Buggin Out Buggy

[Plaidfish]

OK I'll make a rundown on the situation / issues...
Have XB8 w/ RG.... Futaba FM R133f Rx....JR8611 for steering servo & Futaba 9451 for throttle....No failsafe...I'm usinga 3pm Tx.....okay last nite I start up and no problems.....for about 3 mins...then the battery is going dead......I look and the linkage for the throttle is tight and putting stress on the servo.....change battery and fix linkage.....second battery does same thing.....use different charger plug in another battery and it seems fine..I put it on starter and as soon as it starts I get no juice to the servos.....they are acting very slow and no torque.....I put the batteries on the charger and they say they have 7.2V still but no juice is getting to the servos.......I found a small crimp in my antennae wire bu tthe wire was still together just split the casing...I used tiny heat shrink and covered it back up......now this Rx had a servo get shorted out in it a few weeks ago and has not given me issues since.......the servos are both BRAND NEW last saturday I got 2 tanks on my buggy w/ them and had no issues.....I have a small window to get to the LHS today and wanted advice on what I should get...new batts or new Rx......also 2 of the battery packs were involved in the scenario where the servo was shorting out and one was an unknown condition......I had other equipment to try this out with but has recently left my posession.....so I need to know what troubleshooting path to take as I just got pissed off last nite and gave up.....thanks for any help you guys give it is appreciated....

 

[Plaidfish]

Someones go tto have a suggestion...I'm going to the LHS in an hour....

 

[jon2]

Well I say the RX may be your problem. The Batteries seem to be fine. Check your connectors for burn indications from the short. I think you should change out the RX and see if that helps. Bring your XB8 to the LHS to be sure.

 

[Plaidfish]

how fragile are the batteries in cases like that? I mean I got guys swearing up and down saying they get cooked if you do a quick charge @ 1A for the first charge and others telling me they've shorted them out doing 3A charges (melting the wires together) and they just wewired it , cycled them and they came back no problem....If the batteries were "dead" they wouldn't show up as having any voltage in them right?
and could my antennae fix be causing any of these issues? one opinion last nite was the Rx is just sucking the juice out of the battery....I can't beleive the Rx would do that in a minute......

 

[Plaidfish]

anyone know if a standard hump pack fits in the XB8 radio box? I have a bunch of those and this is the only RC I have that takes flat packs..

 

[jon2]

Why don't you test the questionable RX Pack and put it in another RC.

 

[beason]

the pack may read 7.2 with no load on it.. my pack was dead and i was reading 5.9 on it untill i moved the servos a bit.. the it droped to like 3. something... test the voltage under load.. maby your not getting a good charge on them..

 

[Ryan with savage]

What about your xtals?? try another set.

 

[Plaidfish]

Beason How do you check the battery w/ a load on it?
Mike Would the crystals give the servos a weak load? I mean the the servos seem to just not be getting enough to drive them fast for more than a minute.....and then they are done.....but the battery reads 7.2VDC still (when it's not under load anyways).....ok I'm off to the LHS w/ some more suggestions from you guys thanks.....wish I did have the buggy to bring w/ me.....didn't think I'd have time to go today so I left it at home......

 

[beason]

i used a voltage tester.. you know the lil guage with the red and black leads.. touched red to red and black to black to get voltage then wiggled the steering and throtle to see if it dropped same way they test your battery on your car.. it will read close to 12v untill you put it under load then if it drops below a certain voltage its no good.. also like when a flash light is going dead the light comes on bright the dims

 

[Plaidfish]

O I thought the charger could be used while it's not charging to read the load...duh I should know this.....anyway I just got back from LHS got my new ICE charger...GRRRRR....and some new Xtals.....I have another Rx I can try and see what's up......sorry I said Mike earlier...Ryan I see what your talking abaout w/ the Xtals....I did smack my buggy pretty good trying the triple too early and that would be about when it started going nuts........didn't register the relation from Xtals to servos but thanks for mentioning that, cause I started probing a little deeper w/ questions at the shop and that was one possibility......I just want to run my buggy for more than 10 mins at a time......well next time should be good as everytime I go I seem to be on a 3 bad days to 1 good day at mills pond ratio.....