Felony A scary component failure at 6 runs in

[J Mitchel]

UPDATE: Upon notifying Horizon Hobby of the issue, they very quickly responded, researched, reacted and resolved the issue to more than my satisfaction. I would not hesitate to purchase another Horizon product, feeling confident that I will be well supported. With over 50 airplanes, a dozen boats and now RC cars, I feel strongly about supporting a company that provides North American based customer service agents which are knowledgeable, empathetic and empowered to make things right.

Original Post:
With tires on the way, I decided to take the Felony out for what I think is my 6th run. I still have a bit of tread left. I found a freshly paved road nearby that was still closed to traffic except one cross intersection. I powered up as usual and went back and forth 50 feet or so twice.

Then I sent it down the road and got maybe 100 feet when I had zero control. No steering. No throttle…and no brakes. Panic ran through my mind as the car continued arrow straight towards the intersection, about 150 feet ahead. Because I was not going particularly fast, the car rolled to a stop pretty quickly. Dead center of the intersection. For a 50 year old guy, I think I ran pretty quickly. I picked it up just as a car was coming towards the intersection. Still a construction zone, he was going pretty slowly, but what a panic!
The car continued to be unresponsive.

Technical troubleshooting steps I have taken and initial conclusions:

• Rebind
  • Thinking I lost bind, (no idea why that would happen) I went through the rebind and calibration steps
  • This did not solve the issue. In fact, during the calibration, the steering did not function when moving the control wheel to the right or left.
  • Twice during the calibration, the throttle went active in forward (but strangely, not reverse) at high speed, proving why you place the car on a stand with the wheels off the ground/table/your lap.
  • At no time after rebind or calibration would the throttle or steering function.
• Servo Test
  • Because the throttle went active and the motor/wheels spun up, I did not suspect an ESC issue.
  • There are only two connections to the receiver, so that left the steering servo.
  • I removed the steering servo from the receiver and connected it to a servo tester. I got no response from the servo tester. No left, no right, no humming. Nothing.
  • I connected a brand new third party standard servo I had on hand for another project to the servo tester and confirmed that it worked.
  • I connected that brand new servo to the Felony receiver and powered up.
  • I had throttle, brake and the new servo turned when I turned the wheel on the controller. NOTE: my new servo hummed a bit and seemed to vibrate back and forth a tiny amount. It was a HiTec servo for a plane.
• Initial Conclusion
  • The steering servo seems to have failed and done so in a way that interferes with receiver and ESC functions.

So forum readers, I ask you, have you EVER heard of a servo failing and taking the ESC or receiver with it? I feel SO lucky that it continued straight down a straight road and I was able to get it from the intersection before SQUISH.

What is a reasonable request of Horizon/ARRMA? I feel I really can't trust this specific vehicle and think a physically different example would be appropriate, but I don't want to be unreasonable.
Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Andrew7xX]

Yes, it happens. Happened to someone else last week that posted here. Servo has some kind of internal short/failure that doesn’t let the rx work properly

 

[Clubin]

Throw that spectrum in the garbage.

 

[GMballistic]

Firstly excellent write up Jeff.

Personally I'd buy a Savox or other decent brand servo and replace it with that. I'd still get a warranty replacement from Horizon/Arrma though but just sell that on afterwards to recoup some of the cost of the decent servo.

 

[Exc3l]

I would just go on horizons live chat and they will send u one.(good to have an extra). I just told them I need one shock for my senton they sent me all 4 with oil! U can also get a cheap amazon servo I cant remember if it was @jondilly1974 that told they are good or someone else. mmhh

 

[rag6]

Yes servos can cause all kinds of shenanigans with the rx when they die. I replaced the stock servo 3 runs in just because... I used a 25kg from dsservo(3221 I tink) I got 2 for 25$ from bangood. It's faster and stronger than stock, and I've been running one about 40 hours doing hard duty in my trx6...

 

[Boggs3010]

Just had this happen to me yesterday. But in my V2 Infraction . HH is replacing the servo and the BODY! Ran it for 20 minutes or so no issue. Then bam lost all control and it went rolling and rolling. Hit a car tire 100 feet away.

 

[J Mitchel]

Round 2. Steering servo failed again on a replacement vehicle. Totally different example of the car with maybe an hour of run time. Servo motor seemed like it was drawing a ton of power, causing the esc to reset constantly. I changed out the servo to an aftermarket brand and no esc issues. Tested the servo on a servo tester....constant jittering and heavy amp draw. This car is too expensive for parts that are not up to the task. Let's see what Horizon says Monday. I am sure they will make it right, but frustrating and potentially dangerous.

 

[Boggs3010]

My servo arrived Wednesday installed and ran it no issue. Today ran it for 15 seconds ,now the servo is fine . No trottle at all. When I give it throttle the ESC will reset. And when I turn off the controller the ESC will reset. Recalibrate same issue occurs. A bit disappointing in Arrma at the moment.

 

[Boggs3010]

My servo arrived Wednesday installed and ran it no issue. Today ran it for 15 seconds ,now the servo is fine . No trottle at all. When I give it throttle the ESC will reset. And when I turn off the controller the ESC will reset. Recalibrate same issue occurs. A bit disappointing in Arrma at the moment.

3rd ESC died , HH is getting the infraction v2 and going to look at it themselves. Again disappointing ?.

 

[Boggs3010]

4th Esc and counting. 3 servos thus far. Wtf

 

[TheBadazz]

Get a replacement, sell it get a max 6, move on.

 

[Learo2000GT]

My stock servo went up in smoke when just logging into my esc for initial setup.

 

[Bread1267]

UPDATE: Upon notifying Horizon Hobby of the issue, they very quickly responded, researched, reacted and resolved the issue to more than my satisfaction. I would not hesitate to purchase another Horizon product, feeling confident that I will be well supported. With over 50 airplanes, a dozen boats and now RC cars, I feel strongly about supporting a company that provides North American based customer service agents which are knowledgeable, empathetic and empowered to make things right.

Original Post:
With tires on the way, I decided to take the Felony out for what I think is my 6th run. I still have a bit of tread left. I found a freshly paved road nearby that was still closed to traffic except one cross intersection. I powered up as usual and went back and forth 50 feet or so twice.

Then I sent it down the road and got maybe 100 feet when I had zero control. No steering. No throttle…and no brakes. Panic ran through my mind as the car continued arrow straight towards the intersection, about 150 feet ahead. Because I was not going particularly fast, the car rolled to a stop pretty quickly. Dead center of the intersection. For a 50 year old guy, I think I ran pretty quickly. I picked it up just as a car was coming towards the intersection. Still a construction zone, he was going pretty slowly, but what a panic!
The car continued to be unresponsive.

Technical troubleshooting steps I have taken and initial conclusions:

• Rebind
  • Thinking I lost bind, (no idea why that would happen) I went through the rebind and calibration steps
  • This did not solve the issue. In fact, during the calibration, the steering did not function when moving the control wheel to the right or left.
  • Twice during the calibration, the throttle went active in forward (but strangely, not reverse) at high speed, proving why you place the car on a stand with the wheels off the ground/table/your lap.
  • At no time after rebind or calibration would the throttle or steering function.
• Servo Test
  • Because the throttle went active and the motor/wheels spun up, I did not suspect an ESC issue.
  • There are only two connections to the receiver, so that left the steering servo.
  • I removed the steering servo from the receiver and connected it to a servo tester. I got no response from the servo tester. No left, no right, no humming. Nothing.
  • I connected a brand new third party standard servo I had on hand for another project to the servo tester and confirmed that it worked.
  • I connected that brand new servo to the Felony receiver and powered up.
  • I had throttle, brake and the new servo turned when I turned the wheel on the controller. NOTE: my new servo hummed a bit and seemed to vibrate back and forth a tiny amount. It was a HiTec servo for a plane.
• Initial Conclusion
  • The steering servo seems to have failed and done so in a way that interferes with receiver and ESC functions.

So forum readers, I ask you, have you EVER heard of a servo failing and taking the ESC or receiver with it? I feel SO lucky that it continued straight down a straight road and I was able to get it from the intersection before SQUISH.

What is a reasonable request of Horizon/ARRMA? I feel I really can't trust this specific vehicle and think a physically different example would be appropriate, but I don't want to be unreasonable.
Thanks,
Jeff

This legit happened to me the 3rd day I had my kraton v5. I talked to horizon hobby about it and they first thought it was my receiver and transmitter. So then they sent me out a brand new combo. Later I found out from my own research it was the servo itself bricking everything. They are sending me out a new servo but they are currently backordered. In the mean time I bought a 35kg servo off of amazon and it has more torque compared to stock servo. At least horizon hobby has great customer support!