my 2.2m wingspan glider out to the car ready for the field, I then thought better of it as it was becoming quite blustery. I quickly returned the wing into the garage whereupon the tip caught the inside lip of the door. With my momentum there was an audible 'crack' . . . need I say more?

Thanks again everybody,
Phil.

[mred]

There are only two kinds of people in this hobby. Ones that HAVE made a mistake and ones that WILL. Everyone sooner or later will do something that is wrong and wind up costing themselves money or time, but that's because we are all human. Anyone that says he has never made a mistake is either lying or his time will come. I have yet to meet the first person that is perfect. I think the only reason there is so much laughter after someone makes a mistake like this is because we all remember our own past mistakes and it sure beats crying.

Ed

[johnnyjet]

I feel an idiot alot

[johnnyjet]

I feel an idiot alot
did i just say that

[ministeve2003]

Don't worry, Your not the first person I've heard plug a 3cell pack directly into a spektrum rx... I'm sure you won't be the last...LOL

we've all done stupid stuff before... it happens...LOL

SK

[ministeve2003]

Originally Posted by Walt Thyng

I use Power Poles. It's their one weakness as far as I'm concerned. I usually put all red shells on the ESC and all black on the motor, but I had run out of red ones and used black on the ESC. I also usually tape the motor leads with blue tape, but --haste makes waste )-:
Walt

Hmm... I had thought about use PP on those myself, but I've always figured Bullets were a better fit for that... easy enough to connect, and the bullets cost alot less...

I'm also a big fan of PP's though myself, and have converted all my heli's and planes over...

SK