Hi Folks, I wanted to ask your advice since the quadrocoter guys are not in today. I'm still rebuilding my CS8 after a major crash and I think we chatted on the forum about my GPS showing a blinking blue light which means it has satellite sync but not showing up on the mk-tools. I also tried to do a compass calibration but couldn't get it to do the ticking thing and I read on one of the forums that you said the Transmitter controls have to be in a certain position for the procedure to work. I tried everything I know to do and it still won't go into the mode where it starts to tick. I will keep plugging away at this but I was wondering, do you know if the quadrocopter folks will assess the health of my mk boards if I send them in to them. Even though the boards appear to be okay cosmetically I'm concerned that something might have happened during the crash. When I plug into mk-tools I get all green lights except for compass and of course I also get the GPS error. I was just wondering if you knew if the guys at Quadrocopter would have some kind of gear to assess the health of my boards? Thanks, David
Hi Dave: I realize we exchanged PMs on this but for the benefit of the forum members: Regarding the transmitter controls: the problem is that if you use Expo and/or Dual rate, you can effectively get to the point where even with full stick deflection, you cannot actually send the 100% deflection *signal* to the receiver because of the Expo/Dual Rate --- so you can move the sticks all the way but not get into compass calibration. You can easily check if this is the case by hooking up MK Tools and checking that you are getting full scale deflection in the MK Tool Channels window. TAKE THE PROPS OFF -- this is a test that can easily lead you to do an accidental motor start. I'm pretty sure that QC can and will check boards for you. One alternative, which is obviously more expensive, but you can kinda build a rationale for doing, is to buy a spare board set -- then you can swap out the boards yourself and determine right away whether there's an issue -- and, if you have a failure in the field, you can get back to flying quickly. Hope this helps Andy.
I'd imagine the will simply plug it into a system and test it. Seems an age old issue with MK stuff. I don't even know if they have a repair service and if the do I don't know the secret handshake. And true 'technical' support from MK, well ???? Just sayin' from reading lots of other forums.
I suspect the days of component level repair have gone. Now the unit of failure/repair is at the board level. Not that component level repair cannot be done -- it's just not cost-effective. But that said: http://www.quadrocopter.com/Repair-and-Upgrades_ep_62-1.html Andy.