Tuesday 16 October 2018

Should I have know Better...

My latest AcrowotXL went in a few weeks back and for them who were there you will know I had a total loss of control and was able to shout out as it did its death dive into the ground...
Its been nagging me so much from the day it happened and by chance I managed to find the reason. Take a look at the video.

3 comments:

speedy brit said...

Thanks for posting Peter... well i wouldn't have thought that! Well worth sharing.
Sorry to hear about the acrowot XL..

mike etheridge said...


Well done for finding the switch fault but now you must find out why you have been the most unlucky member of the club lately. So far you have had Spectrum Radio failure twice and now a dodgy switch . By the way Pete, whose make was the switch ?

mike etheridge said...


i have just read this on the RCM&E website from one of the moderators:

I'm just fitting out my latest model & have reached the radio installation bit. Its IC powered so it needs an Rx switch. Reaching into the drawer I pulled out an unused switch & it got me thinking....

Has the quality of these switches decreased over the years? I have a couple from a well known R/C supplier that seem of very poor quality.....very little mechanical resistance to being switched..no positive "detent" as they flip from off to on.....needless to say I won't be using these.

On a wider note & given that the switch is so important do we pay too little attention to this vital component I wonder? After all if the switch fails your model becomes free flight & will almost certainly crash. Also the current demands of digital servos are greater than analogue units....given that ALL the current for the radio & servos flows through the switch (unless you are using a Powerbox type set up & powering the servos independently of course) is your switch up to it?

Is there a reason why we use slide switches? Would a "toggle" switch be more positive or do we run the risk of such a switch being affected by vibration & causing intermittent contact....?

I'm interested to know what others think.....wink 2