Talion Runaway Tailon

[pstill9302]

So I just recently did some upgrades. Put one of the 4282 hobbystar v2 motors on that they've had on sale, $40 so I figured what the hell. Improvement was noticeable, more power and geared up to keep speed. Sketchy going full throttle on the street now, but everything normal for about a week. Then my DS3235 pro crapped out (upper bearing seized and burnt the motor out.) Notctied my top oring was gone so crap made it's way in. Went thru two servo swap outs/amazon returns with DS3235 normal and pro, neither one would return to center properly. So went with the sincecam brushless 35kg-cm. Installed last night and everything looked good. Went to do some off roading in the field at lunch today and car was not responding properly in the parking lot (cutting out, steering kind of floating center point, etc.) Tx wasn't flashing blue on/off like low batteries but changed batteries in the dumbox6 anyway and then it was slow flashing blue/light blue after that. There's no info I can find on what that means. Recalibrated and same thing. Figured I'd wait to rebind, recal tx/rx/esc once I got home since it was acting weird. Did all that once home and then it stopped flashing, seemed fine. Running around on the street in front of the house, not too hard to test things out, seemed better but not quite right. And it happened. Full throttle out of nowhere from at least 30 yds away into the neighbor's Yukon.
So now I have a severly bent chassis, front center dogbone, broken battery tray, ripped apart 3drc wing mount, rebuild time. Luckily I hit pretty square so I think that's all so far.
Anyone else heard of weird runaways with the X6, is there anyway the motor or servo swap could have caused something weird? I changed out the stock spektrum rx/tx back when I got the car a few years back because it had the reputation of such things. Scary as hell watching it just take off w/o being able to do anything. It hit hard, really hard. Would've really hurt someone walking their dog, or me. Not too sure about replacing w/dumbo again, but going to replace regardless as I don't trust it at all now. Still running the stock blx 185 esc. I don't think that has/had anything to do with it but everything is under scrutiny now. Motor swap was ok, weird after chaging the servo, but I can't see how that would've done anything. Has to be tx/rx...
Any thoughts welcome. S*(tty day for the old talion and an old guy like me.

 

[Jerold]

That totally sucks. Glad no one was hurt.

 

[RCbuzz]

Some bad luck there! Has your ESC seen any water? It seems like it would be the Transmitter, Receiver, or ESC causing some issues. I would definitely bench test thoroughly all your components (if you plan to re-use them) with the center diff not installed.

Let us know what you find out and good luck.

 

[speeding_Infraction]

Damn, sorry to hear that. So what happened to the neighbors Yukon?

 

[Dan B.]

Wow, that blows. Certainly seems like a tx/rx issue. Did you turn on the radio before the truck? That’s critical, and if you don’t do it you that way you can run the risk of radio interference influencing the behavior of the rig. Never seen it personally, but many here have reported it.

 

[morrjr71]

An RC vehicle can run away un-commanded if the throttle trim knob on the transmitter is bumped. And if the trim isn't set properly, the calibration won't work. Been there, done that on a new ESC installation: fortunately, my vehicle was on a test stand when it went full throttle.

 

[Mopsik_Klopsik]

I had 3 X6 dumbo radios and receivers. All of them were randomly losing signal, which resulted in runaways. I'd say change the radio.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I did a google search and found this on RC talk. Not sure if it works but might want to set a failsafe:

To set up fail-safe settings on any channel, or reset them. ( i'll use 1st channel as example - servo channel )

- reset : Having both trasmitter and receiver turned on, you just press the bind button (once) on the receiver ( led will start blinking ), and then press it again within 5 seconds - this will reset all failsafe settings ( on all channels that have a connector plugged in )

- Set failsafe for a particular channel : Having both trasmitter and receiver turned on - turn the steering wheel a bit right and hold it in that position ( this will be the failsafe position ). While holding the steering, press the bind key once, on the receiver. And then within 5 seconds, press the bind key again. after that, let go of the steering wheel. And the failsafe position for steering is set

 

[Big Kid]

Run away vehicles either Air Water or Land generally are RADIO GEAR issues / failures.

 

[Garcbomber]

Dumbo x6 antenna failsafe if WFO, especially when the transmitter is low on battery power. That's why mine is now tied into a 3lb Grom so it doesn't do much damage.

On a side note, that chassis appears to have had a long life. Time to upgrade to better material. ADU Racing will be having another AliX sale in mid-April.

 

[Dan B.]

ADU Racing will be having another AliX sale in mid-march.

Next year?

 

[KevinC]

I had a talion run away on me last year…….but it was in the back of my truck so it didn’t go far. It was a real struggle trying to wrangle the thing with the wheels at full speed.
I’d replace your receiver before running it again.

After you set failsafe, make sure it is actually working by turning the rig on its back ( or off the wheels ), run the throttle up on your radio then turn the radio off. A successful test will be that the wheels stop turning after a few seconds.

Cheers,
Kev

 

[Garcbomber]

Next year?

I remember my brain saying April, but the fingers decided to spell out last month

 

[pstill9302]

Thanks everyone for the tips.
I always turn Tx on first, had weird things happen if not (not as major as this before though.)
I think I found the major culprit. Antenna wire on Rx just fell apart/broke in two when taking things apart.
I'll make sure this wire is tied up and secure so it can't get pinched again.
In regard to the chassis, yes a replacement would be nice. Sucks because I was looking at Jennys a few weeks prior to this and they had some of the exb ones left for ~$50. Almost bought it but didn't, go figure. Now their out. I did see this ADU racing stuff (hadn't heard of them until I started looking around.) It looks pretty decent, anyone vouch for it? I'll keep an eye out for this sale. For now I bent everything back and put a stainless stiffener/skid plate on the back across where it was really bent.
I'm going to try this failsafe procedure on the new Rx and see how that works. Almost got everything back together, waitng on my wing mounts.