Turnigy 9x Throttle Response

[hotbrass2005]

I've been following flitetest and the forums for years now, but have never posted. I recently 3d printed a tricopter and am having some issues with the Turnigy 9x I bought. I'm hoping you guys can help me figure this out.

I've set up everything and my tricopter flies fine, but the throttle does not respond at all until almost half way. I calibrated the sticks and the escs, but still no luck. When I go into the Display function of the radio, the bar for the throttle does not move at all until about the 40% mark on the stick. I've googled and searched the forums, and tried what I've found, but nothing seems to work. Thanks in a advance for the help!

 

[Jaxx]

Welcome to the forum!

Did this transmitter ever function correctly, or is this your first time using it?

 

[hotbrass2005]

It's always been a little cantankerous. I've never had it working as well as the spektrum dx5e I've had forever but wanted a radio with a little more function. The throttle in particular has been hard to configure (kk2 won't a from time to time, endpoints need adjusted at random times, etc.) I've got most of the issues worked through but this has been a consistent problem.

 

[Jaxx]

Sounds to me like you may have a bad potentiometer on your throttle gimbal. Have you tried testing it with a separate Rx, ESC and motor? I would try that to see if the throttle works fine with a basic power setup.

 

[hotbrass2005]

So I tried what you suggested with the separate receiver, esc, and motor and the same thing happened, so I took the radio apart and messed around with the potentiometer on the throttle and it is definitely bad. For some reason, the wiper doesn't make a good connection with the ring contacts. I tried cleaning it and bending down the wipers a bit, but it still wouldn't work. I could use a screwdriver to apply some pressure to the ring contact and the display screen in the radio would show the full range of motion on the throttle, but there is no way to get the wiper to apply that much pressure.

I would replace the pot, but based on what I've read, they are incredibly hard to find and a standard pot usually won't work because of the difference in resistance. I may try to sand down the ring contacts with some 1500 grit sandpaper or go over it with some defrost repair paint. Hopefully that works. I would return the radio, but it's past the 30 day mark for returns to hobbyking. At this point I'm so frustrated with it, I'm just ready to chuck the whole thing and go get a Spektrum DX6 or something. I guess this is one of those things where you get what you pay for and I should've just spent the money on a decent radio from the start.

Thanks for your help. You definitely got me on the right track. Do you have any suggestions for repairing pots?

 

[hotbrass2005]

So I found a DX6i on ebay for cheap and got it this weekend. I should've just started with one. It bound and was ready to go in no time. Very little subtrim needed and everything flies great. I'll probably still try to fix the 9x. I was talking to my fiance and she would like to use it to run a camera gimbal. I'll fly and she'll run the camera.

She's starting to get interested in the hobby. She's asked me if she can fly my tricopter a couple times. She did surprisingly well holding a hover considering she's never flown anything. I think it's time to give her my Hubsan x4 so she can get the hang of it while I 3D print another tricopter.

 

[SteevyT]

If you want, Aurora 9 gimbals fit in the 9x fairly well, just need to make the original holes slightly larger and come up with some sort of adapter since the screw holes don't line up. I managed to swap a set of sticks out in about 2 or 3 hours.

http://www.robotshop.com/en/axis-joystick-gim.html

It comes out to about $45 after shipping for a set IIRC.

 

[hotbrass2005]

Thanks! I may give that a try. I'm sure I could come up with a way to mount it in there. Do you have to run ER9x firmware to use these?

 

[SteevyT]

Just make sure you hook them up the right way, and that you can calibrate them. The potentiometers in the Aurora gimbals are a different value than the ones in the original ones.