Possible / Safe to deactivate Aileron ?

[AeroJ]

You know when you've been trying to go flying for 4 days, but circumstances and weather conspire against you, and you just can't go, but you really need to discharge a couple of battery packs that you had recharged for Monday !?

Just went to go do those storage flights, but during normal pre-flight checking of my hardware monitor on the St-16, I found that although every other control is fine, J4 aileron is doing some very weird stuff indeed, sluggish to return to center, eventually settles at +10%. Not safe to fly like that ! My forum experience tells me the problem is most likely that the stick needs a decent clean.

Now, I have a can of regular WD-40 here, but having done my research I am advised that I should not do that, but instead get some proper plastic-safe contact cleaner that won't leave a residue. But I can't get that for another 3-5 days as I'd have to order it online, yet I really wanna discharge those batteries. Annoyingly, I do have a balance charger as well, so could discharge them if only the cable I needed wasn't stuck in customs in from Hong Kong

Here's my question. I rarely use aileron in normal photographic flight, except to tighten up short turns, and I am wondering if you think it is possible / safe to simply deactivate the erroring J4 control on the St-16 and then do a straight hover to take my packs down to 15.2 ? Then, as soon as I am able to get the contacts cleaned I'd reactivate J4, and continue...

Question is, will the TH let me even start motors with J4 deactivated on the controller ? And if it did, would you consider this a safe move (for just hovering) ? After all, I still have directional control of the craft with just elevator, and yaw, don't I ?!

What do you think ?

Thanks guys...

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

If it's just the one flight, rather than taking the step to de-activate, why not just not use it? Whatever error you may get, will not appear on it's own... you would have to engage that control to exhibit any erratic response, right? Just throttle up, hover until desired battery level is reached, throttle down, land.

 

[AeroJ]

If it's just the one flight, rather than taking the step to de-activate, why not just not use it? Whatever error you may get, will not appear on it's own... you would have to engage that control to exhibit any erratic response, right? Just throttle up, hover until desired battery level is reached, throttle down, land.

Thanks for replying EEV. If it was settling at 0% eventually I would consider that safer to use, but it's not... it starts at, and returns to +10-15% at the moment, and I don't fancy having to counter that while I'm trying to land - figured might be easier to just turn that control off than have the battle ! I suppose if the H needs to see that control , it would also be feasible to temporarily change my rates on J4 so that input of 20% off center in either direction resulted in 0 output ?

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

IMHO, trying to experimentally adjust control inputs to offset an existing error, would potentially exacerbate an iffy scenario to begin with. Given the choice of the 2, I would disable.

 

[PatR]

Waaay too much work and complcated. Just weight the landing gear and arm the motors and let the motors run down the battery with the aircraft safely on the ground.

 

[Dustoff]

Waaay too much work and complcated. Just weight the landing gear and arm the motors and let the motors run down the battery with the aircraft safely on the ground.

That’s what I do , right on my work bench , made a couple of clamps and just turn off gps , start the motors and let them run the battery down..

I a, in the same boat , been to hot to fly and charged all four barriers up for what I thought was going t be god afternoon to fly . Ball and chain wanted to go antiques Shopping instead. So tonight going to run it on the bench to bring the battiers

 

[Sureshot]

My stick pot values were unstable.
Sometimes they would center. Other times they could be as much as 10% off.
I opened the ST16 and discovered the strap that holds the elevator pot was not tight enough to keep the pot from moving some.
I applied a dab of hot glue to the pot, where the strap held it.
I also put a dab on the two other pots that were a bit loose.
Then, when I re-calibrated the st16 and the sticks re-centered reliably.

 

[Sureshot]

RE: LiPo discharger
When plans change & I'm stuck with a fully charged LiPo, I use this:
Ahttps://www.ebay.com/itm/AOK-3in1-Battery-Balancer-Discharger-Voltage-Tester-150W-Meter-for-RC-LiPo-LiFe/331981037606

 

[AeroJ]

Thanks for the replies everyone - very helpful ! I'll check some local shops for contact cleaner tomorrow, but have caned the packs for now using the clamp method...

Cheers

J

 

[rdonson]

Here's what I use....

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AF0OFVU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[AeroJ]

Update, for anyone interested...

Just been playing with the St-16 again, and something (differently) odd has occurred ! On power up I went straight into Channel Settings, and J4, and sure enough, same problem. So I began wiggling the stick in an effort to find out if it was at least consistent. For 5 minutes, results were crazy, and seemingly unrelated to input. Then, as I continued to move it, I suddenly felt a minute change in the feel of the stick, and instantly it began working properly, returning to exactly 0 every time, and deviating to the full 100% in both directions, with none of the lag ! And in 3 subsequent tests this behaviour has remained the case. Not sure if that makes me more confident in the control or not, but I am leaning towards not, even though it's working perfectly now. I think I should still do the contact cleaner asap...

 

[NorWiscPilot]

Update, for anyone interested...

Just been playing with the St-16 again, and something (differently) odd has occurred ! On power up I went straight into Channel Settings, and J4, and sure enough, same problem. So I began wiggling the stick in an effort to find out if it was at least consistent. For 5 minutes, results were crazy, and seemingly unrelated to input. Then, as I continued to move it, I suddenly felt a minute change in the feel of the stick, and instantly it began working properly, returning to exactly 0 every time, and deviating to the full 100% in both directions, with none of the lag ! And in 3 subsequent tests this behaviour has remained the case. Not sure if that makes me more confident in the control or not, but I am leaning towards not, even though it's working perfectly now. I think I should still do the contact cleaner asap...

You cleaned the sticks by your wiggling.

Steve C. Is want to say “stir the sticks before flight.” It does help, as you have witnessed!

Jeff

 

[Steve Carr]

You cleaned the sticks by your wiggling.
Steve C. Is want to say “stir the sticks before flight.” It does help, as you have witnessed!
Jeff

Exactly like the old scratchy volume control on a radio. Keep turning it until it behaves. I "stir" the sticks before every flight. I believe it to be simply oxidation on the contacts which causes the problem.
Many places carry the contact cleaner including automotive parts stores and even Walmart.

 

[Dustoff]

Exactly like the old scratchy volume control on a radio. Keep turning it until it behaves. I "stir" the sticks before every flight. I believe it to be simply oxidation on the contacts which causes the problem.
Many places carry the contact cleaner including automotive parts stores and even Walmart.

Funny that used to be the old trick for cleaning pots on stereos before they went to encoders. Picked up a few pawnshop finds due to noisey pots , took home and rotated the a few dozen times and they cleaned up.


I know exercise my joysticks a few times before I start up .

Contact cleaner works great and most autoparts stores sell it , just don’t let the counter person try and sell you brake cleaner ...... or seafoam. The local autozone here has a kid behind the counter who’s answer for every problem is seafoam ...